What follows is an installment in a regular series that I'm calling, "Your Spiritual Connection Centers." The goal of this series is to provide the interested student with the necessary information to care for his or her spiritual and energetic health. Indeed, through the application of this knowledge, the student will learn to clear stress from the spiritual connection centers within the body and live a happier and more harmonious life. Students who are interested in growing their abilities are invited to participate in our weekly Lightworking classes at Energy Revived in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. These classes will develop the core competencies used in any energy healing practice.
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What is Reiki?
Reiki is translated from Japanese as Universal (Rei-) Life (-ki), but it has also been translated as universal life Spirit. Reiki is a Spiritual healing modality which is commonly used to manage stress and promote relaxation; practitioners believe that giving Reiki for oneself or another promotes spiritual connections. Reiki has a long history and I am greatly indebted to such scholars as Frank Petter and William Rand whose tireless research and vast experience have illuminated my own knowledge of Reiki. The Reiki story begins with Dr. Mikao Usui in the late 1800’s, although a great amount of misinformation exists which suggests that Reiki goes back much farther than Dr. Usui.
One of the most commonly repeated and factually debatable histories of Reiki is offered by Diane Stein in Essential Reiki. Stein teaches that Reiki predates Biblical history, is directly connected with ancient Tantric Buddhism, and was the same method of healing used by Christ himself.1 In principle, I agree with Stein that Reiki (however it has been called in the past) has been used by great healers throughout history, but I disagree with her belief that Usui Reiki is a Buddhist spiritual connection practice descended from the teachings of scholars in ancient India.
In ancient India, education, religion, and formal instruction were dominated by the caste of the Brahmans. The Brahmans kept their knowledge and sacred rituals secret from the lower castes in order to deliberately retain power and authority as the intermediaries to the divine. To prevent others from stealing their knowledge, they developed their own scholarly language – Sanskrit – which was taught only to initiates and spoken only among themselves; Stein proposes that Reiki was among the secrets revealed by Gautama Siddhartha (Buddha) when he translated their knowledge into Pali for consumption by the masses.2 Although it is true that Gautama Siddhartha translated the Brahmans’ secrets to Pali, it does not appear that the secret of one's spiritual connection centers was ever included in that body of knowledge: Reiki as we know it was not codified into Tantric Buddhism more than a hundred years before the birth of Christ.
William Rand, director of the International Center for Reiki Training, has shown that Japanese Reiki masters who practice Buddhism report that there is nothing of Buddhism in Reiki and that for all purposes Reiki is neutral to any religions.3 Despite this, Stein continues with the position that Jesus Christ studied at the mystery schools of Egypt and India before beginning his ministry in Jerusalem and teaching Reiki to his disciples.4 I disagree with Stein’s version of history, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to attribute similar principles of compassion and respect for human dignity found in Christianity to Reiki. If it is to be believed – and that’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself – Jesus healed without Spirit depletion by connecting with the current of universal life.
Now we move forward to more recent history, the late 1800’s, where Dr. Mikao Usui enters the Reiki story. Mikao Usui was not a doctor or physician: it is more accurate to call him “sensei” or “teacher,” but because the Japanese title is used so infrequently in the West, it has for practical purposes been easier to give him the title “Doctor.” Dr. Usui was born on August 15th, 1865, in the Japanese province of Gifu.5 Dr. Usui was a lay Tendai Buddhist monk6 and is commonly reported to have been actively searching for Reiki, but his own handwriting reports that his system of spiritual connection centers was unsought and spontaneously discovered.7
Part of the common misinformation about Dr. Usui is that he taught at a Christian university in Japan and also studied for seven years at a college in the United States. Both of these claims have proven to be untrue and appear to have been fabricated by a later leader in the Reiki story, Hawayo Takata. Though it is certain that Takata did fabricate stories about Dr. Usui which were untrue, the majority of Reiki professionals today generally recognize her for the Reiki hero she is. Without her efforts to make a Japanese practice more palatable to the West, Reiki may never have spread beyond Japan and Hawaii.
What is true is that Dr. Usui was the private secretary for a government official – Shimpei Goto – who was the Secretary of the Railroad, the Postmaster General, and the Secretary of the Interior of the State;8 Dr. Usui did travel abroad and probably traveled to the United States. His exact travels, duties and responsibilities are not clear but it can be surmised that Dr. Usui was able to use this position to his benefit and promote awareness of spiritual connection centers.
As commonly repeated in Western Reiki, Dr. Usui supposedly found a method for unlocking a lost method of healing without Spirit depletion passed down from time immemorial encoded into Tantric Buddhism and went on a Spiritual retreat to perform a hitherto unknown ritual to unlock Reiki. We now know that story to be factually untrue: he already practiced other healing modalities and his retreat had nothing to do with Reiki. 9 What is known is that after three weeks of fasting, meditation, prayer, and Spiritual devotion, Dr. Usui had a Spiritual experience. The story frequently says that a beam of bright white light struck him in the forehead and he saw a fantastic vision of lights, spirits, and the mystical symbols which are now used in Reiki. What really happened that day on Mount Kurama is like much of the Reiki story a mystery, but most people believe that his spontaneous discovery was much less dramatic.
It is important to note the manner in which Dr. Usui presented his discovery. Because each person can only teach what he or she knows, Dr. Usui taught Reiki and spiritual connection from the perspective of a Japanese Buddhist monk; this may be what has contributed to the persistent and factually untrue connection between Reiki and Buddhism. Dr. Usui included in his Reiki instruction principles, songs, and poetry from the Meiji Emperor which he believed taught the best way to live. In fact, Usui Reiki is guided by five principles taken from the Meiji Emperor’s five rules for life. With much gratitude for his excellent research, I reprint here Frank Petter’s translation10 of Dr. Usui’s original handwriting:
The secret method of inviting happiness. The wonderful medicine for all diseases (of the body and the soul). Just today:
Mornings and evenings, sit in the Gassho position and repeat these words out loud and in your heart. (For the) improvement of body and soul, Usui Reiki Ryoho (Usui system of natural healing.)
- Don’t get angry
- Don’t worry
- Show appreciation
- Work hard (on yourself)
- Be kind to others
What I want you to take from this is that Dr. Usui, as a Buddhist monk, had a Spiritual approach to healing and taught a flexible, intuitive system structured around learning to feel “Byosen” or stress in the body. Dr. Usui had many students who in turn also had many students. As it concerns the movement of Reiki from Japan toward the West, the next most prominent figure in the Reiki story is Dr. Chujiro Hayashi. Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, unlike Dr. Usui, was in fact a physician. Dr. Hayashi was born in Tokyo on September 15th, 1880 and died at his home in Atama, near Mt. Fuji, on May 11th, 1940.
Dr. Hayashi served as a physician in the Japanese Navy and began studying with Dr. Usui in 1925.11 It is important to note the differences between Dr. Usui and Dr. Hayashi. Dr. Usui was a lay Buddhist priest who taught an intuitive approach to a Spiritual practice. Dr. Hayashi, as a trained physician, had his roots in a traditional, clinical approach to the application of Reiki. After studying with Dr. Usui for about six years, Dr. Hayashi formed his own system of Reiki and named it after himself: Hayashi Reiki. Dr. Hayashi taught a more clinical approach to the use of Reiki and was asked by Dr. Usui to write a teaching manual and develop a set series of hand positions for particular dis-eases.12
It is important to note the differences between Dr. Usui and Dr. Hayashi because of one of Dr. Hayashi’s most famous students: Hawayo Takata. Hawayo Takata was born on December 24th, 1900, in Hanamaulu, Hawaii.13 Takata primarily lived and worked in Hawaii and had the misfortune (or blessing?) of enduring great hardship during her lifetime and outliving her husband after he passed from cancer. Possibly from the stress of being a widow with two children and the demands of working full-time to support her family, Takata suffered from a variety of illnesses and is even reported to have had a nervous breakdown.14 To make matters worse, one of her sisters died unexpectedly which necessitated that Takata travel to Tokyo to bring the sad news to her parents.
This trip to Tokyo was also to get medical treatment for her own life-threatening ailments. As the story is commonly told, Takata was in a hospital operating room waiting for the surgeon to arrive when she heard a voice say three times “the operation is not necessary.” She got off the operating table and declined the surgery; when she asked the surgeon about alternatives to surgery, he referred her to Dr. Hayashi’s clinic in Tokyo. She received Reiki from Dr. Hayashi or his students every day until, four months later, she was completely cured of her ailments. Also commonly told is that Takata wanted to learn Reiki but Dr. Hayashi refused. Takata was insistent and Dr. Hayashi finally agreed to teach her: she was initiated to first and second degree Reiki in 1936 and 1937, respectively, and shortly thereafter enjoyed great success and popularity operating a Reiki practice in Hawaii.15 Takata is believed to be the last person initiated as a Master by Dr. Hayashi.
Hawayo Takata continues to be a controversial figure in the Reiki story. She is justly accused of fabricating fantastic stories and even outright lies about Reiki; the history and development of Reiki; Dr. Usui himself; roles and titles within the Reiki community; claims to authority over the origin of Reiki; and many other similar stories. For contrast, Takata was promoting a Japanese spiritual connection practice at a time when American anger at the Japanese was still a concern. One of her most widespread fabrications is that Dr. Usui was a Christian minister who was searching for a method to heal the Spirit as he supposedly read in the Bible. The true reason for Takata’s fabrications can only be guessed, but it is commonly believed that she introduced several Western elements to the Reiki story (and Dr. Usui’s history) in order to make Reiki more palatable to Westerners. Though her motives behind such fabrications are uncertain, I believe as do many others that she was absolutely instrumental in the promotion, education, and acceptance of Reiki in the West.
It’s important to note the many differences between Hawayo Takata’s, Dr. Hayashi’s, and Dr. Usui’s systems of treatment. In Dr. Usui’s system, eight or more initiations were performed over several years.16 During regular treatments, Dr. Usui sat his patients in a chair and only let them lay if they were seriously ill.17 Dr. Usui worked with patients one-on-one and directed much attention to the Tanden (a spiritual connectionc enter just below and behind the navel), and divisions of the spinal vertebrae.18 Dr. Usui taught that detecting Byosen, or learning to feel sickness and stress with the hands, was absolutely necessary in giving Reiki. He also taught his students to use a variety of methods to include looking at the area of stress, blowing breath on the area of stress, tapping and massaging the affected area, and giving Reiki through the hands.19 Contrary to what Takata taught, holding the hands with the fingers tightly together does not appear to be an absolute necessity: Dr. Usui was known to teach his students a variety of hand and finger positions to channel Reiki.
Dr. Hayashi was asked by Dr. Usui to use his skills and knowledge as a trained physician to further develop Reiki.20 With his clinical approach, Dr. Hayashi required patients to lay prone on a straw mat or futon and at least two practitioners worked on a patient at the same time; sessions were generally 60 to 90 minutes long and were given daily.21 Dr. Hayashi placed less emphasis on the Tanden and more on the meridian lines, endocrine glands, and the internal organs;22 he also followed every session with a special massage of the spine to increase circulation between the spiritual connection centers.23 Initiations weren’t limited to the eight or more given in the Usui system, but were instead given at regular monthly intervals to promote personal growth and sensitivity.24 Last, Dr. Hayashi developed an original manual to guide Reiki practitioners: this manual included set series of hand positions which were intended to aid the Reiki practitioner who has not learned to detect stress.25
Just as Dr. Hayashi took one step away from Dr. Usui, Hawayo Takata took one (or more) steps away from Dr. Hayashi and removed many of the Eastern traditions from the Reiki system she taught to her students to include the Spiritual element introduced through the recitation of song, verse, and poetry.26 She taught neither to breathe in a specific manner when giving Reiki nor that masters should hold the breath or contract certain muscles when initiating others.16 Another significant difference is that she did not appear to have taught her students to feel or detect stress that emanates from afflicted spiritual connection centers in the body.27
There are a few reasons why there is so little concrete information about Takata’s approach to Reiki. One of those reasons is that she forbade notes or audio recordings of her teaching; to compound this, she herself did not write or publish her teaching methods and philosophy. Contrary to history, she insisted that Reiki was and always had been a strictly oral tradition and should not be recorded.28 Because her students were forbidden from taking notes, their fragile and fallible memories were all that remained. To further complicate affairs, Takata did not teach the same material to each class and did not consistently present the same information each time. Both the history and the curriculum she presented weren’t consistent from one presentation to the next.29
In the Summer of 2009, William Rand corresponded with Alice Picking, a student who attended a seminar taught by Takata in 1975. This appears to have been one of the only (or the only) classes where Takata gave hand-outs and allowed her students to take notes. Ms. Picking saved her hand-outs and shared them with William Rand to help the rest of the world learn how Takata taught Reiki. In a word, Takata’s system was concise. Takata did teach a series of hand positions for the treatment of chronic and acute conditions, but they were few: upper left abdomen, upper right abdomen, navel, lower abdomen, upper-mid spine, mid-spine, and lower-mid spine.30 All other accounts of Takata which I have read are either conflicting or describe a system which emphasizes allowing spiritual connections to prompt the practitioner.
Takata’s changes, revisions, and subtractions were seen by traditionalists as a betrayal of the purely Japanese Reiki system and this led to a fracture between Eastern and Western Reiki. Fortunately, time has shown that Reiki is much more flexible than the human minds which have tried to define it. Were it not for Takata’s revisions, Reiki may never have gained footing in the West nor spread the way it has; it may also have fallen into obscurity and never received much notice outside of Japan. In Takata, East met West and Reiki spread like wildfire across the globe – Western Reiki enjoys equal and sometimes greater popularity in Japan than the traditional Eastern styles.
Reiki is not a religion, nor is it associated with any one particular religion. Reiki practitioners traditionally observe the five Reiki Principles, but their religious beliefs are separate. These five principles work in conjunction with the Three Pillars of Reiki in order to promote modesty, kindness, and respect for human dignity. The Three Pillars of Reiki are the key devotions which form the Usui system of natural healing. They are Gassho, Reiji-Ho, and Chiryo.
The first pillar of Reiki is Gassho, which can be interpreted as “two hands coming together.” Gassho is very simple: sit or kneel in a comfortable position and bring your palms together at the level of your heart, the same as children are taught to pray. The back is kept as straight as possible and breathing is performed regularly. While sitting in this position, all attention is focused on the point where the two index fingers come together. If a thought comes to Mind, it is acknowledged and allowed to pass. With practice, the Mind can be held in peaceful silence. The scientifically proven benefits of regular meditation are outside of the scope of this book, but I encourage you to adopt twice-daily meditation (Gassho or your preferred technique). I noticed a sharp increase in my sensitivity to Reiki and a dramatic improvement in my mood and temperament after I began regular meditation and I’m confident that you will notice similar benefits. A short guide to meditation is included in Appendix D.
The second pillar of Reiki is Reiji-Ho, or prayer. Reiji-Ho (or just Reiji), is a three-part prayer said before every Reiki session, be it for oneself or for another. The practitioner brings his hands together in Gassho at the level of his heart, prays for the Reiki to enter him, and waits for the Reiki to enter his body; it can be felt as it passes through the crown, brow, or temples. The second part, only to be performed after Reiki has entered the body, is a prayer for the recipient’s health and recovery. The practitioner prays for the recipient’s health and recovery on all levels and asks that the subject be healed. In the third part of the prayer, the practitioner brings his joined hands to the level of his eyes or forehead and prays that Reiki guides him to where the subject needs the most help. Whether this is spoken in the Mind or out loud is up to you.
The third pillar of Reiki is Chiryo, or treatment. This is the actual channeling of Reiki through the practitioner to the subject. At this point, it should be noted that Reiki is dissimilar from many biofield modalities in that it does not use or require the practitioner’s own life Spirit but instead draws from an infinite or inexhaustible supply of universal life. Reiki practitioners do not believe that they transmit their own vitality but instead are acting as a medium through which Reiki can flow. This is the single most important element of Reiki: the practitioner is working with a power greater than himself. When I say that a practitioner acts as a medium or channels universal life Spirit, I do not mean that he channels messages from the dead or speaks with the departed spirits. I mean that the practitioner enters a meditative state and uses his Mind and body as a vessel to permit the passage of life Spirit.
As was noted before, Dr. Usui used a more intuitive approach. Although Dr. Usui did have specific hand positions which he used for specific ailments,31 he was known to stress the importance of following intuition and being guided by the signals given from the patient or from the Reiki itself. Dr. Usui rigorously taught methods to detect Byosen and locate the spiritual connection centers of greatest stress; without this skill, the practitioner was lost. To remedy this obstacle, Dr. Hayashi, at Dr. Usui’s request, wrote a standardized series of hand positions which are commonly followed today: forehead, temples, back of head, back of neck, throat, crown, stomach, and intestines.32 Dr. Hayashi’s most famous student, Hawayo Takata, appears to have forsaken her teacher’s clinical, systematic methods and prescribed to a loose intuition.
What I want to illustrate is that each one of the key players in the Reiki story taught a different system and used a different approach from the other, but each was able to help their patients and initiate new practitioners. That is, despite their sometimes radical differences, each was able to channel Reiki and each experienced the same results. It is my opinion that, despite their differences and what they did or didn’t include in their own systems, they enjoyed success because they were working with a power greater than themselves which could not be foiled or restrained by human efforts to define or shape it. By acting as a channel or conduit for this divine Spirit, the Reiki practitioner can promote relaxation, reduce stress, and improve well-being and peace of Mind. I, as do many others, believe that Reiki promotes natural recovery from illness, injury, and disease; this is accomplished by virtue of the body’s innate drive to live and operate in tune with the natural order and divine Spiritual connection of the world.
How and why Reiki benefits recipients is debatable. Some take the position that Reiki is chi, ki, qi, prana, orgone, or a natural product of the human body which stimulates the natural healing process. The position has also been made that Reiki is the presence of God (however you define it), and a transcendent or extrinsic force which the practitioner channels for the benefit of himself or another. Scientific research is being conducted to explore Reiki and primarily focuses on the subtle, measurable energies naturally emitted by the body.
One such body of research is a study in which Japanese researchers released data showing that the human body emits visible light.33 This light was captured on film in a light-proof room with ultra-sensitive cameras which show that the light emitted by the body naturally fluctuates during the day and is connected to the body’s metabolic rate and overall vitality. One explanation has been put forward by Dr. James Oschman, Ph.D., who hypothesizes that the measurable electric fields naturally generated by the body work according to proven scientific laws of electromagnetic fields. Dr. Oschman shows that human organs are their own type of spiritual connection centers and naturally emit Spirit on set frequencies and that when they are unhealthy they are literally out of tune. His hypothesis suggests that the healthy “in tune” frequency of Reiki makes use of Faraday’s Law and induces the weaker field back into its natural range of operation.34
Another study35 shows that benefits from Reiki are not the result of self hypnosis or auto-suggestion. In this study, autonomic nervous-system changes of human subjects were measured while receiving Reiki. A control group who received no Reiki was compared to two experimental groups. One experimental group received Reiki from actual practitioners and the second experimental group received “sham Reiki” from actors. The study showed that the only group which exhibited a significant change was the group receiving Reiki from the actual practitioners. Neither experimental group was told if it was paired with actors or Reiki practitioners. The “sham” and control groups showed no significant changes.
Another peer-reviewed study36 used white noise to artificially stimulate the heart rate of laboratory rats. Probes were inserted to accurately measure internal changes in real-time. Three groups were formed: the first group of rats received no Reiki. The second group of rats was treated by actors who pointed their hands at the rats from a distance of four feet. A third group of rats was treated by practitioners who also pointed their hands at the rats from a distance of four feet. As with the humans in the previous study, the only group of rats which exhibited a lowered heart rate was the group which received Reiki from the practitioners. Because rats can’t be influenced by self-hypnosis or auto-suggestion, this study and others like it is among the most encouraging indicators that the positive results reported by recipients of Reiki can be attributed to something greater than positive thinking.
To deliver Reiki, the practitioner places his hands lightly on the dis-eased spiritual connection centers of the subject’s body and uses meditative techniques to open the flow of universal life Spirit. The Usui system of natural healing employs five sacred symbols (or keys) to channel specific types of Spirit. There is debate to be had over the origin of the symbols, and even more debate to be had over their Spiritual properties. Some authors will tell you that the symbols are the power they represent and that wherever they’re drawn they channel that Spirit. Whether you draw the symbol with your fingers in the Air or with a pen on paper, the power of the symbol will be invoked.
Others, including myself, take the position that the sacred symbols of Usui Reiki are graphic representations of something far larger and much less tangible. The story of Plato’s cave illustrates this belief: in Plato’s cave, a group of people are chained in such a way that they can only see a blank wall in front of them, upon which the shadows of things and people behind them are projected. The cave people see these shadows and give them proper names. For example, the shadow of a horse is projected onto the wall and the cave people will say, “See? That is a horse.” Of course the shadow isn’t a horse: it’s only the shadow of a horse. In this pattern, what we call a sacred symbol of the Usui system of natural healing doesn’t actually have any power: it’s only the shadow of something which is with us but outside of our full awareness.
There are many different schools of Reiki in the world today. Not all schools of Reiki use the same symbols and even those which do use the same symbols don’t all draw them the same way. Hawayo Takata taught different students variations of the same symbols, and as Reiki has grown and expanded into the New Age and Occult cultures of the West it has acquired other symbols which differ in both function and appearance than the original five of the Usui system.
One of many debates in the Reiki community is over the necessity of initiations. Initiations, also called attunements, are a Spiritual ritual in which the teacher “enables” or “opens” the student so that he can channel Reiki. The debate over the necessity of an attunement or a grand initiation goes back to Dr. Usui’s discovery of Reiki. The question always is, “Who initiated Dr. Usui?” Well, nobody. Dr. Usui was an intelligent, educated, and deeply Spiritual man who had for many years practiced several other healing modalities. I believe that he identified a common thread among all healing modalities and saw that it was easier and more powerful to channel a spiritual connection from the original source than to give away one’s own vital reserves.
My personal belief is that an initiation is not necessary to channel Reiki, but having a teacher to guide you through the learning process is necessary. The teacher guides the student in his studies and by doing so transfers necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities for the student to become a capable, confident practitioner. Some things are sufficiently overt that they can be learned from a book, but others so subtle that they require a guide. In that sense, Reiki is an initiatory tradition which celebrates the teacher-student relationship and places emphasis on experiential knowledge through mentorship and guided learning.
Dr. Hayashi served as a physician in the Japanese Navy and began studying with Dr. Usui in 1925.11 It is important to note the differences between Dr. Usui and Dr. Hayashi. Dr. Usui was a lay Buddhist priest who taught an intuitive approach to a Spiritual practice. Dr. Hayashi, as a trained physician, had his roots in a traditional, clinical approach to the application of Reiki. After studying with Dr. Usui for about six years, Dr. Hayashi formed his own system of Reiki and named it after himself: Hayashi Reiki. Dr. Hayashi taught a more clinical approach to the use of Reiki and was asked by Dr. Usui to write a teaching manual and develop a set series of hand positions for particular dis-eases.12
It is important to note the differences between Dr. Usui and Dr. Hayashi because of one of Dr. Hayashi’s most famous students: Hawayo Takata. Hawayo Takata was born on December 24th, 1900, in Hanamaulu, Hawaii.13 Takata primarily lived and worked in Hawaii and had the misfortune (or blessing?) of enduring great hardship during her lifetime and outliving her husband after he passed from cancer. Possibly from the stress of being a widow with two children and the demands of working full-time to support her family, Takata suffered from a variety of illnesses and is even reported to have had a nervous breakdown.14 To make matters worse, one of her sisters died unexpectedly which necessitated that Takata travel to Tokyo to bring the sad news to her parents.
This trip to Tokyo was also to get medical treatment for her own life-threatening ailments. As the story is commonly told, Takata was in a hospital operating room waiting for the surgeon to arrive when she heard a voice say three times “the operation is not necessary.” She got off the operating table and declined the surgery; when she asked the surgeon about alternatives to surgery, he referred her to Dr. Hayashi’s clinic in Tokyo. She received Reiki from Dr. Hayashi or his students every day until, four months later, she was completely cured of her ailments. Also commonly told is that Takata wanted to learn Reiki but Dr. Hayashi refused. Takata was insistent and Dr. Hayashi finally agreed to teach her: she was initiated to first and second degree Reiki in 1936 and 1937, respectively, and shortly thereafter enjoyed great success and popularity operating a Reiki practice in Hawaii.15 Takata is believed to be the last person initiated as a Master by Dr. Hayashi.
Hawayo Takata continues to be a controversial figure in the Reiki story. She is justly accused of fabricating fantastic stories and even outright lies about Reiki; the history and development of Reiki; Dr. Usui himself; roles and titles within the Reiki community; claims to authority over the origin of Reiki; and many other similar stories. For contrast, Takata was promoting a Japanese spiritual connection practice at a time when American anger at the Japanese was still a concern. One of her most widespread fabrications is that Dr. Usui was a Christian minister who was searching for a method to heal the Spirit as he supposedly read in the Bible. The true reason for Takata’s fabrications can only be guessed, but it is commonly believed that she introduced several Western elements to the Reiki story (and Dr. Usui’s history) in order to make Reiki more palatable to Westerners. Though her motives behind such fabrications are uncertain, I believe as do many others that she was absolutely instrumental in the promotion, education, and acceptance of Reiki in the West.
It’s important to note the many differences between Hawayo Takata’s, Dr. Hayashi’s, and Dr. Usui’s systems of treatment. In Dr. Usui’s system, eight or more initiations were performed over several years.16 During regular treatments, Dr. Usui sat his patients in a chair and only let them lay if they were seriously ill.17 Dr. Usui worked with patients one-on-one and directed much attention to the Tanden (a spiritual connectionc enter just below and behind the navel), and divisions of the spinal vertebrae.18 Dr. Usui taught that detecting Byosen, or learning to feel sickness and stress with the hands, was absolutely necessary in giving Reiki. He also taught his students to use a variety of methods to include looking at the area of stress, blowing breath on the area of stress, tapping and massaging the affected area, and giving Reiki through the hands.19 Contrary to what Takata taught, holding the hands with the fingers tightly together does not appear to be an absolute necessity: Dr. Usui was known to teach his students a variety of hand and finger positions to channel Reiki.
Dr. Hayashi was asked by Dr. Usui to use his skills and knowledge as a trained physician to further develop Reiki.20 With his clinical approach, Dr. Hayashi required patients to lay prone on a straw mat or futon and at least two practitioners worked on a patient at the same time; sessions were generally 60 to 90 minutes long and were given daily.21 Dr. Hayashi placed less emphasis on the Tanden and more on the meridian lines, endocrine glands, and the internal organs;22 he also followed every session with a special massage of the spine to increase circulation between the spiritual connection centers.23 Initiations weren’t limited to the eight or more given in the Usui system, but were instead given at regular monthly intervals to promote personal growth and sensitivity.24 Last, Dr. Hayashi developed an original manual to guide Reiki practitioners: this manual included set series of hand positions which were intended to aid the Reiki practitioner who has not learned to detect stress.25
Just as Dr. Hayashi took one step away from Dr. Usui, Hawayo Takata took one (or more) steps away from Dr. Hayashi and removed many of the Eastern traditions from the Reiki system she taught to her students to include the Spiritual element introduced through the recitation of song, verse, and poetry.26 She taught neither to breathe in a specific manner when giving Reiki nor that masters should hold the breath or contract certain muscles when initiating others.16 Another significant difference is that she did not appear to have taught her students to feel or detect stress that emanates from afflicted spiritual connection centers in the body.27
There are a few reasons why there is so little concrete information about Takata’s approach to Reiki. One of those reasons is that she forbade notes or audio recordings of her teaching; to compound this, she herself did not write or publish her teaching methods and philosophy. Contrary to history, she insisted that Reiki was and always had been a strictly oral tradition and should not be recorded.28 Because her students were forbidden from taking notes, their fragile and fallible memories were all that remained. To further complicate affairs, Takata did not teach the same material to each class and did not consistently present the same information each time. Both the history and the curriculum she presented weren’t consistent from one presentation to the next.29
In the Summer of 2009, William Rand corresponded with Alice Picking, a student who attended a seminar taught by Takata in 1975. This appears to have been one of the only (or the only) classes where Takata gave hand-outs and allowed her students to take notes. Ms. Picking saved her hand-outs and shared them with William Rand to help the rest of the world learn how Takata taught Reiki. In a word, Takata’s system was concise. Takata did teach a series of hand positions for the treatment of chronic and acute conditions, but they were few: upper left abdomen, upper right abdomen, navel, lower abdomen, upper-mid spine, mid-spine, and lower-mid spine.30 All other accounts of Takata which I have read are either conflicting or describe a system which emphasizes allowing spiritual connections to prompt the practitioner.
Takata’s changes, revisions, and subtractions were seen by traditionalists as a betrayal of the purely Japanese Reiki system and this led to a fracture between Eastern and Western Reiki. Fortunately, time has shown that Reiki is much more flexible than the human minds which have tried to define it. Were it not for Takata’s revisions, Reiki may never have gained footing in the West nor spread the way it has; it may also have fallen into obscurity and never received much notice outside of Japan. In Takata, East met West and Reiki spread like wildfire across the globe – Western Reiki enjoys equal and sometimes greater popularity in Japan than the traditional Eastern styles.
Reiki is not a religion, nor is it associated with any one particular religion. Reiki practitioners traditionally observe the five Reiki Principles, but their religious beliefs are separate. These five principles work in conjunction with the Three Pillars of Reiki in order to promote modesty, kindness, and respect for human dignity. The Three Pillars of Reiki are the key devotions which form the Usui system of natural healing. They are Gassho, Reiji-Ho, and Chiryo.
The first pillar of Reiki is Gassho, which can be interpreted as “two hands coming together.” Gassho is very simple: sit or kneel in a comfortable position and bring your palms together at the level of your heart, the same as children are taught to pray. The back is kept as straight as possible and breathing is performed regularly. While sitting in this position, all attention is focused on the point where the two index fingers come together. If a thought comes to Mind, it is acknowledged and allowed to pass. With practice, the Mind can be held in peaceful silence. The scientifically proven benefits of regular meditation are outside of the scope of this book, but I encourage you to adopt twice-daily meditation (Gassho or your preferred technique). I noticed a sharp increase in my sensitivity to Reiki and a dramatic improvement in my mood and temperament after I began regular meditation and I’m confident that you will notice similar benefits. A short guide to meditation is included in Appendix D.
The second pillar of Reiki is Reiji-Ho, or prayer. Reiji-Ho (or just Reiji), is a three-part prayer said before every Reiki session, be it for oneself or for another. The practitioner brings his hands together in Gassho at the level of his heart, prays for the Reiki to enter him, and waits for the Reiki to enter his body; it can be felt as it passes through the crown, brow, or temples. The second part, only to be performed after Reiki has entered the body, is a prayer for the recipient’s health and recovery. The practitioner prays for the recipient’s health and recovery on all levels and asks that the subject be healed. In the third part of the prayer, the practitioner brings his joined hands to the level of his eyes or forehead and prays that Reiki guides him to where the subject needs the most help. Whether this is spoken in the Mind or out loud is up to you.
The third pillar of Reiki is Chiryo, or treatment. This is the actual channeling of Reiki through the practitioner to the subject. At this point, it should be noted that Reiki is dissimilar from many biofield modalities in that it does not use or require the practitioner’s own life Spirit but instead draws from an infinite or inexhaustible supply of universal life. Reiki practitioners do not believe that they transmit their own vitality but instead are acting as a medium through which Reiki can flow. This is the single most important element of Reiki: the practitioner is working with a power greater than himself. When I say that a practitioner acts as a medium or channels universal life Spirit, I do not mean that he channels messages from the dead or speaks with the departed spirits. I mean that the practitioner enters a meditative state and uses his Mind and body as a vessel to permit the passage of life Spirit.
As was noted before, Dr. Usui used a more intuitive approach. Although Dr. Usui did have specific hand positions which he used for specific ailments,31 he was known to stress the importance of following intuition and being guided by the signals given from the patient or from the Reiki itself. Dr. Usui rigorously taught methods to detect Byosen and locate the spiritual connection centers of greatest stress; without this skill, the practitioner was lost. To remedy this obstacle, Dr. Hayashi, at Dr. Usui’s request, wrote a standardized series of hand positions which are commonly followed today: forehead, temples, back of head, back of neck, throat, crown, stomach, and intestines.32 Dr. Hayashi’s most famous student, Hawayo Takata, appears to have forsaken her teacher’s clinical, systematic methods and prescribed to a loose intuition.
What I want to illustrate is that each one of the key players in the Reiki story taught a different system and used a different approach from the other, but each was able to help their patients and initiate new practitioners. That is, despite their sometimes radical differences, each was able to channel Reiki and each experienced the same results. It is my opinion that, despite their differences and what they did or didn’t include in their own systems, they enjoyed success because they were working with a power greater than themselves which could not be foiled or restrained by human efforts to define or shape it. By acting as a channel or conduit for this divine Spirit, the Reiki practitioner can promote relaxation, reduce stress, and improve well-being and peace of Mind. I, as do many others, believe that Reiki promotes natural recovery from illness, injury, and disease; this is accomplished by virtue of the body’s innate drive to live and operate in tune with the natural order and divine Spiritual connection of the world.
How and why Reiki benefits recipients is debatable. Some take the position that Reiki is chi, ki, qi, prana, orgone, or a natural product of the human body which stimulates the natural healing process. The position has also been made that Reiki is the presence of God (however you define it), and a transcendent or extrinsic force which the practitioner channels for the benefit of himself or another. Scientific research is being conducted to explore Reiki and primarily focuses on the subtle, measurable energies naturally emitted by the body.
One such body of research is a study in which Japanese researchers released data showing that the human body emits visible light.33 This light was captured on film in a light-proof room with ultra-sensitive cameras which show that the light emitted by the body naturally fluctuates during the day and is connected to the body’s metabolic rate and overall vitality. One explanation has been put forward by Dr. James Oschman, Ph.D., who hypothesizes that the measurable electric fields naturally generated by the body work according to proven scientific laws of electromagnetic fields. Dr. Oschman shows that human organs are their own type of spiritual connection centers and naturally emit Spirit on set frequencies and that when they are unhealthy they are literally out of tune. His hypothesis suggests that the healthy “in tune” frequency of Reiki makes use of Faraday’s Law and induces the weaker field back into its natural range of operation.34
Another study35 shows that benefits from Reiki are not the result of self hypnosis or auto-suggestion. In this study, autonomic nervous-system changes of human subjects were measured while receiving Reiki. A control group who received no Reiki was compared to two experimental groups. One experimental group received Reiki from actual practitioners and the second experimental group received “sham Reiki” from actors. The study showed that the only group which exhibited a significant change was the group receiving Reiki from the actual practitioners. Neither experimental group was told if it was paired with actors or Reiki practitioners. The “sham” and control groups showed no significant changes.
Another peer-reviewed study36 used white noise to artificially stimulate the heart rate of laboratory rats. Probes were inserted to accurately measure internal changes in real-time. Three groups were formed: the first group of rats received no Reiki. The second group of rats was treated by actors who pointed their hands at the rats from a distance of four feet. A third group of rats was treated by practitioners who also pointed their hands at the rats from a distance of four feet. As with the humans in the previous study, the only group of rats which exhibited a lowered heart rate was the group which received Reiki from the practitioners. Because rats can’t be influenced by self-hypnosis or auto-suggestion, this study and others like it is among the most encouraging indicators that the positive results reported by recipients of Reiki can be attributed to something greater than positive thinking.
To deliver Reiki, the practitioner places his hands lightly on the dis-eased spiritual connection centers of the subject’s body and uses meditative techniques to open the flow of universal life Spirit. The Usui system of natural healing employs five sacred symbols (or keys) to channel specific types of Spirit. There is debate to be had over the origin of the symbols, and even more debate to be had over their Spiritual properties. Some authors will tell you that the symbols are the power they represent and that wherever they’re drawn they channel that Spirit. Whether you draw the symbol with your fingers in the Air or with a pen on paper, the power of the symbol will be invoked.
Others, including myself, take the position that the sacred symbols of Usui Reiki are graphic representations of something far larger and much less tangible. The story of Plato’s cave illustrates this belief: in Plato’s cave, a group of people are chained in such a way that they can only see a blank wall in front of them, upon which the shadows of things and people behind them are projected. The cave people see these shadows and give them proper names. For example, the shadow of a horse is projected onto the wall and the cave people will say, “See? That is a horse.” Of course the shadow isn’t a horse: it’s only the shadow of a horse. In this pattern, what we call a sacred symbol of the Usui system of natural healing doesn’t actually have any power: it’s only the shadow of something which is with us but outside of our full awareness.
There are many different schools of Reiki in the world today. Not all schools of Reiki use the same symbols and even those which do use the same symbols don’t all draw them the same way. Hawayo Takata taught different students variations of the same symbols, and as Reiki has grown and expanded into the New Age and Occult cultures of the West it has acquired other symbols which differ in both function and appearance than the original five of the Usui system.
One of many debates in the Reiki community is over the necessity of initiations. Initiations, also called attunements, are a Spiritual ritual in which the teacher “enables” or “opens” the student so that he can channel Reiki. The debate over the necessity of an attunement or a grand initiation goes back to Dr. Usui’s discovery of Reiki. The question always is, “Who initiated Dr. Usui?” Well, nobody. Dr. Usui was an intelligent, educated, and deeply Spiritual man who had for many years practiced several other healing modalities. I believe that he identified a common thread among all healing modalities and saw that it was easier and more powerful to channel a spiritual connection from the original source than to give away one’s own vital reserves.
My personal belief is that an initiation is not necessary to channel Reiki, but having a teacher to guide you through the learning process is necessary. The teacher guides the student in his studies and by doing so transfers necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities for the student to become a capable, confident practitioner. Some things are sufficiently overt that they can be learned from a book, but others so subtle that they require a guide. In that sense, Reiki is an initiatory tradition which celebrates the teacher-student relationship and places emphasis on experiential knowledge through mentorship and guided learning.
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- [Stein, D. (1995). Essential Reiki: a Complete Guide to an Ancient Healing Art. Berkeley: Crossing Press. pp. 11]
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- [Stein, D. (1995). Essential Reiki: a Complete Guide to an Ancient Healing Art. Berkeley: Crossing Press. pp. 12]
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- [Rand, W. (2009). A Response to the Bishop’s Statement on Reiki. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. 8, Issue 2., 54-56.]
- [Petter, F. (1998). Reiki: The Legacy of Dr. Usui. Twin Lakes: Lotus press. Accessed on Amazon Kindle: location 198-203]
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- [Streich, M. (2009). The Story of Dr. Chujiro Hayashi. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. 8, Issue 3., 36-42.]
- [Wikipedia. (Accessed 16/08/2009). Hawayo Takata. Http://en.wikipdia.org/wiki/hawayo_takata.]
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- [Usui, M., & Petter, F. (1998). The Original Reiki handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui. Twin Lakes: Lotus Press. pp. 22-23.]
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- [Streich, M. (2009). The Story of Dr. Chujiro Hayashi. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. 8, Issue 3., 36-42.]
- [Streich, M. (2009). The Story of Dr. Chujiro Hayashi. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. 8, Issue 3., 36-42.]
- [Streich, M. (2009). The Story of Dr. Chujiro Hayashi. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. 8, Issue 3., 36-42.]
- [Hayashi, C., & Petter, A., & Yamaguchi, T. (2003). Hayashi Reiki Manual: Traditional Japanese Healing Techniques. Twin Lakes: Lotus Press. Accessed on Amazon Kindle: location 438-490.]
- [Streich, M. (2009). The Story of Dr. Chujiro Hayashi. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. 8, Issue 3., 36-42.]
- [Hayashi, C., & Petter, A., & Yamaguchi, T. (2003). Hayashi Reiki Manual: Traditional Japanese Healing Techniques. Twin Lakes: Lotus Press.]
- [Streich, M. (2007). How Hawayo Takata Practiced and Taught Reiki. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. 6, Issue 1. pp. 10-18.]
- [Streich, M. (2007). How Hawayo Takata Practiced and Taught Reiki. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. 6, Issue 1. pp. 10-18.]
- [Siderides, D. (2009). My Time with Mrs. Takata. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. 8, Issue 2. pp. 64- 66.]
- [Streich, M. (2007). How Hawayo Takata Practiced and Taught Reiki. Reiki News Magazine, Vol. 6, Issue 1. pp. 10-18.]
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- [Petter, F. (1998). Reiki: The Legacy of Dr. Usui. Twin Lakes: Lotus press.]
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- [Baldwin, A., Schwartz, G., Wagers, C. (2008). Reiki Improves Heart Rate Homeostasis in Laboratory Rats. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Vol. 14, Num. 4, pp. 417-422]
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