A Dr Mikao Usui handed down the History of Reiki, known generally as ‘Usui Reiki’, after his studies of ancient transcripts.

He passed on his experiences and teachings to others, who then did the same. This practice continues today.

Many aspects of reiki therapy, and the reiki precepts themselves, have of course been modernized to fit today’s society and each individuals need for relaxation, life balance, stress relief and sense of overall well being.

Learning how to use reiki energy yourself is really like taking some individual ‘me time’ that may currently be missing in your daily life.

Read more – What is Reiki?

History of Reiki

For this article about the history of reiki, we are referring to the original Usui Reiki Method. There are now many more versions of reiki, which have ‘splintered’ off from the original reiki path of the Usui Reiki Method.

The founder of the Usui Reiki Method was, Dr Mikao Usui, who began his quest in the late nineteenth century to study the ancient healing methods that he found in the Buddhist scriptures.

Inside these scriptures, Usui came across the the symbols and mantras which are now key to the Reiki System as we know it even today, although at the time, Usui did not know how to use the symbols and mantras for the purposes of reiki healing.

After many years of study amongst Monks, he ventured on a 21 day meditation and fast on a holy mountain near Kyoto. On the very last day of his fasting meditation, he had a strange experience. It is recorded that Usui saw a bright light in the sky which moved towards him, striking him in the middle of his forehead, referred to as the ‘third eye’.

Usui Reiki Method

Now in a state of deep meditation, he saw a bright white light in which he saw, glowing in gold, the symbols he’d seen in the sanskrit sutras. This experience strengthened and charged his inner energy leaving him feeling healed and enlightened.

Much happened for him after this event and he set about helping and healing the poor with his Usui Reiki method, using those symbols and mantras that had been shown to him. He also travelled so he could heal and teach his reiki method to others. Before he died, he passed on his reiki methods to a Dr Hayashi, who went on to open a clinic in Tokyo where he also trained new reiki practitioners in the Usui Reiki method as set out by Dr Usui.

Dr Hayashi later came across a Japanese woman, who lived in Hawaii, called Ms Takata. Takata learnt Reiki from Hayashi over approximately one year. Then, as his successor, Takata trained over 20 students to become Reiki Masters and the art of reiki was spread throughout the Western world.

By this time it was the early 1980′s and since then Reiki as a healing method has continued to spread.

Of course Reiki branches of slightly different formats have appeared, however the Usui Reiki Method remains very popular and true to Usui’s original teachings.

Reiki Stress Relief

Interview with Reiki Master, Dennis Barker, about the stress relief benefits of reiki.

Modern day stress levels are increasing for the majority of people particularly as the credit crunch has, and continues to, affect our daily lives. There are so many changes and challenges ahead of you these days, that stress is estimated to affect many more people in the future.

Reiki stress relief techniques are a way to help you relieve or manage your individual stress levels and maintain a calm approach to help you overcome, or at least cope with those challenges.

Listen to the interview to learn more about the reiki stress relief techniques you could use at home or work.

Reiki is an ancient form of relaxation.

Using Usui Reiki daily, even for 5 or ten minutes per day can help keep you calm which in turn helps you to cope with your daily life balances and modern life challenges.

There are no great secrets to using reiki, and often times it is surrounded by all sorts of ‘spiritual’ references, although you really do not have to have any ‘spiritual preferences, not does it go against any spiritual beliefs that you have personally.

I prefer to view reiki as a stress relieving technique. Using reiki at a time of the day that suits you, in the way it suits you, can certainly bring life balance benefits. It’s really like taking that individual “me time” that so many of us fail to gift ourselves with.