'REIKI HUGS' STUDY

The Reiki Hugs include distant Reiki healing, targeting kids with any illness. The details of the project are open to discussion with participating Reiki Practitioners and Masters, and will be defined in an agreement with the hospital, once it is reached. Participating Reiki practitioners will be asked to commit to perform one daily distant treatment of one child for six months. (No financial compensation can be offered to Reiki participants at this time, since it is not a funded project, but if you ever wondered why do kids get cancer, you might be willing to help).

If you are interested in participation, please e-mail to Anastasia Bogomolova, Ph.D., Reiki Jin Kei Do Master/Teacher, abogomol@hotmail.com, the following information:

* your full name with Reiki degree
* your mailing address (will be used to mail the picture of the child, once the projects starts)
* your telephone (will be kept for emergencies only)
* years of distant Reiki experience (since you got Reiki II)

STUDY DESIGN:

This pilot within-patient study will include 50 children and adolescents aged 0-21 years currently undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments for cancer. 50 Reiki practitioners (Level II and higher) from USA, Canada, UK and Russia will participate in the study, each practitioner giving one daily treatment to one child for a period of 6 months. The study will be "single-blind" (the children will not be aware of the treatments). The parents of the participating children will not have any contact with Reiki practitioners but will sign IRB-approved informed consent forms. The practitioners will be given the child's name, city, state, and picture. The pictures will be returned after the completion of the treatments. Although the formal study will include each patient for 6 months, it will be the patient's and the parent's option to continue treatment if the Reiki practitioner is able and willing to do so. The practitioners will not be compensated for treatments and will have no contact with the child or child's family. The effects of the Reiki treatments on the patient's physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual health will be evaluated, based on the answers of parents to a questionnaire completed before the beginning of Reiki treatments, then at 2, 4, 6, and 8 months later. All questionnaires will be dated. The parents will be instructed not to tell the child about the treatments. We expect that the proposed pilot study on distant Reiki will reveal which parameters, if any, should be monitored in a larger formal comparative future study.