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October – December, 1976
| Huna Research Associates Dr. E. Otha Wingo, Editor 126 Camellia Drive Cape Girardeau, MO 63701 |
The Max Freedom Long Library Dolly Ware, Curator 1501 Thomas Place Fort Worth, TX 76107 |
Guidance has become a very real thing to me. For a long time I did not recognize it, but little by little, when I had gone far enough with the Huna work to be able to look back and see what small events had “accidentally” pushed me in one direction or another, I began to see that all the pushes had been in the direction of promoting the Huna recovery. — MFL (1968)
Max Freedom Long
The Story of the HUNA WORK
E. OTHA WINGO
“I can look back and see where the most important Guidance in my life has come repeatedly through some seemingly tiny accident. Once I missed a train. Once I decided to take a walk. Once I stuck my head out of a hotel window to see a fire engine go by. In each case the entire trend of my life was switched radically as a result. If any one of these things had not happened, I would not be writing to you about Huna at this time.” (MFL, Bulletin 53.5, April 15, 1951)
Guidance has been “the thread that runs so true” throughout the history of the Huna work. Guidance has been the Adriadne’s thread, one might say, that has enabled several key persons to make their way through a labyrinth of complexities and confusing clues. Or, to put it yet another way, Guidance has been the aka cord of connection with the High Selves, or has at least come by way of the aka cord, in working from early uncovering of the secret lore of the kahunas to its practical use by all who rediscover the ancient Huna system.
The “history” of Huna would trace the Huna concepts back through many thousands of years. Max Freedom Long has written widely about various aspects of this history, both in out-of-print Bulletins and Huna Vistas and in The Huna Code in Religions (1965). What I wish to do here is to sketch the essentials of the development of “The Huna Work” and of the Huna Research Associates during the last 100 years.
In a sense the reconstruction of Huna from the lore of the kahunas began in 1819, when Hewahewa, chief kahuna of King Kaméhaméha, had a vision of the coming of a “new, powerful god.” Christian missionaries from New England arrived in Hawaii in 1820, and soon set about writing down the Hawaiian language for the first time.
Although many of these missionaries sought personal, political power — or maybe were motivated merely by the desire to “save” the natives from their primitive life-style as well as to save their souls, there were a few scholars among them who sought also to preserve much of the culture and tradition of ancient Hawaii. Judge Fornander was such a scholar, but he was not a missionary. His Account of the Polynesian Race is still a classic of erudition and an example of painstaking research.
Nathaniel B. Emerson is another example. His Unwritten Literature of Hawaii preserved early songs and chants from the oral tradition that might well have been lost forever, if he had not written them down. Lorrin Andrews’ A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language, first published in 1865, was the only authoritative source for the meaning of Hawaiian words for nearly 100 years, until Pukui and Elbert’s Hawaiian Dictionary appeared in 1957. Even now, the Andrews edition (reprinted by Charles E. Tuttle Co. in 1974) is a valuable reference work for studying the foundations of the Huna concepts in the roots of the Hawaiian language.
What we now call “Huna” is a practical system of psychology whose frame of reference is the ancient kahuna lore — a reconstruction in modern terms of basic concepts and principles that are usable in daily living. But Huna was originally a very carefully guarded secret; in fact, the word Huna means “secret.” The secret has been uncovered, or recovered, so the use of the word no longer signifies an exclusive method.
The modern history of the Huna work actually started in 1864. It started, in a sense, with Dr. William Tufts Brigham, who was the curator of the Bishop Museum of Anthropology and Natural History from 1888-1918, and an emeritus director until his death in 1926. Dr. Brigham was a famous scientist, having degrees from Harvard and Columbia Universities. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1867; taught botany at Harvard; inaugurated a system of art instruction in the Boston public schools; introduced the Sargent method of anthropometry. He was the author of many works on the botany and geology of the Hawaiian Islands, arts and crafts of ancient Hawaii, [and] various anthropological writings.
Nowhere in all the scholarly works of Dr. Brigham, or information about him, was there any mention of his interest in the lore of the kahunas. As a student of anthropology, he might well have delved into the traditions and legends about them. But so far as any official notice is concerned, his publications left no clue of an intense interest in learning the secrets of their magical powers. This was only to come to light later.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Max Freedom Long “decided to take a walk.” I had read his brief reference to this seemingly trivial event and its astounding consequences, when I first obtained a set of the rare, old HRA Bulletins. But I did not know the story of this incident until the Fall of 1973, when I received a letter from long-time HRA member, Curtis Stewart. I had asked HRAs to let me know how long they had been a member of HRA, and Curtis wrote that he chuckled when he read my question for he had been, in a sense, a member since 1917, more than fifty years before. Huna research Associates had not been organized until 1945. So I settled down to read the fascinating story of how Curtis Stewart had persuaded Max to go to Hawaii in the first place.
It was in the spring of 1917 that Curtis graduated from college, the same one from which Max graduated, and the same time. They knew each other during their college days, but did not keep in touch during the summer after graduation. Curtis had had difficulty in getting a job. Times were hard, and no one would hire a young man who just might be drafted into the army at any time. Max had the same problem, and had found it necessary to struggle through the summer with whatever odd job he could pick up. Curtis spent the time at his parents’ home, where they owned orange groves. Max, being an expert photographer, tried his luck as an itinerant photographer. Curtis had signed up, “just in case,” with a U.S. government program that sent teachers to Hawaii — not only to provide schools for government personnel, but to “educate the natives. It sounded like a fascinating assignment, even a glamorous one, until he learned that it was not to be on the shores of Waikiki, or in the paradisical Honolulu with all its excitement, but on some remote island, in a little school on a plantation. He forthwith announced his resignation from the program, only to find that he could not break the contract without providing a substitute for the teaching assignment.
Try as he might, he could find no one as a likely prospect to take on his plantation teaching job. All summer he roamed his father’s orange groves, trying to figure out a solution. All his college acquaintances had gone their own way.
“One afternoon,” he writes in the letter to me, “still hoping that something might happen to help me out in this dilemma, all of a sudden ‘something’ seemed to be talking to me, clearly, but not exactly a human voice. It said, ‘Take a Whittier car and go into L.A. and walk around to 6th St. and turn off at Spring and there you will find the man who will take that job for you.’ This was the first time anything of this sort had ever happened to me. I was told to be there on Spring St. at 6:30. Of course it never occurred to me just who the man of mystery would be.”
Meantime from Max’s account of the events of the day, he was in his small, rented room, when he decided on a whim to take a walk. He walked in a different direction than any he had taken before. He walked down 6th St. and turned off at Spring and stood at a shop window to browse.
“I could hardly wait for the plot of this story (so it seemed to me) to take place,” Curtis writes. “As the voice had requested, I arrived on Spring St. and was I surprised to see dear old Max right there — looking into a shop window. He too had had a feeling that he should be around there. I was almost speechless for I began to see at once what this was shaping into. I said, ‘Max, I have something to tell you and you have got to agree with-me.’ He looked bewildered and I told him that he was going to Hawaii to teach and that was all there was to it. Max in later years said to me: ‘Curtis, you surely turned into someone else that evening, voice, features and all. I just couldn’t get over it. You surely were one of those wise and great old Kahunas. You, he said, such a mild and quiet talking person to suddenly become one of those wise, old ancients was too much for me.’ Right then, he said, that made me agree to go to Hawaii for as the kahuna said through me, ‘It is your destiny and go you must.’ He said there was a travel agency nearby and I took him around and showed him the colorful posters in the windows, leaving out nothing. Once years later, after he had come back from Hawaii, I asked him while over to his home at Laguna one evening, if I hadn’t made him go, did he suppose someone else would have. He and his wife and a friend of hers jumped up from their chairs and with great vehemence yelled out, NO, NO. A THOUSAND TIMES NO.
“Oh, oh! My! My! I knew and felt so much and so often about Max and what he was doing — I mean working far beyond his strength and forgetting just about all except the Huna philosophy and its variants.”
In another part of the letter, Curtis Stewart mentions that the college they attended was Los Angeles Normal School, and that he had met Max there in 1915. Curtis was released from his contract, since Max took the assignment. “This was August, 1917,” he said. “I signed up in a private school near Waikiki. Oh, what a story that would make! It was not a pleasant year and we teachers were treated very badly. Several resigned at Christmas — I stuck it out, however, and am glad that I did. Max was placed away out on a big plantation, somewhere in Hawaii, all very primitive. He seemed to like it, however, and I daresay he profited by it too.”
According to Curtis, Max managed to obtain free passage on a transport ship, so arrived ahead of the rest. One of our prized possessions is a snapshot, given to us by Curtis Stewart, of three young teachers who had just arrived in Honolulu. Two of them were Max and Curtis and it was taken on August 30, 1917.
Now we have Max Freedom Long in Hawaii, a more or less routine assignment. He was teaching in a tiny school on a plantation. He had a native Hawaiian teacher working with him. The duties were not rigorous; and there was much time on his hands. Already he had been working at his own mental, spiritual, “psychic” development, and he spent much time in contemplation and meditation. He mulled over the many things he had been reading, before going to Hawaii. In the evening, on the lanai, he talked with the Hawaiian co-worker, or listened to some of the plantation workers talk. They talked of the old stories they had heard from childhood. Max’s curious ears perked up. The more he listened, the larger his “bump of curiosity grew,” as he put it. But as soon as he started showing interest and asking questions, they always clammed up. He was an outsider, a haole, and they would not confide in him. Could it be that there was some truth in these old stories — how the kahunas walked bare footed on hot lava, just solidified enough to hold their weight, how they healed the sick, or solved personal problems or social tangles? He tried to find out, but met with unremitting silence.
After three years, Max decided to go back to the mainland, and gave up the idea of finding out the secrets of the kahunas as hopeless.
In order to arrange for his return passage, it was necessary to go to Honolulu. He had heard of the famous Bishop Museum and decided to pay it a visit. He tells the story in The Secret Science Behind Miracles, pp. 9ff. “The purpose of my visit was to try to find someone who could give me an authoritative answer to the question of the kahunas which had plagued me for so long. My bump of curiosity had grown too large to be comfortable, and I harbored an angry desire to have something done about it one way or another, definitely and decisively. I had heard that the curator of the museum had spent most of his years delving into things Hawaiian, and I had the hope that he would be able to give me the truth, coldly, scientifically and in an acceptable form.”
Dr. Brigham’s reply, in effect, was: “I’ve been waiting for you for forty years’.” He asked Max many penetrating questions, instead of giving the expected, negative answer. “He seemed to forget the purpose of my visit and lose himself in the exploration of my background. He wanted to know what I had read, where I had studied, and what I thought about a dozen matters which were quite aside from the question I had raised. Max stated that he had concluded that all the stories of the kahunas were either exaggerated, or the effects were brought about by superstition or suggestion, or maybe even poison, but that he “needed someone who spoke with the authority of real information to help me quiet the nagging little doubt in the back of my mind.” The official, negative answer was not forthcoming. Dr. Brigham astounded him with even more fascinating and unbelievable tales of what the kahunas could do, and assured him that they COULD do them.
Dr. Brigham’s revelations “knocked the underpinning” from under Max’s defenses that he had built over the previous three years. “Now I was back in the trackless swamp, and, not up to my ankles as before, but suddenly sunk to the tip of my curious nose in the mire of mystery.”
At eighty-two, Dr. Brigham had spent forty years trying to learn the secrets of the kahunas, using the same scientific methods he used in the scholarly research, for which he was famous. He had learned many things, including some of the basic principles upon which the actual secrets must hinge. Yet his scientific standing had placed him in the position that all but cut him off from the possibility of passing on his findings to another person. It was the fortuitous meeting with Max Freedom Long that made this possible.
Max saw the significance of the “chance” meeting only later. “I did not realize it until weeks afterward, but in that hour he placed his finger on me, claiming me as his own, and like Elijah of old, preparing to cast his mantle across my shoulders before he took his departure. He told me later that he had long watched for a young man to train in the scientific approach and to whom he could entrust the knowledge he had gained in the field — the new and unexplored field of magic.”
Later, Max himself was to begin a search for someone he could choose to carry on the work where he left off. Although he began to to seek a successor ten years before his death, he was not to find the right person until three years before he “graduated” in 1971. But that is a later part of the story.
For four years, Max sat at the feet of the master, Dr. Brigham, who taught him in careful detail the basic principles that he had worked out. These were to set the stage for the recovery of the ancient “magic.” They are as true today as they were then, and remain the foundational principles for research for what is true in the realm of unusual phenomena which we call miracles (a word meaning that they are new and strange and unexplainable in light of current knowledge).
“Always keep watch for three things in the study of this magic,” Dr. Brigham repeated over and over, so that it would sink into Max’s consciousness and never be forgotten. “There must be some form of consciousness back of, and directing, the processes of magic… There must also be some form of force used in exerting this control, if we can but recognize it. And last, there must be some form of substance visible or invisible, through which the force can act. Watch always for these, and if you can find any one, it may lead to the others.”
It was several years, filled with painstaking research while trying to support himself financially and stay in Hawaii, before Max discovered what these three elements were. The consciousness was the Aumakua or High Self; the force used was mana; and the invisible substance through which the force acted was aka. But that was after Dr. Brigham died on January 29, 1926, and after Max left the Islands and came back to the mainland, thinking the secret would never be recovered in our time, that it was already too late. He says in his book that he “admitted defeat” in 1931. It seemed so, but it was more like a shift of consciousness. He had to get away from the minute details of the problem, which had captivated his attention and held his interest for fourteen years. He had done what he could in Hawaii. In California, his mind was occupied with attending to the business of making a living. He ran a camera shop, and again a printing shop.
His occasional moments of thinking about the old researches were sporadic and half-hearted. He kept an occasional eye out for any new development in psychology that would give him a new hint. But all the while, back in the recesses of his mind and memory, the voluminous material he had collected all these years was grist for his subconscious mill. When it was time, the revelation came like the turning on of a light in a dark room. One moment you are standing in a dark room. You are aware of all the contents of the room, the furnishings you are accustomed to. Yet you do not see them. An almost silent “click” and the light is on. Now everything is revealed in brilliant incandescence. The whole scene comes into focus. What was only a memory before is now right before you eyes. And so it was when the light was turned on in the mind of Max Freedom Long.
He describes it this way: “Then, in 1935, quite unexpectedly, I awakened in the middle of the night with an idea that led directly to the clue which was eventually to give the answer… The idea that had struck me in the middle of the night was that the kahunas must have had names for the elements in their magic. Without such names they could not have handed down their lore from one generation to the next.” The result was a study of the root-words of the Hawaiian language for clues to what the kahunas conveyed in ancient chants and prayers that had to be recited exactly the same every time.
Remembering Dr. Brigham’s “three elements” AS A BASIS FOR DISCOVERING the secret behind the miracles, Max was able to identify the first two (consciousness and force) before the year was out. But it took six more years to identify the last one.
The details of research on the Hawaiian roots are sufficiently discussed in Max Freedom Long’s books. From unihipili, a word meaning “a spirit” as well as “grasshopper,” the trail led to the other words for “spirit” (uhane and aumakua). Instead of the interchangeable meaning attributed to these three concepts by the early lexicographers, it was now demonstrated that the words represented three distinct concepts. The consciousness referred to by Dr. Brigham was found to be these three levels of consciousness, and in particular the aumakua. The Polynesian concept of mana was found to be a type of energy that could be used, and this was identified as the force referred to by Dr. Brigham. The third element, a substance through which the aumakua could exert the miraculous force, took much more digging. It was eventually found to be that invisible substance known as aka.
The Huna books and the activities of the Huna Research Associates constitute an outline of the major periods from this time.
In 1936, the first report of MFL’s findings on the ancient kahuna lore was published in England. This book, Recovering the Ancient Magic, had an unusual history. The printed pages were ready for binding and the first copies were being shipped out from the publisher when the building was destroyed by a bomb. This was during the German blitz in London. All remaining copies and the printing plates were destroyed. The book appeared simultaneously as a new publication AND a rare volume. There is an original copy in the Max Freedom Long Library (Fort Worth, Texas) and I have a cherished copy from Max himself, with his penciled notes inside. I have only heard of the existence of two other copies in recent years.
A surprise awaited me on one of my first visits to the MFL Library. Dolly Ware, longtime friend of Dr. Max and curator of the Library, was showing me some of the uncatalogued materials from Max’s study, including the unpublished manuscript of a novel long forgotten. Digging deeper into the box I discovered, to my amazement, the original typed manuscript of Recovering the Ancient Magic. This is a valuable “addition” to the Library — a treasure we did not even know about.
Some thirty-three years later a limited number of copies were reprinted in England, an offset edition from the original volume. One of the first things I did after the responsibility of the HRA was transferred to me was to acquire all the copies of this reprint, both bound and unbound. The project was announced and there was a tremendous response from members who had long wished for the opportunity to purchase a copy of this first Huna book. The bound copies were sold by advance subscription in 1973. The unbound copies were sent to a bindery and made into clothbound volumes with our HRA imprint.
Information about the Huna lore was not to be distributed by this early volume. It was nine years after its publication (and its destruction) before the next publication on the Huna system. Meanwhile, the response of one reader — William Reginald Stewart — who read one of the few available copies, resulted in much help to MFL in the early research. (See appendix in SSBM.) Therefore, the book was to serve an important purpose, in spite of limited distribution. Also, sufficient interest was shown by those who heard of Max’s researches that in 1945 he found it necessary to begin answering his large correspondence by a mimeographed release. Simultaneously, he established the Huna Fellowship as a non-profit, educational and religious organization, chartered in California on Nov. 23, 1945. This was to provide a legal basis for activities, if needed. Three years later, Huna Research Associates was started as a membership organization for researchers and for the dissemination of information on Huna.
A small pamphlet was written in 1945 as a “textbook” for those interested in experimenting with the Huna concepts. This was the first publication on Huna since 1936. It was a stapled booklet set in small type, and was sold for twenty-five cents. Currently, more than thirty years later, this first edition is a collector’s item, very rare. Because of the valuable information it contains, this material was republished for us in 1975 by Esoteric Publications of Sedona, Arizona. The type was reset for easier reading, with an additional chapter and preface which I wrote as a summary of the basic ideas in the Huna system.
With the establishment of HRA, mimeographed bulletins were sent out to members every two weeks. These HRA BULLETINS numbered 124 issues and are now a very rare item, no longer available.
In 1948, The Secret Science Behind Miracles appeared in a limited edition from Wing Anderson’s Kosmon Publications. This, with the HRA BULLETINS, provided a substantial basis for study and for an experimental program. The first regular Bulletin (February, 1948) stated the purpose of the organization on the first page: “We are about to begin putting the ancient Huna System to the test on a large scale.” The members of HRA were researchers, individually and in group projects. During this period membership averaged 300 to 400 and expenses were met by donations. However, MFL’s correspondence ranged over thousands of the world’s best-known researchers, as well as many fine workers who were not widely known. Always the “official” membership was a small, select group who worked together continuously. A few would drop out, for one reason or another; but there were new ones coming in to take their places. And many joined in the work, without becoming members of the organization.
The year 1953 saw the need of a more practical textbook that would give readers the benefits of experimentation and methods of procedure, in addition to the background information in SSBM. Thus was published The Secret Science at Work, under the imprimatur of a new publishing company, Huna Research Publications, now located in Vista, California. MFL had been living in Hollywood since returning from Hawaii, and the necessity for locating in a more desirable place became more pressing as the smog became increasingly worse. The story of how a place was found in Vista, how the Huna methods were used to acquire the property, and the establishment of the new Huna headquarters is told in detail in one of the bulletins. The new publishing company was a major step, for now Max Freedom Long would be able to produce more source materials for the Huna students — but, at the same time, it was necessary to expend the amount of time and energy necessary to distribute, as well as publish the books. When SSBM was out of print, Wing Anderson was unable to produce a second edition, because of his health, and because the Kosmon organization moved to Colorado. MFL then undertook its publication, buying back full rights and all available copies. This took place in 1954, and in the very next year, because of increasing interest in the practical use, as well as testing of the Huna system, prompted by a letter from one of his correspondents, Growing into Light was completed.
For seven years, the HRA BULLETINS continued on a bimonthly basis — a prodigious amount of work was involved. With the publication and distribution (and of course the WRITING) of books, this pace became almost too exacting. In 1958, Max announced that he was phasing out the Bulletins, in order to have time to write several small books or technical manuals. He had attempted once before to decrease the number of Bulletins, or to write smaller ones, but the interest from most of the HRAs remained unabated. Once he established a list of ¼-HRAs, but this required an additional effort to produce a small summary of activities and research findings every few months for some who were not keeping up with the full reports. And everyone kept requesting the quarterly summaries, in addition to the bimonthly ones, lest they lose out on something. So, it seemed the only thing to do was stop regular mailings altogether. He describes the various efforts required to put out the Bulletin, saying it took a minimum of a full week of steady work for each one — and every two weeks came around quite often. HRA BULLETIN, therefore, ceased with No. 124 — but there was to be no gap in communication, it seemed. Just to be sure that all who were contributing to the work fund received all they had paid for, and because of their continuing interest, Max issued an occasional “Newsletter” during 1958. It was said to be “quarterly,” but actually five issues appeared, which I later called The Interim Newsletters, when they were reprinted as a separate booklet. Self-Suggestion and the New Huna Theory of Mesmerism and Hypnosis (usually designated SS, or simply Self-Suggestion) appeared in 1958, and the next year the manual on Psychometric Analysis.
By this time interest had soared, and a quarterly Newsletter was insufficient to keep up with all the news and researches. It was in September, 1959, that a new series of bulletins began, monthly this time, with new projects and new experiments and new studies. The first issue was called “New Horizons,” but it was immediately found that other publications were using that name and a different one was sought. Manly Palmer Hall’s early publication, a magazine of fine quality, was called by that name. The name was obvious and graced the masthead (a design later worked into a beautiful scene which was to be used at the top of the bulletin for a long time) of the second issue — HUNA VISTAS. This publication continued monthly for 98 issues, when Max called it “30” a few months before his death, which he referred to rather as “graduation.” But those ninety-eight months were to see the research and writing of Max Freedom Long’s masterpiece, a major contribution to the subject of comparative religion and psychology. This was The Huna Code in Religions (1965). To facilitate the study of the book — and of the other Huna books — Max included a condensed dictionary of the Hawaiian language, based on the famous Andrews edition of 1865. The painstaking precision with which he put together the entries from the Andrews Dictionary is not apparent when you look at the appendix of HCIR. This small selection made available to Huna student what had not been accessible to anyone for at least fifty years. Today’s students have the great advantage of a newly reprinted edition of the entire Andrews Dictionary as well as the scholarly modern one by Mary K. Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert, who pay tribute to the early work of Lorrin Andrews.
Three years after the publication of The Huna Code in Religions, I first heard the word “Huna.” That word, and the name of Max Freedom Long, were mentioned to me almost in passing. The occasion was one I sometimes refer to as “the meeting that didn’t happen,” because afterwards it had a certain aura of mystery, even destiny, about it.
I had been teaching at the University (then called Southeast Missouri State College) since 1962 and had a very popular course in mythology, which interested me very much. I covered a wide scope of mythological areas, among which were the Greek oracles. To illustrate ancient and modern methods of oracles, I sometimes referred to popular astrology — usually as an absurd method that could have little validity. But I was aware of the intricate relationships that existed between mythology and the subject matter of astrology. Oddly, I had even written papers on two related subjects — believe it or not, that was when I was in the sixth grade! A long time ago. With the repeated references to planetary names in the mythological stories, and the concentration on ancient oracles, as I prepared my lectures, it became increasingly evident that I had to investigate astrology further. I was later to acquire one of the best libraries anywhere in the area of astrology, and to become a fully qualified astrologer. But that is only a peripheral story.
The “meeting that didn’t happen” took place in an odd way. I heard an astrologer being interviewed on the radio, struck up a correspondence with him, worked on the basics of astrology by myself for some time, then asked my new friend if he knew anyone that I could meet with to discuss the subject of astrology. He mentioned this to some of his friends and students one day and a young couple perked up at the idea and volunteered to drive to Cape Girardeau from St. Louis to talk with me. They were Rex and Diana Bills and for a fascinating four hours they talked astrology, reading my chart (which I had worked out in detail). A number of ideas were mentioned, which I later investigated. And almost as a passing thought, they asked if I had heard of Huna and Max Freedom Long. I said “No”, and wrote down the address they gave me. Then we went on with our discussion of astrology.
That night I went through my notes and wrote letters to some of the organizations they had called my attention to. Among them was Max Freedom Long.
The effect of his response was quite unexpected, and almost alarming. He said: “I’ve been waiting for you for forty years— to carry on my work.” Not in exactly those words, but it was clear in retrospect that he knew at once that he had found the person he had been searching for throughout the past ten years at least. His letter came August 9th, 1968 — fifty-one years after Max and Curtis Stewart encountered a moment of destiny and went to Hawaii. In a long letter, dated January 25, 1969, Max outlined his plans for me to take over his “Huna project,” suggesting some of the things that could be done in the future and what would be involved in making the transition. Some of the reprint projects of the HRA were suggested in that letter.
During the last few years of Max’s life on Earth, a long-time student and friend, Dolly Ware, came to the forefront of MFL’s life. As a widely acclaimed speaker and singer, and a consultant in the field of biochemistry nutrition, Dolly visited Max on a number of occasions. She asked him what he had hoped to accomplish in his life that he had not yet done. He mentioned two other books that he wanted to write — stories for children, illustrating the Huna concepts; and “my paperback book” (as he called it). Dolly encouraged Dr. Max to get to work on these projects. He was nearly eighty years old, his body was slowing down, but mentally he was as agile as ever, if not more so. Dolly was there at exactly the right time and performed a service that no one else could have done. With her constant, even unremitting, encouragement and insistence, Dr. Max completed BOTH manuscripts — before his “graduation” shortly before his eighty-first birthday. The children’s book he even managed to distribute, partly as an extended issue of one of the Huna Vistas, the rest completed in mimeographed form. The second (his “paperback book”) has not been published. The manuscript, What Jesus Taught in Secret, had only been read by one publisher (and refused) before Max’s death.
Another major accomplishment was brought about by Dolly and Dr. Max -— the establishment of the Max Freedom Long Library and Museum. It was Max himself who chose the best books from his collection to be shipped to Fort Worth, Texas, where Dolly and the entire Ware family had made ready a new home for the books and mementos. A special section was set aside for the Huna books, and those sources Max felt were particularly important to the Huna study. Some of the mementos to be seen there are an ebony altar table which had to be restored by a master craftsman (it took nine months to do it); Dr. Brunler’s Biometer; the two ivory figurines which Max used symbolically in the TMHG (Telepathic Mutual Healing Group) sessions; and original paintings by Max and others.
No wonder Max called Dolly Ware “the Huna Angel.” When a single page of illustrations for the book of Huna stories for children was found among the shipment of items from Max’s Study to my Study here in Missouri, I found that Dolly herself was the prototype of the “original Mama” of the Universe. This was in the form of an electronic stencil, which had never been used. For the first time, copies of this sheet of illustrations were made and added to the few remaining copies of How Everything Was Made. The original ink drawing was discovered in the MFL Library.
During his eightieth year, having settled down into the confines of a nursing home to recover from surgery, Max made himself a little “Study” of his private room, talked Huna to the nurses and orderlies, and had books brought in to read. Taking “a new lease on life” he started a NEW series of communications and called it “Huna Vistas Newsletter.” Only one issue appeared, typed by Max on a small portable in his makeshift Study. The two pages were sent to Dolly, to whom he had already sent a set of addressed envelopes for the mailing list. This was printed in Texas by off-set, along with a handwritten letter and pictures of the Library. That Newsletter was dated May 1, 1971.
Max Freedom Long “graduated” on September 23, 1971, a month before his eighty-first birthday.
“Remembering Max Freedom Long” was a memorial issue of the new series of newsletters initiated by MFL only a few months before. It was written by Dolly Ware with a sensitivity befitting the founder of the Huna work and one of his most devoted students. The title was taken from an “obituary” written by Max himself. He had put all things in order. On the masthead was published for the first time the scene which still appears on our publications — a tropical scene photographed by MFL perhaps fifty years before. It could be Hawaii, or Samoa —- Everyone on the mailing list was sent a copy of this bulletin, and no other copies were made.
Dolly was in touch with me by letter and phone during these events. The enormity of the task before me was only beginning to suggest itself. With all the activities I was already involved in, it seemed impossible to take on the full responsibility of the Huna work. At first I agreed to write the major articles and my first one appeared in the summer 1972 issue. It was number three, but the printer accidentally left off the number. Along with this article, “The Three Selves in the Greek New Testament,” I was introduced by Dolly as the new Research Editor.
It was imperative that Dolly and I get together for serious and full discussion of the future of HRA. With my wife, Ann, I spent four days in the Library in late summer of 1972. When we returned to Missouri, I had the addressograph (which Max had used for thirty years), a box of 800 assorted, unclassified address plates — and the task of reorganizing the activities of the Huna Research Associates. I had no other equipment except my own typewriter. It was to be another year before the estate would be settled and the equipment from Max’s Study could be shipped to me. The “tinned” letter which I sent out could not have been very impressive. The only printing device available to me was a spirit duplicator, which makes that terrible purple print. A master makes only a few decent copies and I had to type the same material over about eight times, as I recall. I wanted to assure everyone that I would give them the opportunity to continue with the renewed activities of HRA, but I would not repeatedly barrage them with requests to join, if they did not wish to do so. The response was very encouraging. During the first six months, I kept tab of the letters I wrote. I stopped counting at 2,000! I plunged into a completely new field of printers and typesetters and discovered that the only problem of a newsletter is not just writing the material.
Before the remaining months of 1972 were past, I had managed to accomplish several important projects for the Huna work: I reprinted an early treatise of Max’s on Mana, or Vital Force; put together all the units on Tarot Card Symbology from the Huna Vistas; and arranged for the purchase of all remaining copies of the reprint (from England) of Recovering the Ancient Magic.
It was immediately necessary to have more space for the Huna work; my Study was small and crammed with “wall to wall” books. We solved the problem by adding on a large room to the Wingo house and turning most of the basement area into the Huna workrooms. It might be added that this was done at personal expense and not from any HRA funds (since there weren’t any). The office equipment from Vista arrived, some two dozen cartons, including Max’s IBM typewriter, the mimeograph machine, and large paper cutter, all of which were put to immediate use. Other items sent were paper and supplies, original stencils for the HRA Bulletins and Huna Vistas (ALL of them, but in various stages of disintegration), and a few printed copies of the last issues of Huna Vistas.
The major publishing event of 1973 was the completion of the first correspondence course on the Fundamentals of Huna Psychology (“LETTERS ON HUNA”). I might add that our first year’s dues had been set quite small and the expenses of the first year were FOUR times the amount for incoming dues. It was the correspondence course (whose price was also quite low) that began to put the Huna work on an even keel, financially. Other things published during the year were the Interim Newsletters, a 1957 lecture of MFL, and “Huna Secrets in the Lord’s Prayer,” an article I wrote for the Newsletter.
A new look appeared in 1974, when HRA acquired an offset printing press and I started doing my own printing. It was a bigger step than I realized at the time. Maybe it’s a good thing we don’t always know what is involved in such decisions — we might hesitate to make the first step. The Mana booklet had to be reprinted twice within a few months. I made two lecture trips to Canada, one to Iowa. We reprinted the little book of Dr. Brunler’s on Radiations, the Short Talks of MFL, and some smaller pamphlets. The Andrews Hawaiian Dictionary (1865) appeared in a beautiful reprint by Charles E. Tuttle. The Huna course was translated into Portuguese. Another major event of the year was the research trip to the Philippines by Dolly Ware, Bill Ellis, and me. Our findings were reported in detail in the Newsletter.
There were more lecture trips in 1975: Bettendorf, Iowa; Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo., Indianapolis, Indiana. Group work was growing in scope of activities and increasing number of groups. Classes in Huna were being given in more places, some starting two years before.
A new format for our publications was begun early in the year. Instead of a single newsletter, with articles and news, book reviews and announcements, items of lasting interest, along with a few ephemeral items, we now started two different publications. The primary one was called “Huna Vistas RESEARCH BULLETIN,” combining the two names Max had used in the past. This was to contain articles and reviews, surveys of certain subject areas, on-going research. It became the major quarterly publication. The other was the “Huna Vistas Newsletter,” which was to include announcements, news of meetings, new books, dues notices, as well as reviews, articles of interest and sharing of correspondence received here at the Study. Along with this Newsletter, which was to go out sometime between each Bulletin, as well as along with the mailing of the Bulletin (as needed), the plan was to include some sheets for a Huna Notebook printed from the original stencils of the early Bulletins or Huna Vistas. This was to be a continuing project.
Two major events are the highlights of 1975: the first Huna Workshop for Teachers and Group leaders and the reissue of Max Freedom Long’s 1945 booklet as a full-size paperback, Introduction to Huna. The first set the stage for expansion of the Huna work, as more groups were formed and plans were begun for a large Huna meeting for all members and any others interested in the Huna system. The book, published for us by Esoteric Publications, included basic information on membership and the Huna course, and included our address.
DeVorss, the publisher of the MFL books on Huna, began to place our address in each book, as it came time to reprint it. Thus the readers of the various books are beginning to learn about the work of HRA as it now operates, instead of trying in vain to contact someone at the old address in Vista.
With the increased activity, more space was needed and during the summer of 1975, a new room was added to the Huna headquarters. This room became the Study, since it afforded the privacy needed for research, reading, and correspondence. A larger room was changed into the library, with room for small meetings; and a separate room could now be used for printing and shipping.
A new name began to appear in the Research Bulletin, with an article or review. A new Huna student, Will McClure, has come into the work as a valued helper, indispensable in fact. He took right to the operation of the printing press, wrapping of books, and the research and writing. I suppose he got a bit of “printing ink in his blood.” As a result we greatly improved the appearance and quality of printing of the Bulletin, and during 1976 reset the type and brought out a fifth edition of MANA, or Vital Force, in book form.
This brief survey has covered more than a century of research, study, experimentation and practice. What of the future? Let me share, in conclusion, some of the plans and projects, hopes and aspirations for the future.
- Membership will greatly increase, as more and more persons hear of the Huna System and “recognize” it as a practical way of life. This can happen when facilities are expanded to serve a larger number of members, more group work, more distribution of publications, and announcements in national and international periodicals.
- As activities and membership increase, there will be need for full-time director and other workers here at the headquarters. I can also see the necessity for a separate building, as full-time personnel join the staff.
- Publications: in addition to keeping all the HRA publications 1n print, I can see a schedule of publishing vastly increasing to meet the needs of larger membership and readership. We could later take over the publication of all the Huna books, which would also involve the distribution of them, wholesale and retail. The book of Huna stories for children could be edited and illustrated and published in presentable form. What Jesus Taught in Secret will be published eventually, either by a large paperback publisher or by HRA. A “Huna Light” series of small books is in the planning stage; some of the topics would be radionics, various energy studies (such as pyramids), such problem areas as losing weight, how to stop smoking, etc. One reprint project we hope to launch in the near future is a series of small books of “Huna Light from M.F.L.” (excerpts from the out-of-print Bulletins and Huna Vistas). The MFL Biography File is increasing as we receive new information occasionally from members, such as copies of correspondence with MFL, anecdotes and personal experiences related to us. Several major books are in various stages of preparation. In cooperation with Edward S. Schultz, I have gathered a huge file of research material in preparation for a book on the Physical Stimulus Principle in Huna. It remains “only” to be written.
- Lecture Tapes: we plan soon to make available the valuable lectures which Max put on tape about ten years ago. Other tapes, including some of my own lectures, can be added to the list. This is a medium for instruction that we need to take better advantage of.
- Group Work will multiply, as more HRAs become grounded and experienced in the Huna studies, and start classes and develop working groups. Some very fine work is being done now. This will increase to a remarkable degree, as I see the trend from many letters and calls from members in many parts of the world.
- Huna in Translation: there is a trend also to make available the Huna course and books in languages other than English. In addition to the Portuguese translation of the course, a Spanish translation is nearing completion. The books are being translated into Spanish, French, and German. The German edition of the course is well under way. Some items have been done in Polish. We may need a full staff of translators, as interest increases and more information is needed in these and other languages. Where do we go from here? The prospect looks very exciting. The only direction to look is forward — and up.
I am glad you are joining with us as we advance
IN HUNA LIGHT, E. Otha Wingo
