It is told that there are many forms of Reiki. Personally, I use the Traditional Usui Reiki. I know that other techniques exist, like Karuma Reiki, Tibetan Reiki, Shamballa Reiki or Lightarian Reiki, but I couldn’t tell you about it because it is not my field of expertise.
These days, Reiki has been discovered arounf 1850 by Mikao Usui. Dr Usui’s history has been published many times in many books, and each version is slighly different. Here is a summary of the occidental version published by Alliance Reiki :
Reiki’s founder was Dr Mikao Usui who, at the end of the 19th century, was the president of a little university in Kyoto, Japan. One day, a student told him : ‘’In the Bible, it was told that Jesus could heal the sick, that He could heal them by touching the wounds. He also said ‘’You will heal in My Name.’’ The student asked Dr Usui how that was possible. The next day, Dr Usui handed in his resignation in order to begin a research in United States, to discover Jesus and his disciples’s secret to heal the sick by laying of the hands. His studies in Chicago didn’t help him.
Knowing that Buddha also had the gift of healing by laying his hands, he came back to Japan to study Buddhism. He visited buddhist monasteries and studied japanese, chinese and sanskrit Sutras. Finally, after 7 years of research, Dr Usui discovered, in Buddha’s teaching, the formula, the symbols and the description about the way Buddha used to heal. However, he did not have the power to heal.
He went to meditate on a mountain for 21 days, in search of this power. On the 21st day, Mikao noticed a beam of light coming to him in the sky. He saw the symbols that he discovered doing his research pass right in front of him like bubbles of light : the keys of Jesus and Buddha’s healing method. The symbols cauterized themselves in his memory. The healing power was just given to him.
During the next 7 years, Usui worked in Japan. He noticed that it wasn’t enough to heal the physical diseases but it was also necessary to teach a new way of living. He began to teach. He taught his students to heal themselves and gave them the Reiki principles to help them heal their spirit.
Chujiro Hayashi, a retired marine officer, was initiated in 1925, at the age of 47, by Dr Usui himself, and later he was acknoledged as a Reiki Master and charged to keep untouched the essence of his teachning. Dr Hayashi founded a clinic in Tokyo where people could be treated and learn Reiki. He left archives demonstrating that with reiki you are able to find the source of somatic diseases and restore the necessary energy to make the organism complete again.
One day, in 1935, Hawayo Takata, a young lady from Hawaï was brought to this clinic after leaving an hospital where she was supposed to be treated for a brain tumour. During her experiences and her treatment in the clinic, Mrs Takata’s disease was in decline as her interest in learning Reiki was growing. Dr Hayashi agreed to train her. Mrs Tagata and her two daughters remained in Japan with Hayashi’s family for a year. Back to Hawaï, her practice flourishing. Hayashi and his daughter went to visit her and stayed to work at her side for a few months. In February 1938, Hawano Takata was initiated as a Master of the Usui practice. Hayashi and his daughter came back to Japan. Shortly before the beginning of war between USA and Japan, Mrs Tagaka understood, in a dream, that she should go to Japan nearby Dr Hayashi. He acknoledged her as his successor in Reiki, said goodbye and left his body.
It was Mrs Takata’s little daughter, Phyllis Furumoto, who assured the succession. Mrs Takata initiated Phyllis who became a Reiki Master in 1979. She understood that she had to succeed to Takata Sensei in reiki genealogy. In December 1980, Hawayo Takata left her body. Today Usui practice is widespread in the whole world.
