More On Auras and Fire-Walking

October 1, 1951

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 HRA Bulletin resumes publication after skipping one issue

My sincere thanks to you all for your kindly understanding of the need to skip a Bulletin issue. It allowed me a vacation, even if it was necessary to spend it here at the study to work out a considerable number of rather intricate problems connected with the writing job presently in hand. However, the job (and the kindness of my friends) did include a bus trip up the coast to Santa Barbara and a delightful visit, some new friends, a stay over night, and some necessary consultations on the script.

Interesting Note on the work of HRA V.L. Cameron

Very important news arrived by letter concerning experiments carried out by HRA V. L. Cameron who is much to the fore in the Bulletins these days. A small figurine was blessed with as much of an emotional outpouring as was possible, by a lady visiting at HRA Cameron’s home in Elsinore, Calif. After the blessing, the figurine was tested by Mr. Cameron with his special instrument to ascertain the extent of its artificial aura or aka. It extended for several feet in all directions and at the edge of the aura, pushed the ball of the instrument away with a repelling action. A few days later, the test was repeated with the expectation that the aura would have become much smaller and weaker – the usual occurrence. Much to his surprise, Mr. Cameron found that the aura had changed its nature from a repelling to an attracting action, the ball of the instrument being pulled toward the figurine. Most astonishing was the discovery that the aura had built up in strength and size. Backing up step by step, it was not until a distance of 135 feet had been covered before the edge of the new and unusual aura was found.

Just where this experiment will lead us is far from certain at this point, and it remains to be seen whether we have the makings of an ikon in the figurine. However, the experiment gives most impressive and important proof that we have been right in believing that the Aunihipili shows itself to be hardest at work for us when it accompanies its work with an upsurge and use of emotion. We can be doubly certain that unless we want a thing enough to be emotionally stirred when asking for it in our prayer-actions, the Aunihipili is not doing its best. No emotion may mean no action on the part of the Aunihipili, no formation of a strong thought-form picture, and no transfer of mana with the thought picture across the connecting aka thread to the Aumakua. If the need is great enough, we are now able to see that we are fully justified to do as one HRA wrote that she did – and got results at once in a very fine healing. She said, “I bawled and yelled and howled fairly. I just had to have my prayer heard and answered. I just had to get well. And the next morning I woke up healed and well.” Fortunately, most of us can, by working all around the need we feel for ourselves or a dear one, gradually stir the Aunihipili into a state of emotional activity. We can make it WANT as much as we of the Auhane WANT, and when these two are agreed on what is wanted and unite in the emotional drive of the prayer-action, the work is properly performed – and only then. No emotion: no prayer. What could be more important to know?

The drawing-in action exerted on HRA Cameron’s pendulum device seems also to be something which we must not overlook. In all other cases, the action has been one of pushing away. If we consider the fact that in our Huna prayer-actions we try to send the mana to the Aumakua, this may be the counterpart of the ordinary action of auras – a pushing away. This push effect tends to keep auras and aka bodies apart. It walls them off and keeps the akas of things and of people from mingling. The aura around the ball of the Cameron pendulum is given a positive aura by the one handling it. When it is brought near the aura of another person, or of a well-made mental image of some object, it meets the positive element in the opposed aura and is repelled.

If, through the use of emotion and blessings, a figurine can have something done to it – perhaps to its polarization – and thereafter the drawing-in becomes a movement to replace the customary pushing-away, we may be allowed to guess that Aumakuas might, by some similar ritual, be enabled to DRAW-IN the mana and the thought-forms of our prayer-actions. If this can be proved to be true and can be demonstrated in practice, it might make the difference between the slow and difficult progress of the low magic and the swift and instant accomplishment of healing of the High Magic.

Can you help me think this lead through? Experiment in such ways as you come to think offer success or information – and let the rest of us know the results? This may be the key we have been lacking.

Leads and suggestions from Hawaiian word roots

Pa`hu means to push. If we take this word as the symbol of pushing the mana and thought-forms along the aka thread to the Aumakua, it is evident that the work is done by the Aunihipili at the command of the Auhane . The root pa has among its several meanings, “to divide out as to individuals.” We divide the mana with the Aumakua or one we strive to heal. Another meaning is, “to strike, to touch,” the symbol found in other words indicating the making of contact with the Aumakua. The root hu has the meaning of a rising up of a fluid and an overflowing. It is, especially, “that which causes rising, as leaven.” In the Bible we find the symbol of the “little leaven that leavens the whole.” We may ask whether a little mana given the Aumakua will work the same way – empowering the whole of the work to be done for us.

Kau`o means “to draw or pull something, to incline to do a thing, to pray for a special blessing, a seed.” The root kau has among its many meanings one that seems significant. It is, “to come down upon one unexpectedly.” It seems possible that thing that comes down on one might be the return flow of mana or a reverse side of the force, or the condition or blessing asked for in prayer. If the word is divided thus, ka`u`o, we get in ka, “to radiate from a center as does light.” In this we might see the Aumakua given the mana as a radiation, but it seems more likely that the Aumakua would be the one to radiate the High Mana back to us. U means “to draw out, as a pencil from a case.” It also means “to braid “(as our braided aka cord?) and “to call loudly or cry out,” (in uo.) The root o has the meaning of “to extend, as the hand, to take something,” and “to dip, as the fingers in a fluid.” It also has a double meaning of “to call” and “to answer a call.”

The push and pull may indicate some reciprocal action between the three selves, particularly between the Aunihipili and the Aumakua. We have been quite sure that kahunas made their prayer-actions by accumulating extra mana, reaching out to contact the Aumakua via the aka cord, and sending the mana and the thought images of the prayer along the thread or cord. The prayer ending so much used, “Let the rain of blessings fall,” is strongly symbolic of the High Mana as a purified energy returned to complete the circuit from the Aumakua to the Aunihipili.

Emotion, which we see is so important in the making of an ikon or a prayer-action, is, in Hawaiian, pi`hoi`hoi. The root pi has the meaning “to sprinkle or cause water to flow drop by drop.” Here we have an unmistakable similarity to the “rain” of blessings – mana, or water, symbolically. Hoi`hoi is the intensive of “to send back or to return.” It also means “to dismiss, to restore, to send back an answer, and TO CHANGE ONE THING FOR ANOTHER.” It would seem from these root meanings that the emotions, which are the primary reactions of the Aunihipili, have a very important part to play in the prayer-action in that they may be the mechanism through which the Aumakua is caused to set up a drawing action to help in the transfer of the mana and thought-forms to itself – after which it “returns” them as the answer to the prayer. The roots joined to make their meaning more intensified or stronger, in hoi`hoi, has a meaning we may well place at the end. It is “joy, gladness, and rejoicing.” And, be it well remembered, LOVE is the most potent and the purest of all the products of EMOTION. Such a very little love leavens such a large loaf of another’s sorrow.

Signatures written in ink prove to have strange auras or aka-mana fans

HRA Cameron’s instrument was tested experimentally here at the Study to see if it could pick up the radiations from signatures. No guess could be made as to what might be registered, but something was expected because HRA Dr. Oscar Brunler has shown that “brain radiations” (not from the organic brain but from “consciousness”) can be picked up and measured from signatures by the Biometer.

The Cameron instrument gave no degree reading of consciousness, but with it was discovered a fan shaped aura which varied greatly in shape and size with the signatures of different persons. The irregular fan was apparently almost as thin as a sheet of paper as it rose from the signature and stood along its length. For some reason, the nature of which neither Mr. Cameron nor I could guess, the aura did not extend through the paper on which the signature was written. However, it often was spread out much like the “wing” found extending behind the shoulders of people. In the case of my own signature, it extended a yard or so beyond the end, forming a sharp angle as the top of it was traced back to a point about two feet above the signature. It dropped sharply down to the first letter of the name. Two signatures had wings sticking out in front instead of protruding at the end. Some had notched or uneven top lines. In general, the signatures of women rose higher over their signatures and protruded less far to front or rear. If individual shapes of signature auras could be compared with brain radiations taken from the same signature, a considerable number of such comparisons might show a definite relation to the Biometric movement pattern and to the degree registered. Three signatures taken from individuals with Biometric readings of 382, 384 and 386, showed very different fan shapes, although the two from the signatures of the women both showed the seemingly characteristic higher, narrower effect, already associated with women. The man had a long end wing. One of the women had a front wing almost as long. Neither women had an end wing. Below are some of the aura outlines with the approximate measures and degrees of slant.

Male. Signature: Verne L. Cameron
Wing angle follows signature. Brain Radiation appr. 390 degrees Biometric

Male. Signature: Max Freedom Long
Wing angle follows signature. Brain radiation as read by Dr. Oscar Brunler, 382 degrees Biometric

Both female.
Both with signatures about center of base line so small wing effect either end of signatures.
Both approximates 400 degrees Biometric for brain radiation.

Male. Signature : Mead Layne (Editor ROUND ROBIN)
Wing angle effect ahead of signature. Long projection after name with square end.
Drop in top line at front. Brain radiation approximately 390 degrees Biometric.

Female. Signature: E. A. K.
Wing angle after signature and rising to circular dome.
Short wing angle before signature. B.R. not known, but judged high.
(Tests from letter signatures in all cases. Written in ink)

B.S.R.A. “Project Survival” Address for your file

Some time ago Meade Layne, F.H.F., Director of Borderland Sciences Research Associates, and editor of Round Robin magazine – our very good friend and collaborator at San Diego – took steps to get us organized so that in case of war or other great disasters, we might have a central address through which to find fellow BSRA or HRA members for what mutual aid we might be able to give and get. You may recall that in a Bulletin some months ago I gave the address of Mr. Don York, who has offered to act as central man and clearing point in time of trouble. His new home address is 302 West 34th St., Kansas City, Mo. He also retains the other address: Box 151, Kansas City 10, Mo. If you wish to register your own permanent and alternate address with him, against some future need, you may do so. If you wish a reply from him, include a self-addressed stamped envelope or post card.

BSRA proposes a mimeo book giving a short account of the findings of HRA V.L. Cameron

HRA Meade Layne has sent a letter to BSRA members and others to suggest that a hundred dollars be set aside by the new BSR Foundation to assist in getting the material sorted and the manuscript written. This would be an introduction to the very promising work being done by Mr. Cameron, and, it is to be hoped, would lead to the publication of a larger printed book in due time. The Foundation is still very new and in need of funds, but is a step in the right direction. When it grows, it will support investigations and the gathering of materials in our special corner of the field. HRA Cameron has been most generous in sharing the findings of years of study and research with BSRA and HRA. He deserves our best thanks and any assistance it is possible to give him. At the present time he is following through a new line suggested by his friends. He tried his instrument in a special approach to words which are printed and written, and, as might have been expected, was almost at once getting “messages.”

These were rather startling from the first, and the communicator identifies himself as Nikola Tesla, the great electrical genius. Tesla made a number of discoveries and invented several instruments, but, as he expected to live much longer than he did, he neglected to leave data on them for posterity. One of the major inventions was a method of sending electrical power through the earth with less loss than we send it today over expensive wire systems. It would appear that the description of these discoveries and inventions might be coming through. (Barring, of course, the possibility of pretense on the part of the supposed communicating entity. In passing, it is amusing to note that recently a friend, working with a pendulum and written alphabet, got messages purporting to come for me from Thomas A. Edison. As I had, during his lifetime, been in personal contact with this great inventor, I at once put the spirit to the test of telling the nature of the contact and the matter that was accomplished. The entity made a guess, but it was very wild. In this it was much like the various pretenders who claim to have been kahunas – but who know nothing of the Hawaiian language or of the basics of Huna.)

For our reading pleasure there is a new book just out by HRA Leta Zoe Adams. Fiction. SECOND GROWTH. I have not yet seen a copy, but am looking forward to doing so in the near future when I begin to have moments to relax and read again.

BSRA releases of the next ROUND ROBIN

These will undoubtedly report a most significant discovery made at a Mark Probert seance in September. Director HRA Meade Layne was in charge, and HRA Verne Cameron was sitting in the circle. It was suggested that one of the communicators take his stand in front of Mark, who was in a trance state, and that Mr. Cameron see whether or not he could use his instrument successfully to locate his aka body and show its outline. The communicator assumed an unusual position and held it. Very quickly he was found and his outline traced in the air. Next, speaking again through the mouth of Mark, he corroborated the findings made by the instrument. I believe this is the first time the aka or etheric body, or double or astral – it has many names – has ever been located while in the invisible state through the use of an instrument of this nature. Sight of the double through the Kilner screens is less impressive because not all people can see the outlines. The test is also a very excellent proof of the fact that Mr. Cameron can, with his instrument, find the location of aka bodies and etheric doubles, be they those of the there-living, the here-living or of thought-forms. In the past century of Psychical Research, so much hokum and imagination has come in with the solid and reliable, that we naturally welcome all possible proofs when new ground is being broken, as it is with Mr. Cameron’s valuable instrument in his experienced hands.

If an aka body of a person, dead or alive, or of a thought picture, can be measured instrumentally, we can be free of any lingering suspicion that “survival” is not a fact, or that the kahunas and others were wrong in their belief that pictures built of combined thought-forms were real and substantial things on the etheric level. So many of us have been fooled and lied to deliberately by some “teacher” that we look with suspicion on almost everything. What a relief, therefore, for the HRA’s Doubting Thomases to have something so definite from the hands of those who have no ax to grind and who have no preconceived ideas as to what they may or may not find when an experiment begins. Faith is built on what we can believe, and if we can become fully convinced that it is possible to build an actual structure in aka substance, we can generate more faith-power by far. It would appear that we are closing in on the SECRET of Huna from all sides.

Time change for our TMHG work

On October 1st, California and many other states turn back the clocks an hour as the summer daylight saving time period ends. I will turn back the clock here at the Study, so those of you who share in the blessings of the TMHG at 3 and 7 P.M. daily, should adjust your time accordingly. If the regular times are missed, tune in on the hour at any time. There is almost always someone to work with you and make the “two or more” gathered to call on the name of Aumakuas in prayer-actions. I frequently sit quite after the hour strikes, no matter what the time of the day, to do special work on pressing problems. Hardly a day passes here at the Study but that at least one letter arrives telling of the good results in healing through participation in the TMHG. The good results in matters of social and financial affairs are as frequently reported. A letter in this morning reports all items in the “map” sent in a year ago have been brought into the Light except one. This one involves the life of another, and the results are more difficult to obtain because each must be allowed freedom of action.

Fiji fire-walking by Madras Hindu settlers reported

With photos by HRA George Sandwith — As mentioned in a recent Bulletin, HRA George Sandwith made a careful study of the Hindu fire-walkers who have settled in Fiji and have brought their religious beliefs and rites with them. Time will tell whether or not we can issue a printed report giving the full account and reproductions of the pictures. Meantime, here is a digest of the points of greatest importance to us.

The burning of charcoal furnishes the live coals for the “walk.” In the pictures, the liveness of the coals is shown by the white surface of the walk, made white by the glow of coals exposed to air and covered by a thin film of ashes. In the pictures of men walking over the layer of coals, the path behind them is marked by the darkening of the bed where feet have touched. This trail at once begins to turn white again as the fanning by air continues via the slight breeze. As in the tests made on heated stones in Hawaii, the proof that the coals will burn if the magic fails or is refused, is given by individuals, who, for various reasons try the fire-walk and are badly burned. We are entirely safe to hold to our conclusion that under normal conditions, contact with the rocks or coals would cause burns.

The Hindu ritual is part of religious observances affirming the faith in the god who is worshiped, and acting as a means of calling down healing at the times when the fire-walk is performed before the small temple which has been built there in Fiji. (I understand there are such temples elsewhere in Fiji where Hindu settlers are located.)

The goddess who is worshiped and invoked in the fire-walking rite is a trinity, having three forms, phases or manifestations, or so I gather from what HRA Sandwith reports of the explanations given him by his Hindu friends. This goddess, “Mariammam,” is worshiped before a Maha-Devi temple. Some light on this may be drawn from a consideration of the basic religions of India. The oldest of the Vedas, the Rig-Veda, composed around 1400 B.C., gave three great gods, one of the Sky, one of Thunder and one of Fire, with two almost as great, one of the Atmosphere and one, The Cloud Compeller. The Trimurti or Trinity idea came much later: Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. To the three, (as in one cult of later Kahuna-ism,) there was added a fourth, in the form of a group-god, Prajavati. The three male principles or gods of the Trimurti were thought to have sakti or female consort energies or principles. Paravati is the wife of Siva, and has several names and, supposedly, aspects or dispositions. Her names are: Kali, the Black one, (mentioned in Fiji as the same as the goddess being worshiped there,) Durga, the Terrible One, and Maha-Devi, the Great Goddess, (this last apparently the name used for the temple there in Fiji).

The name “Mariammam” causes the student at once to think of “Miriam” or “Mary,” the mother of Jesus in the New Testament. This name is not Jewish and seems not to have occurred even once in the Old Testament – a fact that has caused doubt to be thrown on the origin of the Mary concept. On the other hand, the name in its variations, together with its place in religious magic, has been found in inscriptions throughout the lands from Egypt to India. In most cases the “Mariam” concept represents the feminine forces on a high creative level – the wife or mother of a god. Isis, in Egypt, was wife of Osiris, and mother of Horus – the Father-Mother-Son form of divine Trinity which many savants tell us supplied the model for the Christian Father-Holy Ghost-Son Trinity.

In Egypt, however, the Holy Family represented nearer and closer gods but did not exclude the belief in other gods, often more remote and of greater age. Just as a historical note, it is well to keep in mind here the fact that the Jews had the idea of the One God, Jehovah, who was “Father,” but was not associated with a Mother or Son. The word “trinity” does not appear in the Bible, but was philosophized into the Christian beliefs later on, and made part of the Catholic ritualistic work. Only in the year 325 AD did the Council of Nice affirm that Jesus was divine and was the Christ. Not until 381 did the Council of Constantinople add the doctrine of the Holy Ghost’s divinity, and so make possible “Trinity in Unity” as a doctrine to be added as an article of faith by the Church. After the Reformation, Luther led the way back to originals, rejecting the doctrine of the Trinitarians and going back to the Unitarian belief in one God – the Father. Only in the past two years has the Church of Rome recognized Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the role dictated by the Assumption dogma.

Despite the mixed god ideas, one thing stands out clearly. No matter what god or entity is prayed to, and no matter what rites are observed, SOMETHING is brought into action. The Hindu fire-walkers in Fiji went through a ten day purification period, ending with ritual bathing in a stream. A symbolic piece more elaborate than the ti leaf whisk of the Polynesian fire-walker (described by HRA Charles Kenn for us in his book,) consists of a pottery pot the bottom of which fits over the head like a cap. This is filled with water, and on it is set a peeled coconut. Around this is a skirt of green leafy branches – NOT ti – and into the top of the coconut is thrust the handle of a small trident, on each of the three prongs of which is a small lime. It is encircled by the performers and prayers are made. This piece is then placed on the head of the officiating priest, skewers with trident ends are passed through the cheeks of the walkers without causing them pain, and the procession moves off to the temple close by. There the coals are leveled out to make the “walk” and, with more chanting and ritual observances, the priest leads the way across and back. The others follow. No one is burned. Those in the audience who desire healing are allowed to come near and to hold their hands in the heat of live coals carried to them in pots by attendants. (No definite information as to the success of the day’s healings was obtained, although the stories of many wonderful healings were freely told.)

Weather control was said to be possible through the use of the fire-walking rites, but HRA Sandwith reported no need of such control at that time.

Many precautions against contaminating the fire or the performers were taken. No person wearing leather was allowed to approach. The onlookers were kept back lest they come too near the fire-walkers and contaminate them. Any contamination was said to make the goddess angry and cause her to refuse protection from burns or healing. Again we see that what is believed to the point of a subconscious fixation, cannot be overlooked. Another fire-walker with very different fixed beliefs may ignore all other beliefs. The gods care not a whit.

The conclusion remains that no matter how or to whom we pray, the same class of entities hears and responds. The male-female Aumakua or parental pair of Huna can well stand as the origin of the Father-Mother concept, and the physical man as the “son.” As the man has a Aunihipili and a Auhane, this could be the “Four” which we meet in variations of the Trinity concept.

The great challenge of fire-walking is again laid before us as HRAs. There is no longer the shadow of a doubt that some supernormal energy, guided by some supra-normal unit of consciousness, provides fire-immunity.

We see that we do not have to KNOW what that supranormal entity is or what form of energy it uses. We see that we do not have to follow any set ritual. The cleansing rite is not necessary, as was demonstrated by the three fire-walkers who made a short prayer to Pele before taking Dr. Brigham across the burning hot lava flow. But, we may be very sure that if any fire-walker was burdened by a sense of guilt and filled with doubt instead of faith, he would not have attempted the fire-walk.

To arrive at a point where we have a full and serene faith is not easy. What the standard religions fail to tell us is what Huna and modern psychology sets before us as all important. This is the necessity of building in the Aunihipili the needed faith.

Faith, lodged in the Aunihipili, needs to be such a powerful fixation that nothing will shake it – that nothing will “contaminate” it. The “leather” of contamination feared by the fire-walkers in India and Fiji is for us the tough leathery set of doubts implanted in us by our dependence on the evidence of the senses. What we cannot sense or take into the laboratory and test in terms of the material world, is very hard for us to accept and keep on accepting for more than a few inspired moments during which we glimpse the Light.

One of George Sandwith’s Hindu friends, a gentleman of education and open mind, explained that the basic faith was easy for his fellow countrymen to gain and hold to the degree that it could be made to do its part in the fire-walking. The reason for this was that none of them ever questioned for a second the correctness of the beliefs into which they are born. From childhood they see the rites carried out. Their elders believe and teach them to believe. No matter what they read or what outsider scoffs, they have set before them at frequent intervals the most spectacular and impressive proofs of the correctness of their beliefs – the fire-walk. No finer thing could be selected to act as the physical stimulus demanded by Huna as the mechanism of impressing the Aunihipili. Fire is very real and very hot. Flesh is very easily burned.

We may lack a method of engendering in ourselves – as HRAs – the same degree of faith, but if we can come through such investigations as those of Mr. Sandwith and Mr. Charles Kenn, to see with great clearness the major ingredients of the High Magic – Instant Response, we can progress more rapidly and more directly to that goal. We must see with utter clarity that there is the Aumakua standing ready to receive any and every prayer made – no matter what name is called upon. We must be certain that, if any other high entity needs to be called upon, the Aumakua will do the calling for us. We must realize that we must take steps to convince our Auhane and Aunihipili that we are square with the world from a non-hurt angle and that we actively deserve the help we ask for. The evidence tends to show that, while prayers are often answered with no thought taken to accumulate and supply the mana surcharge, or to build the clear thought-form-picture of what we desire, these things are very much a part of praying expertly. Then there is emotion to be roused. We already know so much more of Huna than we put to use. MFL