Hi Rebecca, a Big hug, warm wishes and lots of love!
My mother has been a reiki master for quite some time now so I am familiar with the practice of reiki but do not practice it myself. Reiki is a wonderful art/science/technique that deals with the flow of energy (please correct me if I am wrong). I assume it is a technique to manifest this enegy.
It is not clear from your post whether you have completed your 10 day vipassana course, so I'll limit my response presuming that you have not. Vipassana is not all about meditation. Meditation (sanskrit: ekagratha) is only a part of the whole process of vipassana. It is very difficult to translate the word 'vipassana' into a single word in english. Roughly it means to observe in the right way. It is actually defined as vipassana bhavana, where bhavana means a continuous state of the human mind and body.
Vipassana is something to be cultivated within yourself. It does not matter how many courses you do, hours you meditate or years you practice the teachings! Sidhartha gautama, whom all of us call Budha was smart man! let me tell you why....
The development of the bhavana of vipassana has three parts to it (not 3 steps). They are sheela (right virtue) samadhi (right concentration) and pragya (right wisdom). When all three are developed to their limits you are enlightened(you become a budha!). Meditation is somewhat related to concentration here. Virtue and wisdom are hard to be taught/ noticed and understood so ignorant people end up believing/ thinking that vipassana is a meditation technique!
You may be wondering why sidhartha gautama was so smart then? That is because he taught his pupils a way to inculcate in them the other two qualities also, namely virtue and wisdom!
To cultivate vipassana bhavana is to observe reality as it is. Reality as you will observe is what happens without your interference. Whenever we interfere or provide a stimulus we are not actually observing reality as it is!
Sheela (virtue) is one of the qualities to be developed in order to develop vipassana bhavana. And it is common sense that you cannot be a virtuous person if you are a liar! but have you wondered why? It is like an unproven law of this world! but would you need proof to know that your mother loves you? confused?
Let me put it this way. All that you think and feel are manifested as sensations in your physical body. Some people feel hot when they nervous, some feel cold when they are afraid and some feel *** when they are *** . In the same way there are other sensations in the body which we do not know about because they are very subtle. Some of these get manifested into actions (good or bad) How about training your self to observe these sensations, to observe them as they arise and watch them slowly fade away (all that begins has to end!). Would it not be a wonderful tool to know yourself and stop the development of some of these sensations into bad actions or thoughts? Let me keep it at this.
Now i shall try to answer your question. As mentioned above I do not know much about reiki or other meditation techniques but for sure they all teach you ways to control/ manifest energy/ and other things. On the other hand vipassana bhavana can be cultivated only by not being a participent and observing as if you were looking at yourself ( your body and mind) and the universe. I think this is the reason why the people at the vipassana centre objected to reiki. Question answered?
Now on a personal note: Practicing to cultivate vipassana bhavana the correct way will tell you more about US (you me and the universe). And I hope you will find all your own answers. Do not get bogged down by some stupid person who tells you you can't do this and can't do that! You can always do what you want to do but when you realize that what you are doing is not helping you (maybe harming you) you should stop. So I would suggest that you complete the 10 day course and then decide for yourself!

Rebeca,
I've personally seen cases who practiced vipassana & reiki go psychotic. So please do not practice reiki at the course. & even after the course, I'd suggest you practice either one of them not both. You can decide which one you want to continue after the course.

Aloha Rebecca, this is an interesting topic and I am glad you have shared it. Before I share my thoughts, it is worth noting that my personal experience with Reiki is limited to a few treatments by a roomate of mine in college who was practicing for her master certification.

With that said, my own experience of Vipassana over the last almost-three years is that you really have to practice it for yourself to find out the answers to the questions you ask. Only through your own practice - your own *experience* - will you acertain the Truth of your being. Whether that is finding out if Reiki and Vipassana can co-exist, or some other uncertainty in the infinite scope, direct experience is the only knowledge one can really count on. So I encourage you not to worry so much about what anyone else says; Take the course and keep Reiki out of it for those 10 days so that your experience of the technique of Vipassana can speak for itself, and only then will you start to have a (perhaps small) hint of what you're actually dealing with.

An afterthought I have, is that perhaps what you are referring to as Reiki in its "pure" form is actually just another conceptualization of the practice of Metta- a techinique that is completely harmonious and adjacent to that of Vipassana. Find out for yourself!

I wish you all of the insight and peace of mind. :)

Two types of food or medicine, both beneficial in themselves; this does not mean they will be equally or more beneficial when mixed. Perhaps very dangerous when mixed.

so glad this is being discussed. I recently received my Reiki I attunement, and have been wondering what the response might be from the Vipassana center might be when i sign up again. I have gone through 3 full courses and one partial course. I am currently a very sporatic meditator.

certainly my experiences at courses give me my own insight of what might happen if i was practicing reiki on myself during a course. in fact it might be yet another way to escape the pain, the grief that arises that i am supposed to be observing.

by now you have probably figured all this out, and are well and on the way.
hope it all worked out. I would love to see a post about your experience.

cheers,