by Rev. Jason Storm
Usui Reiki is a method of natural healing that uses the natural energy of life and all living things to restore balance and harmony where there is imbalance and dis-ease. If you found your way here, you probably at least know a little bit about what Reiki is. If you don't you can click here.
The origins of Usui Reiki
Around the turn of the 20th century in Japan, there was a Japanese Man named Mikao Usui (pronounced mee-COW yoo-SOO-ee), a Buddhist Shinto Priest (though other sources inaccurately report that he was a Christian Minister) who wanted to re-learn the natural healing abilities of the human body. At some point, it is said, he went to America to study and become a doctor of medicine, which he did. After he was graduated from medical school, he found himself at a loss for why doctors could not ACTUALLY HEAL the body, and he asked his professors why. They said very glibly that he was a DOCTOR, he didn't heal people, he just treated their suffering. This did not satisfy (now) Dr. Usui and he returned to Japan. He decided that if medical science couldn't provide the answers he was seeking, perhaps spirituality and religion could lead the way. So he went to see the abbot of the largest monastery in Kyoto who gave him access to their sizeable library. Usui studied for days and weeks on end looking for something in the writings of the Buddha that described the healing methods used by both Buddha and Jesus of Nazareth (whom he learned about during his years in America). Upon finding a vague reference to the method of channeling universal life energy, Usui realized that it was his mission to go and rediscover this healing method. He asked the abbott how he should proceed and was told that he should embark upon a retreat on the holy mountain and ask Buddha to show him the way. Usui decided this was his path and set out on a 21 day retreat on the mountain. Dr. Usui made his camp in a cave overlooking the city high on the mountain. He sat and fasted, prayed, and meditated each day from sunrise to sunset waiting for the answer to come to him. He had a little pile of 21 stones and every day at sunset he would toss one off the cliff to mark his days there. At the end of the 21st day, Usui threw the last of his stones off the cliff and was quite disheartened as he thought his quest was going to go unfulfilled. And as the sun began to set, Usui stood up and looked off into the distance at the setting sun, saddened that he had failed to learn the way of health that the Buddha knew. Then as he began to leave, he saw off in the distance five glowing orbs that seemed to be moving very quickly toward him. As he looked harder to see them in the light of the setting sun, they soon arrived and struck him squarely in the forehead, knocking him to the ground unconcscious like a bolt of lightning from the heavens. When Dr. Usui awoke, his body was vibrating with the strongest energy he had ever felt. He knew that his prayers had just been answered and the Buddha had given him the gift of healing. In his excitement he began to go quickly down the mountain to tell the world of his experience. But somewhere along the way he stumbled and stubbed his toe quite badly on a rock. As his sat down in pain, he instinctively put his hands on the bleeding, throbbing, horrible looking toe. As he did this he could feel huge currents of energy coursing through his body and from his hands into his toe. In just a few minutes the pain had stopped and when he withdrew his hands, he could see that the toe was completely healed with no sign whatsoever of the injury that had just taken place except for the drying blood that remained. This excited Usui even more and he quickly went down into the slums of Kyoto and began healing and giving the gift of Reiki to everyone who would allow him. People experienced miraculous healings and were able to leave the slums and begin a new life in earnest. But then a few weeks later Usui would see them again in the slums back into their life of poverty. When he asked them why after they had been healed in such a profound and permanent way they could return to this squalor. Their answers only saddened him as he learned they were too lazy to make use of their new found health and vitality and were even angry at him for changing their lives in that way. This is the story that was told to explain why Usui said that all treatment and training should be paid for, but there is considerable disagreement as to the TRUE reasons for the money requirements.
Dr. Chunjiro Hayashi and Mrs. Takata Now we flash forward a few years and we find Dr. Usui has opened a clinic to heal his patients with Reiki. He found a few deserving students and began to teach them his method. His number one student became Dr. Chunjiro Hayashi, a retired Navy Officer. Dr. Hayashi was one of the few people that Usui himself actually trained into mastery himself. After Doctor Usui's death, Dr. Hayashi took over the work of the clinic and of Reiki. Meanwhile, a young woman whose husband had died was living in Hawaii, in America. Her name was Hawayo Takata. She was very ill after the birth of her daughter and was very close to death. The medical doctors told her family that there was nothing they could do for her and that it was best she put her affairs in order as she probably wouldn't live much longer than a few months. Alarmed, her family asked everyone they could for some remedy or something that could help Hawayo. Then they heard about the miraculous healing work of Dr. Hayashi in Japan. They quickly packed Hawayo up and sent her back much to the disdain of her doctors, who told her that she wouldn't survive the journey. Well, she did survive and arrived at Dr. Hayashi's clinic where she was a patient for three months. When Dr. Hayashi first began to treat her with Reiki, Takata is said to have gotten up from the table, and checked up Hayashi's sleeves looking for batteries and some heating device, as she was very surprised at how hot Hayashi's hands were as he treated her. Hayashi explained that the flow of Reiki was what made his hands hot, not to worry, that it was perfectly natural and normal. Takata made a complete recovery in spite of being told by doctor after doctor that she would die. She herself couldn't believe how powerful and effective Reiki was and decided that she wanted to learn it. But at that time, there were strict societal codes against teaching a woman such matters. But Mrs. Takata was very persistent, and kept on at Dr. Hayashi for more than a year. He had agreed to allow her to work cleaning and nursing the patients in the clinic but at long last agreed to teach her. Takata learned quickly and worked for several years in the clinic before returning to Hawaii to open a clinic for westerners there. After some time, Takata's clinic was a success. But then one night as she slept, Takata is said to have had a vision of Dr. Hayashi at the foot of her bed beckoning to her to return to Japan. The next day, she announced that she was going to do this very thing. Which she promptly did. Dr. Hayashi had summoned all of his students via an astrally projected message to return to hear some very disturbing news. He told them that he had been told by his guides that there was about to be a war of such grand scale, many millions of people would die. He said that he was shown that he would be returned to active duty in the navy and that he himself would be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people. From everything that he had learned with Dr. Usui and in his own experience with Reiki, he knew that he could not proceed down such a terrible and destructive path. He decided that he must transmit all of the knowledge of Reiki to these few students that he trusted, and he made masters of all of them. When this was complete, Dr. Hayashi retired to his bedroom, sat down and left his body for the last time, never to return. Hawayo Takata and the other new masters went out into the world to spread Reiki and provide healing for the horror of war that was about to emerge.
Hawayo's own clinic was destroyed in the attack on Pearl Harbor and most of the other masters were killed in the bombings in Japan. After some years and long hard thought, Takata decided that she herself would one day be out of time, and the she must work quickly to preserve Reiki for posterity. But she remembered the story of Usui in the slums of Kyoto and knew that westerners wouldn't understand the concept of compassionate action and Karma. So it is said, that at this time Takata decided that Reiki must be a very expensive thing to learn. It is said by some sources that she decided the Level 1 training should cost $1,000 US, Level 2 $5,000, and Master Level $10,000!! This is the supposed origin of the prices and rules about money in Reiki training. But again, many people disagree with this. From that time, many hundreds of thousands of people have learned the techniques of Reiki and been attuned to this very potent Universal Energy. I am one of these people and very soon, you will be one as well. My life has changed forever from the thing it was before Reiki came-a-calling. And I am deeply, eternally grateful for that gift. This is the gift I want to share with you, if you want it.
Now, if you feel ready to proceed, click here and begin to learn the lessons of the First Degree of Usui Reiki. Or if you would like to take a "test-drive" of Reiki energy before you proceed, you can click here to connect to an energy channel attuned into the internet to feel Reiki for yourself.