Reiki History, Dr Usui the facts...

Reiki History

Dr Usui or Usui Sensei as his students called him, was born in a village called Taniai, Nr Nagoya, Japan. It is thought that he entered a a Tendai Buddhist School nr Mt Karuma aged four.

At School Usui studied qigong and as this practice uses the persons own energy, Dr Usui wondered if it was possible to do healing work without depleting one's own energy.

Usui had an avid interest in learning and worked hard at his education.

Later Dr Usui became secretary to Mr Shinpei Goto who later became Mayor of Tokyo. This connection helped Usui to become a successful businessman, he was also dedicated to developing his psychic abilities.

In 1914 Usui's personal and business life starting failing, as a sensitive spiritualist he spent much of his time meditating at power spots on Mt Kurama, so he decided to travel to his holy mountain.

At Mt Kurama he enrolled in Isyu Guo, a 21 Day training Course sponsored by the local Tendai Buddhist Temple. It is unknown for certain what he was required to do there, but it is likely that fasting, meditation, chanting and prayers were part of the practice.

We know that there is a small waterfall on Mt Karuma where even today people go to meditate. This meditation involves standing under the waterfall and allowing the waters to strike the top of the head, a practice which is said to activate the Crown Chakra. Japanese Reiki Masters think that Usui may have used this as part of his practice, it was during this Isyu Guo training that the Reiki energy entered his crown Chakra. Usui noticed that this greatly enhanced his healing practice and that he had been given a wonderful gift – the ability to give healing to others without depleting his own energy.

For the following 7 years Dr Usui worked with the poor people of Kyoto, then in 1922 he moved to Tokyo, where he started his own healing society which he named “Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai”,which in English means “Usui Reiki Healing Society”. This Gakkai are still meeting every month, although due to past Japanese government restrictions the Gakkai is now a closed secret society, Once you achieve Master level you are not allowed to talk about their Reiki system. In effect the group only use Reiki on themselves and do not treat or train anyone else.

(Although Reiki is known in Japan it is the Western style of Reiki that has been re-introduced that is widely used.)

Usui Sensei opened his first clinic in Harajuku. Aoyama in Tokyo. There he taught classes and gave treatments. Usui Sensei only had 4 symbols a fact verified by Fumio Ogawa and some other members of the Gakkai.

Several sources indicate that Dr Usui had no formal attunement process. The student receives the ability to do Reiki simply by spending time with him. The student set his intent that he will be given Reiki and Dr Usui set his intent that the student received Reiki.

Kathryn & Andy have attended retreats, workshops, gatherings training with many inspiring Reiki Masters closely connected to Dr Usui including three of Mrs Takata's students:

Phyllis Lei Furumoto (granddaughter & lineage bearer),
Paul & Barbra Mitchell (head of Usui discipline)
William Rand (inside the inner circle of stones at Stonehenge!)
Michael Baird & Laurelle Shanti Galia. (at Sedona, Arizona, USA.)
Kathryn & Andy's original Reiki Masters are: Pam Ballard & Lorraine Rees