The traditional story goes that Dr. Usui was teaching in a Christian university Doshisha University in Kyoto in the mid 1800's. When his students began to ask him about Jesus' methods of healing he had no answers to give them. He then began a quest to learn of these methods, leading him from Japan, to the University of Chicago Divinity School and back to Japan where he lived in a Buddhist monastery. Apparently the only records of Dr. Usui come from the Buddhist monastery. No such records can be found that place him in either Christian university. This leads many to believe that this story was given, perhaps, to pave the way for the teaching of Reiki in the west.

Despite the lapse in the records, Dr. Usui's search led him upon a final quest. Dr. Usui climbed Mt. Koriyama for a 21-day meditation and fasting ritual. At the end of the 21 days, marked each day by a small stone, Usui was about to leave, when he saw in the distance a great light approaching him. Although fearful, he remained in place hoping to have his answers revealed to him. The light struck him in the third eye\forehead. He was knocked unconscious, but upon regaining his senses he saw millions of small glowing bubbles and was shown each Reiki symbol individually. The meaning of each was also made clear to him.

These ancient Sanskrit symbols are a great part of traditional Reiki today. Although many systems hold these symbols to be sacred and secret to the point of hiding each symbol from the uninitiated as well as keeping the names secret and unspoken, other Reiki systems seem to hold that although sacred, secrecy is not a part of their purpose. Each of these symbols comes from a Sanskrit source although many have been interpreted into a Kanji form. Many of the symbols can be found in Kanji dictionaries so their relative "secrecy" remains interpretable to the individual Reiki master and student.

Dr. Usui was known to perform many miracles in his time, treating beggars as well as many others. He soon found that many of those he "healed" came back again and again for treatment of illnesses. Upon asking why they did not remain healed, he found that many of these people held onto their diseases because they served them in some way. These people preferred to live with their illness because they were cared for by others, and various other reasons. The diseases gave them a reason not to have to make an honest living, they were able to beg more easily if seen as sick, etc.

Dr. Usui then began to search for sincere students. One, a man named Chujiro Hayashi, eventually became his successor. This man , upon being redrafted into the Japanese navy, chose to accept death rather than harm the very life he had been upholding through his healing practice. Calling Hawayo Takata from Hawaii, one of two women he had initiated as master and the only westerner, he made her his successor and on May 10, 1941, stopped his own heart by psychic means in the presence of his own students. Hawayo Takata brought this system to the Hawaii and the rest of the United States. She trained many in Reiki although only 22 Reiki masters. Because of the west's belief that money = value, she charged a great deal for her training. Today's Reiki masters often follow the line of reasoning that a student will not value the training if they do not pay dearly for it. There are several branches of non-traditional Reiki which do not follow this line of thought and make the questions of Reiki degrees much easier to attain, although the training is no less than that received by more traditional sources.