An Usui System of Natural Healing or Reiki is a spiritual practice and healing art that anyone can learn and practice. It is a gentle hands-on and distant healing discipline that simply, but powerfully, balances body, mind, heart and spirit using your own natural healing energy. It is not a religion, but honors and coexists peacefully with all religions and belief systems. Both Jikiden Reiki's and other Usui Reiki's tradition is primarily oral and is passed from teacher to student based on their personal relationship as a Reiki student and a Reiki teacher. A thumbnail sketch of Reiki's history follows:

Reiki originated in Japan in the 1920's. Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki, created a system of healing he called Reiki. He spent the rest of his life until his death in 1926 practicing and teaching this method of natural healing which involves both the physical laying on of hands as well as distant treatment. Usui authored the principles of Reiki or Gokai which he is believed to have derived from the Waka poetry of the Japanese Meiji Emporer.

One of Usui's students, Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, a medical doctor and retired Japanese naval officer, continued Usui's work after his death opening a Reiki clinic and school in Tokyo. One of Dr. Hayashi's students, Mrs. Hawayo Takata, a Hawaiian of Japanese descent, consulted with Dr. Hayashi in Japan about life-threatening medical problems in 1935. After being cured of these medical problems through Reiki, Mrs. Takata studied Reiki under Dr. Hayashi. In 1938 Mrs. Takata was very honored to be designated one of Dr. Hayashi's small group of Reiki Shihans or Reiki Teachers. Mrs. Takata taught Reiki in Hawaii, the mainland of the United States, in Puerto Rico and in Canada. During the last two years of her life, Mrs. Takata initiated 22 Reiki Shihans who she called Reiki Masters. Mrs. Takata took on herself the title of Grand Master or Reiki.

After Takata-sensei's death in 1980, Mrs. Takata's granddaughter Phyllis Lei Furumoto was designated by 21 of Mrs. Takata's Reiki Masters as Mrs. Takata's successor and as a Grand Master. One of Mrs. Takata's Reiki Masters, Barbara Webber Ray, went her own way, and developed her version of Reiki which she called the Radiance Teachnique. Phyllis Furumoto is currently recognized by the Reiki Alliance, which was the Reiki organization formed in 1981 by the above mentioned 21 of Mrs. Takata's Reiki Masters, as the present Grand Master and Lineage Bearer of the Reiki Alliance which practices the Usui Shiki Ryoho method of Usui Reiki. Paul Mitchell, another of Mrs. Takata's Reiki Masters, was later designated by Phyllis Furumoto as the Head of the Discipline of the Reiki Alliance. The Reiki Alliance is a worlwide organization of Reiki Masters tracing their Reiki lineage to Hawayo Takato and practicing Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki. The Reiki Alliance stated mission is to promote the Usui Shiki Ryoho method of Usui Reiki and support its Reiki Master members. Phyllis Lei Furumoto has taught and has encouraged the teaching Reiki worldwide.