Reiki Plucking

The ASMR video genre

A Cornell University evidence-based living blog states that the term autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR, was coined in 2010 by a YouTube user named Jennifer Allen. The same page traces modern definitions to a 2007 forum discussion on a health-focused website, where a participant described tingling sensations since childhood and others replied with similar reports.

A 2018 PeerJ study says ASMR was unknown until the late 2000s, when forum users began asking whether others felt tingling while watching YouTube videos, and that these discussions led to the name in 2010. A 2018 fMRI paper likewise dates the term to 2010 and describes the sensation as often stimulated by gentle sounds, light touch and personal attention.

Roleplay as an ASMR format

Researchers describe roleplay as a long-standing format. Barratt and Davis reported in 2015 that many of the most-viewed ASMR videos place the viewer close to another person who cares for them, often through grooming or a simulated medical examination. A 2018 study lists simulated medical examinations, haircuts, massages and customer service roleplays among popular videos, and a 2025 survey of 16,679 ASMR viewers found roleplay to be one of four trigger categories.

What sources say about the trend's origin

No source reviewed traces when or where videos of plucking or pulling away negative energy began, who first attached the word Reiki to them, or how the trend spread. A video index page opened on October 20, 2026 lists related plucking videos whose upload ages range from about one week to about seven years. That shows videos of this type have been posted for years but does not identify a starting point.

Older energy-field practices the motions resemble

Hand-based energy-field practices from nursing predate the video genre. The Therapeutic Touch International Association says Therapeutic Touch was developed in the early 1970s by Dolores Krieger, a New York University nursing professor, and Dora Kunz, a natural healer. A systematic review describes Healing Touch as a biofield therapy that arose in nursing in the late 1980s. No source reviewed states that the videos descend from either practice. Machipedia's Therapeutic Touch, Energy Healing and Aura Reading pages cover these ideas.

Names used for the videos

The exact phrase Reiki plucking appears in the title of a video page opened for this article, together with the words negative energy clearing and hand movements. An index page titles another example as plucking and pulling negative energy and tags it with asmr plucking, asmr plucking negative energy, asmr reiki and asmr energy cleanse. Related listings use titles such as energy pulling and plucking. The sources reviewed show these terms used as titles and tags; none defines a technique.

Why creators attach the word Reiki

The sources reviewed do not say why creators add the word Reiki to these videos, and no source reviewed documents search visibility or keyword use as a reason. The index page's tags place asmr reiki beside asmr chakra, asmr aura and asmr energy healing, which indicates that the word is used as one label among several energy-themed ones. No professional body or lineage organization page opened for this article states a position on the use of the word Reiki for these videos.

Confusable terms

ASMR roleplay is the general genre in which a creator addresses the viewer in a staged scenario, and the plucking videos are described by their uploaders in those terms. Reiki is a separate practice with documented lineages, covered on Machipedia's Reiki, Western Reiki, Usui Reiki and Jikiden Reiki pages. Therapeutic Touch and Healing Touch are separate nursing-based practices. A creator's channel description on one video page lists energy-plucking alongside aura cleansing and chakra balancing as types of roleplay video.

What the videos present

An index page describes an example as a relaxing session using mindfulness, crystals, calm whispers and Reiki hand movements to pull and pluck negative energy so that the viewer can sleep and feel at ease. Related listings give lengths from about 20 minutes to over an hour and label some videos fast or aggressive and others as having no talking. These descriptions come from the uploaders. A 2019 JAMA piece on clinical roleplay in ASMR videos discusses performance and placebo in this wider genre.

How Reiki is described by lineage and health sources

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health describes Reiki as an approach in which practitioners place their hands lightly on or just above a person. Justin Stein's reference article says the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai was founded in Tokyo in April 1922 and that its chapters practiced a ritual called reiju at every meeting. The Reiki Alliance describes Usui Shiki Ryoho as a lineage from Mikao Usui through Chujiro Hayashi and Hawayo Takata, with initiation, hands-on treatment and teaching in person by a master.

None of these lineage and health sources describes plucking or pulling away negative energy. Machipedia's Reiki page covers the practice, and its Western Reiki, Usui Reiki and Jikiden Reiki pages cover lineages. The sources reviewed for this page include no lineage source that describes plucking as part of Reiki.

Related Machipedia pages

The page for one example video invokes mindfulness, and Machipedia's Mindfulness, Meditation and Sound Therapy pages describe those practices separately. Machipedia's Distance Healing page covers practices of remote energy work. No source reviewed classifies the plucking videos as Distance Healing, Energy Healing or any other named practice, and this page does not do so.

What the video descriptions say

Uploaders attach goals to these videos. The index page's description and tags refer to sleep, anxiety, depression, overthinking, stress and calming down, and it presents the hand movements as pulling and plucking negative energy. The title of one video page pairs the motions with insomnia and migraine. These are claims made by uploaders, and the sources reviewed do not test them.

What ASMR viewers report using videos for

Research on ASMR describes viewers using videos to promote relaxation and sleep. Barratt and Davis found self-reported temporary improvements in depression symptoms and chronic pain among people who engage in ASMR. Eid and colleagues note that many people regularly watch ASMR videos to relax and to ease stress and insomnia. A 2026 Polish survey of 203 people found ASMR used mainly for entertainment and relaxation.

Studies of the trend itself

No study of Reiki plucking or energy plucking as such was found. A PubMed search for reiki plucking or energy plucking returned 49 records, and the records opened concerned tea-leaf and guitar-string plucking. A PubMed search combining ASMR with Reiki, energy healing, Therapeutic Touch or roleplay returned four records; those opened studied ASMR roleplay, trigger preferences and propensity, not energy removal.

Evidence on ASMR videos

Poerio and colleagues reported in 2018 that ASMR videos increased pleasant affect only in people who experienced ASMR, and that in a laboratory study ASMR was associated with lower heart rate and higher skin conductance. Eid and colleagues found state anxiety fell after an ASMR video only in the 36 experiencers, not in 28 non-experiencers. An fMRI study of 10 experiencers found activation in reward and arousal regions. A Cornell summary of a systematic review of 54 studies reports reduced stress and anxiety, with small samples as a limit.

Expectancy and mechanisms

Cash and colleagues found that suggestion affected naive listeners but not experienced ones, and proposed that part of ASMR's effect may reflect expectation. A 2023 narrative review lists expectancy and placebo effects among unaddressed questions. A 2020 paper proposes a hypothesis involving the insula; the mechanisms remain uncertain.

Evidence on Reiki and Therapeutic Touch

NCCIH states that Reiki has not been clearly shown to be effective for any health purpose and that no scientific evidence supports the energy field. A 2015 Cochrane review of Reiki for depression and anxiety found three studies and insufficient evidence. In 1998 JAMA, 21 Therapeutic Touch practitioners identified an unseen hand in 123 of 280 trials, and a 2021 review found no high-quality evidence for claimed benefits. None of this tests plucking motions.

Concerns documented in the sources

No source reviewed reports harms from plucking videos. In the 2026 Polish survey a significant proportion of respondents reported neutral or negative reactions to ASMR, and the authors say clinical use needs research on safety. A 2020 paper contrasts ASMR with misophonia, in which everyday sounds trigger an aversive response. No source opened addresses headphone volume, and no open non-legal source was found on consumer concerns about paid energy clearing sessions.

Care boundary

A video is not treatment, and this page is not medical or mental health care. The 2026 survey authors note a lack of conclusive data supporting ASMR as a therapeutic tool. NCCIH advises discussing treatment decisions with a health care provider. Online content should not delay or replace care for persistent sleep problems, headache, anxiety or low mood.