Found by Reiki

In 1994, walking through Manhattan’s Union Square Park, Brian met Reiki Master John Harvey Gray, who came often to NYC to teach Reiki classes. John had learned Reiki directly from Hawayo Takata, the Japanese-Hawaiian woman who brought Reiki out of Japan and was responsible for its spread around the world. John himself was the longest practicing Reiki Master in the Western world until his death in 2011, and together with his wife Lourdes Gray founded and ran The John Harvey Gray Center for Reiki Healing in Rindge, New Hampshire.

John, like Brian, had spent time with the Indian spiritual teacher Sathya Sai Baba. He encouraged Brian to take a weekend first degree class in Usui Shiki Ryoho – the Usui Method of Natural Healing. He promised that, working with Reiki, the practitioner never takes on the energetic problems of the client. In fact, they are themselves strengthened and energized by every treatment they deliver. The very next day, a lifelong practice and study of Reiki began. Fascinated by the simplicity of the method and the profound changes it brought to his own life, Brian repeated the First Degree class with John several times before taking Second Degree the following year. He soon began offering Reiki treatments on evenings and weekends while continuing his professional career. Over the years, he traveled to Japan many times, studying Reiki’s history, visiting the places connected with Mikao Usui’s life, and eventually leading pilgrimages for students seeking a deeper connection with the roots of the tradition.

Brian felt an immediate call to mastery, but as he was young and inexperienced, John encouraged him to “just keep practicing, and let Reiki teach you.” After ten years of treating himself daily and seeing clients part-time, John invited Brian to begin Master training. Because John was living in New Hampshire, he arranged for Brian to apprentice with Elaine Abrams in New York City, often saying she taught exactly as he did. Over the next three and a half years, Brian completed approximately 2,000 hours of apprenticeship before Elaine initiated him as a Reiki Master in 2010 after John’s illness prevented him from completing the training himself.

Reiki Leads the Way

Brian Brunius with graduating students holding up their Reiki certificates after a level 1 class at the NYC Reiki Center in New York City.

Brian works full time at the NYC Reiki Center, where he provides Reiki treatments and teaches classes every week. Since founding the Center in 2007, he has trained more than 4,500 students from around the world in traditional Usui Shiki Ryoho and has initiated ten Reiki Masters through his intensive multi-year Master apprenticeship program.

Each year, in conjunction with the San Francisco Reiki Center and Reiki Centers of America, he holds a 6-month, 200 hour, Reiki Master Practitioner Training Program, preparing experienced Reiki practitioners to serve their communities with confidence, professionalism, and integrity.

In recent years, Brian’s work has expanded beyond teaching new students. Increasingly, Reiki Masters and practitioners from many different lineages have sought him out for mentoring, historical study, and guidance in deepening their understanding of Reiki’s origins, traditional practice, and spiritual foundations.

To support that work, Brian introduced ongoing classes in Reiki Meditation and the Reiki Precepts, creating opportunities for practitioners to deepen their daily practice through the teachings of Mikao Usui. These classes, together with annual pilgrimages to Japan, invite students to experience Reiki not only as a healing method, but as a lifelong path of practice and self-cultivation.

The Roots of Reiki

Photo of Reiki Master Brian Brunius of NYC Reiki Center with Usui Shiki Ryoho Grandmaster Phyllis Lei Furumoto in November 2018.

Brian is also the founder of Reiki Centers of America, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preserving the history, teachings, and living tradition of Reiki while supporting the growth of strong Reiki communities throughout North America.

In November 2018, Reiki Centers of America hosted the late Grandmaster of Usui Shiki Ryoho, Phyllis Lei Furumoto, in New York City for her final public teaching appearance. The gathering included the first public reunion of students trained by John Harvey Gray, together with Reiki Masters and practitioners from many different lineages, reflecting Brian’s longstanding commitment to community and reconciliation.

Through Reiki Centers of America, Brian has led a number of historical preservation projects, including the translation and publication of Kaiji Tomita’s 1933 Reiki and the Benevolent Art of Healing. Tomita was a direct student of Mikao Usui, and his book is one of the earliest surviving firsthand accounts of Reiki written by someone who learned from the founder himself. The English edition is now being translated into seven additional languages for practitioners around the world.

Reiki Centers of America also produced A Century of Reiki with historian Dr. Justin B. Stein, a five-part documentary series tracing Reiki’s development from Mikao Usui’s teaching in Japan to its worldwide spread through Hawayo Takata. Together with annual Reiki pilgrimages to Japan, these projects help practitioners deepen both their historical understanding and their connection to Reiki’s origins.

Today, the NYC Reiki Center continues to serve as a place where people gather for treatment, study, community, and long-term practice. Through weekly classes, daily Reiki treatments, student circles, historical research, and pilgrimage, the Center remains dedicated to preserving and transmitting the living tradition of Usui Shiki Ryoho for future generations.