You cannot give free Reiki, unless of course there is some emergency. It may end up accumulating karmic debt for both healer and the client. The circuit is only complete when you give and receive. Generally, things given for free lose its value and importance. So respect Reiki and always ask for energy exchange.
As a Reiki Master teacher, this is an important part of Reiki in terms of understanding how the Reiki energy works. But what I feel is that there is truth mixed in and a different meaning is meant from this concept and teaching. It should not be taken that literally.
It is really important for each of us to have an exchange of some kind when dealing with anything in life, similar to how we may barter with objects, instead of money, to gain what we need — that is also an ‘energy’ exchange.
If we are giving ourselves freely and receiving nothing, that will drain our energy, even when we are using the right technique which should never be to use our own energy when healing, but act as a conduit for source energy. (Which Reiki energy is, and all other forms of healing energy as there is only one source)
In terms of karmic debt, this only applies if we are interfering in a situation that we shouldn’t be, and I see this happening a lot, as people need to ask permission first unless they are at a level of spiritual development, or have a strong psychic ability, that allows them to know when it is appropriate to send energy and intention towards a situation.
I see many large global ‘meditations’ which are not helpful because of their intentions to interfere in situations that are meant to be there in the first place, for the learning of all those involved because of how duality works. So when that Reiki teaching says karmic debt is incurred, then this is a good example of how it may manifest as a result of interference.
BUT, we are in a special time period right now because of the shift in consciousness, so karmic debt is changing, and dissolving for many people, where in the past this would have been more of a problem. It is easier to detach, let go and move beyond karma now, but it depends on your actions and intentions. You can still accumulate karma, so you don’t get a free pass, but this time right now, in this life, is a very important period to focus on releasing your own karma.
If you still have karma that is strong enough, it will be connected in to your next life whether on Earth, or another location, but many souls in this period (not all) have had many lives on Earth and they are here to graduate, or get closer to graduating, this time around. Ascension is another word that people use to represent this, but I don’t feel that is appropriate to refer to when I think of ascension as something completely different and really more for spiritual masters and gurus.
As a general rule I don’t give out healing unless someone asks me or if I intuitively feel someone really needs it. I won’t interfere with their lessons of what their issue is teaching them. So this Reiki teaching shouldn’t be taken so literally, but it has a lot of truth to it.
You have to consider that if you have a person in your life who you are going to give free healing to, and/or spend a lot of time helping, they very likely have done the same for you in a past life, so you may actually be balancing out the karma and energy exchange.
It’s important to have an open mind, but all this above is also important to understand as we shouldn’t just go around forcing our healing and intentions on everyone and everything, as things are meant to occur and happen as part of how this system of life works.