John Harvey Gray received his entire Reiki training from Hawayo Takata (b. 1900- d. 1980), and was initiated as the first Reiki Master in California, and the third in the West, in 1976. Fulfilling the confidence Mrs. Takata placed in him, he has taught over 800 Reiki classes, taught and mentored thousands of Reiki students, and given over 10,000 private Reiki sessions. He is the longest-practicing Reiki Master in the Western Hemisphere.
Hawayo Takata received her Reiki training from Chujiro Hayashi (d. 1941), an officer in the Japanese Navy who set up and operated the first Reiki clinic in Tokyo.
Foreseeing the coming of World War II, Dr. Hayashi made Mrs. Takata, who lived in Hawaii, a Reiki Master so that the knowledge would not be lost in the war and its aftermath.
Photo: Gunter Baylow,
used with permission
Dr. Hayashi, in turn, received his Reiki training from Dr. Mikao Usui (d. circa 1920). Dr. Usui rediscovered and named Reiki after a decades-long search for healing techniques ascribed to Buddha and Jesus.
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