Usui Reiki is a spiritual discipline developed around 100 years ago by Mikao Usui, a Shinto lay preacher in Kyoto, Japan. There is currently some speculation that this is a very ancient system which was lost and was subsequently re-discovered by Usui but this seems to be unlikely in the light of recent research into the subject. There are three main characters in the history of Usui Reiki, each of whom have created their own branch of the discipline. All three branches use the name Usui Reiki which can cause some confusion. Alongside are the stories of the three main Reiki Masters.
MIKAO USUI
Mikao Usui was born on August 15th,1865 in the village of Yago in Yamagata district of Gifu prefecture, Japan, and he died on March 9th, 1926. He grew up at a
time when Japanese society and culture was going through a period of rapid change. It was not until the 1850s that Japan opened itself up to the Western world. Fro two centuries starting in 1641, all Europeans except the Dutch had been expelled from Japan. Those Chinese and Dutch that remained were confined in special trading centres in Nagasaki, and no Japanese were allowed to leave the country. Christianity was declared illegal and all Japanese were forced to register at Buddhist temples. Those Japanese who refused to renounce Christianity were executed, and so were a few Christian missionaries who refused to leave the country.
It was the United States that finally forced Japan to open its borders and open its economy, to the outside world, and this event led to a great flood of new ideas and esoteric systems coming into Japan from all over the world. Not only that, but Japan underwent a period of rapid industrialisation, transforming itself from a feudal society into and industrialised nation - able to compete with the West on an equal footing - within a period of 30 - 40 years. Such a period of rapid change created a real climate of ' wanting to keep hold of traditional culture'. Japan was looking for a spiritual direction and people wanted to rekindle and maintain ancient traditions, while embracing the new. This is what Usui did when he developed Reiki. In the time when Usui was growing up, Japan was a melting pot of new ideas, with many new spiritual systems and healing techniques being developed. Reiki was on of these systems.
Mikao Usui had an interesting life. As a child, he seems to have entered a Tendai Buddhist monastery near Mr 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. He trained in a martial art called Yagyu Ryu, in which he attained the level of Menkyo Kaiden, which is the highest license of proficiency in weaponry and grappling.
In 1868 (when Usui was 3) there was restoration of rule by Emperor, Mutsuhito who reigned until 1912 and selected a new reign title - Meiji, which means enlightened rule - to mark a new beginning in Japanese history. It is known that Usui travelled to China, America and Europe several times to learn and study Western ways, and this practice was encouraged in the Meiji era. Usui followed a number of professions: public servant, office worker, industrialist, reporter, politician's secretary, missionary and supervisor of convicts. Usui was private secretary to Shimpei Goto, who was Secretary of the Railroad, Postmaster General, and Secretary of the Interior and State. The phrase 'politician's secretary" can be taken as a euphemism for 'bodyguard'. It is during his time in diplomatic service that he may have had the opportunity to travel to other countries.
Usui Sensei was interested in a great many things and seems to have studied voraciously. There was a large University library in Kyoto. and Japanese sources believe that he would have done most of his research there. Where sacred texts from all over the world would have been held. He studied traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, numerology and astrology, and psychic and clairvoyant development. During his life, Usui associated many men and women of very high spiritual values. Some were famous people in Japan, for example Morihei Ueshiba ( founder of Aikido). Onasiburo Deguchi ( founder of Omoto religion) and Toshihiro Eguchi ( founded his own religion and was a good friend of Usui). Many different spiritualist/healing groups were in existence at the time, and one of these - attended by Usui - was Rei Jyutsu Kai'. Today this organisation consists of the most spiritual monks and nuns in Japan, psychics and clairvoyants. Usui also took Zen Buddhist training in 1922 for about three years.
But what prompted Usui to pursue all these studies? Well, according to Hiroshi Dot, a member of Usui's Reiki Association in Japan, Mikao Usui was wondering what the ultimate purpose of life was, and set out to try to understand this. After some time he finally experienced an enlightment: the ultimate life purpose was "Anshin Rytsu Met' - the state of your mind being totally in peace, knowing what to do with your life, being bothered by nothing. Dot says that with this revelation, Usui researched harder, for 3 years, trying to achieve this goal. Finally, he turned to a Zen master for advice on how to attain this life purpose. The master replied "If you want to know: die!" Usui - sensei lost hope at this and thought, "My life is over". He then went to Mt Kurama and decided to fast until he died.
So it seems that Usui was looking for a way of knowing one's life purpose and to be content, and despite all his exhaustive research, he could not find a way t oachieve this state. The monk's advice prompted him to go to Mount Kurama and to carry out a 21 - day meditation and fast called The Lotus Repentance', which comes from Tendai Buddhism. Usui carried out the meditation and, according to his memorialstone, he experienced an enlightenment or 'satori' that led to the development of 'Reiki'. He performed the meditation five times during his lifetime. Interestingly, one definition of the work 'Reiki' is "a system that has come into being through a moment of enlightenment". Originally, Usui referred to his system as "teate" (pronounced 'tee-ah-tay"), which means 'hand application'. The name 'Reiki' came later. According to the Japanese author Michio Kushi, te - ate is a traditional Japanese form of healing that has been practised for centuries. He mentions that George Ohsawa, the founder of modern macrobiotics, taught this palm healing throughout Japan, the US and Europe. Kushi referred to Reiki as one of the modern forms of this art to emerge in Japan, and also mentions Johrei (Purification of Spirit) and Mahikari (True Light) as more recent developments.
Reiki is a technique or 'method that is based firmly on the esoteric principles that were represented in Japan in the early part of the last century: the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, energy transfer techniques like Chi Kung (in its Japanese form of kiko), Tendai Buddhism in terms of energy exercises, empowerments and spiritual teachings, and Shintoism in terms of techniques used to control the energies. The symbols that came to be used later in Reiki's history also have their roots in Tendai Buddhism and Shintoism. Usui brought together all these various strands in a unique way, in a way that allows anyone to be connected permanently to a source of healing energy, whereupon they can channel this energy without having to dedicate themselves to many years of practice, and they can learn to bestow this ability on other people through a very simple system.
Although Reiki is generally promoted within the West as a healing system, it seems that the original impetus for the development of Reiki was the personal benefits that would be experienced through the system: to know one's true purpose in life and be content, to heal oneself and find one's spiritual path, and ultimately achieve satori.
Mount Kurama, where Usui experienced his satori, is a holy mountain. It is near Kyoto, the former capital of Japan, a place, which we heard, described on a recent television travel programme as being 'the spiritual heart of Japan' - a place with a thousand temples representing a whole range of deities. Mount Kurama is also important from a martial arts perspective, being the place where mountain spirits are said to have given the secrets of fighting to the Samurai.
According to Usui's Memorial stone, Usui was a very well known and popular healer, and he taught a large number of students all over Japan. Usui taught nearly 2000 people, all of whom started out being treated by him. Usui would give them empowerments so that they were connected to Reiki permanently, so they could treat themselves in - between appointments with him, and if they wanted to take things further then they could begin an open - ended programme of training in the Reiki technique, so Usui's way of doing things was quite loose and informal. Of the people that Usui taught, 50 -70 went on to the first level of Second Degree, and maybe 30 went on to the second level of Second Degree. Usui trained 17 people to Shinpiden level. There were 5 Buddhist nuns, 3 Naval Officers, and 9 other men, including Eguchi who was said to have been Usui's main friend/student. Eguchi later formed his own religion called Tenohira - Ryouchi - Kenyuka. The Naval Officers were Jusaburo Gyuda/Ushida, Ichi Taketomi and Chijiro Hayashi, and they went on to form the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai.
DR CHUJIRO HAYAHI
It was the United States that finally forced Japan to open its borders and open its economy, to the outside world, and this event led to a great flood of new ideas and esoteric systems coming into Japan from all over the world. Not only that, but Japan underwent a period of rapid industrialisation, transforming itself from a feudal society into and industrialised nation - able to compete with the West on an equal footing - within a period of 30 - 40 years. Such a period of rapid change created a real climate of ' wanting to keep hold of traditional culture'. Japan was looking for a spiritual direction and people wanted to rekindle and maintain ancient traditions, while embracing the new. This is what Usui did when he developed Reiki. In the time when Usui was growing up, Japan was a melting pot of new ideas, with many new spiritual systems and healing techniques being developed. Reiki was on of these systems.
Mikao Usui had an interesting life. As a child, he seems to have entered a Tendai Buddhist monastery near Mr 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. He trained in a martial art called Yagyu Ryu, in which he attained the level of Menkyo Kaiden, which is the highest license of proficiency in weaponry and grappling.
In 1868 (when Usui was 3) there was restoration of rule by Emperor, Mutsuhito who reigned until 1912 and selected a new reign title - Meiji, which means enlightened rule - to mark a new beginning in Japanese history. It is known that Usui travelled to China, America and Europe several times to learn and study Western ways, and this practice was encouraged in the Meiji era. Usui followed a number of professions: public servant, office worker, industrialist, reporter, politician's secretary, missionary and supervisor of convicts. Usui was private secretary to Shimpei Goto, who was Secretary of the Railroad, Postmaster General, and Secretary of the Interior and State. The phrase 'politician's secretary" can be taken as a euphemism for 'bodyguard'. It is during his time in diplomatic service that he may have had the opportunity to travel to other countries.
Usui Sensei was interested in a great many things and seems to have studied voraciously. There was a large University library in Kyoto. and Japanese sources believe that he would have done most of his research there. Where sacred texts from all over the world would have been held. He studied traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, numerology and astrology, and psychic and clairvoyant development. During his life, Usui associated many men and women of very high spiritual values. Some were famous people in Japan, for example Morihei Ueshiba ( founder of Aikido). Onasiburo Deguchi ( founder of Omoto religion) and Toshihiro Eguchi ( founded his own religion and was a good friend of Usui). Many different spiritualist/healing groups were in existence at the time, and one of these - attended by Usui - was Rei Jyutsu Kai'. Today this organisation consists of the most spiritual monks and nuns in Japan, psychics and clairvoyants. Usui also took Zen Buddhist training in 1922 for about three years.
But what prompted Usui to pursue all these studies? Well, according to Hiroshi Dot, a member of Usui's Reiki Association in Japan, Mikao Usui was wondering what the ultimate purpose of life was, and set out to try to understand this. After some time he finally experienced an enlightment: the ultimate life purpose was "Anshin Rytsu Met' - the state of your mind being totally in peace, knowing what to do with your life, being bothered by nothing. Dot says that with this revelation, Usui researched harder, for 3 years, trying to achieve this goal. Finally, he turned to a Zen master for advice on how to attain this life purpose. The master replied "If you want to know: die!" Usui - sensei lost hope at this and thought, "My life is over". He then went to Mt Kurama and decided to fast until he died.
So it seems that Usui was looking for a way of knowing one's life purpose and to be content, and despite all his exhaustive research, he could not find a way t oachieve this state. The monk's advice prompted him to go to Mount Kurama and to carry out a 21 - day meditation and fast called The Lotus Repentance', which comes from Tendai Buddhism. Usui carried out the meditation and, according to his memorialstone, he experienced an enlightenment or 'satori' that led to the development of 'Reiki'. He performed the meditation five times during his lifetime. Interestingly, one definition of the work 'Reiki' is "a system that has come into being through a moment of enlightenment". Originally, Usui referred to his system as "teate" (pronounced 'tee-ah-tay"), which means 'hand application'. The name 'Reiki' came later. According to the Japanese author Michio Kushi, te - ate is a traditional Japanese form of healing that has been practised for centuries. He mentions that George Ohsawa, the founder of modern macrobiotics, taught this palm healing throughout Japan, the US and Europe. Kushi referred to Reiki as one of the modern forms of this art to emerge in Japan, and also mentions Johrei (Purification of Spirit) and Mahikari (True Light) as more recent developments.
Reiki is a technique or 'method that is based firmly on the esoteric principles that were represented in Japan in the early part of the last century: the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, energy transfer techniques like Chi Kung (in its Japanese form of kiko), Tendai Buddhism in terms of energy exercises, empowerments and spiritual teachings, and Shintoism in terms of techniques used to control the energies. The symbols that came to be used later in Reiki's history also have their roots in Tendai Buddhism and Shintoism. Usui brought together all these various strands in a unique way, in a way that allows anyone to be connected permanently to a source of healing energy, whereupon they can channel this energy without having to dedicate themselves to many years of practice, and they can learn to bestow this ability on other people through a very simple system.
Although Reiki is generally promoted within the West as a healing system, it seems that the original impetus for the development of Reiki was the personal benefits that would be experienced through the system: to know one's true purpose in life and be content, to heal oneself and find one's spiritual path, and ultimately achieve satori.
Mount Kurama, where Usui experienced his satori, is a holy mountain. It is near Kyoto, the former capital of Japan, a place, which we heard, described on a recent television travel programme as being 'the spiritual heart of Japan' - a place with a thousand temples representing a whole range of deities. Mount Kurama is also important from a martial arts perspective, being the place where mountain spirits are said to have given the secrets of fighting to the Samurai.
According to Usui's Memorial stone, Usui was a very well known and popular healer, and he taught a large number of students all over Japan. Usui taught nearly 2000 people, all of whom started out being treated by him. Usui would give them empowerments so that they were connected to Reiki permanently, so they could treat themselves in - between appointments with him, and if they wanted to take things further then they could begin an open - ended programme of training in the Reiki technique, so Usui's way of doing things was quite loose and informal. Of the people that Usui taught, 50 -70 went on to the first level of Second Degree, and maybe 30 went on to the second level of Second Degree. Usui trained 17 people to Shinpiden level. There were 5 Buddhist nuns, 3 Naval Officers, and 9 other men, including Eguchi who was said to have been Usui's main friend/student. Eguchi later formed his own religion called Tenohira - Ryouchi - Kenyuka. The Naval Officers were Jusaburo Gyuda/Ushida, Ichi Taketomi and Chijiro Hayashi, and they went on to form the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai.
DR CHUJIRO HAYAHIDr Hayashi received his Reiki Master training from Mikao in about 1925, when he - was 47 years old. It seems that he was one of Usui's less experienced Master students, he may have trained with Usui for only 6-9 months and received his Mastership from the 'Gakkai rather than from Usui. He is one of the original members of the Gakkai, though he left, it seems , because of the changes that the other Imperial Officers were introducing. Thus it seems that Dr Hayashi wanted to pass on what he was taught faithfully, though his military and medical background seems to have led him to introduce a more structured approach to the practice and teaching of Reiki. He used a more complicated attunement process that involved that use of symbols, his training courses were for a fixes number of days, and he developed sets of hand positions that could be used by multiple practitioners in his clinic. Dr Hayashi seems to have kept detailed records of the treatments that were given, and used this information to create 'standard' hand positions for different ailments which ended up being published in the training manual given to the Gakkai's students ( the Usui Reiki Hikkei). However , he still expected his students to be able to use advanced scanning or intuitive techniques to work out their hand positions, with his 'standard' positions as a fallback position. Hayashi founded his own society in 1931, called Hayashi Reiki Kenyu- kai. Since Dr Hayashi had made some changes to the system he has been taught by Usui, he was honour bound to change the name of the system. That was the correct thing for him to do: only if a system is passed on unchanged should the name be kept the same.
Usui's approach seems to be more simple and intuitive, with students making an open - ended commitment to regular weekly training sessions where they would receive spiritual empowerments and learn to allow the energy to guide their hands. Dr Hayashi would teach First Degree over a five-day structured course, with each day's training taking 90 minutes, and students would receive his more complicated attunements on four occasions during this training, by way of echoing Usui's weekly empowerment sessions. There seems to have been nothing significant in the number four, other than it was more than one!
HAWAYO TAKATA
Hawayo Takata was born in 1900 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. She came to Dr-Hayashi's clinic suffering from a number of serious medical conditions that were resolved through Reiki, but she was originally intending to receive conventional Western medical treatments for her tumour, gallstones and appendicitis. The story goes, through, that on the operating table (just before the surgery was about to start) Mrs Takata heard a voice that said, "The operation is not neccessary". She is said to have refused the operation, and asked her Doctor if he knew of any way to restore her health. The doctor referred to Dr. Hayashi and she began receiving a course of treatments.
Mrs Takata was quite sceptical about Reiki. She felt so much heat from the practitioners' hands that she was sure they were using some sort of electrical equipment - maybe little electric heaters secreted in the palms of their hands! She looked in the large sleeves of their Japanese kimonos, under the treatment table, but of course there was nothing there. Her sceptism turned into belief as her health problems resolved themselves, and she decided that she wanted to learn Reiki for herself.
Dr Hayashi wanted to teach Reiki to another woman besides his wife (someone who would not have to be called up to fight in a war), and since Mrs Takata was so persistent he decided to teach her to Master level, which happened in 1938. Dr Hayashi gave Mrs Takata permission to teach Reiki in the West, and she did so in the USA. She was the 13th and probably the last Reiki Master that Dr. Hayahi initiated, and between 1970 and her death in 1980 Mrs Takata taught 22 Reiki Masters. Until quite recently, all Reiki practitioners in the Western world derived their Reiki from this lady, and could trace their 'lineage' through her to Dr Hayashi and Mikao Usui.
Tho original 22 teachers have passed on the Reiki tradition, and Reiki has spread throughout North and South America, Europe, New Zealand and Austrailia to many parts of the world. It is almost impossible to estimate the number of Reiki Masters and practitioners in the world, but it must run into tens of thousand, and millions respectively.
But it cannot have been easy for Mrs Takata, teaching a Japanese healing technique in the United States, after the Second World War, with memories of Pearl Harbour still in everyone's minds. The American population was not particularly well disposed towards anything about feng shui, tai chi and other energy cultivation techniques, ideas of traditional Chinese medicine, meridians, chi and the like, and alternative medicine in general, at that time in the United States these ideas must have seemed to have come from another planet. Mrs Takata was trying to transmit her whole culture, and a totally alien one as far as her students were concerned.
For this reason, Hawayo Takata was forced to modify, simplify and change the Reiki that she had been taught by Chijiro Hayashi, in order for it to be acceptable to the Westerners that she dealt with, and the Reiki that she had been taught by Dr Hayashi had already been modified by him after he had been taught by Mikao Usui. Not only did Mrs Takata have to modify the practices of Reiki, but she also felt obliged to put together a story about the history of Reiki to make it more acceptable to a hostile American public. Out went Mikao Usui, Tendai Buddhist, and in came Dr Mikao Usui, Christian theologian, who travelled the world on a great quest to discover a healing system that explained the healing miracles that Jesus performed. So stories about Usui "being a Christian Doctor" going on a world - wide quest, and studing theology at various Universities along the way, are not true. Despite this, they are repeated in Reiki books, even ones that have been published recently.
As well as putting together a Reiki 'history', Mrs Takata ended up being referred to as 'Grand Master' of Reiki, to make a distinction between herself and the Masters that she taught. This is an office, position or title that was not envisioned by Mikao Usui. Reiki is a gentle and powerful healing technique that can be passed as a gift from one person to another, and is not based on the idea of gurus or great masters to whom one has to pay homage. Unfortunately, some people in the Reiki community are greatly wedded to the idea of The Office of 'Grand Master' and what we see as the narrow and dogmatic view of Reiki that is approved by the current incumbent, Mrs Takata's grand-daughter, Phyllis Lei Furumoto.
Usui's approach seems to be more simple and intuitive, with students making an open - ended commitment to regular weekly training sessions where they would receive spiritual empowerments and learn to allow the energy to guide their hands. Dr Hayashi would teach First Degree over a five-day structured course, with each day's training taking 90 minutes, and students would receive his more complicated attunements on four occasions during this training, by way of echoing Usui's weekly empowerment sessions. There seems to have been nothing significant in the number four, other than it was more than one!
HAWAYO TAKATAHawayo Takata was born in 1900 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. She came to Dr-Hayashi's clinic suffering from a number of serious medical conditions that were resolved through Reiki, but she was originally intending to receive conventional Western medical treatments for her tumour, gallstones and appendicitis. The story goes, through, that on the operating table (just before the surgery was about to start) Mrs Takata heard a voice that said, "The operation is not neccessary". She is said to have refused the operation, and asked her Doctor if he knew of any way to restore her health. The doctor referred to Dr. Hayashi and she began receiving a course of treatments.
Mrs Takata was quite sceptical about Reiki. She felt so much heat from the practitioners' hands that she was sure they were using some sort of electrical equipment - maybe little electric heaters secreted in the palms of their hands! She looked in the large sleeves of their Japanese kimonos, under the treatment table, but of course there was nothing there. Her sceptism turned into belief as her health problems resolved themselves, and she decided that she wanted to learn Reiki for herself.
Dr Hayashi wanted to teach Reiki to another woman besides his wife (someone who would not have to be called up to fight in a war), and since Mrs Takata was so persistent he decided to teach her to Master level, which happened in 1938. Dr Hayashi gave Mrs Takata permission to teach Reiki in the West, and she did so in the USA. She was the 13th and probably the last Reiki Master that Dr. Hayahi initiated, and between 1970 and her death in 1980 Mrs Takata taught 22 Reiki Masters. Until quite recently, all Reiki practitioners in the Western world derived their Reiki from this lady, and could trace their 'lineage' through her to Dr Hayashi and Mikao Usui.
Tho original 22 teachers have passed on the Reiki tradition, and Reiki has spread throughout North and South America, Europe, New Zealand and Austrailia to many parts of the world. It is almost impossible to estimate the number of Reiki Masters and practitioners in the world, but it must run into tens of thousand, and millions respectively.
But it cannot have been easy for Mrs Takata, teaching a Japanese healing technique in the United States, after the Second World War, with memories of Pearl Harbour still in everyone's minds. The American population was not particularly well disposed towards anything about feng shui, tai chi and other energy cultivation techniques, ideas of traditional Chinese medicine, meridians, chi and the like, and alternative medicine in general, at that time in the United States these ideas must have seemed to have come from another planet. Mrs Takata was trying to transmit her whole culture, and a totally alien one as far as her students were concerned.
For this reason, Hawayo Takata was forced to modify, simplify and change the Reiki that she had been taught by Chijiro Hayashi, in order for it to be acceptable to the Westerners that she dealt with, and the Reiki that she had been taught by Dr Hayashi had already been modified by him after he had been taught by Mikao Usui. Not only did Mrs Takata have to modify the practices of Reiki, but she also felt obliged to put together a story about the history of Reiki to make it more acceptable to a hostile American public. Out went Mikao Usui, Tendai Buddhist, and in came Dr Mikao Usui, Christian theologian, who travelled the world on a great quest to discover a healing system that explained the healing miracles that Jesus performed. So stories about Usui "being a Christian Doctor" going on a world - wide quest, and studing theology at various Universities along the way, are not true. Despite this, they are repeated in Reiki books, even ones that have been published recently.
As well as putting together a Reiki 'history', Mrs Takata ended up being referred to as 'Grand Master' of Reiki, to make a distinction between herself and the Masters that she taught. This is an office, position or title that was not envisioned by Mikao Usui. Reiki is a gentle and powerful healing technique that can be passed as a gift from one person to another, and is not based on the idea of gurus or great masters to whom one has to pay homage. Unfortunately, some people in the Reiki community are greatly wedded to the idea of The Office of 'Grand Master' and what we see as the narrow and dogmatic view of Reiki that is approved by the current incumbent, Mrs Takata's grand-daughter, Phyllis Lei Furumoto.
REIKI IN JAPAN
Now the story turns full circle, and Western style Reiki has returned to its country of birth. At one stage people believed that Reiki had died out in Japan, and that the only Reiki that remained in the world was the Western version. But Reiki Masters who moved to Japan in the 1980s and 1990s discovered that there was a small, close-knit community of Reiki Masters who were continuing Mikao Usui's techniques, though it was difficult to say exactly how, and by how much, their pratice of Reiki differed from the intentions of its founder. We are referring to members of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai in Japan.
The Gakkai is not so much a society as a support group with a small number of Masters who give almost daily support to their students. The Gakkai is not interested in bringing their techniques to the outside world, they do not advertise or promote themselves, and they are not interested in getting any bigger or more popular; they just want to be left alone. It is their decision not to advertise - continuing Usui's policy in this regard - which has led to Reiki being so little heard of in Japan until very recently. Now Japan is experiencing a big explosion of Reiki, but it is basically Western - style Reiki 1. Over time we are sure that the two forms of Reiki will join and blend, combining the basic traditions of Usui Reiki with the creative experimentation that characterises the Western approach to the Reiki system.
Nowadays, the Gakkai is actually quite well known in Japan, but for different reasons. The Gakkai is seen rather like the Masons - a secret society where people do not know what they do, but if you want to get on in life, you need to be a member. The biggest movers and shakers in Japan would be members of The Gakkai, for example the wife of the chairman of one of the biggest Japanese corporations.
This updated version of the history of Reiki is the latest information to be released from Japan and we are grateful to Reiki Master's Taggart King, Rick Rivard and Chris Marsh for allowing us to share this information with you and hopefully dispel and myths.
The Gakkai is not so much a society as a support group with a small number of Masters who give almost daily support to their students. The Gakkai is not interested in bringing their techniques to the outside world, they do not advertise or promote themselves, and they are not interested in getting any bigger or more popular; they just want to be left alone. It is their decision not to advertise - continuing Usui's policy in this regard - which has led to Reiki being so little heard of in Japan until very recently. Now Japan is experiencing a big explosion of Reiki, but it is basically Western - style Reiki 1. Over time we are sure that the two forms of Reiki will join and blend, combining the basic traditions of Usui Reiki with the creative experimentation that characterises the Western approach to the Reiki system.
Nowadays, the Gakkai is actually quite well known in Japan, but for different reasons. The Gakkai is seen rather like the Masons - a secret society where people do not know what they do, but if you want to get on in life, you need to be a member. The biggest movers and shakers in Japan would be members of The Gakkai, for example the wife of the chairman of one of the biggest Japanese corporations.
This updated version of the history of Reiki is the latest information to be released from Japan and we are grateful to Reiki Master's Taggart King, Rick Rivard and Chris Marsh for allowing us to share this information with you and hopefully dispel and myths.