Origins of Reiki
The origins of Reiki are traced to Tibet. Some form of this energy has been known in cultures worldwide, mostly spread by oral tradition, with long-standing historical beginnings. Tibet was the original source of much of today's healing knowledge both of touch healing and the chakras. The Tibetan system of understanding the aura and energy bodies and using them for healing has become universal and is the main source of modern knowledge.

There are many different theories as to how the Reiki type healing knowledge, also known in Native American, Eastern Indian, African, Egyptian, and Chinese culture, was discovered and taught at its beginning but as mentioned above Reiki can be traced from Tibet. This healing knowledge then traveled in two migrations. One to India and one to China. From China it reached Japan, and from there it was brought to the United States in 1938 by Hawayo Takata, a Japanese healer.

In the late 1800's Tokyo a Christian Bible student Dr. Mikao Usui questioned the doctrine of "faith healing," asking to see it before he would believe it. The student's challenge intrigued the teacher so much that he quit the ministry and his university teaching position to begin a seven year search for the healing described in the Bible.

History of Reiki
Dr. Usui's quest took him through the ancient texts of several cultures. He obtained a Ph.D. in Chicago, then went to Japan, where he studied Buddhism and Zen. He learned Sanskrit to read the Buddhist texts in the original form. He then went to India. He found the information he'd long sought in Sanskrit. He found a formula in symbols of how Buddha did healing.

He then returned to Japan. However, he was still not able to apply the formula and symbols that he had learned. He then went on a twenty-one day vision quest to meditate on the information. The symbols appeared to him on the last day enveloped in light, and he left the mountain knowing how to heal. During the next seven years he devoted himself to healing and began to teach Reiki to others.

Dr. Usui left his work to a student, Chujiro Hayashi. Hayashi was given the information reserved only to those initiates known as Reiki Masters to open others to the healing symbols and the transmission of Reiki healing energy. Hayashi opened a healing clinic in Tokyo after Dr. Usui's death.

Reiki returned to the west with the work of Hawayo Takata. Takata, a Japanese-American woman from Hawaii had come to Chujiro Hayashi's Reiki Clinic in 1935 with cancer. After her illness was cured by a series of Reiki treatments she asked to be taught the methods. To support her quest she sold all that she owned to go to Japan with her two daughters. Takata learned healing at the Tokyo Reiki Center. A year later she returned to Hawaii to practice Reiki Energy Healing. In 1938, realizing that World War II was coming, Hayashi initiated Takata as a Reiki Master and made her his successor.

In 1979, after forty years of practicing Reiki healing, Hawayo Takata passed the Master's knowledge onto her granddaughter Phyllis Furumoto. Hawayo Takata died in 1980.