日本が誇るトンデモ（違）

大統領が率先したトンデモ理論を広めるほどですから、色々なエセ科学が蔓延るのは仕方がない部分があります。もちろん科学の立場からは認めるわけにはいきません。そんなNatureのエッセイ。

WORLD VIEW  27 APRIL 2020

Pseudoscience and COVID-19 — we’ve had enough already

The scientific community must take up cudgels in the battle against bunk.

ここでエセ科学の一つとして霊気がreiki — a science-free practice that involves using your hands, without even touching the patientと紹介されていました。

Here are two places to start.

First, we must stop tolerating and legitimizing health pseudoscience, especially at universities and health-care institutions. Many bogus COVID-19 therapies have been embraced by integrative health centres at leading universities and hospitals. If a respected institution, such as the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, offers reiki — a science-free practice that involves using your hands, without even touching the patient, to balance the “vital life force energy that flows through all living things” — is it any surprise that some people will think that the technique could boost their immune systems and make them less susceptible to the virus? A similar argument can be made about public-health providers in Canada and the United Kingdom: by offering homeopathy, they de facto encourage the idea that this scientifically implausible remedy can work against COVID-19. These are just a few of myriad examples.

うん何十年の英語学習の中で、初めて知りました（苦笑）しっかりとジーニアスにも、ウィズダムにも載っていますが、WikipediaのようにReiki is a pseudoscienceと書いて欲しいです。

（ウィズダム）

reiki

U〘医〙 レイキ, 霊気〘体の一部に手を当てたりかざしたりして癒やしたり安心させたりする治療法〙.

（OALD）

reiki

a method of making sick people well again based on the idea that energy can be directed into a person’s body by touch

Japanese, literally ‘universal life energy’.

(Wikipedia)

Reiki (霊気, /ˈreɪkiː/) is a form of alternative medicine called energy healing. Reiki practitioners use a technique called palm healing or hands-on healing through which a "universal energy" is said to be transferred through the palms of the practitioner to the patient in order to encourage emotional or physical healing.

Reiki is a pseudoscience,[1] and is used as an illustrative example of pseudoscience in scholarly texts and academic journal articles. It is based on qi ("chi"), which practitioners say is a universal life force, although there is no empirical evidence that such a life force exists.[2][3]

OALDの語源説明がJapanese, literally ‘universal life energy’.となっていますが、ウエブスターはしっかりと語源説明できています。

(Merriam-Webster)

Reiki

: a system of touching with the hands based on the belief that such touching by an experienced practitioner produces beneficial effects by strengthening and normalizing certain vital energy fields held to exist within the body

First Known Use of Reiki

1975, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for Reiki

Japanese, literally, spirit, from rei spirit, soul + ki vital force, mind

イギリスのNew Statesmanという雑誌ではコロナ禍で宗教リバイバルが起きているという中でReikiが紹介されていました。

27 APRIL 2020

How coronavirus is leading to a religious revival

As Covid-19 reminds us of life’s fragility, an increasing number of people are turning to faith and spirituality.

The world’s major religions are not the only ones witnessing increased engagement. Reiki, an alternative medicine involving energy healing, has become more sought after than ever since the lockdown. The UK’s largest reiki group on Facebook – home to thousands of members – has seen rising demand for online healing and reiki-teaching since lockdown began, as well as a spike in fraudsters offering scam services and “spells”, according to the group’s admin. 

Reiki practitioner Hilary Kingston says that people are looking to a “higher source” for comfort and explanation during the crisis – much in the same way as an ill person prays for their return to health. For others, reiki carries political significance. Katrina Kiritharan is an energy healer and intuitive life coach and says that it symbolises an “inclusive and [alternative] beacon of hope” for marginalised people who feel that their governments have failed to support them during the crisis.

なんと南米のボリビアまで広まっているようです。英語表現の勉強としては各記事でどのようにreikiを紹介しているか確認したいです。

Japanese healing helps to destress Bolivia’s coronavirus workers

/ The Mighty 790 KFGO | KFGO

Thomson Reuters　April 27, 2020 03:25 pm

LA PAZ (Reuters) - On Bolivia's frontline against the coronavirus, Marcia Calderon is helping medical workers unwind with energy healing technique Reiki, but without the usual laying on of hands to guard against infection.

Calderon, who began studying the practice two decades ago to work with patients, now does in-person and distance sessions for health workers at a hospital clinic in La Paz.

Reiki, which originated in Japan, is aimed at stimulating a person's natural healing abilities by channeling "life force energy" through the body. Practitioners place their hands directly on or just above a person to relieve stress and support recovery from illness.

命に関わるものでもないし、大金を積む必要がなければreikiを受けた人が気分が良くなったと言ってもらっていればまあいいかとも思ってしまいます。

In the clinic where she works, two COVID-19 patients died, leaving doctors and nurses depressed and fearful of contracting the infection themselves, she said.

Patricia Callispieris, a director at the clinic, said Reiki has helped to relieve the tensions.

"I feel better. Stronger, with greater understanding," she said. "It's as if some weight has been lifted a little and I can walk a little lighter and understand that this is something that we have to get used to."