Programming for Prosperity

QUESTION: I have been programming for prosperity for quite a while, but I still feel like I'm blocked. What can I do?

ANSWER: Sometimes, when a path seems blocked and focusing on what you want doesn't seem to work, it's because we need to change something within ourselves. When money is concerned, it usually means we have to raise our sense of self esteem and self worth.

Improving self esteem and self worth is a lifelong process. Basically, it consists of continually improving your sense of worth and value in relation to everything else in your life. Practically, a good way to carry this out is to work at eliminating all self criticism and self doubt, and increasing self respect and appreciation. As always, the only tools we have for doing this are words, imagination, feelings, and behavior.

Dehydration

QUESTION: You seem to emphasize the importance of hydration in many of your workshops, and the effects that dehydration can have on our bodies and minds. Aside from feeling thirsty, how can I tell if I am dehydrated?

ANSWER: By the time you feel thirsty (dry mouth and/or throat) you are probably already very dehydrated. There are two more classic indicators: one is to pinch the skin on the back of your hand - the more slowly it goes back to normal, the more dehydrated you are; the other is to check your urine - the more yellow and smelly it is, the more dehydrated you are. There are a lot of other possible indicators, but the problem is that they may be caused by a lot of other things besides dehydration. Personally, whenever I experience any of the following symptoms, the first thing I do is drink a glass of water: pain in my body on waking up, irritability, fatigue, racing thoughts, confusion, anxiety, insomnia. If I get any relief from the water I assume that dehydration is probably the main problem, and if I don't get any relief, I look for another cause. Before going to the medicine cabinet, calling a doctor, or using any of my many healing techniques, I also try deep breathing for a while, drinking a glass of milk, and taking a pinch of salt or a low-cal sports drink. These approaches work very well for me, but you will have to find out what works for you.

Child Discipline

QUESTION: What can I do to discipline my five-year-old daughter who learned terrible habits from my ex?

ANSWER: The most important thing to remember is that she is a five-year-old human being. As a human being her most basic non-physical needs are for acceptance and effectiveness. To the degree that these needs are filled from her point of view she will be in harmony with her environment. If she doesn't get enough acceptance she will try to replace it with effectiveness (usually as "power plays," "control tricks," or over-achievement). If she doesn't feel effective enough she will try to replace this with being more acceptable (submissive, dependent, or emotionally manipulative are usual ways). As a five-year-old she doesn't have a lot of experience to work with, so she will copy behavior learned from the other parent, from other children, and from television. The behavior she will learn best is that which helps her get what she wants, but she may have a limited number of resources to learn from. So the next most important thing to remember is that the root meaning of the word "discipline" is "to teach." You will need a lot of patience, but her behavior will improve to the extent that you teach her at an emotional level that she is loved, and teach her in a practical way how to be more effective in dealing with people and situations.

Past Lives

QUESTION: How can I remember past lives and prove they are real?

ANSWER: Your belief is your only proof. If you believe enough, any evidence will be proof. If you don't believe, no amount of evidence will be proof enough. The easy way out is to believe in them when it is helpful to do so, and don't believe in them when it isn't.

Assuming they are real, look at places and cultures that interest you greatly, languages you learn easily, and talents you have that your family doesn't share. Studying these can trigger memories. Also, try dream recall, guided meditation, hypnosis, and self hypnosis.

QUESTION: What exactly is "shamanic healing?"

ANSWER: Here is one view. Shamanic healing is any form of healing in which the real objective is to heal spiritual relationships. The shamanic universe is a spiritual one, in the sense that everything is a spirit, including the universe itself, and everything is in some kind of relationship. Problems arise when two or more spirits get out of harmony. Because everything is related, two "idea spirits" in disharmony (i.e., conflicting ideas) can induce disharmony in one or more "body spirits" (i.e., body organs or functions), and vice versa. By healing the relationships (resolving conflicts) between ideas or body parts, harmony is restored for all concerned.

Although shamans are usually associated with dramatic ritual or trance techniques, in actuality they use whatever works. Common sense advice, herbs and medicine, massage and other physical interventions, psychotherapy and hypnotherapy - all these and more can be part of the shaman's repertoire, in addition to dramatic ritual and trance.

How to Send Healing

QUESTION: I've been asked to "send healing" for people and situations around the world, but how do I do this?

ANSWER: There are many techniques from different traditions and teachings, but all of them usually involve some combination of energy, words, and images. The words and images express your intent, and the energy gives power to your intent. The fundamental assumption behind all of this is that good thoughts can support good causes over great distances, just like prayer. So here is a basic process that anyone can use:

1. Take one very deep breath;

2. Say what you want (ex: "Let there be the right amount of rain needed in Texas");

3. See what you want (ex: rain clouds moving over Texas and releasing the right amount of rain);

4. Take another deep breath to finish.

Affirmations

QUESTION: Do affirmations really work?

ANSWER: By themselves, affirmations really don't do anything. They are not "magical spells" that cause things to happen. In fact, the verbal part of a spell has little importance.

An affirmation affirms or asserts that something exists or is true. That's all. Because of that, it also puts your attention on what you are affirming, and helps take your attention off the opposite. Repeating an affirmation, therefore, helps keep your mind on what you want, and not on what you don't want. Do that enough and you establish a habit of thought. Choose words for an affirmation that trigger positive mental and physical associations, and you establish mental, emotional, and physical habits. So, affirmations really don't work... but they do.

Cold Sore

QUESTION: I got a cold sore and I know it was directly related to being angry with someone, but why did my body choose that expression and how can I reprogram it to not do that any more?

ANSWER: Your body uses memory, sensory awareness, and energy to react to all your mental and physical behavior. When you get angry, all your biosystems are highly activated, especially in the area of your body where you might habitually respond to whatever made you angry. This could result in angry words or fight/flight reactions. If you suppress the anger, however, your body tightens the muscles or organs in the habit areas to block memory, sensory awareness or energy/movement reactions. This tension distorts body functions and triggers further reactions that we call disease or illness. So, with suppressed anger, for instance, some people get headaches, skin problems, arthritis, tumors, or many other conditions. You can reprogram your body to react with a different symptom when you suppress emotions by using affirmations, visualization, and self hypnosis, for example, but suppressed emotions will always cause tension and result eventually in symptoms of some kind. The best approach for this is to reprogram your mind to react differently to unpleasant situations. As a very general but workable guideline, increasing your self esteem and confidence really helps to do this.

Improving Intuition

QUESTION: How can I increase my intuition?

ANSWER: You may find this surprising, but the best way to increase or improve your intuition is to increase your sensory awareness, especially of things that interest you. This is because the more experience you have with something, the more sensitive you are to the most subtle information broadcast by whatever you put your attention on. If your interest is in engines or electronics, you will intuitively know how to fix them. If your interest is in people, you will intuitively know their fears and desires, problems and solutions.

QUESTION: You have said that each of the three selves has its own form of pleasure that motivates its behavior. Can you say a little more about that?

ANSWER: Basically, in teaching Huna we assume that each individual has three "selves" or "aspects." We can call them Ku, Lono, and Aumakua, or simply Body, Mind, and Spirit. We also assume that the primary motivator for each one is toward some form of pleasure, and the secondary motivator is away from some form of pain. So, the Body moves toward the experience or expectation of physically and emotionally pleasurable sensations, and away from painful sensations. The Mind moves toward the experience or expectation of mental and emotional pleasure from the resolution of problems, which is evident in such things as the playing and creating of games, or the desire to solve problems in any field, and therefore it moves away from problems that seem to be unsolvable. Our Spirit moves toward the emotional pleasure of harmony, evident, for example, in the love of beauty in all its forms, and moves away from disharmony. This theory gives us a very effective basis for understanding and changing behavior.

Dream Changing

QUESTION: In your classes you have stated that "if you can change your dreams, you can change your life." How do you do that?"

ANSWER: There are three effective ways to change your dreams in order to change your life (this does not include changing your life in order to change your dreams). These methods can be applied while you are asleep or awake, although for most people it is easier to do it while you are awake. The first thing you do is to recall the dream. Then you can apply one of these techniques: a) pick a point in the dream when you feel angry, fearful, or helpless, and use your imagination to change your reaction; b) pick a point in the dream and change the story so that it comes out the way you want it to; c) let the dream continue past the point where you woke up - this one may take awhile, but it will always resolve itself in a positive way if you stick with it long enough. In all three methods, the more sensory involvement (sight, sound, touch) and positive emotion you can add, the better the results. It works because when you change the memory of the dream, you are also changing the attitudes and expectations that gave rise to the dream in the first place.

Effective Affirmations

QUESTION: How effective are affirmations for manifesting? And does emotion make any difference?

ANSWER: Affirmations can be very effective, once you understand how they work. And adding emotional energy to them makes them even more effective. The first thing to understand is that affirmations don't manifest anything on their own. What they can do very well, however is help to keep your attention on what you want. One drawback is that, if you only use verbal or written words, it can take a whole lot of repetitions before anything changes inside of you that allows the manifestation to take place. If you add emotion to the words, the energy influences your subconscious and the subconscious or anyone or anything involved, so that even though you may still have to do a lot of repetitions, you usually won't need as many. One further point is that even so-called negative affirmations can work if the intention is positive. A friend of mine with bad asthma used "I do not have asthma, I never have had asthma, I never will have asthma." It took him six months of emotional repetition, but it worked.

Spirit Guides

QUESTION: My spirit guides used to give me good advice, but lately they've been telling me to do things that I know are wrong. Now I'm afraid some negative entities are just pretending to be my guides. How can I tell the difference, and what can I do about it?

ANSWER: Here are some guidelines that will help. If they don't help enough, it may be a good idea to seek professional help from someone who understands your beliefs about guides. Guideline #1 - Don't ever take orders from inner voices, no matter who they claim to be. You can listen to advice from any source you want, but reserve final decisions for yourself. Guideline #2 - Good advice is always given to increase good. If you get advice that encourages you to cause pain and suffering, it's not coming from a good source. Guideline # 3 - You have a right to reject advice. You can either not act on it, or "fire" the advisor. There is a big difference between hearing advice and following advice. And you can always order the advisor to come up with better advice or be gone (the more relaxed you body is, the easier it is to use this guideline).

Huna and Serious Healing

QUESTION: What is the Huna approach to dealing with a serious illness?

ANSWER: The Huna approach to dealing with a serious illness is to use everything available to get well. That means using techniques and practices from all four levels of reality to whatever degree they are helpful. To use an example, someone I know very well came down with a very bad case of pneumonia. On a first level he used the help of a medical doctor who did some tests and prescribed antibiotics. At that level he also used herbs, massage, vitamins, and good nutrition. On a second level he used affirmations, self hypnosis, visualization, bioenergetics, acupuncture, and the healing prayers and sendings of family and friends. On a third level he used radionics, ritual, and shaman journeys. On a fourth level he grokked healthy memories, people, animals, and plants. The result was that in 90 days he was healthier than ever. The point is, Huna is all about effectiveness. If it works, it's Huna.

On Happiness

Question: How can I be happy?

Answer: The usual approach is to wait until something happens that you like, and then passively enjoy it until something happens that you don't like. Of course, this makes your happiness completely dependent on your encounter with people, events, and circumstances. Another approach is to actively seek out what you enjoy, and avoid what you don't enjoy. However, this keeps you moving in and out of relationships and circumstances as you decide things are enjoyable or not, and tends to make your life unstable, as well as making it hard for others to relate to you. 

Since happiness is a subjective experience that comes from your personal decisions about what is enjoyable or not, you can increase your happiness by changing your decisions. One easy way is to extend your tolerance for what is acceptable in circumstances and other people's behavior. Another very effective way to increase happiness is to cut down on comparing things, because most unhappiness comes from making negative comparisons. And if you want to be happy all the time, then practice unconditional love. It may or may not be possible to live in a state of unconditional love all the time, but the closer you get to it, the happier you will be.

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."