Is it possible to attune yourself to reiki?

As usual, there are a lot of misconceptions and assumptions I find in the preceding posts. Let me try to clarify:

1: Reiki is a Japanese word for Universal Life energy. It is the same energy that other systems of energy cultivation and healing use. Ki is japanese for chi. It is prana. etc...
2: This energy is everywhere all the time. It is within you. It is what makes you alive.
3: So yes, technically you can attune yourself to Reiki, this is exactly what Mikao Usui did when he discovered and created the "Usui's method of Reiki healing."

However, it takes total commitment and discipline. Just like it would be next to impossible to teach yourself to play the violin like Paganini, you would do much better to have a teacher. Even Paganini had a teacher. Even Bruce Lee had teachers. He went beyond his teachers, and therefore he would be the greatest teacher to have if one wanted to learn.

A misconception above: That all the different sects of Reiki are started by people who attuned themselves. Wrong. Every person who does Reiki can trace their lineage back to Mikao Usui. Usui studied healing and energy cultivation his whole life and he wasn't satisfied with his ability. He decided to make a total commitment and fast on the mountain top until he either became a powerful healer or died. He was willing to die. That is the commitment necessary to attune yourself.

I would like to make it clear that what we call 'Reiki' today is really an abbreviation for "Usui's method of Reiki healing". Other people had their own methods. Today Usui's method is the only popular surviving method because it is the most powerful. So when we say that we do "Reiki" we are implying that we are in Usui's lineage. Therefore if you do attune yourself, please call it something else out of respect for Usui and also in order to not be misleading. Barbara Brennan has her own method that has nothing to do with Usui and she is a great healer.

Question: If Reiki energy is everywhere, why does one need to be attuned?
Being attuned means that you are in sympathetic vibration to the energy so that it flows right through you with no resistance. Think of it as Reiki is like water, if your energy is frozen, water won't flow, it will be ice. Attunement is like raising the temperature so the ice melts and the water flows through.

I noted that a lot of you are concerned with the hypocrisy and phoniness of someone calling themselves a master and charging a lot of money. Fortunately that is changing. Many Reiki Masters are giving away attunements or are charging only a reasonable fee in order to cover the expenses of renting the space for the class. People are also concerned with the term "master". That is a rank system, like the belt system of Karate. White belt, yellow belt, ..... black belt, etc...
One can have paid for and participated in the master level attunement training, but that doesn't mean that they are literally masters. Unfortunately in the West, especially in California!, the new age people have co-opted the Reiki tradition and made it about worshipping symbols and calling oneself a master when one has no practical understanding of what they are doing. The energy flow is weak, but they still think they are masters. I am concerned about this also. Usui only attuned a few masters after having spent their lives apprenticing to him.

I haven't watched the video, dangers of Reiki exposed, but I am sure it is both partially true and partially bullshit, since Reiki is a non-organized movement and there are a lot of bullshit reiki out there, but there is also a lot of genuine authentic reiki, which of course is the REAL reiki. But I will watch it now and maybe respond here if I feel I need to clarify anything.

OK that video was bullshit. Dumb christian hillbilly woman saying that Reiki is from the Devil!!! Doesn't she know that Jesus supposedly healed people where ever he went by laying his hands on them?

I used that video to highlight the misconceptions about reiki. Unfortunately it's not just the skeptics of reiki that don't understand it, most schools of reiki don't understand it.

Thanks Dannon, I especially liked the way you compared the energy to water and ice. I doubt I would be able to go up onto a mountain and make a resolution as dire as that, so I don't think attuning myself to reiki would be the best choice for me. I made this thread because I live in the middle of nowhere and I don't really have any way to find a reiki master, but that might change in the future, I'll just have to see what happens.

I feel a bit bad, because I actually abandoned this thread awhile ago, never got around to watching the video. I've also fallen off the wagon with my spiritual development stuff lately too, but that was just such a wonderfully thought out and informative post... It just didn't feel right not replying to it. Thanks everyone for the contributions.

If you want to be a healer then you are one. Just practice. Eventually a teacher will find you when you are ready. Until then keep practicing.