What is Reiki?
Reiki is a holistic system for balancing, healing and harmonising all aspects of the person- the body, mind, emotions and spirit .
Reiki (pronouced ‘Ray-Key’ and meaning ‘Universal Life Force Energy’) is a natural healing system that originates from Japan and was founded by Dr Mikao Usui in the 1920‘s.
With its origins in various Eastern traditions including Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism, reiki is a form of hands on healing in which energy is drawn from the universe and transmitted through the palms of the hands to achieve a rebalancing of energy flow in the body.
Reiki (pronouced ‘Ray-Key’ and meaning ‘Universal Life Force Energy’) is a natural healing system that originates from Japan and was founded by Dr Mikao Usui in the 1920‘s.
With its origins in various Eastern traditions including Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism, reiki is a form of hands on healing in which energy is drawn from the universe and transmitted through the palms of the hands to achieve a rebalancing of energy flow in the body.
The Origins of Reiki
Dr Mikao Usui 1865 – 1926
Reiki was rediscovered in the mid 1800’s by a Japanese born Buddhist monk, Dr. Mikao Usui. He was born on 15th August 1865 and aged four was sent to a Buddhist monastery to be educated. He was a gifted student who spoke many languages and was educated in medicine, theology and philosophy and also received a doctorate in literature.
Aged 23 Usui contracted cholera and had a near death experience in which he received visions of Buddha. After this experience Usui took a keen interest in healing as taught by Buddha. Usui wanted to find a way to offer healing to all regardless of a person’s background, education, or religious beliefs.
He continued his religious study and in the late 1890s Usui discovered a box containing a 7th century text known as the Tantra of the Lightning Flash which details a healing method derived from Buddhism.
He went on a retreat to Mt. Kurama Yama to contemplate his healing and why it was that he had received the ancient text. It was during his time there that he conceived a method of using the essence of the Buddhist practices of healing for the good of everyone. Usui called this healing practise Rei Ki.
Usui first practised his newly discovered method on his family and friends. Then he began to offer this healing method to the lower-class people district of Kyoto. In 1921, Usui moved to Tokyo where he opened a Reiki clinic and began to teach his system of Reiki. In 1922, Usui founded the Reiki society, called Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, and acted as its first president.
His reputation as a healer quickly spread and he began receiving invitations from all over the country to come and teach his healing methods. He began teaching a simplified form of Reiki to selected students in order to meet increasing demand. This form is the foundation of what is now known as Western Reiki. He taught over 700 students many then started their own clinics. One of his most notable students were Chujiro Hayashi.
Usui died aged 62 on 9th March 1926. Usui’s body was cremated and his ashes were placed in a temple in Tokyo.
Dr Chujiro Hayashi
Chujiro Hayashi was a retired Naval Officer and surgeon who studied with Dr Usui from 1925 and up until Dr Usui death in March 1926. He was Methodist Christian and one of the first non-Buddhist students that Dr Usui taught.
After Dr Usui death Dr Hayashi opened a clinic in Tokyo. Building on what he had been taught by Dr Usui he developed a new style of Reiki with formal hand positions and also introduced degrees or levels of knowledge which structured how reiki was to be taught to students. He also initiated the practice of several reiki practitioners working on one client at the same time to maximise the energy flow.
Hayashi offered students instruction in reiki to Level One Degree competency in return for three months unpaid help at the clinic. He would offer committed students second level/degree in return for a further unpaid help. Selected students would then be chosen to train and practise to become Master reiki practitioners and teachers themselves.
One student with particular healing ability was Mrs.Hawayo Takata, who is widely recognised as introducing Reiki to America and the Western world in the 1970s.
Mrs. Takata also adapted the reiki that she had learnt and added her own material to the practice, so the reiki system learnt by most practitioners today is significantly different from the original roots.
Mrs Hawayo Takata
After Dr Usui death Dr Hayashi opened a clinic in Tokyo. Building on what he had been taught by Dr Usui he developed a new style of Reiki with formal hand positions and also introduced degrees or levels of knowledge which structured how reiki was to be taught to students. He also initiated the practice of several reiki practitioners working on one client at the same time to maximise the energy flow.
Hayashi offered students instruction in reiki to Level One Degree competency in return for three months unpaid help at the clinic. He would offer committed students second level/degree in return for a further unpaid help. Selected students would then be chosen to train and practise to become Master reiki practitioners and teachers themselves.
One student with particular healing ability was Mrs.Hawayo Takata, who is widely recognised as introducing Reiki to America and the Western world in the 1970s.
Mrs. Takata also adapted the reiki that she had learnt and added her own material to the practice, so the reiki system learnt by most practitioners today is significantly different from the original roots.
Mrs Hawayo Takata
Mrs Hawayo Takata was a Hawaiian woman of Japanese descent born in 1900. Following the premature death of her husband at only 34 years of age her health began to decline and by 1935, she was suffering from severe abdominal pain and lung difficulties and was diagnosed with a tumour, gallstones, and appendicitis.
She decided to travel to Japan in search of a doctor who could help her. She was reluctant to have an operation, so she inquired if there was any alternative way for her to be healed and the doctor referred her to Dr Hayashi’s clinic. She started to receive regular treatments and in only a few weeks her health had drastically improved.
She was so enthralled and captivated by reiki that she asked Dr Hayashi to teach her how to transmit reiki energies to others. He agreed to teach her Reiki I and II and she studied with him from 1936-1938. On returning to Hawaii she set up a clinic where she practised and taught reiki for over 30 years.
From the 1970's, Takata began teaching Reiki in the USA and Canada and by the time of her death on 11th December 1980, Takata had initiated 22 Reiki Masters. It is from these teachers that reiki has mainly spread throughout the west.