Potentizing Mana and “The Aka Finger”

February 15, 1952

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.A.

BACH REMEDIES INFORMATION

Back Remedies information has been requested by a number of HRAs after the mention of them in recent Bulletins. The following information has been supplied by HRA F.J. For contact with his followers, write to Miss Nora Weeks, Mt. Vernon, Statwell, Wallingford, Berks., England. In U.S.A. the books in which he gives a complete list of the flowers and the ills to be treated with their potentized extracts may be had from The Theosophical Hall, 245 West 33rd St., Los Angeles, Calif. (No titles or costs were given.)

HOW TO POTENTIZE

Dr. Oscar Brunler explained the standard method to me. Take one part of substance and mix it with ten parts pure water. Take one part of that mixture and mix with another ten parts of water. Repeat as often as desired. Each operation thins the solution a tenth. The substances are said to gain in potency because the atoms of which they are constructed are caused to expand as they are stretched ten fold, or a thousand in spreading equally through the solution. This is said to cause the rate of vibration to increase in speed and so cause small amounts of the original substance to have much greater power. The exact difference between the power of a dose of one cc of concentrated flower extract and a dose of potentized extract containing only one one-thousandth as much extract, seems to be explainable only in terms of “trace effects.” We know that traces of certain mineral elements are needed for plant or animal growth and health, although the trace may be infinitely small. It is supposed by many that such traces may have a catalytic effect, not themselves entering into chemical actions, but causing, by their presence, the reactions between other chemicals which normally would not react one on the other.

I gather that different substances give very different results when potentized. Dr. Brunler tells of amazing results in the use of potentized chemical fertilizers. On the other hand, an HRA wrote to tell me that some years ago, in Florida, Browne Landon had advocated the potentizing of fertilizers, but that the result, in his hands, were not sufficiently satisfactory to be conclusive. Inorganic substances may give very different reactions. A flower extract may be a very complex mixture compared to a simple nitrate salt. Organic gardeners tell us that chemical fertilizers leave substances in the soil which are very bad for plants, and some go so far as to stop the use of animal manures. Evidence accumulates to show that insect pests and diseases attack crops far more freely if they have been grown on ground treated with chemical fertilizers. Food values are also inferior in such crops. We are slowly learning that Mother Nature knows best in her methods of growth relative to plant and animal life. Refined and chemically preserved foods are suspected of being the cause of a host of modern ills. The pendulum seems to be very useful to tell one what food is right and what food is poor or even harmful. HRA F.M.H. writes that “Seroyal Brand” Vitamin sales agencies offer a pendulum that works over a plastic box and which he has found excellent for food testing. The box contains a magnet and/or lodestone and is sold at nominal cost cost. Dr. F.M.H. writes, “It is particularly good for checking food supplements to tell which are needed by the body and which are not. I have recently been busy checking bread, and have finally found a 100% whole grain broad that isn’t full of chemical preservatives.”

POTENTIATED MANA

This may well be the secret of what we postulate to be the “High Mana” or Mena Loa of the original Huna system. As I have said in my book, SSBM, it is evident that the life force – mana or basic vital force – is used in seance work when ectoplasm is taken from the living and used to fill the aka molds of entities who materialize. This seems to demand a form of force that is “living” in as much as it can be controlled by the mental action of spirits (they having no mechanical means of control such as coils and vacuum tubes for such uses). We know of no non-living force which can be so controlled, as, say, ordinary electricity. It follows that if mana is taken from the living at a séance and used to produce materializations or apports, the amounts of mana must be rather small, otherwise the medium and sitters in the circle would be far more depleted than they are. This leads to the conclusion that the mana must be “potentized” in some way so that a small amount of it can do spectacular things. In my book, I suggested the idea of stepping up the vibration of the force much as we do in handling electricity.

I have been taken to task for this comparison repeatedly, and will be for suggesting “potentizing” as a comparative process. But, be that as it may, it appears quite evident that something is done to change the vital force so that it can perform in a way not seen under ordinary circumstances. Perhaps we may eventually, thanks to pendulums and related semi-psychic extensions of our measuring mechanisms, learn exactly how low mana becomes High Mana and is used to break down non-normal parts in the body and rebuild them as normal or “healed.” In any event, so far as I can learn, Huna offers at this time the one and only simple, clear and logical explanation of what happens in this poorly lighted corner of the field in which we labor as HRAs.

THE STRANGE CASE OF ACHILLE D’ANGELO

[This] is an excellent example of (1) the lack of an explanation where Huna is not known, and (2) of the correctness of Huna in the matter of the projection of an invisible ectoplasmic “aka finger” accompanied by the use of much mana. This case was called to my attention by HRA E.S.S. of Buffalo, N.Y. It is given in full in the March, 1952, issue of STAG magazine, page 21, (author, John Zischang of the U.P.)

Achille D’Angelo, so the article relates, is an Italian. In his youth, he discovered that when walking 20 paces behind a beautiful girl in Naples, he felt an overpowering urge to reach out and touch her. His hand went through the motion of touching the girl in a caress. The girl reacted as if actually feeling the hand. She cried out and turned to see who had touched her. Seeing no one closer than 20 paces away, she fainted. (Supposedly from the fright of the supranormal experience.) D’Angelo vowed to use the strange power for good, and set about experimenting with it. It proved useful in healing, although the article says only that when this man visited New York recently, the Italians learned that he was there and swarmed to Wei in the hope of being healed, although he avoided them because such practices are outlawed here.

The writer of the article, won the opportunity to test the power to make his touch felt by another at a distance, and later brought in magicians, a psychical research officer and others to assist.

From across the room the white haired D’Angelo was able, under test conditions, to project an invisible hand and make its touch clearly felt on three different occasions. His subjects simply sat still with closed eyes so that they could not see when or how he made the motions with his hands. The writer was startled by having a finger jab him sharply in the back of the neck, and learned later that he had felt this when D’Angelo had jabbed the woman of the. local S.P.R. in the back of the neck as part of the demonstration.

In addition to the definite “touches,” there were things which are commonly observed at materialization séances – gusts of wind on the face and arms and the sound of scuffling feet running around the subject on the carpeted floor during the time lag of about 1-1/2 minutes. (Remember the time lag noted by HRA Cameron in waiting for the Aurameter to react to force beams from the hands.) During this minute and a half, D’Angelo and his observer had walked once around the subject, but had not approached closer than ten to twelve feet.

The fact that definite “touches” were made and clearly felt, shows that the “aka finger” of the Huna system actually can be projected. That this aka projection can be filled with invisible ectoplasmic substance taken from the body of the operator is to be guessed. (We have but to recall the experiments of Dr. Crawford with the Goligher girl, Kathleen around the year 1922, to reach the conclusion that the ectoplasm came from the sensitive. In that series of tests, similar touches were made across a room on a table sprinkled with red dye – the dye returning with the ectoplasmic projection after the test and staining the girl’s clothing and skin at the point of exit and entry. See page 68 of your Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science by Dr. Nandor Fodor.)

The only thing that leaves a person exhausted is an exhaustion of the vital force or mana. Doctors recognize this fact now. In the case of D’Angelo, he was left so depleted by each demonstration that he had to have a considerable period of rest before he could make the “touch” again. When demonstrating, his face became red and he panted as with a great exertion as, we must remember, did the mesmerist observed in Hollywood not long ago when he worked up his mesmeric power in preparation for the work of knocking subjects unconscious from their chairs.

One more thing, and this is very important to a full understanding of the matter. The mana is involved in the production of ectoplasm of the invisible kind that forms the “aka finger” which is reached out to touch the subject. This ectoplasm, even when remaining invisible, can be hardened or strengthened by the mana and/or an action of consciousness (presumably of the Aunihipili in this case) so that it is as if solid and material. (In Dr. Crawford’s tests, the invisible “ectoplasmic rod” was extended from the girl’s body and was solid and strong. It rang a bell or lifted a heavy table.)

While the magician friends and other experts who tested D’Angelo with the article writer could offer no explanation, even while not admitting that what they saw was not stage trickery, the case gives us one more unit of proof to place behind Huna as we at present conclude that it must be. Step by step by step we arrive at clearer understanding of the way the unseen elements of the three selves of man can and do work.

PRAYER AND MANA EXHAUSTION

Prayer and mana exhaustion have often gone together for many of us in our Huna prayer-action experiments and in the TMHG as well, as when trying to heal individuals with physical contact. The pendulum test of the normal charge of mana, also is good for the surcharge, and for the condition of charge after mana has been sent along the aka thread to the Aumakua or Po`e Aumakua, where the flow may possibly be divided many times and in some manner “potentized” greatly for use on that level of being as well as on the physical level.

Sleep is the natural reaction to a lack of mana. I have found that I had fallen asleep toward the end of a TMHG period. Others have had the same experience. All of us have swiftly revived. However, it is my opinion that, if one successfully establishes a circular or up-and-back flow of mana with na Aumakua, and is careful to ask for the return flow as in the words, “Let the RAIN of blessings fall,” the mana, as the pure water-mana of “rain,” will not only be returned but will be watched for by the Aunihipili and accepted. Just a little “potentized” or high mana, according to our present theory, will vivify one amazingly, as well as act to heal and otherwise aid the physical or mental man.

A TEST FOR THE PRAYER POSITION was made by me at the Study this week and I suggest that it be tried and that we pool our findings in the matter. Kneeling for prayer seems to go back for many centuries, and this may have significance as a physical stimulus for the Aunihipili to get it to do its part in the making of the contact with the Aumakua. (This is especially true for one who has been accustomed in childhood to kneel for prayer, as the Aunihipili has learned that signal as a prelude to prayer.)

The Baron Ferson method of gathering a surcharge of mana is to extend the arms away from the body at the sides and to spread the feet and legs as far apart as one can comfortably. He thought, at the time at which I knew him, that the hands and feet were thus stuck out beyond the oval aura which surrounds the body, and into the atmosphere where the “Universal Life Force” flowed and could be collected by an effort of will. This may be right. The stance and method work very well. On the contrary, we may guess that if we wish to keep the mana charge close in the body, we should draw the legs and arms close to the bodily centers. Kneeling does this and so does clasping the hands over the chest in the time-honored attitude of prayer.

MY EXPERIMENT was that of kneeling, placing my hands together for prayer in the usual way, and bowing my head. In India they believe that prang or living force, runs from the end of the spine to the top of the head and out of the top at “The Door of Brahman.” Just where it goes from there or what it does, is not too clear. In our Huna work we have found mediums picking up the aka threads with a winding movement of the hand over the subject’s solar plexus and, feeling sure that the solar plexus is the center of the Aunihipili and the point from which its aka threads rise to the Aumakua, we have something else to go on. Suppose we say that the Aunihipili sends mana over the aka thread from the solar plexus region outside the body, and that this strong aka thread is guided between the hands and comes up between the cupped palms and out through the space between the finger tips. Note that there will be a small space between the two middle or second fingers if the finger tips are brought to a point instead of being spread out like a fan to a slight extent. The first, third and fourth fingers touch in this position which we are testing, but not the second.

One first assumes this position just as a test to see that it is easy to assume. Then the mana surcharge is accumulated and the position again assumed. The picture is then mentally held for the Aunihipili – the picture of the forces flowing up to the Aumakua through the aka thread passing upward from the tips of the second fingers, but, in addition, the picture is held of the force rising from the spinal region and coming out through the top of the bowed head. The head being bowed, the flow from it points to the upward flow on the aka thread or cord rising from the hands. Picture them joining and flowing upward. Ask for the return flow.

On other days, experiment by picturing the flow as rising first from hands, then from head, alternating slowly or rapidly. And, as the third experiment, try picturing the complete mana circuit of flow established and going up to the Aumakua by one route and returning by the other, or alternating. If your experience is like mine has been, I think it probable that you will find the top of the head is where the return flow comes back into the body. You may experience some unusual sensory stimulation, but that is something I cannot predict. Please report back so that we can average our findings in the mechanics of prayer as to position, and have a report on the results in a Bulletin.

A POSTSCRIPT ON D’ANGELO might be added here. This gentleman was at some pains to explain that he had learned early in his experiments that he could not control the projected part of himself – in the tangible form of a hand – and be sure what part of another person it might touch, especially with women. For this reason, he explained, he made it a habit to demonstrate only on men and so save the chance of embarrassment. This shows very clearly that the Aunihipili is the one sending out the aka hand to make the touch. It also shows that, in doing so, it is acting on its own although it may have been caused to act by a command from the Auhane. This agrees with our Huna findings that we can only issue the order, as na Auhane, when it is time to contact the Aumakua in prayer and send the offering of mana. The Aunihipili must take over then and make the contact as well as send the flow – while we relax and hold before us the mental images of the conditions which we desire to have provided for us in our bodies or surroundings. It takes some time to train the Aunihipili to its part in effective prayer, but it also takes time to teach the Aunihipili to play its part so we can read.

AURAMETER TESTS ARE OPENING FIELDS FOR EXPLORATION

HRA S.P. writes from New Jersey that he has been making tests with his Aurameter an several things, locating auras and beams of force, also sensing the pull of the flow of the beams much as HRA Cameron feels the flow in beams rising from underground water columns. (S.P. writes) “As I sat in my chair adjusting the head of the Aurameter according to page 3 of the instructions, I noticed that when I got the head of the meter in balance it was strongly attracted to the head of my bed near the south wall of my room – really southwest. I followed the pull and the Aurameter outlined for me a cylinder of mana, or other force, about 4 feet in diameter, with a downward flow as shown by the downward pull of the head of the meter until it reached the level of the bed and turned at a right angle – to pass through the wall of the room and out into the yard. I have not traced it far enough outside to know where it goes. This is not a thought-form, but a continuous downpour of mana. I have measured it every day, morning, noon and night from January 15th to February 4th and the force never varies in size or direction of flow. I think it is a continuous downpour of mana from the Aumakua. I also think it has healing power, for whenever I have trouble with my eyes, I can go and lie down with my head in the downpour and ask to be healed, and I am healed.”…. It must be remembered that HRA S.P. has given much time daily to prayer, and that this is something that may have been building over a considerable period. From such an experienced student in the psycho-religious field, and one with excellent psychic gifts, such a report as this cannot but carry weight and set us all thinking on new lines. There seems to be a whole world of forces and vibrations of which we have been almost unaware, but which need greatly to be understood.

ADDITIONAL BACH REMEDIES INFORMATION has just come in as I write, this time from HRA Mrs. R.M. in the East. She gives the following: “Two small paper covered books by Edward Bach may be had from Ideal Health Stores, Inc., 30 West 36th St., New York 18, N.Y. The books are, The Twelve Healers and other Remedies – in this one giving the names of the flowers and how to use them and for what. Heal Thyself – an explanation of the real cause of disease and the cure, a very wonderful book, I think. There is another that I have not seen, The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach, Physician, by Nora Weeks. All are published in England.” (Send self addressed post card for prices.)

A SECOND REPORT FROM HRA DONALD KENDALL has come concerning the healing of the pains in his feet which went almost entirely away after a few treatments by Rev. Jessie Curl and her spirit guide, Hoo`la. He writes, “… a week after the third treatment, there was a recurrence of the arthritic pains, but they were much different than [they were] before beginning the treatments. Where before the pain was steady, it now comes occasionally in surges, then disappears for periods… The pains are sharper but briefer. As the condition has been there for several years, I certainly do not expect an instantaneous healing. I am inclined to think something is working out there.”

HOO`LA appears at a seance attended by Don and in his letter he goes on to say, “On the evening of January 23rd, I had a private seance at his home with Dr. Dickson. When his control, Minnie Brown, materialized, I asked her what she thought of Mr. and Mrs. Curl. She replied that they were wonderful people. Then there materialized a heavily built form which walked out a short distance from the curtain (of the materialization cabinet) and announced itself in a low, husky voice, as Hoo`la. While the form remained there briefly, a slightly higher pitched voice said to give his greetings to Mrs. Curl and predicted that in a not too long time, she would return to England, where she is wanted badly. I turned to Minnie and asked whether Hoo`la spoke English. She said that one of his helpers, Kapiolani, had spoken for him.” It may be noted here that the most famous woman of that name in Hawaii was of the native nobility and, after becoming converted to Christianity, went with the missionaries in early 1825 to break the taboos surrounding the volcano of Kilauea and the worship of Pele.

REV. JESSIE CURL writes that she will be at the Stewart Hotel, 351 Geary St., San Francisco 1, Calif., until the end of February. She has no plans ahead, and cannot say where she and Mr. Curl will go next. I give this information because so many have written to me to ask whether their vicinity will be visited and if so, when. No answer can be given to this question at present. Letters reporting successful results from her treatments continue to come in. It will be recalled that Huna is the science of man both in life and after death, at least in so far as it presents a rounded system of psychology. Spirit healing, therefore, is a definite and legitimate part of the practices of Huna.

IF YOU ASK FOR EXTRA COPIES OF THE HRA BULLETIN to be sent to you or to a friend, please be informed that copies cannot be sent for 2¢ in postage unless 20 identical pieces are mailed at one time. An extra copy must go by regular mail and this takes 6¢. Cigbo will be greatly served in keeping up the stamp supply, if postage to this amount is sent with each Bulletin requested for self or a friend. Bulletins bound in volumes can go by parcel post, but not as “printed matter” or under “book rate,” one volume costing 19¢ to send into the 8th zone from Hollywood. Bulletin 71 with the index, takes 9¢.

SENDING MANA TO NA AUMAKUA as the basic element in all offering of “SACRIFICES” has brought up the question as to whether or not the mana of a sick or impure body was acceptable. Also, whether the mana of a “sinner” was pure enough to send. This is a very important thing to understand correctly. We have no way to know by direct insight what impurities may be carried on the mana flows to na Aumakua or what the results of such a sending may be. However, we have in Huna the evidence that the same problem was met and an answer evolved thousands of years ago – when the language of Polynesia was being evolved. The same problem was met in early religions such as Christianity, in fact, in any religion demanding sacrifices to the gods. Most religions lost sight of the secret behind sacrifice – the secret that mana was the one and only acceptable thing to be offered.

In the roots and symbol meanings of the language of na kahuna, we find the answers to our own questions as given above. The word lele, in the Hawaiian dialect of the Polynesian language group, has the meaning of “jump, fly, ascend quickly.” It also means “an altar for sacrifice” or a place from which the something of the sacrifice rises. The human body is the altar from which mana rises in our prayer actions as our sacrifice. This fact allows us to understand the significance of the word lele`wai, which means “to cleanse or purify.” Literally, the combined root words mean “to cause water to fly upward.” We who know the secret symbol of wai, or water, know that it is mana.

The mana flies upward to na Aumakua and, quite apparently, it was long since discovered that in this very act of sacrifice, “cleansing and purifying” were inherent, so that it could not contaminate na Aumakua. Knowing the inner symbolic meaning of lele`wai, we can see how the priests of early religions who had lost the inner meaning may have come to get the idea that “flying water” in connection with sacrifice indicated a cleansing by washing something or some person. Ceremonial washing was universal in early religions in the Near East. In Christian teachings, however, some of the inner meaning must have been retained, for baptism and the later forgiveness of sin by sprinkling with “holy water” used by a priest, was not a body cleansing. It was a cleansing of the spirit of man from all past deeds classed as “sinful.” It is also probable that the idea of using water as a physical stimulus in giving strong suggestion that “sins” were being washed away, was an echo of the complete rite of na kahuna by which fixations of guilt (or other fixations) were removed, so that the one so cleansed might have his “path” cleared – might again be able to send mana to his Aumakua via his Aunihipili in the normal manner and so obtain desired answers to prayers.

For our purposes, as we work to win back a working understanding of Huna, it is enough that we learn that the sacrificial offering of mana is acceptable no matter what the condition of the one making the offering. All that we need to worry about is the necessity of living the kindly, helpful and HURTLESS life. Na Aumakua are very kind. This we learn over and over. They stand ready to cleanse our soiled faces times without number when we look up to them. Huna is very simple, very easily understood and very easy to live by, once the secret of its symbols are brought to light.

HRA N.B. WRITES from Dallas, “I know that I am not a very good member, but of one thing I am sure; I have had a tremendous amount of help from belonging to our HRA organization. It is nothing specific that I can put my finger on, but I find that small worries that used to bother me, never get a hearing now. My health has become much better and I am ever so much happier, and to me that is a great help. I admit that I do not understand all of the theories of Huna, but that seems not to be necessary. I absorb the ideas like a sponge.

“My comment on this delightful report is that we all seem to be very much like that. We may not understand clearly the new ideas which we encounter in Huna and related fields, but we keep absorbing them by degrees, and eventually they become ordered and ready to hand for our use. Little by little they make themselves felt for good in our lives and actions. Little by little we build broader and more satisfactory philosophies of life and being for ourselves. Little by little we become better able to Serve and feel the joy of Service. Our final goal is as clear as it is simple. We grow slowly toward being “Utterly Trustworthy” in our use of all the things given us to use, be they material things, thoughts or forces. One follows the ancient way asking first for knowledge, for understanding, and for light on the obscure teachings. Once this comes, the rest is simple. The dark shackles of ignorance, superstition and dogma fall away. We find that the former weighty obstacles to “living the life” fade into absurdities. We are allowed to return to the quiet and peaceful normal [way] of living. We smile to see and realize that the Powers that created us and the level of life and intelligence which we now know have made no mistakes. It is only man who makes the mistakes in his efforts to correct the imaginary mistakes of the Creators. M.F.L.