Learning Reiki should be more than a weekend course of study Throughout humankinds history of healing therapies, such as Theraputic Touch, and their often-attendant Eastern mystical practices, such as reiki, charismatic individuals have contributed to the path of healers development. Mikao Usui wrote a manual of his teachings on reiki in 1920. In April of 1922, he opened his first Seat of Learning in Harajuku, Tokyo. His teachings inspired the senior population, who experienced them as a return to the older spiritual practices. Reiki is a healing art evolved from Eastern visions of what our universe is and how it functions. Today, in the West, we grow master teachers, who, like their patients and students, have rushed up the ranks through an instant reiki system of weekend seminars, offering little, if any, foundation in Eastern thinking, and who are continuing to churn the master-making machinery. Is reiki a valid complementary healing modality? Yes. Are there honest, serious master teachers? Yes. However, qualified reiki masters are rare, and the responsibility of learning to navigate the legitimate reiki path belongs to the student