Reiki
pseudoscientific Japanese alternative medicine similar to laying on of hands
Reiki is a pseudoscientific form of energy healing, a type of alternative medicine created by Mikao Usui in Japan in the 1920s. Reiki practitioners use a technique called palm healing or hands-on healing through which, according to practitioners, a "universal energy" is transferred through the palms of the practitioner to the client, to encourage emotional or physical healing. It is based on qi (chi), which practitioners say is a universal life force; there is no empirical evidence that such a life force exists.
Reiki is used as an illustrative example of pseudoscience in scholarly texts and academic journal articles. Its marketing has been described as "fraudulent misrepresentation", and reiki itself as a "nonsensical method", with a recommendation that the United States government agency NCCIH stop funding reiki research because it "has no substantiated health value and lacks a scientifically plausible rationale".
Clinical research does not show reiki to be effective as a treatment for any medical condition, including cancer, diabetic neuropathy, anxiety, or depression. There is no proof of the effectiveness of reiki therapy compared to placebo. Studies reporting positive effects have had methodological flaws.
It has no plausible mechanism or proven medical benefit, and major medical organizations do not recommend it as a treatment, especially in place of evidence-based care. While reiki is generally low-risk, concerns exist that patients might forgo effective treatments.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q183057. The Library of Congress control number is sh91004796. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Reiki” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.