The History of Reiki
The following historical rendering was written by Lawrence Ellyard, Author of ‘Reiki Healer’
Although the teachings of Reiki are new to the West (formally introduced to America in the early 1970’s), Reiki’s origins stretch back to the founder Mikao Usui, who founded the system of Reiki in Japan at the end of the 19th Century. Dr. Usui was primarily a Buddhist, although he studied many religious systems of his day. Through Dr. Usui’s teaching career, he taught many people his system of Reiki. They, in turn, passed his system to their own students, yet even today many facts concerning the origins of Reiki and the life of Dr. Usui remain largely unknown.

With the enormous popularity of Reiki today, the system has now been taught to millions of people worldwide. However, what many people do not understand is that not all forms of Reiki are the same. With the sheer number of teachers and largely due to the oral tradition by which Reiki was first promulgated in the United States, perhaps Reiki can be more likened to a great ‘Chinese Whisper’. In the Takata (Western) style, this oral tradition prevented the use of written manuals, so students and teachers had to rely on their memory. As a result, in a few short years, the system became more and more fragmented.

Added to this was the popular practice of teachers adding or removing aspects of the system, making it their own. Inevitably, this left the Reiki teachings somewhat altered from their original form and so today it becomes harder and harder to find an authentic source of Reiki.

Fortunately, in the early 1990’s further discoveries of the original Reiki teachings were found. Usui’s memorial was discovered and many of Reiki’s missing links were uncovered. Further revelations included the discovery of a living Reiki tradition in Japan, with additional methods as taught by the Reiki Gakkai (Japan's Reiki Learning Society). Further to this, a number of Usui’s notes and manuals were also recovered and this lead to greater revelations. These discoveries were later made available and for the first time teachers of Reiki gained new information regarding the original system. This information did much to piece some of the lost teachings together with the more established systems of Reiki in the west.

Based on these new discoveries, much of the way Reiki was taught in the past has now changed. Much like an archeological find, these fragments of the past can tell us a great deal about Reiki today and it is from these findings that the following rendering of Usui’s life and path is told.