Question
Gramps,
I was talking to my brother and learned his wife is becoming a Reiki Master. She’s a massage therapist and working to become a psychologist. She seems to think this will help her career and raising their child. I feel it is witchcraft. When someone is calling upon universal spirits and performing “laying on of hands” to perform rituals, this seems like something affiliated with the occult and a tool Satan is using to pull people away from light and truth. Is my thinking correct? How can I help them stay away?
Jay
Answer
Jay,
I don’t know much about Reiki or becoming a Reiki Master, so I can’t address that directly. But I can address the general idea of what you are asking. I would like to begin by quoting Isaiah where the Lord lays out the real problem with this topic.
8:19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
The Lord cuts right to the point. We should be seeking God in all that we do. That is the key that makes all of the difference.
Now you talk about Satan’s tools. There are lots of things Satan can use as tools. Television and the internet come readily to mind. I don’t think I need to list all of the ways Satan can and does use television and the internet to pull people away from God. We would be remiss if we didn’t also acknowledge that God can use those exact same tools to help draw us closer to Him. Case in point; all the Church efforts into its various websites.
So I think we should be less concerned about the “tools” than we are about the intent of the person that picks the tool up. Thus if you wish to help your sister-in-law, I feel you should focus less on the “tools” she is considering and focus more on how you can help her draw closer to Christ. The Church teaches this repeatedly.
In the end your sister-in-law has agency and she will have to choose for herself what “tools” she will use and to what end she will use them to. The only real option we have is to show Christ-like love and concern to help her in her efforts to put God first.
Gramps
