(Excerpts from “Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide” by Pamela Miles)
“Reiki as we know it today originated in the early twentieth century in Japan with a householder and lifelong spiritual aspirant named Mikao Usui. Drawing from years of experience and a profound revelation during a three-week fasting retreat, Usui organized a body of spiritual practices that included healing practices which he taught from 1922 until his death in 1926.
Usui had an usually expansive vision for his time and culture, and offered his beginning practices openly, teaching some two thousand Japanese students. From that point, students progressed to different levels depending upon their commitment to regular practice. Fewer than twenty senior students were trained to continue Usui’s work.
One of these students was a medical doctor retired from the navy named Chujiro Hayashi, who opened a clinic in Tokyo with Usui’s blessing. Hawayo Takata, a first-generation Japanese-American, came to his clinic and became Hayashi’s student after being relieved of her health problems.
Hayashi and Takata collaborated to bring Reiki to America. Hayashi formally recognized Takata as a Reiki master in 1938. Takata continued to practice and teach in Hawaii, on the U. S. mainland, and in British Columbia, Canada, until her death in 1980. She left twenty-two students to continue her work. Reiki is now practices around the world.”