When he was just a boy, Mikao Usui (pronounced you-soo-ee) began to wonder if a healing method like Reiki existed. Born in 1865 in Japan, Usui attended a Tendai Buddhist school near Mt. Kurama where his studies included Kiko, the Japanese version of Qigong, a health and healing discipline based on the use of life-force energy ("ki" or "chi").

Finding that this discipline required people to build up and then deplete their own life-force energy when giving treatments, Usui questioned whether it was possible to perform energy-based healing work without giving away one's own "ki."

He wouldn't learn the answer – that yes, such healing is possible – until much later in life when he miraculously received the gift of Reiki.

Details about much of Usui's life remain sketchy. In the 1990s, researchers with the International Center for Reiki Training discovered that a long-accepted oral history of Usui contained many inaccuracies.

They believe that he probably came from a wealthy family because he was able to pursue his education in Europe and China. Eventually, Usui became the secretary to the head of Japan's department of health and welfare, a position that helped him become a successful businessman through the many connections he made.

Seek and Ye Shall Find

However, by 1914, Usui's life was in disarray both personally and professionally. Long a spiritual seeker (he was a member of a metaphysical group dedicated to developing psychic abilities), Usui returned to Mt. Kurama, where he received his early Buddhist training, looking for answers.

He enrolled in a training program at the Tendai Buddhist Temple there that likely included meditation, prayer, chanting and fasting.

Legend has it that Reiki came to Usui at the very end of this 21-day program. While meditating on the mountain, he experienced intense white light shoot into his head's crown chakra, bestowing the power of Reiki.

His resultant enlightenment revealed the nature of this gift – an easily passed-on healing technique enabling people to treat others with life-force energy without diminishing their own "ki."

Ancient Origin

Many people believe that Usui rediscovered a healing method previously shared with and eventually lost by ancient cultures in Tibet, Egypt and and even legendary lands like Lemuria and Atlantis.

A technique involving the laying-on of hands, Reiki works directly on the energy field (aura) surrounding your body as well as the life-force energy (or "ki") flowing within it.

Coming from the Higher Power, Reiki exists on a different plane than electrical, chemical or other kinds of physical energy. It is spiritually guided to restore the harmonious flow of "ki," directing healing energy to wherever someone has blockages (the God consciousness called "Rei" leads the "ki" to areas of disharmony).

Dedicating himself to sharing this gift from God, Usui worked with the poor people of Kyoto for seven years. In 1922, he moved to Tokyo where he started a healing society called Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (meaning the Usui System of Reiki Healing) and opened a clinic.

His presence was of huge benefit in 1923 when the great Kanto earthquake devastated the city, killing more than 140,000 people and injuring countless others.

Increased demand for his services led him to open a bigger Tokyo clinic in 1925 and travel around the country teaching and treating people. A recipient of the Japanese government's Kun San To award for his honorable work, Usui taught more than 2,000 students and initiated 16 master teachers in his lifetime. He became known to his students as Usui Sensei.

Healing Heritage

After Usui's sudden death from a stroke in 1926, the master teachers he'd trained carried on his work in Japan. One of these, Churijo Hayashi, trained the woman who would bring Reiki to the West. Her name was Hawayo Takata, who was born in Hawaii in 1900 to Japanese immigrants.

Takata learned of Reiki at age 30, when she traveled to Japan to attend her sister's funeral. Having been diagnosed with several ailments, including a tumor, Takata decided to visit Hayashi's Reiki clinic.

After four months of treatments cured her, she decided that she wanted to learn Reiki and take it back to Hawaii to share with others.

Takata established several Reiki clinics in Hawaii and became a well-known healer, traveling to the U.S. mainland and other parts of the world to teach and give treatments.

She did not begin initiating Reiki Masters until 1970. Her price for this training, $10,000, was high because she wanted to create a feeling of respect for Reiki. By the time she died in 1980, she had initiated 22 Reiki Masters.

Exponential Growth

In subsequent years, Reiki training became far more accessible to the masses as teachers greatly reduced rates for classes. Today there are at least 200,000 Reiki Masters in the world and more than one million practitioners. These numbers grow every day, making the world a better place.

In the early 1990s, the International Center for Reiki Training developed Karuna Reiki, a powerful expression of the evolving nature of Reiki. William Rand and other gifted Masters working the center began channeling higher-frequency energies and felt spiritually guided to develop the Karuna training system to share them with the world.

The word Karuna means "compasssionate action," epitomizing the spirit of all Reiki. Because its healing energies are stronger, Karuna Reiki is considered the next step after Usui Reiki.

The Reiki Principles

Just for today
do not worry

Just for today
do not anger

Honor your parents, teachers
and elders

Earn your living honestly

Show gratitude
to every living thing

Note: Information for this brief history was culled from Reiki: The Healing Touch by William Rand, founder of the International Center for Reiki Training.

For more info, call Brad Dixon at 404-444-6924 or e-mail brad@wellspringreiki.com.