If you’re new to energy healing or Reiki, you likely have questions about how the healing process works. For example, as a Master Reiki practitioner and teacher, I get a lot of questions about what is a Reiki attunement. Put simply, Reiki Master teachers initiate their students, opening them to the life force frequencies of Reiki. Once students are Reiki-attuned, they can channel this energy for healing and other spiritual purposes.

As such, the Reiki attunement is a critical aspect of and requirement for using this energy-healing modality. (For background, see what is Reiki healing energy).

What Is a Reiki Attunement

As mentioned above Reiki attunements open students’ energy centers and channels and initiate the flow of specific Reiki frequencies of universal life force energy.

All attunements provide healing to the recipient, but not all attunements open the recipient’s energy centers and channels or bestow the ability to channel Reiki. For example, the tools available with some forms of Reiki include a healing attunement which is a particularly powerful promoter of deep and prolonged healing.

It’s important to stress that not all Master Reiki practitioners can conduct healing attunements. Only Master practitioners who are also instructors can perform them. This is because the Master Instructor training course is the only course containing information on how to perform attunements.

Why Do You Need to Be Reiki Attuned

Only once students are Reiki-attuned, can they channel Reiki for themselves or to a client.

And, the effect of the attunement is permanent. Reattunement is optional and sometimes opted for as a means to reboot a practitioner’s focus on energy healing.

It’s important to note that Reiki-attuned practitioners don’t channel their life force, alter the channeled Reiki energy in any way, or take or alter the life force of their clients. They simply act as a “hollow bone,” allowing the energy to pass unaltered.

When clients release blocked or pent-up energy or rebalance their energy, they do so themselves with the support and encouragement of the Reiki energy offered to them through the practitioner. In other words, Reiki is a self-healing modality and the client has free agency. They just need to be open and intentional, and Reiki will go where it’s needed.

The frequencies of life force are infinite. When a practitioner opens to the energy of Reiki, the objective is to work with specific Reiki frequencies of life force. Hence, the healing will reflect the attributes and strengths of this energy healing modality in particular.

This is why attunements and a practitioner’s intentions around what they want to offer to their clients are so significant. While everyone and every living thing has a life force, Reiki-attuned practitioners don’t want to give their life force or any random energy to the client. They want to be sure to channel Reiki healing and thus they hold the explicit intention to open to this specific energy before conducting the session.

What Happens During An Attunement

How Many Attunements Do You Need

Reiki Master instructors give attunements to their students in each Reiki class.  Each level has its unique attunement (see Reiki classes for details on the levels of Reiki). The number of times an instructor repeats the attunement varies according to their Reiki lineage and teaching style.

I prefer to repeat the process three times to reinforce the initiation. The repetition also ensures that whatever doubt or resistance a student may have had (consciously or subconsciously) is overcome. Most initiates appreciate the repetition because they enjoy the attunement experience.

Interestingly, William Lee Rand has done away with attunements in his Holy Fire Reiki training sequence. I’m certified as the Master/Teacher of Holy Fire One, Two, and Three. This allows me to compare these training and teaching experiences with those that use attunements. I find attunements more impactful both in the moment and in terms of galvanizing my healing abilities and those of my students.

Holy Fire is Lee’s creation and diverges from the original teaching and practice of Dr Usui, who founded or rediscovered Reiki.

Four Stages or Components of a Reiki Attunement

Traditionally Reiki symbols and practices including attunements were never written. As a consequence, there’s considerable variation among teachers. Yet, you’ll still find much commonality. In general, the attunement process can be broken down into four complementary components:

1. Pre-Attunement Preparation – detox and clearing
2. Meditation – opening to the initiation process
3. The attunement process – opening to the energy and receiving healing
4. Integration – integrating both the energy and insights

The whole process begins and ends with the students. Instructors direct the second and third components. And, students are responsible for their preparation and integration with guidance from the teacher, of course.

1.  Pre-Attunement – How to Prepare For a Reiki Attunement

In reality, there is nothing required or necessary to prepare for a Reiki attunement. However, some preparation can enhance the experience, healing, and efficacy of the attunement.

Detox Your Bodily and Energy Systems

Detox your body for several days before the process. Refrain from consuming alcohol and unnecessary, non-prescription drugs. Abstain from smoking if you can or cut down. Reduce your consumption of refined sugar, processed foods, and red meat. If abstention proves too difficult or stressful, simply do what you can without incurring stress because the chemistry of stress is a form of toxins.

Perform an energy clearing or smudge before receiving the attunement. This does not have to occur immediately before. However, the idea is that you’ll be a clean and open channel. You’ll also want to be physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and energetically receptive to the healing and initiation process.

Maintain Adequate Hydration

Make sure to be hydrated. Water eliminates toxins released via attunements and associated healing. Since students practice giving and receiving Reiki sessions and receive multiple attunements throughout the class, they need plenty of water.

However, you shouldn’t consume copious amounts of water just beforehand. A single attunement lasts about 20 minutes. But, you’ll need to wait for all your classmates to be Reiki-attuned. Your teacher will indicate when the process is complete and you can leave the circle. The whole process can easily last an hour.

Get Adequate Quality Sleep

If you want to remain attentive and observant throughout the process, make sure to get enough good-quality sleep. Also, energy work can cause temporary fatigue as your body and energy adjust and integrate the healing. One of your body’s primary mechanisms for integrating healing is sleep.

Reflect and Set an Intention For Your Upcoming Reiki Training

Reserve a block of time alone to quietly reflect on why you’ve chosen to learn Reik or advance in your training. Consider what your intentions are and desired outcomes. While Reiki Master instructors hold initiation and general healing intentions for you for your attunement, at the beginning of the process you can also silently set a clear, positive, and specific intention of your own.

Walking alone in nature, journaling, and drawing can be helpful means to open your focus, bring in more insights, and achieve deeper reflection.

Bring Paper and a Pen

You’ll want to have paper and a pen available to record your impressions. Journaling can deepen the integration process. Note that many instructors, like myself, don’t allow activated electronics in the healing space.

Stay Grounded

Finally, if you tend to get light-headed or giddy with intensive energy or spiritual work, bring a grounding stone with you. You can place it under your seat or put your feet on it during and after the attunement. Additional grounding won’t alter the intent, intensity, or efficacy of the attunement. On the contrary, the stability gained through grounding can facilitate the expansion of your auric field much as the roots of trees support above-ground growth and reach.

2.  Guided Mediation

The initiation process may begin with meditation, but it’s not required. Some instructors do this, others don’t. I like to start with a meditation that orients my students to the training intentions of the specific Reiki level: Shoden, Okuden, or Shinpiden.

• Level One (Shoden) – Opening to the energy and self-healing
• Level Two (Okuden) – Becoming a Reik practitioner, healing others, and distance healing
• Level Three (Shinpiden) – Being the energy and orienting others in the development of their capacities as healers

3.  Attunement Process

All attunements are structured. Instructors will likely move around, make some noise, blow breath at you, take hold of your hands, etc. These maneuvers and gestures all have significance and intention.

The Master Teacher will open the Central Life Column along your spine that houses the energy centers. They’ll open each major chakra within the column and your palms to a specific Reiki modality (e.g., Usui or Kurana) and one of several levels or facets (Sekhem-Seichim Reik). Here, we focus our discussion on the Usui system because it’s the most common form of Reik practiced and taught,

Your teacher will imprint several Reiki symbols in the Level Two and Level Three courses. The latter is the Master level.

What Are Reiki Symbols

Because symbols and practices including attunements were traditionally never written down, the symbols are drawn and some of the elements of the initiation procedure vary among teachers. However, teachers tend to perpetuate the style of their teachers.

Students typically appreciate receiving new symbols because each symbol is imbued with and represents specific healing and/or spiritual intentions. With symbols at their disposal, practitioners can guide, facilitate, enhance, and quicken the healing process.

The Student’s Attunement Experience

Initiates perceive attunements in countless and varied ways. And, one student’s experience can change from one attunement to the next.

Some Reiki-attuned students see colors, forms, symbols, and images. Others might witness a complete story much like a dream. Sometimes initiates have clairvoyant and clairaudient encounters with guides, animals, or other figures. They may recall lost memories or gain significant insights. The experience can be dramatic or quite uneventful.

The idea is the student gets what the student needs at the time. No matter the type of experience, the Reiki attunement will be complete and perfect. Even if the initiate falls asleep. This latter case is not uncommon because sometimes a person is most open and receptive in their sleep.

4.  Integration of the Attunement and Healing

When the procedure is complete for all the students, most teachers will allow time for students to just be in the energy, reflect, or journal their experiences and insights. This helps them integrate the attunement.

As the students practice, ask questions, and discuss their experiences throughout the class, they’ll continue to integrate.

Integration of both the attunement and healing can extend over days and even up to a month for some, although, generally the greatest impact is immediate. Still, small continuous shifts can ultimately result in considerable transformation.

Potential Side Effects of the Attunement

Students can feel some side effects over the next few days following the attunement. These effects are typically minor. They range from tiredness, fogginess, headaches, increased appetite, and emotional sensitivity. This is a reflection of the depth of the healing and opening. The symptoms will subside as full integration takes place.

Grounding and Clearing Soothing Techniques

Standard grounding and cleansing techniques can be helpful. For example:

• Rest and sleep
• Salt baths
• Soothing music
• Walking in nature especially barefoot
• Healthy denser foods

What Are Virtual or Online Attunements – Should You Get One?

Although some Master Reiki Instructors teach and give attunement online, I do not. I feel that in-person training can personalize the interactions of the group, build connections, and reinforce the relationship between the Master Instructor and each student. My classes extend over two days to allow for ample engagement, practice, and responses to questions.

Group Energy – Raising the Vibration and Building Coherence

Groups of individuals working with healing energy raise the vibration, intensity, and coherence of the class. The effect is more real and palpable with in-person classes.

Deepening Each Student’s Unique Healing Abilities Through Experiencing and Exchange

In-person interactions and exchange are critical, especially for Level One Reiki.  The energy is subtle and can be sensed differently by practitioners and clients.

All newly Reiki-attuned students need to explore their unique relationship to Reiki, discern for themselves, and gain the confidence to work independently with the energy once they leave the class.

Since each class level introduces new skills and deepens the students’ perceptiveness, the value of in-person exchange and support continues throughout a student’s training.

For More On Reiki And Reiki Classes, See:

• Reiki certification classes
• Reiki workshops, or
• Search for Reiki in Starchaser’s Mind-Body-Spirit Blog

Updated July 15, 2024