Reiki History

Reiki is believed to have begun in Tibet several thousand years ago. Seers in the Orient studied energies and developed a system of sounds and symbols for universal healing energies. Various healing systems, which crossed many different cultures, emerged from this single root system. Unfortunately, the original source itself was forgotten.

Dr. Mikao Usui, a Japanese Christian educator in Kyoto, Japan, rediscovered the root system in the mid-to late 1800s. He began an extensive twenty-one-year study of the healing phenomena of history's greatest spiritual leaders. He also studied ancient sutras (Buddhist teachings written in Sanskrit). He discovered ancient sounds and symbols that are linked directly to the human body and nervous system which activate the universal life energy for healing.

Usui then underwent a metaphysical experience and became empowered to use these sounds and symbols to heal. He called this form of healing Reiki and taught it throughout Japan until his death around 1893. The tradition was passed through several grandmasters of reiki such as Dr. Chujiro Hyashi, Hawayo Takata, and Phyllis Lei Furumoto. 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 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.