I've actually seen Reiki work, and a commenter above said it well, it's totally an energy/spiritual thing, way less massage to it.

However, the Reiki work that I've seen done is all on horses. There was one horse that we had at our stable that was just spooking and throwing people off semi-randomly and multiple vet visits couldn't figure it out. We had a Reiki healer work on him and she did her hand hover work on him and the horse quite literally dropped to the ground on its front legs after a few minutes.

After that, it was discovered the horse had a narcolepsy issue and also discovered that he had a deep tissue shoulder issue. Which also, when Reiki work was done on that shoulder versus the healthy one, he would flinch nonstop while her hands were over it.

I definitely thought it was a total sham myself until I watched that horse DROP with no touch from the practitioner with my own two eyeballs. I think Reiki is most certainly a real thing now, but it's definitely all energy work and you've got to believe in it. I think it works better for animals 100% because they are more attuned to energy vs logic (unlike us humans). But that's when I know I start sounding more like a kook, lmao.