All about the origin of Reiki, its history, and Mikao Usui

Reiki is an alternative healing technique widely used in therapeutic institutes around the world, which uses hands for healing, through the holistic universe.

This universal life energy used in Reiki flows to all living beings, and from living beings to the universe.

In this article we will talk about the origin of Reiki and a little bit of the history of Mikao Usui, its creator.

The Origin of Reiki

The origin of Reiki is Japanese, created by the Japanese Mikao Usui in 1922. The word Reiki has several meanings, but all of them have a certain correlation: vital energy, vital force, spiritual energy. That depends a lot on who translates.

Translated separately, REI means divine wisdom, spirit, miraculous; and KI means vital energy, consciousness, breath of life, gas. Thus, Reiki is the therapeutic practice that admits a vital principle, distinct from both the soul and the organism, and which makes organic actions depend on it.

This vital energy flows through the Chakras. But the question still remains: how did Usui discover Reiki?

The Kiko and the Origin of Reiki by Mikao Usui

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The origin of Reiki begins in the youth of Mikao Usui, who studied Kiko, a healing technique that uses the vital energy of a person’s own energy.

Mikao Usui sought to delve deeper into Kiko, but this method leaves the user drained, totally drained. And it was exactly Usui’s dissatisfaction that provided the origin of Reiki. He was looking for a way to heal people through vital energy, but without having it depleted from whoever applied it.

Mikao Usui was a tireless researcher. For a long time he sought techniques to treat people through the holistic universe. He traveled through Japan, China and Western Europe in search of information about subjects that would come to be used in the Reiki technique.

In 1914, he spent 21 days meditating, praying and singing. The place chosen was Mount Kurama, a sacred mountain, which is close to Kyoto and is considered the spiritual heart of Japan, where there are several sacred temples that represent different deities.

The Revelation of Reiki Energy

The Reiki system developed while Mikao Usui was practicing Isyu Guo (a 21-day Buddhist training). Activities are usually meditation, prayer, and chanting, all while fasting.

There are no reports of exactly what activity Mikao Usui was performing when he started the origins of Reiki. It is alleged that Mikao Usui received the gift through a mystical revelation. This knowledge and spiritual power, which he called Reiki, was said to be received by his body through his Crown Chakra.

Mikao Usui was the originator of the practice of healing through the hands, in 1922, through a lot of research, studies and spiritual experience, but there are those who believe that the origin of Reiki is millenary.

It is believed that in one of his meditations, Mikao Usui came into contact with a superior being who taught him how to use the technique he sought, as well as the methodology of laying on of hands and symbols.

What is Reiki Energy

The origin of Reiki is based on the belief in the existence of universal vital energy, which can be manipulated and channeled through the imposition of hands. In addition to the hands, the Reiki practitioner also uses symbols to channel energy.

Reiki is a form of living, intelligent energy. Through this practice it is possible to channel universal energy in order to restore natural, spiritual, physical and emotional balance.

The Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai

That same year, Usui moved to Tokyo where he founded the Usui Reiki Ryōhō Gakkai (Usui Spiritual Energy Therapeutic Method Society) to treat people with Reiki and also teach anyone who wanted to. On the other hand, it also served to prove the efficiency of the technique.

Despite Usui’s death in 1926 from a heart attack and brain hemorrhage, his Gakkai in Tokyo continues to function today.

Disciples during the origin of Reiki

According to the inscriptions on Mikao Usui’s tomb, he taught his methodology to approximately 2000 students, but only 17 of these became masters, that is, they reached the third level of teaching and training.

One of Mikao Usui’s students was Chujiro Hayashi, an officer in the Japanese Navy, who initiated Hawoyo Takata, who was responsible for spreading the technique in the West.

Reiki Diffusion

From traditional Reiki several other types of Reiki emerged, such as Tibetan Reiki and Shamanic Reiki. Essential Reiki played a very important role during its dissemination in the West as it was a simplification to make the traditional Reiki course more accessible.

Today, Reiki is used in the four corners of the world, including in medical clinics and hospitals. In Brazil, the Hospital Sírio-Libanês, in São Paulo, makes recurrent use of the technique developed by Mikao Usui.

The places that teach the Reiki technique are also scattered around the world.

With proven efficiency, although for a long time, only in January 2017, Brazil integrated Reiki into the services offered by SUS. Users seek, above all, to harmonize and fully heal the body.

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