The healing system of Reiki is ancient and certainly older than any written account. Although speculative, psychic Laurel Steinhice described Reiki as having originated with the planet that also brought the many armed gods and goddesses to Earth, the root culture of what became pre-patriarchal India. The Indian god we know today as Shiva, female at that time, was responsible for bringing Reiki here, and s/he wants to be remembered for that gift. When the human body for this planet was designed, Reiki was incorporated into the genetic coding as a birthright of all people. Thus, Reiki is a part of every one of us. It was once universal and never meant to be lost. Children of early Earth, in the civilization we call Mu today, received Reiki I training at the beginning of grade school. They received Reiki II at what we   would  define as junior  high shool  age. Reiki III and Master  Teacher  training was required

for educators but was available to everyone who desired training at that level.  When the people of its root culture left the mainland of Mu to colonize what is now India and Tibet, Reiki continued with them, though Mu was eventually lost. The Earth changes that destroyed first Mu, and then Atlantis, resulted in severe cultural disorganization, causing the healing system to remain the knowledge of only a select few.

However, in the nineteenth century, a Japanese man by the name of Dr. Mikao Usui sought the origins of healing methods utilized by Jesus and the Buddha Shakyamuni. Some accounts claim that Dr. Usui was Principal of the Doshishha University in Kyoto, Japan, and his students wanted to know what happened to the laying on of hands healing practiced by Jesus and Buddha. There have also been reports that Dr. Usui received a degree in Christian theology at the University of Chicago. However, William Lee Rand researched this and found no evidence; rather, there is speculation Dr. Usui was reported to be Christian in order to help people in the West accept a healing modality that was coming from the East. Thus, Dr. Usui began a quest of many years to rediscover and learn the ancient hands on healing technique. He was often told that in the shift from physical healing to spiritual healing, the art was probably lost but where it once existed, it surely could be found. Thus, Dr. Usui sought the information through Buddhism and learned Sanskrit, the ancient scholarly language of India and Tibet.

There are striking resemblances between the life of Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha, in India and the life of the historical Jesus. Buddha lived approximately 600 years before the birth of Jesus. One hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the Tantra Lotus Sutras and other healing texts were written. It is in the Tantra Lotus Sutra where the symbol formula for the technique of Reiki was found. Jesus traveled to the East with his uncle when he was 12 years old, returning a visit from the Three Wise Men, believed to be astrologers from a Buddhist order.  Jesus then spent 18 years in Egypt, India and Tibet, studying with the greatest of spiritual teachers, which is where he became renowned and loved as St. Issa or Yuz Asaf, the same St. Issa or Yuz Asaf who was known to be crucified in Jerusalem after he returned to his homeland. It is speculated that both Jesus and Buddha could have been Reiki healers. Buddha taught his closest students, and Jesus taught his disciples. (click here for Biblical references to healing.)

Dr. Usui was told by Buddhist monks that the ancient hands on healing method had been lost, and that the only way to approach it was by entering the Buddhist teachings, the Path of Enlightenment.  Dr. Usui took refuge in a Zen Buddhist monastery in Japan and studied the healing texts in Sanskrit.  Although he found the necessary symbols, he did not know how to activate the Reiki energy. Such obscuring of information in the Sutras was intentional, done to keep the powerful material from hands not ready to know and use it properly.  A Buddhist adept told him to go to Mt. Koriyama in Japan to mediate for 21 days; thus, Dr. Usui piled 21 small stones in front of him and tossed aside one stone at the end of each day. On the final morning of his quest, in the darkest hour just before dawn, Dr. Usui saw a projectile of light coming toward him. His first response was to flee, but decided to accept the answer to his meditation retreat even if it resulted in his death. The light struck his third eye and he lost consciousness. Then he saw "millions and millions of rainbow colored bubbles" and the Reiki symbols as if on a screen. As he saw each of the symbols, he received a transmission that activated the healing energy, and the ancient gift of Reiki was rediscovered.