What is the Usui System?

"Reiki" (ray - key) is a Japanese word meaning "universal life energy," the energy found in all things. The Usui System of Reiki Healing, or Usui Shiki Ryoho, applies this energy through gentle touch for the purpose of healing.

Among the many thousands of Reiki students all over the world, most will agree that "universal life energy" is only a minimal description of Reiki's extraordinary force. In her early diary, Hawayo Takata, the woman who brought the Usui System of Reiki out of Japan, stated, "This power (Reiki) is unfathomable, immeasurable, and being a universal life force, it is incomprehensible to man. Yet, every single living being is receiving its blessings daily, awake and asleep."

The Usui System of Reiki can be a personal tool for healing and growth, a way to give energy to family and friends, or a gentle complementary therapy in holistic medicine.

A Reiki treatment supports the whole person — physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It is simple to learn and can be applied in a clinical setting, given as self-treatments, or used as a "home remedy" to enhance health and emotional well-being.

When a Reiki practitioner places his/her hands on an area of their own or a client's clothed body, Reiki flows through the practitioner into the client. This transfer may be felt as any type of sensation—heat, cold, vibration, tingling, unusual heaviness, or sometimes as no sensation at all. A full Reiki treatment takes about 60 to 90 minutes.

Reiki has specifically been documented to relax muscles, still the mind, and ease pain. Hands-on treatment has been scientifically proven to accelerate healing. Many health professionals are effectively incorporating the use of Reiki into their individual practices.

Those who learn Reiki find that it can be successfully administered very simply in all kinds of settings: home, clinic, hospital, or any place where people experience stressed muscles, accidents, exhaustion, or personal trauma. Many programs have been created for AIDS patients, victims of war, and hospice care settings, to name a few.

On the physical level, Reiki can bring relaxation to stressed muscles, decrease pain, accelerate the healing time of bones and wounds, diminish the tissue involvement of burns and bruises, and much more.

On a mental and emotional level, anxiety is reduced, a sense of well-being is increased and another level of relaxation can be felt. At this degree of deep relaxation, a rebalancing of energies can occur and the natural healing ability of the body is enhanced.

On a spiritual level, people have stated they feel revitalized and newly awakened after a full-body session.

The Usui System of Reiki is named after its founder, Dr. Mikao Usui. Relying on an oral history, we know that Dr. Usui was an educator in Kyoto in the late 1800's. He began an investigation into the healing phenomena of history's greatest spiritual teachers. Through travel, study, research, and meditation, he developed the healing practice of Reiki and spent the rest of his life applying and teaching this method.

Usui's work continued in pre-war Tokyo at a clinic run by Chujiro Hayashi. A patient, Mrs. Hawayo Takata of Hawaii, recovered from her serious ailments at Hayashi's Reiki clinic, and became his first known western student. She practiced and taught throughout the US and Canada from 1937 to her death in 1980. Her granddaughter, Phyllis Furumoto now carries on her work. Today millions of people practice Reiki throughout the world.

The Usui System of Reiki Healing has spread through an oral tradition of teaching, sharing information, and exchanging treatments. Reiki is not something that can be learned by reading a book—it is something to experience by receiving a treatment, taking a class, and talking with Reiki practitioners, students, and masters.

Reiki treatments are given to the person fully clothed and generally lying on a massage table. The Reiki practitioner gently places his/her hands on the head, the abdomen, the back, and any particular areas of pain or discomfort. Treatments last between 60-90 minutes.

The Usui System of Reiki is taught by Reiki Masters who are trained in the traditions of Reiki as passed through the spiritual lineage, and whose personal and professional lives are committed to this healing art and the lifestyle it engenders.

A Reiki I class is usually taught in four, three-hour sessions. Each student is attuned to the energy while also learning the history of Reiki, the basic hand positions for self-treatment and the treatment of others, and ways to use Reiki in their own lives.

Reiki II is offered to students who have taken Reiki I, have had several months to one or more years of committed practice, and feel drawn to take this next step with Reiki.

If you would like to talk with someone, find out about classes, or receive a treatment, go to the Directory to find a teacher who works in your area.