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…
Usui Shiki Ryoho Lineage Bearer and Grandmaster Johannes was born in Austria in 1977. At 17 he learned first degree Reiki and felt what many of us feel: “I am home.” He continued to practice and a year later took second degree. A few years later he got in touch with the global Reiki…
Dear Reiki Community, In my first degree Reiki class almost 30 years ago, my teacher John Gray showed the students his most treasured possession, a copy of the “Grey Book” published in 1982 after Hawayo Takata died. It was given to the 22 Reiki Masters she initiated, and to no one else. Having a copy…
Those of you who have studied Reiki with me know that I absolutely love telling the stories of the Reiki Masters in our lineage. My teacher, John Harvey Gray, passed down a rich trove of stories in the form of giant reel-to-reel audio tapes he recorded of Hawayo Takata teaching Reiki classes and “talking story,”…
I’ve received a number of questions recently about Usui Shiki Ryoho, the system of Reiki I teach. People have asked what it is exactly, how it differs from other forms of Reiki, and how to choose a Reiki teacher. In the world today there are a dizzying array of practices with the name Reiki. The…
Last week I received an email from our Japanese to English translator, Dylan Luers Toda, that made my heart skip a beat. He wrote that he completed the translation of chapter 2 ahead of schedule and had attached it to his email. His translation of chapter 1 was amazing, and I’ve been waiting years to…
Today on my 50th birthday I signed the contract for an academic English language translation of the 1933 Reiki book by Kaiji Tomita. Tomita was a student of Reiki founder Mikao Usui, and as such, this book offers perhaps the best chance at understanding some of what Usui was teaching almost 100 years ago. Many…
Last week, we bid our final farewells to Usui Shiki Ryoho Grandmaster Phyllis Lei Furumoto in Kapa’a, Kauai, Hawaii. Reiki Masters and practitioners, as well as members of Phyllis’ and her widow Joyce Winough’s families, traveled from all corners of the globe – Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Israel, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the UK and beyond.…
I say in every first degree class, “Reiki flows through the lineage.” Literally, I connect to the energy of Reiki through the teachers who came before me. I accomplish this by teaching and initiating my students precisely as I was taught by my teachers, and as I teach all of my Master students. Face to…
From May 6th to 14th, 2019, 15 Reiki students participated in a pilgrimage to the sites in Japan that hold historical and spiritual importance for all Reiki practitioners. Led by Christopher Tellez of the SF Reiki Center and historian Dr. Justin Stein, and accompanied by tour guide & translator Yoshie Hara, the tour was planned by…