An Important Note to Resellers
It has been the tradition in Reiki circles that when a Reiki attunement is given to a Reiki Master, it can be passed along to other Reiki attunements by the recipient.
The positive aspects of this include the ability to share energies to many different people across the globe. It also provides a method of income for many Reiki Masters.
Unfortunately, certain practices have crept into Reiki communities that have not only served to seriously depress the prices of Reiki attunements, but are putting the livelihoods of the most productive Reiki Masters in jeopardy.
There are, you see, Reiki Masters who primarily produce attunements and manuals, and then Reiki Masters who resell the attunements and manuals of others.
The producers are now having a hard time making a living due to the resellers.
The Problem
Reiki attunements used to be sold for $80-150. I remember looking for an attunement in Blue Star Celestial Energy. The standard price for an attunement to this system was $150!! Other systems might be $200 or more!
Now, people are reselling attunements for 99 cents on eBay, or selling them as a package with psychic readings.
The price of attunements has fallen dramatically from an average of $100 to an average of $10. Many people have gone and put up attunements for free on attunement exchanges without even bothering to ask the founders if this was OK with them.
There are apparently groups of attunement-seekers, who split the cost of buying the Reiki attunement from the founder, and then go off and resell the attunements to their customers for a steep discount. Note what this means: Resellers are not actually paying the full price from the founder! If 5 people chip in to buy a $20 attunement to resell, they are essentially paying the founder $4 per person, cheating the founder out of $16 x 5 = $80.
Do these people go back to the founder and give a tithe once they've earned money off the founder's work? No.
Some of the resellers hover around the computer and order attunements the minute they are placed on the founders website. Then, having discounted the attunement, they quickly send an announcement out to their list and spread the attunement with the undercut price across the globe. The founder makes a one-time fee off the attunement while the reseller, who put no work into the attunement other than dropping the price drastically, makes more.
Is this true? Yes, it is true. I have experienced this myself and know other Reiki Masters this happens to on a regular basis. We create the attunement, spend hours and hours, if not days, writing a manual, place it up online...and...it sells ONCE. Just once. And then the buyer goes and resells it at a ridiculously cheap price, and the next thing you know, Reiki Masters in Afghanistan are reselling it. Meanwhile, the founder made maybe $20, if they were lucky.
No-one can afford to write something for days on end and only make $20! It's not sustainable!
Cheap and Free Attunements
This is not to say that cheap attunements are bad, or free attunements should not be available.
On the one hand, if people are actually buying attunements for the purposes of spiritual growth and healing others, having affordable attunements can be a blessing.
On the other, if the only market for attunements is a dog-eat-dog resale market, where others are reselling other's work at third world prices, this does not honor the energy. It is also taking advantage of the good will of the founders, who through their generosity allow people to resell their attunements without asking for any sort of payback or percentage.
There's also the question of how good can an attunement be if it is being sold for so cheap that the seller can't possibly have the time to do a personal attunement.
The Pain of the Producers
I have spoken to many Reiki Masters who produce attunements who are feeling especially crunched in this economic environment. Reiki Masters who are trying to make the world a better place are having a hard time paying for their basic essentials due to not being able to receive enough value from the systems they create.
I am not the only one who has found that the energy I put into writing my manuals is not returned to me financially. It is a problem not just for American Reiki Masters but for those abroad as well.
What makes me angry about this whole situation is that I personally have not gotten any sort of thank you, tithe or donation from many of the people who resell my attunements. There have been a notable few who have helped me out. There is one person who regularly donates to me $10 here and there. I don't know if she is a reseller or a person who simply got some value out of my work. (WHATEVER THE REASON, THANK YOU!)
But considering that I get emails from people all over the globe about how my energies have CHANGED THEIR LIVES, you'd think that I'd have more than just ONE person giving me tithes on a regular basis.
In hosting my holiday fundraiser, for example, in the course of a month I received less than $75, and some of those donations were from my personal friends, some of whom don't even know what Reiki is.
I have to say I am absolutely stunned that some people who have apparently resold my attunements time and again can't come by and even plug in a measly $1 into PayPal. People tell me my energy has changed their life and I can't even get a small donation for a holiday fundraiser to support free attunements that I give as part of my tithe to you? Unbelievable.
Don't Kill the Golden Goose
Some of you out there making money of the output of others might be doing more to not kill the goose who gives you the golden eggs.
What is happening is that the more you take advantage of the Reiki Masters who produce, the less they are going to be able to produce. You are killing off your source of income.
I am personally moving away from Reiki attunements into other areas where my work can't be resold a hundred times over and I make nothing from it. It's not that I begrudge that the energy has been shared. However, I will say quite frankly that I am angry that more people have not come back to help me out or provide a donation when one is asked. (Especially when there are bonus thank-yous such as a Reiki healing offered as a thank you for the donation!)
If you think this is a massive guilt-trip, it is. This whole system sucks. It sucks for me and it sucks for many other Reiki Masters I've spoken with, some who have told me they couldn't even afford the fees to pay for their eBay store...because other people were grabbing their attunements and selling them on pennies for the dollar before the founder even had a chance to make more than $20 off of them.
What kind of healing community is this when Reiki Masters are disrespected in such a way?
Meanwhile, I constantly get emails from people demanding free support and answers, people who bought my attunements from others, who see my donation button and ignore it.
I can only tell you personally that I simply cannot afford to put as much energy into giving away the free attunements and personal support I do give, if this sort of behavior continues. I am overwhelmed with emails that I have to go through...people asking me if they can translate a manual they didn't even buy from me, for example.
If this continues, I won't have the time to write up the manuals for any new energies I get, because I have to do other things to earn a living.
TITHING IS THE SOLUTION
To make a long story short, I believe the solution to this is to create a culture of tithing.
This is very simple. You've heard it before. DONATE MONEY TO THOSE WHO HAVE UPLIFTED YOU IN SOME WAY.
More importantly: IF YOU ARE REGULARLY MAKING MONEY OFF THE ATTUNEMENTS OF OTHERS, THEN DONATE A PERCENTAGE TO THEM.
It could be 1%, it could be 10%. If you really can't afford to donate, then find a way to give in some other manner:
1. Promote the founder's website on your website.
2. Give the founder a free energy healing.
3. Refer clients who are not appropriate to you to the founder.
4. In the least, send the founder a sincere thank you.
Bottom line, if you resellers don't start doing this, more and more producers are going to set up stricter rules for resale. At best.
I already limit the amount at which my systems can be discounted. I also give a cooling off period before they can be resold. Furthermore, I have set up a rule whereby my attunement packages can't be bought by a group for the purposes of reselling.
Some other Reiki Masters have gone even further and have decided to not allow their systems to be resold at all.
So if you want to continue to have new, fresh energies to resell, you need to stop biting the hand that feeds you. DON'T TAKE ADVANTAGE. You are going to push people out of business and then you won't have anything to resell except old material.
Tithe, tithe generously, and maybe we can all prosper.
Otherwise, the inevitable karma awaits.
Sorry for the lecture but this had to be put out there.
Namaste,
Stephanie
