Since Reiki and Qi Gong are both healing arts (in their broadest forms) there is an inherent connection In this post I would like to take a look at some of the simpler aspects of that connection and see exactly where the two disciplines connect/disconnect. First I’d like to clarify exactly what we are talking about when we refer to Qi Gong (for an understanding of what we are talking about in regard to Reiki, I direct you to any and all pages on this site). 🙂

First of all Qi Gong goes by many spellings in the West, and is known as kikou (気功) here in Japan. Some of the more popular transliterations are Qigong, Chi Kung, and Chi Gung. No matter which form used Ki, qi, chi, ji, and chi’h all mean energy (and can be broken down in to many distinct forms of energy) while Kung, Gung or Gong all refer to any specific practice (which again can be stylized to no end). So Qi Gong is the practice of energy work and while one can practice things for many reasons, we are interested here in the practice of energy work for healing… whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.

One of the first areas of distinction is that Qi Gong (and Yoga as discussed in another thread) both largely rely on physical movements of the body to circulate energy through the various energy channels in order to unblock energetic constipation (so to speak) while Reiki does this through specific (or non-specific… depending on the training) hand placements.

The second main area of distinction, and perhaps the most important is that Qi Gong relies on these physical movements to create an abundance of Qi in the tanden/dan’tien (which is like a chargeable battery for these energies) while Reiki pulls in these energies (exactly from where they are pulled from is a topic for another day) as they are needed. According to Reiki purists this can be an extremely dangerous practice because the exercises that make use of that energy do not draw a distinction between stored energy and the bodies own lifeforce energy… so that after the battery is depleted the energy you are using comes from your own lifeforce… which is non-rechargeable.

The third area is related to the second in that the energy stored by the body through Qi Gong practice can become stale and cause problems, and since Reiki does not store any energy in the body, this is a non-issue for Reiki practitioners.

These are just a couple of quick observances to distinguish between these two, Reiki and Qi Gong (or three if you include Yoga). Should there be any questions I’d love to go into this in greater detail.

For further explanation or discussion, your thoughts are most welcome and highly encouraged, please feel free to comment below!!!