In Beijing, a small but loyal and devoted following for reiki has popped up, and like any other small community, everyone seems to know each other. The group meets at least once a month for reiki Share, an evening of communal reiki and refreshments. Six to 12 reiki practitioners of various levels of attainment gather together to practice reiki on one another and discuss the ways that reiki has affected their lives. The energy and atmosphere is both friendly and meditative as participants take turns healing and being healed.

Like many followers, Phillip Quercia turned to reiki during a period of life changes. His mother referred him to her friend, a reiki master, to try a new approach to healing himself.

"I had an out-of-body experience in my first reiki session," he said. "After that I said, 'how can I heal myself?'"

His mother's friend attuned him to reiki - being attuned gives one the ability to easily access reiki energy - before he decided to come to Beijing on a "healing mission". For him, reiki provides relaxation and helps alleviate the symptoms of chronic myofacial syndrome, a recurring type of muscle pain that forces him into a sedentary lifestyle he strongly dislikes.

He understands that reiki is something not everyone can or might want to wrap their heads around, but urges even cynics to at least give it a try. Reiki, he said, can do no harm as long as the intention and energy of the practitioner are properly focused and the recipient is willing.

"Laying hands on people is one of the most ancient, innate things where energy is said to pass," he said. "Even if it's just a placebo effect, isn't a placebo awesome if it's helping?"

For Andrea Costa, now a Level 2 reiki practitioner, it's been possible to heal herself and calm her young children through reiki. A friend sent her for reiki during a spell of bad health and intense stress.

"The first time hands were placed on my head, all I could see were colors and eyes - big peacock-colored eyes - looking at me," said Costa.

Her 6-year-old son, Lorenzo, may not totally understand reiki, but he asks for it when he feels he needs to be calmed. Costa also sends distance reiki to her son when she can't be with him but he needs help focusing, such as during tests at school.

Though her health problems have now faded, she's not sure it was the reiki that cured her, but she said it did help alleviate the stress.

Samella Herve, who has been practicing reiki for 10 years and is now a reiki master and teacher, stresses that reiki is not a cure, but a complimentary therapy.

After years spent working as an airline hostess, Herve often felt exhausted, experienced headaches, and had difficulty sleeping. While completing her studies in India, a professor's wife sent her to a reiki master for a 21-day cleansing process that included an hour of reiki each day. Little by little, her problems eased and she began to feel better.

In 2001, Herve received her first attunement to Level 1 reiki and has been receiving attunements from many masters ever since.

The more attunements, the better, she said, as they make the energy stronger.

"I feel so good about it. I'm not the same person I used to be," she says. "I've changed so much in the past 10 years, and it is a continual process as reiki is also a way of living."

To her, reiki works on all levels of a person: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. She says it's an effective coping mechanism for daily life as reiki stipulates that there are many lessons to learn through the journey of life, and reiki is not a cure, but a way of mitigating stress and pain.

It's a way to make situations less daunting, more manageable, she says. Instead of letting bad thoughts deplete the "lifeforce energy" and cause sickness by blocking the normal healthy flow of energy, reiki helps users focus on dispelling those bad thoughts in the first place, or replenish their energy, the same way one might plug in a dead cell phone to charge the battery.

Herve stresses that anyone can receive reiki - even plants, animals and babies in utero. And anyone can practice reiki as long as they set aside some time to practice reiki on themselves and receive attunements.

"It helps your self-confidence, self-esteem, relationships, beliefs, attitudes - everything," Herve said.