I discovered my own spiritual path during the latter part of the 1990s while suffering from a condition called Agoraphobia. This condition started in December 1997 after a short holiday to Paris where I was perfectly healthy and could go anywhere without thinking twice about it but during this holiday, I experienced my first ever panic attack. From that moment my whole life was turned upside down and the beginning of a long journey of self-discovery and inner healing, sled me to where I am today. Anyone who has experienced a panic attack will understand the feelings that accompany this illness. The simplest way to explain a panic attack is that you feel as though you are going to die! Your heart will flutter, you will experience pain in your chest, arms, neck and back. You will feel faint, sick and disorientated and then there is a fear that you are going to lose control of your bladder and bowels. To put it bluntly, it is the worst experience anyone can ever have. During this episode of having my first panic attack, I had to fly back to the UK from Paris. From the moment I got onto the train to travel to the airport, all through the plane journey and then driving from Heathrow to Cardiff, I experienced non-stop panic attacks until I finally got home later that evening. It was at that time that I told myself that I was never going out again which was the worst thing that I could have done because, for close to 20 years, that is what happened, I was a prisoner in my own home where I could not go out of the front door without experiencing a panic attack. I was a prisoner in my own home with no escape. I lost all of the best times in my life. I wasn't able to celebrate my 18th or 21st Birthday. I missed out on family get-togethers and friends' birthdays but the of them all is that I wasn't able to attend the funeral of my dad due to him living over 200 miles away in England. It was during the Agoraphobia journey that I found a local Hypnotherapist who was offering home-based Hypnotherapy sessions to help people with the Agoraphobia condition. Well, I had nothing to lose so I made an appointment for him to come to my home where he started the process of helping me to change my thought patterns in the hope that this would enable me to leave my house and embrace the big wide world once again. After multiple sessions and a lot of self-help, he mentioned that he was also a Reiki Master and with my permission, he would like to offer me in-person and distant healing. I was willing to try anything at this point so I booked myself in for a healing session. I have always been a very curious person and I now wanted to know more about what this Reiki was all about. I started to research and purchased many books to try and understand what the teachings of Reiki {please remember this was before the time of the internet so my partner had to go out to buy the books for me or rent them from the library. To my amazement, I read that anyone could learn how to become a Reiki healer so I asked my therapist if he could attune me to Reiki so I could continue my therapy in between our sessions. He agreed and after paying him £150 which was a lot of money back then, I received my first attunement to Usui Reiki.

 

For the first time in a long time, I felt feelings of peace and happiness that enveloped my whole body. After my 1st level attunement, I practised every day giving myself between 2- 3 healing sessions a day while also receiving healing from my Reiki Teacher and therapist. After several months of self-healing, I felt that I was now ready to proceed to Reiki level 2. This, however, was going to be expensive but I wanted to move forward because Reiki had helped me so much. The cost of Reiki 2 was £300 which was a lot of money but I was determined to progress on my newfound spiritual path so I saved and saved until I could afford it. After a few months, I had the money and I was attuned to Reiki 2nd degree. This really did feel like a step up from Reiki 1st degree. The addition of the Reiki symbols increased the flow of energy that I channelled plus it helped me to start working with the Sei Hey Ki symbol which focused the healing on the mental and emotional aspects of the Agoraphobia and panic disorders. I continued to work with the energies for over a year until I felt that it was now time to take the final step to becoming a Reiki Master myself. I had no intention of teaching others at that time but I wanted to reach this final level so once again, I asked my therapist how much the Reiki Master attunement would cost and I was shocked. He told me that it would cost me in excess of £500 to become a Reiki Master. Once again, I had to save up the money. When I had the money, I paid him and my Reiki Master attunement was given. My whole life changed after that attunement. I was still Agoraphobic and I was still experiencing panic attacks but they had become less in their intensity and I was able to finally get out in the car for short trips to places that I deemed were safe and were not too far from my house. I was practicing Reiki every day, sometimes giving myself several healing sessions each day. It was during these steps to take back control of my life that I took the decision to become a LightWorker and Reiki Practitioner/Master. I saw and experienced things that I could only have dreamt about in the past. It was a difficult journey though. Developing the spiritual aspects of one's life is not something that happens overnight and there are many trials during this process but it is through these trials and the purging of old energies and emotions that help us to move forward with life and to develop our sense of self to the highest possible level of understanding. ​

 

Over the years and while working as a healer and spiritual teacher, I started to develop my psychic abilities. Now I have always had these gifts and I have been an empath and hyper-sensitive since birth but it was through Reiki that these abilities dramatically increased in intensity. I was also blessed with the gift of connecting with my Spirit Guide {Rakesh} who I met after a lot of hard work, commitment and determination. Rakesh is now one of my closest friends and he is the one who will support me with everything that. do whether it is writing a simple email, attuning someone, sending healing or channelling an attunement. He acts as my Gatekeeper where he makes sure only the highest possible energies can enter into my life and the work that I do While some individuals will say that spirit guides will never help with channelling or the creation of attunements, I have to disagree. Our Spirit Guides are with us to help us to advance our life journey and if this means that they help us to channel something then this is what they will do. The people who do not agree with his are probably not yet aware of their own Spirit Guides so I hope that they will soon be able to remove the blindfold of this case belief in order to experience the profound blessings that come from working with one's Spirit Guide and the many beings of light who will make themselves known during the "awakening" of the spirit. ​

 

So that is my story. Well, part of it. There are many things that I have experienced as a child, teenager and young adult which have tested my faith and will to be alive but through these difficult times and the trials that I have faced, they have brought me to where I am today. I am free from Agoraphobia but I still experience the occasional panic attack or heightened anxiety but it is through the training that I have received the attunements that I work with, the daily self-healing and the guidance from Rakesh that I am where I am today. I am the founder of the Academy of LivingReiki Therapies which is a centre for spiritual learning and distant healing that is known all around the world. I thank God every day for the trials and suffering that I have experienced because it is through these times that I hope I have become a better healer and therapist because I can understand where my students and clients are coming from if they have been through the same things. 

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If you are experiencing the same conditions or just need someone to talk to, I am here to help to the best of my abilities.

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Take Care & Be Blessed 

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Namaste 

Jay Burrell

Founder of the Academy of LivingReiki Therapies

Reiki Grand Master

Spiritual Teacher & Energy Field Therapist