The History of Reiki

Mikao Usui

Many consider that Mikao Usui was the creator / founder of what is probably the best known or most well-known lineage of Reiki and that the word Reiki applies only to the healing modality he discovered and developed; however further research revealed that prior to Usui Sensei coming onto the scene, there were at ...

Chujiro Hayashi

Among the 20 teachers initiated by Usui Sensei was one man by the name of Chujiro Hayashi (he is located at the far right in the picture and the woman standing next to him is Hawayo Takata). We know little about his personal life beyond the basic facts. He was born 09/15/1880. He graduated from the Japan Naval ...

Hawayo Takata

The next part of the History of Reiki about how and why the practice of Reiki survived and came to be so prevalent in the west and the world at large too, is due to Hawayo Takata. Mrs. Takata crossed paths with Reiki in Hayashi Sensei’s clinic in Japan. As a brief historical aside, the first Japanese immigrants ...

Iris Ishikuro / Arthur Robertson

Iris Ishikuro was one of Takata Sensei’s 22 Master students. After Mrs. Takata passed away in 1980, Iris decided that she would follow her own inner guidance and teach Reiki to students for a more reasonable fee. As far as it is known, at that time Iris was the only one of Tataka Sensei’s 22 Masters who did this. ...

William Lee Rand

William Lee Rand received his initiation into Reiki on the big island of Hawaii in 1981 & 1982 from Bethel Phaigh who received her Master training from Mrs. Takata. In 1994-1995 he developed Karuna Reiki, and in 2014 he introduced Holy Fire Reiki. He has taught Reiki full time since 1989 in the U.S. and in ...

Usui / Tibetan Reiki

William’s first Reiki Master teacher, Diane McCumber, learned Reiki from Arthur Robertson and was taught both the Takata-style Usui system and the Raku Kei system. William learned both styles from her in 1989, but at that time Diane taught mainly the Raku Kei system. Later the same year, he also learned the Usui ...

Karuna Reiki®

After becoming a Reiki master, students began showing William Lee Rand symbols he had not seen before and asking him if he knew about them. When that happened, he would keep copies of the drawings and symbols and any additional information the students had about the symbols. After a while, different students ...

Holy Fire® Reiki

In January 2014, during a session with one of his spiritual advisors, William Lee Rand was made aware of a healing energy that was more refined and which contained a higher level of consciousness than anything he had previously experienced. During that session, he was given the symbol and the attunement for it ...

Covid-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus posed severe problems when the December 2019 outbreak in China rapidly spread to the United States. By the end of March 2020 with no antiviral drug or vaccine for COVID-19 available, lockdowns were being instituted all over the world, not just in the U.S. With conditions changing so rapidly, Reiki ...

World Peace Reiki

Reiki consciousness, working with the Authentic Self, was aware of the political difficulties that took place between Ukraine and Russia in February of 2022 and at that time revealed a higher expression of its healing potential. This wonderful energy is not only able to heal the anxiety and fear many people felt ...

The Continuing Evolution of the History of Reiki

The "true" history of Reiki remains in a constant state of flux and it appears that it will remain this way for many more years yet to come. Keep in mind that it is highly likely that some parts of the History of Reiki espoused on this website will either be proven or disproven beyond a shadow of a doubt in the ...