My third book “The Old Man From the Hill (Qigong meets Reiki)” has caused a little bit of a controversy for some readers and reviewers. I included the 3 Reiki symbols in the book with no directions how to draw them but only what they represent and how they can be used in Reiki treatments. My intent was to get young people interested in Qigong and Reiki which is why the book is geared towards the ages of 12 and up. High school students and adults as well. I never intended to offend anyone and I apologize if I have but I will give my reasons for using the symbols based on what I have read before writing the book.

1. It is taught in Western Reiki that Mikao Usui had wanted the symbols kept secret but yet some of his surviving Japanese students claim that Usui never used the symbols in his teachings. It was said that he created them for the Naval officers who did not want to put in the time to learn the Ususi system. Each level the students were to spend 6-9 months acclimating to the energies of each level.

2. If the symbols are sacred and secret as taught in Western Reiki then why are they seen all over Japan on shrines and temples. The symbols are said to be from the ancient Shinto religion. So how are they a secret if they are visible to the public.

3. Mikao Usui used kotodamas in his teachings, which are sounds from the Shinto religion, as part of his teachings. The symbols eventually taught to the Naval officers were just representations for the sounds.

4. In Western Reiki, the Takata lineage, people are taught that Mikao Usui came to the University of Chicago to study Theology. Yet people who have researched this statement has found they he never enrolled and there is no record of him ever attending the University of Chicago.

5. It is said that after Hawayo Takata’s death that the students whom she taught had gotten together to compare notes on her teachings and the symbols. To their surprise the symbols had variations in how they were taught. If the symbols were so sacred and secretive would there be room for error of for someone to just change them?

Could it be that these ideas were taught by Hawayo Takata as a means of having Reiki accepted in the west. After all if was after World War II where a lot of people in the west detested anything Japanese.

I will conclude by saying these are my personal opinions and in my heart I feel that what I included in my book was the right thing for me to do!