My experience with Reiki started in 1994 when I was walking through Union Square Park in New York City and was stopped by an old man dressed in a heavy cardigan sweater on a hot day. He said he recognized something in me, and that it was important I come to a class he was teaching. I thought he was a crackpot when he told me in very simple terms about “Ray-Key” and said it would really help me in my life.
His class started at 8:30 am on Saturday morning. I was 24 years old at the time and was going out to clubs all night on the weekends and returning home around 7 am. I knew I couldn’t make it to a class so early in the day. And yet that Saturday morning when I came home from the club, the flyer he gave me which was on my dining table, flew off the table and landed at my feet as I opened the door. I took it as a sign. I showered, and without sleep went to the Reiki level 1 class.
John Gray held his New York City Reiki classes at the studio of his Master Candidate Elaine Abrams, who assisted in the teaching and practice sessions. The classroom was a vast photography studio with 25 foot ceilings and space for thirty or forty students to sit in chairs and eight to ten Reiki tables to be set up behind them for practice. It belonged to Elaine’s Husband, a well-known New York City photographer, Joel Gordon, who also had his darkroom and photo archive in the space, as well as a full kitchen, bathroom, makeup room, and several Reiki treatments rooms reserved for Elaine. It was a special glimpse into loft life in New York.
In this photo by Joel Gordon, John Harvey Gray is demonstrating a Reiki treatment in a 1995 Reiki class in New York City.
John taught by playing huge reel-to-reel tapes of Takata’s level 1 classes that he had recorded at his home in Redwood City, California in the 1970s. As Takata spoke about hand positions, John would stand at the massage table, with a model laying down on it, demonstrating everything his teacher explained. Takata told stories of incredible healings and changed lives as a result of several Reiki treatments, and John would add his own stories of miraculous healings. I was amazed! It was a powerful experience for me hearing the voice of the Grandmaster and experiencing her faith and confidence in Reiki. Being with John and Elaine also awakened aural and visual psychic abilities for me I didn’t know I had. I left the class full of energy and buzzing with new possibilities for my life.
A year later I attended a level 2 class with John and learned the distance Reiki treatment. A friend of mine was dying, and I thought I could save her by sending Reiki every day. Of course she died, but the experience of treating her every day and watching how it changed her, how it helped her deal with what she had to do for herself and her young children, showed me an aspect of the tremendous power of Reiki. She commented to me many times that she could feel the Reiki assisting her, bringing the right people and the right help into her life so she could handle the difficult situation she was in. My friend died so gracefully, letting go effortlessly at the right time after everything had been done for her children. I was convinced of the power of Reiki, and asked John to train me to be a Reiki Master. He responded by asking me to practice Reiki professionally for ten years, and that he would teach me when I’d had enough practice.
Of course, I was young and hadn’t thought much about the passage of years. Ten years later, and after many Reiki clients that I saw on nights and weekends when I wasn’t at my job, I contacted John and reminded him of his promise to train me as a Reiki Master. By that time I was 37 and he was 89 years old. He had just had his retirement party and was looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the remaining years of his life with his wife Lourdes at their lakefront home in New Hampshire. John urged me to seek training from Elaine Abrams, who had spent many years studying with him and hosting his classes, and promised he would mentor me by phone as I went through the apprenticeship with her. It was like returning to the beginning for me, back in the studio with Elaine and Joel, watching Elaine teach the same classes, almost word-for-word, I had attended with John, and seeing the lives of students open up, brighten up, and the possibilities for their futures expand.
After a three-year, 2000 hour Reiki Master apprenticeship at the office of Elaine Abrams, I was finally initiated as a Reiki Master in the system of Usui Shiki Ryoho and started teaching my own classes in 2010. During my apprenticeship I opened the NYC Reiki Center, which continues to support me today. I have taught thousands of students over the years, and have so far initiated nine Reiki Masters. In 2011, John died at age 93. He was the longest practicing Reiki master in the West at the time of his death. Also in 2011, I joined The Reiki Alliance, an international community of Usui Shiki Ryoho Masters, which my teacher John Gray had a part in founding in 1983. I have served the community in several positions over the years. Currently, in 2024, I am a member of the Board of Directors, and also serve as Finance Administrator for the organization.
Finally, in December of 2023, Elaine Abrams died. The wonderful photo below represents so much about Elaine. She always wore her hair up in a topknot, a nod to her years as a ballerina. She wore silver and turquoise jewelry every day, her connection to the Navajo reservation where she spent much time when she was younger. Her medicine bag from her time with the Navajo hangs on the Japanese screen behind her. Many people gifted Elaine stuffed animals, and she had a mountain of them piled up in the corner of her Reiki room. She was a powerful healer, with a long wait list and clients who traveled from around the world for treatments with her. I was so lucky to do my apprenticeship with her.
This photo shows Elaine Abrams and her Reiki space in the East Village just below Union Square at 12th Street and 4th Avenue. In the 2010 photo taken by Joel Gordon, Elaine is giving a Reiki treatment to Brian Brunius on the day she initiated him as a Reiki Master.
