The decision to become a Reiki practitioner is going to reward you with many wondrous blessings. The Goddess in me greets the Goddess in you. Namaste. I am very excited to be given the opportunity to lead you into the gentle, loving Reiki world.

You are free to purchase any Reiki book of your choice if you wish to do so There is no specific book required for this course.

A wonderfully illustrated book is: The Power of Reiki by Tanmaya Honervogt Remember, as with any book, the content represents the thoughts of the author. Therefore use your own discernement. I personally disagree with some of Diane's and particularly Tanamaya's statements.

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Just as our Earth Mother is evolving and changing, so is the history about the origins of Reiki.
To begin I am going to share the Reiki Legend with you as it has been shared with the Reiki students of various schools over many years. It is considered to be a legend, for more and more other stories are popping up and other sources claim to be the one real history. The Reiki Masters from the West started to communicate and visit with the Reiki Masters in Japan. Out of this communication flows another aspect of the origins of Reiki. There is also channeled material that claims Reiki originated from the Tibetan Monks.

You will eventually hear the Usui Reiki Story in many variants. I offer you one version here. The hot links are clickable and will reveal new insights about the stated happenings. I think it is important not to argue which one is the right one, but to keep an open mind, respect and tolerance for others. Above all, we are grateful for the gift of Reiki and do not need to question how it got to us.

Mikao Usui - The Legend Of Reiki
Reiki was rediscovered by Mikaomi Usui. Dr. Usui was the head of a Christian boys' school and a minister in Japan at the end of the 19th century. During a sermon some boys in the front row asked him if he believed that Jesus healed and if Usui could do it himself. Dr. Usui replied that he couldn't do it because he hadn't been taught how. The boys didn't want to live in blind faith, so they asked for a demonstration. Dr. Usui promised the boys that he would find a way to show the way Jesus healed to them. He quit his job and went off to America to study philosophy, Christianity, and the Bible in Chicago. He studied there for seven years and couldn't find where Jesus left the formula for producing healing in others.

Guatma Buddha had healed the blind and those with tuberculosis and leprosy. Dr. Usui returned to Kyoto, Japan and asked Buddhist monks if they could heal as Buddha did. The monks replied that their job was to heal the spirit, there were doctors and medicines to heal the body. The body was only temporary after all. Heal the spirit and the body would follow.

Dr. Usui entered a monastery to study Buddhism. After three years of no success, he was about to leave the monastery when the highest monk asked him to stay and continue studying with them. Apparently, at this time the monastery was translating the earliest Sanskrit Sutras from India into Japanese.

Dr. Usui studied Sanskrit and began reading the Sutras. It was in these Sutras that he found some symbols and some phrases that might be the formula for Buddha's manual healing system. It was simple and plain as math and had been written 2500 years before.

He needed to learn to put these phrases and symbols together so decided to go to the top of a mountain and fast and meditate for 21 days. He had hopes of receiving a vision during this time. He told the monks at the monastery to come looking for his body if he wasn't back in 22 days.

He took only a goatskin of water and went to the top of the mountain. He gathered 21 rocks and threw one away each day at dawn. On the 21st day at the darkest before dawn he opened his eyes, thinking that this was the last opportunity to find the answer for which he had searched for so many years.

He saw flashes of light, light that moved very fast towards him. He was sure it was a test, so he kept his eyes wide open. A light struck him in the forehead and he fell back and lost consciousness. It was if he had died. His vision began as the dawn had begun to break.

Millions of bubbles were dancing around him in rainbow colors. Then as the last color had faded a white light came up to him and formed a screen. Some of the things that he had studied in Sanskrit appeared in golden letters in front of him. Then golden symbols approached him, one after another, until all the reiki symbols danced before him. With all this came the meaning of the symbols and their use.

When he came to he stood up and felt strong. He wasn't hungry. This was the first miracle. He threw away his last stone and walked down the mountain. On his way down, he stubbed his toe. Blood flowed and it hurt, so he grabbed it. He felt a pulse and when he took his hand away, except for some blood, his toe was fine. This was the second miracle.

When he got down the mountain he stopped at a house that fed travelers and asked for some food. The innkeeper's daughter came to him. She had a cloth wrapped around her head and her cheeks were swollen from a toothache. He touched her face and her pain went away. This was the third miracle.

After he finished his meal he didn't suffer from indigestion from fasting for 21 days. The fourth miracle!

He travelled back to the monastery and met with the Abbot. The Abbot was in bed with terrible arthritis pain. Dr. Usui laid his hands on the futon covering the Abbot and told his tale. When he was finished the Abbot was no longer in pain. His body felt good and he felt full of energy!

Later, it was decided that Dr. Usui should treat people in the vast slums. He went there and treated people, curing them, then sent them to the Temple for a new name and a new job. He spent 3 years in the slums healing the sick.

One evening he walked around the slum and noticed familiar faces. He asked these people if he had healed them, and they'd say "yes." Then he asked them if they went to the temple and got new names and new jobs. They'd say "yes." Then he asked them what they were doing back in the slums. They would reply "Oh, they wanted me to work from seven in the morning until seven in the evening. I worked for over a year, but it is easier to be a beggar."

Honest people worked long hours each day. The beggars didn't appreciate being healed. They didn't want to make changes in their lives. They placed the same value on his gift as they had paid for it, nothing.

He threw himself to the ground and wept. The Buddhist Priests and Monks were right, heal the Spirit first, the body will follow.

After that he refused to treat beggars because of their lack of gratitude.

Mikao Usui was born August 15, 1865 in the Gifu district of Japan. In 1921 he set up his school. The Japanese believe the way Usui taught, you would have lived with him till you got it all; therefore you became a teacher yourself. They feel, that he may not have required a process or ritual (like an attunement) to pass on the Reiki energy. One version of the history indicates that he taught Reiki to at least 17 people before he died March 9, 1926 in Fukuyama.

He is said to have created a system of natural healing based on established Oriental medicine. The system used symbols, had a set of affirmations and employed seven main hand positions set over important acu points. It was based on ancient Taoist energy practices, allowing the practitioner to draw in energy and pass it on to the client without the need to "recharge". Usui was also a Qigong Master which would explain the emission of Chi.

Other Mythtakes, Mythunderstandings & Mythinformation

• Myth: Usui established an oral tradition for Reiki training.
• Fact: Notes were not only allowed, but carefully checked.

• Myth: Copies of the symbols were not allowed or could not leave the school.
• Fact: Copies of the symbols were provided to every student as handouts which could be taken home. Copies of such notes have been shown to western Reiki Masters.

• Myth: Usui's Reiki center and all other Japanese Reiki centers and teachers were lost during WWII.
• Fact: The Usui Shiki Ryoho, which Usui founded and presided over still exists. It has had five sequential presidents. These are the true and only successors of Mikao Usui.

• Myth: The Reiki principles are unique to Reiki.
• Fact: Usui derived the Reiki Principles (or precepts) from the code of conduct of the Meiji emperor.

• Myth: The titles "Grandmaster" and/or "Lineage Bearer" were established by Usui and are a part of Reiki's heritage.
• Fact: These titles are not used and have never been used in Japan. Specifically, neither title was ever given to Chujiro Hayashi nor passsed on by him.

• Myth: Takata was a "Grandmaster".
• Fact: A certificate notarized in Honolulu on February 21, 1938 states that she was made a teacher/master (one of thirteen) of the system; this did not confer the title of Grand Master but simply gave Takata the right to practice and teach the system in the USA.

• Myth: The attunement methods used by the Takata lineage are the same as or similar to the attunement processes created by Usui after he began to teach lay people Reiki. (Usui did not use attunements in the early days when Reiki was only being taught to monks.)
• Fact: The attunement methods used in the west (Takata lineage Reiki) are significantly different from those used in Japan. The western rituals appear to be very similar to ordination rituals used in both Catholic Africa and by the Russian Orthodox Church.

• Myth: Reiki is based on a Chakra model of healing.
• Fact: Usui was a Qigong adept and based Reiki primarily on a system based on meridians (similar to the system accupuncture is based on. Also see Diane Stein's discussion of the Hara line), particularly the "Gall Bladder" meridian.

Please remember the people who believe in these mythtakes, mythunderstandings and mythinformation were taught them in good faith during a time when communications were lost between Japanese and western Reiki Masters. Such information is only just becoming avaiable to Reiki people outside of Japan. Do not let disagreements about the history of Reiki allow you to forget the power and wonder of this healing method. Honour all its practitioners, for whatever they believe about its roots does not reduce Reiki's ability to heal through them or through you.

There is a variety of information on the Usui history. Check the Reiki Book List

Resources
Traditional Japanese Reiki Association, Traditional Japanese Reiki
The Reiki Threshold, The History of Reiki: a Different Viewpoint
The International Center for Reiki Training Discovering the Roots of Reiki
The Buddhist Origins of Reiki
Reiki Fire by Frank Arjava Petter
Reiki, The Legacy of Dr. Usui Mikao Usui's handbook rediscovered by Frank Arjava Petter
Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui by Frank Arjava Petter
  Another interesting link about the History of Reiki