Reiki is a form of spiritual practice, often compared to faith healing, proposed for the treatment of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dis-eases. Mikao Usui developed Reiki in early 20th century Japan, where he said he received the ability of 'healing without energy depletion' after three weeks of fasting and meditating on Mount Kurama.

Practitioners use a technique similar to the laying on of hands, which they say channels Ki energy for the person to be healed. They say the energy is guided by a universal spirit/energy or spiritual nature ("Rei"), and flows through their palms to bring about healing. A 2002 study indicated that there were over one million U.S. adults who had experienced Reiki treatments.

There are some points of controversy regarding the legitimacy of Reiki. Some studies have shown that the effect of Reiki is similar to that of a placebo, and members of the scientific community considers it classifiable as pseudoscience.

History - Mikao Usui 15 August 1865 to 9 March 1926) was principalof the Doshisha Universtiy in Kyoto, Japan and also a Christian minister. Asked by his student to be shown the method by which Jesus did healing Usui began a ten year quest to find and learn the skill. Christian authorities in Japan told him that this healing was not talked about, much less known Usui sought the information through Buddhism. The Buddhist monks told Usui that the ancient spiritual healing methods had been lost.

In the United States he lived for seven years and received his Doctor of Theology degree at the Chicago Divinity School. He studied comparative religions and philosophies, learnt to read Sanskrit. But Usui found no answers to his quest to learn the mehtods of this healing. Usui returned to Japan and resided in a Zen monastery.

Usui trained several students. One of his students, Chujiro Hayashi a Christian and Naval doctor, stressed physical healing and taught a more codified and simpler set of Reiki techniques. Among Hayashi's contributions was a set of fixed hand positions to be used in the course of a treatment; Usui himself preferred a method called scanning, through which he detected imbalances, and said that the hand positions were for beginners.

Hayashi initiated and trained Mrs. Hawayo Takata, who brought Reiki to the USA. Mrs. Takata claimed that she had been appointed Grandmaster of Reiki through the lineage of Mr. Chujiro Hayashi, and that there were no surviving teachers of Reiki to be found in Japan after World War II.

After developing the Reiki methodology, as well as receiving the spiritual ability to practice it, Usui went to the slums of Tokyo; a begger colony populated with the disabled and practiced his healing method on condition that his therapy is free of charge but he only be maintained by the people of the colony. However, after several years Mikao Usui noticed that the beggers return to their old way of life. He discovered that it was their mindset that kept them ill, even after he had treated them again and again. It is necessary for the dis-eased person to want to heal through taking responsibility and control of his life, body, mind and soul. Reiki assists the person in his/her quest for understanding and a better life by keeping the life energy flowing unblocked. The person has more energy and clearer mind to make the right choices and respond in a healthy way to his/her challenges.

There are essentially two broad groups, or schools: the traditional school and the independent school. The traditionalists claim to teach and practice Reiki strictly as it was taught from Usui's time until Takata's time, although modern research suggests that training under Usui differed greatly from the way Takata taught. Another, separate branch of traditionalists advocate adherence to the (now rediscovered) Japanese school's methods. The independent schools vary greatly in their practices and methods, ranging from those descended through Iris Ishikuro, which fundamentally adhere to traditional Reiki practice.

Reiki has been gaining some popularity worldwide within hospitals. The UK NHS (National Health Service) as part of its CAM (Complementary and alternative medicine) program uses Reiki and other CAM therapies as part of day care patient programs.

Bibliography:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiki
2. Diane Stein, Essential Reiki
3. Moss, R, Conscious Dreaming

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