The following is a transcript of Episode 2 from the Your Body, Mind, and Spirit podcast released on July 4, 2026. Some portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity.
Linda Harkcom
Today, our guest is Reiki master Mark Johnson. Mark received his level one and level two attunements in 2014. After which, he volunteered at a nursing home and the VA hospital. He achieved Usui master level in 2015, Shoden level in Jikiden Reiki in 2017. And became a certified Medical Reiki master in 2019. Inspired to work with cancer patients, he worked in an Oncology Department providing Reiki at a hospital from 2017 to 2023.
Hi, Mark. Welcome. I am so happy to have you here. I’m really excited because you know, you and I talked recently about some of the stuff that you have done and your experience in working in hospital settings. And I’m just, I’m really excited to get that information out to our listeners and viewers. So, can one of the first things I want to ask you, for our listeners and viewers who are not familiar with Reiki, when you encounter someone who’s never heard of it before, how do you describe Reiki to someone?
Mark Johnson
Yes, hi, Linda. ah Reiki is an energy healing technique that promotes relaxation, reduces stress, and anxiety. It’s through gentle touch, or you can hover slightly above the body with your hands. It’s a non-invasive complementary therapy. I don’t refer to it as an alternative, especially in a hospital setting; it is not an alternative to true medicines, but it’s complementary. It can help your body relax and receive the medicine. It kind of like gets your body in the right frame, so to speak, to receive the medicine to help you heal. Reiki is in over 800 hospitals throughout the country, so it’s out there. And, you know, in various forms, I just happen to be associated with the oncology unit at a hospital.
Linda
Yeah, I’m also a Reiki master, as you know, but our listeners don’t. And I like to say it helps bring our body into balance so that it can help, you know, help with our natural healing as well. So I think the natural healing and the medicine that comes together, especially if you’re working in a hospital setting where you’re treating someone who has an illness that they’re also getting medicine for Itl allows the, the the body and the medicine to work together. And, you know, my daughter, when she was little, she used to call it a God bandaid. If she got hurt, she’d say, mommy, I need a God bandaid.
But you know, it’s just a really gentle, form of healing and helping the body come into balance so it can do what it was designed to do. And I just love that about it. I really do. And, you know, like you said, it also lowers stress levels and we all know the damage that stress can do to a body, especially when someone’s ill and, you know, just the ability to give somebody the gift of feeling less stressed can really help them in their recovery and their healing.
So you started doing Reiki several years before you got into the hospital setting, correct?
Mark
Correct. Right. I did first and second Reiki. And volunteered at like a nursing home, and I was in there like twice a week. What they allowed me to do there was being a central room. They had to come to me. I wasn’t, you know, to visit them in their rooms. And I had several that came constantly every week, and they really enjoyed it. Those who are able, that was good.
Linda
That’s great.
Mark
And I volunteered once a month at a VA hospital. And they didn’t want me to be with patients. But what I did do was the staff and you know, when you have the relaxation promoting that with the staff people, they treat the patients better too. So it’s kind of like that upstream helping.
Linda
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And giving back to, you know, those that are on the front line taking care of our veterans. I mean, what a noble thing to do.
Mark
Yeah, yeah i enjoyed that. And I ended up encountering several vets and also a wounded warriors organization. So, that was pretty much my level two Reiki I was doing that.
Linda
Now, how did you end up getting, working for a hospital and doing Reiki?
Mark
Well, I heard that there was a 16-year-old girl who had brain cancer, and she was local. And they discovered, the family discovered that her best relief, pain relief, was Reiki.
Linda
Oh wow!
Mark
Yeah, that’s why I say, you know, what (I said) about the you know meds and stuff? But it was Reiki that gave her a good peace. Well, anyway, she was at Children’s in Pittsburgh. And I went there, and it was in the Ronald McDonald House there. And went in and gave her some Reiki. And it kind of inspired me to say, I want help. cancer people. And, uh, it wasn’t a week later that this opening happened at this other hospital in the oncology unit.
Linda
Divine intervention.
Mark
Yeah. So, I didn’t start it there. It was already in progress, and the other Reiki master, it was two days a week. She was doing it there, but she, uh, had cancer then. So I kind of like took over her position and helped, even she was one of mine at the cancer center. But then, it just kept getting more popular, and the two days eventually became five days a week. I discovered that some of the people who enjoyed it would enjoy it enough that they would schedule their treatments, their chemo treatments, when I was working.
Linda
Oh, that’s so great.
Mark
So that’s why it kind of expanded. So it wasn’t as, you know, not, not for my ego to get, but it was, it was the Reiki.
Linda
Right, right. It was because people were wanting to get the Reiki that you were giving because it was helping them.
Mark
Right.
Linda
That’s awesome. So, you were actually giving it to patients as they were receiving their chemotherapy, correct?
Mark
Correct. The procedure there was, I mean the oncology unit has several pods and Lazy Boy chairs and there’s you know maybe five people getting chemo at one time and it’s a brightly lit noisy environment you know not typical of a Reiki session, that in your session where it’s that the rooms are dark candle lit and but I would put headphones on them and played relaxing music and kind of like trying to get them away from what was happening with them, right.
Linda
Give them an escape.
Mark
But since I was on a you know, a hospital’s turf, I try to I didn’t want to make Reiki so out there visually, like you know, because you do arm, you sweep with your hands, and things like that.
Linda
Right.
Mark
I didn’t use symbols or any kind of thing that would make it seem odd. So I stayed on their head and shoulder areas and set the intention of where the Reiki was to go in their bodies, and I would stay opposite of where the IV racks or you know, I tried to stay out of everybody’s way. I would be giving Reiki, and the alarms would be going off because there’s like timers for the drips and stuff. And the nurse would come up and do it, do what she did, but I would continue with the session. And they lasted about 30 minutes per person.
Linda
Wow, I know that you had mentioned that, so when we talked last time, that some of the nurses would even have you, if somebody was having blood pressure raised or whatever, would even have you come over, and can you talk a little bit about that?
Mark
Right. There was a few times that happened, it would be because your blood pressure can’t be ah over a certain number to get your treatment. So they wanted it lowered in the person and help them relax a bit. I had one person she came in and was sitting in a chair, and she was done. She said, I’m not having one more needle in me. You know, she was just frustrated with the whole thing. And Reiki helped her calm down, and she was able to have her chemo treatment. You know, and it’s important to… be regular on your treatment schedules.
Linda
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Mark
So, yeah, you know, as I said, it was like it was happening like two days a week on there, and a turning point, I would say, was when there was an oncology meeting on a Saturday. They want me to give Reiki to the nursing staff and office staff, everybody that was in the oncology. And what happened the following week was nurses were pushing for Reiki it wasn’t me trying to you know walk up to everybody and say would you like some Reiki it was nurses that were now saying you should try this. And that was a huge turning point, as you can imagine. And that then helped with the five days a week working. And there was also one of our nurses that I worked with there, she had breast cancer. And she was a little on the borderline there on Reiki, so to speak, because you know how subtle it can be. But gave during her treatments and stuff, and when I gave her Reiki, she became the biggest advocate for it. She really, she said I helped her through this quite a bit.
Linda
Oh, that’s awesome.
Mark
And, you know, there’s people that has told me that Reiki helped them through some of the darkest times. So…
Linda
And that has to be so rewarding.
Mark
It is, Right.
Linda
So now you had told me that you also went and got, like a medical Reiki certification.
Mark
Right
Linda
I’d not heard of that before you and I had talked. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, why you decided to do that and what it is and how it’s different from your traditional Reiki training?
Mark
Right I was a Usui Reiki master, which I believe you are as well.
Linda
Correct, yes.
Mark
I also took Jikiden Reiki, that is a Japanese form of Reiki as well. My certificate is in Kanji, you know, in Japanese, which is kind of interesting, but anyway, I wanted to do medical reiki because I was in the hospital setting. And it was created by Raven Keys. She has written several books. She has since passed. But she had a course in Baltimore. So I went down there. And you get attuned. And what medical Reiki enables you to do is work in, and not only in cancer units, but in the OR, in pre-operation, the operating room, and then post-op. And, you’re you know, you’re trained on about the sterile fields and keeping that intact.
And I have I’ve never done that because I’ve never pursued it because I mean, it would be, of course, up to the head surgeon there, whether he allowed another person in the room, operating room, first of all. But I was busy with a cancer unit. So, I’m still open, though, to doing at least pre-op and post-op at least, to help with the healings, because there’s several studies that verify it, the positive effects of Reiki.
Linda
Yeah, let’s talk a little bit about that. What would some of the benefits be for pre-op and post-op?
Mark
Well, of course, pre-op, it would help relieve any nervousness that would occur prior to being operated on. You are the main advocate for the patient, so to speak, for them, Not that the hospital staff doesn’t have compassion. It’s just that you’re sort of another number, to speak, going into the OR. And I have read cases like the head of surgery at New York Presby had a Reiki person in there, and they noticed the calmness that came over them during surgery, and people weren’t talking about what they were going to do after work today and all that stuff. They were, and you know, how they listen to music, but they so remained focused on the patient at that time. And he thought it was great.
Linda
And that was actually having someone in the OR as they were conducting?
Mark
Right. Yeah, the Reiki master is at the head of the table. and often in the way of the anesthesiologist, because that’s where they like to park. So and it’s a position that you don’t take lightly.
Linda
Correct. Yeah.
Mark
And post-op, it helps with recovery times that have been accelerated by having Reiki done. So that’s been measured as well.
Linda Harkcom
If someone, say, was going in for surgery, do you think they could request to have, like, their own Reiki person come in for post-op, for or pre-op if they were trained like you?
Mark
Yes. Yes, absolutely. Of course, this needs to be addressed prior with the head surgeon there that’s going to do your surgery. So, they may say, yeah, post and pre-op is okay, but you know, not in the operating room, but either way, you’re still helping for sure.
Linda
Yeah. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I think that if I was going in for surgery, I’d love to have somebody giving me Reiki either pre or post, you know, I think that would be great.
Mark
Right. Yeah. Right.
Linda
So now you are no longer doing medical Reiki at a hospital, like on a regular basis. So what are you doing now? You have a private practice or…
Mark
That’s correct. Yes, I have space in my home where I do private practice, but I miss being in a hospital situation.
Linda
And you also do corporate events. And I know we’re not going to talk about what corporate events you do. But talk to me about like how Reiki has been received at these corporate events and some of the, you know, experiences people have had that you’ve had giving it at corporate events.
Mark
Right. Mostly, they are a sampling, so to speak. yeah you know. I give them a taste of what Reiki feels like. It helps them relax. I mean, if you’re doing it at a corporation, so to speak, that can help them with their focus. If they’re in an office situation, it relieves all that stress that comes naturally with a job.
Linda
But also like, I know you and I are going to work a specific event that’s coming up, and that’s more of a thank you that this particular company is giving to its employees and their families, which I think is really awesome.
Mark
Right.
Linda Harkcom
And, you know, I know you said last year, well talk about how popular it was last year because they have this particular company, they have this at a resort, and they get to do a lot of different activities. But, you know, you were pretty popular last year.
Mark
Yes. I was actually pretty overwhelmed, and there was a waiting list to have it done. And they asked, could I get another person in here and I said yes, so Linda, you’re the helper or you’re not a helper, you’re the second Reiki master in there.
Linda
I’m honored to be part of that. And I just, I think it’s really exciting that, you know, companies recognize the benefits of Reiki and how they can, you know, and think of it as a reward for their employees and their families.
Mark
Thank you.
Linda
I think that’s really awesome. And, you know, I think a lot of people don’t know what Reiki is. And then when if they hear about it, you know the only experience or anything they know about it is you know going into a place where, like you said, that you know there’s a treatment room, there’s a table, there’s you know quiet music and low lighting and And you know I think a lot of people think that’s the only way you can receive Reiki or get Reiki. And I thought it was really important to talk about the fact that you can give it anywhere and it doesn’t have, you don’t have to do the full protocol to get, you know, give someone the benefits of Reiki and the fact that you were able to do it in in a medical setting with people who really, really, truly needed it while there’s alarms going off and IVs in their arm. You know, I just, I really wanted to get that information out there because I think, you know, people, some people, if they even have heard of it, they kind of think of it as this mystical thing or they, they you know, equate it with, you know, having to get ah a massage and not being able, you know, having to lay on a table. And, and it yes, that is something that’s done, and it’s done frequently, but it can be done anywhere. It can, you know, you can get the benefits of just doing a head and shoulders as much as you can get from doing a full body protocol, I believe.
Mark
Right.
Linda
I know one time I was with a family member of a family member, and she was having incontinence issues, and she was explaining that it’s been keeping her up at night. She wasn’t able to sleep and, you know, she just wasn’t making it to the bathroom when she did wake up. And, I started giving her Reiki at the table, just standing behind her, just, you know, not even head, just shoulders. And that night she, well, they called me the next day and said that night was the first night she had been able to, you know, she didn’t completely sleep through the night, but when she did wake up, she was able to make it to the bathroom.
And so, I mean, it can help with a lot of things. It can help with, like you said, pain. It can help with, you know, just a lot of different things that you just need to bring your body into alignment for. I know you mentioned the pain. Are there any experiences that you can talk about where you know you had something like that happen, where somebody really wasn’t even expecting to get a benefit that they maybe got from it.
Mark
Yeah, yeah, there’s several, and some of it is pretty out there, I must say, but that it was their responses. At the nursing home, for instance, I used to do a woman who was paralyzed and she would, she had enough function in her hands to use a joystick, but not a whole lot much else. And there, she would get a Reiki session. And it helped her escape, where she was able to go swimming at the beach and enjoyed eating a lunch with her deceased husband at the time. And she went boating, and she would, after she would go there all the time, even in, you know, she’s paralyzed of course, but in her head, she was able to walk the boardwalk and, it just put her in a great place.
I also had a, cancer patient that was able to just leave. She said she would go to places where the flowers were dancing like a Disney movie is how she described it. Or she said she’d be flying above uh snow-capped mountains and she could reach down and grab the snow with her hands and you know just different things, she was able to go sailing, she said never went sailing before. So it was like, it wasn’t like it was bringing up an old memory or anything. They were all different things, but it, it ah it helped you relax.
Reiki helped you relax enough that it allows you …I would also say that of course, Reiki affects your parasympathetic nervous system, so you know if you have to go one to explain it like in a hospital situation, your immune system is at its highest level when you’re relaxed. So that’s where it kind of helps your own body repair.
Linda
Yeah, absolutely. Because when your immune system is unencumbered by the things that are by stress or whatever it is that’s causing it not to function properly, it really is a hindrance and, and just by eliminating the stress or whatever is, is, is causing that hindrance, you know, it can benefit a person so much.
Mark
And also, like at this event, we’re doing, where you and I are going to this corporate event, almost as a relaxation benefit for these people. But you’ll see that so many of them will tell you about their aches and pains and stuff before the session. It’s surprising how many people are living with discomfort all the time.
Linda
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think chronic pain, I read something that once said that the biggest epidemic in our country is, is chronic pain. And that’s why there are so many people that, you know, turn to drugs or alcohol or you know, pain pills or whatever to, you know, because they’re just constantly in pain. And, and I think that, I think that goes hand in hand with the high stress levels that, you know, have been talked about in this country for years and years and years. And, you know, I think that one goes hand in hand with the other, to be honest. And so the more you can do to lower your stress levels, I think, the less physical damage you do to your body.
Mark
Right. And that even goes to at the cancer center, not only did I do the patients, but I did the caregivers that brought the patient in. They’re often sitting right across from their chair. And, giving them Reiki, a caregiver goes through a lot.
Linda
Yeah, they do.
Mark
They really go through a lot. They have their own set of issues and problems. So I was permitted to give anyone there Reiki, staff, nurses, caregivers, and the patients.
Linda
And I think that’s a really important thing to bring up, the caregivers. Because, you know, I think as a society, especially women are taught that we have to power through, and you know, taking care of ourselves is selfish. And I think that, you know, it took me many years to realize that if I don’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of others because eventually I’m going to burn out or I’m going to get sick. And so i think it’s really important for care caregivers to realize that by taking some time to care for themselves, whether it’s getting Reiki or do some meditation or whatever, whatever can bring them some stress relief and some joy, even, you know, taking an arts and crafts class, doing arts and crafts or whatever, whatever their thing is, taking a walk and in nature, just anything to care for themselves will help them be a better caregiver to those that they love.
Mark
Right. What’s that saying? You can’t pour from an empty pitcher?
Linda Harkcom
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mark
And yeah, you have to be able to take care of yourself. Who knows what’s going on with their own lives if you’re taking care of someone else and trying to do your own life.
Linda Harkcom
Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. One of the things I wanted to talk to you, wanted to change gears a tiny bit, is for the Reiki practitioners out there, or there’s a lot of people that are attuned to Reiki and just have gotten it because they they don’t necessarily want to do it as a business, but they you know, just want to be able to give it to friends and family, give it to themselves. I mean, I personally give myself Reiki every night when I go to bed. It helps me sleep so much. But, you know, there are a lot of people out there that they maybe want to, you know, give to others, you know, do something like in a nursing home or a VA, like you volunteered at those places before you actually started doing this as a professional. What would you say to somebody like that? How should they approach, say a nursing home or someplace like that to volunteer to give patients Reiki.
Mark
Right, well it’s it’s generally said in the Reiki circles and Usui Reiki that you need to be at least a level two to do others. Reiki one is required or what you’d like to do for self-reiki and family, so to speak, but to go out there, you should be level two. And I agree with that. I would seek out, I mean, I’m saying this like, I had Reiki sort of naturally, so to speak. I could hold my hands close together and feel this magnetic thing happening. My hands, when they were like half an inch apart, I could feel it felt like repelling magnets, so to speak, you know, yeah, how they slip and slide. And I grew up thinking everyone had that. And I had, there was no name for it. It was just something that was part of me. And one day I was, years and years ago, I was hearing on the radio while driving about Reiki. And they were talking about your hands feeling like, if you can feel that energy between them, and I’m like, Oh, that’s it. You know, it was like, is that what that’s called? So that’s what started me, you know, with Reiki. And it was, it became a journey and a lifestyle. Actually. I do self-Reiki every morning when I meditate, it’s part of that whole routine. But you, I mean, you feel so good doing it. It’s just that natural benefit.
Linda Harkcom
Yeah, it just puts me right to sleep. I do it every night. When I lay down in bed, I put my hands on myself and I just, I just turn on and I go to sleep so quickly. And I, you know, actually, one of the reasons that I got attuned was that I had one of my best friends she had gone and gotten her level one. And she said, Can I practice on you? And I said, Sure. And I, I just was so blown away by it. And I had Yeah, I just had a baby a couple months prior, my second child. And I was incredibly stressed due to you know, being a new mom with a baby with a heart condition, and some family things that were happening at the time. And I just thought, you know, I need to learn this just for me, and to be able to, you know, do it to myself, for my children. And I, got attuned. I had been having up to that point, I’d been having trouble sleeping because of all the stress. And I will tell you, with the exception of menopause, which is a whole other reason you can’t sleep, a physical reason you can’t sleep, with the exception of menopause, I rarely had trouble sleeping after that. And if I did, if once I turned my Reiki on, i just, I I could go to sleep. You know, there were times where I forgot, Oh, wait, I need to turn my Ricky on. I need, you know, that’ll help me sleep. But that was, 2002 when I got my first attunement. And, I’m so incredibly grateful that I did because it just, it helped me so much. if nothing else, just for the sleeping. I mean, because if you don’t sleep, if you can’t get a good restful sleep, I mean, that affects your immune system, it affects your mood, it affects so many things. So yeah, and I highly recommend it to people, whether you get attuned yourself to give self-Reiki, you get Reiki from a practitioner, it’s really, really beneficial and can help you in so many ways.
Mark
Right. I wanted to point out, too, that several nurses, when they’re in training, they have they have learned something called therapeutic touch. And that’s really a form of Reiki, that energy exchange. But it’s not, you know, a full-blown course. You know It’s pretty much a mention in their studies.
Linda
Right. Well, now the Reiki energy is a little different, though, than the therapeutic touch, right? It’s the type of energy that you tap into.
Mark
Hmm. Yes, yeah.
Linda
Yeah but that’s, you know, that’s really great that they’re training the nurses to do the therapeutic touch. And, you know, what are some of the other differences, other than it being a slightly different type of energy?
Mark
Yeah, I’m not very well-versed in all the different types. I know it’s you know it’s called different things throughout the world, you know, chi and ki.
Linda
Oh, yeah. No, I meant as far as like the how therapeutic touch as far as like the like, do they have different hand placements?
Mark
Yeah.
Linda
Do they have other than the type of energy? Like, do you know anything about like what the like what they do differently than we do, for example?
Mark
I, yeah, I do not know what they do.
Linda Harkcom
Okay. But that says a lot that you know, Western medicine is now recognizing ah the benefits of Reiki and therapeutic touch. I think that’s that’s really important.
Mark
Yeah, it is. I mean, I always think of Reiki as being there first. And then Western medicine kind of booted it out because they wanted to focus on the symptoms and the drugs and all that. But it’s coming back and being accepted again.
Linda
Right. Right. Well, Mark, if someone wanted to get a session with you or even talk to you about hiring you to possibly, you know, come in to do pre-op or post-op work if they’re having surgery or, you know, anything along those lines or hire you for a corporate event, how should they get in touch with you?
Mark
Yeah, the the best way is through email and that would be reelreiki@gmail.com and real is R E E L R E I K I real reiki at gmail.com.
Linda
And do you have ah a social media page or a website or anything like that that they should be aware of?
Mark
I currently do not. I’ve been pretty low-key, actually.
Linda
Okay. Well, you offer distance Reiki services as well, correct?
Mark
I have not, no, I have not.
Linda Harkcom
You have not. Okay. Okay.
Mark
I have done it, but it’s not like I, oh, I have pushed on it, so to speak, promoted it.
See what happened was you know, I was in all these Reiki circles, so to speak, in the beginning. And then when I went into the hospital situation, that was my whole focus. And I kind of lost touch with everyone around and, promoting anything that I did myself. I was like focused.
Linda
But now, yeah, now you’re open to, to, other things, and that’s great.
Mark
That’s right.
Linda
Well, I really want to thank you for coming on my podcast. And I look forward to working with you next month. And I appreciate you very, very much. I think it’s going to be a really good time. And I’m looking forward to helping a lot of people.
Mark
Oh, very, very good.
Linda
So hopefully the information that we gave here today will also help a lot of people. So thank you so very much. And we will talk soon.
Mark
Very good. It’s been my pleasure. Stay in touch. Okay.
Linda
I will. I will. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.
Mark
Bye
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