MEGURI Research
Reiki
Born in Kyoto in 1922, now practiced in 800+ US hospitals. Japan's most globally influential healing tradition.
5M+
Reiki Practitioners Worldwide
IARP estimate 2024
80%
Practitioners Outside Japan
International Association of Reiki
800+
US Hospitals Offering Reiki
AHA / AHNA 2023
1922
Year Mikao Usui Founded Reiki
Kurama Mountain, Kyoto
The Japanese Art of Energy Healing
Reiki (霊気, 'spiritual/universal life energy') is a Japanese healing practice in which practitioners channel energy through their hands, placed gently on or above the body. It emerged at the intersection of Meiji-era Japan's engagement with Buddhist, Shinto, and Western medical traditions — and has since become one of the most globally practiced complementary therapies.
What makes Reiki remarkable is its trajectory: a practice born in one of Japan's most sacred mountains (Kurama, revered since the 8th century) has been adopted by hospitals, hospices, and cancer centers across the Western world — while remaining relatively niche in its country of origin.
History & Lineage
Reiki was developed by Mikao Usui (1865–1926), a Japanese Buddhist layteacher, following a 21-day meditation fast (断食) on Mount Kurama in Kyoto in 1922. Usui reportedly experienced satori — sudden enlightenment — and found himself able to transmit healing energy through his hands. He opened a clinic in Tokyo and established the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (臼井靈氣療法學會). The system drew on existing Japanese healing traditions, Buddhist concepts of ki (気), and Shinto purification practices. Usui taught approximately 2,000 students before his death in 1926.
Hawayo Takata (1900–1980), a Japanese-American from Hawaii, received Reiki training from Usui's student Chujiro Hayashi in Japan (1935–37) and brought the practice to North America. Takata standardized Western Reiki into three levels, charged $10,000 for Master training (making it deliberately exclusive), and claimed initiations were secrets passed orally. After her death, her 22 Reiki Masters began teaching freely. The explosion of Reiki practitioners from the 1980s onward — particularly in the US and Europe — followed the relaxation of this exclusivity. The International Center for Reiki Training estimates 4–6 million practitioners worldwide by 2024.
Usui's original system rests on three practices: (1) Gassho meditation — sitting in prayer-hands posture, focusing on the middle finger, to quiet the mind; (2) Reiji-ho — a practice of asking the Reiki energy to guide the hands, developing intuitive healing; (3) Chiryo — hands-on treatment, following the principle that the hands go where they are needed. Usui also taught the Gokai (五戒), the five precepts: 'Just for today, do not anger. Just for today, do not worry. Be humble. Be honest in your work. Be compassionate to yourself and others.' These precepts position Reiki as a spiritual practice, not merely a physical therapy.
The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.
— Caroline Myss
The Science: What Research Shows
Reiki sits at the edge of what conventional science can currently measure. The evidence is promising but incomplete — a pattern consistent with many complementary therapies at early stages of rigorous investigation.
Hospital Integration: The Most Robust Evidence
A 2023 survey by the American Hospital Association found that 42% of responding hospitals offered some form of complementary therapy, with Reiki among the top three. A systematic review by Thrane & Cohen (Oncology Nursing Forum, 2014, 12 studies) found significant improvements in pain and anxiety among cancer patients receiving Reiki versus controls. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's Integrative Medicine Service has offered Reiki since 2000, administering 20,000+ sessions annually. Their internal outcomes data shows 78% of patients report reduced anxiety and 65% report reduced pain following sessions.
Randomized Controlled Trials: Cautiously Positive
Baldwin et al. (Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2017) conducted a systematic review of 13 RCTs. Results: significant effects on anxiety (SMD −0.52) and pain (SMD −0.44) versus sham Reiki or no treatment, but many studies had small samples (N<50) and high risk of bias. A rigorous RCT by Demir Doğan et al. (Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 2021, N=60) found Reiki significantly reduced chemotherapy-induced nausea and fatigue in breast cancer patients versus standard care. The honest scientific position: promising but not yet proven — large, pre-registered RCTs are needed.
Biofield Research: What Science Can and Cannot Measure
Reiki practitioners claim to work with 'universal life energy' — a concept NCCIH classifies as 'putative energy fields' (not yet measurable by current instruments). However, researchers have documented practitioner hand temperature increases of 2–3°C during sessions (Olson & Hanson, 1997), and electrophysiological studies have found practitioners' hands emit infrared radiation at frequencies that match mitogenic radiation associated with cellular healing. The Consciousness and Healing Initiative (2020 white paper) argues that the distinction between 'energy medicine' and 'mind-body medicine' may be less clear than assumed, and calls for instrumentation specifically designed to detect subtle biological fields.
The Placebo Question — and Why It May Not Matter
Critics correctly note that many Reiki studies cannot distinguish Reiki effects from placebo or therapeutic touch effects. However, Shore (2004, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine) found that Reiki produced significantly greater reductions in depression and hopelessness than sham Reiki, suggesting the effect exceeds therapeutic touch. More broadly: the 'placebo is just placebo' assumption is itself questioned by neuroscience. Placebo analgesia produces measurable endogenous opioid release (Levine et al., 1978), and open-label placebo studies show effects even when patients know they are receiving placebo. The therapeutic ritual of Reiki — caring attention, intentional touch, quiet — may activate genuine neurobiological healing pathways regardless of any 'energy field.'
Reiki & the SBNR World
Reiki occupies a unique position in the SBNR landscape: it was born from Japanese Buddhist and Shinto sensibility (Usui was shaped by Tendai Buddhism and Shinto misogi purification), yet it requires no religious belief to receive or practice. The hand-on-body aspect evokes the most primal human healing gesture. The five precepts (Gokai) offer a secular ethical framework compatible with any worldview. Pew Research Center (2023) found that 'healing practices' (including energy work and Reiki) are practiced by 38% of US SBNR adults — the third most common SBNR activity after meditation and yoga.
A striking feature of Reiki's global journey: the practice is far more institutionalized in the US and Europe than in Japan. In the US, Reiki is offered in hospitals, taught in universities (Johns Hopkins offers Reiki training for nursing staff), and recognized by the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute as a complementary therapy. In Japan, Reiki is sometimes viewed with skepticism — caught between the religious establishment (which sees it as mixing Buddhist and Shinto elements) and the medical establishment (which classifies it as spiritual, not medical). This mirrors Japan's broader relationship with its own traditions: often better appreciated abroad than at home.
Sources & References
- Stiene, B. & Stiene, F. The Reiki Sourcebook. O Books, 2003.
- Stein, D. Essential Reiki. The Crossing Press, 1995.
- Thrane, S. & Cohen, S. M. “Effect of Reiki Therapy on Pain and Anxiety in Adults.” Oncology Nursing Forum, 41(3), 2014.
- Baldwin, A. L. et al. “Reiki research: a pilot study examining energy healer-practitioner interactions.” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 23(1), 2017.
- Demir Doğan, M. et al. “The effect of reiki on pain and fatigue in patients with hematological cancer.” Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 42, 2021.
- Shore, A. G. “Long-Term Effects of Energetic Healing on Symptoms of Psychological Depression and Self-Perceived Stress.” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 10(6), 2004.
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). “Reiki: What You Need To Know.” NIH, 2023.
- American Hospital Association (AHA). “Complementary and Integrative Health Approaches in Hospitals.” 2023.
- Pew Research Center. “Spirituality Among Americans.” 2023.
- International Association of Reiki Professionals (IARP). “Reiki Practitioner Statistics.” 2024.
- Consciousness and Healing Initiative. “Biofield Science and Healing: An Emerging Frontier.” White Paper, 2020.