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What is Reiki?

The word Reiki can be translated as spiritual energy or life force. Rei meaning Spiritual or Sacred and ki meaning energy or life force. Another interpretation of Reiki, derived from the translations of Mikao Usui's memorial stone in Japan is 'A method that came into being through a moment of enlightenment.'

In Japan the work Ki means energy but in China the word Chi is used and in India energy is called Prana. People who practice Tai Chi, Chi Kung or Yoga also work with energy to bring balance and harmony through simple movements or breathing techniques.

Reiki is an invisible, gentle energy that works by balancing a persons' energy system, promoting the body's own natural ability to heal, on all levels; physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. As well as encouraging personal or spiritual development. This means that Reiki may help with a wide range of issues and conditions, as it puts you and your body in the best position to cope with all of life's ups and downs.

Since Usui's death Reiki has been adapted and changed by several people including Mrs. Takata, Dr. Hayashi and others. These changes were made for a variety of reasons all of which were valid at the time. This involved more focus on symbols, rituals and treating others. So here in the West Reiki has become very much a treatment procedure like many other holistic treatments. We now have more information about the original teachings that Mikao Usui gave his students. Originally Usui's students' would have used Reiki for their own personal or spiritual development and this was the primary focus, treating others was done but it was a side issue. The system itself was kept very simple, free from symbols and cluttered rituals and students worked intuitively. The Reiki precepts were also an important part of original Reiki and his students would have applied these principles to their every day lives.

When researching different styles and training methods you may find influences brought into Reiki from Spiritual healing and the New Age movement. This would be working with concepts such as Spirit guides and Spirit communication, Chakras and Crystal healing techniques. It is fine to combine other approaches if that is what you would like but Reiki in it's purest form does not involve working with guides or the spirit world, the energy channelled by a Reiki person is a neutral universal energy. The energy will naturally balance Chakras and energy channels known as Meridian Lines so there is no need to have an extensive knowledge of chakras or Meridians. My advice for anyone who would like to develop other energy techniques such as Crystal healing or Spirit Communication etc. is to do each course separately, making sure that you get adequate training in each area.

To sum up what Reiki means to me I would say that it is a simple, effective technique that anyone can use to produce a more harmonious and well balanced life style. An energy that gently encourages people to make better choices and focus more on what is important, rather than the mundane clutter of day to day living that usually takes over a person.

Reiki is simple and safe and is suitable for anyone interested in healing, personal development and meditation.

Who can benefit from Reiki?

Everyone can benefit from Reiki, even animals and plants show clear signs that Reiki has had a positive effect. So that rules out the placebo effect, although I am sure there is an element of that with any form of medicine, healing product or service. The benefits that people experience from Reiki are so wide ranging that it would be impossible to list them all. Reiki is all about energy and your energy system is your foundation. When you maintain a healthy foundation everything that it supports functions more effectively. Interestingly in Eastern cultures these ideas and healing techniques have been around for thousands of years. Finally in the West we are starting to catch up, more and more people are turning to Reiki and other complementary therapies to increase their well being and peace of mind.

Reiki is a very flexible, yet simple system that puts the individual back in control of his or her whole self. Whether you are looking for relief from a physical condition, to free yourself from unpleasant emotions or would like to keep stress and anxiety to a minimum. Reiki can give you best chance of success. If you have a yearning to get in touch with your spiritual side or deepen your spiritual experiences so far, then Reiki will provide an excellent support structure. Reiki won't interfere with your current medication and will enhance any other spiritual or religious practices that you may be part of, so there really are no restrictions. People from all ages and professions, together with full time students and parents attend Reiki courses and receive treatments. You will probably discover that quite a few people you know have already experienced the benefits of Reiki. The best way to understand the experience of Reiki is to try it.

For those of you who are considering a profession in complementary therapies, Reiki is great place to start. Anyone can learn to work with this wonderful energy. You don't need to be a Rocket Scientist to practice Reiki and you start experiencing the benefits of Reiki straight away. Absolute Reiki courses provide extensive support to all students at all levels. You will never be left on your own and you'll even get advice on setting up your own business. If you practice other forms of therapy, then Reiki is ideally suited to you. Those who dedicate their lives to helping others should not forget to help themselves. The unique element of Reiki, compared with most other therapies, is the fact that you can work on yourself regularly. You never get depleted or drained when you work with Reiki. You work with an external source of energy, not your own. Reiki will support you the practitioner and enhance the work that you are already doing. Making sure that practitioner and client are always happy. Reiki courses are not just for those who wish to work as a professional. The focus of all the courses is your own personal or spiritual development, with the added advantage that you can treat your friends and family straight away or learn to work as a professional if you wish too.

A brief history.

Mikao Usui was the man responsible for developing Reiki in the 20th century in Japan. He was born in 1865 in a village call Taniaimura, now named Miyamachi in Kyoto. Usui 's background was Tendai Buddhism and he was looking for the ultimate life purpose. This drive for discovery led Usui to studying a wide variety of spiritual and healing systems. At this time Japan had opened it gates to the rest of the world, resulting in a flood of new spiritual ideas and healing techniques being developed and Reiki was one of them.

He spent years in search of his ultimate life purpose and how to achieve that. Usui's knowledge of Tendai Buddhism, Shintoism and Shugendo together with his experience of martial arts, kiko and other spiritual and healing systems, enabled Usui to develop a method, which we now call Reiki that meant anyone could work this technique and pass this ability on to others. Usui wanted to share this gift with as many people as he could. Many books will tell you that Usui went up a mountain and did a 21 day fast and meditation which led to a moment of enlightenment. This probably did happen and on more than one occasion. However he did not go up a mountain one day and then come back down with Reiki. His system was developed over a long period of time an although his experiences of enlightenment may have contributed to this development it was not the one off miracle that seems to dominate most accounts of Reiki's history.

Mikao Usui opened a clinic where he taught Reiki to his students, as well as doing healing sessions. Usui had been known to travel all over Japan to help people in need. When Usui died he passed the clinic on to three naval officers who had studied with him. The Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai was set up after Usui's death, by the same three naval officers, as a memorial society that still exists today. However it is a very closed community and extracting information is not easy.

It is only recently that it has been revealed to the West that the symbols commonly used in Western Reiki were only introduced by Usui to a small number of students that found difficulties in experiencing the different types of energy, using techniques that the majority of Usui's students were using. This mainly applied to the Naval Officers, one of whom being Dr. Hayashi. The rest of his students would have used meditations and the Kotodama (Sacred Sounds). Dr. Hayashi was a member of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai but left early on to set up on his own. Dr. Hayashi's training was quite different to the majority of Usui's students' and this has influenced the modern development of Reiki in the West. He used a fixed training structure and symbols, his connection ritual also involved symbols, which became a longer more complicated 'attunement'. Usui provided ongoing weekly training and gave his students' regular 'empowerments', which were a gentle, simple, more graceful ritual, that didn't use symbols at all. Usui's students would have spent years developing their Reiki practice and focused mainly on their own spiritual development. They would have practised mindfulness, which means that you control your mind and not the other way round, by monitoring your thoughts and eliminating anything that doesn't serve a positive purpose.

Dr. Hayashi taught Mrs Takata Reiki and gave her permission to teach it in the West. Mrs Takata's arrival in the USA wasn't very well timed, with the War and Pearl Harbour still very much in peoples' minds. Japanese ideas weren't easy to sell. For this reason Mrs. Takata made further changes to the techniques taught, as well as changing the history of Reiki. So Mikao Usui was no longer a Tendai Buddhist, but a Christian Theologian. These changes made Reiki more acceptable to her western students. Without the changes that Mrs. Takata made we may not even know of Reiki today, let alone any of the rediscoveries that have been made in the last few years.