Reiki is believed to have begun in Tibet several thousand years ago. Sages and Healers throughout the Orient studied subtle energies and developed a system of sounds and symbols for universal healing energies. Various healing systems which crossed many different cultures emerged from this single base system. Unfortunately, history somehow lost the original source.

Dr. Mikao Usui, a Japanese Christian educator in Kyoto, Japan, rediscovered the base system in the mid- to late 1800s while travelling through parts of China and Tibet. He discovered texts which described Buddha's ability to heal through the laying on of has hands. A student later asked Dr. Usui if he knew of the method through which Jesus was also able to heal through the laying on of his hands. As he did not know this answer, Dr. Usui resigned his position and travelled to the United States to study Christ and Christianity. Dr. Usui embarked on a 21-year study of the healing phenomena of history's greatest spiritual leaders. He studied Christianity and the Books of the Holy Bible, and ancient Buddhist teachings written in Sanskrit. Through his studies he discovered ancient sounds and symbols that link directly to the human body and nervous system which activate the universal life energy for healing.

Returning to his native Japan he continued his studies in a Buddhist monastary After many more years of study, he felt he had come to an understanding and that to go any further required reflection and meditation. He declared to the monks of this monastary his intention to fast and meditate for 21 days at a nearby mountain and that if he did not come back they should come and get his body.

He went to the mountain and gathered 21 stones with which to count the days. Each day he would throw away a stone and in this way count the time. On the 20th day nothing had come as yet and he threw away the last stone. In the night on the horizon he could see a ball of light coming towards him. His first instinct was to jump out of the way, but he realized this might just be what he was waiting for, so allowed it to hit him right in the forehead. As it struck him he was taken on a journey and shown bubbles of all the colors of the rainbow in which were the symbols of Reiki, the very same symbols in the Tibetan writings he was studying but had been unable to understand. Now as he looked at them again, there was total understanding. He called this form of healing "Reiki" and taught it widely throughout Japan until his death around 1893.

Reiki has been found useful in treating a number of conditions. Some conditions that respond well to Reiki include sports injuries, cuts, burns, post-surgical healing, migraine headaches, chronic pain or inflammations, internal diseases, emotional disorders, and many stress-related illnesses. While Reiki cannot be considered a "panacea", it has been found to be very helpful to a lot of people as a complimentary form of therapy.

Reiki was introduced to the Western world in the 1970s and has since grown in popularity and spread widely across the United States and Europe.