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The Development of Usui Reiki
Dr. Mikao Usui
Dr. Mikao Usui or Usui Sensei as is called by his students in Japan is the founder of the Usui System of Reiki. He studied kiko, the Japanese version of Qigong, a health and healing discipline based on the development and use of life energy. He discovered that these healing methods required a practitioner to build up and then deplete his own life energy while giving treatment. He wondered if it were possible to heal without depleting one’s own energy. He went on to study in Japan, China and Europe; and ended up spontaneously receiving Reiki during a meditation practice on Mt. Kurama. His curriculum included medicine, psychology, and religion as well as fortune telling.
Dr. Chujiro Hayashi
Dr. Hayashi was a retired naval officer who received the Reiki Master initiation from Dr. Usui in 1925 at the age of 47. Till this period, the Usui system of healing consisted of the energy, the symbols, the attainment process and the Reiki ideals. This was what Dr. Usui had received during his mystical experience on Mt. Kurama. Dr. Hayashi went on to develop the Usui system of healing. He opened a Reiki clinic in Tokyo and kept a detailed record of the treatments given. He used this information to create the standard hand positions, the system of three degrees and their initiation procedures.
Hawayo Takata
Hawayo Takata suffered from a tumor, gallstones and appendicitis. On the operating table, just before the surgery was to begin, Hawayo heard a voice. The voice said, "The operation is not necessary. The operation is not necessary." She wondered what it meant. The voice repeated the message a three times. It was so unusual, yet so compelling that she decided to ask the doctor. She got off the operating table, wrapped a sheet around herself and asked the doctor if any other treatment which he knew could get her rid of the problem. The doctor knew of Dr. Hayashi's Reiki clinic and told Hawayo about it which she wanted to try.
At the Reiki clinic, she began receiving treatment. Using their Reiki hands, the practitioners could sense what was wrong with Mrs. Takata. Their diagnosis very closely matched the doctor's at the hospital. Two Reiki practitioners treated her each day and she got progressively better. Within four months she was completely healed. She was so impressed with the results that she eagerly intended to learn Reiki. In the Spring of 1936, she received First Degree Reiki from Dr. Hayashi. She worked with him for one year and received Second Degree Reiki.
In the Winter of 1938, Dr. Hayashi initiated Hawayo Takata as a Reiki Master. She was the thirteenth and last Reiki Master Dr. Hayashi initiated. Between 1970 and her transition on December 11, 1980, she initiated twenty-two Reiki Masters.
Since Mrs. Takata experienced transition, Reiki has spread rapidly in the West. It is now practiced throughout North and South America, Europe, New Zealand, Australia and other parts of the world. Today, there are an estimated 50,000 Reiki Masters with as many as 1,000,000 people practicing Reiki throughout the world. |
