Dr. Usui began his healing work with the beggars in the slums of Kyoto. Before long, he realized that those he healed would return again and again for treatment of the same illnesses. He believed that many of those people held onto their diseases because their illness somehow served them as useful. People preferred to live being sick because they were provided for by others, got more attention, and for other psychological reasons.

So Usui altered his treatments to include not only the physical body, but also the mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies as well. He also found that to do successful healings on the whole individual, he could not perform his treatments for free. Some form of monetary or energy exchange had to occur for the healing process to take root on all levels in the diseased person. Usui also discovered that by healing people on all levels of their being, those people suddenly gained the ability to heal others. Usui organized what he had learned into a system he named "Reiki." It is a process of being connected to the universal life force energy through a Reiki attunement.

In the West, Usui passed his teachings on to Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, a naval medical officer, in 1925. One of Dr. Hayashi's students was an American woman, Mrs. Hawayo Takata. She was the thirteenth Reiki master initiated by Dr. Hayashi. Her certificate, notarised on February 21, 1938 gave her the status of a Reiki Master and authorised her to teach the system. She initiated 22 Reiki masters, most of whom are alive and still practising and teaching Reiki today. Back to Reiki History