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Liber XXXIII · Theosophy

Liber XXXIII · Theosophy · Chapter III: Crystals, Auras & Energy

Reiki: History from Usui Mikao and Takata to Modern Practice

Reiki history explained: Usui Mikao and Mount Kurama, Hayashi's clinic, Hawayo Takata's Western lineage, New Age growth, and what scientific studies conclude.

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Reiki is a Japanese healing practice in which a practitioner places the hands on or near a recipient's body with the intention of channelling a universal life energy, which the Japanese word reiki is taken to name. It was founded by Usui Mikao (1865–1926) in Tokyo in 1922, reshaped by his student Hayashi Chūjirō, and brought to the West by the Japanese-American teacher Hawayo Takata. Today it is one of the most widely practised forms of energy healing, used in spas, hospices and some hospitals, although scientific reviews have not found good evidence that it works beyond the effects of relaxation and expectation.

Origins of the Word Reiki and the Taishō Healing Boom§

The Japanese word reiki (霊気) combines rei, meaning spirit, soul or numinous power, with ki, the vital breath or energy known in Chinese as qi. Before Usui it was a general word for a mysterious or spiritual atmosphere, and in the early twentieth century it was used by several healers for the subtle force they claimed to transmit. The concept of ki itself belongs to a long East Asian tradition of medicine and self-cultivation, described in our guide to qigong and the internal arts.

Reiki emerged in a particular moment. In the late Meiji and Taishō periods (roughly 1900–1926) Japan saw a boom in seishin ryōhō, "spiritual" or "psychological" therapies, which blended Buddhist and Shintō ideas, traditional breathing methods, hypnotism and Western ideas of magnetism and mental healing. Japanese practitioners read translations of Western works on hypnosis and animal magnetism, and dozens of healing schools offered hands-on treatment and spiritual exercises. Historians now place Usui's method within this movement rather than treating it as an isolated revelation, and the same environment produced several of Japan's new religions.

Usui Mikao and Mount Kurama§

Reliable information about Usui comes mainly from the memorial stone erected by his students in 1927 at the Saihō-ji temple in Tokyo. According to this inscription, he was born in 1865 in Taniai, in what is now Gifu Prefecture, studied widely, and held various occupations. In 1922, during a period of fasting and meditation on Mount Kurama, a mountain north of Kyoto long associated with Buddhist and mountain asceticism, he is said to have experienced a powerful insight in which he received the healing ability he called Reiki. That year he founded a society in Tokyo, usually known as the Usui Reiki Ryōhō Gakkai, and began teaching and treating patients.

The stone records that Usui's healing was in great demand after the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923, and that he later opened a larger training hall. He travelled to teach in other parts of Japan and died in Fukuyama in March 1926. His method, as reconstructed from Japanese sources, combined hand healing with meditation, recitation of verses written by the Meiji emperor, and a set of five ethical precepts: for today, do not be angry, do not worry, be grateful, work diligently and be kind to others. Students received spiritual empowerments (reiju) from the teacher, and advanced students learned symbols and formulas used to focus the practice.

Hayashi Chūjirō and the Healing Clinic§

Among Usui's later students was Hayashi Chūjirō (1880–1940), a retired naval officer. After Usui's death Hayashi developed a more clinical style, setting out standard hand positions for treating the whole body and running a clinic in Tokyo, where several practitioners worked on a patient at once. His organisation, later known as the Hayashi Reiki Kenkyūkai, trained students in graded levels, and his teaching notes give a picture of Reiki as a practical therapy rather than primarily a spiritual discipline.

In 1935 a young widow from Kauai, Hawayo Takata (1900–1980), came to Hayashi's clinic while visiting Japan for medical treatment. By her own account, her illness improved under daily Reiki sessions and she persuaded Hayashi to teach her. She trained in Tokyo and returned to Hawaii to practise, and Hayashi visited the islands in 1937–1938 to teach and lecture, recognising her as a master-level teacher in 1938. Hayashi died in 1940; most accounts state that he took his own life, in circumstances connected with the approach of war between Japan and the United States.

Hawayo Takata and Reiki's Journey to the West§

For four decades Takata was effectively the only channel through which Reiki reached the West. She practised and taught in Hawaii and later on the American mainland, charging substantial fees for initiation, which she described as part of the exchange that gave the training its value. She taught orally, discouraged written notes, and told the history of Reiki as a dramatic story. In her version, Usui was a Christian educator at Doshisha University in Kyoto who set out to discover how Jesus healed and studied in the United States before rediscovering the method in Buddhist sutras. Historians have found no evidence for these details, and Japanese sources describe Usui differently. Many scholars read Takata's account as an adaptation designed to make a Japanese practice acceptable to American audiences in the years after the Second World War.

In the 1970s Takata trained twenty-two Reiki masters. After her death in December 1980 they and their students spread the practice rapidly. Two organisations claimed her legacy: the Reiki Alliance, associated with her granddaughter Phyllis Lei Furumoto, and the American International Reiki Association led by Barbara Weber Ray, whose teaching later became the Radiance Technique.

Reiki in the New Age: Lineages, Levels and Symbols§

In the 1980s and 1990s Reiki became one of the most popular healing methods of the New Age movement. Teaching was usually divided into three degrees: a first level for self-treatment and treating others by touch; a second level, introducing symbols and distant healing; and a master or teacher level that allowed the initiate to perform attunements. Prices fell, courses were compressed into weekends, and new styles multiplied, incorporating crystals, chakras, angels and spirit guides. The symbols, once treated as secret, were published in many books.

Western Reiki also absorbed the vocabulary of auras and subtle bodies described in our guide to crystals, auras and energy healing. In the 1990s the German teacher Frank Arjava Petter, working in Japan, publicised the continuing existence of the Usui Reiki Ryōhō Gakkai and of other Japanese lineages, and Japanese teachers began to present their own forms to Westerners. This produced a lasting distinction between "Western" and "Japanese" Reiki, and a more critical historical study of the practice's origins, notably by the historian Justin B. Stein.

Reiki in Hospitals, Science and Religion§

From the 1990s Reiki was offered in some hospitals, cancer centres and hospices as a complementary therapy, often by volunteers, alongside massage and meditation. Clinical research has been difficult because it is hard to design convincing placebo controls for a practice in which the practitioner may not touch the patient. Systematic reviews, including a Cochrane review of Reiki for anxiety and depression published in 2015, have concluded that the available trials are small and of low quality and do not show that Reiki has effects beyond those of relaxation, attention and expectation. No measurable "Reiki energy" has been identified. Supporters reply that patients often report comfort and reduced stress, which may be valuable in palliative care. Reiki should not replace medical diagnosis or treatment.

Religious responses vary. The Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued guidelines in 2009 judging Reiki incompatible with Christian teaching and with science and advising against its use in Catholic institutions. Many practitioners, for their part, describe Reiki as non-religious, though its history and its language of spiritual energy place it firmly within the modern history of esoteric healing.

Frequently asked questions§

Who founded Reiki?§

Reiki was founded by Usui Mikao (1865–1926), who began teaching his method in Tokyo in 1922 after a retreat on Mount Kurama. It was developed by Hayashi Chūjirō and brought to the West by Hawayo Takata.

What does the word Reiki mean?§

Reiki joins rei, spirit or numinous power, and ki, vital energy. Practitioners usually translate it as "universal life energy", though in ordinary Japanese the word had broader meanings before Usui used it.

Is there scientific evidence that Reiki works?§

Reviews of clinical trials have not found reliable evidence that Reiki produces effects beyond relaxation, attention and expectation, and many studies are small or poorly controlled. Some patients report that sessions are calming, which is why a few hospitals offer it as a complementary comfort therapy.

Was Usui a Christian minister?§

That claim comes from Hawayo Takata's oral history. Japanese sources, including Usui's 1927 memorial inscription, give no support for it, and historians regard it as a later embellishment.

Sources and further reading§