Dear Friends:
As I promised in Bulletin No. 124, which ended the Bulletins and the cycle they represent in our work of unearthing Huna and reconstructing it, there are to be a few similar releases to go to those who had recently donated to the Bulletin production fund but have not had the expected return in Bulletins.
This is the first of the tag-end releases, and I hope to put out a few more before the end of the year to even things up.
Cigbo sends his best greetings and asks that no more gifts be sent to him for use in producing Bulletins, explaining that, otherwise, boss can never get finished with the Bulletin making and sending and on with the much serious writing on Huna subjects which is contemplated.
My best thanks and alohas, (Max Freedom Long)
P.S. Below will be found news, comments and book reviews.
THE PROGRESS OF THE HUNA WORK IN 1957 was most satisfactory. The HRA, through the Bulletins and letters, were asked to carry out experiments to determine just what reactions can be expected when the average person goes about making a mental picture or image or reproduction of an impression (such as color, smell, taste, feel or sound), then what results may be expected when these mental impressions are held in the mind as things on which to concentrate or meditate. I had made many personal experiments but needed to check with others to see how minds differ in their activities in this field.
The combined efforts showed a decided difference from mind to mind. A careful study of the differences brought the conclusion that natural ability, I.Q., psychic ability, training and perhaps other unidentified elements caused part of the variation. But the important criterion of LENGTH OF TIME during which the mental image could be held before the focus of attention, appeared to be tied in very definitely with the amount of vital force or mana used by the individual experimenter in (1) making the mental image and the aka body of which it is either composed or in which it is housed, and (2) in exerting the middle self “will” or mana-mana control of the low self to keep it holding the mental image in the focus of attention.
The low self proved to be the most variable factor in the tests. It controls the memory, according to Huna, and it was guessed that a low self cooperating fully should be able to reproduce upon will-command the actual sensory impression of a sound, color, taste, smell or feel, not as a memory of a former sensation as it had been received, but as something real. Some HRAs were able to reproduce the sensation of actually sensing color, scents, tastes, sounds or feelings such as hard or soft or hot or cold.
As the low self is also said by the kahunas to preside over the making of the emotions which we feel, tests were made to see if these, in the form of remembered emotions, could be reproduced and felt as actual or present and real emotional stirrings. It was found that almost anyone can reproduce and sense emotions which were very strong at the time they were originally aroused and felt. For instance, one might have trouble recalling as a reality the form and color of a rose, but the emotion aroused in the past by the kiss accompanying the gift of a rose could be reproduced perfectly, but in a greatly weakened form.
The tests with emotion and with the events associated with the original arousing of an emotion, brought out the fact that in making the memory of a simple viewing of a red rose little mana was used and, therefore, little injected into the thought-form containing the memory. Emotion, almost always, is accompanied by a rather large production and use of mana, (anger and fright being marked in this respect), and the recalling of a memory of the emotion seems to result in the reproduction of it, bypassing the sensory organs almost completely, and suggesting that emotion is a primitive thing which the human animal developed at a period antedating the development of the highly specialized five (or six) senses.
Everything that was learned from our experiments confirmed the thesis of Huna. The part played by the mana in making mental impressions into strong memory units can be offered as a REALLY IMPORTANT addition to the slowly developing science of PSYCHOLOGY.
We found additional information to offer to those who practice MEDITATION AND CONCENTRATION as in Yoga or the Theosophical versions of Eastern practices. For years experimenters have stressed the difficulties met in holding the mental image for longer than a few seconds before the mind. The answer which the HRA offers now on this point is that the mana needed in concentration is rapidly used up and the low self tires and lets the image slip from the attention center. The conscious accumulation of extra mana, the injecting of it into a mental image being made or being recalled for use, and the presence of sufficient mana to control (as well as strengthen the grip of) the low self during concentration, is of primary importance. (In Yoga, the breathing exercises basically potent for accumulating mana are seldom understood or used.)
HOWEVER, the greatest additional information was offered to the part of Psychology dealing with suggestion of the Hypno-mesmeric sort and especially involved in self-suggestion, or “auto-conditioning. While we already had the general outline of the Huna additions and corrections in the field of hypnotic and mesmeric forces and of suggestion, we had done little to enlarge the outline and to put what we know into practice. Some of the HRAs were already experienced in this part of the field, and their help in exploring the Huna addition to theory and practices was excellent. In a short time the work was progressed to the point of being ready to pass on to the world, and this was done in a most modest way in the new book, SELF SUGGESTION, and the New Huna Theory of Mesmerism and Hypnosis.
It is interesting to note that very few Theosophists or former Theosophists or Religionists have, after reading the book, taken up arms against the advocated use of suggestion. On the other hand, several members of the HRA, before reading the book and the careful arguments against the fear of the use of suggestion, wrote in to protest. Most violent protests came from those who had read The Great Psychological Crime by T.K. Richardson and who had accepted him as an authority on the subject of hypnosis. None of them, so far as I have been able to learn, have read the book telling of the life, pretenses and disqualification as an authority of this writer. In any event, our study and our book will be greatly worthwhile if the suggestion phobia can be countered and a little sanity restored.
Unfortunately, someone has republished the books of “T.K.” and has been busy selling them and apparently trying to organize a cult on that rather amazing mixture of rehashed Hinduism and invention.
A PIECE OF 1957 UNFINISHED BUSINESS is the “Biometer Club” and the testing assigned to its 45 members. The plan was to find a number of HRAs who would and could learn to make the psychometric measurements outlined and pioneered by Dr. Oscar Brunler, and based in part on the instrument and scale of measurement evolved by Bovis in France some time back. The hope was that out of the members undertaking this testing work, at least five would be found who were able to get the same readings from the same individuals via their signatures or photographs.
The work is still incomplete, but soon time will be found to press ahead with it. I believe that we have enough members even now to be able to make the vital comparisons of readings and in this way verify the conclusion that the Brunler-Bovis system is workable and can, under proper circumstances, be depended upon to give an insight into the nature of one who is read. This would enable us to pioneer in the next level of the field and see what further sorts of information can be obtained by using the psychometric powers of the low self aided by a pendulum and a code or “convention” of meanings or measurements which will allow comparison — as comparison of the I.Q. or “soul development” (as Dr. Brunler came to refer to it) of the infant or adult or person passed on. Any scale of measurement will serve as long as it can be used to compare the well advanced with the less advanced and so establish a standard of value by which intelligence, soul growth, “will” emotional growth, etc., could be ascertained with small chance of error. Such readings will, eventually (it is to be hoped) enable those responsible for such matters to give far better and more precise guidance. This guidance could begin in infancy and continue as long as needed. The natural criminal could be recognized in infancy, as could the confused, the obsessed, the dull, the intelligent and the very intelligent. Dr. Brunler looked to see something resembling the caste system once more back in use, but with castes based on Biometric readings instead of social or economic standing. The trend, especially in communistic circles, seems now to be to reestablish the caste system to a degree on the basis of ability shown in accepting an education, but the use of the Biometric system of psychometric reading would tell whether a person lacking education belonged in high caste levels or not, and, best of all, tell in infancy what to expect from a child.
NEWS NOTE ON THE BUG CHASING INSTRUMENT has been received recently. This electronics type of instrument was discussed some time ago in the Bulletins. Tests of its powers were made and reported in the newspapers. The small instrument was tuned in on a parcel of cultivated land through the use of a photograph of the parcel with its boundaries marked off clearly. In the instrument was then placed some substance which the offending bugs eating crops on the land would not eat or which would poison or at least drive them away. When the instrument was set to work on a tree filled with bad caterpillars, they fell to the ground at once by the hundreds (dead, I take it from the report) and everyone was greatly impressed. Pests in cotton fields were treated and a business of protecting fields with the instrument grew up over night, the fee being much less than the expense of using insecticides. The exact method of constructing such instruments and of using them was not given out. Soon the project seemed to disappear from the face of the Earth and one was prone to think that it had proved a failure upon further tests. But not long ago I received a letter telling me that a syndicate to exploit the invention had been formed and patents for it applied for. Then opposition appeared and continued to be exerted in one form after another. Quite naturally, the opposition has been blamed on men or corporations who would suffer business losses were insecticides no longer to be used. There was, undoubtedly, also opposition from those who jump to conclusions and decide that a thing CANNOT BE SO, then do their best to prevent it from being proven valid. More later on the matter when I learn how the present battle comes out.
A NEW SLANT ON THE NIGHTMARE DEATHS of the young Filipino men in Hawaii in the past several years and of similar young Mexican laborers in California, comes from one of my good friends. His report on his findings shows how we need to keep doing research work in Huna. He found that in the Philippine Islands they have long had a native religious cult with its own priests, and that they have often used some form of death prayer that seems to be similar to the spirit-sending prayer method of one class of Polynesian kahunas, the Ana-Ana. These priests came to Hawaii and there demanded a regular portion of the wages of the laborers, killing them with this form of death prayer when they refused. They came with the influx of Filipino workers into Central California and were able to exact their tribute with little killing because of the fear they engendered. When the Philippine Islands gained their independence recently, the nationals were called home from California and Mexican laborers were gradually used to replace them. It is guessed the priests (who had temples in Sacramento) did not all go home, some remaining behind and attempting to set up a reign of terror in Mexican labor circles, actually killing several young men with their death prayer manipulations. In any event, the Mexicans departed, and the employers imported colored laborers. With these came their own Voodoo priests, and these were able to stand up to the Filipino priests and put an end to their murderous graft.
This is the first theory well enough backgrounded to begin to hold water. It is based, of course, on the knowledge that the death prayer is effective. Ana, the root in the word for death prayer, ana-ana, has the meaning of “satiating” as of an inordinate appetite, and this appetite is that of the low self spirit slaves of the priests for mana from the living. The Polynesian priests had a system of allowing three days for the hypnotized spirits to drain the mana from the victim so that he died. This allowed time for the victim to make his peace with anyone he had hurt, and to be released. On the other hand there was a death prayer known as “The Burning” which was said to cause immediate death. It is the latter type of attack one looks for in examining the nightmare deaths. These were very swift, and the victim was attacked during sleep and awakened in wild terror, apparently dying of fright. But how can a doctor determine whether the life force or mana was stolen or simply vanished in the regular way with the departure of the resident spirits from the dead body?
With the kahunas the death prayer appears to have been used, at least in times before the priesthood became corrupted, as a part of the process of administering justice. Ana has a whole page of meanings and combinations in the old dictionary (unfortunately, not so in the new), and one meaning is “to measure”. This was the word used in the phrase, “To measure one’s good or evil,” and that is exactly what the kahuna was supposed to do before inflicting punishment with the sending of the mana-eating spirits. The ana root also fits the fright of the nightmare deaths in its meaning of, “to suffer, be troubled, undergo suffering as a part of being healed” (or when being punished by the death prayer method until forced to repent hurts done another and make amends). Another of the meanings is that of weakness and trembling caused by great fatigue. As fatigue follows the using up of one’s mana, the meaning fits well with the explanation that the spirits take mana from the victim until he is fatigued sufficiently to die.
THE NEW HAWAIIAN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY, which is to be had for $15 plus postage of about 32¢ is excellent in many ways. It contains many of the native names for plants not found in the old Andrews dictionary, but it is sadly lacking in the many meanings given in the older book for things important to the study of the root meanings of the words used by the kahunas. One might almost suspect the compilers of this new dictionary of going out of their way to remove all they could that might be of value in a study of the ancient lore. (The University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, Hawaii, is the address to use when sending for the new dictionary, which, by the way, has a fine condensed bit on the grammar of the language and has markings to help the tyro to get the proper pronunciation of words up to a point. No other grammar is at present in print, sad to say.)
A special list of words and meanings as well as of symbol words and the meanings of the symbols (such as wai or water, for mana), will be a necessity when it comes to presenting the study of Huna as the mystery teaching behind the words of Jesus and to a lesser extent in a few parts of the Old Testament, as in the story of The Creation, and in some of the prophetic utterances of Isaiah. As to the writings and dogmas of Paul, upon which the main segments of Christianity were formed, we must not forget that no Huna is to be found there. This should be called “Paulism”. Jesus had little or no part in the concocting of the several ungrounded dogmas invented by Paul or borrowed in part by him from scattered sources. With the Pauline dogmas removed from current Christianity, there would be little left other than the teaching of Jesus that love is the command and that we are all “one with the Father” if we will but believe it and act accordingly.
The parts of the account of the life of Jesus which were written by Huna initiates who spoke or understood the “sacred language” which must have been very similar to the Hawaiian, can be sorted out rather easily to allow one to discard the things later added to the writings by those who were not Initiates and who were trying to make the valid writings fit the Pauline inventions. Where no Huna symbol words or multiple-meaning root words are to be found in a translation of the words of Jesus into Hawaiian, one can be rather certain that the smell of the forger is heavy in the air. The same may be said of the writings which we call “Gnostic”, although the materials under this heading are more mixed with foreign borrowings and are more difficult to handle because no Hawaiian translation is to be had.
BOOK REVIEWS have been one of the good things of the Bulletins which will be missed. I am particularly fortunate in that so many of my friends, when they find a new and important book that is down the Huna alley, send it to me as a gift or on loan so that I may enjoy and benefit by it. In the past I have been able to pass the news of such books on to all in the HRA through the Bulletins. Recently I have received as gifts five outstanding books which I will mention briefly. Two of them are by HRAs, both excellent in their field although not touching on Huna. Let me name these first.
THE NATURE OF MAN by Col. Arthur E. Powell, H.R.A., $3-95, Vantage Press, about 300 pages, is a careful study by a remarkably able and penetrating student of life, books and all the things which must be discussed in discussing the nature of man in its various parts and phases. If you enjoy reading complicated things presented by a learned man in simple and direct language, you will enjoy this book and be continually delighted with the new angles of approach opened up in the study. Col. Powell has written many books on a surprisingly wide variety of subjects and is well known for his deep knowledge of Theosophy and Oriental religions. The end section of his book is given over to the effort to lay down a practical way of life by which the nature of man can be improved toward the ideal. With kindly care he tells the reader how a number of words often met in Theosophical or Hindu circles should be pronounced – a great help for one who reads as he runs – and his easy classifications and presentations of often tangled concepts are most satisfactory. I learn that the book was planned before a knowledge of Huna was at hand, and that, because it would have meant a complete rewrite, no effort was made to rework the MMS to include Huna in the discussions. Your bookstore will get the book for you if it is not in stock now, as it should be.
A MONTH WITH THE MASTER, by Archie Matson, a Christian minister and long an H.R.A., $3.75, Harper & Brothers, publishers, about 252 pages, is straight Protestant Christianity. It follows the pattern of the famous Ignatian spiritual exercises, and takes the reader through a month of readings and of exercises aimed at guiding one’s thoughts and beliefs into complete conformity to the accepted ideals of Christianity. It leads by unswerving steps to the full and complete acceptance of the concept that nothing in life is as important as full conformity to the ideal of selfless service in imitation of the example of Jesus and as the ultimate in the true worship of God. The book fits perfectly the nitch in Christian circles which it was written to fill.
LIVING MAGIC, by Ronald Rose (with foreword by Dr. J. B. Rhine), $3.75, Rand McNally & Co., about 240 pages, reports a study of the Australian Aborigines, made at first hand, and with an eye out for all the ESP things. It is illustrated with most interesting pictures of the native “clever men” from whom much of the most valuable information was obtained. Chartings show the results of a systematic study of the mental characteristics and ability of the natives, young and old alike.
Mr. Rose, and his wife, who accompanied him on his trips into the remote country reserved by the government for some of the most primitive tribes, found tribal life based on magic. Everything that is done must conform to the beliefs and rituals of that magic. It dictates the pattern of life and action from birth to death and, in some degree, after death.
To me the most interesting part of the “magic” which was studied and classified under such headings as ESP now offers, was the use by the natives of mesmeric or hypnotic forces and suggestion. They have the reasonable belief that the suggestive forces should be used on one as well as being used by one. The initiations of the boys into tribal standing included a training to accept suggestion almost expertly.
Under its influence, the pain of burns and cuts is removed. The more talented boys may aspire to become “clever men” and learn to throw themselves into a suggestive trance as well as to use mesmeric force and hypnotic suggestion on others, usually as part of healing magic. Some excellent results are recorded in cases where the use of suggestion was part of the healing. Like the kahunas of Polynesia, the power to impress the low self was reinforced by the use of some actual thing to be seen or felt – what I have called “the physical stimulus”. “Sacred stones” and other objects are a part of the healer’s kit and he uses them with skill and often with palming and trickery to cause his subject to believe that a stone which may have been planted inside him by some evil magic, has been removed by the healer.
A most interesting factor in the magic is a “physical stimulus” of an imaginary sort which is used by the “clever men” when in deep trance. The magic “cord” and “crystals” fall into this classification and are made real by suggestion in the period of early training, and remain suggestively real in later years when the magician causes himself to go into trance to diagnose the cause of illness or to travel afar to see what it is desired to see. (We call this astral projection.) The account given by a “clever man” of early training is most instructive and also serves to give the flavor of a most unusual book. Let me quote a bit.
“When I was a boy, a doctor said to me that I could be clever like him. He took me away from my people into the desert to a spring where only the doctors go. He took some waters from the spring and held them in his hands. As I looked at his hands, the waters became crystals, and he pushed the crystals into my chest.
“The stones went right into my chest without leaving a mark because he did it the clever way. I felt warm and strong inside me.
These stones were to make me clever and to see things that other people cannot see, like the great spirits and peoples who are just dead and are not people but spirits.
“Later on the doctor fellow and some other old fellows took me away and showed me things. One old fellow brought a cord out of himself. He tied it to the end of a stick and gave me the stick.
He said it would take me to the Dream Time. He showed me a big crystal and I felt my own crystals rise in me and I was able to take them out of me and they made me feel stronger.
“The cord on the stick pulled me along. It went into a big boulder and I went after it and came out the other side, and all the men shouted out in loud praise.
“Then the old men showed me how to ride on the cord, and we went to the clouds and saw great spirits and learned more magic.”
PYGMIES AND DREAM GIANTS, by Kilton Stewart, British edition by Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 300 pages. Price not stated on the dust jacket. Must have been published about 1955 in U.S.A. Check with your bookstore. This is a scientific study of aboriginal tribes in the mountains of the Philippine Islands but is spread thick with the butter and jam of adventure to make it more palatable reading for the general public. In the light of the “Nightmare Deaths”, it is important to note that Dr. Stewart reports spiritism and psychic beliefs and works frequently in discussing the various tribes which he studied at close quarters.
In the most primitive tribes there is little organization toward a priesthood or toward having magicians, but as the tribes advance into the far fringes of civilization, both begin to appear increasingly. The gods also increase and become more powerful as individuals until one becomes dominant.
Spiritism, incantation and the magical treatment of medicines mingle increasingly in the healing arts, and he tells of the effectiveness of this mixture in his own case when he came down to death’s door with a bad skin disease that ordinary medical treatment did not help. In this case the healer was a woman of one of the semi-advanced tribes. While I find no mention of the use of the “death prayer”, I gather the impression that there are bad magicians as well as good, and that much magic is available for hire to remove evil influences sent by evil magicians, perhaps because hired to do so by one’s enemy. Failure to observe the accepted ritual acts of the tribe may be followed by punishment from the spirits of streams, trees or rocks, or by the gods, small or large.
The final chapter in the book reads almost like a correction and addition aimed at straightening out the misconceptions of people who have been reading such things as “Dianetics”. Dr. Stewart presents in tentative fashion his views on the “universal man” and how he gets to be what he is at various stages of his march toward enlightenment. He postulates the formation of abnormal things such as the fixation or complex even in the pygmies, then sees in the visions and trance states the compensating efforts to set matters right internally. He sees the individual complex-caused deviation from the good way of tribal life as something to be treated at the source and resolved to bring the energy in the drives to bear on good action which fits in with the general good of the local social structure, be it the most primitive or the most civilized and modern. Dreams and fantasies must be brought to the light and rationalized instead of being allowed to linger harmfully in one’s inner consciousness. M.F.L
