The Founding Masters
About a century ago, Dr Mikao Usui, a distinguished Japanese scholar, researched many ancient sources in search of a method of healing through the hands that had been practised in olden times.
He discovered a formula in obscure Sanskrit scriptures and received confirmation upon meditation on Mt. Kuryama near Kyoto, Japan, of the healing properties of the energy renewal system he called ‘Rei-ki’.
After fulfilling a seven year mission in a beggars’ camp, he set about teaching Rei-ki and trained as his successor Dr. Chujiro Hayashi of Tokyo, a retired naval officer who later appointed Mrs Hawayo Takata of Hawaii to ensure the survival of the technique during and after World War II.
In the decade before her death in 1980, Mrs Takata started teaching in mainland USA and trained Rev. Beth Gray as the first western Rei-ki Master in 1973. She set up the first Rei-Ki centre in America and was also responsible for introducing Rei-Ki to Australia and New Zealand.
The original traditions of Rei-ki have been faithfully preserved within the Usui Rei-ki Network internationally in direct lineage by Beth Gray’s understudy, Barbara McGregor
