Excuse me Mark, I happen to be a fully qualified Reiki Practitioner. I am a member of the UK Reiki Federation and belong to the Complementary Medical Association. Your comments are ignorant and offensive. In the Far East Reiki along with many other alternative therapies has been used alongside treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy to bring recovery or ease the pain of many patients. Infact when my mother was diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago, I regularly gave her Reiki to help ease the horrific discomfort she felt due to the plethera of drugs she was pumped with. Many alternative therapies are only 'alternative' in the Western world where our medicine is based on pharmaceuticals. The Chinese and Japanese versions of the NHS incorprate in all wards 'alternative medicine' and have done so for hundreds of years.