What Is Reiki?
Reiki is a sacred, ancient spiritual healing practice that encourages balance in the body, mind, and spirit. It is not a new idea, and it is not a trend. It is a living thread of healing wisdom that has been passed from teacher to student, hand to hand, for well over a century, and it carries within it something that cannot be manufactured or replicated — the energy of every heart that has channeled it before.
The word Reiki itself tells you everything. Rei, pronounced Ray, means God consciousness — the higher wisdom that guides all things. Ki, pronounced Key, means universal life force energy, the energy that flows through every living being. It is known by many names across many traditions: Chi in China, Prana in India, Mana in Polynesia, Ruach in Hebrew, Barakah in Islam. Different words, same truth. All living beings radiate life force energy, and when it flows freely, we are well. When it is blocked, we feel it — in our bodies, in our emotions, in our spirit.
A Reiki practitioner does not generate this energy. We act as a clear channel for it, allowing spiritually guided life force energy to flow through us to the client. It comes through the practitioner, not from them. And because Reiki energy is intelligent, it does not need to be directed or controlled — it flows to exactly where it is needed, every time. Hand positions are used to focus on the meridians, the body's energy centers, and on any area where a client carries dis-ease. But the energy itself knows where to go.
Every living being radiates life force energy. It flows through us along pathways within the body — our chakras, meridians, and nadis — and surrounds us in a luminous field of energy known as our aura. This life force is what animates us, nourishing every organ, every cell, every system that keeps us alive and well. But life force is not just physical. It responds to what we carry emotionally and mentally. When we absorb negative beliefs about ourselves — consciously or not — those beliefs create disruptions in the flow. The body feels it. The spirit feels it. Over time, those disruptions manifest as physical discomfort, emotional heaviness, and a sense of being disconnected from who we truly are. Reiki works by flowing directly into those disrupted pathways, clearing what has become blocked and restoring the natural flow of life force energy — so the body can return to the harmony it was always meant to live in.
Reiki can only create good. It cannot harm. It is safe and deeply effective for babies, children, adults, the elderly, animals, and plants. It works beautifully alongside conventional medical care, supporting the body's own healing process rather than competing with it. It brings comfort from dis-ease and pain, restores harmony, reduces stress and anxiety, releases trauma, strengthens the immune system, encourages creativity, and awakens something in us that was never truly lost — only buried.
Many believe Reiki originated in Japan in the early 1900s through Mikao Usui, known as Usui Sensei, the founder of the Usui System of Natural Healing. In truth, other styles of Reiki healing were already being practiced before him. But it was Usui Sensei who opened the first Reiki school and clinic in Tokyo in 1922, and over time developed his system into what so many practitioners carry today, eventually passing his teaching to 21 Reiki Masters so that the healing could reach more people than any one person could touch alone.
From those 21, the lineage continued to grow — each Master carrying the healing forward, training new practitioners and opening clinics of their own. Among them, Chujiro Hayashi Sensei carried the work forward with great dedication, training Masters of his own until shortly before World War II. It was through his clinic that Hawayo Takata Sensei first encountered Reiki, and she made it her mission to bring it across the ocean to Hawaii and the United States, where it took root in the Western world and continued to evolve.
William Lee Rand is the founder and president of The International Center for Reiki Training (ICRT), The Center for Reiki Research, and The Reiki Membership Association. Tracing his lineage directly back to Usui Sensei, in 1989, he received his first Reiki Master certification and went on to study under five additional Masters, deepening his understanding across multiple Reiki traditions. During his first Reiki training, he received a message from Reiki energy that Reiki could be developed — guidance he later discovered aligned with Usui Sensei's own intention. From this, he developed the Usui/Tibetan system of Reiki in 1989, Karuna Reiki® in 1995, and introduced the Holy Fire® system in 2014.
There are different styles of Reiki today, although many are based on the Usui method. All styles of Reiki are respected and honored, although I personally was ultimately called to the Usui/Holy Fire® Reiki method, under this lineage, since I felt a connection to the living chain of healing intention, passed from one open heart to the next.
I came to Reiki not by accident, but by calling. In my own meditation practice, God guided me to explore it, and from the moment I heard that guidance, I felt an ease and comfort I had not expected. Though it was completely new to me, I followed His lead, knowing He would not lead me somewhere that was not for my highest good. What I discovered was that I had not changed directions at all. I had simply removed what was in the way.
My training as a Reiki Master traces directly back through this lineage, through William Lee Rand, through the Masters who came before him, all the way back to Usui Sensei himself. When I sit with a client, that entire lineage is present. Every heart that carried this healing forward is in the room.
That is what you are receiving when you come to me. Not just a technique. A living thread of sacred healing, passed hand to hand for over a century, now extended to you.