The Japanese art of energy healing

The History of Reiki

Mikao Usui was born in Japan in the mid-nineteenth century. As he was growing up in a Buddhist environment, he heard stories about the Buddha. He was impressed with the Buddha's quest for enlightenment, even though the Buddha, having born into extreme wealth, did not lack any material need or pleasure. Usui was fascinated by both the Buddha's desire to help others, and the unusual metaphysical abilities he received after enlightenment. He also noted that the Buddha was said to be able to heal physical illness and that many of the Buddha's disciples acquired healing abilities by following his teachings.

Usui looked at the people around him and saw that there were many who were unable to lead happy and productive lives because they were sick so often, or had physical disabilities. Feeling compassion for them, he wondered if it would be possible to acquire the ability to use energy to heal physical illness in the same way that the Buddha had done. With this thought in mind, he began to work on a system of using energy to encourage natural healing, so that he might help others. He began talking to Buddhist teachers and priests, asking if they knew how to heal the sick. Apparently, the ability to heal the body was either held as a secret Buddhist technique by a few spiritual groups, or had been lost through disuse. Usui travelled throughout Japan, studying at Buddhist temples. Usui was allowed to study the sacred writings at each temple and occasionally he would find something about healing and use the information to develop his system of natural healing.

Eventually, Usui visited the holy mountain of Koriyama where he fasted, meditated and worked on connecting to the same source of healing energy. He stayed there for 21 days and at the end of that time, he had learned enough to be able to connect to the energy he was looking for and project it through his hands to the bodies of others.

Usui went back to Tokyo to work in the poor quarter helping the sick, and to teach his system of healing to others.