Hawayo Takata and Doris Duke

It is perhaps not all that well-known in the Reiki community that Hawayo Takata had several celebrities amongst her clientele.


One of these people was Doris Duke (the American heiress and philanthropist).

While doing some Reiki history-related research, I came across an interesting reference in the Inventory of the Doris Duke Papers:
[ Inventory of the Doris Duke Papers, 1798-2003 and undated (bulk 1930-1999)
http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/uadukedoris/ ]

Under the heading:

"Loans, 1931-1992"

I discovered the following reference:

Correspondence relating to Doris Duke's loan of $75,000 to Mrs. Takata for the purchase of Springboard Farms in La Quinta, CA, 1955–1961
[Box 95 Folder 1]

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[Springboard Farms, Inc. was a corporation - registered in the state of California. Corporation Number C0308364
It was a 'domestic corporation', meaning it was formed, as well as registered, in California. Its articles of incorporation were filed on August 29, 1955.]
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Was the debt satisfied?

LightBody wrote:Was the debt satisfied?

Not being in the US, I have not had the opportunity to arrange access to the particular box containing the correspondence.

Follow-up to my original post (April 2013)


I discovered the reference to the Takata loan in January 2013.

A couple of days later I contacted Phyllis Furumoto regarding this discovery, and while she was of course well aware of her grandmother's friendship with Doris Duke, and was also aware of the Springboard Farms venture, she was unaware of the existence of any documentation relating to the matter.

The reason for waiting 2 months before posting about the reference on various Reiki fora was simply because I had felt that, as family, Phyllis should be given the opportunity to access the papers before I shared the information publicly


As it transpired, Box 95 Folder 1 contains (as would be expected) material purely related to the loan.

Though, elsewhere in the collection of Doris Duke papers  there are other documents pertaining to Ms Duke's association with Hawayo Takata.

In one box ( -  a box categorised as restricted personal correspondence) there is a personal letter from Takata, from november 1954.

However, more interestingly, in another box, are a couple of folders which contain materials related to Reiki:

Reiki exercises and notations regarding Doris Duke's past life, 1978, 1986  
[BOX 270, Folder 13]

and

Reiki and leg exercises prescribed for Doris Duke, circa 1980s-1993
[Box 270 Folder 14]



For those who are interested, the Collection of Doris Duke papers is open for research by the public.





[Edit]


Doris Duke was well-known for her interest in various forms of Eastern philosophy, spirituality; health and healing practices, etc

Ms Duke had broken her wrist in 1957 and received Reiki treatment for the injury from Takata-sensei.
We know that later, she also received treatment for - amongst other things - severe arthritis in her knees.

Not content with simply being on the receiving-end of Reiki treatment, Doris Duke went on to learn Reiki from Takata, taking both the first and second degree.

And lest anyone suggest that Ms Duke's involvement with Reiki was just 'a passing fad', as can be seen here, she was still using Reiki to treat friends and acquaintances at least into the mid 1980's :

I've never hard of Doris Duke. But I'm a fan of Denise Linn's work and recently discovered that she was taught Reiki by Mrs Takata. That made me smile