The History of Reiki

Most books that include the history of Reiki, are not based on fact. For many years the history of Reiki was an oral tradition. William Lee Rand in his book Reiki, The Healing Touch, has researched and found the following facts about the discovery of Reiki.

Dr. Mikao Usui, is the founder of the Usui System of Reiki. He was born August 15, 1865 in the village of Yago in the Yamagata district of Gifu prefecture, Japan. It is thought that at age 4, he entered a Tendai Buddhist school on or near Mt. Kurama. He also studied a health and healing discipline, based on the development and use of life energy, called kiki, which is the Japanese version of qigong. At a young age, Usui discovered that these healing methods required the practitioner to build up and then deplete his own life energy when giving treatments. He wondered if it was possible to do healing work without depleting one's own energy. He went on to study in Japan, Europe and China and discovered Reiki through a spontaneous energy transmission during a meditation experience on Mt. Kurama.

Usui Sensei studied medicine, psychology, religion as well as fortune telling, which Asians have long considered a worthy skill. In Japan, at that time, only the wealthy could afford to send their children to school, and so it was believed that he came from a wealthy family.

After his studies in China and Europe, Mikao became the secretary to Pei Gotoushin, head of the Department of Health and Welfare, who later became the Mayor of Tokyo. The connections Usui made helped him in becoming a successful businessman. He was also a member of the Rei Jyutu Ka, a metaphysical group dedicated to developing psychic abilities.

In 1914, Usui's personal and business life was in crisis. He decided to travel to the Mt. Kurama where he enrolled in a twenty-one day training course sponsored by the Tendai Buddhist temple located there. It was during this training that Usui received the great energy transmission of Reiki, the ability to do Reiki treatments, the symbols and the ability to pass Reiki onto others. Later he added the Reiki Ideals and the idea that one needs to receive compensation for a treatment.

There are spiritual lineage's in Tibetan Buddhism involving the transmission of ability through empowerments or attunements, like Reiki. One such system is called Medicine Buddha and involves hands on healing similar to Reiki plus an energy transmission passed on to the student. It is therefore, very likely that Usui rediscovered a Tibetan healing technique that had been lost.

One of his students who became a Reiki Master/Teacher was Dr. Chujiro Hayashi. He ran a clinic where several Reiki practitioners did treatments on one patient at the same time. It was to this clinic that Hawayo Takata came for treatments from Kauai, Hawaii. She eventually also became a Reiki Master/Teacher and through her efforts spread Reiki to the western world.