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Document Details : Title: Exploring the 'Mystical Experiences' of a New Spirituality Subtitle: A Case Study of Reiki Author(s): JONKER, Jojan Journal: Studies in Spirituality Volume: 22 Date: 2012 Pages: 293-310 DOI: 10.2143/SIS.22.0.2182856 Abstract : At this moment there are many new movements or groups in the Netherlands when it comes to new religions, religiosity, spirituality and healing modalities, as for instance Reiki; an (energetic) healing technique performed by the laying on of hands. Participants and practitioners of Reiki sometimes have experiences that they consider to be (very) special and often label these experiences spiritual or mystical. This paper presents a closer look into 70 self-defined mystical experiences provided by 17 Reiki practitioners. The analysis makes use of Waaijman’s model, holding ten characteristics that may appear in a mystical experience. Based upon this model, all together a total of 260 occurrences of characteristics were found. The characteristics ‘Presence [of transcendence]’ and ‘Shift of the act-center’ together provide more than half of all the spotted characteristics, closely followed by ‘Ongoing impact’. Of the 70 stories that were shared only one can be recognized as Buddhist, five as Christian, and 64 as New Age mysticism. The results further support the idea that a classification of Reiki as ‘holistic spirituality’ seems more appropriate than a classification as ‘New Age spirituality’. |
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