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Episode #81 :Dr. Robert Dove's Transformative Reiki Journey: From Education to Usui Holy Fire III Mastery – Embracing Intuition, Spiritual Guidance, and Healing Practices

• Tracy searight • Season 2 • Episode 82

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Are you curious about the healing power of Reiki and how it can transform lives? Join us on Ready Set Reiki as we welcome Bob Dove, a passionate educational consultant and podcaster turned Usui Holy Fire III Reiki master. Discover the pivotal moment that ignited Bob's journey into Reiki, inspired by a master from his spiritual group, and how it reshaped his path. Bob shares his extensive background in education and spiritual communities, offering insights into the misconceptions and breakthroughs of embracing Reiki energy. Hear firsthand how Holy Fire Reiki has become an integral part of his practice and ongoing commitment to healing.

In this episode, we dive into what truly makes a great Reiki practitioner, emphasizing intuition and trust over rigid routines. Learn about the gradual progression in Reiki training and the powerful role of spirit guides in enhancing the healing process. Bob's personal anecdotes, including the use of pendulums to demonstrate energy flow, provide tangible proof of Reiki's effectiveness. Whether you're new to Reiki or a seasoned practitioner, Bob's experiences and aspirations to communicate messages from spirit guides during sessions promise to enrich your understanding and practice of this transformative energy work.

·      Dr Robert Dove 

·      PhD in Education (curriculum design and supervision), MA in Journalism, BA in English and History and secondary teaching certification. Recently obtained certificate as Usui Holy Fire III - Reiki Master.

·      Semi-retired educational consultant and weekly podcaster on YouTube and all major streaming platforms - Your Spiritual Journey with Bob Dove.

·       

Bob Dove has taught high school and university courses and has been an academic dean at 3 different private business schools before becoming an independent education consultant. Also do periodic grant proposal reviews for the U.S. Department of Labor. Currently keeping busy facilitating 2 online spiritual groups, participating in 2 other online spiritual groups, doing my weekly podcast, and offering Reiki to 10 clients a month while trying to finish up a book I'm working on and hoping to publish before the end of the year. 

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Ready Set Reiki is a journey
From the curious beginner to the Season Master Teacher
All Energy workers of all systems and all levels.

Speaker 2:

This is Ready Set Reiki a podcast about Reiki, the universal energy life force, From the curious beginner to the seasoned master teacher, welcoming all systems, all lineages and all levels. Reiki is a journey and not a destination, and on this Ready Set Reiki journey, we refer to ourselves as guides rather than hosts, as we two are traveling, supporting each other and learning on this Reiki journey as well, and, with that said, I am your guide, tracy C Wright. Joining me on my journey today is Bob Dove. Joining me on my journey today is Bob Dove PhD in education, curriculum design and supervision, ma in journalism, ba in English and history, and secondary teaching certification. Recently obtained certification as an Azui Holy Fire III Reiki master, yet semi-retired educational consultant, weekly podcaster on YouTube and all major streaming platforms.

Speaker 2:

Your Spiritual Journey with Bob Dove. He has taught high school and university courses and has been an academic dean at three different private business schools before becoming an independent education consultant. Also do periodic grant proposal reviews for the US Department of Labor. Currently keeping busy facilitating two online spiritual groups, participating in two other online spiritual groups and doing his weekly podcast, and offering Reiki to 10 clients a month, while trying to finish up a book that he is working on and hoping to publish before the end of the year. Welcome, bob, to Ready Set Reiki.

Speaker 3:

It's an honor to be here, Tracy. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for joining me. Clearly, you have a very busy schedule, and so thank you for making the time to take this journey with me. So we will begin. So tell me a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 3:

I'm mostly raised in Pittsburgh, pennsylvania. I was born in Jersey City, new Jersey, but not there very long. I have a wife and two children, and I guess we live in the eastern part of Pittsburgh, pennsylvania. I find that Pittsburgh is an extremely spiritual city in terms of vortex and energy that's here and the number of spiritual connections and the spiritual community here. There's a real sense of a group of light workers here who have formed a community, but there's also a Reiki community.

Speaker 3:

The positive end of COVID allowed there to be a blossoming of online spiritual groups. Many of us who had done personal spiritual groups went online and ended up with people from all over the country joining in and adding to the diversity of outlooks and perspectives that really enriched what was going on. So my wife and I had facilitated a couple KC groups known as the Search for God, if you're familiar with the Association for Research and Enlightenment and we had a group for five years and took a five-year break. I started another group that lasted another five years and it's from those communities. Then that Offshoots grew and we joined a group around A Course in Miracles. That happened actually because my wife and I went to Rwanda for seven months and we had sold our home, our cars, most of all our possessions, and spent a good bit of time in Rwanda while we were there, because there was no television, no radio to speak of and it got dark at six o'clock every night. So, because it was near the equator, your day consisted of 6 am to 6 pm. So we spent time reading the book A Course in Miracles. I had had it for two years before we even opened it, but we decided, okay, this will be a good time to really sit down and go through this book and we would read paragraphs to each other, back and forth, alternating. So that was the beginning of our experience, sort of as a joint spiritual journey through that. Then, when we got back, we joined a Course in Miracles group that met in someone's home.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to get to another question, like when did Reiki enter my life? It was out of the connection of the person who ran that group, who was also a Reiki master, and getting to know her understanding that I could actually help people heal and I thought how could I not take advantage of that opportunity to help people heal? I was just so drawn to that concept, thinking that all of us have that capability, have that possibility, us have that capability, have that possibility, and what a shame that so many of us don't take advantage of that or don't even know about it as a possibility. So that was actually in August of 2021 that she did Reiki on myself, she did Reiki on my wife and I said, boy, this is the way to go, got to do this. So, anyway, that kind of moved into my whole Reiki experience.

Speaker 2:

Wonderful. So would you say that Reiki found you or you found Reiki?

Speaker 3:

Oh, what a good question. Yeah, that was kind of a mutual situation, I guess. At the time, I guess I thought I found Reiki, but when you put it that way, we found each other.

Speaker 2:

Found each other Beautiful, beautiful. So you've been having a wonderful relationship with the Reiki Energy for a few years. Now you have your own podcast. So what is the common misperception about your work? So you're out and seeking like 10 clients a week that you're working on, or a month, I'm sorry. Well, that would be nice for a week that you're working on, or a month, I'm sorry. Well, that would be nice for a week, right?

Speaker 3:

The way that that came about actually was that I also have a Qigong teacher and she's a Reiki master. Now she was involved with Yasui Holy Fire Reiki. Now she was involved with Yasui Holy Fire Reiki. My original instructor did not know about Holy Fire when she learned it, so I had Reiki one and two from my original instructor and I mentioned to her even though I appreciated her a lot I was going to ask somebody else to do my master training because it would be Holy Fire.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

And she said oh well, I want to become certified in Holy Fire too. So the two of us took it together and that was interesting and kind of fun. So that doesn't get to your question now. I guess your question was about misconceptions.

Speaker 2:

Sure, and there can be misconceptions about Holy Fire as well. So, yeah, take it on the journey there. So yeah, take it on the journey there. You know, as you are out there exploring and you know you're connecting with so many people, in your podcast you have your clients. What is that?

Speaker 3:

misconception that you are seeing that people maybe think or believe about Reiki. That is really not rooted in truth, I guess. I guess a couple of them are connected. One is that the energy is coming from me, like they say aren't you exhausted? How can you do five people in a row in one day and not go home just totally depleted? And I say, no, the energy is not coming from me, it's coming through me and as it comes through me, it energizes me. It's a gift to me. So you may see this as I'm providing you with a gift, but I'm getting that same gift myself at the same time, and I come away from this day energized, not depleted.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, absolutely. I think that's what people believe. They think you're doing the healing and it's not coming from you. That client is pulling it out of you, so you should feel supercharged and if you're not, then you're mixing your energy up and you got to reset, regroup.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Say okay, no, no, and, as you know, people who are empaths tend to want to help. So by just being that open channel to allow it to flow and it has its own intelligence.

Speaker 3:

So that's part of it. The other piece is as a client, do I need to keep coming back to you to get more of this energy? We talked to them about not becoming dependent on the Reiki master. The idea is for you to learn how to do this for yourself so that you don't need me. I don't want you to keep coming back. I mean, certainly come back as frequently as you need to be able to grasp how to do this for yourself. But we'll go through that and try to give them clues along the way and if they want some more personal instruction, then provide them with a course, but do not become dependent on your Reiki practitioner or your Reiki master.

Speaker 2:

Right and I like how you framed it leave clues, because it allows them the opportunity to discover it and piece it together.

Speaker 3:

I'm not healing you, you're healing yourself.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, absolutely so, as that weekly podcaster on YouTube and all your major streaming platforms of your spiritual journey. What has been the biggest challenge, or rather struggle, you faced in your spiritual journey?

Speaker 3:

Well, I have to say I have this condition called essential tremors. So when I first began doing Reiki and it was hands-on Reiki, you know I got feedback, especially from my wife, saying you shouldn't do hands-on because that sort of disrupts that sense. So then I went strictly to hands-off Reiki and that didn't feel right in every situation either. So I went back to doing a combination of hands-off, hands-on, you know, depending on the client, and talking them through, and just say you might notice my hands shake a little, but that's because there's so much energy coming through those hands.

Speaker 2:

They're right, you're right.

Speaker 3:

They shake a bit and I recently had a client tell me do not get rid of your tremors. He was somebody who uses singing bowls and he said the vibration from your hands matched the vibration frequency coming out of my singing bowls and it really meant a lot to me that I could feel that same vibration, tuning in frequency wise. So that's been. My biggest challenge is how to deal with that. How to deal with that.

Speaker 2:

And also to you know that client's going to come to you for you. Whatever you know you're dealing with, it's going to be perfect and it's going to resonate. And bringing in the Holy Fire is wonderful as well, because William Rand brings in these beautiful experiences. Also, we can color it as meditations that you can guide your clients through so that that light from the highest heaven can shine on them. So it's a beautiful collaboration that you're doing to modify for that. But, yeah, keep doing what you're doing. It's all good. Well, thank you for sharing that. So what is something that you wish your younger self knew about your current profession?

Speaker 3:

I guess I wouldn't call it a profession because in some ways it's a hobby. I don't believe it or not. I don't charge for this and that would upset a lot of Reiki practitioners, probably. But what we do is actually my initial Reiki master instructor and then my Holy Fire Reiki master instructor and myself. The three of us do Reiki together on a client, so we just do half-hour sessions, but you're getting the power of three Reiki masters all at the same time.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's supercharged yeah.

Speaker 3:

And we do it at my church, so we do it for free, for a donation to the church.

Speaker 2:

That's beautiful for a donation to the church.

Speaker 3:

That's beautiful and that in turn, pays the church for the space that they're giving us. So it's as big as they normally would rent. Yes yes, so it works out for all of us.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, and there's still that energy exchange. You know of service, but you're just paying it forward, so that's beautiful. So when it's time for you to get that energetic tune up, or when you're seeking that teacher, who's just right for you, what are some qualities you look for in a Reiki practitioner or Reiki teacher?

Speaker 3:

There are a couple things, I guess, but the main thing is that they go beyond the physical. Is that they go beyond the physical. So I'm not looking for somebody who knows the hand placements and what to do and how many minutes to each of those chakras. I admit that when I first learned and when I was a Reiki 1 practitioner and I practiced for a year before I took Reiki too it was focused on the hand positions so that I spent five minutes on each position and had the client roll over and then do five minutes on each position on the back. That felt very mechanistic, I guess would be the term.

Speaker 2:

Sure.

Speaker 3:

It still worked. There's no doubt about that, that I got results. But then I got beyond that and was able to feel more about how much time to spend in each location, or you know that location didn't need it and besides that, the Reiki energy finds where it needs to go. In some ways, it doesn't matter where you're focused. The energy knows where it needs to flow. So it just takes time to learn that, to get the feel for it and to expand your horizons. I guess Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

And you know, many of us not all of us, but many of us when we arrive at level one, that ego is still there. So we need to feel we're involved in some way. Right, I have to put my hand here, I have to do this, I have to follow the rules, yeah. And so you want to make sure you're doing everything right and then as you grow, as your love for this grows and you are just letting go and just trusting the process, then you can place that aside and go more intuitive and just, you know, step back and let the Reiki do what it needs to do. So it's all a process. So I, on my day one, two, I was making sure I was, you know, I got to put the hands here. How long has it been? And it was again mechanical, as you said. But then now, as I've gone a little further down in my journey, it just flows. It just flows.

Speaker 2:

So, you're exactly where. You're exactly where you are supposed to be entrusting the process so wonderful.

Speaker 3:

That I learned that seemed to be helpful with clients, is to use a pendulum and do a before and after. So show them the spin that that pendulum has over each chakra. Has over each chakra. It gives you an idea of where the energy is flowing and where it isn't flowing and where there might be some blockages. And then afterwards show them again and you see the increase in spin. Or even sometimes, especially with the root chakra, where there's no spin at all, and suddenly there's spin and you get a sense of accomplishment. Even though you didn't do it, you facilitated it and you have a sense of okay, now you're in alignment, things are flowing and I can show you physically so that if you're not feeling it yet, you're going to feel it.

Speaker 2:

Sure, and you know, when we go in for our training, there's always, you know, showing you the Biosyn scanning, where you're taking that non-dominated hand and you're feeling the energy. But by taking it, that next step to the pendulum, the client actually sees it because they're wondering why are you moving the hand? You can feel it. But by you showing visually, here's a pendulum, look at it and they can see. To make that connection, Some people are very visual, some people need to see that too. You know, oh my goodness, that's amazing versus the beginning and the end. They need that too. You know, oh my goodness, that's amazing versus the beginning and the end. They need that baseline.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, just as an anecdotal piece of information, my son would say to me well, how do you know, the energy is increased. How do you know? And I do Qigong every morning and then I do it with a, with a live person, once a week. Uh, not that I do it with dead people the other days, uh, I just I do, I do it online to a YouTube instructor, but once a week I have a live instructor and, uh, you know, I I told him that I feel energized at the end of the Qigong experience. So what I did?

Speaker 3:

We were on vacation with my son and daughter-in-law, as well as my daughter and son-in-law, so the six of us were on vacation and I was going to do my usual Qigong routine and his wife was doing her yoga routine. And I asked his wife to measure my aura before and then after the Qigong routine, and she said oh, do that for me too. So we both measured our auras using a pendulum, then did the Qigong routine and both my aura and her aura doubled in size after 17 minutes of Qigong. So I was able to present him with proof, because he'd believe his wife. He might not believe his dad, but it was a palpable way to show the difference in that energy field.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what a wonderful way to show that some people need to see the proof. Right, right.

Speaker 3:

So not trusting the process.

Speaker 2:

So what advice would you give someone who's just entering this profession or, as you said, you know hobby?

Speaker 3:

Well, one is don't rush it. I mean, I'm glad that I spent a year at each level. I know that there are instructors out there who over a weekend, will give you Reiki 1 and Reiki 2. And maybe I'm biased because that's the way I went through it gradually, but I had enough experience by the time I hit Reiki 2 and had done enough clients that I had a good sense of you know what that next step would mean. This may sound a little different, but I would say work with your spirit guides and work with your client's spirit guides. So definitely bring them into the mix. Don't feel like you're on your own when you're doing this. It's a cooperative effort. I was lucky enough, as I was getting reiki before I even started training in it, to have two people working with me, twoiki masters, who were very much in touch with spirit guides, both theirs and mine and could bring me messages. I'm not at that level yet where I can give people messages or get messages from them, but I can.