On November 18, 2023, I initiated Sonia Elena Ramos as a Reiki Master in the Usui System of Natural Healing, Usui Shiki Ryoho. Sonia, a mental health counselor, is an exceptional teacher, having spent a decade teaching in New York City schools. She first learned Reiki in 2015, and spent…
Have you learned Reiki and now want to deepen your skills and exchange Reiki with others? Organize a Reiki Circle! Here are a few things to keep in mind when hosting a Reiki Circle: Participants. Make a list of who you will invite. It could be people you met in…
The American Cancer Society family center in NYC is ready for Reiki volunteers again. The ACS Hope Lodge Network provides free, home-like accommodations and activities for cancer patients and their caregivers who have to travel for treatment. Volunteers have the wonderful opportunity to be part of a nurturing community through…
Students have been telling me for a few years that I should be on TikTok. Maybe you’re one of those students who offered to help me get started. Now in my mid-50s, I thought I was outside the demographic, so I demurred. Still, I had to take a peek, and…
Reiki has brought me many gifts over the years since I completed my first degree class in December 2012 – one of the most important being my meditation practice and lineage. In April of 2022, I finished a two and half year meditation program with The 3 Doors Academy, which…
On May 22, 2022, I initiated Simon John Light of New York City and Puglia, Italy as a Reiki Master in the Usui System of natural Healing, Usui Shiki Ryoho. Simon, who was already a trained and licensed acupuncturist and massage therapist, excelled during his Reiki Master training. He has…
On May 22, 2022, Brian Brunius initiated Racquel Borromeo of New York City as a Reiki Master in the system of Usui Shiki Ryoho. Racquel, or Racqui as her friends call her, is a gifted Reiki practitioner and an excellent Reiki teacher. She has established her own private practice in…
Dear Reiki Community, In my first degree Reiki class almost 30 years ago, my teacher John Gray showed the students his most treasured possession, a copy of the “Grey Book” published in 1982 after Hawayo Takata died. It was given to the 22 Reiki Masters she initiated, and to no…
The Reiki II Masterclass is a big deal in the preparation to become a Reiki Instructor. It is the last, definitive, in-person test before receiving the final initiations of the third level of Reiki. After this, there only remains to write up the Master Project which is like the thesis…
There is a certain treatment that comes from Takata sensei herself that works so well it would draw huge crowds if only more people knew about it. Hawayo Takata was a Reiki Master who worked with clients daily for more than forty years. She learned to give Reiki treatments before…
I was in the grocery store last week waiting in line to pay. A woman in the line next to me started talking to me and asked me what I did. This happens pretty often, and I usually respond to people, “I do Reiki.” The woman immediately replied that she…
Those of you who have studied Reiki with me know that I absolutely love telling the stories of the Reiki Masters in our lineage. My teacher, John Harvey Gray, passed down a rich trove of stories in the form of giant reel-to-reel audio tapes he recorded of Hawayo Takata teaching…
I’ve received a number of questions recently about Usui Shiki Ryoho, the system of Reiki I teach. People have asked what it is exactly, how it differs from other forms of Reiki, and how to choose a Reiki teacher. In the world today there are a dizzying array of practices…
Many prospective students ask why our first degree Reiki class at NYC Reiki Center is so long – 16 Hours, over 2 days. Why spend a weekend in our Midtown office when there are 1-hour Reiki workshops and online Reiki training elsewhere? We can’t answer that for you, but we…
Last week I received an email from our Japanese to English translator, Dylan Luers Toda, that made my heart skip a beat. He wrote that he completed the translation of chapter 2 ahead of schedule and had attached it to his email. His translation of chapter 1 was amazing, and…
A Century of Reiki with Dr. Justin Stein A five-part Zoom series following Reiki’s journey from Japanese therapy to global practice. We were so pleased to host this groundbreaking 5-hour Webinar series with renowned Reiki scholar Justin Stein, PhD., who covered the history of Reiki from Usui’s time through…
Today on my 50th birthday I signed the contract for an academic English language translation of the 1933 Reiki book by Kaiji Tomita. Tomita was a student of Reiki founder Mikao Usui, and as such, this book offers perhaps the best chance at understanding some of what Usui was teaching…
In our initiating lineage, Master training requires the execution of a project that explores a question that arises within ourselves about Reiki. The idea of a Master project was daunting and, frankly, irksome in the light of 2,000 recorded hours of Reiki practice and 12 weekends devoted to auditing and…
Last week, we bid our final farewells to Usui Shiki Ryoho Grandmaster Phyllis Lei Furumoto in Kapa’a, Kauai, Hawaii. Reiki Masters and practitioners, as well as members of Phyllis’ and her widow Joyce Winough’s families, traveled from all corners of the globe – Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Israel, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Austria,…
Training as a traditional Reiki master is one of the most challenging endeavors I’ve ever undertaken. I regularly quipped, “If I ever make it through this program, we’re going to the top of Mount Kurama for the initiation!” That seemed, at those times, as impossible as finishing the program. Well,…
I say in every first degree class, “Reiki flows through the lineage.” Literally, I connect to the energy of Reiki through the teachers who came before me. I accomplish this by teaching and initiating my students precisely as I was taught by my teachers, and as I teach all of…
From May 6th to 14th, 2019, 15 Reiki students participated in a pilgrimage to the sites in Japan that hold historical and spiritual importance for all Reiki practitioners. Led by Christopher Tellez of the SF Reiki Center and historian Dr. Justin Stein, and accompanied by tour guide & translator Yoshie Hara,…
On May 10, 2019, Diane Domondon of Queens, New York, was initiated by Brian Brunius as a Reiki Master. Diane was in Reiki training for more than four years and underwent several years of Master preparation before her Master initiation. Her training culminated during a sacred pilgrimage to the historic…
Edited from a transcript of a tape recording of Mrs. Hawayo Takata. The recording was made in 1979 when Takata was 78 years old. Mrs. Hawayo Takata asked her teacher, “Dr. Hayashi, will you permit and consent that I have one class free for all the people that have helped…
This past weekend, the NYC Reiki Center launched our first Certified Reiki Practitioner training program for second-degree students seriously considering establishing a Reiki business, and for those seeking guidance and mentoring in their professional practice. I’m excited to see these students develop into highest-standard Reiki professionals and find their own…
A Pilgrimage to Japan for SF Reiki Center & NYC Reiki Center Students – May 6-14, 2019. We’ll start in Kyoto on May 6th to connect to the spirit of Japan, spend time on and around Mt. Kurama with time & space to exchange Reiki, take a tour of Usui…
On Friday, November 2, 2018, Phyllis Furumoto, Grandmaster and Lineage Bearer of Usui Shiki Ryoho, spoke to members of John Harvey Gray’s lineage at an event sponsored by Brian Brunius and Reiki Centers of America. The three-day event was something I’d long anticipated, but Friday, devoted to the “Initiating Lineage”…
On October 31, 2018, Clara Diebold of Cambridge, Massachusetts, completed her 2-year Reiki Master Apprenticeship. Clara is the founder of Reiki Boston, holds a Masters degree in counseling, and is also a certified practitioner of Eden Energy Medicine. She studied and practiced Reiki for years with John Harvey Gray and Lourdes…
Phyllis Lei Furumoto, Grandmaster of Usui Shiki Ryoho, and successor to Hawayo Takata, will visit New York City for three days in the fall of 2018. Each day of Phyllis’ visit is designed so that different audiences have time to interact with her and to meet each other. Friday, November…
Many students have asked how to do Reiki on someone sitting in a chair. Brian Brunius demonstrates this great technique for delivering Reiki to a seated person when you do not have a massage table for your treatment. Using this method you will not strain your back, as so often…
Book Overview: We are all Healers, by Sally Hammond The following passages, excerpted from Sally Hammond’s classic 1974 book (Ballantine Books, New York) about spiritual healing, We are all Healers, document a brief encounter she had with Mrs. Hawayo Takata at a conference on spiritual healing in 1971. The excerpt…
In this video, the practitioner walks us through how she approaches dogs and cats with Reiki.
Amazing healing sessions between humans and a resident wolf with a neurological disorder. One of many interactions at Earthfire Institute that deepens our understanding and connection with wildlife. For more information, visit www.earthfireinstitute.org
On January 25, 2016, five years after opening the San Francisco Reiki Center, and more than two years after beginning his full-time Reiki Master Apprenticeship, Christopher Tellez received the final Master initiation from Brian Brunius and received his Reiki Master Certificate.
REIKI AND THE POWER OF ORAL TRADITION with Grand Master Phyllis Lei Furumoto Saturday, July 25,2015 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. San Francisco LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER 1800 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CA WORKSHOP FEE: $100 REGISTRATION: http://www.sfreikicenter.com/events
On Saturday, January 31st, 2015, Christopher Tellez of the San Francisco Reiki Center hosted a one-day conference featuring Phyllis Lei Furumoto, the Grandmaster of Usui Shiki Ryoho, the traditional practice of Reiki brought to America by her grandmother, Hawayo Takata. More than fifty Reiki practitioners and masters attended the event.…
This song was presented by Ellen Montague to the Reiki community at the 2014 NW Reiki Gathering at the Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon. This recording was made of the entire gathering singing the song while Ellen Montague led us. Ellen Montague of Salem, Oregon is a Reiki master, massage…
I was recently reading Brigitte Müller and Horst H. Günther’s 1995 “A Complete Book of Reiki Healing.” In it the authors give two recipes they attribute to Hawayo Takata. I have seen similar versions of these recipes in others books, and thought it might be worth repeating them here. As…
