This summer I met a Reiki practitioner who tried to explain how it worked to me. Honestly I didn't get the movement of energy thing. It sounded to me like a combination of meditation, prayer healing, and...non-contact massage (??? not sure how to describe the movement of hands close to the body but not touching it).

If you are looking for more information on this and other treatments, I would recommend browsing the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Web site. It is associated with the National Institute of Health.

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/reiki/