A few months ago a client came to me with old shoulder pain and a lot of tension. She had tried physical therapy, foam rolling, the usual gym fixes. Then a friend mentioned low-level laser therapy. Separately, I offered a Reiki session because I practice it, and because I’m tired of yoga becoming just branded poses, supplements, and “wellness” language with no spine.

I don’t think laser therapy and Reiki are doing the same job. Laser is a physical modality. I don’t have a citation in front of me, but the term I keep seeing is photobiomodulation: light interacting with tissue, inflammation, and recovery. That feels concrete. Reiki is not trying to be a laser. It’s a hands-on, attention-based practice. I believe it works through presence, intention, and the body’s own readiness to settle.

Here’s where I get philosophical. Healing is more than tissue. It is memory. The shoulder carries years of bracing, stress, poor posture, old fear. In Jung terms, I’d say the body can hold archetypal material — the Hanged Man, the Moon, the Star — as somatic patterns. Not in a mystical “proof” way, but in the sense that symbol and sensation are not unrelated. The Hanged Man teaches suspension before release. The Moon shows hidden emotional weather. The Star points toward repair after damage.

(There's a deeper dive on this in our wiki: Crystal Healing: History, Why It's Popular, and What Research Says | Mystic Wiki.)