A woman in Tokyo in 1922 sat with her hands resting on her own abdomen, palms facing inward, and felt heat move through her fingers into a place that had been cold for years. She was not touching herself. She was not praying. She was practicing what her teacher called Reiki, and she was one of the first people outside of Mikao Usui’s immediate circle to do it. Reiki is a Japanese energy-healing practice in which a practitioner channels ki (life energy) through their hands to the recipient, typically without physical contact, to support the body’s natural healing processes. The key fact is that the practitioner does not generate the energy. They act as a conduit.
Reiki is a Japanese energy-healing practice developed in the early 20th century, in which a practitioner channels universal life energy through their hands to support the recipient’s physical, emotional, and spiritual healing — without diagnosis, without touch, and without the practitioner’s own energy being depleted.
Where Did Reiki Actually Come From?
The history of Reiki begins not in ancient Tibet (a common myth) but in early 20th-century Japan with a single man: Mikao Usui (1865-1926). Usui was a Buddhist layman and a student of Shinto, Chinese medicine, and various forms of Japanese spiritual practice. He was not a doctor. He was not a monk. He was a man looking for something.
The standard account, preserved by the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (the organization Usui founded in 1922), states that Usui undertook a 21-day fasting retreat on Mount Kurama (north of Kyoto) in March 1922. On the twenty-first day, he experienced what he described as a reiju or spiritual initiation: a beam of light struck his forehead, and he saw bubbles of light in all colors of the rainbow. When he returned to the temple at the base of the mountain, he found that his hands had become hot, and that placing them on a sprained ankle caused the pain to vanish.
This is not legend dressed as history. The date is specific. The mountain is real. The temple, Kurama-dera, still stands. What Usui experienced was not a new invention but a synthesis: he combined kiko (Japanese qigong), teate (laying on of hands common in Japanese folk Buddhism), and Shinto purification practices into a structured system he called Usui Reiki Ryoho (Usui’s Spiritual Energy Healing Method).
Usui opened his first clinic in Harajuku, Tokyo, in April 1922. He taught and treated patients there until the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, when he and his students provided emergency healing to thousands of survivors. The earthquake is the event that turned Reiki from a private practice into a public movement. Usui died in 1926 of a stroke, and his successor, Chujiro Hayashi, formalized the training into the three-degree system (First Degree, Second Degree, Master) that Western Reiki still uses.
What Does “Reiki” Actually Mean?
The word is two kanji: rei (霊) and ki (気). Ki is the Japanese term for the life force that flows through all living things — the same concept as qi in Chinese medicine and prana in Ayurveda. Rei is harder. It means “spirit” or “soul,” but in Usui’s usage it carried the sense of “the wisdom of the universe” or “the intelligence that organizes life.”
Reiki therefore means “spiritually guided life energy.” The “spiritually guided” part is not optional. Usui taught that the energy itself knows where to go and what to do. The practitioner does not direct it. They do not diagnose. They do not decide that the recipient’s liver needs more energy than their heart. The energy flows where it is needed, and the practitioner’s job is simply to stay out of the way.
This is the single most misunderstood aspect of Reiki. Many beginners assume they must “send” energy to a specific problem. Usui’s instruction was the opposite: place your hands and let the energy do the work.
How Does Reiki Healing Actually Work?
The short answer is that no one has a complete physiological explanation that satisfies both Western science and Reiki practitioners. The longer answer is that Reiki works on a model of energy flow that predates modern medicine by millennia.
The Energy Body Model
Reiki operates on the assumption that the human body is surrounded and permeated by an energy field — sometimes called the aura or subtle body, that can become blocked, depleted, or congested. These blockages correspond to physical pain, emotional distress, or illness. The practitioner’s hands, when placed on or near the body, act as a conduit for rei (universal energy) to flow into the recipient’s field and dissolve those blockages.
The recipient lies fully clothed on a treatment table. The practitioner moves through a series of hand positions, typically 12 to 15, covering the head, throat, chest, abdomen, legs, and feet, holding each position for three to five minutes. There is no massage. There is no manipulation. The practitioner’s hands rest still, palms down, fingers together.
What People Actually Feel
The most common sensations reported during a session are heat (the practitioner’s hands feel warm or hot), a pulsing or tingling sensation, deep relaxation, emotional release (crying or laughing without a clear trigger), and visual imagery (colors, shapes, memories). Some people feel nothing at all and still report benefits afterward.
The heat is not imagination. Infrared thermography has shown measurable temperature increases in the practitioner’s hands during Reiki sessions, though the mechanism remains unclear.
The Attunement Process
Reiki cannot be learned from a book. It is transmitted through a process called reiju (in Japanese) or attunement (in the West), in which a Reiki Master opens the student’s energy channels so that ki can flow through their hands. This is not symbolic. It is a physical, energetic event that most students report feeling as heat, vibration, or a shift in awareness.
The attunement is what distinguishes Reiki from other forms of energy healing. Without it, the practitioner is simply placing their hands on someone. With it, they become a conduit.
What Are the Three Degrees of Reiki?
Usui’s original system had no degrees. He taught everyone the same method. The three-degree structure was introduced by Chujiro Hayashi in the 1930s and later standardized by Hawayo Takata (1900-1980), the Japanese-American woman who brought Reiki to the West.
First Degree (Shoden): The student receives four attunements over two days. They learn the basic hand positions and can practice Reiki on themselves and others. This is the level most practitioners stop at.
Second Degree (Okuden): The student receives one attunement and learns three symbols: the Power Symbol (Cho Ku Rei), the Mental/Emotional Symbol (Sei He Ki), and the Distance Symbol (Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen). With the Distance Symbol, the practitioner can send Reiki across time and space, to a person in another city, or to a past event.
Third Degree (Shinpiden): The student receives the Master attunement and learns the Master Symbol (Dai Ko Myo). This level qualifies the practitioner to teach and attune others.
How Is Reiki Different From Other Energy Healing Practices?
Reiki is often compared to Therapeutic Touch, Pranic Healing, and Qigong. The differences matter.
Therapeutic Touch was developed in the 1970s by Dolores Krieger, a nursing professor, and Dora Kunz, a clairvoyant. It involves the practitioner moving their hands through the recipient’s energy field to assess and rebalance it. Unlike Reiki, Therapeutic Touch does not require an attunement and does not claim to channel universal energy. It is a learned skill of intention and sensitivity.
Pranic Healing was systematized by Master Choa Kok Sui in the 1980s. It uses specific techniques to “clean” the energy body of diseased energy and then “energize” it with fresh prana. Pranic Healing is more directive than Reiki. The practitioner actively sweeps away blockages rather than trusting the energy to do the work.
Qigong is a Chinese practice that includes movement, breathwork, and meditation. External qigong (where a practitioner sends qi to a recipient) is the closest parallel to Reiki, but qigong practitioners typically train for years in specific techniques. Reiki’s attunement system allows a student to channel energy after a weekend workshop, which is both its strength (accessibility) and its weakness (variable quality of training).
What Reiki Is Not
The most persistent misconception is that Reiki is a religion. It is not. Usui was a Buddhist, and his practice draws on Buddhist and Shinto concepts, but Reiki has no dogma, no deity, no scripture, and no requirement to believe anything. Christians, atheists, and animists practice Reiki without conflict.
The second misconception is that Reiki can cure anything. Reiki practitioners do not claim to cure. They claim to support the body’s own healing processes. A Reiki session for a broken bone will not set the bone. It may reduce pain and speed recovery, but the bone must still be set by a doctor.
The third misconception is that Reiki depletes the practitioner. Because the practitioner channels rei (universal energy) rather than their own ki, they are not drained. Many practitioners report feeling more energized after a session than before.
FAQ
Can Reiki be done remotely? Yes. Second-degree practitioners use the Distance Symbol to send Reiki across time and space. Recipients often report the same sensations as in-person sessions.
Does Reiki work on animals? Yes. Animals are highly receptive to Reiki. Many practitioners specialize in animal Reiki, working with horses, dogs, cats, and even wildlife.
Is Reiki scientifically proven? The evidence is mixed. Some studies show reduced pain and anxiety after Reiki sessions, but many studies suffer from small sample sizes and difficulty creating a credible placebo control. The mechanism remains unexplained by current science.
How long does a Reiki session last? A typical session runs 60 to 90 minutes. Self-treatment sessions are shorter, often 15 to 30 minutes.
Closing
Reiki is not a belief system. It is a practice you test by doing it. Place your hands on your own abdomen for ten minutes and notice what happens. That is the only proof that matters. For a deeper look at how energy healing fits into the broader occult tradition, see our guide to energy healing practices. If you want to understand the symbols used in Second Degree Reiki, visit our glossary of Reiki symbols. And for a practical walkthrough of the hand positions, read our beginner’s guide to self-Reiki.