Reiki is a very ancient healing method, rediscovered at the turn of the century by Dr. Mikao Usui in ancient Sanskrit texts, after a long and dedicated quest. The texts contained the intellectual knowledge necessary, but Dr. Usui had to undergo a near fatal three-week fasting mediation before he received the healing empowerment of the system. Dr. Usui founded a Reiki clinic in Japan, and taught what he had learned to several other highly evolved Japanese gentlemen. In the thirties an American lady, Mrs Hawayo Takata, was cured of a serious tumour at the Reiki clinic.

Mrs. Takata decided to dedicate her life to Reiki and asked to be trained by the Japanese Masters. At first they refused, but seeing her earnestness, eventually Dr. Chujiro Hayashi agreed to instruct her. Just before the Second World War Dr. Hayashi completed Mrs Takata's training and told her to take the knowledge to the West and to preserve the tradition. Mrs Takata created 22 Reiki Masters in her lifetime, and shortly before her death she also instructed her granddaughter Phyllis Lei Furumonto. Meanwhile in Japan, some Reiki masters survived the war, and there are Japanese lineages unconnected with Mrs Takata.

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