Reiki Travels To The West

                Dr. Chujiro Hayashi

One of Sensei Usui's students was Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, a Captain retired from the Japanese Navy. He received his Master initiation from Dr. Usui in 1925 when he was 47 years old. He further developed the Reiki tradition and some claim that he standardized the hand positions, which provides Reiki to all the major organs and energetic systems of the body.

A world war was brewing, and many men would be called to service. In anticipation, he elected to pass the knowledge of the entire Reiki system to two women including Hawayo Takata. Mrs.Takata returned to Hawaii to share Reiki in the US.

Hawayo Takata is reportedly his thirteenth and last initiated Reiki Master Teacher.

Mrs. Hawayo Takata

Ms. Hawayo Takata was born of immigrant parents on Kauai, Hawaii on December 24th, l900. She married and birthed two daughters. In 1930 her husband, Saichi, died and she raised her daughters alone.

It is reported that Mrs. Takata developed abdominal distress, a lung dis-ease and suffered an emotional breakdown. Told that she had a limited time to live, Ms. Takata traveled to Japan with her daughters  to deliver the news to her family. There she sought help for her physical conditions, and was diagnosed with a tumor, appendicitis, and gallstones. When surgery was about to begin, a voice told her three times that the operation was not necessary. Asking her doctor if there might be another way she could become well, he told her of Dr. Hayashi's Reiki clinic, which she decided to try. After receiving a full Reiki session each day for eight months, she was well.

Mrs. Takata was driven to learn this healing method, and her persistence persuaded Dr. Hayashi to teach her. Within a year she'd
received her First and Second Degree Reiki, and within two more years, in the Winter of 1938, Dr. Hayashi initiated her as a Master Teacher.

The Formation Of The Reiki Alliance

Mrs. Takata desired to train other Reiki Masters, but was fearful that the Western mind wouldn't understand the Japanese ideals of respect for the Reiki tradition. She therefore formed a Reiki organization known as the Reiki Alliance, and members are pledged to charge mandatory fees for Reiki: Level One costs $175; the fee for Level Two is $500, and to be trained as a Master Teacher, one must pay $10,000!

In the ten years that Mrs. Takata worked as a Reiki Master Teacher, she initiated twenty-two Reiki Masters. She made her transition on December 12, l980.

The Emergence Of Non-Reiki Alliance Master Teachers

Reiki Alliance teachers began to make deep changes in the way Reiki was taught, instilling a structure and rigidity contrary to the simple, flexible and intuitive manner taught by Sensei Usui: Waiting periods were established between the Reiki Degrees; some teachers divided the degrees into pieces, charging new fees for each section, modifying the system entirely. One group recently fought (and lost) a court battle in Texas, in an attempt to patent and create a monopoly on Reiki (which means Spiritually guided life-force energy)!

All of this, combined with the high fees, caused the practice of Reiki to become increasingly elitist and separatist. This prompted some teachers to branch off on their own. Described as "Independent Reiki Master Teachers", we are driven by a desire to share with as many people as possible. Fees are much lower and sometimes eliminated, and the more intuitive method of performing and teaching Reiki flourishes, similar to the way Dr. Usui performed and taught this beautiful work.

Today there are thousands of both Alliance and Independent Reiki Master Teachers and Therapists throughout the world, providing a potpourri of methods and teachings. With these factors in mind, how does one choose a Reiki Therapist or Teacher?

Choosing A Reiki Therapist or Teacher

Reiki is a frequency of healing energy associated with the unconditional love Spirit has for creation. It belongs to none of us and all of us.

Choose your teacher based upon the love, compassion, and dedication he/she radiates, by his/her conscious orientation to the Spiritual foundation of Reiki, by their ability to set aside personal ego and any results orientation, thereby allowing Spirit free reign. Choose a practitioner who believes in miracles!

Namaste, Starr B.

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