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More Catholic Mumbo Jumbo

I do not believe in either Reiki or Spiritual Healing, I do believe that the power of positive thought however achieved can help some people with some diseases.

The problem is if you do not get better then people believe you are lacking faith.

Catholic bishops warn of Reiki 'dangers'

March 28, 2009

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has warned Catholics to shun the eastern healing art of Reiki because it lacks scientific credibility and is dangerous to Christian spiritual health.

"Reiki therapy finds no support either in the findings of natural science or in Christian belief," the USCCB doctrine committee said in a document issued.

In health terms, using a therapeutic technique that has no scientific basis "is not generally prudent", said the eight bishops on the committee, which in the past has issued guidelines on how to minister to "persons with homosexual inclinations" and frequently asked questions about why only men are ordained.

In spiritual terms, using Reiki carries "important dangers" because the therapy is based on the theory that illness can be healed by rebalancing "universal life energy", or Reiki, by a laying on of hands by a trained master, and that clashes with Christian belief, the bishops said.

"There is a radical difference between Reiki therapy and the healing by divine power in which Christians believe: for Christians the access to divine healing is by prayer to Christ as Lord and Saviour, while the essence of Reiki is not a prayer but a technique," the bishops said.

And then there's the fact that "neither the Scriptures nor the Christian tradition as a whole speak of the natural world as based on 'universal life energy' that is subject to manipulation by the natural human power of thought and will," the bishops said.

To use Reiki is to operate "in the realm of superstition, the no man's-land that is neither faith nor science," the bishops warned, urging Catholic healthcare institutions, retreats and chaplains to ditch the therapy, which originated in Japan in the 1800s.

A survey conducted in 2002 by the US National Centre for Health Statistics and the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) found that more than 2.2 million US adults have used Reiki for health purposes.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/catholic-bishops-warn-of...

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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on March 29, 2009 at 8:12pm

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has warned Catholics to shun the eastern healing art of Reiki because it lacks scientific credibility

Science is like altar boys - only bugger the cute ones you pick out and like. Reject the rest.

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Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on March 29, 2009 at 9:07pm

I think Reiki sounds a lot like protestant/charismatic prayer - you lay hands on someone and expect them to get better, without the application of medicine or medical treatment. I grew up in a totally faith-healing cult and we were always blamed for illness; getting the flu was a sign you'd pissed off god, as opposed to a virus. Reading the bishop's words about "superstition" made me crack up, as well as him saying Reiki was bad because it had no scientific basis. Well neither does prayer!

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Permalink Reply by Debra Stevenson on June 5, 2013 at 5:29am

USCCB 'ministers' to people with homosexual 'inclination's. Don't they mean sexual orientation? I saw an add years ago about a lgbt Catholic conference for a book entitled 'Sons of Eve'. I hate to think what that is about. If a gay person wants to be Catholic they can be one outside of the church or start their own branch of Catholicism. They don't need to be in a homophobic church where they are denied the opportunity to be in a loving , committed romantically and sexually active relationship with a same-gendered partner which they have the right to form and the same goes for transgendered people who should be able to get a gender reassignment change done.

Brandi Amari Williams

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Permalink Reply by Tim 'Halfbat' Bancroft on Friday

Exactly, Brandi. There was also a RC service in London that ministered to the LGBT community and friends, but was shut down earlier this year because it was sending the 'wrong' message.

Your 'own branch' already exists, interestingly. The Reformed Catholic Church exists over here in the UK (and I think Europe to some degree, maybe further afield). Its (one of its?) archbishop is a openly gay, female, queer theologian.

The homophobia. however, is not just a Catholic preoccupation. It also exists through a great many evangelical churches, too. The trouble is that only the RC church presents an apparently unified front.

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Permalink Reply by Tim 'Halfbat' Bancroft on Friday

The 'lacking faith' thing, which is real, is nastily condemnatory.

The 'positive thought' thing may well be true. If I remember my experiments from busines studies correctly, factory workers improved productivity when played different music, classical I think, which was heralded as a breakthrough. A following study then found that productivity was also improved when the workers were _told_ they were going to have a different mix, but weren't. It seems that it was just the being thought about that worked.

And that may well be the issue with the so-called 'justifications that prayer works' experiments - knowing you are being thought about may give a significant psychological boost.