September-October, 1967

The Essene Heritage and
Kahunas of Today

 

GOOD NEWS has come from Dr. Martin A. Larson, HRA, whose new book, THE ESSENE HERITAGE, was announced in brief in the last issue of the H.V. He writes “Thank you for the fine write up which you gave the book in the last HUNA VISTAS. Since I will shortly have a good supply of copies on hand, you may, if you wish, tell your people that they may order them directly from me, postpaid, at $3.00 for one copy; or that I will send two copies for $5.00. They cost me $3.00 – the wholesale price, and at the price I offer, I will be losing a bit, but that is OK, for I can deduct it from my taxable income. I want to get the book known.” (With his generosity he may not have much left on which to pay the income tax.) The regular price of the book from dealers is $4.95 and more than worth it. Dr. Larson’s address is 4108 East Stanford Dr., Phoenix, Ariz. 85018.

THE ESSENE HERITAGE is a “must” book for anyone who makes any pretense of being an “occultist” or a fair student in the metaphysical or psycho-religious field. Like Dr. Larson’s RELIGION OF THE OCCIDENT, this new book is making available the information one must have to be able to form an opinion as to the nature of Christianity, its source, and, especially, its significance.

The SIGNIFICANCE, in terms of our HRA approach and needs, centers to a large extent on the questions of WHERE and HOW the beliefs of Christianity evolved, and WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE VALID. The truth of the teachings of the Four Gospels is something we must keep carefully apart from the DOGMAS that have for centuries been invented and laid over the original Gospels – one might say, laid over and hammered down with blood and fire to try to make them hold.

In his RELIGION OF THE OCCIDENT, Dr. Larson did a magnificent job of chopping down through the middle of a great religious MESS and separating the bits of the original Gospel teachings from the amazing accumulation of quite foreign beliefs and dogmas which had been added. He showed how this or that or the other thing had been dragged in by the ears because it would bring with it its own followers and make the developing Christian doctrines more to their liking. Having chopped down the center, he took up the branches in order, showing how this dogma grew, and how the next was borrowed as century followed century. In studying his wood pile, one sees very soon that no study of the Bible or the field of Christianity can be based on the Old or New Testament alone. The roots came from as deep as ancient Egypt and India. Modern Christianity is only a dying branch at the top of the tree. The tree of Christianity may be likened to a sapling on which grafts from other trees were spliced in as fast as the little tree grew and a place could be found for the splicing of a fresh twig.

There is no question but that Christianity, as known at the turn of the last century, is dying and is doomed. The Scientific Age has crashed down upon our heads and survival is becoming a matter of knowing what is based on fairly well established truth, and what is based on untrue history, false dogmas and particularly IMPRACTICAL teachings.

In THE ESSENE HERITAGE, Dr. Larson traces from the several sources of information concerning the beginnings of the Essenes [and] the growth of their communal life. They held all things in common and imitated as closely as possible the old family life that went before the gathering of families into tribes and nations. In the FAMILY, the communal life was a necessity. It provided care for the child, then for the adult and finally, the aged. The defective members of the family were cared for and also those injured in the hunting of wild beasts. The family offered security in exchange for individual accumulation of property. In the Essenes the life was artificial and impractical. However, by insisting that all who entered the Essene community first donate all their possessions, and later, if they worked outside and came at evening the the center, they bring in all their earnings. To make the security of the group more attractive, it was given religious sanction and members were promised (with promises thinly based on Bible writings and especially the words of the prophets) a special “salvation” which was not to be enjoyed by the wicked on the outside.

It is most interesting to see how the communal and religious elements mingled, one supporting another, until a fanaticism developed on the part of each member – a fanaticism which included blind belief and willing obedience. In the search for things to be given up in order to cleanse the soul and make it worthy of the salvation reserved for the faithful, it was inevitable that sex should be condemned as a prize wickedness. Contrary to the fact that the commune had been patterned after the family, this fanatical system turned on the family and the sex life of men and women which made the family practical and possible. If allowed to grow and include the community at large, the Essene system would have ended in disaster, with no children to carry on the race. The crazed ideas became more and more impractical as the cult survived a series of attacks which drove it into the desert regions. Naturally, they needed a man to stand as a divine image before the members, and in one of their own early leaders they found one, the “Teacher of Righteousness”, and divinity was gradually added. The salvation which was reserved for the members of the cult became more and more valuable and exclusive, so that more outsiders had a great desire to get admission to the fold.

When they asked what they had to do to be allowed to partake of the great new salvation, they were told, “Sell all, and give to the poor.” This is a very familiar phrase which we remember from the Gospels, but what we do not know is that the Essenes called themselves “The Poor” and it was to the order that all was to be given. Items like this are given us one after the other by Dr. Larson, and we come to see very soon that from the Essenes came the dogmas of the Gospels.

In long charts of comparison Dr. Larson lays before us the Essene originals and the secondary appearance of similar or identical items in the Gospels. All of this adds up to overwhelming evidence that the teachings of the Gospels came directly from those of the Essenes. It is such evidence as will convince anyone of open mind, but, of course, the blind leaders of the blind, and the blind, will refuse with fanatical stubbornness to look or listen.

AS TO THE REALITY OF JESUS as a man, Dr. Larson takes the position that, if he were an historical figure, he would, necessarily, have had to be one of the Essenes, and human. If the story of Jesus as we have it in the Gospels is NOT pure initiatory drama, and IF it has a sufficient amount of truth in it to justify the belief that Jesus actually lived as a man in the flesh, some very interesting conclusions are forced upon the student by the assembled and very telling facts which are presented in the Essene literature and beliefs there came to be warped bits of older prophesies or bits made from whole cloth. Foremost in this strange collection were the prophesies concerning the end of the world and the advent of the divine Teacher who would rule the earth and sort out the good Essenes (who had been chosen before the creation) and the bad outsiders who had been pre-ordained to be lost for an equally long time. As Jesus, at least in the single source of this supposed bit of history, the Four Gospels, set out to act the part described in the Essene prophesies, one may come to either of two conclusions.

First, if Jesus was a real man, he set out deliberately to make himself fit the prophesies and play the part as prescribed in them. He must also have had the crazed belief that he was divine and that he actually would sit on the right hand of God after the arrival of the “Great Day” and administer justice according to Essene standards – a justice that would go very hard on the wicked Jews who had made so much trouble for the cult and its members.

The second conclusion can only be that the Gospels were written as versions of a mystery play to be used to instruct candidates in the mysteries, AND that Jesus was only a fictional character in the play. (This is the conclusion that was reached by mfl in THE HUNA CODE IN RELIGIONS, and it is made even more unavoidable by the work of Dr. Larson in his new book.)

Living as we do in a time when great changes are tumbling over themselves in the speed with which each comes, we have a certain individual obligation which cannot be escaped. We still line up as a “Christian nation” and as citizens, we need to be aware of the possible results of the falling apart of dogmatic Christianity. The impact is being felt suddenly where the fear of Hell has suddenly been taken away from the masses. A hundred years ago the religion of the masses would have done much in tempering the present outbreaks of rioting, looting and attempting to kill for reasons of HATE. The impractical idea that a nation can revert to the way of life of the FAMILY has left a gap that religion tried to fill for centuries but never could. While we are watching the police power of religion vanish as of over night, we can look behind us and see political and social change being suddenly forced on the Free World by the simple fact of the population explosion. No longer are there enough places at the table for the children. We see the elders holding to their places and privileges and possessions like grim death and at the same time hoping that the old way of having police protection for properties and the privileges of property and political standing will continue. But the children can no longer be made to go hungry through threats of hell or fear of the police. They have become so angry that they are willing to burn their own homes in order to burn with them the homes and possessions of the entrenched elders.

It is high time that we study the information now before us and see HOW the impractical dogmas arose. When we see this clearly, we will be able to cut free from the commonly held and equally impractical IDEALS which have so long ruled us as members of a “Christian Nation.” If we can  come to see things as they really are, we may be able to begin to do something about guiding the CHANGES which are upon us – like them or not.

In other words, the few of us who have open minds and are able to do so, must try to act as the leaven that leavens the lump. Our task is to make ourselves informed so that we can see behind the ancient lies of religion and the not so ancient “ideals” of society and politics. We must get a clear and straight look at WHAT LIES BEHIND THE PRESENT SITUATION in the world. We must share our rational point of view with as many others as possible.

As I see it, we are still trying to hold fast to a way of life that fitted after a fashion in the last century, but which no longer does. The old religions are built on false beliefs for the most part, and where the beliefs have been false, everything that they supported YESTERDAY of morality falls apart TODAY. Scientific progress has brought changes and forced them upon the world which, clinging to the old, has not taken more than a single step to meet the changes.

We can no longer let “Nature take its course” as in the past. We have upset Mother Nature in her use of plague and famine to keep the population in bounds. We have let our commercial system of “the devil take the hindmost” keep functioning without seeing (or caring) that those which the devil has overtaken and who are not able to get jobs or find ways of earning a living have risen to such numbers that their cumulative wrath – plus the scientific gift of gasoline and bottles and guns – now threatens black revolution. We have already seen Nature adjusting herself to the new situation, and when she steps in to clean up a part of a situation, the results are disaster.

Once in the bulletins I said that what we had to do is to see things as they have become, then to use our heads and PLAN a corrected social structure. Several of the HRAs who thought I was advocating Communism, blew their tops and gave me both barrels. From what they said, they wanted to turn back the clock and refuse to admit that times and population pressures had changed. I have a few good friends (not in the HRA) who grow red with rage at the mention of the people supported on “welfare” and “at OUR expense”. They seem to want to exterminate the swelling under level of the “unpossessed”. These are not the “dispossessed”, for they never have had anything from the beginning. Our present hit and miss methods of trying to deal with this very dangerous situation is a step in the right direction, but all of us who see clearly must do what we can to aid progress in every direction. The clock CANNOT be turned back. Our police and the National Guard failed to hold the few angry men in Detroit who raced with fire and guns through so much of the city and destroyed it. The army had to be called out as well. The old methods do not suffice. With modern weapons and deadly hate, the unpossessed bent on plain revenge can burn all the cities in the land. We haven’t enough soldiers to stop them. One of the HRAs who was in Detroit when the rioting was going on, has written me of her experience and observations. Nature is taking her course, and “those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad (angry to madness)” is a saying worth consideration. At the rate things are going, it will be only a matter of days until the orders are “Shoot to kill rioters and arsonists.” Opposing that will be the whispered word, “Set fires by night.” The cost of policing will mount so rapidly that it will soon be much greater than the cost of providing the additional places for the children at the table. The unpossessed have discarded religion as we advocate it and have made a religion of their own – one more fanatical and dangerous and contra love than Christianity in the days of the Inquisition. It is the religion of Revolt and Revenge. In Vietnam the Cong have a similar religion, and we see how fanatical and willing to die for it they are. (Meantime, we fight to protect the old way of the landlords, the Catholics and the Buddhists in their monasteries telling their beads between excursions with the begging bowl outside.)

ON THE OTHER HAND we must school ourselves NOT to become fearful or filled with negative and pessimistic thoughts when we turn to face up to the realities of the present situation. We must hold the attitude of mind which welcomes with courage the signs of changes for the better, and we must by all means prevent the Aunihipili from getting fearful.

A daily inspection of the Aunihipili is an excellent thing to do. Quiet down and see what comes up from the lower part of you. Consider the emotions and frets and fears that will be laid bare, and for the benefit of both the selves, begin to “count your many blessings”. Remember that things about which you can do nothing for the time being are to be put aside and, especially, not to be taken to bed to be worried about. This is “Concept Therapy” in its simplest and best form – it is talking to the Aunihipili and cleansing it of the fears it may have, groundless fears of something that may never happen. Keep the hopeful things to the fore, and while doing what can be done to avoid the bad that might come, put that aside and concentrate on the GOOD. The Aumakua builds the future for us, and should find in our night minds when it visits, all the hopeful and constructive thoughts, not the fears. The Aunihipili also reacts to what is impressed on it. If we give it fears and angers, it will fret inwardly and give us an ailment in the hope that in this way it can get some form of parental aid such as it remembers from childhood.

Everything except the accidents common to the nature of the physical level, starts out as a thought or idea, be it a new pair of shoes or quitting the job. An Aunihipili filled with negative thoughts will prompt us to negative ideas or anticipations instead of positive and good ones. We all need to watch ourselves, particularly these days when change is in the air and uncertainty tends to undermine courage and confidence.

The Stories For Children

In the latest installment of the Stories for Children which I am writing as time allows, I have just stressed the clearing of the Aunihipili of fears and negative emotions in a Huna lesson aimed at the children. The Fairies had become dwellers in the Garden, and the children wished very much to be able to see them. Mother explained that only when one became entirely quiet inside could one see the Fairies and receive the magic kiss and touch of the little Fairy Queen. In the story, the children dredge up their little frets and fears and jealousies, talk them out, and get rid of them. One by one they succeed and come to be able to see the Fairies. If the children who read the stories can absorb this lesson, it will stand them in good stead all their lives. Let me quote a bit from the yarn to give you who do not see the series, the flavor. The six pairs of six shades of color are now seven and all are seated with Mother around the empty Fairy ring where they hope to see the Fairies appear. Mother had encouraged the children to tell of anything that bothered them so that they could not become peaceful and calm and quiet inside.

Eve White asked, “Can I tell about something that worries me? I am ashamed to tell it, but it does.”

“Of course,” replied Mother. “We are all your friends, and perhaps we can help you if we only listen to what you have to say. Go ahead.”

Eve hung her head miserably. “I am jealous of Eve Black. She is so perfectly black and beautiful. She didn’t get bleached like I did, not a tiny bit. I am jealous of her and ashamed of my white color. I’m the worst bleached of all. I have to watch that I don’t get burned by the sun …. and my hair is yellow and I have freckles on my nose….”

Eve Black jumped up and ran to kneel beside her and to take her into her arms. “Now, Honey, don’t you ever say such a thing again!” she said softly. “I was never going to tell a single soul, but I’ve been jealous of you, and that is because I think you are just the most beautiful girl ever! Even your freckles are cute, and your blue eyes are just like flowers!”

Eve White put her hands over her face. “I’m afraid I’m going to cry,” she whispered …………

Mother smiled at her gently, then turned to look into the Fairy ring. “The Fairy Queen has come,” she said under her breath, and all the children tried their best to see the little Queen, but not one of them could. “It was love and gentleness that made her come,” said Mother. “Love makes her come best of all. But now she has gone again ………..”

ON SECOND THOUGHT, I believe I will give you the affirmation which Mother gave the children in the story to use. You might find it useful or might be able to pass it  on.

Mother said, “Say this firmly, so that your animal self will believe you and will remember what you say, ‘I AM FREE FROM ANY FEAR OR DREAD. I am safe and happy and at peace with my friends and WITHIN MYSELF. My very own Aumakua will come to help me at any time if I need it and call. ALL IS WELL. ALL IS BEAUTY.  ALL IS PEACE.'”

MISCELLANEOUS

“SUBUD” bobs up again. I had almost forgotten the stir caused a time ago by the Subud teaching of Pak Subud from Java, but in my mail today (as I work on this issue of the H.V.) there came a letter which I will quote in part. (The underlines will be mine.)

I have an entity which speaks to me intuitively, writes to me with my hand, can form words in my visionary eye or consciousness and I can read her when she writes to me. Claims she is female and is my guide and can relate scenes, incidents, can throw scenes of former happenings in my life from childhood on to the present. days, knows and relates to me my dreams, what I think about and answers me before I can formulate my question to her. She plays many tricks on me and tells me I need these lessons as I am too gullible.

“I have been opened to this entity while being in the ‘SUBUD’ organization in Detroit. In our Latihan meetings almost every member had contacts with such entities. Would you please inform me on this matter from your experiences.” (It is evident from the rest of the letter that this gentleman is worried and wants help help that I only wish I knew how to give. At best, all I can advise is to fight off the “voice” at any cost and refuse to listen to it in the  hope that it will go away.)

The point in passing on this letter is to remind anyone who may be invited to try Subud and the Latihans to stay away from it. In the “Latihans” students are told to blank their minds and do or say whatever may come to them. It is a fine formula for providing a “house all swept and garnished” for any evil entity to enter and take over. The teachings of Subud are harmless enough in themselves, but this practice is dangerous. Several times I have heard of people picking up evil spirits in this way. There is free mana in Latihan groups and the spirits take over and cause the victims to do and say things they would not under normal circumstances. Any abnormal practice, physical or mental, is “out” in so far as Huna is concerned This goes for taking drugs and running the risks of being damaged as a result. True, many try drugs and seem not to be the worse for it later, but there are many who are on the bare edge of mental normality, and these need only a slight push to send them over the brink. Normal and natural ways are safest and best for us all.

HUNA GETS RESULTS, reports HRA Mrs. E.N. of California in a recent letter. I quote in part:

“Your books are of inestimable value to anyone with an open, searching mind to use with their own church. I have loaned my copies to a very devout Catholic and she desperately wants copies of the books in paperbacks (sadly, there are none in this form owing to the small demand. mfl) to send to her husband who is overseas in the armed forces …….

“I had a big breakthrough and got my Aunihipili to confess it’s worries and thus got rid of a very nervous condition that was frustrating. I had a prophetic dream of death and had subconsciously become afraid of an accident. My Aunihipili brought to my mind every accident or near accident that had ever happened to me. It seems that once you know the source of something like this it no longer bothers you. At any rate, I am no longer ‘a bundle of nerves.’

“I was doing Astrology charts on the San Andreas Fault (running up and down California north to south) to see if I could detect an astrological pattern for earth quakes. I sent the copy of my chart done for April 18, 1906 (the great quake that caused the San Francisco fire and quake disaster) to a friend. She sent it back and said it was all wrong. It was. The chart did fit Sept. 18, 1967, however. I am now wondering whether your run on the Tarot cards might show a quake coming around September 17th or 18th, 1967?”

MY COMMENT included (in my letter to her) the result of a run of the Tarot Cards as requested. You all may be interested in the card which, at least for me, has been selected as one best suited to stand for an earthquake. “JUDGMENT”, No. XX is for the less destructive quakes. It shows the “last judgment” with Gabriel blowing his horn and the graves opening so that the long dead arise. I suppose the opening of the graves has something to do with the quake significance. Then, for the really big quakes the “TOWER” No. XVI is used. It shows a tall tower struck by lightning and two figures falling from the tower. This card is the one of disaster in any connection, of course. As to my run in this case, four cards came ahead of the Judgment card, their reading being “business as usual” in my code of meanings. My conclusion is that there may be a hard shake later on, but not just yet, and that, when it comes, it will not be one of the bad ones. If I remember correctly, there is not too great an agreement in Astrological circles about which aspects indicate quakes. With my system of running the Tarot Cards, unfortunately, I have not yet worked out a reliable method for deciding at what future time a predicted condition or event may come. I once thought I had it licked, but in almost the first test, I saw that a predicted event in my own life would not happen until I reached the ripe old age of 412 years – and that was too long to wait, so I discarded the system, but still have not found a better one.

HRA F.J., of South Africa, writes in a recent letter: “One sometimes wonders, regarding health, whether Karmic conditions can be alleviated – if they are all one’s own doing. I am sure that somewhere down the line the Aumakua stands with loving understanding and must help one.”

I COMMENT: Many HRAs, like myself, have come up through the various levels of religion, including Theosophy, on the way to Huna, and some of the old beliefs accepted from Theosophy still need to be given a reconsideration in the light of Huna about once a year. The belief in Karmic Laws of Cause and Effect, when modified from the older Indian concepts by Theosophy, is all to reasonable. To add to this rational sense is the same thing appearing in the Gospels – “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” This is a little different, but is rather firmly set.

When Huna was lost in ancient India, there was lost with it the knowledge of the three selves and their three manas, aka bodies, etc. Because of this loss, a SINGLE KARMA was assigned to man as a SINGLE soul unit, and even if the single soul unit or concept did retain in Yoga and the Gita a vague Aunihipili, this did not cause Karma to be divided to give a special kind to each self, which would have been logical.

In Huna we have man as a triune being made up of three spirits or selves, each of which has lived a different length of time, and each of which is at a different stage of evolution. Each of the three selves, because of its individual experience, has made its own Karma, so to speak. Each has set in motion actions which will, in the normal course of things, bring matching reactions.

The Karma of the Aunihipili is confused in Theosophy for that of the whole man, or the three self man. It is a physical Karma for the most part rather than a mental or Aumakua “spiritual” cause  and effect. The Gospel line quoted just ahead, shows that the Huna concept was there stressed of the Auhane and Aunihipili working as a team. The “heart” is the Aunihipili in Huna, and its fixations, fears or faiths cause definite results, good or bad, in the life of the man. The Auhane is the “thinker” in this statement, the “man” who “thinketh”, but the Aunihipili is the “heart” where the thoughts are remembered and bring about reactions on the physical level. On this same level we all share the danger of “accidents” which is part of animal life. (We live in an animal body, like it or not.) The so called “Law of Karma” of which we hear so much in Theosophy, fails to take the accidental world into consideration in a definite way. It is not possible to force the usual idea of Karma to fit the many physical accidents. Take the disaster of the Titanic. It ran into an iceberg by chance and most of those aboard the great ship perished. By no possible stretch of imagination can we figure that everyone so lost had identical Karma.

The idea that Karma is almost impossible to balance is likewise poor thinking. We can’t balance the chance of an accident on the physical level, and on the level of the thinking parts of the man he begins to change results just as soon as he starts changing his thinking and action. The “frozen” nature of Karma is a great mistake and was, along with the belief in an endless number of reincarnations, the curse of India.

There may be some hidden memories carried over between incarnations by the Aunihipili. Geraldine Cummins, famous English medium, has reported investigating past lives of clients and finding in the past things carried over and secretly held as “fixations” by the present Aunihipili. For instance, a man developed a fear of signing papers and could not force himself to sign papers needed in his business. The probe of his past incarnation showed the medium that he had been ordered to sign away his property, and that when he had refused, had been punished by having his hand cut off. It is to be supposed that such carryovers of hidden memories are few and far between. Or, if they occur, seldom involve anything so drastic and compelling.

What, then, shall we say about the part Karma may be causing in our lives if we come upon ill health or “bad luck”, accidents …. or periods of mental stagnation?

First of all Huna frees us from the damning idea that we are having to pay for some sin of another life and that nothing can be done but suffer it out. That out of the way, we can settle down to the job of thinking over our actions and the conditions which surround us. We can decide on what actions we may take to better matters, or we can quiet down and let the Aunihipili pop into our thoughts its dreads and fears and great desires – any of which may have become irrational and be causing irrational acts which bring bad results. We CAN do something about “Karma” on the upper levels. And on the lowest level we can try our best to eat right and avoid accidents.

The kahunas seem to have found in their clients a major source of illness in guilt knowledge rather than guilt fixations. Before they undertook to heal a person they asked whether he had hurt someone who did not deserve being hurt. They knew that a sense of guilt could cause an Aunihipili to punish its man with illness or even cause him to have such accidents as might pay him back for the hurt done the other person. Some people, it was recognized, had little sense of right or justice, and so might not get a feeling of guilt as would a normal, kindly individual. But, in a land and time when the great command was NOT to hurt others, the sense of guilt was not to be  overlooked as a source of illness – nor is it today, unless one is an outlaw with no sense of right and wrong. The kahunas demanded that their clients make amends for hurts done others. They asked that good deeds be done to cause the Aunihipili to feel that it deserved healing, after which the cleansing rite was used and the healing came about naturally or with some assistance from the healer or the Aumakuas. (Or even from some spirit healer, so far as we know.)

Don’t sell CONSCIENCE short. The keener one’s sense of right and wrong, the more apt one is to have the Aunihipili punish for an offense of hurting another or, in the reverse, for having failed to help. (I do not know about national or race or even World Karma. There may be such a thing, but it looks to me as though the “cause and effect” matter was largely one for the individual or, at most, a small group in which the individual had responsibilities.)

Lastly, HATE must not be overlooked in the search for healing. Gautama said, “There is no pain like hate.” A modern psychologist will tell you that hate overstimulates some of the endocrine glands and keeps the hater in a state of being well poisoned. The poison may cause physical reactions or mental. Hate that gets stuck deeply in the Aunihipili is the most dangerous and needs most to be “talked away”. “Getting things off the chest” might be changed to “Getting things out of the Aunihipili.”

A NEW BOOK TITLED “HUNA”, by Elizabeth Straith Miller, was mentioned in the last issue of the Huna Vistas, and since then a review copy was sent in so that I can give more information. The price given was $3.75 and the address, Church of St. Michael, P.O. Box 495, West Covena, Calif. 91790, is correct. Very nicely printed with gold stamping on a green cloth cover, 48 pages, larger than the usual book size. In my mention of the work I said that I expected to find in it Huna mixed with the teachings of spirits. A letter from Mr. Verne A. Rodgers, of the church, writes to correct me, saying, “We agree with your statement ‘that spirits never agree on what they teach’ and regret that you have gained the impression that we are a spiritualistic type church.” I am happy to be corrected and to say that the new book makes this statement on page 46:

“There are many paths – some more rugged than others –  but the goal is the same and it is up to the individual to make his choice. The sequel to this introduction might very well be entitled Huna as an Art and as a Science. If it is ever written it will be only for those who have taken the first steps. One does not go into higher mathematics until he has mastered its fundamentals. To quote The Light of Michael, ‘While employing the concepts of the science of Mind, these teachings open the door to the “Science of the Soul.”‘”

“And who is Michael? The mechanistic world today has deluded itself into a belief that the age of prophecy and spiritual revelation is a thing of the past. It has lost its contact with the subtle realities of a meaningful life. Yet, scattered over the globe are groups of people who are receiving ancient teaching of Huna from a Spiritual Being whom they know as St. Michael.

“These groups are unknown to one another, but in each one is an individual chosen by Michael to be a channel for his revelations. This individual is not a medium, but is highly gifted in psychic and spiritual powers. Furthermore, he is dedicated to the service of mankind.

“The Christed Michael is referred to in the Bible as one who fought against the forces of evil, symbolized in Revelations as a dragon. But what is more important to us in this day and age is the uncovering of a teaching that Michael describes as one of the paths leading to Ultimate God and making it applicable to those who are ready to receive it.”

In the book the first 23 pages are given over to a general outline of Huna, and a certain Max Freedom Long is graciously mentioned with his first book as the source of the information given. But beginning on page 24 we come into St. Michael’s apparent additions, which include the Theosophical “Akashic Records”, and. the “aura”, which is described as “a force field of vital energy that surrounds and encases the physical body.” (This hardly fits the idea that man has three shadowy bodies and that the mana may or may not be active in each – hardly a general “force field”.) St. Michael has coined a pair of new words which no kahuna would be able to translate very exactly. These are “Cination.” (‘The creation of an archetypal pattern into which the universal substance takes it form and manifests in the exact likeness of the thing Cinated”.) Also the word, “Dekana”. We would say the mana generated by a group of people, as in olden times people joined in offering mana to the gods. St. M. says the mana power is increased ten times by the individuals added as the group is enlarged. “Three people would generate one hundred times the power of a single individual”. (That is not quite like the Huna idea in which the mana is taken by the Aumakua and changed to a higher form so that it has power to make changes in circumstances or even substances.) St. M. also verifies Col. Churchward’s idea of “Mu” and the “Naacals”, (which might greatly surprise a kahuna, if one were alive today).

On page 41 we read a statement that would also surprise a real kahuna of the old days. I quote, “The kahunas used color in their treatment of disease and mental malfunctioning. They would actually open within themselves that center corresponding to the color which was lacking in the affected area, and flood it with the necessary healing qualities.”

“Today’s students of Huna are taught how to use the old kahuna’s method of healing insofar as color and tone are concerned. The deeper science is reserved as a sacred trust for those most qualified and best informed of its use. It has always been taught by word of mouth and is not for sale at any price. The reason for this is obvious.” (So far as I know, the kahunas had a very poor vocabulary to use when trying to describe color. Anything “dark” was “blue, for example. In the matter of tone, there is no  word in their vocabulary to indicate that sound was used in healing – or that the tone of a prayer or chant had anything to do with its effectiveness. The mana and the thought-form picture embodied in the words of the prayer were the things which the Aumakua could use in the healing process. On page 40, however, we read, “The kahunas could see sound and hear color  – the blending of the seven basic forces within the individual makes a natural alchemist of him.” (In Huna, as I know it, there are three manas, not seven, and they and they alone are the “basic forces” of the man.)

From the additions offered by the Christed St. Michael, one cannot help wondering if this exalted teacher is one of Blavatsky’s “Masters”, that is, one still fond of Theosophy, but more up- to-date, accepting with equal pleasure the ideas of Churchward and perhaps some of the entirely mundane metaphysical teachers who have evolved a system of color and tone healing along with modifications in ideas of “auras”, “rays” and other things missed by the out-of-date kahunas.

“DADDY” DAVID BRAY, who claims to be the last of the real kahunas, and who has often lectured in the U.S.A. in the past fifteen years (since my books came out and the public gradually became aware of the meaning of the word “kahuna” I was interviewed some months ago by Riley Crabb, of the B.S.R.A. journal. Recently I had the loan of the interview tape and the privilege of hearing what Mr. Bray had to say about his brand of Huna and of mine. I have often been asked by HRAs about his teachings, but have never attended his lectures or classes, and could only say that we differ widely on what the kahunas believed and did.

Mr. Bray once visited me, and I tried to compare notes with him on our two versions of Huna, but we soon gave up the discussion because the versions were too far apart to be brought within speaking distance. Mr. Bray would have none of the three selves or three manas or three shadowy bodies. To him the kahunas believed in a single soul, a single mana and in an ancestral spirit or Aumakua which was NOT part of the triune man but simply the deified soul of an ancestor. He would have none of my method of taking the meanings of Hawaiian words from the several meanings of the roots (nor would my friends Charles Kenn or Theodore Kelsey – both by way of being authorities on the language.)

In the tape interview Mr. Bray was asked about my version of “Huna” (a word he refuses to use). He answered by saying that one thing he gave me credit for was making the kahunas known to the public so that he could lecture on the subject and get proper audiences. But, he added, he did not at all agree with what I have said about the beliefs and practices of the kahunas. He said that my teachers had not known anything about the kahunas, and so could not have given me proper information. He mentioned Charlie Kenn, also Theo. Kelsey, and threw in for good measure a man by the name of Becker whom I have never had the pleasure of knowing even by letter. He told Riley that he knew the parents of my teachers and also their grandparents, and that none of them knew anything about the kahunas. It stood to reason, he argued, that what they taught me could not have been right. This is most amusing. The gentlemen named taught me nothing of Huna. To the contrary, they objected strenuously to having me use the method advocated by the maker of the oldest Hawaiian dictionary, and trying to get at the original and literal meaning of words by considering the meanings of the several root words from which the questioned word was composed. Mr. Kenn is probably the best informed man alive on Polynesian customs and history – a living encyclopedia. Why Mr. Kelsey, who has no Hawaiian blood, happened to decide to become an expert in Hawaiian language, I never learned. He was less than interested in the kahunas.

Mr. Bray had an uncle or Great Uncle, who was by way of being a kahuna. His family came from a long line of kahunas, and David learned much of the old lore as it is known (not much left when I started my investigation) and also learned some of the healing and other chants   which he can intone beautifully. From what I can learn, Mr. Bray, at his new home on the Kona Coast of Hawaii, has classes, mainly attended by white people, and teaches them a form of what I would call “Concept Therapy”. The class sits for half an hour with Mr. Bray, a lighted candle in the center of the circle made by the group, and the individuals are encouraged to watch what comes into their minds as they “meditate”, and to describe it so that Mr. Bray can interpret the meaning or at least comment on the possible significance. Much is claimed for this method as used by Mr. Bray. From the interview, I was unable to decide whether or not healing was to be expected through the group sittings, or was worked for in another manner. However, Mr. Bray speaks frequently of the fine results he has had in his healing work in which he uses the methods of the kahunas. Even a case of marked insanity was said to have been cured. Also other incurable conditions which doctors had been unable to help were described as responding at once to treatment. However, I gathered from the interview that teaching is the main activity, not healing.

MORE INFORMATION was sent in recently on the activities of “Kahuna” Clark Wilkerson (mentioned as advertising his work and books in Fate magazine, in the last issue of H.V.) His wife had an article about him and his work published in “The Southern California CLERGYMAN” and, in the article, she reported amazing success in teaching and healing, even reporting that graduates of the “Mystery” classes often turned out to be excellent healers. The methods used were described as those set forth in the Huna I write about, but with much more added (most of which a kahuna of old would wonder about). There are (I quote), “Astral travel, soul travel, healing, talking with animal and plant life, communication with the Venusians and other Space Beings, rituals, the making of talismans, etc., mind expansion invocation and the most wonderful of all – turning within and bringing up to the surface the FULL POWER OF GOD or anything and everything in existence to express itself, for we are all and all is within us. Also, in the Mystery classes we learn Assumption and then Oneness.    “No house is too haunted for my husband to dehaunt or any person too possessed to be helped. Several weeks ago, he removed one demon, three possessions, one black panther, three black cats, three snakes, and two owls from a woman who had been the victim of a Black Magician. And then there are curses. No kahuna is a Kahuna if he cannot remove curses. It is amazing  what a curse can do to a person. I did not think such things could happen, but I now know it is possible and happens to many people everywhere, every day. Did you know that most curses are from the individual himself? People unknowingly curse themselves and even their loved ones. Other curses are very deliberate and powerful and are done by a ‘professional’ for a ‘price’.

“Another interesting aspect of life with Clark, is our conversations with Space Beings. It’s always nice to know what is going on in other parts of the Universe. He also teaches the Mystery students how to contact and converse with the Lord Thinkers from the planet Venus. This can be done in several ways.” Etc., etc., etc.

Quite naturally, we expect a wife to be inclined to avoid mention of any failure to heal or cast out devils, but making proper allowance, the accomplishments of “Kahuna” Wilkerson are such as to put the kahunas of yesterday to shame. I fear that not a single one of them ever became able to converse with the Space People. I am everlastingly of the opinion that those who are now building on additions to the simple Huna which I have described, should qualify their titles and call their books, HUNA Plus Whatsit, and their teachings, “Huna Plus  Everything You Ever Heard of, and a Lot More, you will Hear of only in Our Classes.” Or, why not leave of the word “Huna” and start from scratch? I only hope David Bray and Clark Wilkerson are both doing all and more than is claimed along healing lines. (By the way, they are very bad friends.)

THE TMHG TIME WILL CHANGE from daylight saving back to normal in the middle of October. Watch for it and turn your clocks back an hour to match. Our healing work is of sufficient value to justify keeping it on year after year, even if our failures are as noteworthy as our successes. Perhaps we could do better if a healer at the center made personal contact with each person in need. But so far we have not managed to get past the telepathic contact stage. Perhaps we should encourage the followers of St. Michael or Daddy Bray and Clark Wilkerson. At least they are working with personal contacts. MFL