How To Use the Pendulum

By Max Freedom Long – [Mid-Summer 1951]

1. Make a pendulum or “bob” by tying a thread to a ring, button, wooden ball, medium size marble. A locket on a chain works well. Whatever you use should be about four inches from its end to where you hold it between thumb and lst and 2nd fingers. If right handed, use your right hand.

2. The use of the pendulum depends entirely on the “convention” or set of signals you invent and teach your Aunihipili to understand and use. The usual conventions are: A clockwise circular swing means “good,” anti-clockwise, “bad.”

Draw a saucer-size circle on paper and make a [cross] sign to cover it. If the swing is on the vertical line it is “yes” (as you nod the head), if on the horizontal, “no” (as a negative head shake). If on a diagonal, “doubtful.” If no swing, “do not know.”

The number of swings in any direction, when counted, can give a number answer, as 61 swings to answer, “How old is Blank?” To learn how much vital force you normally have, hold the pendulum over the palm of your free hand and count the number of swings. A normal charge for the average is about 250 to 300. Now accumulate mana in the Huna fashion and test again. The count should rise at least a hundred swings. A vital person gets a stronger swing of the pendulum than a weak one in this test. Remember that you have to keep in mind what you are asking the Aunihipili to measure for you, such as vital force, sex of an egg or unborn child (+ or – according to your convention, usually + for males and – for females).

If you wish to know whether certain foods or medicines are good for you, ask the question silently or aloud and hold the pendulum a half inch above the food. Use the “good” or ‘bad” swing convention or the “yes” and ‘no” as you prefer, but stick to one or the other lest your Aunihipili get mixed up. The Aunihipili will learn quickly for some and slowly for others.

Practice for a few minutes daily for a month to train your Aunihipili to the work. If by then you get no swing or no reliable answers to things you ask, give it up for the time being and try later with several other pendulums. The Aunihipili seems to be able to work with one type of pendulum for small problems, but with another for more serious things. Experiment. In a few months you may become expert enough to dowse for water. One of the best dowsers in California tried for two years before he got the hang of it, and for 20 years to become master of the art.

3. In making the Huna type prayer-action (see the HRA Bulletins over a period of 32 years for scattered findings and reports on this matter), it is often found that the Aunihipili is convinced that the person is guilty of some “sin” and does not deserve having prayers answered. Or the Aunihipili may believe that the person deserves to be punished by illness and accidents and bad luck generally for former “sins” or for hurting the feelings of others or doing them some form of injury for which amends have never been made to the one injured, to his or her surviving relatives – or to the world in general by sacrificial deeds performed with the thought in mind that enough good is being done to balance former sins of hurt done others.

(There are no sins other than hurts done to others or possibly to our own bodies or minds by improper living. But often, the early training in the church of one’s youth may have resulted in religious beliefs which are deeply fixed in the Aunihipili and to which it still reacts although we are not aware of it. Many of our ills are found to be the result of such hidden beliefs in the Aunihipili or subconscious self.) If your prayers are not answered except when you pray for good things for others, it may be well to take time to talk, via the pendulum, with your Aunihipili and find by questioning it, whether it feels you are worthy or not of having prayers for good for yourself answered. If unworthiness is discovered, make amends directly or indirectly, then argue the Aunihipili out of its fixation by explaining that you are now worthy of all good things. Repeat the arguments. Do more good deeds. Tithe. Serve selflessly. Fast.

When the Aunihipili is won over, make a fresh start with the Huna type prayers in which the mental picture is sent to the Aumakua with a strong flow of accumulated mana along the ever-connecting invisible aka thread or “silver cord.” The Aumakua, and through it, Higher Beings in which you believe, can confidently be approached for aid if the Aunihipili can be convinced that you are worthy. But if YOU know you are not, you cannot convince your Aunihipili and it will not do its part in the prayer-action.