Books filled with pages of instructions helping you learn certain skills are easy to obtain. These books are helpful in day-to-day living. Some things though, such as Usui Reiki Ryoho commonly shortened to Reiki, need to be researched before you spend your money on a book or video.

The history of medicine shows one of the most difficult things to try to understand is how the human body heals. To date medical science does not have the answer. Professional medical care is not replaceable in any physical or mental crisis, but Reiki complements medical care and helps with the side effects of all medical treatments.

Reiki promotes and speeds healing of mind, body and spirit. Reiki will never interfere with professional medical care and it helps to maintain homeostasis in mind, body, and spirit. Reiki Ryoho is the name Mikao Usui in 1921 gave to the vibration of love and harmony of universal energy that balances and surrounds with harmony; what is balanced and is in harmony heals. The meanings of heal are quite broad and what is true healing can at times be difficult to accept Have you ever been asked to recognize a relatives living will?

Anyone can learn Reiki-ho (method) once he or she has received what has come to be called an attunement from a qualified Reiki Shihan (master/teacher). In our fast paced world of instant downloads it is natural to expect most things to happen in this way. The attunement takes only a small amount of time, but there is much more to learning Reiki. Reiki cannot be learned from a book, or in one afternoon, or one weekend. The Gokai (five precepts or principles), the backbone of the Reiki is five very simple lines that actually was first said as three concepts. However, the meaning of these five simple lines, like the universe, is very extensive.

Learning Reiki requires hours of study with your Reiki Shihan, and daily practice. Some people have created an overwhelming number of training wheels (Reiki symbols) to make the understanding of the energy easier. Hours of study with a Reiki Shihan and practice erases the need to use any training wheels because you learn to identify with the energy. To practice Reikiho in this way, which is the way I learned Reiki coming directly from Japan, may not make you stand out in the crowd but it carries the essence of the method Usui-Sensei taught to gain health and happiness.

It is natural and good for people to want to make things better. Reiki is the pure white light of love and harmony from the universe. Why would anyone try to make something that strong and pure better?

History shows that sometimes efforts to make things better can be rewarded with the reverse of what is wanted. The next time you read about a way someone has made Reiki better think back to that ship in 1912 that was made so much better that it was claimed to be unsinkable. The ship I speak of is the Titanic that sunk on her maiden voyage.

Many of the details that have remained sacred within Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai,the society Usui-sensei created, are slowly being taught outside the Gakkai. New information about the history of Reiki and Usui-sensei is being shared, and since URRI 1999 those in other parts of the world are learning styles of Reiki that had stayed in Japan. It was customary that students did not advance until the Shihan knew that student was ready. Usui-sensei had 2,000 students, but only three of those he advanced to become Shihans (master/teacher). Learning Reiki from a Reiki Shihan that feels the timeless wonderment of the universe can enhance everything in your life, but it requires time, study, practice, and understanding.

Before Usui-sensei connected to universal energy he read many books in his lifetime, and spoke with many wise people about a variety of subjects. He traveled, and held different types of employment. He did not receive any formal education degrees, but he was an intelligent enlightened man that after many years of searching for knowledge had his first awakening (the first first being one of intellect). That led him to three years in Zen studies, which led him to the deep meditation, which lead to unconsciousness, which allowed him to connect to the universal vibrations of love and harmony. It then was not until he arrived home that he began to understand the strength of the energy that flowed through him.

Many canards have been created to show proof of the strength in the gift Usui-Sensei passed on. Simply knowing that people in his presence began healing in the way that was best for him or her at that particular junction in time is all the proof I need of the amazing strength of Reiki.

Learning Reiki may not be for everyone. Each person is born with the ability to see auras, communicate with animals, and many other psychic skills, yet only a few have nourished these skills in such a way that they became a natural part of his or her life. If a skill is not nourished it is overridden and often lost.

Anyone of any age can easily be opened up to the vibrations of love and harmony by a qualified Shihan in some style of Usui Reiki Ryoho. The nourishing to blend universal energy into day-to-day life so that is heals you and all those around you requires hours of study and practice. Discipline and determination are the keys to most things in life; the universe blends patience and practice into the formation of discipline. Universal energy may flow through you at its full strength, but healing sometimes is not seen until you let go of thinking how things should heal. Reiki practitoners and teacehrs do not diagnose nor do they direct the energy to a specific area. How pure and strong the energy flows depends upon many things.

I have been very lucky to have studied under Reiki Shihans with close lineages to Mikao Usui. More facts about Reiki can be found on my website www.naturalhealinglearning.com. Through Japanese styles of Usui Reiki Ryoho and herbs I have become dedicated to helping others in the art of well-being. I urge people to overlook legends that make these look like that quake- stuff, and experience Reiki through a Reiki Shihan in a style that honors the essence of the wonderment of what Usui-sensei taught. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but changes form. The form of energy named Reiki is a unique form that can give light to dark corners in a unique way, if learned correctly.