Que Words

ELIMINATING BLOCKS

The obstacles you are likely to encounter in this process of dialoguing with your High Self in the Silence come from your fears and harmful basic assumptions. The kahuna compared these to knots in a cord that prevented the free flow of energy along the cord. These knotty problems can originate from a variety of sources: from childhood, from a past trauma, from your training or education, and even from past lives. They encompass everything from embarrassing incidences to mindless terrors.

They often take the form of faulty basic assumptions and severely limiting beliefs. Everyone has been exposed to these obstacle-creating experiences in their lives. Huna offers techniques to begin to undo the knots and release them.

Forgiveness

As with every Huna practice, you start off simply and advance to the more complex. One way to begin eliminating blocks is to make amends and seek forgiveness for all the hurt you have ever done in your life. Sit down and make a list of all the people you have hurt in the past. If they are still alive, ask their forgiveness in person or in a letter. If appropriate, make amends on the material level with a gift or some form of recompense. If the persons have passed on, go into the Silence and ask for forgiveness in ritual fashion, then make a gift of goods or money to a relevant charity in their names. For example, many people feel guilty for something they did or did not do for one or both of their parents while they were alive. Go into the Silence and ask the parent’s forgiveness. The next day, give a donation to the parent’s favorite charity in his or her name.

A forgiveness dialogue might go like this: “My dear one, I don’t know all the pain and hurt you experienced that involved me, but I know that I sincerely regret it. I did not have the awareness I have now. Today, in the presence of the Basic Self and High Self and my guides, angels, and guardians, I ask for forgiveness and to make amends. I am truly sorry for your hurt and the ways in which I participated in it, and I sincerely ask your forgiveness. I am letting go of all my guilt and shame that I had because of this hurt to you. Let us both ascend to a place of light and walk our paths in peace. Let us both be released. So be it. It is done.”

Spend time with this and do it with sincerity and a heartfelt desire to receive forgiveness for what you have done. Ask forgiveness of each person one at a time, in separate sessions (perhaps on succeeding nights) until you have asked and received forgiveness from all of those you believe you have hurt. At the end, do a general ritual in which you ask forgiveness of all the people you have ever hurt in your life, including yourself, by thought, word, or deed, both known and unknown to you, throughout all time. Ask that you all be released from the hurt and the guilt and ascend to a place of light.

The next step is to make a list of all the people who have hurt you. Write out a description of the hurts that caused you pain in the past and the people associated with them. See if you can understand what was really going on. How were they mirroring you and vice versa? Did you contribute to being hurt? See the hurt in perspective. Then, if possible, contact the person and forgive them face to face, by telephone, or in a letter. If this is not possible, do the ritual at home for each individual.

Go into the Silence, with a picture of the person nearby if possible. Imagine them sitting there with you. Ask both the Basic Self and the High Self to be present, as well as your guides, angels, and guardians. Explain to the person, as though they were sitting beside you, about the hurt you suffered, and address them in this way: “My dear one, you will probably never know all of the pain and hurt I suffered that involved you. You did not have this teaching, and we are all learning and evolving. With this awareness, and in the presence of the Basic Self and the High Self, and my guides, angels, and guardians, I fully and sincerely forgive you for my hurt and suffering. I acknowledge my feelings of anger and resentment and release these emotions to the universe to be transmuted to a higher vibration. I truly forgive you. We are now at peace. Let us ascend to a place of light. So be it. It is done.”

As with those you have hurt, do a general ritual for all of those who have hurt you, by thought, word, or deed, both known and unknown to you, throughout all time. Ask that you all ascend to a place of light and be released.

In doing these rituals, it may be necessary to go beyond individuals and forgive whole races of people for hurts to you or by you. For example, if you are Jewish, you may want to forgive all Germans; if Native American or African-American, all white people. If you feel guilty about the wrongs done to a group of people by your own group (even if you personally did not participate in the wrongs), you may want to ritually ask forgiveness of the entire group. Group guilt and group victimhood can cause your Basic Self to feel unworthy and ashamed. Hurts and hatred can go back a long way and be part of your lineage and even your cellular makeup. But even these can be released.

Know that when you are asking for forgiveness and forgiving others, you are not erasing the past or your memories of it. What you are erasing is your Basic Self’s load of negativity, which can only cause you harm and dysfunction. Stored anger, hatred, shame, and guilt rankle in the soul and become toxic. No matter what the acts of the past were or how badly they affected you, the only health-giving way is to sincerely forgive, be forgiven, and move on.

Changing Basic Assumptions

Once you have forgiven and been forgiven for past hurts and wrongs, your Basic Self will carry less of a burden. You still, however, may be burdened by harmful assumptions that you have carried around since childhood. For example, a girl who as a child was made to feel less worthy than a brother because she was “just a girl” will carry a sense of “lesser than” into adulthood. She may be unable to function in capacities that call for authority and decision-making. A child whose mother abandoned him may distrust women in later life and always fear that, when he loves them, they will leave him. These are beliefs that adhere to the Basic Self and govern future actions in an unwanted way. To function optimally, these erroneous basic assumptions must be changed.

Sometimes it is difficult to discover just what your basic assumptions are, just because they are so “basic.” You can’t see the forest for the trees; in other words, you can’t see the overall picture because you are immersed in it. When an assumption involves something perceived by the Basic Self as shameful, such as “My sexual needs are dirty,” it may be hidden away from the light of everyday thought. It continues to operate, however, and to cause unwanted behavior.

Keeping a journal is a very good way of discovering your basic patterns. When a daily problem arises, and strong emotion is felt around it, write down your thoughts and feelings about the situation. This helps to clarify your thoughts and feelings and acts as a record so that, over time, patterns can be discerned. Once you discover the pattern, this becomes your key to working on changing or releasing it. Another way of discovering your basic assumptions is to work with a trained hypnotherapist. In the hypnotic state, with the Middle Self silent, the hypnotherapist communicates directly with the Basic Self to discover deeply held thought patterns. Once these become conscious, the hypnotherapist can guide the Basic Self toward a new awareness. Psychotherapy, counseling, and other forms of “talking cures” can help you recognize your basic assumptions and change them.

A little known but very effective way of discovering your patterns and clearing out harmful basic assumptions from the Basic Self is the Vector method. The Vector method was developed by George Woolson Burtt (1914-1984) and is practiced by certified Vector counselors such as Ben Keller and John Bainbridge, the latter an expert and author on Huna. In the Vector method, using a guided conversation between the counselor and the person needing help, the thought pattern that is causing the problem is identified, as well as the emotions that accompany it and the mental or physical stress caused by it. Once these are truly understood, they are quickly dispelled using the Vector technique. The process is not a lengthy one and may only require one or two sessions. John Bainbridge explains the Vector process and shows how it complements Huna in his excellent book Huna Magic.

In Bainbridge’s text, he uses the term “complex” in the Jungian sense of a group of related feelings and thoughts that have clustered around a nucleus of experience. According to the Vector method, a complex contains four aspects: an erroneous basic assumption, a specific emotion surrounding the assumption, some form of mental or physical stress around it, and finally, an “always” or “never” way of storing the memory. You begin by identifying a problem that you have, which is currently an obstacle to your happiness. The search then begins for the thought pattern behind the problem. Since many basic assumptions begin very early in life, it is helpful to recall the first incident when the problem arose. This, according to Bainbridge, can be accomplished on the conscious level—when the Basic Self is asked to produce the memory, it does so. Once that memory is found, the emotion, the stress, and the always/never aspect are identified. After these have been discussed and understood, the basic assumption can be released and the complex eliminated. The Vector counselor always works with the client’s own belief system rather than imposing a framework. It is important, says Bainbridge, to keep the process simple and straightforward.

An example of the Vector process at work is the case of a woman who was having a vision problem. She had been diagnosed with the same visual problem as her mother, but the problem was not considered hereditary. The student became increasingly concerned because both her eyesight and her mother’s worsened over a period of time. Both had been seen by eye specialists and were told there was no way to prevent or alleviate the problem. The daughter was a student of Huna and felt that she was creating a problem like her mother’s on the Basic Self level, but she could not discern the reason. She consulted a Vector specialist to get to the basic pattern.

The Vector counselor asked the woman to revisit her childhood to find a time when she wanted to be like her mother. In the Vector conversation the woman discovered that when she was forming her concept of self, she began emulating a powerful and positive role model—her mother. The basic assumption was, in childhood, “I want to be like my mother.” The emotion surrounding this assumption was a natural one at first, and later, was based on love and admiration. As the student looked at the course of her life, she saw that she had emulated her mother in many ways, and much of that had been positive. Once a powerful basic assumption is operating, however, the Basic Self does not distinguish between positive and negative results. Developing the same vision problem as her mother had obviously come from the basic assumption, “I want to be like my mother,” but in this case, it was undesirable. The mental and physical stress caused by this assumption arose when, in emulating her mother, she created a disease that affected her health and happiness. The always/never aspect was an “always”— her Basic Self believed she should “always” be like her mother.

Once the complex had been discovered and analyzed in this way, the Vector counselor helped the woman dissolve it by helping her identify where in the body the specific emotion was stored. She stated her intention to release it. He then assisted her in ritually pulling it out of her body and throwing it into a symbolic fire. With the emotion went the basic assumption, the stress, and the “always” aspect. The Basic Self was then freed of it. In the woman’s case, the effect of the Vector session was noticeable when, over a period of several months, her vision improved and continued to improve.

The kahuna knew that emotions are powerful indicators of belief systems, conflicts, and fears. Noticing when you feel emotion and what “pushes your buttons” is extremely helpful in learning about your patterns. On any given day, you may be given the key to understanding your difficulties. Your basic assumptions are hidden in the emotions you express on a daily basis, if only you pay attention to them. Observe what makes you angry, sad, excited, and happy. Write these feelings down in your journal, and patterns will soon emerge. This may sound like a lot of “homework,” but it takes relatively little time using this method for you to be able to see your own issues clearly. For example, in the workplace, you might find yourself reacting with emotion every time something or someone suggests that you aren’t doing a good job. Look more closely at this. Was there a critical parent who gave you the feeling you “weren’t good enough”? Is your Basic Self still reacting to this critical parent? Look honestly at your emotions for a key to unlock your basic assumptions.

When it comes to issues, you might try dividing your notebook into three categories: work, love/sex, and money. It is safe to say that most of us are carrying around an erroneous basic assumption in one or more of these categories. For example, while growing up, a man saw his father “beaten down by work” (the son’s words) and die at an early age of a heart attack. As an adult, he finds he despises work and has a hard time holding a job. In another example, a woman heard her mother say on many occasions, “A marriage is good for about ten years,” to explain her many divorces. The daughter finds herself acting out the same pattern in her own life. A man acquired sufficient resources to live comfortably, but feels anxious whenever he spends money. Looking at his past, he recalls his alcoholic father and the financial problems this caused his mother, who was always extremely fearful about not having enough money to feed the family. He still holds this fear.

These are all people trapped in basic assumptions from their pasts that need have no bearing in the present. Until they are recognized and cleared, however, the basic assumptions will keep on operating, coloring every decision and relationship. Using journaling, hypnosis, Vector, or psychotherapy, the Huna student can begin working on identifying and releasing them.

Releasing Harmful Patterns

When thoughts and feelings coalesce around a negative idea, and basic assumptions cluster together, harmful patterns may be created. Some harmful patterns are created by individuals themselves, and others are implanted by those they came in contact with during the course of their lives. The goal of Huna practice is to eliminate harmful patterns and implant your own suggestions so that you aren’t being constantly influenced by the patterns of others. Once this has been done, when you do hear an unwanted suggestion, you can be aware of it and cancel it out immediately.

Unwanted behavior that relates to harmful patterns at the Basic Self level includes lying, exaggeration, sarcasm, contradiction, bad manners, cheating, stealing, swearing, selfishness, jealousy, egotism, poverty, wastefulness, greed, allergies, and fears. Lack of anything is related to a harmful pattern, as is an excess of anything. Drugs, alcohol, and smoking frequently involve harmful patterns.

Clusters of ideas that form harmful patterns use up energy and are, in energy terms, alive. Having a lot of negative patterns can cause you to feel tired and depleted. If they aren’t erased, they will continue to grow in size. When erasing a harmful pattern, you must eliminate it in the same way it was created— by suggestion to the Basic Self—and replace the negative idea with a correspondingly positive one. When too much negativity accumulates in the Basic Self, it will unload the negativity by means of “accidents” (mishaps) or other physical manifestations such as illness.

For example, one young woman was constantly involved in “accidents.” Her automobile was a mass of dents and scrapes where she had been sideswiped and rear-ended. She had been hit by a bus while crossing the street and fortunately escaped with only minor injuries. She broke her arm while playing volleyball and was often cutting or bruising herself. On the face of it, these occurrences were not her fault, and, except for the volleyball accident, involved the participation of others. But why were they happening? Looking at the young woman’s history, she had lost her loving parents at an early age and was neglected by an indifferent foster mother. She grew up feeling alone, unloved, and worthless. By the time she reached young adulthood, the woman was carrying around in her Basic Self a heavy burden of grief at the loss of her parents, rage at her foster mother, and feelings of helplessness, victimhood, and lack of self-worth. These patterns manifested in the outside world as things that hurt and damaged her, mirroring the ways in which she felt hurt and damaged as a child. With so much negativity in the Basic Self, she had become “accident-prone.” (In the Huna belief system, there are no true accidents.) Eventually, during a particularly low period in her life, this young woman’s lack of self-worth became so debilitating that she contemplated suicide and sought help. With love, she began healing her damaged Basic Self. As her mind healed, the accidents ceased.

Releasing Commandments

The Bible’s Ten Commandments have been instilled from childhood through religion, family, the society, or all three. While the Commandments may seem like positive rules to live by, remember that the Basic Self takes everything literally. It is confusing to the Basic Self to be told to follow rules that it ends up violating frequently. When it has been instilled into the Basic Self that breaking these rules is committing a sin, then guilt can accumulate every time the rules are broken. But, again, aren’t these good rules? In what ways do they lead to guilt feelings in the Basic Self?

Take one example, the injunction against killing, and remember that the Basic Self takes everything literally. Therefore, when your Basic Self hears “thou shalt not kill,” it assumes the Commandment means just that: kill nothing, or do not kill at all. But, consider, normal nonviolent people kill often—they kill weeds, insects, germs, and rodents. If they are hunters, they may go out and kill animals, and if meat eaters, they are condoning the killing of animals by others. To be even more literal, if they are vegetarians, they kill plants. Perhaps they are, or were, soldiers who were directed to kill the enemy. Perhaps they even killed someone else in self-defence. Add to this the murders— both real and fictionalized—seen daily on the news, on television programs, and in the movies, along with the murder mysteries of fiction. These are not “killing” per se, but they do send a signal to the Basic Self that killing is an everyday event.

Indeed, we are surrounded by killing. If the Basic Self has been told that killing is wrong, it naturally assumes that means all killing. Therefore, when you kill a spider, pull a weed, cut down a Christmas tree, or watch people being gunned down in a movie, your Basic Self may react with a feeling of guilt and shame. Of course, there are varying degrees of guilt—killing an insect does not engender the same guilt that killing a human would—yet guilt does still accumulate in the Basic Self from this “condoned killing.” When framed in a religious context, the action registers in the Basic Self as a sin.

The other Commandments can be just as confusing to the Basic Self. Consider the injunction against adultery. Does the Basic Self know the difference between simply admiring a beautiful woman and “coveting thy neighbor’s wife?” or between lusting in your heart and actually committing an act of adultery? What about the Commandment against “coveting thy neighbor’s goods”? Does your Basic Self remember it when you admire a new car your neighbor just bought? The Commandment to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” might set up a conflict in the Basic Self when you watch a football game on television on a Sunday afternoon or go to a Sunday matinee. Many people say “My God” as an expression. This could be understood by the Basic Self as “taking the name of the Lord in vain. ”These seemingly innocent violations of the Ten Commandments may seem trivial and harmless, yet they can actually set up feelings of conflict and guilt at the Basic Self level. Remember also that for the Basic Self, thoughts are things, and the Basic Self can’t always distinguish between thought and deed. No actual action need occur—the thought alone is enough to create guilt.

For students of Huna, then, it is helpful to reevaluate the Ten Commandments. Consider how they might be misinterpreted by your Basic Self. Huna students can replace them with only one law: harm nothing with hatred. In Huna, it is intention that is important. Hatred is a powerful emotion, and ill will has the same negative consequences for the self. When you resolve to harm nothing and no one with hatred, you agree to be conscious of your motives. This applies as much to the spoken word as to anything else. Words can hurt, and anything said with malice is harming another. Awareness is the key. The concept of harming nothing with hatred, of course, applies to yourself, and for some, this is the most difficult aspect of the law. Criticizing, being unkind, hurting, and hating others as well as yourself is against the law of Huna.

When it comes to killing, consider all the ways in which you kill in daily life. Resolve never to kill anything, not even an ant, without full consciousness of your actions. Recognize the killing that has gone into providing your daily needs: the trees that were killed to make your paper, the animals that died for your dinner, your jacket, and your shoes. Raise your consciousness to include the welfare of all beings, then resolve to harm nothing with hatred. If you choose to eat animals, do it with consciousness and awareness. Bless the animal you consume and offer thanks to it for giving you life.

Releasing yourself from the literal meaning of the Ten Commandments one by one can free your Basic Self from a load of guilt and shame. The simple commandment to harm no one and nothing with hatred covers a lot of ground. If you follow this, you will not harm others, or your parents, or your spouse, or your neighbor, or strangers, or God. When you do not harm anyone or anything, you also do not bear false witness or steal.

Be assured, when you release the Commandments, you will not become a person without morals or scruples. On the contrary, as you align your Basic Self’s truth and your actions in the world, you will become more moral than ever before. You will not be infringing on beliefs held in the Basic Self but will be acting in accordance with higher law. Your Basic Self takes rules far more seriously when they are realistic.

Releasing Sin

It is important to dislodge from the Basic Self belief in sins and the guilt over sins committed in the past. The belief in sin and the awareness of having committed a sin often linger in the Basic Self from childhood and are surrounded by a heavy charge of emotion instilled by a parent or other authority figure. Whether you were raised in a religious environment or not, the concept of sin still permeates the culture. Who has not heard “The sins of the father are visited on the son,” and “The wages of sin are death,” pronouncements that many Basic Selves take literally? When you are eliminating blocks, it is crucial to remember what you were told was a sin and to clear this from your Basic Self. Was sex a sin? Was lying a sin? Was not going to church a sin? Explore your own upbringing and recall what you were told. If you can’t remember, go into the Silence and ask your Basic Self to tell you. Ask if you ever committed a sin.

When you get the answers, you can begin to release yourself from them. The first step is to understand logically (by the Middle Self) that sins must be released. Then the Middle Self must convince the Basic Self that it is advisable to let go of sin. Go into the Silence, invite the High Self to be present, and deal with one sin at a time. Your ritual might go like this: “Dearest Basic Self, Our intention tonight is to release the sin of sex. You were told in the past that sex was a bad thing. The ones who told you did not have this teaching. Sex is a healthy, normal part of our nature, something to be enjoyed and celebrated. There is no sin in sex. The only law we observe is to never hurt anyone— the law of love. In the presence of the High Self, let all my negativity surrounding sex be erased. I am a being who can fully express sex and love. I walk in the light. I am free. So be it. It is done.”

When the Basic Self believes a sin has been committed over and over, a sin complex may form—a cluster of ideas and basic assumptions related to one area of behavior. The feelings of guilt may be deep-seated and profound, and the Basic Self may feel so ashamed that it keeps the sin complex hidden away from view by the Middle Self and High Self. To remove a sin complex that you are able to identify, repeat the ritual until a sense of release is felt. Otherwise, it may be necessary to work with a Vector counselor, hypnotherapist, or psychotherapist to reach the deeply held material.

When many harmful patterns are present, a negative ego body can develop that feeds on the energy of the Basic Self and becomes stronger over time. Examples of those with large negative ego bodies are radical leaders and religious fanatics. Spiritual vanity leads to development of a large negative ego. Dissolving negative ego bodies involves working with the Three Selves to speak and think positively, asking for and receiving forgiveness, erasing harmful patterns, and cultivating an understanding and tolerant attitude towards others. Honest humility goes a long way toward erasing a negative ego body and is a sure pathway to the High Self.

Remember that in Huna, there is no true sin, only “missing the mark,” and this consists of hurting others intentionally. Though people often don’t think of it that way, one form of hurt is judging others.

Releasing Judgments

Judging others can produce toxins in your own system and in those you judge. Judging does not refer to what goes on in a court of law, but what happens between individuals in everyday life when they condemn one another for their differences. Every person is walking in her or his own reality and acting from an individual mindset of experience. If another person’s actions harm you physically or mentally, you have a right to speak out. Otherwise, adopt the approach of understanding. Assume a person’s actions have a positive motive rather than a negative one. For example, if someone cuts you off in traffic, assume he/she didn’t see you, not that it was intentional.

When you form the habit of being nonjudgmental and assuming positive motives, you will be surprised to find how many actions you previously thought were negative really did stem from a positive source. Practice seeing the positive motive in yourself for your own actions. If there are persons you are having difficulty with, work hard to understand them better and see where their motivation comes from. In this way, you will continue to build a positive reality and let others build theirs.

Releasing Criticism

Many people have the problem of being critical towards others. This is actually a form of being critical toward the self. You essentially are seeing faults in others that you don’t like in yourself. The result of constantly criticizing yourself and others is to create toxic conditions in your body, your mind, and your world.

Give yourself some time and space to do this ritual and make yourself comfortable. Light a candle and focus your attention. Go into the Silence and take several sets of four slow, deep breaths. Speak (silently or out loud) the following: “Dearest High Self, please assist me in this process, along with my guides, angels, and guardians. Dearest Basic Self, please be fully present and participate in this process. I am here tonight to release the habit of criticism. Criticism has no place on my path. Everyone is free, and I am free, and we are all walking our individual paths in the best way we know how. Dear Basic Self and High Self, guides, angels, guardians, please assist me in releasing forever the habit of criticism. Take all my critical thoughts and transmute them into pure golden light. I now release critical thoughts, critical speech, critical habits. They are all gone from me. I am free. So be it. It is done.”

Stay in the Silence and take four more slow, deep breaths. Visualize yourself surrounded by golden light in harmony with all beings in the universe. Come out of the Silence and thank your Selves and all of your helpers.

Releasing Victimhood

One of the surest ways to slow personal growth and to create negativity around you is to feel like a victim. Happily, it is also one of the easiest things to change. People who have been immersed in victimhood for years can free themselves from this state with a simple shift in attitude. The first step is to understand that a prolonged feeling of victimhood has never helped a single person to be better. Feelings of victimization immobilize you. They stop you from taking any positive action because the Basic Self is so involved with feeling injured. Once the Basic Self is freed from this crippling emotional state, you can move forward to make changes in your life. Remember that victimhood only hurts you and never affects what hurt you. With victim thinking and feeling comes powerlessness. Victimhood is toxic to the mind and body.

No matter how devastating something or someone has been to you personally, resolve to end your victim relationship with it or with them immediately. See yourself as a participant in a chain of events. Imagine the events happening again and how you could play a role in them without feeling like a victim. Visualize yourself in a position of strength instead of weakness. Know that the world accepts you according to your own view of yourself. Walk forward from a position of power and think of what action you can take in the future rather than remaining mired in the past.

When you first move away from victimhood, it may be necessary to remind your Basic Self from time to time that you are no victim. Make a habit of changing this thought pattern whenever you feel it coming on. Never think, speak, or let another speak of you as a victim.

Thinking about Money

Money has just as many conflicted attitudes surrounding it as sex and is a stumbling block for many. People grow up with all sorts of opposing and negative assumptions at the Basic Self level regarding money. It is “the root of all evil,” it “isn’t everything,” or “it all comes down to money.” “Money,” in fact, is symbolic of everything material, and your attitudes toward it reflect your Basic Self’s beliefs. Many Basic Selves feel they don’t deserve to have money, and a general lack of money can indicate poor self-esteem. Excessive seeking after money can point to a lack of love in the Basic Self. Holding and grasping money shows a deep insecurity. Sometimes the Basic Self has been taught that having or wanting money is sinful and wrong. Many spiritual and religious people have been taught to believe that money is detrimental to living a spiritual life.

Huna, however, emphasizes balance between the spiritual and material realms and advocates a life where both are strong, with one not elevated over the other. Either hating or loving material things throws the self off center. Being strong spiritually and combining this with a healthy material base leads to balance between the Selves, since the Basic Self responds to material things and the High Self exists in the realm of spirit.

Begin to identify your attitudes about money by journaling and requesting information in the Silence. If you encounter negative beliefs or basic assumptions, examine them. Symptoms of negative beliefs are: not having enough money or never feeling that you have enough; fears about not having money in the future; a belief that getting money is a struggle; negative and judgmental feelings toward wealthy people or poor people; hating money; loving money; believing that money can solve all your problems; stinginess; a victim mentality; and excessive shopping and spending. Any of these behaviors indicates that you are out of balance about money.

The first step is to get rid of the notion that money and material things are bad. For those who were conditioned in childhood to believe that money is sinful—the root of all evil — a dialogue in the Silence might go like this: Greet and welcome your Basic and High Selves. “My dearest Basic Self, you may have heard or been told in the past that money is sinful and bad. You may have been told that the love of money is evil. Those who said these things did not have this teaching. Money is not sinful, not bad, not evil. Money is simply a medium of exchange. We are the walking presence of God, and God is rich. Money is green mana, and we have the power to create it and use it whenever we desire. We deserve a rich abundance and a positive material existence. We now release all negative attitudes about money and replace them with positive ones toward money and abundance. We are balanced and happy and we walk in the light. So be it. It is done.”

Whatever difficulty you may be experiencing about money, track it back to an assumption held in the Basic Self and set about dispelling it. You can create your own ritual in which you replace whatever it is with a positive assumption about money and material things. Spend some time thinking about what your monetary needs truly are. Imagine yourself already having what you want and see how that feels. Be sure you are ready for what you desire. Then, turn your plan over to the High Self to manifest your goals.

Releasing Fear

For most people, fear is the biggest block of all, and it can manifest as a generalized anxiety or as hundreds of daily fears. Fear has several components; one is false perception. A Huna student once asked Serge King for advice. She had read in the newspaper about a mugging at her automatic teller machine and was now afraid to go there. She asked how to deal with her fears. He replied that if she were to consider this one incident (the mugging) as a basis for her future behavior, she should also consider the thousands of times people had visited the automatic teller machine at that location and not been mugged. To base her behavior on one unusual incident was not logical.

Another reason for fear is not trusting the self. When you love and respect yourself and your abilities, you feel prepared for anything that might come to you. Feeling inadequate leads to fears that you won’t be equal to your own life experiences. Cultivate a feeling of confidence in yourself and your ability to deal with anything that might happen. Extend this trust to all the people around you. Expect the best of those around you. When you are able to love and trust all beings, you will project that love, and it will be returned to you.

Many fears do stem from past experience. Just as an animal always remembers a hurt, the Basic Self retains the memories of both emotional and physical injuries. If the hurt represents a pattern, for example, a parent that was habitually hurtful, then the fear may become a complex and lodge deep in the Basic Self.

Learning the source of deep-seated fears is the first step toward releasing them. One student had a fear of being attacked in her home and went to great lengths to secure her doors. She sometimes had dreams of someone breaking into her home.

Working with a hypnotherapist, she was able to recall a time in her childhood when an uncle had come to her home when no one else was there and kissed and fondled her. He told her never to tell anyone, and of course, she hadn’t. Though the incident had been long forgotten by her, it had created a fear in her Basic Self of not being safe where she lived. This fear had extended to her home, her place of work, and her car. Once she understood the origin of the fear, she released it from her Basic Self.

Generalized fear presents a special challenge. Another student of Huna felt a generalized anxiety but couldn’t understand its source, since he had had a happy childhood and could remember no traumatic incidences. Journaling and dialoguing with his Basic Self, he began to understand that his fear stemmed from a period in his childhood when his father went overseas to fight in the war and he was left at home with his mother. His mother was naturally very anxious during the two years her husband was away, though she had tried not to show it to her child. Nevertheless, the mother’s Basic Self had communicated the fear to her son’s Basic Self, where it remained with him as a kind of free-floating anxiety well into adulthood. No doubt, the fact that the country was at war and that people all around the child had plenty of fear of their own contributed greatly to this generalized sense of menace. Once he discovered the cause of the generalized fear, he was able to erase it from the Basic Self.

HO‘OPONOPONO

The traditional Hawaiian practice called ho’oponopono literally altered state of consciousness. The uses of this altered state vary, however. In Huna, the Silence is a clearing of the mind so that dialogue between the Selves, the gathering of mana, and a prayer-action can take place. The Silence is a receptive state similar to meditation but contains active elements that make it more like a self-guided meditation. In general, it is deeper than contemplation and a lighter state than meditation. With practice, it can be entered quickly and left quickly. While in the Silence, the Selves can come together in a kind of conference call to solve problems.

The key to the relationship between the Three Selves is love, and this cannot be emphasized enough. When a loving, considerate relationship is established between the Selves, and all three feel loved and valued, the individual is on the path toward realizing true potential. Working with the day-to-day emotions of the Basic Self is extremely important. Learning to identify the emotions you are feeling and processing these emotions in appropriate ways is very significant in the Huna system. Using the Middle Self as it was intended—to observe, analyze data, and employ logic—without overstepping its bounds and shutting out information from the Basic Self and High Self is also very necessary for balance. When these two Selves are operating in harmonious ways, the High Self is able to come through and provide wisdom and inspiration. With love as a common thread that weaves the Three Selves together, the Middle Self sets the direction, while the Basic Self manifests, and the High Self provides divine guidance.

SUMMARY

Three Selves or minds make up each individual personality.
The Middle Self is the conscious, waking mind that analyzes and uses logic to guide behavior.
The Basic Self governs the body and emotions, holds the memory, and has the mentality of a child or an adolescent, moving toward pleasure and away from pain.
The High Self is the Godlike part of Self that inspires you and connects you with your higher purpose.
The goals of Huna are communication, cooperation, and love among the Three Selves, so that each may fulfill its role in an optimum way.
These goals are facilitated by a dialogue between the Selves that takes place in a meditative state called the Silence.

MANA —THE ESSENCE OF HUNA

When Max Freedom Long visited Dr. William Tufts Brigham at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu to try and learn more about the practices of the kahuna, the learned gentleman advised him to continue his research and to look for a consciousness directing the process, a force, and a substance through which the force could act.⁹ Long found the consciousness in the Three Selves and identified mana as the force and aka as the substance.

The Huna Vow

In practicing Huna, I promise never to use my knowledge or abilities to interfere with another’s free will. I vow to use Huna for the highest good of every being. I make this promise from my heart, with all sincerity. So be it. It is done.

Mindful Self-Talk

Letting Go (post)

The Practice of Letting Go

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Most of our stresses and frustrations come from our unwillingness to let go.

ELIMINATING BLOCKS

Practice- Love or Fear

The Way of Transformation

Love or Fear: The Choice Is Yours

The Only Energy That Can Separate You From The Kingdom

The Practice of Letting Go

↓ Most of our stresses and frustrations come from our unwillingness to let go.

The Way of Transformation

Love or Fear: The Choice Is Yours

The Only Energy That Can Separate You From The Kingdom

↓
Most of our stresses and frustrations come from our unwillingness to let go.