How I learned Reiki
I started Reiki I with a Reiki Alliance Master, Cheri Prasuhn, from Wayne, New Jersey in spring '90. Cheri had studied with Virginia Samdahl and Pat Jack, both trained by Hawayo Takata, who was trained by Dr. Usui's student Hayashi. We had a 3 day group class and four attunements. I followed up by doing Reiki on myself and others daily, and attending weekly group hands-on healing work at my teacher's house. I noticed immediate benefits from Reiki energy. For example, instead of being sick as usual every winter, I had no colds or flu at all for 5 years and only few colds since 1996. I also noticed a big improvement in sleep, stamina, flexibility, serenity, and a reduction of menstrual cramps and stress.
I took a 2-day class in Reiki II with the same Master in the fall of '90, and again continued to attend Sharings and to do daily work on myself and my clients with the new material that included distant healing, emotional and mental healing work.
I was particularly excited about the mental reprogramming technique because by that time I was a professional hypnotherapist and I fully understood the immense application and power of it. Unfortunately, not all Reiki Masters teach it or even know about it.
While I started to discuss an apprenticeship program with my teacher, I realized that she was not right for me for this most important final step. I then interviewed several Masters before deciding to study with Arline Rowden who lived several states away.Arline did Light Body Work in addition to Reiki. She received her Reiki training from Kathleen Milner. Arline was warm, sincere, grounded, held clear boundaries, and was commited to conveying the best information to her students. I spent a week in training in fall '91 with Arline to become a Master. Later the following spring when Kathleen Milner came to NYC, I spent two more weekends studying with her directly. Kathleen is very talented healer and clairvoyant. Milner's lineage was Usui, Hayashi, Takata, Iris Ishikura, Arthur Robertson, Emma and Rick Ferguson, Margaret Shelton to Kathleen. Kathleen now calls her program Tera Mai Reiki, but did not at that time. Finally, because Iris Ishikura was also trained in Johrei before Reiki, I latter studied Johrei as well.