I have been reading “Reiki, The Healing Touch” by William Rand. This book was lent to me by one of my students, and has been quite an eye-opener, especially where the Reiki history is concerned. What we have learned so far is more like the Reiki myth than history. I will be updating the history section of this site as soon as I can, but in the meantime, I think you might find this information very interesting.
The Reiki history, as it was passed down in this country is a very nice story, or to use another word, myth. It states that Usui discovered Reiki, and then passed it down to Hayashi, who passed it to Takata, who passed it to her granddaughter, Phyllis Furumoto. I had heard it told that Furumoto considers herself the head of Reiki in the world as she is in the direct line of ascension (lineage if you prefer) from Usui. Well, supposedly, everyone that learned Reiki is in a direct line from Usui unless their teacher really never studied the art. As far as what Furumoto considers herself, I have no clue if this is true or not. I only mention it because it makes sense when you study the history which was discovered by William Rand.
Now, according to belief (at least in this country), the line from Usui took one path. But I have often wondered about other practitioners and masters in Japan. It would make sense that there would be some. Would they have come through Hayashi as Takata did? If you believe the myth that we have been told, they would have had to. But what Rand discovered was that Usui promoted 16 people to the rank of master. Of these 16 masters, Hayashi was one, but he wasn’t the only one. In truth, Usui did not tell Hayashi that he was now the head of Reiki in the world.
You see, Usui created this organization called Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai or “The Usui System of Reiki Healing”. Usui was the first president of this entity. That title passed to Ushida after Usui died. The current holder of this title is Kondo. This foundation or entity (or whatever you want to call it) is the actual center of all Reiki in Japan (and we should recognize it as the center for Reiki in the world).
One thing of interest is that there is no title of ‘lineage bearer’ in the organization. There is a succession of presidents each of whom is a Reiki master, but no lineage bearer. That is not to say that there is no lineage. A lineage is a list of teachers back to Usui. (For the majority of people in this country, I’m sure this would lead back through Takata.) There is still a lineage, just no one that holds a title with the responsibility of passing it on.
Hayashi was a master who had been promoted by Usui. He had his own healing center in Japan. He was not a president of the organization created by Usui. He was not in charge of Reiki at any point. He was simply a student and gifted healer. Takata had gone to Japan to be healed by Hayashi. When she found out how powerful Reiki was, she studied it, and finally brought Hayashi to Hawaii to give her the master’s attunement.
Not to say things hadn’t changed thus far, but after Takata effectively became the source of Reiki instruction in the United States, things changed dramatically. The first thing that happened was that there were huge fees for training, including a $10,000 fee for mastership. Takata also did not allow any written materials in her class, and students were not allowed to take notes. Everything had to be memorized, including the drawing of the attunement symbols. (And we know what happens when we rely on memory. Some things change because memory is not exact.) In fact Takata made her students promise to teach exactly as she had, and charge the same fees.
Now, for the most part I’m going to leave my opinion out of this (no matter how hard it is to do). J I will simply say that I can see where the controlling issue has come from regarding the teaching of Reiki. It is a shame as Rand says that Usui was described as someone that would do all he could to pass on the knowledge or healing whether the client could pay or not.
After Takata’s death, Iris Ishikura, one of Takata’s students, whom she had promoted to master, started charging more reasonable fees. After that, Reiki started to spread in this country. More was done to help the learning process. This included the writing of workbooks and training manuals. Students were allowed to take notes and bring tape recorders if they wished. This was the key that passed Reiki from the little known to the widely known.
I find this all very, very interesting. I have always felt that there had to be something in Japan, and that Reiki couldn’t just reside here. Apparently, Takata wanted us to believe that Hayashi was the only survivor of the group of masters promoted by Usui. That would have secured a claim that she, and now Furumoto would have been the head of Reiki in the world. But that simply is not the case.
One other thing Takata taught was that you should take Reiki from only one teacher. Since then, this belief has changed. Take it from as many teachers as you want. You will find that each one teaches something different as each teacher adds something to the class, but other changes have been made, even to the methodology itself. I suspect that a lot of this is due to differences in memorization of Takata’s information. That would make perfect sense. I have always said to learn all you can, and I’m not just talking about Reiki.
These bullet points were expressed on the web site of the International Center for Reiki Healing...
- The Reiki organization that Dr. Usui started is alive and well in Japan.
- There never was a Grandmaster or lineage bearer.
- Dr. Hayashi was never in charge of the Usui System, nor was Mrs. Takata nor is any westerner.
- High fees and money were never a part of how Dr. Usui practiced.
Rand’s book is filled lots of good information and is worth reading. His organization is the International Center for Reiki Healing. He can be found on the web at www.Reiki.org.