Being A Shaman

QUESTION: How do you know if you are a shaman?

ANSWER: That's like asking "How do you know if you are an athlete?" If you think the way an athlete thinks and do what an athlete does, you can be called an athlete. The same is true of a shaman. It is a vocation, not a state of being. If you think the way a shaman thinks and do what a shaman does, you can be called a shaman. In a particular culture, there might be an initiation to recognize your status in the community, but it is your demonstrated ability that makes you a shaman, not the initiation. And, since "shaman" is only a borrowed word to describe someone who engages in certain kinds of activities and views the world in a certain way, the precise definition of a shaman can vary from culture to culture and place to place. Of course, if you don't know how a shaman thinks or what a shaman does, then the question itself is irrelevant.

How To Change Yourself

QUESTION: You have said that in order to change something, you have to change something. So in personal terms, how do you change something?

ANSWER: In order to change something about yourself with conscious intent, you have to want the pleasure of something you don't have more than the pleasure of something you do have. For instance if you want to lose weight, you have to want the pleasure of having a lighter body more than the pleasure of eating more than you can burn. If you want a lot of friends, you have to want the pleasure of friendship more than the pleasure of criticizing and complaining. If you want to stop smoking, there has to be something about being a non-smoker that you want more than the pleasure of smoking. The concept is simple. It's the application that's difficult for most people.

Healing Radioactivity

QUESTION: With the ongoing recent events in Japan I was wondering what recommendations you could share about  working with healing that situation from the perspective of Huna.  Have been sending Reiki the past few days to specific groups of people and the earth, and have previously used your suggestions in the Shamanic Healing in the Wake of Katrina article for many things with positive results.

ANSWER: From the perspective of assuming that everything is alive, aware, and responsive, we can talk to the earth and rocks telepathically, we can dream a good dream for them, and we can grok them and gently relax. Working with radioactive materials is essentially the same, but requires fearlessness, a high degree of focus, and working as well with the humans involved, both the victims and the helpers.

Relationship Technique

QUESTION: I'm striving to create the relationship I want, so I ask if there was one technique you could recommend (for creating this relationship) what would it be. I've tried Dynamind, as well as a number from the Urban shaman book.

ANSWER: To manifest something, we must remember that we cannot control the world, but we can influence it. The first step in manifesting a good relationship is focus on the benefits you want from it, more than requiring a particular person to provide those benefits. The second step is to turn yourself into the kind of person that someone who can provide those benefits would want as a partner.

Cannabis for healing

QUESTION: What is your opinion about the use of cannabis in healing. Do you think it is useful? Also if you know, please tell me the real meaning of the Hawaiian word 'pakalolo'.

ANSWER: It is possible for cannabis to aid healing because it helps relieve physical tension, the primary factor behind all illness. However, the side effects of increased sensory sensitivity, the tendency for many users to slip into dream states, and the tension-producing effects of inhaling the smoke also have to be taken into consideration.

"Pakalolo" is a modern Hawaiian word composed of "paka" - a Hawaiianized form of the word "tobacco", and "lolo" (with a macron over both letters "o") - meaning "paralyzed, numb, feeble-minded, crazy." Thus, "crazy (or numbing) tobacco."

Choices

QUESTION: When I have a choice between doing one of two things, like staying with a person or staying at a job, and not staying, how can I know which is the right choice to make?

ANSWER: There is no way to tell which is the "right" choice, because the future is not fixed, and future effects come out of future choices. However, you can get a good idea of what might happen if you make a choice based on current patterns of thinking and feeling.

1. Find some time to be quiet and alone and relax as deeply as you can. A simple way would be to spend at least one to five minutes looking at things or objects with lots of curves or circles.
2. Think of what you like about the current situation, and about what you don't like, for one to five minutes.
3. Now imagine two doorways to the future - one is for a future where you stay in the situation, and one is for a future where you don't stay. Each one will take you six months or one year or five years into the future; it's up to you. Imagine each door in great detail.
4. When you are ready, step through one of the doors and pay attention to what you see and how you feel. Then come back and go through the other door.
5. This will give you an idea of what may happen if patterns and habits in the present do not change. It is not a prediction, but a projection. It will give you information that will allow you to either change yourself, or change the situation. You still have to make the decision.

Huna and Food

QUESTION: What is the Huna point of view on food? Are there foods to avoid or foods to prefer?

ANSWER: If the world is what you think it is, then food is what you think it is. Some kind of food is necessary for our energy system (even if you are a breatharian), but the kind of food that is good for you is highly dependent on your culture, your family habits, your personal preferences, and the current state of your body.

In some cultures the people thrive on fat (ex: Inuit), in others on insects (parts of Africa), in others on mostly protein (Masai), in others on fruits and vegetables (India), in others on mostly starch (China), in others on a wide mix (Europe).

Regardless of the type of food, the main food problem that people have everywhere is too little or too much. Too litttle, and the body has to call on reserves of fat and muscle until the body doesn't have enough food to survive. Too much, whatever the type, and the body has to convert it to fat for storage, which can lead to many different physical problems.

Complicating the issue are mental attitudes and emotional reactions that affect the foods you choose and the way your body handles food.

So, back to the Huna point of view. Eat in a way that makes you feel good physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And forgive yourself when you don't.

Clearing the effects of old memories

QUESTION: Could you please tell me how to remove the old aka of other people from second-hand clothing, bedding and furniture?

ANSWER: I understand what you mean, but it would be more accurate to call it "old memories."  And the problem is not the memories themselves, but their emotional content. The best way to deal with them is to clean the items first, then hold or touch them and fill them with your own strong emotional energy, in the form of love, blessings, appreciation, or whatever you find is appropriate. To help make it more clear, you can use imagination to fill them with pure light (white, pink, blue, or whatever feels good to you). The important thing is the combination of high energy and new focus. Fifteen to thirty seconds for each item ought to be enough, depending on what you feel from them.

Communication with the dead

QUESTION: What are your teachings on contacting the dead? And can the dead contact the
living - in dreams etc? I do not mean via seances or ouija boards or the like, but spontaneously either during sleep or even awake, because the living are thinking about
the departed, or vice versa.

ANSWER: According to Huna, everything is alive, aware, and responsive. This assumes that those we call dead are still alive, just not in our dimension (range of frequencies) that we call life. Huna also says that energy flows where attention goes, regardless of dimension, so yes, those called dead can contact the living, and the living can contact those called dead.

Spontaneously, this can happen while awake or asleep, but very rarely when we (the "living") are focused on some activity or task. And the dead communicate mostly through intuition, feelings, images, memories, sudden ideas, or by attracting our attention to something in our outer world. In some cases we might respond to such communication by subconsciously using our own energy to create a visible form or by moving objects.

Death Prayer

QUESTION: I have been reading some books by Max Freedom Long, and he mentions there was a Hawaiian "Death Prayer." I wonder if unwittingly I uttered one myself a few years ago? An elderly neighbor with rheumatoid arthritis and taking steroids acted in a nasty way to my son when I sent him to ask for help to get my asthmatic cat to the vet and I said, "I hope one day that she knows what to be unable to breathe like my cat." Four days later she suddenly died from pneumonia. Did I kill her?

ANSWER: Please don't feel responsible for your neighbor's death. No one has the power to kill someone else by saying a few mean words, not even if they do it every day. If that were true, world leaders, financial executives, and serial killers would be falling over dead all the time.

People die when Spirit decides it is time to leave this life. As long as you did not purposely do something physical to contribute to her death, you cannot be responsible.

Communicating with the land

QUESTION: In a Huna lecture you mentioned the possibility of learning from the land. I'm not sure I fully understand how to achieve it. Should I work with the stones, touch the trees, walk barefoot ? What would you suggest to be the most appropriate way to communicate with the land ?

ANSWER: You don't have to walk barefoot to learn from the land. All you have to do is combine knowledge and feeling. Learn all you can intellectually about the land, practice awareness of the land with all your senses, practice talking to it and listening to it as if it
were alive, and practice imagining how you could apply what you learn to other areas of life. Then apply it.

Drugs and Spirituality

QUESTION: Do you have any information on the Huna point of view about drugs, and the spiritual advantanges and disadvantages of using them?

ANSWER: We do not have any published material related to your questions, but I can give you a brief answer.

First of all, we must define what we mean by the word, "spiritual," since many people are confused about that. For the purposes of this reply, let us call it "a desirable state of heightened conscious awareness and body functioning which is characterized by a loving communication with one's self and one's environment."

Using this definition, drugs can be either advantageous or disadvantageous, depending on

a) whether they are of the earth or synthesized

b) the amount taken

c) the circumstances under which they are taken

d) the attitudes and expectations of the person taking them.

Drugs of any kind (including caffeine and alcohol), as well as more potent natural sources like peyote and marijuana, are spiritually disadvantageous whenever they lower awareness, interfere with body functioning, and/or decrease one's sense of loving communication. I would also add, whenever they increase one's sense of powerlessness or exaggerate one's sense of power over the environment. Both of these, however, are the result of lowered or restricted awareness.

The most potentially disadvantageous drugs are the synthesized ones (LSD, etc.) taken in large doses, with or without supervision. Two reasons for this are that the body is not equipped to assimilate them properly, and the conscious mind is forced to deal with aspects of the self that it is not prepared to handle, yet it must deal with them until the drug has worn off. Even a "good trip" in such a case will have deleterious after effects on the body and the mind. "Large doses," of course, is a subjective phrase that only makes sense in relation to a particular individual.

In small, controlled amounts in the right setting and under the careful supervision of one who is already spiritually aware, many kinds of drugs can be used to help spiritual and psychic development. This has been the case through many ages in many cultures. However, under these conditions drugs are used as an intermediary tool, which is discarded as soon as the trainee or apprentice is able to reach the same states without their help.

What is most unfortunate at the present time is the careless and overabundant used of a wide array of drugs for recreation, for escape, for no more than symptom relief, or simply out of habit. Such use is definitely spiritually disadvantageous, under our definition, for the people involved. To cite one example, coffee in small amounts has the potential for heightening awareness and body function in a way that could help spiritual and psychic development, but when drunk excessively it has the opposite effect.

Significantly, from my personal experience, I can let you know that neither Korean, Mongolian, nor Hawaiian shamans have found it necessary to use drugs to develop their shamanic abilities. As we say in Huna, there is always another way to do anything. While drugs of different kinds may possibly help spiritual development, they are not needed and they can even get in the way.

Memory loss

QUESTION: I wonder if I could ask your advice about something? My elderly parents both had Alzheimer's disease, and I'm a little apprehensive about possibly inheriting it myself. Is there anything that I could do to prevent that from happening? I've been blessing my mind and encouraging it to keep working well. Can you suggest other Huna techniques that would be helpful?

ANSWER: The basic Huna/Hawaiian view is that all illness and disfunction is rooted in excessive build-up of tension. We do know that memory loss is definitely related to stress levels. We also know that as people keep learning new things the brain keeps making new

connections (dendrites) and as people stop learning the connections break down.

So, what is recommended to help keep your brain healthy is to maintain your energy flow

(cf. piko-piko), reduce stress on a regular basis (cf. Dynamind or Kahi Loa), practice some form of deep relaxation on a regular basis also (cf. Stillpoint or lomi), and learn something new every day.

Hawaiian shaman

QUESTION: My goal is to eventually grow into and become a Hawaiian Shaman. Are there certain criteria that have to be met and courses that need to be taken in order to become a Hawaiian Shaman?

ANSWER: You can become a shaman by learning to think and act like a shaman. You can also learn to be a Hawaiian-style shaman by studying and practicing the techniques used by Hawaiian shamans as well as the culture it is based on. The term "Hawaiian shaman," though, would properly be only used for people of Hawaiian ancestry who are shamans. If Huna is the basis for your shamanism, you could be a Huna shaman regardless of your background.

Buddhism and Huna

QUESTION: The Buddhist way of life and thinking has a lot of appeal to me on several levels, mainly because of the peaceful state of mind many of the practitioners seem able to maintain. I have also been very attracted to the things I have read in your books which seem to be practical and spiritual at the same time. The Buddhist ways of meditation and the excercises you describe seem to be quite different. Is there any emphasis within Huna on personal enlightenment? I find myself at a crossroads and do not wish to go in the 'wrong' direction.

ANSWER: First of all, don't be worried about taking a wrong direction. The universe doesn't have a road map.

Second of all, you really don't have to make a choice between Buddhism and Huna. Huna is a practical philosophy that can be used to accomplish anything, even personal enlightment (once you've defined what that means to you). While Huna can be a way of life, it can also just be a set of tools that you use when needed.

Follow the path that gives you the greatest satisfaction, and pick and choose anything from any other system that helps you gain that.

Reincarnation

QUESTION: What is the Huna view on reincarnation? Can dreams be soul memories since there really is no time and space?

ANSWER: The first principle of Huna says that the world is what you think it is, so obviously beliefs about reincarnation depend on basic assumptions about life. If you believe in linear time and one life per person, then reincarnation is a fallacy and soul memories are a fantasy. If you believe in cyclic time and cyclic lives, then reincarnation is natural and dreams can be soul memories. If you believe in simultaneous time and lives as dreams, then sequential reincarnation is a very limited concept and all dreams are real. If you believe that time, space, and life as we know it are all illusions, then reincarnation is just a word and dreams cannot be soul memories.

And if you are able to change your basic assumptions according to need and circumstance, then you can believe in reincarnation on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; not believe in it on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays; and be open-minded about it on Sunday.

A Bit About Dreams

QUESTION: How can you tell the difference between a dream and reality; is there any relationship between dreams and reality; and what role do feelings play in dreams?

ANSWER: First, from a shamanic point of view, "reality" is just a name for the dream you are currently experiencing.

Second, experience in one reality can affect experience in another reality (or, one dream can affect another dream).

Third, feelings are just feedback. They give you information that can guide you into changing feelings that you don't want, in any dream.

Psychic Reading Problems

QUESTION: I am a psychic reader and I would like your Huna perspective on several problems that I often encounter. First, how would you interpret dreams, especially when they are about other people? Second, what can I do when I get energy overload? Third, how can I connect to universal energy? And fourth, how can I avoid picking up a clientʻs condition? I have tried protection, but it doesnʻt work very well.

ANSWER: 1. Regarding dreams, they are always by you and about you, and sometimes they may also be about other people. If you dream about anger, assume itʻs a symbol of your own anger about something and then you can heal it. 2. For the energy overload, it can be very helpful to have a long talk with your body about the benefits of letting the energy go through, or shifting frequency so that it doesnʻt affect you (like radio waves that our body normally doesnʻt pay attention to). 3. We are all connected to universal energy all the time. Most people donʻt even realize it; some people feel it, but donʻt understand it; and some people use it. To connect with it, all you have to do is to think of it and imagine it flowing into and through you. 4. Regarding clients, what happens sometimes is that out of empathy our body mimics the clientʻs condition. There is no actual transfer of anything except information. You can tell your body not to mimic.

The Age of Huna

QUESTION: How old is Huna?

ANSWER: As old as humanity. Huna is not unique to Hawaii, although the combination of ideas as a coherent philosophy may be. Here is a quote related to the fifth principle from "Memorabilia of Socrates," by Xenophon, written in the 4th century B.C.:

(Critobulus has asked Socrates how to make a friend) "It is reported," replied Socrates, "that there are some words so powerful that they who know them make themselves loved by pronouncing them." "And where can one learn these words?" added Critobulus. "Have you not read in Homer," answered Socrates, "what the Syrens said to enchant Ulysses? The beginning of it is thus--'Oh stay! Oh pride of Greece, Ulysses, stay!' -- "I begin to understand," said Critobulus, "and seeing this charm, which is so powerful to enchant and captivate the mind, is nothing but praise, you mean that we ought to praise a man in such a manner that he may not distrust we laugh at him, otherwise, instead of gaining his affection, we shall incur his hate."

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.