Tera-Mai Reiki

Reiki and Seichem before Tera-Mai

The UK Reiki Council states that all Reiki traces back to Mikao Usui, and that Hawayo Takata brought it to the West, teaching in Hawaii from the 1930s and later in the mainland United States. It says Takata was taught by Chujiro Hayashi, who studied with Usui from 1925, and that she died in 1980. Tera-Mai belongs to the Western Reiki line that descends from this teaching.

The same page describes Seichem as a separate energy that is used alongside Reiki. It reports that Patrick Ziegler, an architect interested in sacred geometry and Egypt, described a powerful experience in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid in 1980 and called the resulting energy Seichim. It adds that Phoenix Summerfield combined the Seichim lineage with the original Reiki Alliance initiations in 1989 and renamed the practice Seichem Reiki. These are accounts given by teachers within the tradition, not independently documented history.

Kathleen Milner and the founding of Tera-Mai

The UK Reiki Council states that Tera-Mai was founded by Kathleen Milner, an American artist and Usui Reiki Master who combined Reiki with Seichem. It reports that she received Reiki Mastership from Margarette Shelton in 1989 and Seichem Mastership from August Starr in 1991, and that her system added a clockwise symbol and breathing techniques that Takata had taught.

Milner's own site gives a more detailed account in her own voice. She describes a first experience in February 1991 in which she met a being she later identified as Buddha, an exchange of Mastership initiations with August Starr in June 1991, and later additions of colors and symbols to the initiations that produced Tera Mai Seichem. The page presents these events as her personal experiences and offers no independent verification. It also reports a first-use date of June 11, 1995 for the Tera Mai trademark, taken from a public record.

Names and spellings

The name appears as Tera-Mai, Tera Mai and Tera Mai with a trademark symbol, and the school's own page uses the marked form. The UK Reiki Council notes that the energy Tera-Mai draws on is spelled Seichim, Seichem and Sekhem in different schools, and uses Seichem in its style list. Milner's page says the spelling Seichem honors Patrick Ziegler, who now calls his own classes Sekhem, so the spelling can indicate which teaching line a teacher follows.

Related styles and lineage terms

The UK Reiki Council lists a further style, Rasa Reiki and Seichem, as having its foundations in Tera-Mai Reiki. Its lineage page defines lineage as the line of teachers leading back to a school's founder, says that people at Shinpiden, Level III or Master level can claim one, and says a lineage should show who taught the teacher to perform attunements, called Reiju or initiations in different schools. The page advises students to ask a prospective teacher to show the certificate from the school where they trained.

Related Machipedia pages are Reiki, which describes the wider family, Western Reiki, Usui Reiki, Seichim and Energy Healing. Tera-Mai differs from Usui Reiki in that its teaching adds Seichem initiations and breathing emphasis, while the sources reviewed do not describe how its attunements are carried out.

Training levels described by the school

Milner's page lists Tera Mai Reiki levels I, II and III (Mastership), Tera Mai Seichem, and further Reiki and Seichem levels numbered IV through VII. It also names other initiations such as Sakara, Heart Chakra, Cahokia and Golden Tera Mai Reiki, shamanic classes, and a Tera Mai Instructors register. The page says Tera Mai standards cover initiations only and that they must be passed on unchanged. The sources reviewed do not describe the content of a class or a session, and this page does not give instructions.

Elements attributed to the style

According to the UK Reiki Council, Seichem uses four rays: earth (Reiki), water, fire and air or spirit, with the first three levels of Seichem including the first three levels of Reiki. Milner's page names the elemental initiations as Sakara, Sophi-El and Angeliclight. It says Takata taught breathing and contractions without stressing them, and that Milner emphasized breathing exercises in her classes and described using distance treatment.

The UK Reiki Council style entry states that the style includes breathing techniques plus Violet Fire. Milner's page, as retrieved, does not mention Violet Fire, so that element rests on the Council's description alone and the sources reviewed do not explain it.

Purposes stated by the school

Milner describes Tera Mai as an esoteric school of thought built on universal initiations, and says initiates use these energies in their own practices, including massage, acupuncture, physiotherapy, chiropractic, nursing and medicine. The page frames the system through spiritual experience and ethical conduct by initiates rather than through health outcomes. It does not list conditions the style is meant to address.

Uses studied for Reiki in general

The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health describes Reiki as a complementary approach in which a practitioner places hands lightly on or just above a person to direct energy meant to support the body's own processes. It reports that Reiki has been studied for pain, anxiety and depression. The sources reviewed do not document why people choose Tera-Mai in particular, so these are research targets for Reiki generally and not claims specific to this style.

Searches for Tera-Mai trials

No independent trial or review of Tera-Mai Reiki or Tera Mai Seichem was found. A PubMed title and abstract search run on 2026-10-17 for Tera-Mai, Tera Mai, Seichem, Seichim and Sekhem returned three records, all unrelated (two on ancient Egyptian dentistry and one Hungarian-language article on the Bible). A second PubMed search combining Reiki with systematic review, meta-analysis or Cochrane in the title returned 16 records, none of which reported Tera-Mai separately. Trial registries and other databases were not searched.

Reiki in general as context

NCCIH states that Reiki has not been clearly shown to be effective for any health purpose, that most studies are of low quality with inconsistent results, and that there is no scientific evidence the energy field it relies on exists. Its page was last updated in December 2018. A 2009 systematic review found 12 trials, 11 of which were rated poor on the Jadad scale, and concluded that serious methodological and reporting limitations prevented a definitive conclusion.

A 2024 meta-analysis of studies in 824 adults reported a significant overall reduction in anxiety after Reiki (standardized mean difference -0.82, 95% confidence interval -1.29 to -0.36), with less consistent results in preoperative and death-related anxiety. Only the abstract was read, and the abstract does not state the number of trials or limitations. These findings concern Reiki as a whole and should not be assumed to apply to Tera-Mai.

Reported harms

NCCIH states that Reiki has not been shown to have harmful effects. The sources reviewed report no harms specific to Tera-Mai, and none of them examined its initiations or breathing practices. The absence of reports is not evidence that no harm occurs, particularly where no trials exist.

Care boundaries

Tera-Mai Reiki is a complementary practice. It is not a substitute for medical, mental health or emergency care, and a person with a health concern should not delay or replace necessary care because of it. Milner's page describes initiates using the energies within other professions and advises checking the background of any metaphysical instructor.

Training and oversight

No statutory regulation or independent training standard for Tera-Mai teachers was found in the sources reviewed. The school lists its own instructors register and says trademark use is shared with initiates who follow its standards, and the UK Reiki Council lineage page recommends asking teachers for certificates from the school where they trained. Claims about attunements and their effects rest on teachers' accounts, and a reader may wish to ask a teacher which lineage they follow and what a class costs before enrolling.