Reiki History Overview

This page contains an excerpt from my Masters research project final paper:  A phenomenologically-inspired study: An exploration of the lived experience of seven participants who experience a session of Reiki with lavender aromatherapy.  By Terrie Look, Masters of Education Candidate (granted Dec 2014), Johnson State College, December 2014. Look for the full paper to be available online at a future date!

*

A brief historical overview of Reiki:

Reiki is a light-touch, hands-on healing technique and spiritual practice developed in the early 1920’s by a Japanese man, Mikao Usui, who was a life-long spiritual seeker born in 1865. As a child, Usui trained at Mount Karuma in a Japanese form of Qi Gong as well as other martial and meditative arts; eventually after many years of well-respected public service and extensive Asian and European travel and studies, he retired to become a Buddhist monk. After returning to meditative life, he returned for a solo 21-day fasting and meditation retreat on Mount Kurama where he had studied as a child. Near the very end of his retreat, he had an experience of enlightenment during which he came to an understanding of a system of energy healing that he developed and that became known as Reiki. (Lubec, Petter, Rand, 2006; Miles, 2008; Petter, 1999; Rand, 1998; Stein, 1995)

Unlike the forms of energy healing he had known before, this method did not require he first raise his own chi – life energy – before being able to flow supportive energy to another person (Lubec et al, 2006). Dr. Usui developed Reiki treatments and trainings, and in 1922, started a healing society – Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakki – which developed through the years into what remains today in Japan as a private society. He also opened a healing and teaching clinic, and traveled the country offering treatments and trainings, eventually opening additional clinics around Japan, eventually training 16 teachers (Lubec et al, 2006; Rand, 1998).

One of those people he trained to teaching level was a retired naval officer and medical doctor named Dr. Chujiro Hayashi. After Usui’s death in 1926, Dr. Hayashi developed his style of Reiki separately from the Gakkai. He created a system of standardized hand placements for specific ailments, and moved away somewhat from some of the spiritual practices that Dr. Usui had included with the original practice; although some of Usui’s spiritual teachings remained, such as the precepts or primary spiritual life principals (Lubec et all, 2006; Rand, 1998; Miles, 2008).

A Japanese woman named Hawayo Takata, born in Hawaiian in 1900, is credited with bringing Reiki out of Japan and making it accessible to the western world. In 1936, she traveled to Japan for family and health reasons. She recovered her health after receiving Reiki at Dr. Hayashi’s clinic and insisted that she be trained in the method. Eventually she was trained by Dr. Hayashi who gave her the initiation – or attunement – to Reiki teacher in 1938. She gave treatments and initial trainings and first-level (self-treatment) attunements to many people in Hawaii and other places, but did not initiate anyone to the higher levels until the 1970’s, during which she trained and attuned twenty-two initiates to Master/Teacher level. She charged $10,000 for Master level training, and insisted that her students charge and teach exactly as she did. After Takata died in 1980, one of the Reiki Masters she trained chose to make Reiki training more affordable so as to help as many people learn it as possible. This helped Reiki spread rapidly, and currently there are estimated millions of Reiki Master Teachers, and hundreds of variations of Reiki styles have developed around the world. (Lubec, Petter, Rand, 2006; Miles, 2008; Petter, 1999; Rand, 1998; Stein, 1995)

For many years, stories Hawayo Takata told of Reiki’s origins were confusing and eventually proved to be inaccurate – including stories of lineage-holders, history, and of Dr. Usui as a Christian Minister with American training. (Lubec, Petter, Rand, 2006; Miles, 2008; Petter, 1999; Rand, 1998; Stein, 1995) Most recently, increased communication with the Japanese Gakkai (private Japanese Reiki society) by Petter, Lubeck, and Rand has revealed more accurate information about the history of Dr. Usui and Reiki. It is generally assumed now that past inaccurate historical information was Takata’s attempt to protect both herself & the method of Reiki against anti-Japanese sentiment in Hawaii during World War II by making Reiki seem less Japanese and more Christian, therefore perhaps more acceptable to the American culture of the time. (Lubeck et all, 2006; Rand, 1998)

Top contemporary Reiki teachers in the western world include: Pamela Miles, William Lee Rand, Laurelle Shanti Gaia (co-developer of the Karuna® Reiki system with William Rand), and Diane Stein in the United States; Walter Lubeck in Germany; and Frank Arjava Petter in Japan.

(Information continues with Reiki Today)

*

See References here.