On October 19, 2026, I initiated Mark Straubel of Fairfield County Reiki Center in Connecticut as a Reiki Master Teacher in the Usui System of Natural Healing, Usui Shiki Ryoho.
We held the initiation at the highest point of Mount Kurama in Kyoto, Japan, at a secluded Shugendo site dedicated to the Pearl White Dragon King.
Mark, Yachi Gault, Christopher Tellez, and I climbed the mountain together. There were just four of us, gathered among the trees and stones for the completion of Mark's Master training on the mountain where Mikao Usui's experience gave rise to Reiki.
Mark's preparation unfolded over approximately three and a half years. He took First and Second Degree Reiki with me, completed the six-month Reiki Master Practitioner program, and then undertook a two-year Master apprenticeship.
Through those successive stages, he developed his treatment practice and prepared to take responsibility for teaching and initiating students of his own.
Mark has also developed particular expertise in Dialoguing and Clearing, two related practices that John Harvey Gray and his wife Beth learned from Hawayo Takata. I consider him the leading practitioner of these practices today.
In Dialoguing, he uses a Reiki technique taught in the Hayashi lineage to connect with a client's higher self, which provides answers about the causes of their problems and often specific instructions for addressing them.
Clearing can often remove negative attachments that are causing a person problems.
Mark will continue to offer both as virtual services through NYC Reiki Center.
