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Dr. Subhas Gokhale not only cures patients with Reiki, but spends time convincing a sceptical medical community about its benefits. Here he talks to Mahesh Ramchandani about this form of alternative healing that could be combined with western medicine for best results Photographs: Meenal Agarwal Will Reiki be ever accepted ? Opthamologist Dr Gokhale t was fear that led Dr. Subhash Gokhale to take a serious look at spirftualism and alternative forms of healing. ‘I was watching this man who was partiafly paralysed, who had to have others help him wear his clothes”, Dr. Gokhale recalls, “and I didn’t want to end up Uke him. I didn’t want to be an invalid.” He started taking a close look at medftation techniques ctrirfiu frnm the health angle. Dr. Gokhale has come a long way snce. Calm and energetic, the year-o’d doctor radiates a sense of well-being and serenity, not found commonly in others his age. An eye surgeon, he has been practking since ‘68, and in the past has been assistant professor at Nair Hospital, associate professor at Sion Hospital. and head of the department at the Rajiv Gandhi Medical Co’lege. Now, he devotes only one day a week to his hospital in Prabhadevi, Mumbai, and spends most of his time studying, teaching Reiki to others and finding ways to document its effects for the benefit of disbelieving members of the medical community. Earlier Dr. Gokhale set himself to study alternative healing systems and meditation techniques on his own. Initially, what must have been a peptic uLcer, he presumes, drove him to study naturopathy. “1 changed my

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