Saudi Arabia has banned training institutions from offering courses on Reiki therapy.

The ban covers 1,000 private training centres which will be monitored to ensure compliance, Xinhua news agency reported. The ban followed an order issued last month to stop all forms of Reiki therapy in Saudi Arabia.

Reiki is an alternative therapy that is said to reduce stress and help promote healing. It is administered by “laying on hands” and based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through people and is what causes them to be alive.

The Saudi National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine warned of the negative effects of Reiki on patients who could neglect their modern medical treatment and face serious health complications for believing that such alternative medicine could heal serious illnesses.