spare – Huna Healing

SPARE

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.

THOUGHT FORMS

Thoughts can become things. Every thought begins as a vibra­tion in the conscious mind and becomes stronger when rein­forced with emotion. Strong thoughts can manifest in the physical world, and if similar thoughts are held by a large number of people, manifestation is virtually certain.

The late Hawaiian teacher Morrnah N. Simeona saw thought forms in a person’s aura as colors, lights, and shapes. She stressed the importance of channeling thought patterns in positive, life-affirming ways. The ever-changing, kaleidoscope like nature of thoughts that pass through the mind makes them difficult to control, however. An effective way to work with thought patterns is through speech.

POSITIVE SPEECH

If thoughts are things that have substance and effect, then spoken words have even greater power. They are thoughts made manifest in the world. The ancient Hawaiians took the spoken word very seriously, believing in its power to help or harm.

As a student of Huna, the first step in your practice is to work with the Basic Self to begin thinking and speaking posi­tively. This seems to be a simple readjustment, but positive speech is actually a powerful tool to begin programming a pos­itive future. It has been observed that 80 percent of human dia­logue is negative, so there is indeed a great need for a positive trend. If you don’t believe it, listen to the talk in the office or su­permarket. You are likely to hear a constant barrage of talk about things gone wrong or the anticipation that they will go  wrong. Some of this negativity has been programmed from an early age, while some of it has come by way of our societies and cultures. Some of it is just plain habit.

Positive speech is such a profound spiritual practice because the Basic Self takes things literally and is always listening to what you say. The cells of your body respond to sound vibra­tions, and whether they are bombarded by negative or by posi­tive vibrations can make the difference between being sick or well. Anything thought or said repeatedly eventually will be manifested in reality by the Basic Self.

Awareness is the key to positive speech, so begin by lis­tening. Go into a meditative or contemplative state and ask your Basic Self to cooperate with you in speaking positively and ask your High Self to guide you. Then, listen to yourself talk without judgment and without censure. When you hear yourself saying something negative, replace it with a positive statement. If it’s too late for that, simply think of what you could have said and move on. When another person says something negative, either counter it with a positive statement or say nothing (don’t add anything negative).

One way of keeping on track with this is to form a partner­ship with another person. When you say something negative, arrange to give that person a dollar. Or, when you hear yourself saying something negative, place a dollar in a box that you later give to charity.

Practicing positive speech is a little like peeling an onion. You discover more and more layers, and finally you understand that this is not a simple practice. What you realize in time is that  the human race is so conditioned to perceive pain and misery that most people have formed a habit of seeing it everywhere. In truth, there is nothing negative on earth except in our perception of it. It is not really necessary to view anything as negative, only to observe and understand it. What about the tragedies played out on television, in the community, in individual lives? What about the deaths of children and war and natural disasters that destroy life? Surprisingly, every experience is open to a positive interpretation. Everything that happens is speaking to you about life if you only have ears to listen. Learn to find the “blessing in disguise” in every situation.

There can be confusion when you first start to practice pos­itive speech. Some of the questions that arise are: Am I going to become a Pollyanna? Am I just suppressing my true feelings? How can I express emotions such as anger, frustration, grief? Can I be honest and still be positive?

First of all, there’s no downside to being consistently posi­tive. At first it may feel as though you are suppressing your true feelings, but as you practice being positive, this will become your true feeling. Second, many people associate anger with negativity, but this is erroneous. Everyone becomes angry at times—it is human—and there is nothing inherently unspiri­tual or negative about it. There certainly can be negativity in the way anger is processed or expressed. The kahuna knew that to become powerful, they had to understand their emotions and process them in constructive ways. They understood that strong feelings are not necessarily negative—they can be honestly expressed without being destructive.

When you become angry, avoid expletives which give the anger a negative charge and resonate badly in the Basic Self. Don’t damn or dam anything, and don’t employ expressions using bodily functions to express anger. Remember that words said in fear and anger reverberate in the Basic Self for a very long time. So, what do you say if you should back into another car in the parking lot? Program your expletives in advance to be positive. Use the words of your grandparents that were positive and mild expressions such as “dear me,” “my goodness,” “my word,” and “gracious me.” If those don’t appeal to you, find positive alternatives.

Be aware that anything said habitually is a powerful rein­forcer. Keep a list of words you use often and habitually—they will give you insight into your basic assumptions. If you often hear yourself saying “good grief’ or “no way,” know that you are programming your Basic Self with negative expressions. If you often use sarcasm and say, “oh, wonderful” for something you don’t like, this is sending a confusing message to the Basic Self. Avoid sarcasm in general.

Note your general speech patterns and how your language is constructed. Whenever you say the word “but,” you are im­plying a situation of conflict. Substitute “and” and it becomes a statement of facts. Pay attention whenever you hear yourself saying “try” and “should.” “I will try” often means “I don’t want to, but I don’t want to say so.” “Should” often implies heavy conflict or guilt. The word “should” frequently points to a conflict between the Middle Self and the Basic Self.

One note: when learning to practice positive speech, be careful not to make yourself feel guilty about saying something negative. Just look at what you are saying and question—what does it mean to you? What else could you have said? Change it to the posi­tive. Keep your general goal of positive speech in mind, and the Basic Self will gradually get in the habit of speaking positively.

Be wary of exaggeration, which in some persons can be­come a habit that gets out of hand. Those who exaggerate gen­erally want to make themselves more interesting or exciting, but this is really a mild form of lying. Listen to yourself when you describe a situation. Are you embellishing? Ask your Basic Self to stick to the facts. Avoid word inflation—using words such as “great” or “fantastic” when you don’t really mean them. That is another form of exaggeration. Use the words “very” and “really” only when they apply.

Contradiction is another bad habit of speech that resonates badly in the Basic Self. You all know someone who always counters any statement you make with the opposite. This can become a habit that creates dissension and distrust among people. It is never constructive. Listen to your interaction with others. If you are constantly disagreeing, ask yourself why. Is it out of habit? When you sincerely have another perspective, simply state your idea as another point of view. Arguing or disagreeing seldom changes another’s viewpoint and usually only serves to harden it. How do you handle it when someone else is constantly contradicting you? Let it go and see that person as a “teacher” by reverse example.

Avoid asking “really?” as a matter of habit in a conversa­tion, unless you are questioning the veracity of what you are hearing. Be aware that when you say “I know,” you are ex­pressing to the other that you have the same understanding. Repeating “you know” often means that you are having trouble communicating.

Thanks and gratitude are powerful ways of speaking posi­tively and raise mana in both the one who thanks and the recip­ient. When gratitude comes from the heart and is sincerely expressed, it reinforces positive outcomes and sets up a strong positive vibration for the future. Thanking the universe and being grateful for the beauty and goodness around you predis­pose you to more beauty and goodness to come.

When it comes to psychic protection, positive speaking is one of the best ways to strengthen the Basic Self and protect it from psychic suggestion or even attack by others, whether the entities are in the body or out. Habitual negativity drains energy and thus opens up the aura to invasion. As you clear out harmful patterns from the Basic Self, you create a strong and healthy mind that resists any form of possession.

In general, then, when you are learning to practice positive speech, listen to yourself as much as you can and gently guide your verbal expression to the positive. Be watchful of anything said with emotion and anything said habitually. Remember that words are things. In this way, your Basic Self will form the habit of speaking—and thinking—positively. This will make a world of difference in your life.

POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE

The Basic Self’s memory banks are the repository for all the thoughts, opinions, and judgments you have ever heard, begin­ning in the womb and accumulated during a lifetime. Teachers, classmates, friends, parents, siblings, and later, spouses and co­workers, add to the stores. Often these judgments are negative and are believed and held in the Basic Self. Add to this the judg­ments and pronouncements of a society, and this can amount to a heavy burden of negativity carried by the Basic Self.

When students of Huna are asked to monitor their negative thoughts about themselves, most are shocked at the sheer volume of them. The criticism you heap upon yourself may begin with that first morning look in the mirror and end with that last thought at night about the “things I should have done.” It is no wonder the Basic Self often feels angry, frustrated, and de­pressed—it frequently is made to feel “not good enough,” “not beautiful,” “not competent,” “not successful,” and “not strong.”

Just as you monitor yourself for negative speech, begin— and this is a far more subtle task—to observe how often you think negative thoughts about yourself. Catch yourself when you are looking at your body and judging it to be flabby, over­weight, or unattractive in some way. Notice when you are given a compliment how you often disbelieve it and decide the giver must be insincere. Observe how you drive yourself to do too many things and then berate yourself for not measuring up. When your work doesn’t go well, notice how you find yourself thinking that it’s your fault. See how you react when you watch Avoid asking “really?” as a matter of habit in a conversa­tion, unless you are questioning the veracity of what you are hearing. Be aware that when you say “I know,” you are ex­pressing to the other that you have the same understanding. Repeating “you know” often means that you are having trouble communicating.

Thanks and gratitude are powerful ways of speaking posi­tively and raise mana in both the one who thanks and the recip­ient. When gratitude comes from the heart and is sincerely expressed, it reinforces positive outcomes and sets up a strong positive vibration for the future. Thanking the universe and being grateful for the beauty and goodness around you predis­pose you to more beauty and goodness to come.

When it comes to psychic protection, positive speaking is one of the best ways to strengthen the Basic Self and protect it from psychic suggestion or even attack by others, whether the entities are in the body or out. Habitual negativity drains energy and thus opens up the aura to invasion. As you clear out harmful patterns from the Basic Self, you create a strong and healthy mind that resists any form of possession.

In general, then, when you are learning to practice positive speech, listen to yourself as much as you can and gently guide your verbal expression to the positive. Be watchful of anything said with emotion and anything said habitually. Remember that words are things. In this way, your Basic Self will form the habit of speaking—and thinking—positively. This will make a world of difference in your life.

The Basic Self’s memory banks are the repository for all the thoughts, opinions, and judgments you have ever heard, begin­ning in the womb and accumulated during a lifetime. Teachers, classmates, friends, parents, siblings, and later, spouses and co­workers, add to the stores. Often these judgments are negative, and are believed and held in the Basic Self. Add to this the judg­ments and pronouncements of a society, and this can amount to a heavy burden of negativity carried by the Basic Self.

When students of Huna are asked to monitor their negative thoughts about themselves, most are shocked at the sheer volume of them. The criticism you heap upon yourself may begin with that first morning look in the mirror and end with that last thought at night about the “things I should have done.” It is no wonder the Basic Self often feels angry, frustrated, and de­pressed—it frequently is made to feel “not good enough,” “not beautiful,” “not competent,” “not successful,” and “not strong.”

Just as you monitor yourself for negative speech, begin— and this is a far more subtle task—to observe how often you think negative thoughts about yourself. Catch yourself when you are looking at your body and judging it to be flabby, over­weight, or unattractive in some way. Notice when you are given a compliment how you often disbelieve it and decide the giver must be insincere. Observe how you drive yourself to do too many things and then berate yourself for not measuring up. When your work doesn’t go well, notice how you find yourself thinking that it’s your fault. See how you react when you watch a beautiful actress or handsome actor in a movie or see an ele­gant fashion model. Do you have feelings of inferiority? When you observe an obviously wealthy, powerful, or very successful person, do you feel insignificant or inadequate?

A great deal is said in our society about the importance of self-esteem—with good reason. From a Huna point of view, a lack of it is crippling to the Basic Self. When the Basic Self is burdened by a negative self-image, communication with the High Self is blocked or hindered, and mana is low. There will be little mana to flow to the High Self, so prayers will be answered slowly, if at all. Therefore, it is critical to build a good self image, no matter where the negative data came from in the past.

Once you begin to notice how many negative thoughts you have about yourself, you can start to change this. Program a positive self-image into your daily life. When you look in the mirror, see yourself as a marvelous being crafted by God, a pre­cious and unique bit of matter in the universe. Appreciate your­self for and by yourself, without any other frame of reference. Form the habit of being nonjudgmental about yourself (and others) and instead foster understanding. If you feel that your work could be better, really look at the situation. Have you set standards that are too high? Is something preventing you from working to your full capacity? Do you have a fear of failure? If your body is not to your liking, ask yourself if you are truly un­healthy or trying to live up to an impossible image. Cultivate a loving, thoughtful attitude toward yourself rather than a critical one. Forgive yourself frequently.

Sincere praise is always welcomed by the Basic Self and has magical results. When you have done something well, let yourself feel a sense of happiness and satisfaction. Praise your Basic Self for successes in its special domains of health, feel­ings, and memory. Make your Basic Self feel valued and loved. The result will be a Basic Self capable of taking its rightful place in the trinity of Selves and functioning in an optimal way to create health, energy, and a joyous sense of living.

Once you begin developing a more positive view of yourself, you will find your sincere praise extending to other people. Sincere praise for the good in others raises everyone’s vibrations.

Practice positive speech and a positive self-image for two weeks, making a serious effort to pay attention to your thoughts and words. It is helpful to keep a notebook in which you list your habitual expressions and thoughts. Putting them on paper gets them out of your mind and speech so you can become aware of them. Spend time with a mirror to form a habit of body appreciation. Begin to love your body—all of its cells and con­tours and facets. Let everything go that you’ve ever learned or thought about your body and see your extraordinary beauty, inside and out. Finally, practice loving yourself the way you would a child—completely and constructively—with their highest good in mind.

These practices set the stage for communicating with the Basic and High Selves. Once you are feeling a new positive out­look emanating from your Basic Self, you are ready to go into the Silence and begin dialoguing with your Selves.

DIALOGUING AND THE SILENCE

The Silence is an altered state similar to meditation, yet it does not involve the deep states associated with meditation practice. Unlike meditation, which is usually described as a deep com­munion with the divine, the Silence is a lighter form of trance state where communication takes place between the Three Selves using words, symbols, or pictures. The Silence begins with relaxation and quiet in a safe, comfortable place. Use what­ever process you need to become quiet, relaxed, and contem­plative. Heavy foods, alcohol, and drugs are not conducive to this state. Relaxation techniques that lessen tension in the body are helpful. Put your mind in a state of peace by letting go of thoughts of work, family, politics, and all the daily concerns. Give yourself the time and space to be alone without interrup­tion. A designated space in your home where you can close the door is ideal.

There are no hard and fast rules about the Silence. It can be entered in many different settings and times. Focusing on the highway while driving at night produces a kind of altered state, but it is not advisable under any circumstances to enter the Silence while driving a car. Learn what works best for you to enter the state. You may want to create a place in your home with an altar where you can light a candle. When you have a special place for going into the Silence and use a bit of ritual, like music, incense, and a candle, your Basic Self will soon know exactly what to do when you enter that space. If you choose to enter the Silence outdoors, find a place where your Basic Self will feel comfortable and safe.

83- For first-time meditators, it is helpful to do a relaxation pro­cedure at the beginning of your session. Sit in a comfortable chair in which you can keep your back erect and both feet on the floor. Remain quiet, with your eyes closed, and, beginning with your feet, consciously relax each part of your body. Bring your attention there, and say, “I am now relaxing my feet. I am letting go of every bit of tension in my feet. I am now relaxing my feet.” Then, when you feel your feet relaxing, continue: “I am now relaxing my legs,” and so on, until every part of your body has been consciously relaxed. When you have finished relaxing your body, sit with your hands clasped in your lap, both feet on the floor, and focus your attention on a spot on your forehead, between and a little above your eyes. Hold your attention there.

With your eyes still closed, empty your mind of thoughts, and take four slow, deep breaths, exhaling slowly through pursed lips. Continue to breathe slowly, and be aware of your breath. When thoughts come to your mind, gently dismiss them and bring yourself back to a place of emptiness. Take several more sets of four slow, deep breaths until you have entered a state of calm receptivity.

Some practitioners find it helpful to count slowly from one to five and with each number enter deeper into the Silence. By the count of five, they are fully in the Silence. Though people experience the Silence differently, the body is always in a resting state, while the mind has let go of active thinking. If you go too deep into this state, you will fall asleep. After repeated practice, you will learn to go into a meditative state between conscious mental activity and sleep. When you are truly in the Silence, you will have a sense of being somewhat detached from sensory input: temperature and sounds will still register but in a different way. Your body and mind will both feel at rest.

When you want to come out of the Silence, simply count from five to one and then open your eyes. (Before going into the Silence, give yourself the general suggestion that you will feel awake and fully alert when you reach the count of one.) It would be good to practice going in and out of the Silence on several different occasions until you are comfortable with this state before beginning to dialogue with your High and Basic Selves.

Your goal is to quiet the “mind that talks”—the Middle Self—so that communication with the other Selves can take place. Your Middle Self has a tendency to run off on verbal tan­gents. When this happens, simply return to the place in your mind that you have established as a quiet zone. Invite your Basic Self to be present and to speak with you. Listen for an inner voice (not an audible one), that seems to emanate from the area of the solar plexus. Your Basic Self may be reluctant to speak to you at first. Be patient and loving and encourage it as you would a child.

Some people experience their Basic Selves as children, some as adolescents, and as male or female. Many people ex­perience their Basic Selves as being the same gender that they are. This does not have to be the case, however. Don’t charac­terize your Basic Self ahead of time, rather let it be whatever it is. The Basic Self, of course, is not an “it,” but that word is used here since the gender is not known. The Basic Self may give you a name and if so, you may address it by name when dialoguing.

Once you have entered the Silence, invite your Basic Self to tell you what it is feeling—without interruption from the talking mind. Your initial words might go something like this: “My dearest Basic Self, I wish to communicate with you and to hear your voice. I will be silent and I invite you to speak for as long as you wish. I love you.” This can be said silently or au­dibly. The Middle Self then clears out all thoughts and waits. Perhaps you will not get a response at first. Try it again at a later time. One reason you may not receive a response is that your Basic Self may be upset or angry with you (the Middle Self), and just as a child or adolescent goes into a room and locks the door, the Basic Self may withhold words. With loving persist­ence, however, the Basic Self will begin to communicate.

When dialoguing with the Basic Self, remember the ways of a loving parent who knows that love works more wonders than harshness. See the Basic Self as a cherished part of your makeup—one of the keys to creating personal harmony and wellness. Treat the Basic Self with respect, love, and caring. As your Basic Self begins to communicate with you and your rela­tionship grows, both your Middle and Basic Selves will be more comfortable in this dialogue. Many people have found that using a pendulum facilitates the process.

Once you have established contact with your Basic Self, you can ask questions and receive answers. This dialogue is crucial to understanding manifestations in the body. The body is an amazing instrument with endlessly inventive means of expression. The Basic Self can turn an unexpressed feeling of anger into a headache, a feeling of resistance into fatigue, and even longstanding resentments into cancer. When the Basic Self cannot communicate in any other way, it uses the body to send a signal about its feelings. That is why it is of utmost important to dialogue with the Basic Self and reach an understanding on a regular basis—before the need for expression in the body. Once a situation has been created in the body, the Middle Self can ask the Basic Self to provide information about it and to participate in resolution and healing. Cooperation between the Basic and Middle Selves is essential.

One of the best ways to accomplish any of your goals is to forge a bond between the Middle and Basic Selves and to reach an agreement about a suggested course of action. Frequently, the Basic Self and the Middle Self have different and often con­flicting agendas. For example, your Middle Self may wish to learn a new language, but the Basic Self finds this study tedious and even threatening. Your Middle Self may want to lose weight for health and beauty reasons, but the Basic Self doesn’t want to give up desserts and snacks. The Basic Self loves painting pic­tures, while the Middle Self finds it a waste of time. All of these are conflicts that have to be resolved by agreement between the Selves. If the Middle Self forces the Basic Self to do something such as learn a language (which involves memory) without agreement, the Basic Self will sabotage the work. A diet will go much better if the Middle Self does its homework by dialoguing with the Basic Self about the real need for the changes in eating habits. Making time for activities the Basic Self enjoys, such as music, art, and sports, is a good way of showing the Basic Self that the Middle Self respects its concerns. Dialoguing and reaching agreement on relatively minor issues sets the stage for cooperation over more complex problems.

Communicating with the High Self is the next step for the student, and this can be an enlightening, joyous experience. Go through the body relaxation procedure as above, with eyes closed, hands clasped in your lap, and both feet on the floor. Focus your attention on the spot on your forehead and go into the Silence. Take several sets of four slow, deep breaths, blowing the air out softly through pursed lips. Clear the mind and enter a state of quiet receptivity in which all thoughts are gently laid aside. Then, ask the High Self to come down into the body and to be completely present within you. You will likely feel a gentle warmth and a surge of energy, or you may just feel a quiet sense of presence. Sometimes the High Self will an­nounce its presence by saying simply, “I am here.” Again, this is an internal voice experienced as different from the Basic Self and the everyday talking mind. It is never an audible voice.

While in the Silence, you may feel other unfamiliar sensa­tions such as heat, tingling, and a rocking motion. You may also feel an urge to sleep. After a while, you will find the right state for dialoguing. Generally this is a light form of meditation in which you are consciously receptive while remaining in a mildly altered state.

The High Self is your source of wisdom and guidance, your connection with the infinite. This self is experienced as a loving friend, a benevolent parent, and your personal “guru.” What students of Huna know is that the Basic Self will block access to the High Self if the Basic Self is feeling unworthy, ashamed, or conflicted. As a being of peace and harmony, the High Self is re­luctant to enter a place of discord. Establishing a working rela­tionship with your Basic Self first is the best way of assuring that you can dialogue with the High Self. It also assures that you will be able to gather the mana you need at the Basic Self level to send to the High Self. Once in contact with your High Self, you are free to ask questions and request advice, just as you would of a teacher or counselor. The answers you receive often will “feel right” to you and affirm your inner wisdom. As you become more adept at communicating with the High Self, you will be able to get whispers and glimpses from the High Self during your day-to-day life that will come to you in the small silences when your mind is calm and your body relaxed. The High Self will never interfere with your free will. If you allow yourself to be open and to ask for guidance, then it will come to you as often as you need it. The High Self literally will answer your prayers.

After you have made contact with the High Self on several occasions, go into the Silence and ask the High Self what you can do for it. Listen for an answer. It will most certainly be something that benefits you. When you feel lots of trouble around you, ask the High Self to come to you and take full charge of your affairs, bringing to you whatever you need to evolve. If you have a hard task to perform, ask the High Self to assist you. If you are upset, ask the High Self to restore your balance. If you have to deal with a difficult person, ask the High Self to help you deal with the situation. When you need healing for yourself or someone else, request it. You will know when you are getting answers from the High Self because they are se­rious, usually short, and very authoritative in tone. After a while, you will know whether the answers are coming from the High Self or Basic Self. If the answers come very slowly, they are not from the Basic Self, but from the Middle Self. The experience of Huna practitioners is that both the Basic Self and High Self answer quickly.

Over time, you can condition yourself to go into and out of the Silence quickly. Give yourself a suggestion to do this, such as “When I take four slow, deep breaths and then count slowly from one to five, I will enter the Silence. When I count from five to one, I will come out of the Silence.” In that way, you can get an­swers to questions and stay in frequent contact with your Selves. As you communicate with the High Self and Basic Seif on a daily basis, it will become easier and more natural. You may also find that your Basic Self will “bring up” information about prob­lems that you need to work on, while the High Self will send you the means of help and moments of divine inspiration.

GUIDES, GUARDIANS, AND ANGELS

Your High Self is your personal link to God/Goddess and the higher realms and is always available to you for help. There are other cosmic beings who assist those in physical bodies, and you can call on them for special kinds of help. Your guides are those beings in spirit form who take a special interest in you and whose wisdom can be accessed on a personal level. During the Silence, you may make contact with such a spirit guide, learn its name, and communicate with it often. Guardians are spirit beings who look after your welfare and exercise a protec­tive role in your life. In old Hawaii, guides and guardians often took the form of deceased relatives, totem animals, and ele­ments of nature. Gods and goddesses may also function as guides or guardians to you.

Angels are highly evolved beings who perform nurturing roles on a cosmic level. They often appear spontaneously when needed but their help can also be requested. Archangel Michael, a universal being, is a special helper to students of Huna and can be called on for help in difficult situations.

As you begin to spend more time in the Silence and to work with your own Higher Self, you make yourself open to the benevolent effects of your guides, guardians, and angels on a daily basis. The Great Company of High Selves can be called on for assistance when the request is for larger societal or global changes.

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

1. Three Selves or minds make up each individual personality.
2. The Middle Self is the conscious, waking mind that analyzes and uses logic to guide behavior.
3. 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.
4. The High Self is the Godlike part of Self that inspires you and connects you with your higher purpose.
5. The goals of Huna are communication, cooperation, and love among the Three Selves, so that each may fulfill its role in an optimum way.
6. 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. One

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DIALOGUING AND THE SILENCE

The Silence is an altered state similar to meditation, yet it does not involve the deep states associated with meditation practice. Unlike meditation, which is usually described as a deep com­munion with the divine, the Silence is a lighter form of trance state where communication takes place between the Three Selves using words, symbols, or pictures. The Silence begins with relaxation and quiet in a safe, comfortable place. Use what­ever process you need to become quiet, relaxed, and contem­plative. Heavy foods, alcohol, and drugs are not conducive to this state. Relaxation techniques that lessen tension in the body are helpful. Put your mind in a state of peace by letting go of thoughts of work, family, politics, and all the daily concerns. Give yourself the time and space to be alone without interrup­tion. A designated space in your home where you can close the door is ideal.

There are no hard and fast rules about the Silence. It can be entered in many different settings and times. Focusing on the highway while driving at night produces a kind of altered state, but it is not advisable under any circumstances to enter the Silence while driving a car. Learn what works best for you to enter the state. You may want to create a place in your home with an altar where you can light a candle. When you have a special place for going into the Silence and use a bit of ritual, like music, incense, and a candle, your Basic Self will soon know exactly what to do when you enter that space. If you choose to enter the Silence outdoors, find a place where your Basic Self will feel comfortable and safe.

83- For first-time meditators, it is helpful to do a relaxation pro­cedure at the beginning of your session. Sit in a comfortable chair in which you can keep your back erect and both feet on the floor. Remain quiet, with your eyes closed, and, beginning with your feet, consciously relax each part of your body. Bring your attention there, and say, “I am now relaxing my feet. I am letting go of every bit of tension in my feet. I am now relaxing my feet.” Then, when you feel your feet relaxing, continue: “I am now relaxing my legs,” and so on, until every part of your body has been consciously relaxed. When you have finished relaxing your body, sit with your hands clasped in your lap, both feet on the floor, and focus your attention on a spot on your forehead, between and a little above your eyes. Hold your attention there.

With your eyes still closed, empty your mind of thoughts, and take four slow, deep breaths, exhaling slowly through pursed lips. Continue to breathe slowly, and be aware of your breath. When thoughts come to your mind, gently dismiss them and bring yourself back to a place of emptiness. Take several more sets of four slow, deep breaths until you have entered a state of calm receptivity.

Some practitioners find it helpful to count slowly from one to five and with each number enter deeper into the Silence. By the count of five, they are fully in the Silence. Though people experience the Silence differently, the body is always in a resting state, while the mind has let go of active thinking. If you go too deep into this state, you will fall asleep. After repeated practice, you will learn to go into a meditative state between conscious mental activity and sleep. When you are truly in the Silence, you will have a sense of being somewhat detached from sensory input: temperature and sounds will still register but in a different way. Your body and mind will both feel at rest.

When you want to come out of the Silence, simply count from five to one and then open your eyes. (Before going into the Silence, give yourself the general suggestion that you will feel awake and fully alert when you reach the count of one.) It would be good to practice going in and out of the Silence on several different occasions until you are comfortable with this state before beginning to dialogue with your High and Basic Selves.

Your goal is to quiet the “mind that talks”—the Middle Self—so that communication with the other Selves can take place. Your Middle Self has a tendency to run off on verbal tan­gents. When this happens, simply return to the place in your mind that you have established as a quiet zone. Invite your Basic Self to be present and to speak with you. Listen for an inner voice (not an audible one), that seems to emanate from the area of the solar plexus. Your Basic Self may be reluctant to speak to you at first. Be patient and loving and encourage it as you would a child.

Some people experience their Basic Selves as children, some as adolescents, and as male or female. Many people ex­perience their Basic Selves as being the same gender that they are. This does not have to be the case, however. Don’t charac­terize your Basic Self ahead of time, rather let it be whatever it is. The Basic Self, of course, is not an “it,” but that word is used here since the gender is not known. The Basic Self may give you a name and if so, you may address it by name when dialoguing.

Once you have entered the Silence, invite your Basic Self to tell you what it is feeling—without interruption from the talking mind. Your initial words might go something like this: “My dearest Basic Self, I wish to communicate with you and to hear your voice. I will be silent and I invite you to speak for as long as you wish. I love you.” This can be said silently or au­dibly. The Middle Self then clears out all thoughts and waits. Perhaps you will not get a response at first. Try it again at a later time. One reason you may not receive a response is that your Basic Self may be upset or angry with you (the Middle Self), and just as a child or adolescent goes into a room and locks the door, the Basic Self may withhold words. With loving persist­ence, however, the Basic Self will begin to communicate.

When dialoguing with the Basic Self, remember the ways of a loving parent who knows that love works more wonders than harshness. See the Basic Self as a cherished part of your makeup—one of the keys to creating personal harmony and wellness. Treat the Basic Self with respect, love, and caring. As your Basic Self begins to communicate with you and your rela­tionship grows, both your Middle and Basic Selves will be more comfortable in this dialogue. Many people have found that using a pendulum facilitates the process.

Once you have established contact with your Basic Self, you can ask questions and receive answers. This dialogue is crucial to understanding manifestations in the body. The body is an amazing instrument with endlessly inventive means of expression. The Basic Self can turn an unexpressed feeling of anger into a headache, a feeling of resistance into fatigue, and even longstanding resentments into cancer. When the Basic Self cannot communicate in any other way, it uses the body to send a signal about its feelings. That is why it is of utmost important to dialogue with the Basic Self and reach an understanding on a regular basis—before the need for expression in the body. Once a situation has been created in the body, the Middle Self can ask the Basic Self to provide information about it and to participate in resolution and healing. Cooperation between the Basic and Middle Selves is essential.

One of the best ways to accomplish any of your goals is to forge a bond between the Middle and Basic Selves and to reach an agreement about a suggested course of action. Frequently, the Basic Self and the Middle Self have different and often con­flicting agendas. For example, your Middle Self may wish to learn a new language, but the Basic Self finds this study tedious and even threatening. Your Middle Self may want to lose weight for health and beauty reasons, but the Basic Self doesn’t want to give up desserts and snacks. The Basic Self loves painting pic­tures, while the Middle Self finds it a waste of time. All of these are conflicts that have to be resolved by agreement between the Selves. If the Middle Self forces the Basic Self to do something such as learn a language (which involves memory) without agreement, the Basic Self will sabotage the work. A diet will go much better if the Middle Self does its homework by dialoguing with the Basic Self about the real need for the changes in eating habits. Making time for activities the Basic Self enjoys, such as music, art, and sports, is a good way of showing the Basic Self that the Middle Self respects its concerns. Dialoguing and reaching agreement on relatively minor issues sets the stage for cooperation over more complex problems.

Communicating with the High Self is the next step for the student, and this can be an enlightening, joyous experience. Go through the body relaxation procedure as above, with eyes closed, hands clasped in your lap, and both feet on the floor. Focus your attention on the spot on your forehead and go into the Silence. Take several sets of four slow, deep breaths, blowing the air out softly through pursed lips. Clear the mind and enter a state of quiet receptivity in which all thoughts are gently laid aside. Then, ask the High Self to come down into the body and to be completely present within you. You will likely feel a gentle warmth and a surge of energy, or you may just feel a quiet sense of presence. Sometimes the High Self will an­nounce its presence by saying simply, “I am here.” Again, this is an internal voice experienced as different from the Basic Self and the everyday talking mind. It is never an audible voice.

While in the Silence, you may feel other unfamiliar sensa­tions such as heat, tingling, and a rocking motion. You may also feel an urge to sleep. After a while, you will find the right state for dialoguing. Generally this is a light form of meditation in which you are consciously receptive while remaining in a mildly altered state.

The High Self is your source of wisdom and guidance, your connection with the infinite. This self is experienced as a loving friend, a benevolent parent, and your personal “guru.” What students of Huna know is that the Basic Self will block access to the High Self if the Basic Self is feeling unworthy, ashamed, or conflicted. As a being of peace and harmony, the High Self is re­luctant to enter a place of discord. Establishing a working rela­tionship with your Basic Self first is the best way of assuring that you can dialogue with the High Self. It also assures that you will be able to gather the mana you need at the Basic Self level to send to the High Self. Once in contact with your High Self, you are free to ask questions and request advice, just as you would of a teacher or counselor. The answers you receive often will “feel right” to you and affirm your inner wisdom. As you become more adept at communicating with the High Self, you will be able to get whispers and glimpses from the High Self during your day-to-day life that will come to you in the small silences when your mind is calm and your body relaxed. The High Self will never interfere with your free will. If you allow yourself to be open and to ask for guidance, then it will come to you as often as you need it. The High Self literally will answer your prayers.

After you have made contact with the High Self on several occasions, go into the Silence and ask the High Self what you can do for it. Listen for an answer. It will most certainly be something that benefits you. When you feel lots of trouble around you, ask the High Self to come to you and take full charge of your affairs, bringing to you whatever you need to evolve. If you have a hard task to perform, ask the High Self to assist you. If you are upset, ask the High Self to restore your balance. If you have to deal with a difficult person, ask the High Self to help you deal with the situation. When you need healing for yourself or someone else, request it. You will know when you are getting answers from the High Self because they are se­rious, usually short, and very authoritative in tone. After a while, you will know whether the answers are coming from the High Self or Basic Self. If the answers come very slowly, they are not from the Basic Self, but from the Middle Self. The experience of Huna practitioners is that both the Basic Self and High Self answer quickly.

Over time, you can condition yourself to go into and out of the Silence quickly. Give yourself a suggestion to do this, such as “When I take four slow, deep breaths and then count slowly from one to five, I will enter the Silence. When I count from five to one, I will come out of the Silence.” In that way, you can get an­swers to questions and stay in frequent contact with your Selves. As you communicate with the High Self and Basic Self on a daily basis, it will become easier and more natural. You may also find that your Basic Self will “bring up” information about prob­lems that you need to work on, while the High Self will send you the means of help and moments of divine inspiration.

GUIDES, GUARDIANS, AND ANGELS

Your High Self is your personal link to God/Goddess and the higher realms and is always available to you for help. There are other cosmic beings who assist those in physical bodies, and you can call on them for special kinds of help. Your guides are those beings in spirit form who take a special interest in you and whose wisdom can be accessed on a personal level. During the Silence, you may make contact with such a spirit guide, learn its name, and communicate with it often. Guardians are spirit beings who look after your welfare and exercise a protec­tive role in your life. In old Hawaii, guides and guardians often took the form of deceased relatives, totem animals, and ele­ments of nature. Gods and goddesses may also function as guides or guardians to you.

Angels are highly evolved beings who perform nurturing roles on a cosmic level. They often appear spontaneously when needed but their help can also be requested. Archangel Michael, a universal being, is a special helper to students of Huna and can be called on for help in difficult situations.

As you begin to spend more time in the Silence and to work with your own Higher Self, you make yourself open to the benevolent effects of your guides, guardians, and angels on a daily basis. The Great Company of High Selves can be called on for assistance when the request is for larger societal or global changes.

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

1. Three Selves or minds make up each individual personality.
2. The Middle Self is the conscious, waking mind that analyzes and uses logic to guide behavior.
3. 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.
4. The High Self is the Godlike part of Self that inspires you and connects you with your higher purpose.
5. The goals of Huna are communication, cooperation, and love among the Three Selves, so that each may fulfill its role in an optimum way.
6. 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. One

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.

THOUGHT FORMS

Thoughts can become things. Every thought begins as a vibra­tion in the conscious mind and becomes stronger when rein­forced with emotion. Strong thoughts can manifest in the physical world, and if similar thoughts are held by a large number of people, manifestation is virtually certain.

The late Hawaiian teacher Morrnah N. Simeona saw thought forms in a person’s aura as colors, lights, and shapes. She stressed the importance of channeling thought patterns in positive, life-affirming ways. The ever-changing, kaleidoscope like nature of thoughts that pass through the mind makes them difficult to control, however. An effective way to work with thought patterns is through speech.

POSITIVE SPEECH

If thoughts are things that have substance and effect, then spoken words have even greater power. They are thoughts made manifest in the world. The ancient Hawaiians took the spoken word very seriously, believing in its power to help or harm.

As a student of Huna, the first step in your practice is to work with the Basic Self to begin thinking and speaking posi­tively. This seems to be a simple readjustment, but positive speech is actually a powerful tool to begin programming a pos­itive future. It has been observed that 80 percent of human dia­logue is negative, so there is indeed a great need for a positive trend. If you don’t believe it, listen to the talk in the office or su­permarket. You are likely to hear a constant barrage of talk about things gone wrong or the anticipation that they will go  wrong. Some of this negativity has been programmed from an early age, while some of it has come by way of our societies and cultures. Some of it is just plain habit.

Positive speech is such a profound spiritual practice because the Basic Self takes things literally and is always listening to what you say. The cells of your body respond to sound vibra­tions, and whether they are bombarded by negative or by posi­tive vibrations can make the difference between being sick or well. Anything thought or said repeatedly eventually will be manifested in reality by the Basic Self.

Awareness is the key to positive speech, so begin by lis­tening. Go into a meditative or contemplative state and ask your Basic Self to cooperate with you in speaking positively and ask your High Self to guide you. Then, listen to yourself talk without judgment and without censure. When you hear yourself saying something negative, replace it with a positive statement. If it’s too late for that, simply think of what you could have said and move on. When another person says something negative, either counter it with a positive statement or say nothing (don’t add anything negative).

One way of keeping on track with this is to form a partner­ship with another person. When you say something negative, arrange to give that person a dollar. Or, when you hear yourself saying something negative, place a dollar in a box that you later give to charity.

Practicing positive speech is a little like peeling an onion. You discover more and more layers, and finally you understand that this is not a simple practice. What you realize in time is that  the human race is so conditioned to perceive pain and misery that most people have formed a habit of seeing it everywhere. In truth, there is nothing negative on earth except in our perception of it. It is not really necessary to view anything as negative, only to observe and understand it. What about the tragedies played out on television, in the community, in individual lives? What about the deaths of children and war and natural disasters that destroy life? Surprisingly, every experience is open to a positive interpretation. Everything that happens is speaking to you about life if you only have ears to listen. Learn to find the “blessing in disguise” in every situation.

There can be confusion when you first start to practice pos­itive speech. Some of the questions that arise are: Am I going to become a Pollyanna? Am I just suppressing my true feelings? How can I express emotions such as anger, frustration, grief? Can I be honest and still be positive?

First of all, there’s no downside to being consistently posi­tive. At first it may feel as though you are suppressing your true feelings, but as you practice being positive, this will become your true feeling. Second, many people associate anger with negativity, but this is erroneous. Everyone becomes angry at times—it is human—and there is nothing inherently unspiri­tual or negative about it. There certainly can be negativity in the way anger is processed or expressed. The kahuna knew that to become powerful, they had to understand their emotions and process them in constructive ways. They understood that strong feelings are not necessarily negative—they can be honestly expressed without being destructive.

When you become angry, avoid expletives which give the anger a negative charge and resonate badly in the Basic Self. Don’t damn or dam anything, and don’t employ expressions using bodily functions to express anger. Remember that words said in fear and anger reverberate in the Basic Self for a very long time. So, what do you say if you should back into another car in the parking lot? Program your expletives in advance to be positive. Use the words of your grandparents that were positive and mild expressions such as “dear me,” “my goodness,” “my word,” and “gracious me.” If those don’t appeal to you, find positive alternatives.

Be aware that anything said habitually is a powerful rein­forcer. Keep a list of words you use often and habitually—they will give you insight into your basic assumptions. If you often hear yourself saying “good grief’ or “no way,” know that you are programming your Basic Self with negative expressions. If you often use sarcasm and say, “oh, wonderful” for something you don’t like, this is sending a confusing message to the Basic Self. Avoid sarcasm in general.

Note your general speech patterns and how your language is constructed. Whenever you say the word “but,” you are im­plying a situation of conflict. Substitute “and” and it becomes a statement of facts. Pay attention whenever you hear yourself saying “try” and “should.” “I will try” often means “I don’t want to, but I don’t want to say so.” “Should” often implies heavy conflict or guilt. The word “should” frequently points to a conflict between the Middle Self and the Basic Self.

One note: when learning to practice positive speech, be careful not to make yourself feel guilty about saying something negative. Just look at what you are saying and question—what does it mean to you? What else could you have said? Change it to the posi­tive. Keep your general goal of positive speech in mind, and the Basic Self will gradually get in the habit of speaking positively.

Be wary of exaggeration, which in some persons can be­come a habit that gets out of hand. Those who exaggerate gen­erally want to make themselves more interesting or exciting, but this is really a mild form of lying. Listen to yourself when you describe a situation. Are you embellishing? Ask your Basic Self to stick to the facts. Avoid word inflation—using words such as “great” or “fantastic” when you don’t really mean them. That is another form of exaggeration. Use the words “very” and “really” only when they apply.

Contradiction is another bad habit of speech that resonates badly in the Basic Self. You all know someone who always counters any statement you make with the opposite. This can become a habit that creates dissension and distrust among people. It is never constructive. Listen to your interaction with others. If you are constantly disagreeing, ask yourself why. Is it out of habit? When you sincerely have another perspective, simply state your idea as another point of view. Arguing or disagreeing seldom changes another’s viewpoint and usually only serves to harden it. How do you handle it when someone else is constantly contradicting you? Let it go and see that person as a “teacher” by reverse example.

Avoid asking “really?” as a matter of habit in a conversa­tion, unless you are questioning the veracity of what you are hearing. Be aware that when you say “I know,” you are ex­pressing to the other that you have the same understanding. Repeating “you know” often means that you are having trouble communicating.

Thanks and gratitude are powerful ways of speaking posi­tively and raise mana in both the one who thanks and the recip­ient. When gratitude comes from the heart and is sincerely expressed, it reinforces positive outcomes and sets up a strong positive vibration for the future. Thanking the universe and being grateful for the beauty and goodness around you predis­pose you to more beauty and goodness to come.

When it comes to psychic protection, positive speaking is one of the best ways to strengthen the Basic Self and protect it from psychic suggestion or even attack by others, whether the entities are in the body or out. Habitual negativity drains energy and thus opens up the aura to invasion. As you clear out harmful patterns from the Basic Self, you create a strong and healthy mind that resists any form of possession.

In general, then, when you are learning to practice positive speech, listen to yourself as much as you can and gently guide your verbal expression to the positive. Be watchful of anything said with emotion and anything said habitually. Remember that words are things. In this way, your Basic Self will form the habit of speaking—and thinking—positively. This will make a world of difference in your life.

POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE

The Basic Self’s memory banks are the repository for all the thoughts, opinions, and judgments you have ever heard, begin­ning in the womb and accumulated during a lifetime. Teachers, classmates, friends, parents, siblings, and later, spouses and co­workers, add to the stores. Often these judgments are negative and are believed and held in the Basic Self. Add to this the judg­ments and pronouncements of a society, and this can amount to a heavy burden of negativity carried by the Basic Self.

When students of Huna are asked to monitor their negative thoughts about themselves, most are shocked at the sheer volume of them. The criticism you heap upon yourself may begin with that first morning look in the mirror and end with that last thought at night about the “things I should have done.” It is no wonder the Basic Self often feels angry, frustrated, and de­pressed—it frequently is made to feel “not good enough,” “not beautiful,” “not competent,” “not successful,” and “not strong.”

Just as you monitor yourself for negative speech, begin— and this is a far more subtle task—to observe how often you think negative thoughts about yourself. Catch yourself when you are looking at your body and judging it to be flabby, over­weight, or unattractive in some way. Notice when you are given a compliment how you often disbelieve it and decide the giver must be insincere. Observe how you drive yourself to do too many things and then berate yourself for not measuring up. When your work doesn’t go well, notice how you find yourself thinking that it’s your fault. See how you react when you watch Avoid asking “really?” as a matter of habit in a conversa­tion, unless you are questioning the veracity of what you are hearing. Be aware that when you say “I know,” you are ex­pressing to the other that you have the same understanding. Repeating “you know” often means that you are having trouble communicating.

Thanks and gratitude are powerful ways of speaking posi­tively and raise mana in both the one who thanks and the recip­ient. When gratitude comes from the heart and is sincerely expressed, it reinforces positive outcomes and sets up a strong positive vibration for the future. Thanking the universe and being grateful for the beauty and goodness around you predis­pose you to more beauty and goodness to come.

When it comes to psychic protection, positive speaking is one of the best ways to strengthen the Basic Self and protect it from psychic suggestion or even attack by others, whether the entities are in the body or out. Habitual negativity drains energy and thus opens up the aura to invasion. As you clear out harmful patterns from the Basic Self, you create a strong and healthy mind that resists any form of possession.

In general, then, when you are learning to practice positive speech, listen to yourself as much as you can and gently guide your verbal expression to the positive. Be watchful of anything said with emotion and anything said habitually. Remember that words are things. In this way, your Basic Self will form the habit of speaking—and thinking—positively. This will make a world of difference in your life.

The Basic Self’s memory banks are the repository for all the thoughts, opinions, and judgments you have ever heard, begin­ning in the womb and accumulated during a lifetime. Teachers, classmates, friends, parents, siblings, and later, spouses and co­workers, add to the stores. Often these judgments are negative, and are believed and held in the Basic Self. Add to this the judg­ments and pronouncements of a society, and this can amount to a heavy burden of negativity carried by the Basic Self.

When students of Huna are asked to monitor their negative thoughts about themselves, most are shocked at the sheer volume of them. The criticism you heap upon yourself may begin with that first morning look in the mirror and end with that last thought at night about the “things I should have done.” It is no wonder the Basic Self often feels angry, frustrated, and de­pressed—it frequently is made to feel “not good enough,” “not beautiful,” “not competent,” “not successful,” and “not strong.”

Just as you monitor yourself for negative speech, begin— and this is a far more subtle task—to observe how often you think negative thoughts about yourself. Catch yourself when you are looking at your body and judging it to be flabby, over­weight, or unattractive in some way. Notice when you are given a compliment how you often disbelieve it and decide the giver must be insincere. Observe how you drive yourself to do too many things and then berate yourself for not measuring up. When your work doesn’t go well, notice how you find yourself thinking that it’s your fault. See how you react when you watch a beautiful actress or handsome actor in a movie or see an ele­gant fashion model. Do you have feelings of inferiority? When you observe an obviously wealthy, powerful, or very successful person, do you feel insignificant or inadequate?

A great deal is said in our society about the importance of self-esteem—with good reason. From a Huna point of view, a lack of it is crippling to the Basic Self. When the Basic Self is burdened by a negative self-image, communication with the High Self is blocked or hindered, and mana is low. There will be little mana to flow to the High Self, so prayers will be answered slowly, if at all. Therefore, it is critical to build a good self image, no matter where the negative data came from in the past.

Once you begin to notice how many negative thoughts you have about yourself, you can start to change this. Program a positive self-image into your daily life. When you look in the mirror, see yourself as a marvelous being crafted by God, a pre­cious and unique bit of matter in the universe. Appreciate your­self for and by yourself, without any other frame of reference. Form the habit of being nonjudgmental about yourself (and others) and instead foster understanding. If you feel that your work could be better, really look at the situation. Have you set standards that are too high? Is something preventing you from working to your full capacity? Do you have a fear of failure? If your body is not to your liking, ask yourself if you are truly un­healthy or trying to live up to an impossible image. Cultivate a loving, thoughtful attitude toward yourself rather than a critical one. Forgive yourself frequently.

Sincere praise is always welcomed by the Basic Self and has magical results. When you have done something well, let yourself feel a sense of happiness and satisfaction. Praise your Basic Self for successes in its special domains of health, feel­ings, and memory. Make your Basic Self feel valued and loved. The result will be a Basic Self capable of taking its rightful place in the trinity of Selves and functioning in an optimal way to create health, energy, and a joyous sense of living.

Once you begin developing a more positive view of yourself, you will find your sincere praise extending to other people. Sincere praise for the good in others raises everyone’s vibrations.

Practice positive speech and a positive self-image for two weeks, making a serious effort to pay attention to your thoughts and words. It is helpful to keep a notebook in which you list your habitual expressions and thoughts. Putting them on paper gets them out of your mind and speech so you can become aware of them. Spend time with a mirror to form a habit of body appreciation. Begin to love your body—all of its cells and con­tours and facets. Let everything go that you’ve ever learned or thought about your body and see your extraordinary beauty, inside and out. Finally, practice loving yourself the way you would a child—completely and constructively—with their highest good in mind.

These practices set the stage for communicating with the Basic and High Selves. Once you are feeling a new positive out­look emanating from your Basic Self, you are ready to go into the Silence and begin dialoguing with your Selves.

DIALOGUING AND THE SILENCE

The Silence is an altered state similar to meditation, yet it does not involve the deep states associated with meditation practice. Unlike meditation, which is usually described as a deep com­munion with the divine, the Silence is a lighter form of trance state where communication takes place between the Three Selves using words, symbols, or pictures. The Silence begins with relaxation and quiet in a safe, comfortable place. Use what­ever process you need to become quiet, relaxed, and contem­plative. Heavy foods, alcohol, and drugs are not conducive to this state. Relaxation techniques that lessen tension in the body are helpful. Put your mind in a state of peace by letting go of thoughts of work, family, politics, and all the daily concerns. Give yourself the time and space to be alone without interrup­tion. A designated space in your home where you can close the door is ideal.

There are no hard and fast rules about the Silence. It can be entered in many different settings and times. Focusing on the highway while driving at night produces a kind of altered state, but it is not advisable under any circumstances to enter the Silence while driving a car. Learn what works best for you to enter the state. You may want to create a place in your home with an altar where you can light a candle. When you have a special place for going into the Silence and use a bit of ritual, like music, incense, and a candle, your Basic Self will soon know exactly what to do when you enter that space. If you choose to enter the Silence outdoors, find a place where your Basic Self will feel comfortable and safe.

83- For first-time meditators, it is helpful to do a relaxation pro­cedure at the beginning of your session. Sit in a comfortable chair in which you can keep your back erect and both feet on the floor. Remain quiet, with your eyes closed, and, beginning with your feet, consciously relax each part of your body. Bring your attention there, and say, “I am now relaxing my feet. I am letting go of every bit of tension in my feet. I am now relaxing my feet.” Then, when you feel your feet relaxing, continue: “I am now relaxing my legs,” and so on, until every part of your body has been consciously relaxed. When you have finished relaxing your body, sit with your hands clasped in your lap, both feet on the floor, and focus your attention on a spot on your forehead, between and a little above your eyes. Hold your attention there.

With your eyes still closed, empty your mind of thoughts, and take four slow, deep breaths, exhaling slowly through pursed lips. Continue to breathe slowly, and be aware of your breath. When thoughts come to your mind, gently dismiss them and bring yourself back to a place of emptiness. Take several more sets of four slow, deep breaths until you have entered a state of calm receptivity.

Some practitioners find it helpful to count slowly from one to five and with each number enter deeper into the Silence. By the count of five, they are fully in the Silence. Though people experience the Silence differently, the body is always in a resting state, while the mind has let go of active thinking. If you go too deep into this state, you will fall asleep. After repeated practice, you will learn to go into a meditative state between conscious mental activity and sleep. When you are truly in the Silence, you will have a sense of being somewhat detached from sensory input: temperature and sounds will still register but in a different way. Your body and mind will both feel at rest.

When you want to come out of the Silence, simply count from five to one and then open your eyes. (Before going into the Silence, give yourself the general suggestion that you will feel awake and fully alert when you reach the count of one.) It would be good to practice going in and out of the Silence on several different occasions until you are comfortable with this state before beginning to dialogue with your High and Basic Selves.

Your goal is to quiet the “mind that talks”—the Middle Self—so that communication with the other Selves can take place. Your Middle Self has a tendency to run off on verbal tan­gents. When this happens, simply return to the place in your mind that you have established as a quiet zone. Invite your Basic Self to be present and to speak with you. Listen for an inner voice (not an audible one), that seems to emanate from the area of the solar plexus. Your Basic Self may be reluctant to speak to you at first. Be patient and loving and encourage it as you would a child.

Some people experience their Basic Selves as children, some as adolescents, and as male or female. Many people ex­perience their Basic Selves as being the same gender that they are. This does not have to be the case, however. Don’t charac­terize your Basic Self ahead of time, rather let it be whatever it is. The Basic Self, of course, is not an “it,” but that word is used here since the gender is not known. The Basic Self may give you a name and if so, you may address it by name when dialoguing.

Once you have entered the Silence, invite your Basic Self to tell you what it is feeling—without interruption from the talking mind. Your initial words might go something like this: “My dearest Basic Self, I wish to communicate with you and to hear your voice. I will be silent and I invite you to speak for as long as you wish. I love you.” This can be said silently or au­dibly. The Middle Self then clears out all thoughts and waits. Perhaps you will not get a response at first. Try it again at a later time. One reason you may not receive a response is that your Basic Self may be upset or angry with you (the Middle Self), and just as a child or adolescent goes into a room and locks the door, the Basic Self may withhold words. With loving persist­ence, however, the Basic Self will begin to communicate.

When dialoguing with the Basic Self, remember the ways of a loving parent who knows that love works more wonders than harshness. See the Basic Self as a cherished part of your makeup—one of the keys to creating personal harmony and wellness. Treat the Basic Self with respect, love, and caring. As your Basic Self begins to communicate with you and your rela­tionship grows, both your Middle and Basic Selves will be more comfortable in this dialogue. Many people have found that using a pendulum facilitates the process.

Once you have established contact with your Basic Self, you can ask questions and receive answers. This dialogue is crucial to understanding manifestations in the body. The body is an amazing instrument with endlessly inventive means of expression. The Basic Self can turn an unexpressed feeling of anger into a headache, a feeling of resistance into fatigue, and even longstanding resentments into cancer. When the Basic Self cannot communicate in any other way, it uses the body to send a signal about its feelings. That is why it is of utmost important to dialogue with the Basic Self and reach an understanding on a regular basis—before the need for expression in the body. Once a situation has been created in the body, the Middle Self can ask the Basic Self to provide information about it and to participate in resolution and healing. Cooperation between the Basic and Middle Selves is essential.

One of the best ways to accomplish any of your goals is to forge a bond between the Middle and Basic Selves and to reach an agreement about a suggested course of action. Frequently, the Basic Self and the Middle Self have different and often con­flicting agendas. For example, your Middle Self may wish to learn a new language, but the Basic Self finds this study tedious and even threatening. Your Middle Self may want to lose weight for health and beauty reasons, but the Basic Self doesn’t want to give up desserts and snacks. The Basic Self loves painting pic­tures, while the Middle Self finds it a waste of time. All of these are conflicts that have to be resolved by agreement between the Selves. If the Middle Self forces the Basic Self to do something such as learn a language (which involves memory) without agreement, the Basic Self will sabotage the work. A diet will go much better if the Middle Self does its homework by dialoguing with the Basic Self about the real need for the changes in eating habits. Making time for activities the Basic Self enjoys, such as music, art, and sports, is a good way of showing the Basic Self that the Middle Self respects its concerns. Dialoguing and reaching agreement on relatively minor issues sets the stage for cooperation over more complex problems.

Communicating with the High Self is the next step for the student, and this can be an enlightening, joyous experience. Go through the body relaxation procedure as above, with eyes closed, hands clasped in your lap, and both feet on the floor. Focus your attention on the spot on your forehead and go into the Silence. Take several sets of four slow, deep breaths, blowing the air out softly through pursed lips. Clear the mind and enter a state of quiet receptivity in which all thoughts are gently laid aside. Then, ask the High Self to come down into the body and to be completely present within you. You will likely feel a gentle warmth and a surge of energy, or you may just feel a quiet sense of presence. Sometimes the High Self will an­nounce its presence by saying simply, “I am here.” Again, this is an internal voice experienced as different from the Basic Self and the everyday talking mind. It is never an audible voice.

While in the Silence, you may feel other unfamiliar sensa­tions such as heat, tingling, and a rocking motion. You may also feel an urge to sleep. After a while, you will find the right state for dialoguing. Generally this is a light form of meditation in which you are consciously receptive while remaining in a mildly altered state.

The High Self is your source of wisdom and guidance, your connection with the infinite. This self is experienced as a loving friend, a benevolent parent, and your personal “guru.” What students of Huna know is that the Basic Self will block access to the High Self if the Basic Self is feeling unworthy, ashamed, or conflicted. As a being of peace and harmony, the High Self is re­luctant to enter a place of discord. Establishing a working rela­tionship with your Basic Self first is the best way of assuring that you can dialogue with the High Self. It also assures that you will be able to gather the mana you need at the Basic Self level to send to the High Self. Once in contact with your High Self, you are free to ask questions and request advice, just as you would of a teacher or counselor. The answers you receive often will “feel right” to you and affirm your inner wisdom. As you become more adept at communicating with the High Self, you will be able to get whispers and glimpses from the High Self during your day-to-day life that will come to you in the small silences when your mind is calm and your body relaxed. The High Self will never interfere with your free will. If you allow yourself to be open and to ask for guidance, then it will come to you as often as you need it. The High Self literally will answer your prayers.

After you have made contact with the High Self on several occasions, go into the Silence and ask the High Self what you can do for it. Listen for an answer. It will most certainly be something that benefits you. When you feel lots of trouble around you, ask the High Self to come to you and take full charge of your affairs, bringing to you whatever you need to evolve. If you have a hard task to perform, ask the High Self to assist you. If you are upset, ask the High Self to restore your balance. If you have to deal with a difficult person, ask the High Self to help you deal with the situation. When you need healing for yourself or someone else, request it. You will know when you are getting answers from the High Self because they are se­rious, usually short, and very authoritative in tone. After a while, you will know whether the answers are coming from the High Self or Basic Self. If the answers come very slowly, they are not from the Basic Self, but from the Middle Self. The experience of Huna practitioners is that both the Basic Self and High Self answer quickly.

Over time, you can condition yourself to go into and out of the Silence quickly. Give yourself a suggestion to do this, such as “When I take four slow, deep breaths and then count slowly from one to five, I will enter the Silence. When I count from five to one, I will come out of the Silence.” In that way, you can get an­swers to questions and stay in frequent contact with your Selves. As you communicate with the High Self and Basic Seif on a daily basis, it will become easier and more natural. You may also find that your Basic Self will “bring up” information about prob­lems that you need to work on, while the High Self will send you the means of help and moments of divine inspiration.

GUIDES, GUARDIANS, AND ANGELS

Your High Self is your personal link to God/Goddess and the higher realms and is always available to you for help. There are other cosmic beings who assist those in physical bodies, and you can call on them for special kinds of help. Your guides are those beings in spirit form who take a special interest in you and whose wisdom can be accessed on a personal level. During the Silence, you may make contact with such a spirit guide, learn its name, and communicate with it often. Guardians are spirit beings who look after your welfare and exercise a protec­tive role in your life. In old Hawaii, guides and guardians often took the form of deceased relatives, totem animals, and ele­ments of nature. Gods and goddesses may also function as guides or guardians to you.

Angels are highly evolved beings who perform nurturing roles on a cosmic level. They often appear spontaneously when needed but their help can also be requested. Archangel Michael, a universal being, is a special helper to students of Huna and can be called on for help in difficult situations.

As you begin to spend more time in the Silence and to work with your own Higher Self, you make yourself open to the benevolent effects of your guides, guardians, and angels on a daily basis. The Great Company of High Selves can be called on for assistance when the request is for larger societal or global changes.

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, h