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An Introduction to Reiki

© Reverend Dina Ely

"Reiki" is not a vague concept, New Age mumbo-jumbo, or spiritual nonsense, as some people believe. Reiki is real, in every one of us, and all around us-all the time!

Reiki (pronounced "Ray-kee") is a healing energy commonly called the "Universal Life Energy" (which the Japanese kanji "Rei" and "ki" mean, roughly). Anyone can tap into it, and use it to benefit themselves and others. All it takes is some training, an attunement (or introduction to the energy), and some practice.

The benefits of Reiki are incredible. It's an intelligent energy; it knows where it is needed most. It heals the body, the mind, and the spirit. In one go, it can cure a person of chronic pain and accompanying depression. And it's uses are not limited to people; pets, plants, even inanimate objects all benefit from Reiki's force.

The history of Reiki is somewhat convoluted. What we know for a fact is that Reiki was discovered by a Japanese man by the name of Mikao Usui, in the early 1900s. Most people do not know that Reiki, as a practice, is so young! In fact, the widespread popularity of Reiki is only a few decades old.

Though we know Dr. Usui discovered and developed Reiki, the history of how he discovered it and how it spread to the rest of the world has become confused through the years. Like a message passed along through a game of telephone, the early Reiki masters passed the history on to their students, who in turn passed it along to theirs, and so forth. Somewhere along the line Christian notions were thrown into the mix. The original story grew into an epic tale that differed depending on the culture and beliefs of the person relating it!

Usually, you will hear the story that Dr. Usui was a teacher in a Christian school, and that in his research for his teachings, he wanted to learn more of the healing methods that Jesus used. In search of this information he traveled throughout Asia and even into America, but failing to find what he sought, he returned to Japan disillusioned. He secluded himself on Mr. Kurama for a twenty-one day long ritual of fasting and meditation. On the twenty-first day Dr. Usui was struck by a great force of energy that knocked him unconscious. Whilst unconscious, he was taught the foundations of Reiki and all of the sacred Reiki symbols. Upon awakening, Dr. Usui descended from the mountain to spread the good news of Reiki and share the healing with other people. Dr. Usui's successor in Reiki studies and promotion was a man named Chujiro Hayashi, who chose as his successor a Japanese-American woman named Hawayo Takata. She is considered the mother of modern Reiki practice, since it was through her that Reiki spread across America. Much of what we know about the Usui tradition (the most traditional form of Reiki) stems from Mrs. Takata's teachings.