Power Animals

Question: What are "power animals?" Do they really exist?

Answer: "Power animal" is a term that has several meanings, depending on the cultural context. In general, it is a term used by shamans or their equivalents, but for some it refers to an actual animal used as a totem or a teacher, and for others is an animal that appears as a guide or teacher in another world. Whether or not the latter really exists depends on your view of the world. If you do not believe in alternate realities, then an encounter with a power animal during meditation or dreaming is obviously a product of one's subconscious. If you do believe in alternate realities, as shamans do, then it is an experience as real as any other.

Reaching the Higher Self

Question: Why does Huna teach that we have to do through the subconscious to reach the Higher Self, especially when the subconscious may have doubts, fears, and beliefs that would interfere with the process?

Answer: First of all, it is only Max Long's version of Huna that says we have to go through the subconscious to reach the Higher Self. This idea is not based on Hawaiian cultural practice and it is not what my Hawaiian family taught me. Hawaiians have always spoken directly to God, nature spirits, and ancestors. Those who were brought up in Huna also spoke directly to the High Self. The three selves, of course, are not separate entities, but three aspects of one wholeness, so there is no chain of command and all selves are involved in every communication. However, the ancient teachers of Huna found that conscious communication with the subconscious or the High Self helps to focus and energize one's desires and intentions.

Question: There should be information available in the universe about how to create what I want, even if no one has created it yet. How do I access such information, and is this the best way to go?

Answer: Since this is an infinite universe, all knowledge is potentially available through any source. Potentially, you could learn everything you want to know from a paper cup. Getting into the right state of mind to communicate with a paper cup is the tricky part. Getting the information you want from your Ku, through all your filters of fear and doubt, would be the tricky part, too. If often takes less energy, less time, and less trouble to get information from someone who already has it (or at least some version of it).

Aloha from Serge

How and Why I Started This Blog

I've known about blogs for  a long time, and every once in a while I've considered doing one, but when it came time to take some action I couldn't think of anything I wanted to say that wasn't covered in my books and articles. And then one day, the day before yesterday, in fact, I was giving someone some advice by email, then saving a copy in case the same advice might be useful to someone else, when it suddenly came to me that this would be a perfect reason for me to do a useful kind of blog.

Over many years I have given advice in print and by email on health, personal development, success, prosperity, spirituality, Hawaiian culture and Huna, and I've kept copies of most of it "just in case." Well, "case" has arrived, and so begins my blog called "Advice From The Islands."