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Part of a series of books offering a reframing of the entire story of Reiki. Frank Arjava Petter is a European, trained in "Western Reiki", married to a Japanese woman, living in Japan, and the person who enabled the reimportation of Reiki into Japan. In addition to practicing and teaching "Western Reiki" in Japan, he has researched the true origins of Reiki and made contact with the true heirs of Usui's legacy. From this several books have come to give us parts of the true history of Reiki.

In this book the authors attempt to give a complete handbook covering Usui's system of Reiki, as he taught it. They have done an admiral job, surpassing the other books in this series, such as Reiki Fire and The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui.

This book is large, weighing in at over three hundred pages. In this case the thickness of the book is validated by the comprehensiveness with which they cover the material.

It is split into five sections, each containing several chapters, as so:

Part I, The History of Reiki: In this section they explore and explain the history of Reiki. How did Reiki come to the Western World from Japan? They perform a point-by-point examination of Mrs. Takata's story of Reiki, showing the truth related to each of her claims.

While Mrs. Takata's story comes up lacking in factualness, they point out an intriguing angle. Mrs. Takata brought Reiki to America at the same time as the beginning of World War II. Consider the difficulty she might have, as a Japanese woman, teaching a Japanese system, in a country at war with Japan, while living in Hawaii, the territory that suffered direct attack by the Japanese, and which housed the headquarters of the Naval fleets which were directly engaging with The Enemy.

Of course she would have had difficulty teaching a "Jap" system in the America of that time. This gives us some idea why she might have changed the stories, and the teachings. It was for her own safety, and in other ways make the teachings more acceptable in America.

Part II, Reiki Energy Basics: Here is discussed the energy itself from many different angles. A long exposition covers the inner meaning of the older written form of the Reiki symbol. Another essay concerns the Japanese system for describing different forms of Chi. And in the other chapters they discuss the Meridian system, the Aura, the Chakras, and other aspects of the human energy system.

Part III, Reiki Practice: This section concerns the learning of Reiki, the relationship between teacher and student, and various ways of practicing Reiki. Chapter 18 is especially interesting as it covers, in depth, over 20 different energetic or meditative techniques taught by Usui. Another chapter covers the healing techniques, that should be familiar to those that have read The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui.

Part IV, Reiki Today and Tomorrow: As implied by the section title, this section covers "where do we go from here". They discuss Reiki as a path of spiritual enlightenment, the mystic aspect of Usui's system, etc. They also talk of how Reiki will help to bring world peace.

Part V, Appendix: This contains some random extra information. The most interesting may be the discussion of what to do while in Japan, especially at the Temples, to show proper respect and not be an offensive westerner. Many of us may well be drawn to make the pilgramage to Usui's grave, and it is important that we properly respect Japanese traditions in and around the temples and cemetary.

This book is highly recommended.