Can You Really Learn Reiki Online? Here's What I've Found After Teaching In - Person and Online

This used to be controversial. Some teachers I respect said you couldn't transmit reiki without being in the room. Others said the whole point of reiki was that energy doesn't recognize a screen.

I've now taught hundreds of students online. I have a more nuanced answer than either side.

The short answer

Yes, you can learn reiki online. The attunement transmits. The practice transmits. Students who train online develop the same skill as students who train in person — sometimes more, because they're forced to trust their own felt sense rather than mirror the teacher in the room.

The longer answer

Online reiki training works when:

• The teacher is genuinely present, not phoning it in

• The cohort is small enough for real practice and real questions

• There's body-based practice every session, not just lecture

• There's continuity — not a single weekend, but ongoing practice and community

• There's space for the felt sense between teacher and students, not just talking heads

It struggles when:

• It's a recorded course with no live element

• The student treats it like Netflix

• There's no community to practice with after the training ends

• The teacher is doing five hundred attunements a year and can't actually attend to who's in the room

What's gained, what's lost

Gained: Access. You don't need to live near a teacher you trust. You don't need to take time off work. You can practice in your own room, on your own body, in your own life — which is where reiki was going to live anyway, no matter how you trained.

Lost: Some of the felt-presence of a room full of practitioners. Some of the spontaneous moments that happen when bodies share space.

In my experience, the gain outweighs the loss for most students, especially beginners. Live retreats are wonderful — and the school I run includes them — but they're not how most people will ever do this work day to day. The day-to-day is at home, with your own hands on your own body. That's already an online reality, even if you trained in person.

A simple practice you can try right now

Sit somewhere comfortable. Hand over your heart. Hand over your belly. Close your eyes. Breathe.

That's reiki. That's the whole practice in one paragraph. The training adds depth, lineage, attunement, and a community of people who are doing the same — but the foundation is what your hands are already doing while you read this.

If you're considering online training

Ask three questions of any program before you sign up:

1. Is the teacher actually present in the live sessions, or are most of the sessions recorded?

2. How many students are in each cohort?

3. What happens after the training — is there a community, ongoing practice, continuing education?

If any of those answers feels thin, keep looking. The training is the easy part. The decade-long practice that follows is the actual work, and it's much easier with a community.

The Reiki Mystery School is taught online with a global cohort, monthly live circles, and seasonal in-person retreats. → Learn more

If you're brand new and want a place to begin before training, the self-healing reiki tutorial is a friendly first step.

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By Bronwyn Ayla, LAc, founder of the Reiki Mystery School. Bronwyn teaches in the Usui Reiki Ryōhō lineage descending from Mikao Usui through Chujiro Hayashi and Hawayo Takata.