- H U N A -
A synopsis of the outline of HUNA, THE WORKABLE PSYCHO-RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE POLYNESIANS, being a pamphlet by Max Freedom Long, and here summarized by his permission. ยง The Huna Press, Box 2867 Hollywood Sta., Los Angeles 28. 32 pages, .25 ea.
- I -
"The Investigation of Huna and How it Came About."
During the past century many investigations of native magic and spiritistic phenomena have been carried on, in various parts of the world, by competent scientists, but no definite basic system underlying these was discovered or constructed, and as a consequence these efforts came to a stalemate. But soon after 1830 Dr. William Tufts Brigham, Curator of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, began a systematic study of the practises of the Kahunas, or native priests of Hawaii. He observed cases of fire-walking, or revivification of a 'dead' boy hours after his drowning, and verified cases of instant healing of injuries and disease.
Kahuna means keeper of the Secret, and this cult of secrecy was difficult to penetrate. The native priests would tell little, and many of the words used were unintelligible, or had no English equivalents. The anaana form of the death prayer, however, was partly explainable in terms of spiritualism.
"In the year 1919 I went to Dr. Brigham to ask what scientific information might be available . . . and I was invited to make use of his materials and to continue the study." Mr. Long observed many cases and discussed them with Dr. Brigham. The latter's conclusions were definite upon certain points: (1) There was some form of consciousness which the kahunas were able to contact; (2) this consciousness produced the phenomenon of resistance to fire, of changes in physical matter, and of instant healing. There was, therefore, some basic system of a psycho-religious nature, which actually and undeniably worked.
After Dr. Brigham's death, Mr Long continued his studies, and was able to make some advance through an examination of the meaning of the roots of Hawaiian words. He prepared a report, which was published in London under the title of Recovering the Ancient Magic. This attracted the attention of W.R. Stewart, a retired newspaper correspondent who had studied native magic among the Berber tribes of the Atlas Mountains, in North Africa. Stewart noted at once that the secret priestly language of the Berbers had many words which were nearly identical with words used by the kahunas. He joined the investigation in 1935, and continued active in it until his death in 1943. By this time the basic system was developed as far as possible, short of experimental and practical use.
Attempts have been made, and are now under way, to carry out this experimental development through the formation of groups in this country, in Australia, and in England.
(This project, which is perhaps the most important and promising in contemporary Illuminism, or in Parapsychology, has made almost no progress, simply through the lack of competent and persistent workers. This fact, of course, will occasion no surprise to anyone who knows the mentality of our contemporary 'occult' world. There are millions who dabble with the mysteries, and are filled with awe and even with holy aspiration - until they find that mental diligence will be required of them, as well as intelligence, and some sacrifice of their valuable (?) leisure. Not Jacob's ladder, but an escalator to heaven is the true desire of most 'aspirants' after higher knowledge - no tedious mounting of rung by rung. Ed.)
This present outline is intended as a partial text for students, but Mr. Long hopes to make a fuller report when the situation justified it, especially if experimental results can be included.
- II -
From Fire Walking to Instant Healing.
(Mr Long begins this section of the HUNA report by making brief reference to various cases of fire-walking - that of Kuda Bux in London in 1936, of mass fire walking in Burma, the Philippines, and Polynesia, of fire handling and fire eating by both whites and American Indians, and of Dr. Brigham's own successful experiment under Kahuna protection. In all instances there was either prayer to some god, or else a "consciousness of an invisible presiding spirit that grants immunity.")
As to instant healing, its actual occurrence is now beyond all reasonable doubt, and to this Dr. Alexis Carrel has added his verification (in Man the Unknown). It occurs at religious shrines in many parts of the world, and is usually, if not always accompanied by some form of prayer, whether of patient or healer, or both. No particular God has to be prayed to, and no particular religious belief is necessary. Ideas of what constitute sin may vary widely, as may also the degree of effort necessary for 'purification' - although this latter is not always essential. Moral codes and ideas may vary with time and place. Among the Hawaiians the only sin recognized by Huna is that of injury to another person.
(The underscoring in the foregoing paragraph is our own. The facts itemized in it are known to every educated person, and the inferences are obvious. These latter, however, so far have made no noticeable impression on the world of orthodox religionian - where faith in this or that creed or article, or saint or saviour, in repentance or penance, blessing or indulgence, priest or minister or healer, is still the sine qua non for the healing 'miracle' That the essential factor in healing, as in many other 'miraculous' happenings, does not lie in any particular religious belief, is an inference of the most childlike simplicity -- yet still too difficult for our 20th century mentality to grasp. Ed.)
Three things are involved in the mechanism of instant healing and fire walking as described in HUNA: (1) Some intelligence wise enough to produce the results; (2) some operative force or Power adequate to the task; (3) the material substance involved in the healing, in the fire walking, and in the prayer offering. This is the familiar Mind-Force-Matter triad. The HUNA system allows for nine elements in man, plus the dense physical body as a tenth:
MIND has three grades of consciousness
FORCE is a triad of three voltages
NATURE is a triad of three densities of a "thin matter"
Let us consider these three elements in the order given.
A - The Element of Consciousness
Since will power, hypnosis, and autosuggestion are not enough to account for the HUNA practises, we must look elsewhere. HUNA refers all these marvellous results to the HIGH SELF.
The triad of consciousness consists of High Self, Middle Self, and Low Self. This is about equivalent to our concepts of the Higher Self, consciousness, and subconsciousness.
The High Self is a Being or Entity 'next above' man - that is, above the brain consciousness or ordinary consciousness. It is a form of mentality above ours, and with superior powers and knowledge. Visions of the future, whether under hypnosis, or in dreams, or in flashes of waking consciousness, are the work of this Self.
The High Self constructs the future. It lays out the main points of the life journey, the long-term events, birth, race, place and so on. (The day by day future, on the other hand, is made from the thoughts and feelings of the two lower selves. Out of these all our tomorrows grow, under High Self guidance. We can do what we please, but our future grows out of our choice, except for the large events which are pre-determined).
(Let those who despise 'primitive' mentality consider whether European philosophy has come to more satisfactory conclusions, whether determinism and 'free will' have any more satisfactory reconciliation, and whether the profundities of esoteric wisdom do more than to refine and elaborate these same ideas. Ed.)
The High Self produces instant healing. We request that the future be changed for us (from illness to health), and the High Self has power to change it, once the request is made known to it and the necessary conditions met. The problem, then, is (1) how to inform the High Self, and (2) what conditions are imposed. But even before this, we must make up our minds and remain fixed and steadfast - else we shall gain nothing.
The future is unalterable in some respects, but in many other ways it can be changed - and this applies not only to health, but to our material fortunes also.
The High Self sees that part of the future which has been "crystallized" (to use Mr Long's excellent word) for individual or for nation. It cannot see the part which is not crystallized, and which we keep changing by our daily conduct and thinking. Therefore some things can be predicted, others can not.
(How admirably all this agrees with all that is known about prediction, prophecy, and divination!)
Past things, things distant in space and time can be seen, and some things from the crystallized future, by the High Self. This knowledge can be given to the middle self, the brain consciousness, also.
The High Self does not seem to use reason or memory, so it is very difficult for us to grasp its form of mentation.
The High Selves are called AUMAKUAS. They have an inter-consciousness or community of knowledge; they are a community of spirits or entities. In this respect they equate with the universal mind or the Christ consciousness.
(Compare, amid hundreds of other utterances, the communications of the Cayce clairvoyance, where this community of consciousness of the Higher Selves is explicitly affirmed, and accounts for the near-omniscience of the Higher Self . . . That this HUNA doctrine, these concepts, profound and subtle as any which the best wisdom of our race has produced, should spring forth full-armed from the grass huts of Polynesia, and across the globe in the barren crags of the Atlas, fills us with astonishment and a kind of terror as well, of the unthinkable ancientness of man and his wanderings, and of the God-like well springs of his knowledge. The ethnologist and anthropologist are aware of such things, and have set down a thousand-and-one of them in their learned books; but these do not harden our hearts at all. This HUM of the grass huts, though we wreck a metaphor in the saying of it, is to us like a foot print on Tobago sands; Crusoe ran gibbering to his hole at the seeing of it! Unguessed companionships - ancestral ghosts - )
Now the High and the middle selves (says Mr Long), are not permanently united, but are separate entities. "It is like the relation between a man and his dog. The man looks after the dog and plans the musts in the dog's life. Yet the dog can usually do as he pleases, may get into trouble and, if he is smart, run to his master for help. The master understands his dog . . . but for the dog many of the activities and purposes of the master must remain mysteries. This dog-master relation is also a good illustration of the relation of the subconscious to the conscious self."
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We shall need one, perhaps two more issues of Round Robin to complete this summary - which is perhaps the most important material we have ever published - and the reasons for this estimate will appear as we continue. We hope that already our readers have glimpsed this importance, and will send us questions, comments, critical evaluations.
Examine our Huna reference page for a listing of further R.R. articles and reading materials on Huna.
References
- Long, Max F. Recovering the Ancient Magic. London: Rider, 1936. Print. [Re-ed. by Huna Research, 1978: <http://amzn.to/1kIf7vu>]
- Carrel, Alexis. Man, the Unknown. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935. Print. <http://amzn.to/1vr59T2>