II. The Elements of the Individual
Earlier we told you that Huna has a unique way of looking at who we
are. Clearly it is important that while we can divide who we are up
into various component parts, these component parts are never really
separated from each other. This division, unlike the way Western
medicine divides up the human being, is simply an expediency for
communicating about each aspect. The reader should always remember
that there is no separation of one from the other in Huna. They all
work and operate simultaneously and depend on each other. For this
exact reason Huna integrates mind, body and spirit into a whole that
can operate to heal us and help prevent future illness.
1.
Each individual has three Selves, consciousness or minds:

a) There is the Subconscious Mind, more commonly referred to as
the low Self or Lower Self
b) There is the Conscious Mind, more commonly referred to as the
Middle Self
c) The Superconscious Mind, more commonly referred to as the
Higher Self (In Huna referred to as our aumakua).
2.
There are three types of Mana or life force energy, one for
each of the three selves:
a) The mana, life force energy, of the lower self, also referred
to as mana
b) The mana, life force energy, of the middle self, also
referred to as mana-mana
c) The mana, life force energy, for the Higher Self, also
referred to as Mana Loa
3.
Each of the three selves also has its own Aka Body:
a) The aka body and aka cord of the lower self
b) The aka body and aka cord of the middle self
c) The aka body for the Higher Self
4.
There is the Physical Body
5.
There is the soul of the individual
Each of us therefore, is made up of three selves (a lower self,
middle self and a Higher Self), each of these selves has an aka body
(one for the lower self, one for the middle self and one for the
Higher Self), each of our three selves also has its own type of life
force energy (mana for the lower self, mana-mana for the middle self
and Mana Loa for the Higher Self). Finally, we each have physical
body and a soul.
These component parts create who we are and how we function in the
physical, emotional, mental and spiritual realms of life. In the
next section, we will look briefly at each of these component parts
and eventually we will show how they interact in causing illness and
in healing it.
The Lower Self
The symbol of the lower self is the grasshopper. This same symbol
was used by the Egyptians to represent their version of the
subconscious or ka aspect of the person. The lower self was
thought of by the kahuna as a "spirit," it is also the "automatic"
self. It is awake 24-hours a day, day and night. It never sleeps. It
merely lives inside of our physical body and uses it as its home. In
turn it manages all of the biologic functions of the physical body.
It beats our heart, but is not our heart, it tells us when we are
hungry, it digests our food for us, it governs our immune system, it
is the stress mechanism and it is in charge of our defensive and
healing systems.
When Freud referred to it as the subconscious he knew only a small
portion of what it did and yet even with knowing this very small
portion, knowledge of its existence substantially changed the way
medicine was ultimately to be practiced forever. The Huna master
uses the knowledge of the lower self to heal and solve problems in a
way that Freud could only have dreamed of using. With a clear
understanding of the function and manner in which the lower self
works, problems which were previously unsolvable suddenly become
much easier to solve.
The lower self has several roles. At its most basic level it is
responsible for our survival. Since it is always alert and working
it can protect us even while we sleep. Many people believe that our
dreams are messages from the lower self to the middle self, trying
to communicate, trying to solve problems, or trying to educate and
inform the middle self. Dreams may be simple coded messages or
images which can represent themselves or are metaphors created by
the lower self to inform the middle self what it wants it to know or
believes it needs to know.
The lower self is the intelligence of the body/mind. It is made up
of the reptilian brain and the autonomic nervous system and hence is
also the driving force behind the stress mechanism, the immune
system as well as the defensive, healing and repair systems of the
body. In fact, we can say that the lower self is the stress
mechanism as well as the immune system, defensive, healing and
repair systems of the body. When it is functioning optimally, we are
healthy. When it is thrown out of balance or when significant
disharmony is created by the environment, other people, or wrong
actions of the middle self, the lower self will first attempt to
communicate this to the middle self, and then, if the middle self,
or better still, if we do not solve the problem, it will begin to
create one or more signs or symptoms as a form of intelligent
communication to tell us what the conflict is and possibly, even how
to solve it.
Take for example sitting on a tack. We do not usually just
experience pain alone. Generally when we experience pain, we also
experience one or more emotions at the same time. We may experience
shock, fear, guilt, anger or surprise. These emotions exist within
the lower self. They are in a sense our teachers. They are used by
the lower self to teach and communicate with the middle self. When
the lower self sends fear, it is telling us that there is potential
danger. When it communicates anxiety, it is telling us that we are
confused we have two pictures of the future or past that are
inconsistent and it is not sure what is desired of it. Love tells us
that we feel a positive sense of caring, an association with the
person or object that the middle self is involved with. Each emotion
has its own meaning. Each is formed as a physical and chemical
response to a positive or negative situation, a memory of the
situation or of an associated belief system. Without these beliefs,
which are held in storage within the lower self emotions would be
meaningless.
The lower self holds all memories for the middle self. Western
science is having great difficulty at this time trying to figure out
where memories are held. Initially, they believed that memories were
stored in the brain, but time and time again parts of the brain
would be damaged and memories would still survive. A later theory
told us that memories may be stored in our muscles. The twentieth
century Psychotherapist Wilhelm Reich believed that by working on
muscles memories could be purged. To the Huna master memories are
stored primarily in the lower self in a holographic form. The lower
self can in turn store these memories in the aka body and possibly
even in various parts of physical body. The brain merely acts as a
memory manager much like a disc operating system acts to remember
where bytes of information are stored on a computer memory disc.
(Did you ever wonder how someone came up with the idea of a disc
operating system to manage memory--there is nothing new out there
only people who recognize how life really is made up?)
The Middle
Self
This second "spirit" was often referred to as the Uhane or the
spirit that talks. It is the consciousness of the middle self
or conscious self. It could best be thought of in simplistic terms
as our personality, the who we believe ourselves to be. This aspect
of us is for the most part, the only part of our self that we will
really ever know. To the medical profession this aspect has long
been perplexing. The average medical doctor has great difficulty
understanding why people do, what they do. The Huna master, however,
had several thousand years to learn, grow and understand what modern
physicians are just trying to understand.
The middle self is our conscious awake self. It can operate only for
limited periods of time and then it needs to shut down to rest or
sleep. It knows of the world only by what our senses tell it. If at
any moment ALL input from the world around us, from our body, from
the spiritual realm or from the Intelligence of the Universe were to
be let in all at once, we would almost instantly be overloaded and
unable to function.
Since our sensory system belongs to the lower self and since the
lower self is always trying to protect the more fragile middle self,
the lower self will only permit small amounts of information go up
to the middle self at any moment in time. Scientists are aware of a
part of the brain that acts as a filter, filtering out all sensation
or information that is not essential to our aware self. Hence, the
middle self lives in a kind of dream world limited by the scope and
range of the body's sensory system and by what the lower self allows
it to know and what it believes about what it does know.
You might have noticed that I refer to the lower self as "it" and
the middle self as "we" or even as "I." This is no accident. We do
not really know our lower self very well. Often we hear people say,
"I am trying to get to know myself." Or we may say, "I am trying to
find myself." Generally this really means we are trying to
understand our lower self and its relationship to the middle self
and the outside world. Most of us know our middle selves, for
example, I am Allen. I know what I like, I know what I look like (my
physical body that is), and I know what I don't like. What I don't
know is how the lower self has reacted to my past memories, what it
likes and what it doesn't like. I do, however, have some hints
mediated by the way I feel.
For example when I eat escargots I don't feel good. "Why," I ask
myself. "I can eat octopus, scallops, shrimps and I have no
problem?" There is not much difference between these foods except in
the belief systems and memories stored in the lower self.
I
learned to eat octopus, scallops and shrimp and they had no negative
connotation since they are all sea foods and "good for me!" But
garden snails, "Yuck, they are slimy. I have seen them in the garden
leaving a trail of slime and disgusting stuff after them." This
belief system, held in the lower self, will trigger both emotional
and physical changes that make me feel sick (which is, of course,
not often) when I think about trying escargots.
This is the way the lower self works for us. It sounds negative, but
it isn't. Remember when you just started to walk? One day you ran
toward the street and your mother screamed, "No! Don't do that, come
here at once." "You can get hurt, running into the street like
that." Well your mother's negative tone, her anger, her drama
impressed upon you that you shouldn't run out into the street and
you probably never did it again. Now, whenever you come to the edge
of the street you stop, look and listen both ways and then, only
when it is safe, walk across or into the street.
You see this process was ultimately developed to help protect us.
Unfortunately when we do not understand it or know how to use it,
when we don't learn from it, it can also work against us. In Huna we
say that blocks are created. These blocks act to protect us,
but unfortunately when they are indiscriminately created they can
work against us. They can work to activate the stress mechanism,
undermine the defensive and protective systems of the body and lead
to physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual illness.
The interaction between the middle self and lower self is quite
unique. The lower self operates like a robot doing whatever the
middle self tells it to do. Besides holding all medium and long term
memories for the middle self, the lower self has two additional
functions directly related to the middle self. It carries out the
orders of the middle self, and it maintains the physical body, its
biologic processes and regulatory mechanism working smoothly and
effectively.
Because of the lower self we do not have to think about how to make
our heart to beat or how to digest our food. We do not have to worry
about regulating our body temperature, releasing hormones nor
maintaining the well-being of our organs and bodily tissues. The
lower self maintains and regulates all biologic processes. It also
memorizes all physical actions like walking, eating, driving a car,
opening a door, writing, etc. Without the lower self we would be
unable to survive for very long.
The middle self, on the other hand, is the command consciousness. It
looks for food when the lower self tells it food is required (when
we get hungry). It directs where the car we drive is going. It
decides what is to be learned. It makes the decision when to go and
tells the lower self to open the door. The middle self experiences
the awareness of traumatic situations while the lower self moves the
body to fight or flight from them.
The Higher Self, Our Aumakua
We
mentioned briefly that our Higher Self is our Totally Trustworthy
Totally Benevolent Parental Spirit. To the Hawaiians it was
often represented by a deceased family member or a tribal symbol
such as the shark. In some cases our aumakua is a deceased family
member, in other cases it may be a nature spirit or an evolved being
from the spiritual realm, a guardian angel. This is a subject
discussed in many different philosophies and in most there are clear
rules of who or better, what can be an aumakua. In Huna, who is not
important. Rather only that it exists and it is there for us; to be
used to help us and protect us. It is also our teacher and our
personal connection to the spiritual world.
This third level of consciousness is usually entirely dismissed by
the medical profession because it often reminds them of their
primitive beginnings, as shamans and witch doctors. They will often
refuse to acknowledge its existence claiming that it is religion and
not part of the scientific process. The Huna master, however, knows
that the Higher Self could not be separated from the other two
selves or from the living body. They know that we can be called upon
when needed to protect us, heal us and gives us anything we ask for.
They understand that it is our connection to rest of Mankind, to the
Godhead and the Intelligence of the Universe. In a time when so many
people already suffer from poor self-image, unworthiness,
loneliness, addiction and stress, knowledge of the Higher Self could
make an enormous difference to all of us. Once we know how to call
upon our Higher Self, our ability to heal our self is greatly
increased.
Since the Higher Self does not need the body or its sensory systems,
it is not blocked or limited in what it can see or do. It can see,
or better still, "know" everything. Unlike the lower self or the
middle self it is directly connected to the Intelligence of the
Universe, hence it knows what the Intelligence of the Universe wants
and it knows it directly.
In
some disciplines each person is said to have more than one Higher
Selves, possibly as many as seven, or even ten, aumakua. Again this
is not of great importance in Huna. There is always at least one,
but there can even be more aumakua watching over us. In fact, each
of us has two types of aumakua. There is our personal aumakua (the
word aumakua, like kahuna, is both singular and pleural at the same
time) and there is our Poe Aumakua - our Totally Trustworthy
Totally Benevolent Family of Parental Spirits. They can be
thought of as our own personal company of angels or our heavenly
hosts.
The Poe Aumakua is made up of many spirits which watch over us and
act as resource for our Higher Self. While they are dedicated to us,
they work primarily through our Higher Self. Our Higher Self can ask
the Poe Aumakua to help us directly. They will usually agree, if
what is asked for is deemed to be in our best interest. They can
refuse, however, if it is not in our best interest. They cannot
cause us harm for just as we commonly think of angels they can do no
harm. They live the hurtless life is not just for humans as the
Higher Self and Poe Aumakua live this life in spirit as well. While
this is a spiritual law, it also a law for humankind.
Both our Higher Self and Poe Aumakua can see not only the present,
but also the future and the past. They have no fear or negative
feelings about death as they recognize that death is merely and
illusion of physical existence. Nothing is born, nothing dies
everything is energy and always in a process of evolution.
According to Huna, spiritual law tells us that we can ask our Higher
Self for anything we want and if it is in our best interest our wish
will be granted. This is not just a benefit but rather it is an
integral part of Huna. We are here to have everything we desire.
There is nothing that we cannot have, if we know how to ask for it.
Our Higher Self can help us anytime we ask it for help. The reason
why most people do not get what they want is because they either do
not ask for what they want or they ask for it incorrectly. In
another section we will discuss the basis of Huna prayer. Huna
prayer is a powerful process which we can all use to bring to
ourselves anything and everything we desire, with only two provisos
as long as it cannot cause hurt to anyone else and it must be in our
best interest that is, it will not in anyway, either directly or
indirectly, cause harm to us.
To
reinforce that Huna is not a religion we merely need to look at the
Hawaiian word for God which is ke akua. It is a verbal
directive. The concept of an all powerful God was relatively unknown
to the Hawaiians in a sense they believed that such an all powerful
God was much too far away and above them that He (or She) had little
or no interest in them. In a sense, their belief in the Higher Self
suggests that they believed that God had created the Aumakua system
and gave them the role of being there for us as our Higher Self and
Poe Aumakua.
Jesus clearly fit this concept of an Higher Self. He calls God,
Father, and he tells us that he is the way to the Father. He could
see the future and the past and he could give people whatever they
ask for. It was simple for the Hawaiian people to see Jesus as an
Higher Self, one with great power, who talked of love and the Aloha
spirit. It was therefore easy for most Hawaiians to accept Jesus.
Unfortunately most of the missionaries believed that the Hawaiian
way of looking at things was primitive and that the Hawaiians were
heathens who believed in ancestor worship, most never fully
understood the power and beauty of the real Hawaiian belief systems.
To read the next article in
the series,
Huna
Healing-3, click here.