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Reiki conference scheduled at Silver Mountain

Susan Mitchell, left, past director of the Reiki Alliance, and Phyllis Lei Furumoto, whose grandmother brought Reiki to the U.S,. will be among the more than 200 people expected to be at the conference. (Barbara Minton / The Spokesman-Review)
Barbara Minton Correspondent
Susan Mitchell, left, past director of the Reiki Alliance, and Phyllis Lei Furumoto, whose grandmother brought Reiki to the U.S,. will be among the more than 200 people expected to be at the conference. (Barbara Minton / The Spokesman-Review)

Imagine 200 people from around the world coming together sharing a vision to create harmony in the individual, to bring more love and kindness into our lives and the people we work for. That is what Reiki is all about, said Susan Mitchell, a master and the past director of the Reiki Alliance for 11 years.

Key practitioners of the ancient healing art will convene next week at Silver Mountain in Kellogg for a conference.

Reiki, pronounced (ray-key), started in Japan and means “universal life energy,” the energy found in all of life. An aid to healing and achieving serenity, Reiki is gentle but powerful and used to reduce pain, anxiety, stress and improve overall health and well-being, Mitchell said.

Today millions of people on every continent practice Reiki with their families, friends, pets and plants, said Mitchell.

“In fact, Reiki is so effective that it’s increasingly used in major hospitals,” she said.

The conference is being held to celebrate the alliance’s switch to a virtual office from one organized by a director. With the change, “the organization will be much more organic, more fluid and flexible and more participation with members themselves,” Mitchell said.

The annual conference started when Mrs. Hawayo Takata brought Reiki to the U.S. in the 1930s and passed leadership to her granddaughter, Phyllis Lei Furumoto in 1980. In 1983 the masters gathered in Canada to create the Reiki Alliance and acknowledge granddaughter, Phyllis Lei Furumoto, as her successor.

The annual conference is a chance to come together with their friends and colleagues to share both their professional work and personal experience. With people from some 40 countries involved, teams of translators are needed to facilitate communication in languages including Portuguese, French, Spanish, Polish and Russian.