Channeling Life Force Energy with Reiki Master Andrea Kennedy
Welcome to the Psychic Artist Podcast
Being, not doing. Calling in high vibration universally guided life force energy for the highest good of all. This is Reiki with Andrea Kennedy. On her YouTube channel called Mainstream Reiki she offers remote Reiki through the videos. She also teaches Reiki and offers mentoring to Reiki practitioners. We talk about her journey and thoughts about this amazing practice that supports the body's natural ability to heal itself through life force energy.
Listen to the podcast here:
Watch the podcast here:
Andrea Kennedy of Mainstream Reiki on The Psychic Artist Podcast with Sarah Rossiter.
Transcript:
Channeling Life Force Energy with Reiki Master Andrea Kennedy
Welcome Andrea Kennedy to The Psychic Artist Podcast. I'm so happy to have you. I'm excited to talk about Reiki with you today. Please share with us what you do.
Well, thank you so much, Sarah. It's a real pleasure to be here with you as well. I am a Reiki master. I started Reiki back in 1995, way back when there was hardly anything out there really as far as literature or different support in our practice. I don't think I ever heard of a Reiki share where we get together and share Reiki with each other for years after I took my first class. So, things have really changed over the last 20-something years of my Reiki practice and now I am primarily offering online and live classes and so what a shift it's been over all these years, but I love Reiki for so many reasons and I'm just very excited to be here today and see where our conversation takes us.
Yes, me too. It's really amazing how I've been getting so much guidance recently to talk about Reiki. It wasn't necessarily my personal intention. I'm an artist. I do Reiki. I teach Reiki, but I was thinking, "Oh, I'm going to be doing a lot with creativity and consciousness this year," and then the angels and guides just keep pointing me back to share Reiki, share Reiki. So, it feels like the spiritual gift that we have to share in this time is super simple and precise and Reiki as I've heard you say in your videos, you have an amazing YouTube channel where you share Reiki. I'm so grateful for that by the way.
Thank you. Thanks so much.
Thank you. It has helped me so much and people that I know and I feel like the generosity with which you share that is the energy that we're talking about today that Reiki is really peaceful and really supportive and such a perfect antidote to what we're all experiencing during this time in the last few years.
Well, first of all, thank you so much for that, Sarah. I never thought I'd have a YouTube channel, but you talk about guidance and following guidance and I have to say that's that whole explanation from the creation of it and into the evolution of it really. I have to agree with you wholeheartedly and while art and creativity I think is fantastic for people to explore and perhaps even heal through and gain more creativity, but freedom of expression and things like that. I mean, the gifts from that are immense, but I think you bring up a really good point about Reiki and the times that we're in and in this prodding to share it and it probably goes back to the YouTube channel. Really I think it's all together.
Andrea’s Reiki for Financial Abundance. You can play her videos while doing other things and it helps to reset the energy of the room.
I don't think there was... I just don't believe in accidents and I'm willing to bet you don't either and we are in a time I think where for me, if we can remember that we're connected to each other, not just to source energy or whatever you want to call it, spiritually speaking, but I think the magic for our evolution, for our survival, for our ability to thrive as humans, I think it boils down to remembering how we are connected to each other, and to me, Reiki is an example of that.
Reiki is inclusive. Reiki does not discriminate. Anybody can learn Reiki. Anybody can practice Reiki. Anybody can benefit from Reiki. There is no admission fee as far as who you have to be. No one's excluded. The energy doesn't say, "Oh okay. You can learn about me, but not you." Everybody's worthy, everybody's deserving, and everybody is included in that, and I can't think of too many things that I can say that about.
And furthermore, the basis of Reiki is this universal life force energy. We all have that and it's like oh, well, then we're all included, and I think that having that example of inclusiveness can be a foundation for us to remember that we all are connected and that we can take responsibility and power into our own hands literally or better, whether it be physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. So, I could just keep talking forever... I do think that it's no accident the times we're in and it seems Reiki is just gaining more and more steam as far as people finding out about it and seeking it out and I'm so excited. It's such an exciting time I think to be involved with Reiki.
Yes, I totally agree, and I see it as a healing balm that is being offered to us to share. Not only is it, like you said, available to all of us, we all have this power innately inside and being trained to do it and being attuned is like waking up, taking off the cloak and saying, "Okay, I'm going to use this other aspect of myself," but it's also for a lot of us to realize the power that we have to heal ourselves and others is very transformative for the planet and Reiki can be used on animals. I've recently been instructed to use it on water, people, on ourselves. It's just amazing. It's very metaphysical and practical. So, I wonder if we can ask you a few questions that are pretty basic, like I think you just explained what Reiki is, but I know that you also can explain it to people that have never experienced it before so I think you might want to do that.
Right. Well, it's funny. I have to chuckle because when I first learned Reiki, I didn't know anything about energy as far as our energy or spirituality, nothing. I was trained in physics. I have a bachelor's of science in physics and when Reiki really found me, I thought energy was an X-ray or the thing that you plugged into when you plugged your lamp into the wall. I mean, that is what I thought energy was and I think that we can describe Reiki in so many different contexts. Some people describe it more in spiritual terms. I tend to stay more in the, I don't know, maybe-
Mainstream.
Yeah, mainstream. You're right. Yeah, thanks. Yes.
So, this is the name of your business, Mainstream Reiki.
It is. Mainstream Reiki, yeah. That came in that guidance and I just resonated so much with that idea of I thought there was a day and I was wondering about Reiki and what happened was I thought Reiki's often thought of as new age and it doesn't need to be, and if it is kept in that definition of a new age, perhaps woo-woo type practice.
Like other.
Yeah, it's going to exclude people, right? I just thought that's not Reiki. Reiki doesn't exclude people. Who could benefit from Reiki? I thought mainstream people. That's where it's at and that's where that whole mainstream Reiki idea came through, but put simply, I think what I would say is
Reiki is spiritually guided life force energy. You might say universally guided life force energy, but that word is important because we aren't doing the healing. We are not the source of the energy. The energy has a knowing has a sort of knowing, has a sorting wisdom to it and so we're just the ones who bring it through and I would say the word channel. We channel Reiki energy through us. We're not offering our own energy at all.
Channel - to some people that sounds a little woo-woo and a little new age and so what I would just say, and I think we tend to choose our words appropriately for the audience, right? So, if you're talking to a nurse or a doctor, at least if I do, I choose different words and what I would say is that we all have this life force energy and most people can say, "Oh yeah. We're animated. We have an energy about us," and that energy flows in and around our bodies in energy pathways. So, we might say chakras. We might say meridians and things like that or we don't have to, but basically we have this energy anatomy, these pathways for that life force energy to flow, and when it flows in a way that is in resonance to what the intention is. So, it's flowing through the pathways the way it's designed to. We feel good. We feel in balance. We feel peace. We can handle what life brings us, but things happen in our lives, just being human, and we can have little upsets in life or large upsets in life and even just physical and injury.
So, it could be emotional, mental, physical, any of these things and that having those events that affect us can impede the flow of that energy through those pathways the way it's designed to, and when that happens, if we don't get back in balance with that flow, we'll begin to not feel good in some ways and it can manifest in all different kinds of ways, but Reiki, and this is a really long answer to your question, but Reiki is just this technique and I wouldn't even say technique. Reiki is a practice that we engage in just to bring this source energy, this life force energy that is not our own, but we bring it through for the highest good of whatever it is we're offering it to. It could be a person, an animal, a plant, water, like you say because this energy in my viewpoint, I hold the belief that this energy is creationary and I don't even know if that's a word, but I do use that word and it's just a basic component of all of creation, this energy. So, it is like a fish to water. So, it's just natural and that brings me to the next aspect of Reiki which is it can do no harm. What can only do benefit and no harm? I can't think of anything. Plus on top of that, add in that inclusivity again.
So, thirdly, we would add that Reiki does not require any beliefs. You don't even have to believe in Reiki to benefit from Reiki. Again, it sounds too good to be true, but you take those three things. The inclusivity, the it can't do harm, and no beliefs in anything, not even in Reiki, which could fall in the inclusivity part of this equation, but I do want to give it separate air time so to speak because I think that that's a big part of who we are. As humans, we have a lot of beliefs and so I do think that separating it out is important and so Reiki, a practitioner, we can do this for ourself.
We can do this for others but we're simply bringing through this high vibration, high frequency universally guided life force energy for the highest good of ourselves or someone else and that's it. We don't have to do anything. The energy does it.
And that really goes counter to our thinking as humans because we are so taught, are we not that no pain, no gain? That's a big collective consciousness idea or belief, back to the belief thing, but we're not used to getting any sort of result if we're not trying and Reiki is an example of being, not doing. So, we can bring through that energy and what ends up happening is that person... Let's just say we're going to offer it to another person. Their energetic system, their life force energy that they already possess knows exactly how to meet the Reiki energy that we bring through. It knows what to do and wonderful things happen. So, energy that was blocked up through those pathways can be loosened, can be released, and then the energy flows better, and this creates... Well, I would say in general, the most reported thing at least from my experience is the person feels very relaxed, very relaxed.
About Andrea Kennedy
I love science, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and have always been intrigued with the world and how things work. Reiki has been in my life for over 26 years now. I love Reiki and I love sharing it with people and animals.
I am certified to teach all levels of Holy Fire® Reiki online using the best practices and latest techniques to ensure the highest quality to my students in our virtual learning platform.
I am blessed to reach an international audience through both my Mainstream Reiki YouTube channel. Find out more at mainstreamreiki.com
And now, if we want to get a little more sciencey, we might explain that our nervous system has two modes and one is fight or flight or sympathetic and then the other side is the parasympathetic side of the nervous system and so we have the fight or flight and then this other one, and the parasympathetic is often called the rest, digest, and restore mode of the body. Our cells need to spend time in that mode to do all of the functions that they need to do for us to have vitality for our body to work properly, and I think that a big epidemic stressor that we have all this stress in life especially lately, again, going back to the times that we're in. So, we have more stress, more of a unique stress, but
What happens with Reiki is it shifts the nervous system to the rest, digest, and restore mode. That's why we feel relaxed during Reiki.
That's also why our stomachs might growl. We might have more saliva in our mouth when we're receiving Reiki because our digestive system start ramping up. It's like, oh, we're going to rest now. Oh, here we go, and if you think about all the different digestive issues in society and then you realize we're probably going through life, a lot of us just eating whenever we can, right? We don't take our time to sit, to relax, to Reiki ourselves maybe even before we eat and so if we're eating our food and we're in that fight or flight mode, which that's the stressed state, imagine what impact that may have on our digestion and our ability to absorb the nutrients we are taking in. So, is it any wonder about all of these issues that we have with the gastrointestinal system in today's day and age?
So, yeah, it's a huge topic, but anyway, Reiki: spiritually guided life force energy doesn't do harm and it provides balance and relaxation for the recipient of it and the body just naturally performs better in that relaxed state and it also helps our immune system because we're not under the stress. So, our immune system, all the systems of the body get a chance to take a break and the body is so intelligent. It's so divinely inspired and constructed and Reiki helps give people, animals, whoever is benefiting that respite to reset and restore so that they can better respond to life.
Yes, the message I get is that it allows us to spend time in the vibration of love essentially. So, we are checking in almost like the ideal sleep state or in yoga, yoga nidra or something that people might describe as a deep state. I feel like Reiki is just instantly putting you into the frequency of extreme love basically and it's what we are made of as you say. So, it's a beautiful way to reset and ground yourself and heal ailments and also it's opened up a lot of psychic abilities for me and a lot of creativity for me. It exponentially has an effect. So, I'm curious about your personal story, what has brought you to Reiki and what are some of the magical experiences you've had personally if you would like to share anything.
Sure. Well, when I first started with Reiki, I already told you how I came to it and it was a family member visiting and she was just talking all about Reiki. I didn't search it out. I didn't have an ailment that I was looking for help with, which does bring a lot of people to Reiki. They're looking for a complimentary modality or something to help them with an issue. I was just clueless and my great aunt was visiting and she was talking all about this Reiki thing, and I'm like, "What are you talking about?" But I was so curious about this and her stories and things like that and she finally said... She says, "Well, I can teach you level one before I go home," and I was like, "Okay."
So, I learned it from her. My husband actually did too. We both did a little Reiki one class with her before she went home and I felt nothing. I absolutely felt nothing. People might talk about in Reiki, part of Reiki is the attunement process that you're attuned to the Reiki frequencies of energy that allows us to bring that through, and so the attunement process, I'm going to say just to keep it simple, it's like a multi-step process in the traditional way. At least that's how I started. It's a multi-step method. It's meditative, I would say, and the Reiki master teacher is in the energy field of the student, and again, I was wanting to make this simple, but I don't know. How would you even say this?
Transmission is the word I hear.
Yeah, transmission. Yeah, I guess so.
It's like opening a door, I see a key going into a door and there's several doors to walk through for you to really be have the flow and you're helping to-
That's true. Part of the reason I'm having trouble with that is that's how I started with it and was attuned in that method and I've changed in how I practiced Reiki and I do Holy Fire Reiki now and our whole attunement process is different and so anyway I'll set that aside, but it just resonates with me, but anyway, maybe we'll deal with that later, but-
I'm excited to hear about that too.
Okay, great. And so what happened was I felt nothing, and I thought, "Okay, so what am I supposed to do now?" I would practice with my husband and he would say, "Oh yeah. I feel some tingling and warmth," and he would give me feedback and I'd think, "This is crazy." I mean, I... nothing, and he's reporting relaxation and these benefits and all of this and sensations. He's the reason I stuck with it because if I wouldn't had that feedback…
I have to imagine there were probably a lot of people out there over the years who did learn and didn't feel much and didn't get the feedback and that really saddens me because that was the key for me, to stick with it and not think this is just a fairy tale or something like that.
So, I have a lot of gratitude for the fact that he took the training with me and allowed me to practice with him and gave me the feedback. So, it was very instrumental, but life got in the way.
We hadn't been married that long and then his job changed and then kids came and so confessions of a Reiki master here. It wasn't like I had a big Reiki practice or anything back then, but it was on the back burner. It was always on simmer is what I like to say for me. So, it also opened me up to be more curious about these topics, about the metaphysical, about Reiki, about that world that I really... I had been curious about metaphysical things before I learned Reiki, but it was so over there, but after I learned Reiki, it was more accessible to me. The curiosity ramped up and then what ended up happening was really... The big turning point for me was set. It was several years later and I was watching Oprah Winfrey and I was a stay-at-home mom. I had a little boy, and I think he was about two-ish, one and a half, two, and I was watching Oprah, and Oprah had Caroline Myss on her show, and for anybody who doesn't know, she's a world renowned medical intuitive.
So, I watched that episode and was floored. I just was, "Ah.” You talk about curious. She could hear a person's name and their age and she could diagnose them with a medical condition more accurately than a physician who spent an hour with the patient, and her accuracy rate was like 92%. I was like, "Wow." So, I was so intrigued by that, and I was sad when the show ended and I thought, "How does she do that?" I probably had a zillion questions going through my mind.
Within a week's time, less than a week, I went to my mailbox to get my mail and there was a full color postcard type thing from a company I'd never heard about before in my whole life addressed to me and it said, "Come to Egypt for a workshop with Carolyn Myss, and I was like, "What?"
Not just across the state line, but actually all the way to Egypt. That's great.
Yeah, and something overtook me out in front of my house by my mailbox. I was just like, "I got to go," and I wouldn't shut up. I was by myself. My little boy was upstairs napping and I just was sitting at my kitchen table going, "I got to go. I got to go. I got to go. I got to go. How am I going to go?" I don't know, and I just was in this state of energy and then my poor husband came home and I pounced on him as soon as he gets in the door and I say, "Honey, I got to go to Egypt," and he looked at me with the craziest look, but I have to say he is phenomenal and he's always, always supported me in my crazy ideas and whatever it is and he, of course, had all these questions for me and I don't blame him. I didn't really have any answers for him at the time, but he took vacation from work. He took two weeks off. He stayed at home with our little boy and I went to Egypt on this trip.
Wow.
Yeah, and the workshop was on archetypes. I was young. I was just in my... I don't know. I have to do math, which I can't do talking to you, but I was probably in my mid 20s. Didn't know anything about anything back then, but it was on archetypes and I could go on and on, but it was-
She's an interesting teacher to me. I was just about to contact her actually.
Oh wow.
How interesting. She's on my list right next to your name of people to talk to.
Wow. How about that? Because a little-
Cosmic alignment.
A little bit, little bit. Yeah. So, I'll skip a little bit because again I could just keep going and going, but the turning point with Reiki was really we had a sunrise meditation at the sphinx and it was towards the end of the trip and I was not a meditator. I wasn't even that spiritual. I was very mainstream. While I had curiosity and things like that, that was about it. There were a lot of people on the trip because we had... It was a tour that we were doing. So, there was a group of us and there were people that I just knew were very spiritual and so I thought, "What am I going to do at this meditation at the sphinx? So, I just decided to just copy the other people. I didn't know and so I did that and when it was my turn, I went between the legs of the sphinx and I just put my hands up on the sphinx because that's what they had done when it was their turn, and I did that and
I just closed my eyes and I took a deep breath and all of a sudden, it was like a lightning bolt of knowing or something, but a message very clearly came through that was not from my own brain and it was, “When you get back home, finish your Reiki training.” Just this idea.
I was very surprised. I hadn't thought about Reiki, nothing. It was so out of the blue, but when I took that in, it resonated with me and I thought, "Oh yeah. That feels like a good idea." So, I went ahead and made plans and that's when I got home, I got my little boy and we flew to... gave my husband a break from staying home with them for two full weeks, but I took my little boy down with me and we visited my great aunt and I finished all my Reiki training in a week because she's the only Reiki person I knew, and at the time, I lived in Pennsylvania and she lived in Texas. So, I went down there and it was a whirlwind of a week, but I completed level two and then the master training all together.
What an amazing story. Well, I just got chills and a tingly feeling as you described your experience with the sphinx and getting this message and that's so beautiful and amazing that you had to go to Egypt to find that out. I mean, because my audience is used to me talking about past lives and psychic stuff, I guess, but it's okay for us to talk about it. It may not be mainstream, but it feels like you were being called there to receive a transmission to connect to something that you already knew, but it's like in this lifetime, it's time to do this work again. It's very beautiful. I believe that a lot of people that are Reiki masters have done it before.
I have to say, again, I was so young back then and I wish I could remember more of every little thing that we did and I feel like I have so much more focus and presence now than I did then, but we did some amazing things there. I think part of it was I needed to be out of my routine. I needed to be out of my everyday so that I could be in a place of neutrality. So, that when I did receive the guidance, it was very clear. It stood out very much, and yeah, and while psychic-y things might not be "mainstream," what I would say is it most definitely really is, because
we all do have intuition. We all are being guided whether we're aware of it or not, whether we listen or not, but to me, it's there. It's just how aware we are and also in mainstream, we don't normally perhaps talk about it so openly, but that's changing.
That is I think really changing.
Yes, and I wonder how has it increased your psychic or intuitive awareness. It sounds like I imagine what you just said, like you're much more grounded now just from doing Reiki and from your practice, but in addition, I wonder what else has changed for you.
Well, I guess we're going to go back to Egypt for a minute because again, that was a turning point in that whole psychic realm for me. So, it was before the sphinx and it was about 3:00 AM or so, and I woke up and I had all of these thoughts just in my mind. I mean like alphabet soup, and my head was swimming. That's how I would say with just different random thoughts and I couldn't be settled down and all I could think of was grab my notebook and pen and then I went and sat on the bathroom floor because I actually had the pleasure of going to Egypt with my stepmom. She accompanied me on the trip and we shared a room and I didn't want to wake her up by turning a light on. So, I went in the bathroom, sat on the floor, and I just thought to get my notebook out and I started writing, and I mentioned a moment ago that the workshop was about archetypes, and archetypes are themes that can show up in our lives. So, I don't know. You might have a better definition of archetypes, Sarah.
I think that what you're saying makes a lot of sense and it makes sense too that you were there to investigate something and then you would get a lot of information about it and also I see the pattern of your process of like right before we have a big opening, often we are just flooded. It's almost like the stages of meditation. You're flooded with all the things that are ready to be released and cleared, and sometimes you don't even need to take stock and other times, writing them down can help.
Right. Right. Well, what I did, I wrote on the notebook on the paper. You know, "What is my archetype?" And immediately, I mean, it's like before I even finished the question, I'm receiving an answer and I'm thinking, "This is weird." Never done anything like this in my life and the answer was Moses, and I was like, "What?" In the workshop, we were talking about archetypes like victim, child, things like this, and so I get Moses. So, in my analytical linear mind, I'm like, "Well, that isn't even an archetype." So, I'm being a little argumentative in my brain, but I write it down and I say snarky.
So, I asked in my mind, "Well, why Moses?" Because I just thought I was making this up and trying to be all self-important or something and before I could get it all out, asked, here it came, and the message that came through, the answer was “Because you're meant to help deliver people to a better place.”
As I wrote that down, I thought, "Whoa. That's pretty good," and I'm thinking, "This is just crazy." So, then the next question I asked in my snarky attitude was, well, if we're going to do all stars of the bible because I was in disbelief of the whole thing. So, if we're going to do all stars of the bible, why am I not the Jesus archetype? Why do I not have the Jesus archetype?
Again, before I finish, the answer came through “Because you're not meant to sacrifice yourself in doing this.” And then I was pretty much dumbfounded on the bathroom floor in Egypt at three 3:30 AM. It made so much sense. I didn't know what on earth to do about that. It resonated. There was a truth to it. I knew I had not made that up, but what do you do with that?
So, I just put it on simmer with everything else. Then I had my sphinx thing and then did my Reiki training and then when I got home back to Pennsylvania, I was pretty committed to really practicing regularly and I didn't have any family outside my husband and my... Yeah, I still had one child. I didn't have any family around or anything, and I didn't know too many people. I was just a stay-at-home mom so I got really into distance Reiki, and distance Reiki, of course, we can offer Reiki over time and space. It's the energy isn't bound and so I used to really practice distance Reiki and when I would do that, it would be late at night after our son was in bed and I had some time, and I would sit on my living room floor, and I had of course, even from when I was little, I was always fascinated with psychic stuff, and yeah, I think back in the day, I think ESP was more of a popular term, extra sensory perception, right?
I was so curious about that and I never thought I could really do that, but it just intrigued me and I remember I was practicing a distance Reiki session for my great grandmother who lived in Texas and was quite elderly and I got images of her legs in my mind. I got the word edema showed up in my mind. I could see in my mind's eye her legs and they were so stretched. The skin was so stretched and there was modeling, discoloration on her legs, and I had that edema word and I wrote it down, but the really weird thing was I had such an excitement over it and not over it. I had such an excitement with it. It was true. There was this truth vibration and I remember I sat there and I thought, "What is happening?" Because I thought if I had just made that up... Well, first of all, I didn't know what edema was. I just had the word. So, I thought, yeah, I don't even know what that is.
And way back then, I mean, the internet and googling, I mean, it was a totally different thing. I probably had a laptop maybe at that time. So, it wasn't like I ran to my computer to google it, but I just remember sitting there and I wanted to call my grandmother, her daughter, and share this with her and
I had a knowing and an excitement that she would confirm it and I thought that is so weird. Why on earth would I feel that way? It doesn't make any sense, but I had the excitement. I end up calling my grandmother the next day and guess what? It's completely accurate, the visual, the word, the diagnosis, all of this stuff, and again, I sat there on the bathroom floor. I'm like, "Okay. What does that mean and what now?"
Back then, I was such a purist about Reiki and I thought that the intuition, the psychic part, I was very much not into that part of it, which is weird.
I just never realized back then what I know now that you just can't separate that stuff out. At least from my perspective, the attunements--
You had trained with Carolyn Myss in essence, right? She's a medical intuitive. The words that we use, sometimes, psychic can feel very out there. Medical intuitive, in the middle, like this knowing that you received was related to the ability to sense what people are experiencing.
That's true. I have to say though the workshop with her wasn't an instruction about that. So, I couldn't say. Yeah, yeah, it was more-
She held the space, I guess, is what I'm feeling like-
So, yeah, the energy-
She welcomed you into her universe.
Yes, that's very true. Yeah, that's really true, and I just was intrigued and then I started looking around in my community for any classes I could take. So, I remember I took a class and it was on a lady. It was a few weeks long, maybe a month long. It was weekly, and one of the subjects we did was aura reading, which I could never do that in the class, but I just wasn't very good at any of the stuff that I tried with her, and then I took another class and it was all about... It was based on lowering the brainwaves because again, I'm a sciencey person. So, it's basically getting into that alpha state at least, lowering the brain waves turns down the volume for us. So, meditation can do this, right?
But I started to learn a technique to just do that, to just go there without a big meditation practice or whatever. I like shortcuts, I admit it, and the idea of meditating or whatever is like, "Oh, that's more of a spiritual thing." This is just mind-body connection, which I really liked that. I was attracted to that. So, anyway, I started exploring that. Well, you can heal. You can do healing work from that way. Well, you can do healing work through Reiki and the weird thing was I took lots of different kinds of trainings, lots of different modalities, but in the end, I just always came back to Reiki. It seemed like it was almost not really...
I have to quantify this, but there's something about Reiki inherent in all of the other things that I learned. Reiki is simple, and I've never found that I really needed anything past Reiki.
It's fun to learn other modalities. It's fun to practice different things and it's fun to explore those other things, but I was really meant to do what I'm doing now, and that is all about Reiki.
Yeah, when you were talking about Moses as the message, I heard this song in my head. It goes, "Children go where I send thee. Where shall I send thee?" So, it's true what you said. You were called to serve in this way to lead people to healing. It's really a beautiful calling and I see that you've done so much work too through all of your trainings and your experience in your lifetime. In the process of learning these modalities, we're also healing ourselves and that makes us better vessels to offer this energy. I like how you describe, "It's not me. I'm offering this. It flows through me," but when your container is very clear and you've done a lot of clearing and healing work, then I feel like the transmission is also can be more clear. I wonder if you can talk a little bit about that. I know this is a bit more complex, but what do you do? Maybe that would be the starting point. Daily practices to clear one's energetic field or mind or to prepare to practice Reiki or after Reiki, do you do any sort of clearing?
Yeah, so this is going to be probably unexpected. I really don't do a lot. I really do not. I don't. I have never been one... I'm not a should person and that has a positive and a negative to it, of course, because I should exercise every day. I don't, but I just don't like the should energy. I don't like the burden of that and so what I'll say is I have different things that I like to do and I choose from the basket instead of doing something planned each day or whatever it is. Now, one of the things I do is I have a distance Reiki crystal grid and so I do charge that. I have a lot of names. People request to be in the grid and so I have a responsibility that I embrace and that is to keep that grid charged and flowing and supporting them. So, that is something I do.
That's beautiful. I don't actually know a lot about that. I mean, I see it visually when you describe it and I see how it works, but that's a beautiful thing that you offer.
Oh thanks. Thanks. So, I will charge that, but generally, what I do is I wake up very early in the morning and then I don't rush. I just lay there and I look out my window. It's dark and I have huge trees outside and I just watch. I tune into myself. I tune into energy a lot of the times. Sometimes I don't, but other times, I call in Reiki during that time and I just am. I just am there. I don't have an agenda and I see what comes up for me and so I might have more of a busy mind. A worry might come in or a memory might come in and I'm very aware in those first moments of the day, and I observe what is going on for me at that time and I don't push things away. If there's something unpleasant, I look at it because I'm a big believer in noticing our aversions and so if I want to repel a thought, I need to investigate that and I think that that goes a long way.
I think if I were to say, in answer to your question, I think really what I'm doing that helps me is I am honest with myself about what I'm feeling and I allow it to be. I think what can really impact people in a negative way is the aversion because that leads to so many behaviors that are not healthy for us.
Very well said. That's so beautiful and I see what you were saying before about just being and I feel that from you when you are offering Reiki on your YouTube channel. Your great gift in addition to all of your insight and you're such a natural teacher, but your tuning in to just being is extremely powerful, and would you say that that's the trick to being a good Reiki practitioner when you train your students is to be present? I mean, when I've learned different healing modalities through yoga training, I was taught to be with what is, while it is, the way it is. Not doing, not sending, not taking, but just be in your body and stay present. I feel like that was one of the gems of my trainings and has helped me with Reiki and I teach that to my students - your job is to be present, not to stay in the body, to allow the energy to flow through, and I feel when I see you giving Reiki that you're extremely present and I also suspect that you're giving Reiki through your eyes. Maybe you want to talk about that for a second.
Yeah, so it took me a long time on the YouTube channel to even do a distance session. I started the channel, I think it was the summer of 2019. I think June something, and I never knew about if those videos worked. I knew people did them on there and I was not a YouTube person, not really into that stuff, and my husband would watch YouTube to learn about different things and so I wasn't really familiar with it, but it was his idea to start the YouTube channel, my wonderful husband, and I had just seen a full day of clients at my office and I come home. Our whole house is ripped up because our whole upstairs, because we were remodeling, and so our kitchen was obliterated. So, we had a lot of stress and so I come home from all these clients all day. I come home and I go find him downstairs in the basement and he says, "Honey, I think you should start a YouTube channel," and I was like, "What? I have no kitchen. What are we even going to eat for dinner tonight? And now you think I should do a YouTube channel?"
So, I just was like, "That's crazy," but he's got really great ideas and he's wise and so I tend to listen to him and at least consider what he has to say and why I went there was
there's a part of me that wants to convey that anybody can do this. I so believe that and when I started the channel, I didn't know anything about what I was doing, and you can learn as you go. So, whether we're talking about YouTube or a new skill or a new career or a new Reiki or whatever it is, just start it. Just start it.
Anyway, I didn't know that the video would even work, but I had said a lot on the channel. It was all informative stuff and I reached a point and I thought, "I'm going to try this."
It's time. Yeah.
So, I did it. It was a terrible quality video. You can hear the clock ticking. I mean, it was really bad, and I remember I was there. I had my laptop and that's why the image wasn't very good. That video has been watched. I couldn't tell you. It's my number one video on YouTube, and that video, I'm going to look it up real quick because-
I watched it last night actually.
Did you?
Yeah.
Did the clock bug you?
No. None of the things that you noticed bothered me. I think it's a great video.
Really?
So, I think that's funny. I feel like that's really cool that you just did it, but what comes through is the Reiki and your presence and you're just being and so all the other details fall to the side and it's beautiful that people... It's a testament to the experience that people really receive it and you're very normal, but then you're sharing something that's very profound, and it's effortless.
Andrea’s first distance Reiki video (and most popular) on her Mainstream Reiki YouTube channel.
Well, I thank you for that. Yeah, I just looked it up. It's over 413,000 views. I mean, I can't even wrap my head around that really.
Yeah, and the response of people and then when they say how the different ones have helped them and what an honor, and I have to say that that's always how I approached every session I've ever done with a person or an animal that it's an honor and I think that if a practitioner practices from that place, it's beautiful.
I think that if I were to say one thing and you asked me like, "Well, what would you tell your students?" It is to remember that. What an honor and a privilege to offer Reiki to another being, and to me, if I can do that, I don't know a better way to serve. I don't know a better way to connect and the other thing I'm going to say is my, I guess, a big focus for me is empowerment and that's also I think what is behind my eyes in the video is, yes, I want -
Again, I don't ever use the word healer to describe me. I'm not a healer. I offer Reiki and I think the experience can be healing for a person, but it isn't. I'm not doing anything and just offering. But as I offer, I do two things, I guess, and one of them is I just want whoever is watching whenever they're watching wherever that they are helped for their highest good. So, that is my intention. I feel the honor that here I'm going to put this out and someone out there is going to watch it. I feel like that is a connection. That is a real connection. I also feel that I want to be an empowering presence. It isn't about coming back to my videos over and over, which is great. I don't mean to discount that, but
I'm hoping to somehow support people in recognizing that the light that they might see in me is in them too. That to me, that's the magic, and that's one reason I love to teach Reiki and that is an honor in and of itself.
And then, lastly, the last thing that is really coming through me and you said you're probably sending Reiki with your eyes. I am, but I would invite all Reiki practitioners to instead of thinking about we offer Reiki through our hands, we offer Reiki through our eyes. Gyoshi-Ho, the Japanese Reiki technique that we just are Reiki, and if it helps you to imagine yourself unzipping your physical manifestation and just being Reiki, emanating Reiki, not anything based on the physicality, but just the presence. So, that's really what I'm doing, and then this last thing is love. I love them.
As I'm looking into the camera, I am loving them, and I know it might sound odd to some people, but I so believe that there is light in every person. I don't care what they've done. I don't care what they think. It is like Reiki. Non-discriminatory.
Every person has light and again, it doesn't matter what they do, what they have done, haven't done, whatever. The light is still there. The light is still there and I'm honoring. I'm recognizing that light through anything of who they might express their selves as. That to me doesn't matter and so that's my process for the videos.
Oh, that's just incredibly beautiful and it just encapsulates I think your philosophy on life and the great gift that you are sharing with people. I've learned so much from talking to you. Thank you.
Oh, you're so welcome. You're so welcome. As you can tell, I just love talking about Reiki because-
Yeah, it's your natural form.
Yeah. I mean, there's so much. It's boundless in so many ways, and yeah.
Do you want to talk just quickly about the Holy Fire trainings that you offer or what that is? How is that different from anything else that people might be familiar with?
Well, when I first learned Reiki, I learned usually Usui Tibetan Reiki, and that was great, and then I remember Holy Fire came out, and I was like, "What?" I also do a podcast and we have a whole episode about different styles of Reiki and so we do talk more about that.
I can link to that.
Yeah, that'd be great. That'd be great because I go into more depth with that, this whole Holy Fire thing, and my co-host Kathleen also shares her feelings about it too. So, it's a double dose of insight, I guess, but Holy Fire is really quite remarkable because I guess just for one example is the attunement process, and we don't call it attunement anymore. We call it a placement and that's for level one and level two, and then for the master symbol, there's also a placement in the master class, and at the master level for the Holy Fire, we call that ignitions. So, we have placements and ignitions, just different terminology, but why do we need a different term?
Well, the process is very different and I would say the teacher simply begins a short guided meditation and then is quiet for about 15 to 25 minutes or so, quiet, and not doing a thing except allowing, which is so Reiki, right? Not doing, being.
But here's the big, big, big difference. The energy meets with each student completely directly and uniquely wherever they are. The energy doesn't come through the master teacher to the student. The energy meets directly with them, and I love that because every person is worthy to meet directly with the source of Reiki. Another person in the equation really isn't necessary. So, the teacher simply provides an opportunity for the energy to meet with them and then whatever is in their highest good for that process takes place. Now, doesn't that sound exactly like a Reiki session?
Yes, those are the same principles by which-
It is except, the energy really isn't even channeling through the teacher at all. The teacher's more of a facilitator, and I was going to say observer, but it's actually best if the teacher just doesn't even have anything at all to do with it. Isn't that crazy?
Well, it makes sense. Really good teachers hold the space for you to have your own growth experience and we each have our unique connection to source and the way that it comes through can only be filtered through our experience and I try to do the same thing when I'm teaching. It's like I'm holding the space for you. Get out of the way a bit, but also help you to voice the questions or observations you might need, and especially what you mentioned about your husband, someone to get that feedback from of like do you feel anything? Because my mind is not believing that I'm doing this. I think that's the biggest thing for new Reiki students is that process you described yourself going through of like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, but I'm not feeling anything. So, there's several reasons why, we are taught not to feel in our society, but we may also just need feedback.
Yeah, that's such a great point too, what you said about not feeling, that we're often not taught that. Yeah, that's very insightful. Yeah, and so the way this Holy Fire is learned is very different and interestingly enough, that style of attunement. I'll just use that word, but the placements and ignitions came about well before the pandemic, and so I was teaching in-person classes in that style and it was great, you know?
But then fast forward, and then the pandemic comes. It works beautifully online because you're not having... In the traditional style, we even had what was called Violet Breath where we would actually even exhale with intention at the crown of the student's head and so it was a physically interactive process, and again, no accidents and so it was very seamless. It was very natural for me to go online with the classes and you talk about needing feedback and we can do all that online, and the students are amazed that they're feeling things and they say... We do exercises in the breakout rooms. If you're familiar with Zoom, I'm getting off in the weeds here with details, but we pair up for some exercises and there's only two people in their little Zoom room and they work together and then we come back in the main room and we discuss it and I love it.
When they come back, they have the most excited faces. They can't believe it what they're experiencing and the fact that it's online just blows them away and it's just... I don't know. I'm just beaming because again there's just nothing better, I don't think, than teaching Reiki.
Yes, and it's empowering as you said as your mission. You're really empowering people and in those moments where they feel it and they have a partner they're working with, it's such a beautiful thing to watch when they feel the empowerment and that is just something they will take with them forever.
Yes, yes.
It's a beautiful gift. Not only do they now have the ability to heal, but they have this belief in the experience, this ethereal thing that we cannot see or sometimes prove or quantify at all times. This is an important skill for humans to be able to check into these things that are super empowering.
Yeah. Well, when a student says I'm doing this, I can do this. I mean, that's just beautiful. It is beautiful. Those words, "I can do this." It's like, "Yes, you can."
Yeah, that's beautiful too. Andrea, I really appreciate your time. It's so generous for you to spend time with us and I'm happy to share all of your offerings in the show notes and would you just like to share any way that you would like people to contact you if they're interested in learning more?
Absolutely. Thank you again as well for the invitation, Sarah. It's just been lovely, lovely talking with you. Well, my website probably is the one-stop place where you can pretty much find everything and that's MainstreamReiki.com, and yeah, the YouTube channel, that's just called Mainstream Reiki.
So, I'm just keeping it simple, and I did mention the podcast and so I'll let you know that because that's a little bit different name and that is Beyond The Reiki Gateway, and we have a website as well, but we're on all the major podcast apps like this one. I'm sure it is, but we do have a website, BeyondTheReikiGateway.com, and we named it that because so many people will learn Reiki like I did, and then it opens up this whole gateway to this whole other world of possibilities, of other modalities, different subjects to explore. So that's what we do there on the podcast, but it's just a nod to that Reiki is a gateway modality I think for a lot of people.
Yeah, and you don't have to be in the healing realm. You can be a scientist. You can be an artist. You can be anything and still we're human. We all benefit from this practice whether we use it professionally or on ourselves or just experience it as a recipient. It's really profound.
Yeah, yeah. I so agree and a lot of people I meet and even my students, they'll think that there's an expectation or something about, well, they have to become teachers. They have to open up a practice and you know what? No, because the beauty of Reiki is it can be everywhere and in everything. So, be a social worker and use Reiki. Be a nurse and use Reiki. Be, I don't know, an accountant, an artist, right? Be an engineer. Because that's the magic, because the more people that are attuned to this flow of Reiki…
The more people embodying Reiki that are out in the community doing mainstream jobs, you see there's power in that so that we're just not in a little Reiki practice and that's all the... No. It's everyday people tuned in. Embodying and being. That's how we change the world.
I really believe that.
I believe absolutely that is what you are doing and I'm so happy that you joined us today to talk about this. It's super. Well, thank you so much.
Thank you again, Sarah. Thank you.
Intuitive Painting Workshop - Next date: January 7th at 11am PST / 2pm EST / 7pm GMT. Learn to paint intuitively, allow consciousness to flow, and be in flow. Includes a materials list, guided visualization and a group painting practice. Sign up for this live Zoom workshop: $44: sarahrossiter.com/creativity
Check out my Creativity & Consciousness Course 2022 - Expand your creativity and let consciousness propel you to the next level in this 10 week live online video course. Open to anyone who wants to connect to their creative spirit. The course runs 10 Wednesdays, from January 19 - March 23, 2022. 90 min. a week, 9am PST/12pm EST/4pm GMT. Learn about guest speakers and register here: sarahrossiter.com/trainings
New for 2022, Group Reiki Trainings and monthly practice sessions for all Reiki graduates - Attune to a universal healing energy and learn to heal yourself and others immediately. Learn what Reiki is and how to use it, become grounded and clear, call in angels and guides for protection and guidance, and receive your Reiki Level 1, 2, or 3 Attunement. These trainings support you in doing Reiki for yourself, family, and clients. Learn more and schedule here: sarahrossiter.com/reiki
Important Links:
Andrea Kennedy is a Reiki Master Teacher dedicated to bringing Reiki more into the mainstream through education, practice and empowering others. Connect with her below:
Sarah Rossiter is an artist, writer and psychic medium. You can find out more about her work online at: SarahRossiter.com
The Psychic Artist Podcast - The Psychic Artist Podcast Facebook Page
@SRossiterStudio - Sarah’s Instagram
Bookings@ThePsychicArtistPodcast.com - Contact Sarah
The Psychic Artist Podcast - Apple Podcasts
Thanks for listening to The Psychic Artist Podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and share!
