Lesson No. 3. For Huna Research Associates. Giving additional Huna and comparative materials for study, and tentative guidance for the experimental use of HUNA, as it is now understood.
By Max Freedom Long, F.H.F.
Dear Friend and Huna Research Associate:
A number of years ago I knew a man who was very successful in buying and selling ranches and farms. One day I asked him how he came to succeed so well. After some hesitation, he told me that as a young man he had discovered that certain people were “a power with God in prayer”, and that he had helped these people and in return they had prayed that he be given guidance in his buying and selling. For twenty years he had been the sole support of a colored woman and her family. She had seldom failed to “pray him through”, but, and this is what I am getting at, on the rare times when she did fail, she explained simply, “De Lewd jest waren’t to home to me for some prayers, sometimes.”
When I told this story to my father, he laughed and remarked, “Those times must have been the ones when Monty had driven too hard a bargain.”
So, with your attempts to use the Huna prayer-action methods, it should be remembered that in all we do, we are part of the world family, and anything that we ask that might take advantage of another member of the family will probably get us no opening of the door of heaven when we knock.
One of the great difficulties is to get past the old dog-eat-dog rule of life of the animal world in which “survival of the fittest” keeps the life strains up to par. As savage peoples, we humans live much by that law. It is the law of the subconscious spirit in us even now, and we must watch to see that we train our low self “George” so that he can grow into the more kindly and helpful ways of life that make the conscious mind or middle self quite different.
Small children are animated by the low self and must be trained from the will to “grab” to the will to “give”. Some of us “never grow up”, at least in this respect, and most of us have to examine our lives daily to see that we have not fallen back into childish selfishness without realizing it.
In your approach to Huna you will, perhaps for the first time, come to see clearly that you, as a being of three closely related spirits (low, middle and High) must try to remain aware of the obligations on each of these three levels of life represented by three levels of consciousness.
Most of us, in our approach to religion, have fallen overboard with a resounding splash into the lovely and enchantingly intoxicating sea of High Self ideals, in which we see ourselves giving ALL and asking NOTHING. Soon we find that this will not work in practice, because something has to be kept for one’s own use. Even the wearers of the yellow robe must keep what is dropped into their begging bowls if they are to eat. So we drop a little of the idealism and wade out to shallower and safer waters where we give a tenth of our ALL and get along better. Soon we find that even kindliness sometimes will fail us. We find that someone who is actuated by the law of “Grab” must be met and dealt with — and in his own coin. For the moment we fight and struggle in a mud puddle, far from our intoxicating sea of ideals. And, in this level of living, which we cannot avoid because we live in an animal body, we may win out or may be beaten badly.
A good Huna Research Associate will get on better than most because he knows that he must function and grow on and through and into all three levels. He knows each level for what it is, and he does not make the mistake that has been so universal — the mistake of trying to carry the ideals of one level into the one above or below. He will Serve as best he can, and with great and impersonal love. He will be kind and helpful. These attitudes cover the two upper levels of living. For the lower level, he will fight as hard as he can, be it with germs or fire or flood or thief, but while doing it, he will keep the door open to Help. MFL
ACCUMULATING AND USING THE MANA SURCHARGE
Readings: From HUNA, the pamphlet, check Section 2, page 9; and page 15. From SSBM, pages 97 through 99; page 352, center paragraphs; and from the Appendix, pages 389 and 390. Also run through the book and check mentions of mana and its many uses in the various cases which are discussed.
+ + + + +
IN THE PSYCHO-RELIGIONS, both ancient and modern, (with the exception of Huna) there is little to be found that gives us a clear idea of the POWER that turns the wheels of life or that moves the machinery of prayer.
In Christianity there is vague reference to the *virtue” that left Jesus when the hem of his robe was touched and a healing resulted. In prayer, the POWER was ascribed to God (“Thine be the Power…”). No conscious use of vital force was clearly indicated as a part of the prayer-action.
In the beliefs of India, much is said of “prana” (which may have been an idea drawn from a source similar to that from which Huna was drawn. Prana was held up as a tool of value in the early Theosophical writings, but later was denied the devotee on the grounds that, to use it for healing, prevented the “working out of karmic debt through suffering”. The shining example of a force of this kind was found in the legendary “serpent force” supposedly rising at the base of the spine in response to certain exercises (performed by the purified initiate), and rising in spirals along the spine until the top of the head was reached. There the force caused the “open consciousness” and one “saw God”. Much has been added to the older idea of centers along the spine and in the head, so that now the nerve centers and glands have been pointed out as the parts used in this process of seeing out from the body as from a window let into heaven itself. I spent several months trying to get proof of these mechanisms, when young and a member of the T.S. I also tried for some years to find any person who gave evidence of having learned to arouse and use this force, but without success. While one denies nothing, one can safely conclude that the use of the specialized forces recognized in Indian lore is hardly to be expected by the average student.
The simpler theory is that consciousness (as a Creative First Source) creates FORCE, and from force (possibly when united by time-space) is derived MATTER. Our men of science are slowly deciding that all matter is a form of force and, if the move in this direction continues, the conclusion will probably be reached that force is a product of some form of consciousness.
In Huna the very practical kahunas decided, it would seem, that our middle consciousness self is incapable of understanding the higher forms of consciousness, so need waste no time over anything but the forces which can be handled on the lower levels — the low and middle vibrations or voltages of mana.
To the kahuna, life was consciousness plus mana plus the invisible aka substance. When the three were in and around a living body, the material of the body also became alive; but it died if the consciousness-mana-aka was withdrawn.
Mana alone was not considered life. It was only the FORCE used by the entity. (Three entities, of course, and so three manas). The Hawaiian word for “life” is ola. This translates, from the roots “o” and “la”, “Belonging to the light”. The word “light” (as of the daytime) symbolized human consciousness in contrast with the higher Light of consciousness symbolizing the High Self. (La is daylight, and La-a is the Higher “Light”, the ordinary translation being, “Sacred”.) As we see in this symbolic unit of the ancient Huna secret, life is made up of consciousness and something else that springs from it — the vital force. In passing, it may be well to note that the kahunas seemed to have a word for the rather neglected matter of reincarnation. Like many other matters which they seemed to consider beyond the ability of the conscious mind to grasp, or beyond the powers of the subconscious self to measure in terms of the senses, they made up a simple word for the fact, and were at no pains to hide in its roots a secret meaning. The word seems to be o-la-ho-nua, which is now translated as “Thoroughly, completely, or altogether”. The roots give us “life” plus “preceding or going before”. Breaking down ho-nua to ho (for hoo, the causative) and nua, we have “to cause dust to fly in traveling”, which is a picturesque way of pointing to their symbol of the “path” which was the symbol of growth through the many levels of consciousness as well as of the aka thread and the contact through it with the High Self. (As I now understand it.)
The union of the ideas of life and mana, in the minds of the kahunas, is to be in the word ola-ola, which is a doubling of the word for “life”. This compound does not translate “more life”, it translates, “To make a gurgling sound with water, as in pouring”, and there we have the familiar symbol of ‘”water” for mana. Surely all these many words which tie in to weave back and forth to tell the same story over and over, in the same symbols, are not to be tossed aside as of no significance by students working in this field.
In the presentation of these materials to you, I pointed out the belief that vital force or mana must be provided by the lower man for the use of the Higher to whom he prayed, so that the High Self would have sufficient earthy force to affect the dense and earthy level of life.
This idea is unique in the psycho-religions, as I have explained. It is, I incline to believe, the largest third of the lost key to instant healing. The other two-thirds is made up of the thought-forms of the prayer, and [the] part played by the High Selves in building the thought-forms into a reality in the future of the one making the prayer. (Check the word for this use of the thought-forms, hoana, on the bottom of page 395 of our text, SSBM. the root ano means “a form”, and the roots give us the real meaning of “to cause a form” — the thought as the form of the thing prayed for — while the external or common translation is, “To reverence in the highest degree”, which is the meaning stressing the devotional side of contact with the High Self. Another translation is, “To set apart” — as the thought-forms are “set apart” or “consecrated” by giving them to the High Self. Another is, “To change the appearance or form of a thing”, which is the basic work done by the High Self in changing the crystallized future for us to something more in keeping with our desires.)
In Lessons I and II, we have considered at great length the first step of the prayer-action, that of deciding what is wanted. We have touched on the careful making of the picture of the desired condition as a means of making the proper thought-forms to be used as molds into which the future is cast in some mysterious way by the High Self when supplied with the proper amount of mana.
Roughly speaking, the theory is that the more mana we supply consciously for the work, the quicker the High Self can answer our prayer. (Provided the thought-forms are properly made and the work is not held up by a guilt fixation.)
In our experimental work as Huna Research Associates, we are testing this general theory in a number of direct, as well as oblique ways. We never forget for a moment that we cannot be sure of our theories until we have made them work repeatedly under proper test conditions.
Once the thought-forms were made, the surcharge of vital force was accumulated to have on hand after the contact was made along the aka thread with the High Self and the thought-forms presented as the idea behind the action. (Also, as we will consider at length later on in the Lessons, there was a preliminary cleansing of guilts or guilt fixations — called ka-la, “to cleanse” or “restore the light”.
THE ACCUMULATION OF A SURCHARGE OF MANA
This part of the making of the prayer action consists of:
- Deciding what you will do with the surcharge. (In making a prayer. to send with a flow of mana to the High Self, you use the extra supply of mana in a different way than when you place your hands on someone and give them the mane. as a part of the low magic healing. If you plan only to practice accumulating a surcharge, you will plan to make. a test to see how well your are charged, or you may be content to do no more than enjoy the benefits of having your normal supply of vital force brought up to par, or above that. One HRA recently practiced accumulating extra mana each time he looked at a bit of paper pinned on his wall. He also recharged when driving, each time he was held up by a stoplight. The result was the ability to work much longer hours with much less fatigue than before. There are other uses which will be discussed later an in connection with other parts of the experimental work.)
- Giving the order to the low self to do the actual work of accumulating the surcharge.
- Making use of some physical stimulus to get the low self to go to work, or, possibly, to help in the accumulation. (Exercises or breathing or postures.)
+ + + + +
Fortunately, we do not have to know just what the low or subconscious self does when it accumulates vital force at our command. On the other hand, unfortunately, we cannot be entirely sure that the low self has carried out our orders. For this reason a series of tests have been worked out to check up.
The electronic machines used by some manipulative physicians will show on their dials the difference between the normal and the augmented charge. The use of a simple pendulum is coming into the fore. Or the magnetic pull demonstrated so well by Baron Ferson provides a test where several people are practicing as a group.
The PENDULUM TEST is perhaps the simplest for the beginner. A round button the size of a small marble may be suspended to a thread six inches long and used. A small pottery marble may be glued to a thread, or, one of the best I have found in the home-made line is constructed by taking a piece of sealing wax about 3/4 of an inch long and fastening to one end of it a piece of light string or a bit of heavy thread. The string is easily fastened to the end of the piece of sealing wax. Heat one end of the wax over a flame, taking care not to set it on fire, and when it has softened, use the end of a match to push the end of the string or thread dawn into the softened wax. Then, with the fingers, squeeze the wax up around the string to hold it firmly. As soon as it cools, your pendulum is ready to test your “charge”.
The first step is to determine your normal charge or charge of the moment. Hold the string between thumb and finger tips about three inches from the wax or button “bob”. Keep your elbow against your side to steady your arm, and hold your free hand, palm upward, under the “bob” at a distance of about half an inch.
If you are of the usual sensitivity in the matter of pendulums, your pendulum will soon begin to swing in a circle or back and forth, according to your personal vibration (supposedly). As soon as the movement gets a fair start, begin to count. Keep counting the swings until the pendulum stops or almost stops.
Fifty gyrations above the hand before the surcharge is accumulated is a usual thing with many people. After the effort has been made to accumulate the surcharge, the number of swings may increase to from eighty to three hundred. My personal average is about fifty and when charged for prayer work about one hundred eighty.
Many theories have been advanced to account for the fact that a pendulum will swing in different ways to indicate different things, but the theories are not important to the student at this point. However, it may be noted that the ancient art of “dowsing” to find water and for various purposes, has a large literature of its own and is in itself a fascinating study. The low self may be responsible for the swinging of the pendulum, and it may also be actuated in its work by information had through the High Self. Dr. Oscar Brunler, who has made a long study of such matters, believes that it is the High Self that works through the low to tell the dowser where water is to be found when the pendulum is swung over a map to locate the exact place to dig. There is increasing evidence that we can train the low self to get information concerning the already set or crystallized future from the High Self, and to give us “yes” and “no” answers to our questions concerning the near future. HRA Edgar W. Block used this method in his experimentation and was able to predict correctly the outcome of six consecutive basketball games. He also named the correct score of one game in advance, it being 38 to 32.
If you are unacquainted with the pendulum work, and should you wish to try your hand at asking questions and expecting the low self to get the answers from the High Self (if relating to the future), there is nothing against doing so. Try asking questions, the answer to which you know, and observe what the pendulum does. Once you come to know what it does for “yes” and what for “no”, you can begin practice that may eventually give you a fine tool with which to pry into the secrets of both low and High selves. However, take my advice and do not bet on the horses after testing the scratch sheet with the pendulum. If you have ever been well convinced that gambling is not good, your low self will probably do all in its power to prevent a win.
The method of accumulating the “Universal Life Force”, which was taught by Baron Eugene Ferson, and which I have described in SSBM, is one that includes a physical stimulus and an affirmation as well as a self-command. It works very well for most people, whether we believe that the force we call “mana” comes from the utilization of the food materials in our own blood stream, or is drawn from some outside reservoir of force in air or ether.
TO USE THE FERSON METHOD of accumulating a surcharge of force, stand with feet very wide apart and arms extended level with the shoulder, palms angling slightly upward, if that is an easy and natural position for you (not important).
When this position is taken, hold it and say aloud, “The universal life force (or just MANA) is flowing into me now. I feel it.” Repeat this about four times, slowly, and with a pause of about twenty seconds between repetitions. Expect to accumulate a surcharge, and expect to feel a prickling in the palms of your hands or in your wrists, to indicate the building up of the extra charge.
It is surprising how quickly the low self learns to respond and collect a surcharge in answer to our desire. Hardly anyone fails to get results. Some get amazing results almost from the first, and are so surcharged that their arms and hands seem stiffened, or they may have a “floating” sensation. (Gravity seems sometimes overcome by such a surcharge. Dr. Hereward Carrington’s experiments with the young man standing on scales and doing breathing exercises make good reading. There are many other SPR reports on similar “levitations”.)
THE MAGNETIC PULL TEST for a surcharge of mana is made in the following way.
Accumulate as large a surplus of mana as you can.
Have a friend who has not a surcharge stand in front of you, back to you, hands hanging at sides and relaxed. The distance between you should be such that when you lift your arms you can lay your hands lightly on your friend’s shoulders.
Lay your hands on your friend’s shoulders lightly and then slowly withdraw them, pulling them after you as you take a very slow step backwards.
If you have a large surcharge and your friend has a small normal charge, your friend should feel a distinct pull, as of magnet-like force, from your outstretched and slowly retreating bands. If the pull is great, it may be necessary to catch the friend to keep him from falling backwards. There will be no feeling of pull on your hands no matter how strongly they “pull”. Individuals vary greatly in their response to this pulling test, and you may find that in a group of a dozen people, one or two will be far more sensitive than the others, and so, much better to use in making the test. Animals may also be used, as I explained in SSBM in telling of my tests in which a small dog was pulled backward several times despite his efforts to resist.
+ + + + +
BREATH AND ITS PART IN ACCUMULATING A SURCHARGE, is not yet fully understood but seems to have a peculiar significance. My personal guess is that the extra mana is manufactured by the low self by burning foods stored in the body for that purpose. Such oxidation is going on constantly, but when we exercise strenuously, we always breathe more heavily, and we become hot from the excessive burning of blood sugars to produce the vital force that enables us to do the work of exercising.
In the usual course of exercise or physical work, only a small surplus of mana is made, and while very large amounts may be made in the course of a few minutes or of several strenuous hours, it is USED UP as we go along. There lies the difference. In accumulating a surcharge without exercise: the supply is held instead of being used up in muscular activity. It is, therefore, there and standing ready to hand to be used in the prayer-action, or in laying on hands to treat someone who is ailing.
BREATHING, in itself, is a form of exercise. It involves the use of the chest muscles, but the production of extra energy by forced deeper breathing, is out of proportion to the additional muscular exercise. From the yoga practices we have learned that we can take deep breaths for a minute or two and feel much refreshed and stimulated. If we hold the command over the low self to accumulate a large excess of mana and store it in the body (and the low shadowy body or aka), the full benefit will accrue. The act of breathing deeply, slowly and evenly, will serve as a physical stimulus to impress the low self that something real is being done (not just imagined)) and the additional intake of air will help the physical process of manufacturing mana.
In using the Baron Ferson method, I have found that I begin to take deeper breaths almost at once. The same thing is true when I simply remain as I happen to be, standing, walking or sitting, when I command my “George” to accumulate extra vital force for a prayer-action or other use such as in telepathic contact and telepathic transfer of vital force and healing thought-forms.
“LET GEORGE DO IT” has laughingly been proposed as the slogan for Huna Research Associates, and it gets across the idea so well that I am constantly referring to the low self or spirit in us as “GEORGE”.
The conscious mind or middle self-spirit-soul (each of the three selves is a “soul” as well as a spirit in Huna) is a strangely helpless entity. It cannot control the body except through control of George. It is a guest in the house, and is suspended, as it were, between the low and the High selves, able to do little for itself, but blessed with its own form of reason and so able to do its share by bossing the job of living, at least on the lower levels of consciousness.
We must constantly keep in mind the fact that in Huna everything depends on our ability to guide and command the low self, once we have decided what is to be done.
In the simple fact that we must “LET GEORGE DO IT”, lies the secret of why our prayers have been answered so seldom, and why we get such scant results in our use of the more modern “affirmations”, “holding the thought”, or “decreeing”. Often the people who are simple and uneducated have much better success with prayers than the highly educated. This would seem to be because the former are working better with their low self.
EASY RELAXATION needs to be learned if one is to get George to obey and to work smoothly and happily with us. We have to LET GO in order to LET GEORGE. This is an axiom of modern psychology, and it fits Huna exactly. If you do not believe that you have to give George his head, just try forcing yourself to go to sleep when you go to bed tonight. You will soon get the idea. All you can do is to get yourself ready, and then turn the job over to George and fold your hands.
If, after you have taken all the steps and have finished a prayer-action, you will remember that you have done little more than set a pattern of the thing to be done, and have commanded George to do it, you will be entitled to a silver star to glue on your Huna Sunday School Attendance card. If you drop off and take forty winks, awakening much refreshed, you are entitled to a gold star.
If you keep fussing at George for fear he is not doing his job — just because you cannot see or hear him at his work — it will be as bad as digging up the seeds every day in your garden to tell them to grow. George is like a seed in that respect. Plant him and let him alone.
+ + + + +
IN BEGINNING YOUR PRACTICE it is a good thing to decide what you want built into your future, and to write it down. (Writing it down is a physical stimulus of value. The written word impresses the low self, whereas thinking is usually ignored because it seems to be unreal — just more imaginings or day dreams.) One maps the future in this way. But, good as this is, the best way in the world to prevent your map from materializing is to show it to a doubting friend and have them scoff at it. (George is so sensitive to adverse suggestions.) Follow the old adage: Dare to make your map, do by taking steps to get it built into your future, and keep silent about it unless you have a friend who is more convinced of the efficacy of Huna in your hands than you are. This is where you “go into your closet to pray in secret”. (After some twenty centuries we know why.)
I have watched the working out of prayer-actions for some months, and can now give it as my opinion that a beginner will do well to take up the things in his map one at a time. If you have to make a half dozen prayer-actions to cover the half dozen items, that is all well and good. Make them. Space your prayer-actions a day apart if you can, but at least an hour apart.
Because I am one who believes greatly in Huna and in the ability of the average HRA to learn to use much of it, I have been privileged to see a number of maps and to help by making a prayer-action on that. Many a map has read something like this:
“I wish my sight and digestion healed.
I wish my income doubled.
I wish my son to pass his examinations.
I wish to be able to use Huna to heal others.
I wish to be able to do worthwhile service for the world.”
This type of map is good. It is reasonable. It is one asking for things not difficult to picture and to believe possible to attain with the help of the High Self.
IN MAKING THE THOUGHT-FORM MOLD into which the desired future is to be cast, figuratively speaking (we cannot know the exact way in which the High Selves use these molds), we are confronted by the problem of keeping our thought-forms clear-cut and uncontaminated by doubts, fears, and tag ends of other ideas.
For instance, in the map above, the work of making a good clear mental picture of the eyes restored to normal vision, needs to be done without at the same time trying to carry beside it, but well separated, the picture of the digestive organs functioning normally. If, in addition, the picture of the normalized eyes and stomach was made to include the doubled income, it would become a slight jumble. Add the other items and the mixture would be anything but clear.
Visualization of the thing desired (one item at a time) should be undertaken long enough before the actual prayer-action to give plenty of practice and plenty of time for a good job.
One may imagine a time in his future (not necessarily a definite time), and begin imagining himself as in that part of the future and with the desired conditions fulfilled. In the above map one might dwell for several minutes in the future. One is at home, as usual, but can see normally. One PROJECTS oneself into that bit of the future and spends some time enjoying and using the restored sight. One looks at things closely, one tells visiting friends how nice it is to see perfectly again. The picture is made as vivid and detailed as possible, thus stressing the idea of the USE of the normal eyes.
We have all made the mistake of thinking that this visualization is something that can be done at once and without practice. As a matter of fact, it has turned out to be as difficult a task as memorizing a ten-verse poem, perhaps more difficult. With the poem you have nothing to unlearn before you can really make progress.
The thing about the normal sight visualization that must be forgotten as a preliminary is the FAULTY SIGHT. We have found that it takes practice and effort to step into a pictured future and begin seeing normally. We keep dragging along the eye trouble instead of leaving it behind as we step through into the future.
It helps mightily to talk confidently, and aloud, about the new condition which one is building into the future in this work of making the thought-form mold. The talking is a physical stimulus and impresses the low self. One holds conversations and says to an imaginary caller, “Yes, my sight has been perfect and normal now for some time, and I know that it will remain that way. I can see as well as I ever did. I can read for hours. I thank the High Self daily for this great blessing, and I thank the low self for its part in obtaining it.
Dr. Brunler, mentioned in connection with the pendulum, uses the following method of accumulating a surplus of vital force. Be stands facing the north and rakes the air with his hands, fingers wide spread, as if using them to pick up vital force from the air. (As with the “Universal Life Force” of Baron Ferson). The hands are lifted above the head at the full length of the arms, palms facing forward. The arms are kept straight and the hands brought down in a sweeping circle with the fingers raking through the air. At the same time the body is quickly bent far forward so that the hands can continue making their circular sweep, ending it only when the arms are as far behind one as they can comfortably be brought. This is repeated briskly from fifty to sixty times while holding in mind the command to the low self to accumulate vital force. As this is good exercise, the breathing automatically quickens.
I have not been able to find an exercise or a physical stimulus that may have been used by the kahunas, although their words used to name the steps in their use of Huna, indicate from all angles the belief that the surcharge of mana was needed. The use of a mental picture for a physical stimulus is strongly indicated in a word which means to “rise up like water in a fountain until the water overflows”. This method is a favorite of mine. One sits or stands and begins to breathe more deeply while picturing the mana accumulating in the body, beginning at the feet and rising until the whole body is progressively filled and there is an overflow at the top of the head.
The overflow at the top of the head is a very significant symbol, and I make it a practice of instructing my “George” to contact the High Self when the accumulation is well along. The contact made, I instruct (and desire) George to send a flow of the mana to the High Self along the aka thread of connection. This is where the water “fountains” above the head, symbolically, and when the High Self has accepted the low mana and changed it to its High Mana (waiola or living water, or actual holy water not blessed by human priests, part of it is used (we suppose) as requested, to further its own purposes and help others and perhaps help bring better world conditions; the other part is returned to us as the downward fall of the fountain water, the “rain of blessings” which is requested at the formal ending of every prayer.
When I feel the work of accumulating the mana has reached the fountaining stage, I say to “George”, “We are now reaching out and making contact with our loving and utterly trustworthy father-mother parental spirit. We are sending a large part of this extra mana along to it by way of the aka cord. We offer it as a perfect sacrifice, to be used for the good of all of us or as may be seen fit.” (I pause here for about half a minute to relax and “let go and let George” do the work), then say, “The flow stops. The action is finished. Let the rain of blessings fall. Au-ma-ma (or amen).” This is the REAL and effective devotion. It is the only worship that counts, so we learn from Huna.
In all of our uses of mana in prayer-actions and in laying on hands, the offering of a part of the mana (wai-pa: to “divide the water: to pray) is of great importance. This is the secret behind the libations poured by the ancients before drinking their wine. This is the secret of “Grace before meat”. It is the secret of all offerings and sacrifices, no matter how far they may have drifted from the original intention of the sages who first discovered the great SECRET in the dim past. We serve the earth and the lower creatures and they feed us. We serve our friends and they serve us in return. We serve the High Selves with the worship of the “dividing of the water”, and by helping those fellow men about us who are the beloved charges of other High Selves. Serve others in this way, with generosity and kindliness, and you make powerful friends of their guardian Aumakuas. Conversely, injure others and those same powerful guardians may take steps to prevent your continuing in unkindness. Be kind — always.
THE FORMAL ENDING TO THE PRAYER ACTION may be delayed for as much as an hour after we have given George his instructions and have repeated our prayer. But the mental and physical relaxation should be continued during this time in order to give the low self time to carry out our instructions. If we begin doing other things and thinking of the affairs of the day, the low self is recalled to take its part in that work, leaving the prayer-action incomplete in all probability.
One first makes the mental picture, clear and perfect, of the condition which will be presented as a set of thought-forms to the High Self to be used in the rebuilding of the future. Days may be spent on the different items to be used in separate prayer-actions.
When the mana surcharge has been accumulated, we hold the command-desire in mind to cause the low self to contact the High Self by activating the aka thread of connection. We then call up as a MEMORY the prepared visual picture of the desired condition. This brings into the focus of consciousness the thought-forms of the condition. We then ask to have the visualized and desired conditions built into the future so that they will soon appear as realities in the present. For example, “I ask that this condition of normal sight made into a reality in my future. I will then see perfectly and normally in every way, and I shall continue to see perfectly all my life.” One may describe in careful detail the exact condition imagined in the future) repeating almost word for word three times) with calm force and assurance and confidence in the outcome.
While we are repeating the oral part of the prayer-action, the low self will, when it has learned the work, after some practice, possibly be engaged at the same time in carrying the thought-forms along the aka thread, with the flow of extra mama, to the High Self. Or, it may begin this work only after we have become silent and have relaxed and perhaps said, “All right, low self, deliver our prayer and the mana to the High Self.”
As a rule, in trying to make contact with the High Self, one feels, at least once (perhaps as a given proof of the completion of the contact) a great thrill of sudden joy which may have a heavy emotional content because the low self (it controls all emotions) is involved. The eyes may fill with tears of joy. It is an ecstatic condition of which the mystics of all lands have left their records. It is very real, quite unmistakable, and greatly rewarding just of itself. It may be a glimpse of a higher octave of the love we know on this level — the higher and more unselfish love.
Some day, when the practice period is over and one can be sure each time that the prayer-action is completely and properly made, a single request for a desired condition may be enough, and can be allowed to stand while we wait in full faith and confidence for the appearance of the desired condition. However, as beginners, we can only keep repeating our prayer-actions, each time trying to make them more perfect, until we begin to get results by way of answers. It takes time. If one begins with simple things, the answers come more quickly. I knew an old gentleman, living on borrowed time, and with one hand tightly clutching the hand of his Aumakua, who was continually losing his hammer or tools about his work. Invariably, he paused to pray to be helped to find the lost tool and I never saw him fail to find the lost tool shortly. It appears to be a fact that we are permitted to ask for almost any small help.
The pendulum may prove to be a great help if you can get correct yes and no answers to questions through it. The low self could tell you whether it had accumulated a surcharge, whether it had made contact with the High Self, and so on. This use of the pendulum is just being investigated as I write this advice. It may turn out to be a greater help than is now expected. Remember, always, that we are taking part in an experimental project. Invent ways and try them out. MFL.
