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• Personal Growth

June 1998

By Life Positive

A reiki master, who introduced the system in India, Paula Horan talks about some new information about reiki and alternative healing in an interview with Mahesh Ramchandani in Mumbai, India

What is this new information about reiki?

I’ve been in reiki for 12 years now, and so far we’ve known only three degrees. Some time back, I read about an American Tibetan Tulku, (Rinpoche) Dr Richard Blackwell, who had acquired reiki founder Dr Mikao Usui’s own notes.

Richard was born to General George Blackwell, who purchased some ancient scrolls—some of them 7th century manuscripts, from Japan.

Richard got the manuscripts in 1993. Since then, only a quarter of the material has been translated, but he’s gleaned a lot of information from it.

The story we have about Usui’s life is not accurate. Usui wasn’t a Christian or dean of a school. Since he was drawn to healing, he studied Japanese and Chinese medicine. Later, he learnt allopathy from missionary doctors. While in his twenties, he had a powerful vision during a near-fatal attack of malaria. He shared this vision with a school-friend’s father, a mature Shingon Buddhist, who recognized it, and took him under his wing.

Both Tendai and Shingon Buddhism were founded in Japan in the 7th century. They were brought to Japan by Shuichi and Kukai who had trained with two different Indian Buddhist masters in China. Richard feels that Usui may have been an incarnation of Kukai.

Usui used to seek out ancient books. One day, he came across a manuscript called The Tantra of the Lightning Flash, which Heals the Body and Illumines the Mind. It was in ancient Japanese with Chinese annotations. It had been brought to Japan by Kukai, but there were no living teachers who knew about this tantra, which is an ancient mystical branch of Hinduism. Usui was so excited that he started practicing it on his own. The rest of the story about going on the mountain and fasting is true. If Usui was the direct reincarnation of Kukai, obviously he would receive empowerment, since in another lifetime he had probably already mastered the practices.

What we now know is that Reiki III is only the first of a seven-level tantric teaching. Richard told me that Usui often poured water empowered by this tantra on his hands before healing. Richard is training his students to do the same.

Usui wrote: ‘Reiki heals indirectly by calming the mind and raising the life-force energy.’ But in the higher levels of tantrayou learn direct healing.

Considering the surfeit of reiki masters, how does one choose the right master?

Before settling on a teacher, ask him how long he has been doing reiki. There should be a minimum of three months between the first and the second degree, and three years before the third degree or master level. You could also have a reiki treatment to test him.

The most important qualification for reiki masters is to be able to trace their lineage to Usui. If a reiki master is trying to sign you up for the second and third degrees, he is only in it for business. There has to be something in Reiki II and Reiki III you feel drawn to on your own.

Why has alternative healing caught on in such a big way?

I’ll illustrate that with a story. After spending a year doing reiki healing with Hayashi, Takata commented: ‘Most people coming to us are the aristocrats.’ Hayashi said: ‘Yes, because they have reiki consciousness. They’ve already been to doctors and seen that it does not always work for them.’

Poor people tend to seek allopathic doctors and flashy hospitals. It’s the educated who have begun to seek something beyond, and hence are turning to reiki.

We have been brainwashed into believing that we’re not good enough. So we look to an outer authority—government, religion—to take care of us. But now, people are realizing that the greatest authority is inside.

What is this Gerson Therapy you talk about?

I cured myself of three tumors using Gerson Therapy. Max Gerson cured thousands of people of tuberculosis in the 1930s using raw food diet. The live enzymes in raw food boost the immune system. It’s also a powerful cure for cancer.

Human beings ate 75 to 90 per cent raw food through most of their evolution. Only in the last 2,000 to 3,000 years have we been eating so much cooked food. A vegetarian diet isn’t always healthy unless a lot of it is raw. The longest-living people in the world—the Hunzas, the Mayans, Bulgarians—eat 75 per cent raw and only 25 per cent cooked food. Animals, when they are sick, eat grass or leaves instinctively. Humans can regain this instinct by fasting.

It takes three days for the peristaltic action to stop. Then, the body starts to eat itself. The first thing it eats is toxins. Next, it eats the fat.

Alternative forms of healing have got a big chunk of the media’s attention. Comment.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. A lot of information on alternative systems gets suppressed. The two biggest businesses in the world are oil and pharmaceuticals, which also control the media.

And this control is being exercised by people who are worried that alternative forms will eat into their market?
We have lost our freedom in America and Europe to choose what we put in our bodies. Notice how the big pharmaceutical companies are already trying to patent neem, turmeric and basmati rice and other ayurvedic formulas. This is something I feel Indians need to wake up to.