Universal Life Force Energy has been known and used,
under many names, for thousands of years but its use was kept a closely guarded
secret and virtually unknown until the beginning of the 20th century, when a
Japanese man called Mikao Usui "re-discovered" it.
There are many versions of the story of how Reiki was re-discovered but
they are not as important as the fact that it was found again! Many of the
original accounts heard in the West state that Usui was searching for the
healing methods used by great healers such as Jesus and Buddha. He eventually
found the secret in the ancient Mahayana Sutras, the doctrine of life held
sacred by Indian and Tibetan Buddhists.
More recent information,
said to come from surviving students of Usui, informs us that Usui was teaching
a system of personal spiritual development, a small part of which included a
self-healing aspect, several years before the healing system of Reiki appeared.