Chi is life energy.

Literally.

It's the energy which makes the difference between a person, animal or plant being alive, and being dead.

Chi is not something apart from what we are.

Chi can't be owned, given or taken away.

It isn't information, it can't be taught. It has its own intelligence.

Left to its own devices, it is in the nature of chi to flow. The flow of chi is quintessentially natural. It's possible, however, to partially block or interfere with the flow.

Then, skills are involved in creating proper conditions so it may move unimpeded, exactly as it is.

The brains of many, if not most, people on the planet are now constantly bathed in some form of electromagnetic frequency - quite a fresh occurrence in human history. People carry devices around like life-support machines as if to keep their brainwaves constantly attuned to those frequencies - frequencies of dissociation and scatteredness, of constant checking and constant reacting, rather than creating. Of addictive pseudo-action on the mental plane alone.

This maintains fear and anxiety as a constant state. Fear and anxiety held in the system, maintained permanently, create a sense of helplessness that leaves you open to exploitation, and uses up precious resources in your nervous system, leaving you depleted.

If you live in accordance with the natural flow of the chi, there's no holding on to fear. Fear's just a response to situations, which appears when necessary then goes away again. If the chi is not fully flowing, and a situation perceived to be life-threatening happens - you can't react. That's when trauma sets in.

So, in the present day context, with disconnection and trauma rife and institutionalised, with people making money from keeping your energy scattered, the function of Reiki or healing-with-the-chi gains a new twist. All the ancient traditions of energy healing - different ways of amplifying and transmitting the chi - are needed as never before. Reiki is one of them, and a simple one to grasp.