In the beginning, the most useful book to learn about Reiki is The Japanese Art Of Reiki (2005) by Browen and Frans Stiene because it is very traditional. It is “a practical guide to self-healing.” It gives good instructions and has wonderful photographs to help you learn each exercise and concept. The authors keep the wisdom of Reiki at a simplistic level, focusing on the self healing aspects of the art. It also gives a thorough view of Japanese Reiki history. This is a great book to start out with. However, once you advance to a higher level and want to begin healing others, you will want to advance onto another book.

A good book to study next is Diane Stein’s book Essential Reiki: A Complete Guide To An Ancient Healing Art (1996). This is a simple guide to learning how to heal others. It does not go over the importance of self healing as much as the first book, but as you advance from the self healing you will want to use this book. It gives drawings, symbols, and instructions that will help you learn how to heal people and expand your knowledge.

Donna Eden wrote a wonderful book called Energy Medicine (1998) that goes over the aspects of energy as a healing art by breaking down the barriers between different types of energy work. This book directly addresses energy as a healing art without putting it in a box and giving it a history, lineage, name, or decedent. It is important to understand energy in this universal sense.

Another book that is beneficial is The Web That Has No Weaver (1983), which is about understanding Chinese medicine not about Japanese Reiki. Nevertheless, it has a great description of Qi which is basically the same as Ki. The understanding of how Qi or Ki works is essential to learning how to work with it in such a way as to heal. It also describes different types of Qi and contains diagrams for the meridians in the body, which are the pathways for Qi to flow through.

Some of the best sources are found in magazines. There is a magazine called Reiki, which can usually be found at any large bookstore that carries magazines. It also posts many of its articles on line at www.reiki.org. It contains different types of Reiki articles every other month. The articles always portray some aspect of Reiki, but range between almost every style of energy work.