There are also acupuncture, acupressure, biofeedback, Alexander, Reiki, Feldenkrais and other bodywork and postural techniques.

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Separately it offers treatments such as reiki, in which a healer floats his hands over the patient's body.

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Believers in acupuncture, naturopathy, Reiki, and homeopathy will argue that they are not unethical, because the treatments work.

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Studies of energy forces in our bodies have routinely shown that Reiki adheres to no known principles of science.

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In 2009, even the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged Catholic health-care facilities and clergy not to promote or support Reiki.

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Deb Hoy a practising reiki master says that by laying hands on someone according to reiki tradition, a profound change can take place.

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Reiki, the Japanese art of laying on hands, is based on the notion that an unseen, life-giving source of energy flows through our bodies.

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According to Belinda Budge, publishing director of Thorsons, Britain's biggest self-help publisher and part of Harper Collins, sales of books about yoga and reiki, an Oriental healing system, have exploded in the past 18 months.

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