Complex Huna Concepts Simplified
July 15, 1949
For Huna Research Associates
Covering the experimental approach to the use of Huna in HUNA and related religious and psychological fields.
From Max Freedom Long
P.O. Box 2867, Hollywood Station, Los Angeles 28, California, U.S.
THE PROGRESS OF THE FIRE-WALKING BOOKLET
The type is all set and it ran 44 pages. Our booklet is to be 5×3 inches in size, and our printer, HRA Franklin Thomas, is waiting until Cigbo can supply enough money from advance payments on the orders to allow the cuts for the illustrations to be ordered.
Less than $100 has come in although 278 booklets have been ordered. If the response by way of advance payments does not pick up immediately after this bulletin is sent out, plans will be radically changed. Only enough copies will be printed for those who have sent in their payment, and the plan to have half-tone cuts and a larger edition to give extras for HRAs still to come, will have to be dropped. For illustrations for such a small edition I will borrow the original negatives from Mr. Hu, the photographer who made the pictures of the fire-walk, and rig up a darkroom so that I can print photographs to go with the books as illustrations. My face is very red. Mr. Kenn’s is pink, and CIGBO’S is almost purple from trying to scratch up the missing $200 from his splinter-bottomed cigar box.
May I repeat that no one stood to make a profit on the writing, printing and distribution of the booklet. HRA Thomas planned to try to break even by printing up some extras at his own expense and selling them to his friends if he could. All the rest was a labor of love, of course.
No one is to blame for the difficulty, so we will “blame it on Cigbo,” as usual. He doesn’t know any better and accepts all things laid at his door philosophically.
HRA CHARLES KENN
HRA Charles Kenn paid me a final call on July 8th, read proof on the prayers and invocation given in the native dialect of Huahini, at the printer’s, and sailed via plane with his parents on the 11th. He hopes to come over from Honolulu again in September for more lecture work before university groups and will, of course, do his best to spread the news of the rediscovery of Huna. The new Huna Group in Honolulu has made an excellent start and our hearty congratulations go to its members.
[Editor’s Note: The booklet was eventually published under the title Fire-walking: From the Inside. This book is required reading for all advanced students and initiated Umu Ki Priests who continue this Fire-walking tradition. I’ve had photocopies of this very rare book for a number of years. About a month ago, I was fortunate enough to find an original copy of this 47-page book from an estate sale. (The picture of the cover and title page are below). I know of only one other copy still in existence. If you have a copy and ever want to sell it, please let me know. At least one other Fire-walker I know would like to own an original copy. Manawanui]
THE PENDULUM STUDY
The Pendulum Study continues to go forward with a great show of enthusiasm from the majority of the HRAs. Reports come in daily on the results of individual experiments. Under the coaching of HRA Edgar Block, who issues mimeo sheets to his friends now and then on these subjects, the Fresno HRA Group (Calif.) is planning experiments with seeds treated and untreated with mana.
OSCAR BRUNLER
Oscar Brunler, dean of the dowsers and inventor of instruments and processes, gave the good news in an evening spent talking over the pendulum, that we were free to make use of any information in his published articles or [articles] which he could give us in other ways. A special page on such information will be found in this bulletin.
His associate in his work, Dr. Calver, makes very excellent coffee and is a fine source of information on a world of subjects of interest to us. They have made their headquarters in Hollywood, having come over from England recently. England’s loss – our gain.
MANY THANKS
Many thanks to all of you who have written much appreciated letters giving me your personal news, reporting on your experiments, your healing efforts and the results in that line, making comments, giving ideas for the work, sending in generous contributions to Cigbo, etc., etc., AND marking your letters NO REPLY EXPECTED. Your kindness and understanding in this matter has given me time to study with care all the excellent material which is sent in, and to read with care even the ten-page letters. I am still behind in reading the books and printed materials sent in, but have them saved up for attention after my hasty glance through on arrival. I have been interested in the various “Courses” and similar materials which may give us the chance to sift each for a bit of something practical, and may help us to understand better the more obscure teaching in Huna.
May I take this opportunity to say again that our work together is primarily that of reconstructing the ancient Huna system and seeing whether or not we can learn to use it with skill and certainty. Each HRA is entitled to his or her personal beliefs in other systems, and when other religions or psycho-religious systems are mentioned or discussed by me in the light of Huna, it is not because an attack is being made on other ways of believing and working, but because we all need to see how various dogmas appear from the simple and direct point of view of Huna. I have had almost no letters scolding me for inadvertently treading on toes. All of us understand that we are working through a great tangle of beliefs and practices in search for more light on Huna. As Huna is so very ancient, any light we throw on it may at the same time throw light on the later religions and systems.
We are very fortunate in having in our small organization a picked group. We all know that the great majority of people cling blindly to some system, closing their minds to all others. One of the delightful things about working with my HRA friends has been the almost invariable breadth of view and width of reading, study and experience in the psycho-religious field. Above all, we are a serene company. Only one letter has arrived in which heat was shown because Huna did not agree with the personal beliefs, and this letter was not from an HRA but from a chance reader of SSBM. We all seem to have risen above personal prejudices and to have come by our various roads to the place where we can look calmly out over the lower levels of religious and philosophical strife. One HRA wrote, “… a detachment that seems to bless us like dwellers on Olympian heights …”
THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN
The Quarterly Bulletin planned for the busy HRAs who are unable to keep up with the Bulletins now that they come oftener and fatter, will probably have its first issue early in September. Two questions have come up concerning it. First, about what it will contain. It is planned to have in it the news of our activities, the outline of any new findings, an account of anything new and different that we take up for experimentation, and a representative report on the result of our efforts to find ways and means of training the Aunihipili and of bettering our already good score in healing body, mind, purse and circumstances. Any HRA on the Quarterly list may, at any time, ask to have the back bulletins or take up the regular issues again. The second question has been about contributions. This remains, as before, up to the individual. Those who can help are asked to do so. Those of limited means can help with a few stamps unless even those are out. Non-members may also have the Quarterly Bulletin. MFL
THE JARGON OF THE NEW PSYCHO-RELIGIONS
In New Thought and the “science” cults, to say nothing of Spiritualism and the many newer variations of older religious systems, we have developed a number of JARGONS which would have been quite unintelligible a century ago.
And, we who are working to understand and put to use the ancient Huna system are swiftly adding our share of old words which are bent, beaten and pulled, spliced, stretched and twisted – all to make them fit some unfamiliar concept.
Every day I get a letter or two from IRAs who use these new jargon terms with telling effect in passing across to me their ideas and feelings concerning Huna and concerning the materials of the much larger psycho-religious field as a whole.
Take for example the terms, low, middle, and High for the three selves of man, for his three manas and his three aka bodies. To a stranger, the mention of the “Aunihipili” will be most confusing, and therefore, to him, a jargon. It is even confusing to some of us who are familiar with the Huna ideas and symbols. In a recent bulletin I said that the idea of “low” as connected with the Aunihipili was bothering some of us who reacted to the word as to the idea of a “low” or unworthy or even bad self. I suggested the use of the substitute term, “inner self,” and this brought a protest because this alternate term had been given a number of meanings already – meanings ranging from the subconscious, conscious and superconscious to the Christ-within and to Very God, I AM and so on.
It was pointed out that the Huna symbols probably antedated most others in the same category, and that we might be wise to stick to the originals as closely as possible. While we will have to make adjustments, as individuals, in the matter, it will seem easier if we keep in mind the symbol instead of any modern use of the word.
Take the symbol of low, middle and high, in Huna. This was the outward or non-secret meaning drawn from common language, but the initiate kahuna soon knew that ELEVATION in terms of SPACE had nothing to do with the basic concept of the three selves, the three manas or the three aka bodies – nor with the physical body, for the matter of that. The symbol was used mainly to indicate three levels of growth, of fineness of materials and speeds of vibration, to put it roughly. While the un-initiate came to think of Heaven as a place in the skies and Hell a place below the earth, the instructed knew that this place allocation was only a handy crutch for teaching and for hiding the “Secret.” “Low” may be “evil” to us because of the connection with the externals and with the “hell” connotation, but the word is so useful and forms such an explicit unit of Huna’s jargon, that it is very difficult to substitute another word symbol.
To show how quickly a tangle can develop, consider a letter that came in recently. The writer was not familiar with Huna, except through the Huna pamphlet, and I had tried to snick off a short answer to the several questions she had asked. In doing so I had used the term, “inner self.” A prompt reply came back asking, and rightly enough, just WHAT I meant when I said that all prayer was telepathic and was given to the inner self for presentation to the Aumakua. “I thought the Aumakua was the I AM or God Within us. What do you mean? To whom do we give the prayer to present to what?”
Even our smiling use of “George” for the Aunihipili, is not without its drawbacks. If we have to have “George,” we need “Georgette” and that brings up the puzzling question as to whether the Aunihipili and Auhane are of the same sex or not. The kahunas had a variation in the word Aunihipili, which was Auhinipili.
As none of the other words used for the other selves showed this difference, it might be an indication that the sex difference was recognized in the Aunihipili and in the body which it animates. If the Auhane has a sex differentiation, as we suppose it must have, it would be expected to be of the same sex as the Aunihipili. However, the plight of the dwellers by the Wells of Loneliness seems to indicate an occasional mismatching of pairs of Aunihipili and Auhane. It is further to be supposed that if this problem made a great difference in the use of Huna, the kahunas would have left us definite information in the words they employed to cover the matter. The word left to us is mahu, which gives in its roots ma and hu, nothing more significant than the meaning, “One who is accustomed to deviate from the usual path or way.”
It is the necessary struggle to find words that cause the tangle and result in the invention of jargons. Take the word “truth.” When we remove it from its simple meaning and try to apply it to the abstract concept of a great, all-including and utterly correct knowledge of everything that there is to be known, we find the simple word a tack hammer when what is needed is a pile driver. Even the seemingly far-evolved spirits who taught through the medium, Stainton Moses, years ago, were beset with this same difficulty and were forced to coin words like “Divine Truth” and “Christ-spirit.” As I turn the pages of my battered and coverless copy of a book giving those teachings, my eye falls on one of the many significant passages. It is, “The spirit-world looks with awe on the near future. War is probable, and everything tends to a great European convulsion. Wars will cease when man is perfect, but that can never be while he is incarnated.” This was given in about the year 1888. Here is another quote, this time from “Imperator.” “You live in the last days of this era which is called Christian. Christ is now returning in spirit and in power, bringing the new revelation which should enfranchise the souls of men. What the medium regards with dread as infidelity and unbelief is only the fallow land in which good seed may be sown. The mind choked with tares and old superstitious beliefs is far worse than that which is free from all prejudices. Fear not because so many of your prominent men are destitute of what you call religion. A clear receptivity must exist before new truth can be borne into it.” I discover a bit farther down the page some more prophetic lines. They interest me and may interest you. Again I quote:
“The whole fabric of society is honeycombed, and there are mines which may explode at any moment. What you call communism or socialism is an evil, the full potency of which none of your statesmen at present realize … This, your world, in its social and religious aspects, has come to its last gasp, and needs some new power to give it vitality … Money is taking the place of God and in the luxury and idleness that prevails among you are to be found the elements of dissolution. Across the face of your country is now written ‘Ruin.’ Prepare, then, for the final struggle; it will be between good and evil, between faith and agnosticism, between law and order on the one hand and lawlessness on the other. It will be a time of grievous trouble. Then will the work be attributed to blind force or diabolic agency. The destitution of the human spirit and the powers of the adversaries are sources of constant trouble to us. They are spirits who have developed antagonism to the progress of all that is good amongst men. The days are coming when there shall be such an outpouring of the Divine Spirit as shall reach to the uttermost corners of the earth, driving the adversaries into the open in revolt, and bringing home to receptive souls the message of truth for which they are longing. Keep your eyes fixed on the future, and do not despair. Greater is He that is with you than all that are against you.” (From a reprint of material which first appeared in “LIGHT” in England.)
To get back to the building of jargons, let me quote a bit from Judge Troward’s famous Edinburgh Lectures, page 97: “… just as we can, by suggestion, impress a certain character of personality upon the individual subjective mind, so we can, and do, upon the Universal Mind and it is for this reason that I have drawn attention to the inherent personal quality of pure spirit when contemplated in its most interior plane. It becomes, therefore, the most important of all considerations with what character we invest the Universal Mind, for since our relation to it is purely subjective, it will infallibly bear to us exactly the character which we impress upon it; in other words, it will be to us exactly what we believe it to be. It is, then, impossible to overestimate the importance of the conception of the Universal Mind which we adopt.” (His idea was that the Universal Mind was also a Universal Subconscious and therefore subject to being controlled by us by means of a form of suggestion. The theory sounded fine, but did not prove to be particularly successful when put to the test.)
In the above quotation it will be seen how necessary it is to understand just what meanings were assigned to different terms in the particular jargon used.
Even the usual clearness and directness of Mary Austin did not escape the necessity of a touch of jargon. Here is a passage from her Can Prayer Be Answered?, page 47: “Prayer, to whatever names it has been addressed, and under whatever theology, is a self-originating gesture of the human mind to meet a corresponding gesture working within the constitution of the created universe. It may be that the renewal of this general human habit waits only on a more modern organization of our theocratic ideation, and that God is in fact no more than the activating element in Spirit. Note that I stress the item of activating, rather than desirousness.
“Prayer is the whole process of becoming; of complete expressiveness of which we shall never arrive at any given mark…”
Jargon such as I have been setting before you, is, so far as I can see, legitimate and necessary, but it needs to be explained before using, just as medicines need to be “well shaken” before taking.
But what I really wish to stress is the needlessness of compounding our legitimate difficulties by taking liberties with the King’s English. I have many letters in which the jargon seems to belong to something called the “New Language” and I must confess that this is a language I do not speak, to say nothing of understand.
I am accustomed to the change of atonement to at-one-ment, but when I find intelligence chopped into in-tell-I-gence, and holy made into whol-I, or the Lord’s glory changed to glow-ray, I wonder how long it will be before I am confronted with I-t for it, he-a-ven for heaven, and. Ev-I-l for evil.
As nearly as I have been able to ascertain, this ultimate nonsense had its beginning some years ago when there was a popular movement to examine the original meanings of key words used in the New Testament. This legitimate and praiseworthy occupation brought to light the fact that the word for repentance was, in the Latin, metanoia, which Basil King (Conquest of Fear page 45) describes as having the meaning of “a sober, reflective turning of the mind.” He adds, “Repentance had come to have so strong a gloss of the hysterical as to be almost discredited by men of common sense. It was a relief, therefore, to remember that it implied no more than a turning to God by a process of thought, and that a process of thought would find Him.” He continues, “Salvation – Soteria – (means) “a Safe Return.” That is all. Nothing complicated, nothing high-strung, nothing casuistical [sic]. Only a Safe Return.”
I can go all the way with this beginning of the movement. I can appreciate added stress on parts of an idea, as in speaking of, “Life’s BE-ing, Laws and purposes,” but in the name of common sense and sanity I protest against the unnecessary mutilation of words and bob-tailing of the ideas for which common words stand. I even prefer disease to dis-ease, if it matters to anyone. MFL
PENDULUM NOTES FROM AN EVENING WITH DR. OSCAR BRUNLER
The proper amount of energy in the ulnar nerve of the arm is necessary for the use of the pendulum or the rods used in dowsing for water, treasure, metals, etc. You have it or you do not.
All things radiate, and these radiations are picked up by the body and their presence and nature are indicated by the action of the pendulum.
For every electro-magnetic charge there is a corresponding opposite or “di-electric.” This di-electric charge, flow or radiation is very important in measuring with the pendulum. Different things send off different radiations, each causing its own type of reaction in the pendulum when it is held over a specific thing or when that specific thing is thought about by the one using the pendulum. Gold causes a pendulum to swing to make a “V” and then adds a small curve at one end. To hunt for gold treasure or a gold mine, test your pendulum over some gold, observe the swing pattern it makes, then hold a sample of gold in the free hand or think of gold. Hold your pendulum over different likely sections shown on a large map, and if you are good, it will give the gold movement over places where there IS gold. Try it over Fort Knox and on known mines, or over a city map with known places selling gold watches and the like.
Dr. Brunler, who has been examining the country out of Hollywood by means of maps and trips out to check on the ground, tried for gold on the desert. He located three spots. On a trip to check up, he and his friends found mines in operation at two of the spots marked on the map, but not at the third. They plan to dig there. The same happened with tests for oil. An oil field of great size and richness was indicated in the desert country by the pendulum. It repeated on the ground. Tests were made with the latest “doodle-bug” instruments. These measure the echo from a powder explosion in a drilled shallow hole and graph it on a magnified scale. The indications checked – 300 feet of rich oil sand. Land was leased over the pool and drilling will begin in September. Water for drilling needs was located by the pendulum close by.
Treasure hunts were also made by Dr. Brunler and his friends in an effort to find the famous “Lost Mines” of the South West, of which there are so many stories. Treasures also. Some fine places to dig into later were located. One place had three tunnels driven into the steep side of a hill. The pendulum showed that all three were twelve feet too far down.
Two great underground water flows were locked in the mountains near enough to be of great value to Los Angeles. Dr. Brunler drew lines where his pendulum indicated the flow. Later someone pointed out the fact that one line passed right through Fish Springs, from which a goodly river rises.
The standard “brain waves” seem not to be measured by the pendulum, but perhaps the di-electric, as with a special instrument called a bi-o-meter, silk cords running from the head to the instrument cause the pendulum to swing exactly two and from the body, over a plate with markings, when the ends of the cord and the block to which they are fastened, are slid along a metal scale to a certain spot, accurate readings of one’s mental capacity are made. A reading of 110 is an indication of an idiot. Around 700, a genius. Dr. Brunler’s indication is in this part of the scale – he sees no reason to deny it. (His discoveries and inventions are such that they bear out the reading. He has found a way to make a light dusting of commercial fertilizer do the work of 200 times (or was it 2000?) its normal. (I am reporting what I was told. Don’t ask me for more details. No, I do not know whether you could get in on oil or gold discoveries being made in this way.)
HRAs REPORT – FINDINGS – SUGGESTIONS – HEALING PROJECTS AND THE OUTCOME
GOOD-BYE WAYNE. Many HRAs have asked how HRA Ernest Bateman made out with the spirit, “Wayne,” who was called the “answer” to the problem of the pendulum. This learned and seemingly ultra entity told us where the kahunas were wrong – remember? The next letter from E.B. read, “At long last my Aunihipili decided it was time to get on the band wagon, and is now working with me 100%. He chased the spirit companion, Wayne, out in the cold and now, through him, (Aunihipili) I am in constant, intimate contact with my Aumakua … that is indeed startling to me … Discount my last report. It is partly true, partly false. It seems that our Aumakuas are the only spirits that we can depend upon completely, as the ancient kahunas discovered. Wayne told me several lies, as I found by recheck[ing] on local Seattle records, and by checking with my Aumakua. Each day increases my thankfulness for Huna, and my only regret is that it came into my life so late … J.F. reports improvement. My wife is able to use her hand and elbow more and more each day … Wayne seems to have filled in and used the pendulum through me during the time that my Aunihipili sulked, and was ejected when the sulking was over. It was indeed amusing to watch.” (So now we know what became of “Wayne.”)
“LESSONS ARE OVER MY HEAD IN MANY RESPECTS” wrote HRA C.G.F. of Los Angeles – But he continues, “… I am thankful to be able to tell you that I am free of the tic douloureux.” (Help came through the TMHG.)
“MY MAP IS ROLLING RIGHT ALONG” writes HRA H.F.W. from Detroit. In addition to more money and other blessings, he says, “Now for one of the ‘intangibles’ I have noticed. You see, Max, I am primarily an artist although at the present time I am utilizing my talents to create better looking automobiles, which is a highly specialized field. Since I made my map I have noticed a positive, definite improvement in my work. A sureness, a quality, is being brought to the surface that I felt before only on isolated occasions … Experiments with the boxes have been quite successful.” (This is really very important. We can now expect help in writing and all the difficult skills. Huna is working for us.)
A RESPONSE VIA THE AUNIHIPILI AND A DREAM is reported by HRA in Nebraska. “I haven’t been much use in helping with the box and pendulum experiments for HRA. But I was in desperate need of help last week concerning a family problem. I got a surcharge of mana and sent my prayers to my Aumakua and the Po`e Aumakua of our family. I prayed nearly all night and even in my dreams I was praying. I finally dreamed that my prayer would come true. And it did. We were all so happy about it.” (That is really making a Huna-type prayer. It is evident that the Aunihipili was sufficiently impressed to keep up the good work even during sleep. Possibly a steady sending of mana all night furnished enough earthy power to help the Aumakuas shape affairs to match the thought-form mold made of the desired condition. Congratulations on a fine piece of exploration Mrs. T.)
PROOF OF THE PUDDING
Proof of the Pudding of Huna is in the lasting quality of the healing. Here is a wonderful letter from HRA E.F. in Washington. I give it in full:
“Dear Friend:
I have been wanting to share with you my experience in healing through the Huna methods, but felt that I should wait until my doctor would admit that it was a permanent cure. Even though the cure was miraculous and impossible according to his standards, he insisted that it was probably a temporary phenomenon and that a recurrence could be expected. More than a year has passed with no recurrence, so he has now reluctantly admitted that my condition has been cured even though some aspects of the cure are impossible and just couldn’t be, according to medical history.
Fourteen months ago I was sent to the hospital with an eye condition which started with conjunctivitis, but developed rapidly into iritis, bilateral keratitis (both of which are considered incurable) and a corneal ulcer. During the course of treatment before hospitalization, the ulcer had been cauterized twice, resulting in a very noticeable scar on the cornea. I was informed by the doctor that cauterization was absolutely essential due to the fact that the ulcer had not responded to the various treatments, that it would result in a scar which would be with me as long as I lived, so I was prepared for that.
To make a long story short, I was discharged from the hospital thoroughly discouraged as my vision had been quite badly and permanently impaired. I was told to come back for an examination and a prescription for stronger lenses after the eye had had a month or two to adjust itself. I had visions of myself wearing those thick-lensed jobs – which was bad enough – but to have my reading curtailed was the worst blow imaginable.
While recuperating at home I read Secret Science Behind Miracles and felt a surge of hope that really lifted me out of my doldrums. Needless to say, I immediately began to practice the gathering of mana, directing it to concentrate in my hands. I would then place my hands over my eyes and command the force to enter and heal.
When I returned to the eye specialist for the examination, I said nothing to him about the improvement I knew had taken place. He examined my eyes with every piece of equipment he owned, muttering occasionally that it was incredible. Then he informed me that he would have to examine my eyes under drops before he could prescribe anything. After another examination under drops he was forced to admit that something had happened that he couldn’t understand. He said there were no longer any APPARENT symptoms of the iritis or of the bilateral keratitis. More important was the complete disappearance of scar tissue. He pointed out that scar tissue has no blood supply and CANNOT be absorbed so it must be there even if it WASN’T. Best of all, after wearing glasses for seventeen years, my vision had improved to the point where I no longer needed glasses of any kind.
The doctor kept questioning me about what I thought had taken place to effect such a change. I tried to tell him, but saw that I was getting nowhere with that scientific barrier which will admit no spiritual light. He just laughed and looked at me as though I were a mental oddity but of the harmless type.
When he dismissed me, he warned me solemnly that I would undoubtedly have a recurrence within three months; that what had happened was strange but was most certainly only a temporary condition. That stirred the sixteenth part of my blood that is Irish and I made him promise to admit it was a permanent cure providing there was no recurrence within a year. He was so sure of himself that he agreed quite readily with a, “Just you wait and see” attitude.
For physical proof to show to doubting Thomases, I have my old driver’s permit stamped boldly across its face “VOID WITHOUT THE USE OF PROPER CORRECTIVE GLASSES” and my new permit without it.
I shall be eternally grateful to you and SECRET SCIENCE BEHIND MIRACLES for this wonderful, wonderful healing.”
Our sincere appreciation, E.F. for such courage in relying on Huna in that great emergency and fighting through to complete success. We can be increasingly sure that the Huna concept behind “laying on hands” is the correct one and that, given sufficient mana to work with, the Aumakuas can and will replace injured tissues in the body. This marks a milestone in our effort to restore Huna. MFL
