History of Reiki

The traditional story tells that Dr. Mikao Usui, who re-discovered Reiki in the mid 18th century, was a protestant minister and director of a Christian University in Kyoto, Japan.

Usui said that he believed in the Bible, but when his students asked him how Jesus performed his miracles when he went out to heal the sick, he wasn’t able to explain. His students wanted to believe him that it was possible to perform hands-on healing, but also wanted to see with their own eyes how it worked. Dr. Usui replied that he didn’t know the answer and retired to do further research and find an answer to the questions of his students.

According to the traditional story, Dr. Usui then went to the University of Chicago in the United States. As he could not find the answers there either, he returned to Japan to enquire of the Buddhist temples and monasteries if they practised healing. Finally he went to a Zen Monastery near Kyoto. They had a large library there and he continued his research there. After three years of studying at this monastery and not finding the answer to his questions, he started studying the Sanskrit and Buddhist texts.

After several years of meditating and translating the texts, he found some symbols and mantras in some of the texts dating partly back some 2500 years. However, he didn’t know what to do with them or how they worked.

So Dr. Usui decided to go on a twenty-one day fast and meditation on Mount Kurama, a sacred mountain in that region. He laid twenty one stones next to him and discarded every day one to keep track of the time. Nothing unsual happened until the final day of his fast when he saw a ball of light coming at him. The ball hit him on the forehead, knocking him down. He then saw bubbles of light, each with a golden light and Sanskrit symbol inside. He was given instructions on how to use these symbols, with the words "Remember, remember". He knew that it was the universal life force energy and called it Reiki.

As Dr. Usui returned eagerly and full of energy down the mountain he became aware that he had received the ability to heal. In his rush to return to Kyoto he stubbed his toe very badly, and intuitively held it in this hands. The pain and bleeding stopped and he realised that he had now the healing power.

Also, he ordered a large solid meal at the inn, and despite his long fast suffered no ill effects. Further he healed the inn keeper’s daughter who had been suffering from severe pain due to an infected tooth for several days, and when he returned to the monastery, he healed the abbot from his arthritic pain.

Inconsistencies in the traditional Story

Reiki Master William Rand has researched the Reiki story of Dr. Usui and found out that he was never actually enrolled at the University of Chicago, nor did he receive a Doctor degree from there. It is also uncertain if there was ever a Christian seminary in Kyoto.

The details about Mikao Usui that we know all come from Hawayo Takata, and it is to be believed that she altered the facts to increase interest of the western people in a Japanese man and his healing system so shortly after the Second World War.

Fact is, however, that Dr. Usui spent a lifetime searching for a way to heal with his hands and he found the references to this form of healing in Buddhist Sutras and Sanskrit texts dating back 2500 years to Tibet. Following a prolonged period of meditation and fasting he had a ‚peak’ experience which gave him the ability to heal, to understand how to use this healing ability and how to pass on this ability to others.