There are many versions of the history of Reiki.

We have shown below a very brief history, with the main differences on the views about Reiki between the Western approach and the original meaning.

Before the year 2000 the 'accepted' version came from Mrs Takata - the main source of information about Reiki for some 60 odd years.

She taught that Mikao Usui was a Christian and he was asked by one of his students about the healing work of Jesus. As he was unable to answer their questions, according to the honour and tradition of his profession, he began a quest to find out.

After a 10 year search he meditated on Mount Koriyama for 21 days. He had a moment of enlightenment when we was given access to the universal energy of us all. This he called Reiki.

By the time Usui died in 1930 he had trained up to eighteen Reiki Masters, but information on only one of these survive today - Chujiro Hayashi, a retired Naval Officer.

Usui taught him special, and secret symbols to use in his practice as well as set hand positions.

Amongst others Hayashi taught Hawayo Takata, who then went back to her home in Hawaii and started teaching it to the West. See assumed the title of Grand Master on the death of Hayashi in 1939 and advertised herself as 'the only Reiki Master in the world'. On her death, in 1980, the Grand Master title was passed to her Granddaughter Phyliss Furumoto.

The Main Views of Western Reiki:

1. Some form of energy exchange (in the form of money) in return for the healing is today an important part of the Reiki principle. It was Takata's view that people receiving healing for free feel they have no responsibility for their own health.

2. Reiki is learnt from a Reiki Master who does a series of 'attunements' to open the channels through which the healing energy flows. It is then simply a matter of learning the procedure and hand positions for a treatment.

3. Hand positions are set in stone and should not be deviated from otherwise Reiki will not work.

4. To practice Reiki you need magic symbols that must never be shown to anyone else. These have a power all of their own.

5. There is a Grand Master of Reiki - Phyliss Furumoto.

Our New Understanding

Chris Marsh is a Reiki Master from the North East of England who has spent long periods in Japan over the last 40 years. He is the only Western Master (Shihan) of a Japanese fighting art (Samurai swordsmanship), he is a Tendai Buddhist, and he can speak and read Japanese.

Because of his status within Japan - which has come through his involvement in a traditional martial art at the highest level, and through a family connection between his elderly martial arts teacher and people that were very close to Usui - doors opened to him in the year 200 that have remained closed to other Westerners.

He has made contact with traditional Usui Reiki practitioners who have not spoken to anyone else in the Western world. These are people who trained with Usui, made Reiki part of their lives, and passed what they had learned on to their children in an unchanged form.

From them, and especially one Buddhist nun, Suzuki San, he has given us a more 'enlightened' version of events and of the meaning of Reiki.

Mikao Usui

Mikao Usui was born on August 15, 1865 in the village of 'Taniai-mura' (now called Miyama-cho) in the Yamagata district of Gifu prefecture, Kyoto - the former capital of Japan, and he died on March 9, 1926.

He had an interesting life. He grew up in a Tendai Buddhist family and had a sister and two brothers, one of whom studied medicine. As a child he entered a Tendai Buddhist monastery near Mt. Kurama ("Horse Saddle Mountain"). He would have studied 'kiko' (the Japanese version of Chi Kung) to an advanced level - and maybe practised projection healings - and he was exposed to martial arts too. From the age of 12 he trained in a martial art called Yagyu Ryu - Samurai swordsmanship - in which he attained the level of Menkyo Kaiden in his 20s, this being the highest licence of proficiency in weaponry and grappling. He continued training in the Arts and reached high levels in several other of the most ancient Japanese methods. He was renowned for his expertise and highly respected by other well-known martial artists of his time.

The Roots of Reiki

The system was rooted in Tendai Buddhism and Shintoism. Tendai Buddhism (a form of mystical Buddhism) provided spiritual teachings, and Shintoism contributed methods of controlling and working with the energies.

Usui had a strong background in both kiko (energy cultivation) and a martial art with a strong Zen flavour (Yagyu Shinkage Ryu), and he also took Zen training, and these studies may have contributed in some way to the system that he developed. There also seems to be a strong connection between Usui's system and Shugendo (mountain asceticism). Shugendo was a blend of pre-Buddhist folk traditions of Sangaku Shinko and Shinto, Tantric Buddhism, Chinese Yin-Yang magic and Taoism.

What Did Usui Teach?

Usui did not call his system Reiki. He called it Usui Do, or Usui's Way. The system was all about taking oneself on a personal healing journey, physical, emotional and spiritual.

He taught that we are all one, and that we are all part of the universal energy. When we are born we are able to remember this, but as we grow life gets in the way, we settle into the physical world and we forget about our connection. Usui developed a way for us to 'remember' this connection and us it to our benefit.

He would get his students to meditate on sounds, called kotodama, for months on end. These sounds would help his students realise what they really were - an emotional and spiritual being as well as a physical being. They could then be able to connect with the 'source' and understand and be at one with the universe.

Against normal Japanese tradition Usui wanted his system to be freely available and didn't allow it to become the property of his family. In this end he did not appoint a successor.

The primary focus of the system was spiritual awakening and the healing affects were and are simply a consequence of this new enlightenment.

The 'complementary therapy' side of Reiki, the hands on others as it were, was called Usui Teàte, or Usui's Hand Application.

The New Views on Reiki:

1. You do not need to have a monetary form of exchange when giving or teaching Reiki. Obviously if this is the only form of income a teacher/practitioner has then they need to live but it is not a pre-requisite. When you understand that we are all one then by giving energy to someone else you are also giving it to yourself - the exchange has happened.

2. We are all able to do Reiki, because we are Reiki. But, to be effective, or to better understand what it is you are doing naturally, you do need someone who has learned it before and who has learned the simple 'empowerment' process to help you. You cannot, however, 'attune' someone to something that they are already. You can help them to empower themselves to remembering what they really are and give them techniques to increase their awareness of this.

3. Reiki is best performed using intuition and intent. Set hand positions are not necessary at all and should only be used at the beginning of someone's training - to give them a guide as to what they should be doing before their intuition is develops enough to 'free-form'.

4. The symbols are simply tools to get you somewhere. The somewhere is simply being able to recognize the different energies of the universe. You meditate on a symbol at Okuden level to help you recognize when a certain energy is flowing through you so that you can focus on it more. After Okuden level you dispense with the symbols, move onto Kotodama (sounds) and then move beyond both tools to use pure intention.

5. There should be no Grand Master of Reiki, or leader of any kind. We are all Reiki. We are all one. Remember one of the the Reiki Precepts is to be humble. A Master can teach what he/she has learned so far but it is then up to the student to follow his/her own path to enlightenment.

Reiki Lineage

Jay has two Reiki Lineages. The first is the Western lineage and the second is the Original lineage:

Western Lineage:
1. Mikao Usui
2. Chujiro Hayashi
3. Hawayo Takata
4. Phyllis LeiFurumoto
5. Florence O'Neal
6. Jerry Farley
7. June Woods
8. Simon Treselyan
9. Marcus Hayward
10. Diane Whittle
11. Taggart King
12. Celeste Hartley

Now that we have the new history of Reiki we can say that Jay's Reiki Lineage is as follows:

Original Japanese Lineage:
1. Mikao Usui, founder of Reiki
2. Suzuki San, a 107-year-old nun who trained directly with Usui
3. Chris Marsh
4. Taggart King, given the new information directly from Chris Marsh
5. Celeste Hartley, who empowered Jay

Jay's lineage is, therefore, only 5 steps away from the Reiki founder, Usui.

More Information

This was a very brief history of Reiki. We cover it in much more depth within the courses we offer. Please visit the Reiki Courses page for more information.