This document provides an overview of Hawaiian shamanism, also known as Huna. It discusses the seven principles of Hawaiian shamanic healing: 1) The world is what we think it is 2) There are no limits 3) Energy flows where attention goes 4) Now is the moment of power 5) To love is to be happy with 6) All power comes from within 7) Effectiveness is the measure of truth. It explores each principle in detail, citing sources from Hawaiian shamanism, Christianity, and other religions and philosophies to illustrate the principles.

1. HAWAIIAN SHAMANISM,
THE ANCIENT WISDOM
AND ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY
By Dr Ian Ellis-Jones
Published in Communion [The Magazine of The Liberal Catholic
Church in Australia], Vol 18, No 3, Michaelmas 1995
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory (1
Cor 2:7)
Hawaiian Shamanism, also known as Huna ('that which is hidden, or not
obvious'), or Kahuna (ka-huna means 'the secret'), may best be described as
an ancient philosophy of healing, based on love and co-operation and a
recognition of the Oneness of all Life (that 'One Reality, the Absolute', to
quote from H P Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine).
According to Dr Serge Kahili King, Hawaiian shaman and author of such best
sellers as Imagineering for Health, Kahuna Healing and The Hidden
Knowledge of Huna Science, there are seven basic principles of kahuna
healing, each represented by a distinctive Hawaiian word. The seven
principles are as follows:
1.The world is what we think it is
2.There are no limits
3.Energy flows where attention goes
4.Now is the moment of power
5.To love is to be happy with
6.All power comes from within
7.Effectiveness is the measure of truth
THE WORLD IS WHAT WE THINK IT IS
The first principle, from which all the others are derived, is that the world is
what we think it is. This principle is represented by the word IKE

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(knowledge, understanding). This principle is common to all major religions
and philosophies.
The world proceeds from thought. And God said, Let there be light and there
was light (Gen 1:3). Ralph Waldo Trine, in In Tune with the Infinite, writes
… The very universe in which we live is the residual of the thought energies
of God, the Infinite Spirit that is behind all.
To think is to create. What we think, that we do; what we do, that we are.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he (Prov 23:7). Through wisdom is an
house budded; and by understanding it is established (Prov 24:3). In the
words of Gautama Buddha, The mind is everything' what you think you
become. Or in the words of an old Oriental maxim, What you think upon
grows. We all have been given the power to choose our thoughts, and
through them our actions.
What this principle means is that our thoughts become externalised as our
environment and experience. The world which we seem to be experiencing
without is really the world we are seeing within.
Many things flow from this principle. For a start, it means that we are not, in
truth, and need not be, in practice, dependent upon anyone or anything for
our happiness or peace of mind. In addition, blaming others for our troubles
is simply confessing that we do not think for ourselves. Finally, the principle
means that other people do not exist to satisfy our demands; they need not
even be interested in us.
THERE ARE NO LIMITS
The second principle is that there are no limits. This principle is represented
by the word KALA (release, freedom, forgiveness). There are two limbs to
this principle.
First, there are no limits to what is possible. As children of God we have
within us, and thus have access to, all the power we need to live
successfully. If we are truly established in the Divine, that is, live with our
roots reaching down to the One Source of all creative life and power, the

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whole of the Infinite Power of God will be available. In the words of the New
Testament, All things are possible to him who believes (Mk 9:23). With God
all things are possible (Mt 19:26). We can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth [us] (Phil 4:13). Or, to quote The Koran, Ye shall be
superior to the unbelievers if ye believe.
In Mount Everest: lts Spiritual Attainment, Bishop Arundale writes:
When you are in the presence of the Master you always know what
to do. Why? Because He lifts you out of your smaller self into your
higher Self. When in the presence of your higher Self you know
what to do. One of God's greatest gifts is to give us sufficient power
to meet all emergencies.
Secondly, there are no limits between us. We are part of nature and of
God. All is One, and there is no difference between one aspect of life and
another. All life is the same. Of Him, and by Him and in Him are all things
(Rom 11:36). In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
The infinite Spirit of God - the One Power - indwells and expresses all so-
called material creation and life itself. To the extent to which we realise that
our true life is lived in God, and that God lives in us and in all the peoples of
[the] earth (Liberal Catholic Liturgy), we will gradually unfold, and in time
enter into greater mysteries of Truth.
ENERGY FLOWS WHERE ATTENTION GOES
The third principle is that energy flows where attention goes. This principle
is represented by the word MAKIA (conscious endeavour or purpose). The
Rev Dr Norman Vincent Peale, in The Power of Positive Thinking, writes:
All of the universe is in vibration. There are vibrations in the
molecules of a table. The air is filled with vibrations. The reaction
between human beings is also in vibration. When you send out a
prayer for another person, you employ the force inherent in a
spiritual universe.
Thought is creative (thoughts spoken, or even unspoken, posses strong
vibratory power, writes Dr Peale in Power of the Plus Factor), and by the
power of constructive thinking we are co-creators with the Universe itself.
Our dominion lies within our own mentality. You will decide on a matter, and
it will be established for you (Job 22:28). It was Plato who said that thinking
is the talking of the soul with itself. The real question then becomes … is
our self-talk positive or negative, creative or destructive?

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There is a spiritual law called the law of attraction. Like attracts like. The very
force we send out causes a corresponding reaction, writes Dr Annie Besant
in Thought Power. If we habitually send out negative thoughts into the
world around us, we tend to draw back negative results to ourselves.
However, if we send out positive thoughts, we activate our world positively
and draw back to ourselves positive results. The Bible attests to this
proposition over and over again. For example, a cheerful heart is a good
medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones (Prov 17:22); for the
thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me (Job 3:25),
and so on.
We are to keep our heart [mind] with all diligence; for from it flows the
springs of life (Prov 4:23). A positive mental attitude is essential, since the
positive focus of your mind stirs up the positive, creative force of the Power
(King, The Aloha Spirit). To quote once again from Dr Peale's The Power
of Positive Thinking:
The mental vision which you create and firmly hold in consciousness
will be actualised if you continually affirm it in your thoughts and if
you work diligently and effectively. This creative process simply
stated is: visualise, prayerise, and finally actualise.
H P Blavatsky said as much in Isis Unveiled:
Consciousness is a quality of the sentient principle, or in other
words, the soul; ... Latent as it seems to us, our vigilant Will evolved
force, and set our matter in motion.
Through prayer and meditation, and the right use of thought generally, we
become attuned to the stillness of the Secret Place and increasingly
manifest the qualities of Spirit. When our minds are raised up until they
become keyed to the same note or vibration as the Divine Mind, then they
work in unison, so that they produce Divine ideas of order, completeness,
health and harmony.
NOW IS THE MOMENT OF POWER
The fourth principle is, now is the moment of power. This principle is
represented by the word MANAWA (time, turn, season). We have no
power in the past, nor in the future. Here we are, in the Eternal Now, and

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always have been. As H P Blavatsky pointed out in Isis Unveiled:
The human spirit, being of the Divine, immortal Spirit, appreciates
neither past nor future, but sees all things as in the present.
Thus, it is in the Now that we must find our way out. Now is the accepted
time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). See the salvation of the
Lord, which He will shew to you today (Ex 14:13). Salvation, it is submitted,
refers to a profound change in consciousness, through the Power of God,
whereby we regain conscious possession of our God-given attributes such
that we become increasingly free from lack, limitation and illness.
(Interestingly, the very word for illness in Hawaiian means a state of
tension, that is, 'dis-ease'.)
TO LOVE IS TO BE HAPPY WITH
The fifth principle is, to love is to be happy with. This principle is
represented by the traditional Hawaiian word of friendly welcome, ALOHA
(love, mercy, compassion). As a greeting, the word means hello, welcome,
goodbye and farewell. According to the Kahuna code, first revealed to the
West by theosophist and student of Hawaiiana, Max Freedom Long (author
of The Secret Science Behind Miracles, The Huna Code in Religions, and
What Jesus Taught in Secret), there are several layers of meaning encoded
in the word. No one English word can adequately capture the meaning of the
word, the derivation of which is most interesting and instructive.
Alo means to be with, to face or to front, or, simply, face to face. Ha means
the breath of life, or life energy. Thus Aloha means face, or turn to, the
breath of life. The word is, however, even richer. O h a means joy or
happiness. Thus Alo-oha, to be with joyfully, or, more fully, the joyful (oha)
sharing (alo) of the life energy (ha) in the present (alo). Finally, there is the
word lo, referring to the front cranium of the skull that encases the
consciousness or the brain. The combination of alo-lo-ha then becomes
face to face, consciously, I give you the breath of life, or my conscious self
gives you the gift of my life's breath. (In Esoteric Christianity, the Christ in
me salutes the Christ in you).
The word implies, and conveys, a wonderful reverence for that which has life
– all Life – and for what Hawaiians call the mana, the Power, the Spirit, which

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life implies and which is Life. As we share this energy (ha), we become
attuned to the Divine Power, mana.
Bishop Wedgwood, in his excellent little book, Meditation for Beginners,
writes:
There is but one love throughout the universe, given by the Divine
Father into the custody of His creature; it is the one primal force
which in its elementary creative aspect produces multiplicity of form
and in its higher aspect draws souls together towards unity in the
One Life.
In the words of the psalmist, They shall prosper that love thee (Ps 122:6.
Every one that loveth is born of God (1 Jn 4:7). Love is in accordance with
the natural eternal order of the Universe, for God is love (1 Jn 4:8). The
Kingdom of God which we find within us is a Kingdom of Love. Love is the
One Reality. It is Love that heals. It is Love that saves.
The most curative thought in the world is the thought of love (aloha). Love
increases as judgment decreases, because judgment (eg criticism,
resentment) creates a separation. Self-centredness, with its misbelief in
separation, is, according to Archbishop Temple, the true original sin and is
the source of all actual sin. We are to judge not according to appearance,
but judge righteous judgment (Jn 7:24) and to resist not evil (Mt 5:39). This
is the Way, the Path of Wisdom and Attainment, recognising the innate
unity of all life. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (Jn
8:32).
Dr King, in The Aloha Spirit, says that blessing is the most powerful
technique in the world and the way to tune into [the] Power. The 'secret' is
to bless everyone and everything. Blessing may be done with imagery or
touch, but the most usual way to do it is with words. There are various
forms of verbal blessing, namely admiration (the giving of compliments or
praise), affirmation (a specific statement of blessing for increase or
endurance), appreciation (expression of gratitude) and anticipation (a
blessing for the future).
We are to bless people, animals, circumstances, and all potential for happiness
that we notice around us - in other words, everything. In the words of the
New Testament, we are to bless them which persecute [us]: bless, and curse

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not (Rom 12:14). In fact, the Old Testament injunction to bless the Lord your
God for ever and ever (Neh 9:5) means, in effect, that we are to recognise
and affirm the life of the Lord in all things and in all people. Death and life
are in the power of the tongue (Prov 18:21). By our words we will be
justified, and by our words we will be condemned (Mt 12:37).
ALL POWER COMES FROM WITHIN
The sixth principle is that all power comes from within. This principle is
represented by the word (MANA vital force, divine power, creative power).
Mana is, to use the words of Bishop Leadbeater (The Science of the
Sacraments) divine force … spiritual force, which is oftentimes spoken of as
the grace of God ... just as definite as is steam or electricity or any other of
the great forces of nature. Where there is no mana, there is no life, and no
thought (The kahunas used the word mana-o for 'to think'. It means literally
something done with mana). All of us have vital force; it is our life force.
In Shintoism we read, Do not search in distant skies for God. In man’s own
heart is He found. Or, in the words of the New Testament, the kingdom of
God is within you (Lk 17:21). Within us is the Power; not the power of a finite
personality, which is helpless in itself and bound by the limitations of the
sense life, but the Power of the Infinite, which is the One and Only Power. In
the words of Fr Geoffrey Hodson (The Hidden Wisdom in the Holy Bible, vol
1):
In the Ageless Wisdom God is not presented as an anthropomorphic
figure, an Almighty Being in human form and with human tendencies
combined with divine powers … He is not distant in a far-off Heaven,
but actually present as the divine life in Nature and the divine
Presence in man, the ‘God which worketh in you…(Phil 2:13)
The one Power that maketh all things new .. lives and moves in those who
know the self as one (Liturgy). This God within each individual (Bishop
Arundale, You), this Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27), is ever active,
moving ever onward, upward and Godward in a ceaseless process of
unfoldment.
EFFECTIVENESS IS THE MEASURE OF TRUTH
The seventh, and final, principle is that effectiveness is the measure of truth.
This principle is represented by the word PRONO (correct behaviour). What
matters is what works. This does not mean that the end justifies the means.

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Not at all. In fact, it points to the opposite: the means determines the end.
When we cease to act merely as a means to an end and start to live with a
true valuation of the present moment which is the action being done (Ernest
Wood, The Seven Rays), we are on the Path which leads to the truth that
shall make us free (cf Jn 8:32).
From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing ... Does a spring pour forth
form the same opening fresh water and brackish? (Jas 3:10,11). We are to
prove all things and hold fast that which is good (1 Thess 5:21). As H P
Blavatsky pointed out (see A Modern Panarion), we ought to be ever-ready
to abandon every idea that [proves] erroneous.
There is an ancient Hawaiian chant which can be translated more-or-less as
follows:
I come forth from the Void into Light
I am the breath that nurtures Life
I am that emptiness, that Hollowness beyond all Consciousness The
I, the Id, the All
I draw my bow of rainbows across the water
The continuum of Mind with Matter
I am the incoming and the outgoing of Breath
The invisible, untouchable Breeze
The indefinable atom of Creation
I am the 'I'.
In other words, the secret and hidden wisdom of God … decreed before
the ages for our glorification (1 Cor 2:7): there is only One Presence and
One Power active in the universe, in all, with all, over all, and as all - God,
the good, Omnipotent. By him were all things made, yea, all things both
in heaven and earth, with him as the indwelling life do all things exist and
in him as the transcendent glory all things live and move and have their
being (Liberal Catholic Liturgy). All life is but an incarnation of the One
Life. The Universe is not divided against itself. God is all there is. God in
us, as us, is us. As children of God, we are linked together as one in
universal consciousness. You are all brethren .. you have one Father,
who is in heaven (Mt 23:8,9).
ALOHA!

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