• Twentynine-year-old Sunita Sharma, lecturer of computer science in a college in Chandigarh, was going through a traumatic phase three years ago. She was mentally disturbed for two reasons : She herself was without a job and her mother was under deep depression since the death of her grandparents. Distraught, making the rounds of the Sector 32 Medical College Hospital with her mother, this daughter of an Air Force officer decided to seek the help of a reiki healer. Within 15 days, Sunita's mother came out of depression. Reiki worked like a "miracle for the family". The healer had not only helped to restore Sunita’s confidence in herself but also sent her distant healing while she appeared for job interviews. Today, this confident young woman devotes half an hour both morning and evening to her prayers and happily admits that reiki has helped her adopt a positive approach towards life.
  

• Harleen Kaur's son was born with a congenital renal problem. Tired of being in and out of hospitals, this young mother, who was then working as economic adviser in the South African High Commission in Delhi, decided to try out an alternative source of healing. She learnt pranic healing, which, she confesses, also gave her the strength to leave her plush job and concentrate fully on healing her son. Soon, the visits to the doctors stopped. Pranic healing had made both the mother and the son happier, healthier and stronger. Today, Harleen Kaur has taken up pranic healing as a vocation. She practises in Panchkula.
  

• Divya, a Class XII student, attended an Art of Living course five years ago, when she was barely 12. A difficult child, she often got into arguments with her parents, even as her grouse always remained "nobody understands me". the Art Excel course, suggested by her aunt, however, changed all that. Just in a week, Divya shed her negativism, realising that her parents had a right to guide and advise her. Since then this teenager has done an advanced Art of Living course and has also motivated her parents and brother to go the Art of Living way.
  

THE above are not isolated cases of stressed-out youth seeking succour in healing therapies. In the present times, when stress is the major debilitating force affecting our physical and mental health, a large number of youngsters are opting for alternative cures like reiki, pranic healing, tai chi, and meditation therapies to enhance the quality of their lives. With the World Health Organisation's latest report citing that over a third of the world's population suffers from some or the other psychological problem, and with India being one of the least- equipped nations to handle mental health cases, it is not surprising that curative therapies have found numerous takers in the country.

Both reiki as well as pranic healing are natural methods of wholistic healing and use the universal life force. They operate on the principles of quantum physics and ancient metaphysics, which imply that the universe is made of energy that can be changed and affected by our thoughts.

The reiki technique or the Usui System of Natural healing was started by Dr Mikao Usui of Japan, while pranic healing, an ancient science that utilises prana or vital energy for a healthier physical body, was rediscovered by Master Choa Kok Sui of the Philippines. Healing by both these therapies is not restricted to the mere removal of symptoms. The healing is total — it is the return to greater wholeness, a state of alignment with the Higher Self.

Since reiki is all about channelling energy (a practitioner places his hands on the recipient to replace negative energy with positive life force), it can be applied on anything that comprises energy, therefore, anything in existence. It can be applied to relationships and on inanimate objects as well. Yes, reiki can be used on cars too, as Sarabjeet, a boutique owner of Mohali, who had been taking this therapy to ward off work-related stress, found out when her car refused to start at a marketplace. The battery had become weak since she had forgotten to switch off the headlights while parking. Passersby pushed the car, but to no avail, a nearby mechanic even suggested changing or recharging the battery. Luckily for Sarabjeet, she came across her reiki healer who lived nearby. The reiki master just "did something with her hands" and lo behold! the engine purred with power.

A reiki healer can also heal from a distance, for energy cannot be limited by space.

Pranic healers, on the other hand, use three basic concepts to set right the imbalances in the energy field of the body. Sensitising the chakras in their palms, they first scan the energy field of the recipient to detect abnormalities caused by diseased energy. Then they remove the negative energy and direct new prana to the targeted areas, thus revitalising the entire body.

Pranic healing works best as a preventive cure, for a healer is able to detect diseased energy that first affects the luminous field or "aura" surrounding the physical body before it appears as a physical ailment in the body. Scientific proof of the existence of energy field came with experiments in Kirlian photography. Semyon Kirlian, a famous Russian scientist, used an ultra-sensitive photographic process to show a colourful energy field surrounding the physical forms of humans, animals and plants.

Besides Reiki and pranic healing, the Art of Living courses, based on the teachings of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, are also popular with the new generation, including school and college students. Breathing exercises and simple yet effective ways to meditate, based on yoga and other ancient healing techniques, are offered by these courses, which aim to "put the smile back on your face". Certain courses like Art Excel are specially designed for teens, who are taught stretching exercises, relaxation techniques and problem-solving strategies, among other things. Then there are even specialised courses for those suffering from depression and HIV positive and cancer patients.

In addition to finding peace and harmony and getting attuned to one's inner self, these therapeutic remedies are sought by young men and women for a host of other reasons as well: it could be something seemingly simple and inane like rejuvenating one's self, gaining clarity of purpose and boosting one's self-esteem or it could be something serious and grave such as tackling prolonged depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, marital problems, inability to retain jobs, etc.

Physical ailments like headaches and renal and heart diseases can also be treated, claim reiki and pranic healers. In certain cases, even cysts have been detected and treated.

Reiki Grandmaster Anju Kotwal, who has a number of students coming to her for healing, says healers like her often have to double up as counsellors. Teenagers who are unwilling to listen to their parents find in these healers a friend and guide who can understand them and show them the way to success and happiness.

Rajesh (name changed), a Class XII student who developed suicidal tendencies after failing in exams, received counselling at each reiki session by this grandmaster, who maintains that it is important for a recipient to be receptive to change.

The large number of "depression" cases lining up for these therapies could be attributed to the fact that people still shy away from visiting a psychiatrist. A majority of them cringe at the mere thought of others getting even a whiff of their ailment. A visit to any of these healers, however, finds social approval and acceptability.

Doctors too are reaching out to these alternative cures, which successfully complement the conventional system of medicine. Upon completing an Art of Living course on the Panjab University campus, a doctor from the PGI commented, "During the six-day therapy, I actually laughed after a very long time". Another participant, a gynaecologist, said it taught her what it was to be youthful.

Shalini, a doctor in the Army, found a distinct change in herself after she learnt to do reiki. She started remaining more cheerful. Shalini chose to take up this healing practice after she felt she was getting very snappy and irritable at the workplace. Now, Shalini even charges her medicines with reiki before giving them to her patients, for better results

Sonia Likhari, a Reiki Master in Mohali, say reiki is particularly beneficial to speed the healing of bone injuries and fractures. Her 27-year-old daughter Mona, who injured her spine after a fall from the second floor of a building, was healed within two months. During that period, she regularly received reiki treatment. In the normal course, such an injury takes at least six months to heal. Orthopaedic surgeons at Apollo, who were amazed at her fast recovery, recommended reiki to another patient with a similar injury.

In certain cases, patients resort to these alternative cures when allopathy fails to deliver. Twentyeight-year-old Rajan (name changed), who is doing his doctorate in Panjab University, was suffering from a psychological problem which could not be treated successfully either at the CMC, the PGI or the hospital in Sohana. Says Rajan: "I used to remain extremely tense about my research work. I would get up and go to the bus stand in the middle of the night to study. I was just wrecking myself, until I undertook a basic course in Art of Living. Sudarshan Kriya, a breathing technique that calms the mind and rejuvenates your entire system, changed my entire life. Now, I'm able to concentrate on my studies and can face life equanimously." Another student, Subhlakshana from the Department of English in PU, thanks the Art of Living techniques for taking her out of her six-month-long depression. Her parents had tried getting her treated at the PGI, even visited various pundits but met with no success. Finally, it was the Art of Living course that came to her rescue, and since then this postgraduate student and her entire family have done advanced Art of Living courses.

A major factor that lends appeal to these therapies is that they do not stress on any religion, any "ism". There is no mention of any rites, rituals, superstitious beliefs and practices which have to be blindly followed. You don't have to just meekly accept what you've heard or read, but you get to experience the mental-physical phenomenon which heals and restores equilibrium, thereby ensuring wholistic. Besides, there is nothing sectarian about these therapies. They are open to all religions, nations and cultures.

these curative measures, which can help us eliminate suffering, disharmony, negativity and anger, sure sound too good to be true. So, where is the catch if any? The lacuna here, if it could be termed thus, is that the healer is there only to offer you assistance. Your life is your own, your choices are your own. The healer can only support you, guide you , but cannot make choices on your behalf. Just as the success of reiki depends on the recipient’s willingness to dispense with his old habit patterns, and accept change, Sudarshan Kriya can fetch positive results only if the recipient makes a willing, voluntary decision to practise the technique sincerely and regularly. So, the choice is yours to make—healing or no healing therapy!