Reiki is a form of alternative medicine developed in 1922 by Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui.

Since its beginning in Japan, Reiki has been adapted across varying cultural traditions. It uses a technique commonly called palm healing or hands-on-healing. Through the use of this technique, practitioners believe that they are transferring “universal energy” through the palms of the practitioner, which they believe encourages healing.

Reiki is considered pseudoscience

[1] It is based on qi (“chi”), which practitioners say is a universal life force, although there is no empirical evidence that such a life force exists.

[2] Surveys of the clinical research do not show Reiki to be effective as a medical treatment.

[3] The American Cancer Society,

[4] Cancer Research UK,

[5] and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

[6] state that Reiki should not be a replacement for conventional treatment of diseases such as cancer, but that it may be used as a supplement to standard medical treatment.