Episode 553 – Laying on Hands, Part 1

Facing Backward Podcasts

This week: the origins of one of the most popular pseudo-medical traditions out there. Where does reiki, the notion that one can manipulate energy in the human body using their hands to heal people, come from? And why does studying the history of practices like this matter?

Sources

Stein, Justin B. Alternate Currents: Reiki’s Circulation in the Twentieth-Century North Pacific

Winfield, Pamela D. “KYOTO PILGRIMAGE PAST AND PRESENT.” CrossCurrents 59, no. 3 (2009)

An article from McGill University’s medical school discussing why reiki should not be taken seriously as a medical practice.

Images

Usui Mikao. This photo is one of very few of him I was able to find.

Hayashi Chujiro, founder of the breakaway (and larger) Hayashi Association.

A shrine set up by modern Japanese reiki practitioners in Usui’s home town in Gifu.

Takata Hawayo as a young woman, likely when she was working for Julia Spalding (based on the kimono).