Seichim

Reference accounts of the founding

The most reference-like account found describes Seichim as a healing method developed in 1979 by Patrick Ziegler, inspired by old Egyptian ideas about the soul power called sekhem. The same entry says Ziegler later wrote the term as SKHM and that Diane Ruth Shewmaker expanded the system in 1997. This is a single encyclopedia-style source on life-energy beliefs, and the page gives no publication year.

No primary account by Ziegler, no scholarly history of Seichim and no independent archival record of the 1979 founding were located during research. Practitioner and training pages reviewed during research gave other dates and further founders for related systems; those pages are promotional, were not cited, and the founding date and lineage should therefore be read as attributed rather than documented.

The Reiki background it grew beside

Seichim is usually discussed alongside Reiki, a Japanese-derived practice that encyclopedia entries trace to Mikao Usui, to his student Chujiro Hayashi, and to Hawayo Takata, who brought it to Hawaii and North America from 1938. The entries disagree on details, including Usui's background, the timing of his search and Takata's dates, and they describe a Western tradition that diverged from Usui's own practice.

Those same entries record disputes among Western Reiki lineages over symbol secrecy, fees and the accuracy of Takata's account, and note that some practitioners claim additional symbols beyond Usui's originals. Seichim appeared in this climate of competing lineages and additions, though the sources reviewed do not describe how it first reached Reiki teachers.

Names and spellings

The reference entry uses Seichim as the main name and treats SKHM and SSR as cross-references to it. SKHM is described as the form Ziegler later wrote, and SSR is the label for Shewmaker's version, formed from the words Sekhem, Seichim and Reiki. Sekhem is also the common modern spelling for the system, and Seichem appears as a variant on practitioner pages that this article does not cite.

Because several spellings circulate, the same word can point to different things: the Egyptian term, the 1979 system, the later SKHM form, or a school's combined Sekhem-Seichim-Reiki course. A reader should check which lineage a teacher or text means before treating two uses of the word as the same practice.

The Egyptian word sekhem

In Egyptological usage, sekhem is an ancient Egyptian word for power. The Australian Museum states that the name of the goddess Sekhmet derives from it and that she was regarded as a healer who protected people from plague and disease, and was patron of physicians. The life-energy entry separately describes sekhem as a higher spiritual energy and the life force of humans, written with a scepter hieroglyph linked to royal power.

The sources do not show that these Egyptian meanings were carried into a surviving healing practice. The shared word links the modern system to Egyptian ideas by name and theme, and the evidence reviewed supports that link only as a naming and inspiration claim.

General character of the system

The reference entry says only that Seichim draws parallels to Reiki and is a method of healing inspired by Egyptian ideas about sekhem. Practitioners generally describe it as a form of energy work in which a practitioner is said to channel a life force, which places it among practices that rest on the idea of universal life energy rather than on a measured physiological mechanism.

The sources reviewed give no step-by-step account of a Seichim session, and this page does not supply one. Attunements or initiations, a lineage of teachers and sessions that may be given in person or at a distance are features of the wider Reiki family as encyclopedia entries describe it, and individual Seichim schools vary in what they adopt.

Combination with Reiki and related pages

Shewmaker's name, Sekhem-Seichim-Reiki, joins the three terms, and several schools teach the systems together. Machipedia covers Reiki on its own page, which should be read for the Reiki lineage; Tera-Mai Reiki, Western Reiki, Energy Healing, Pranic Healing and Therapeutic Touch are related pages for readers comparing systems built on similar energy ideas.

What practitioners say it is for

The reference sources reviewed describe Seichim as a method of healing but do not list conditions or outcomes that it is held to address. Practitioner pages commonly present Egyptian-themed energy work as supporting relaxation, wellbeing and spiritual development, but those pages are commercial and were not used as evidence on this page.

Reiki, the nearest relative, is described by NCCIH as an approach in which practitioners place their hands lightly on or just above a person to direct energy that may support the body's own healing response. NCCIH adds that it is based on an Eastern belief in such an energy, and that it has been studied for conditions including pain, anxiety and depression.

Spiritual and cultural framing

Because the system is framed through Egyptian imagery and the figure of Sekhmet, users often treat it as a spiritual practice as much as a health approach. The sources reviewed do not document adherent surveys, so claims about why people choose it, or what they report, cannot be stated here.

Searches for studies of Seichim

No independent trial, systematic review or other clinical study of Seichim or Sekhem healing was found. PubMed was searched on 2026-10-17 for seichim, seichem, sekhem combined with healing or Reiki, and SKHM; seichim and seichem returned no records, and the sekhem and SKHM hits concerned dentistry in ancient Egypt, a Hungarian paper on the Bible, and bacteria, none of them energy healing. Reiki reviews below do not test Seichim and cannot be transferred to it.

Reiki reviews as context only

A 2008 systematic review found nine randomized trials of Reiki and judged the evidence insufficient to suggest that it is an effective treatment for any condition, citing small samples and poor design and reporting. The 2015 Cochrane review of Reiki for depression and anxiety included three trials with 124 participants and concluded that it could not say whether Reiki helps, with evidence of moderate quality at best.

A 2022 review of placebo-controlled trials included 14 trials for adult mental health outcomes and reported greater effects than placebo for some clinically relevant symptoms but not clearly for normal-range anxiety and depression, with few studies per area and risk-of-bias concerns. A 2025 meta-analysis of 11 trials with 661 participants found a small quality-of-life difference (standardized mean difference 0.28, confidence interval 0.01 to 0.56) with substantial heterogeneity. NCCIH states that Reiki has not been clearly shown to be effective for any health-related purpose and that most research is of low quality.

Reported harms and what is unknown

NCCIH states that Reiki has not been shown to have any harmful effects, and the 2015 Cochrane review did not report adverse events for the anxious or depressed participants it analyzed. No safety data specific to Seichim were found, so these statements about Reiki do not establish how Seichim sessions compare. Sources reviewed describe no direct harms of hands-on or hands-off energy work, which is different from showing that none occur.

Care boundaries

Seichim is best understood as a complementary or spiritual practice. Its main risk, by analogy with other complementary approaches, is that someone might delay or replace needed medical assessment, and NCCIH encourages people to discuss decisions about treatment or care with a health care provider. Decisions about symptoms that are new, severe or persistent belong with a licensed clinician rather than with an energy practitioner.

No statutory regulation or recognized training standard for Seichim practitioners was found, and teacher qualifications come from private lineages, so claims of certification should be checked with the training school itself. This page is information only and is not a substitute for medical advice.