For the special edition of German Reiki Magazin about Hawayo Takata, published in February 2019, Wanja Twan, one of the 23 Reiki masters trained by Hawayo Takata, collected this together, in Autumn 2016. This is the first publication of most of this text in English language.

 

Cherryville, B.C., Canada

Hello again!

Let’s see if I can get a few lines on paper this time, but already a few minutes ago when I was sitting down to start, someone came, it is very seldom that I can sit down and write.

The above was started on November 20, today it is November 28, 1978, so the days have gone and we just had our first snow and I made it out on the first ski trip of the season. Just half an hour around the meadow, it was really nice, enough to get your cheeks red. The snow came suddenly yesterday, I just had time to throw the last leaves over the last flowers of the season, everything always seems to get done in the last minute here.

Now I just have to tidy up a bit more in the weaving barns, than all is over there as well. Everything is organized for the winter, son Martin has cut a lot of wood and piled it all in the garage, the freezer in there is full of meat and vegetables, all my jars full of cherries, apricots, peaches, plums and tomatoes, and hundreds of jars of jam are sitting on long rows in the cooler room.

I have sold the sheep and cows and all six kids and I are going to Hawaii for 3 weeks, in December, as a Christmas present for all the work they have done with them over the years. It has been a very busy time for all of us, it will be nice to in a warm place and go swimming at Waikiki beach every day, go to the Zoo and stores in Honolulu. It will be a good ending to 1978!

The next 4 months I am going to write and send out my letters for next years weaving courses, ski as much as I get time to, and read books. With all kids in school I finally have time to read myself, as well, my book collections the last few years have mainly been in the esoteric department. I took a course in Vernon along with 25 other people in Psychic studies, very interesting, the course was full and more on a waiting list.

My reason to take part was of course all these various books I had read on ESP, Re-Incarnation, and also through the “chance” happening that I took a course in healing as well.

People in this area have a habit of phoning me about everything. I have tried to break off that habit over the last few years, but I still get lots of phone calls. So, last spring a friend and I rented a van and took ten of the scout girls we helped out with on an outing to the Kootenays. Among places there we went to Kaslo, Ainsworth Hot Springs, across the lake on an hours ferry ride, and over on the other side we visited a man who was a specialist on wild herbs. As we were walking along a fast flowing creek, he pointed out various plants and identified them for me, quite a few I knew, so I realized I could spend most of my attention on the girls, who were rushing about dangerously close to the creek. He also talked about how to make the medicines, in particular for cancer, but I thought I did not know anyone with that. When we got back home after a few days, the parents came to the hall to pick up their girls. I heard one of them ask if we had gone to the herbalist, and one of the girls said yes. The next day I got a phonecall from one of the mothers, who told me that her mother had been in the hospital for a while, and had just got a diagnosis. She was full of cancer and there was nothing they could do about it. What had the man said about that?

I told them that I had not listen so well, but would try to phone him. I finally found out that he was gone treeplanting way up north, and would not be home for several months. I felt very bad that I had not listen well enough, I should have written things down etc. etc.

We were into summer now, I was very busy with the weaving courses. Frequently former students came by and looked what was happening on their way by. One day a couple came in on their way from a yoga retreat, the wife had been weaving with me some years earlier. She had made all the required items, a blanket, ragrug, towel, runner and shawl and told me it was a most wonderful two weeks and she was pleased with all she made during that time.

As they left, the husband gave me a small note with a telephone number and the word “healing” scribbled on it. “You might be interested in this“, he said, “it is a healing course to be held here, in Lumby. You are so good with your hands.”

When I said that it can hardly be true that it is happening in this area, they said that it was an old woman from Hawaii who was going to come, she had been doing healing for 48 years and was now nearly 80 years old. So they all thought I should go to it, even when I told them that I was not too interested in sicknesses and such.

After they were gone I phoned anyway and asked about it, and they said there that she had already arrived, the course was taught over four evenings in a row, the cost was 125 dollars – from the background I heard someone call out – in American money! – and then I thought, oh, no, this is just some kind of joke. I asked then if a person would have to know a great deal of anatomy, no, that was not necessary at all, or would a person have to be very religious of some kind, but no, that was not necessary either.

I kept the phone number in my apron pocket, went around and thought about it for several days, phoned around and asked people if they ever heard about Reiki healing, but nobody anywhere had heard about it. I took out one of my books on Buddhism, I had heard that she was a small Japanese lady, so maybe there was something about Reiki in that book, but, no. I gave up.

A few days later I stopped before my book case again, closed my eyes, ran my right hand over the books, plucked out a pocket book and opened it up. I opened my eyes, looked down into the book and read over the next five pages all about Mrs. Takata and her course. The book was “We Are All Healers” by Sally Hammond. I had gotten it in a box full of used books in Hawaii the previous winter, still had not looked at them all, just put them here and there in the book cases.

So, I phoned up and said I am coming, checked up on the money I had saved for hay for the cows and sheep, and found to my surprise that there was just enough, took it out from the drawer I had saved it in and later found it well worth the money. Son Erik drove me over to Barbara Brown’s place where she sponsored the first course Mrs. Takata held in Lumby.

She had an initiation ceremony, sort of, and it seems it took especially good on me, I noticed, as nobody else reacted as strongly as I did. What she did I don’t know, she had learnt it some 40 years earlier from and old Master in Japan, so it was some kind of old secret mumbling.

The first evening she showed us only where you put the hands on the head, the next day she continued on the throat and stomach, the next evening back and feet, then, of course, she talked a lot – which I found all very interesting. A lot of it was sort of oldfashioned Japanese living standards, the other people found it dreary, but they were all still in their late twenties with little patience and could likely not see the point or the importance of each long drawn out story. I hanged on to each word said.

For the initiations we sat two at a time on a chair in a bedroom upstairs, held our hands up in a prayer position in front of us, and, as I said before, she just mumbled something, as we held our eyes shut. That first evening it was as if she opened up the top of my head like a lid, and poured in warm oil; the next evening it felt like it ran along my spine, it crackled and crunched where I so long had had a sore back; all that went totally away, the next day, I could stand in a long stretch and preserve 48 quart jars of tomatoes, carry in the wood, put the big copper canners with hot water on the stove and put all the jars in and keep four batches cooking, many hours of work  that day. Previously I had hardly been able to stand still long enough to do the dishes. So that course was well worth it for me!

On the third night it was like a golden round box was activated in my Solar Plexus. It started spinning really fast with enormous energy; it had a feeling of generating motivation, surety, deep caring for humanity, etc. On the fourth evening it felt like she just closed everything in, like putting the lid on again. I felt like an old oil can, more like a tool in a way. Interesting experience. It all took only a few minutes every evening. There was absolutely no hypnotism involved.

In the meantime the phone of course had been ringing again, and once I had carefully said that maybe there would be something else. Then they phoned everyday to find out what the other thing was. I told them that the course would end on the Saturday, so I would come and see their mother on Sunday.

I had of course asked Mrs. Takata first if she could go, but she could not, she said, because she was an American citizen and had several Reiki sessions during the day. So, then I asked if I could go, she did not say anything direct about it, just that it was always best to start with something small, so you could get the feeling of success soon and build up your confidence.

I did not have time with that as there was an urgency with these people, so I had to start out with what was there, stomach cancer instead of warts on the hand or something like that.

On that Sunday they came and picked me up, and I must say that my heart sank when I saw the sweet lady. I had not seen her since the winter before, when she had come to a Bingo game in the hall, a round, cheerful woman, with a friendly word to every one. Now her face was sunk in, her arms thin, her hair reduced to a few strands and her stomach swollen. For a few seconds my brain said “What am I doing here?”. But that feeling went away when three of her daughters and her husband came in and looked expectantly at me.

I knew then that I really could do something. It is all very easy, you just put your hands on the persons stomach, in this case in 4 different positions for about 5 minutes each. The trick is that it is like a TV, it takes a few seconds, then the energy comes like a warm stream through your hands, and that is the helping energy. So it seems that I have a good connection for it. Mrs. Takata calls herself a good antenna fixer!

The people came and picked me up in the early mornings before my weaving courses started, I had then the last class of the season. After a few mornings of treatments she was able to get up, and even have coffee and eat something with me and they told me that she could again play a bit with her grandchildren. Her pain went away, she could eat a bit more, she started to get colour on her cheeks and a glimmer in her eyes again.

I told her that she was the first person I was treating, and I really did not know what was happening, she herself hoped to be well again. Three weeks went by and she became better and happier every day.

Then she had to go into the hospital again for injections they were giving her now and then. She got so sad about that because you throw up so much of the chemical stuff they give you. She felt so sick then that she just wanted to die.

I had a chance to go in and see her in the hospital, the nurses told me that she was not doing so well. I could go in to her, she was alone in the room, and laying in torpor, not knowing that I was there. I stood for awhile and thought about Mrs. Takata. She had told me that with a Second Initiation you could learn how to help at a distance, through thought, that is, and such. I was not able to learn that then, as she was here only for a few days.

The nurses in the meantime rushed back and forth with various things, so I would not be able to touch her. So I just stood at the foot of the bed, I thought that if I just concentrate really hard it might work. Suddenly it was like an energy of some kind  went out from my Solar Plexus. I got enormously hot myself, maybe five minutes went by and then it sort of “shut off”. I stood for a few seconds and gathered myself. When I looked over at the woman again she suddenly opened her eyes bright and clearly said “Thank You!” and fell asleep.

The next day I went up after lunch to her room, looked in and saw that it was empty. I went to the nurses station to enquire about her, it felt so strange because I thought she surely must have died. So I very carefully said her name., The nurse at the desk said: ”Well, believe it or not, but strangely enough she got much better, and has gone home.”

A long time went by, I had lots to do and she was in no pain and enjoying her family. When I finally went up to their place and gave her a Reiki treatment after which she went out into the kitchen to make tea, her husband whispered to me that she sat up often at night and prayed that she would die, as she did not want to go in to the hospital for treatments any more. I saw her one more time, we had tea again and talked about her childhood in Norway some 60 years earlier, we had a good visit.

After that I went away for some time, and when I came back there was a note on my phone that she had died and also had even been buried during the short while that I had been away. But this is the outcome she had been wanting – and she managed it so well that she even was present at her own funeral. (Now, Dad, don’t think that this summer went beyond what my mind could endure! Hahaha!)

Anyway, she had still ten children living with some grown up children and little ones as well – and they are all fairly skeptical. However, the most skeptical of all heard her say, when he passed her open coffin, “Everything is well, I am well looked after here.” He went out in the waiting room and asked the others if they had heard her. And they said: “Heard what?” They talked for awhile, and then they said maybe he could go in one more time and he did so with his wife. They both then saw his mother standing there with her mother, both smiling. So, there is more to this world then we normally believe.

Anyway, in the meantime D. and A. were still here, they are now gone to Nova Scotia, on the other side of Canada. D. had actually a really difficult foot wart that she had had for ten years, it had been taken out with surgery a couple of times, but it always came back. So we jokingly said: “There is a wart, something we can see, so let’s try the Reiki on that!” I sat and held her foot now and then in the evenings. To our surprise it started to go away around the edges, new skin came and she could stretch her toes out. She said it felt like it was loosening up from the inside. Now I am really wondering how it went for them.

The first time I held her foot pain went up my arm, but it went away as soon as I let go. And then I got really hot myself also, but Mrs. Takata said that it was the healing energy that went through my body, so that was very good.

(D. and A. were back to the land people, they went across Canada with horse and wagon and farm stuff, some time after they left I got a letter with only a few words in large letters across it – THE  WART IS GONE!)

Another friend came by, he had often stomach ache. I gave him a full treatment and as soon as I got to his stomach, my hands felt like they were glued on to the place where it hurt most. It sort of tickles in your hands and feels like more heat comes streaming through. Therefore it does not matter if you know exactly what is under your hands in that place or not. Simple, eh?

My oldest son stood in front of the mirror one day and said: “If my father is a Sasquatch hunter and my mother a faith healer – what will I become?” It is lucky he has humour.

The younger son has also realized that Reiki actually works, partly because his youngest sister has greater heat in her hands now – just as a trial, she held her hands first a decimeter over the boys hands and it got very warm, then I added my hands equally high over hers. After a few seconds they pulled their hands away, it became hot as a magnifying glass with sunshine on it!

As long as it stays within the family, thinks that son, it is OK. However, already another member in the community has had a cancer diagnosis, and apparently he also has a pain the pills can’t help anymore. I said to my son that it is not up to me anymore what all I do with my hands. If they want me to go – so be it. So we will see what happens there when we come back after Christmas.

 

August 24, 1979
Cherryville, B.C. Canada

Hi, Parents – after a long time!

Have had so much to do, my weaving classes now have 10-12 people in them, it is steady work from early morning to late night. I have also managed to conserve apricots and peaches, 80 quart jars or so, in between. And now, of course, still “Reiki Healing” both with the weavers and other people that are coming steady. One man had asthma and also cancer in one lung last year and had to use a hand pump now and then during the day to get air. He came for Reiki treatments a few times and is now much better and after what I hear has not had to use his pump since then. All such stories are encouraging.

I cannot at all remember when I wrote last. Mrs. Takata, the Reiki teacher, was here in June. My children Anneli, then 9 years old, Kristina, 8 years old, son Erik, 22 years old, all got their first degree Reiki then, and I got my second degree, which was the lessons in how you use the Reiki at a distance.

That works very well, too, see a copy of a letter received from a lady that was here on a weaving course. She had struggled with stomach problems for 11 years, had to eat a lot of pills to just keep going. I had time to give her 3 treatments while she was at the weaving course, which also happened to be during the time I learned the distance Reiki, so I said I would send it to her when she got home. She lived 12 car hours and over an hours ferry ride after that, away. Yet, according to her letter, it was great for her to lie in her own bed at home a few days later and feel the same warm energy in her body as she had felt at my home.

When I got that letter, I realized that I could not say no to Mrs. Takata’s wishes to make me a Reiki Master. This Reiki actually worked, even the distance treatments, and many people had now heard about it and wanted to learn. See a letter of the kind I am getting now. In the middle of October Mrs. Takata is coming, I am expecting 50 or so people who are interested to come. Then I hope to go back with her to Iowa, where she now lives with her daughter and her family. There she will teach me to become a teacher of Reiki, the first Master in Canada.

This is what I am thinking about here, as life flows along. I am also thinking about moving for the winter to Ainsworth Hot Springs. I am hoping to be able to just sit quietly there as long as possible. I know people are already waiting for me to get there, but I don’t want to be busy too fast. I am thinking about doing Reiki full time there and live on what people donate to you. The hot springs pool is just across the road, so it will be like having a warm swimming pool in our own home! I am looking forward to it with great happiness, it shall be interesting to see how it  all will come together by itself!

Mrs. Takata told me that she has been asked to travel to Germany next year, I told her that I spoke German and had travel there extensively before I came to Canada, so she asked me if I could accompany her, that felt right, and maybe we could go to Sweden also. It is quite possible that it will happen. Everything else that I am thinking about seems to happen nicely.

 

Excerpts of letters:

July 11, 1978
Victoria, B.C.

Dear Wanja,

Here I am at last! Been quite busy since we got home on the Sunday. On the Wednesday at 8 AM I lay down and relaxed and I know you will be pleased to know that I really felt a lovely comfortable warm feeling in my body. Before I left your place on the Friday and until Sunday AM my left side was painful. The next Wednesday I am afraid I slept in! But have continued to be free of pain.

I have made the salad of apples, cabbage and cottage cheese many times (that Mrs. Takata recommended), it is good and munchy and have had no constipation problems. Thank you so much for helping me.

The comfrey is growing nicely so we will have some when it is needed.

How are the new weavers coming along? I’ve been spinning up a lot of wool lately, white, black, with a mixture like my husbands sweater. …

 

Another letter, “re. next workshop with Mrs. Takata”, dated Monday, July 27, 1979:

Dear Wanja,

My friend, J.K., has been in contact with some of your weaving students who has experienced the laying on of hands. I am very interested in this technique of healing. As a nurse and a person my goal is to learn healing knowledge and skills.

J. has told me that you are offering a workshop in October. Is this true?

I would like to know when you are offering workshops and how long they run. I want to be a student of yours. Please write me and enroll me in October if there is a course then. I wait to hear from you.

 

Sept. 24th, 1979
Keosauqua, Iowa 52565

Dear Wanja;

Thank you for the kind letter. I appreciate everything you say. I leave here Oct 9th and reach there 8.11 pm Tues. I will be with Mrs. Brown, after I finish her class, I can be with you as long as you need me there. I am feeling better now, but will take it easy and not rush around, even if I have to stay the rest of the month, we will accomplish a lot.

It is good that you have made up your mind to take the 3rd degree. I am sure you will be a good teacher and help and do lots for the people far and near. May God bless you always, I am looking forward to see you again.

Thanks for the absent healing, I am feeling much better,

Hawayo Takata

 

Jan. 17th, 1980
Keosauqua, Iowa 52565

Dear Wanja:     Welcome Home !

What a big surprise to receive a letter from Sweden – I enjoyed reading your letter very much. Thank you – This is what Reiki does – you have confidence in yourself that it makes things possible – I am really happy that you went – Keep on the good work, and you will have this whole world at your feet – We begin to think big, because it is an universal Power so it helps you to do big things – You did the right thing, 1st to pay respects to your parents and to pray at the church that gave you the the 1st start to train your mind, all these things God who is above us, can read and see your doings, so more God Power and he blesses you.

When you read this letter I will be in Arizona to teach a class, then on to San Francisco, to Hawaii – March 19th to St. Pete Florida and Orlando. 1st week in April I will be in Atlanta, Georgia to see the dogwood flower festival – May to Israel and Egypt if no war. July to see you all in the Hot Springs and fishing with Peter and his friends – So you see I have a busy schedule but Happy and Well.

I want you to frame these 2 diplomas and I send my Love and Blessings, much Success !  Big Prosperous 1980–

Sincerely,

Rev. H. Takata

 

Christmas Letter from Barbara Brown:

December 1980
R.R.2, Lumby, B.C. Canada

Dear J & J and Wanja,

I have just had a phone call from Phyllis’s mother, Alice. I had sent a plant for the funeral service at the little local church, and she so very kindly phoned to thank us and to speak of Takata’s last hours. Her passing was quite unexpected, as she was going to the bath room by herself and feeding herself and was in no pain or discomfort.

Alice had visited her in the evening of Monday and read the Wall Street Journal to her and they had talked of John Lennon’s death and of Takata’s plans to go to Japan in the spring. That was at 7 to 8 Monday evening. And Alice got the phone call at  2:10 AM Tuesday morning to say she had passed. She had all her faculties right to the last and was in no pain. A beautiful way to go.

Yet somehow I don’t feel that she has gone – but will remain with us always, and will be close to us when we treat our patients and will be helping us in many ways.

Phyllis tells me that John is feeling better. I am so very glad.

I have had a couple of trips to Vancouver (Reiki classes) which were moderately successful and will be going again in early February.

Have a happy Christmas everyone. And, yes, it will be great to meet again in the New Year sometime.

All Love,

Barbara and Maurice

 

—

First published in German language by Oliver Klatt.

Published in English language on this website with permission of Anneli Wanja Twan.

Copyright: Anneli Wanja Twan