Reiki Master offers relief for chemo side effects
For a local woman who wished to only be identified by her first name of Lorraine, even though she’s going through her third battle with cancer, she feels like a new person.
This is all thanks to the Reiki techniques she’s been receiving from Anthony Burton, a Reiki Master living in Ranger.
“Reiki is basically an old method of healing based upon working with the body’s energy system,” said Burton.
He said for a long time, people knew that the body had energy flowing through it and energy all around it. “In the last few years, that’s all been verified by physics and scientists,” Burton said. “You really can measure energy in the human body and it does flow and pass.”
Lorraine, 70, said she wasn’t aware of Reiki before now.
“Several months ago, I read something about it and researched it. I found Tony and contacted him,” Lorraine said.
Over the past three months, she’s had 10 to 12 sessions with him.
“I feel almost like I’ve been reborn,” Lorraine said. “I wish that I had known about Reiki a long time ago.”
Burton said Reiki helps people to relax their body in the state where it heals faster.
“I don’t heal people, doctors don’t heal people,” Burton said. “They just help people to heal, the body heals itself.”
Burton said a lot of research shows that the body heals quicker and easier when its relaxed and there is no stress in it because it’s able to dedicate its energy to the healing process.
Burton has been doing Reiki for nearly two years. One day while doing repair work on his house, he fell from a ladder breaking three ribs.
His wife, who is a nurse, took him to the hospital, where he was stabilized. Burton said late that night the medication wore off and he could really feel the pain.
He said he was offered more medicine but refused it because he doesn’t like taking medicine.
Someone told Burton of a nurse who did Reiki techniques and asked if he would like to see her.
“The lady came in and worked with me for about ten minutes,” he remembers. “It didn’t take the pain away but it did knock the pain down.”
Burton said the pain went down to where he could sleep and that was what he wanted. “I thought this was pretty cool, so I started reading about it and studying it on my own,” Burton said.
He found a teacher in the mountains who taught Reiki, and drove there for a weekend class.
“We did levels one and two of Reiki techniques and different levels of training,” he said.
Currently Burton has two clients. He says he doesn’t refer to them as patients because he is not a doctor.
Lorraine is the only cancer client he has at this time. She has colon cancer that is in remission. Burton said originally Lorraine called and asked if there is something he could do to help her with the side effects of the chemotherapy.
“Chemotherapy was really bothering her, making her sick and getting her down in general,” Burton says. “It made her weak and tired.”
Burton went to her home and worked with her a few times, giving her a onehour Reiki treatment each session.
“When I met with her, she looked so drained, down and depressed,” Burton said. “When I left, she wasn’t sure if the techniques worked.”
A couple of days later she called and said that since the treatment, she was feeling much better.
He was going back every other week because Lorraine was going through heavy doses of chemotherapy. After a month of working with her on the side effects of chemotherapy, Burton suggested working specifically on trying to minimize the cancer.
“She’s doing very well,” said Burton. “The last time she had a scan they didn’t see any sign of cancer.”
Lorraine said Burton has helped her a great deal, not just physically but emotionally and psychologically.
“The concept of Reiki and rebalancing the energy has made a huge difference with me,” she said. “My body is much healthier, I feel much better all the way around and I feel stronger.”
“I’ve dealt with the chemo much more effectively. I’m doing very well and I recommend Reiki to just about anybody,” Lorraine said.
According to the Center for Reiki Research, the Reiki technique was developed in Japan in 1920. Hawayo Takata brought it to the United States in 1937.
A study done in 2007 by the National Health Interview Survey indicates that 1.2 million adults and 161,000 children received one or more sessions of energy healing therapy such as Reiki in the previous year.
The American Hospital Association states that in 2007 over 800 American hospitals offered Reiki as part of hospital services.
Lorraine said she’s even talked to her oncologist and nursing staff to try and convince them to bring a Reiki master in.
“We should make people aware that this type of therapy is available,” Lorraine said. “I’ve had lots of compliments that I look so much better. There is a new light in my eyes.”
Anthony Burton can be reached by visiting www. hillside-holistic.com or by calling 470-37-REIKI or 706-403-9035. He can also be reached at Anthony@hillside-holistic.com.