Max Freedom Long - The Teachings of Huna

Under the classification of "fire-immunity through magic," there must be mentioned again the inconclusive tests of fire-walkers made before the World War II period by Harry Price and his associates in London. From the early printed reports on the tests made with Kuda Bux, it is to be seen that white men were severely burned on three attempts to duplicate, even in a small way, the fire-walk performed by the man from India. Later on, when the Price group tested another Indian who claimed to be a fire-walker, his feats were less spectacular and were safely duplicated by at least one white bystander. Price cautiously refuted his statements made after the Kuda Bux tests because of the later fiasco with Hassan.

Another excellent source of data on fire-immunity is to be found in the annals of Psychical Research. In these cases, dozens of which have been studied and reported, fire-immunity was supposedly given through the agency of "spirits." The famous medium, D. D. Home, at seances, was accustomed to take live coals from fires in fireplaces and hold them in his bare hands while blowing them to a white heat. He wrapped these coals in fine linen handkerchiefs without scorching the cloth. He held his head of bushy hair in the flames of the fireplace, burning not a hair. He held fresh flowers in the flames without having them wither. A recent book written around his life and experiences tells of these and other magical matters.

Fire-immunity, whether gained through prayer to a superhuman being, or through the agency of a deceased human "spirit," presumably making such a prayer, is the result of a supranormal action—is magic.

All supranormal actions are magic, whether they be instant healing, the production of psychic phenomena—telepathy, prevision, etc.—or the use of the "death prayer."

Footnotes

3Appendix for the account of the stage magician's training.

4The law of Hawaii concerning healing by the use of magic reads: "Section 1034. Sorcery—Penalty, Any person who shall attempt the cure of another by practice of sorcery, witchcraft, ananna , hoopiopio , hoounauna , or hoomanamana (terms describing the practice of Hawaiian kahunas), or other superstitious or deceitful methods, shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in a sum not less than one hundred dollars or be imprisoned not to exceed six months at hard labor." There is also another section of the law which classes the kahuna with bunco men and defines him as one posing as a kahuna, taking money under pretence of having magical power, or admitting that he is a kahuna. For this the fine goes up to a thousand dollars and a year in prison.

Table of Contents

Before beginning the explanation of how fire-walking and other magic is performed through the use of three invisible elements which are still almost unknown in modern psychology, a few things need to be told about the religious beliefs of the kahunas.

The "Secret," or body of information handed down from one magician to another, was what may be called applied psychology for the most part. The element of religion was very small, especially if we accept the technical definitions of religion in the best modern sense.

Dr. Paul Tillich, Professor of Philosophical Theology at Union Theological Seminary writes, "Magic is a special kind of interrelation between finite powers; religion is the human relation to the infinite power and value.… Magic is the exercise of imminent power, religion is the subjection to the transcendent power."

All religions are mixed with magic. Prayer is magic. Everything we do to gain benefits for ourselves in this life or the next is a part of magic. Magic is getting something from supernormal sources. Religion is worship of a Supreme Being and an acceptance of whatever It gives us, whether pleasant or unpleasant.

While the kahunas got from the common source of such tales—the Nile Valley and neighboring lands—the stories of Adam and Eve, the Creation, the Flood and so on, and brought those tales with them to Polynesia, they did not share the concept of a personal and patriarchal God.

The kahunas taught that the human mind is not capable of understanding a form of consciousness unlike and superior to its own; therefore, all human efforts to imagine the characteristics of a final, ultimate and supreme God were a waste of time. They believed that there must be some Ultimate Creative Source, but they did not pray to It.

Take a flower, for example. It can have but a vague idea (if any) of the cow in the pasture. The cow can have a very vague idea of the nature and motives of the herder. The herder, therefore, when he has decided that there must be a Supreme Being who created the universe, can picture It only as another man. Although he cannot picture this Great Man except in the vaguest terms, he fears Him, prays to Him in hope of receiving favors, tries to bribe Him with sacrifices or sacrificial austerities, tries to obey such commands as he imagines this Supreme Man has laid down, and, last, worships him.

In a like manner, the invisible world of spirits and spiritual beings is to us much as our world is to a fish in the sea. The fish is hardly aware of a world above his watery realm. But as we ascend in the scale of intelligence, we of the realm of earth and air can know and understand the fish in his depths, even while remaining unable to share those depths as a place in which to live.

The kahunas, while supposing that there were levels above levels of consciousness above man, as there are levels below him, paid scant heed to any level other than the one directly above our own. On this level existed the thing we would call the superconscious part of mind. They called it by various names, one of which, the favorite, was Aumakua. This translates, "Older, parental, utterly trustworthy spirit." As it takes two to be a "parent," the Aumakua was considered to be a spirit composed of a male and female pair. All prayers and rites were addressed to this dual spirit, but because it was considered as much a part of ourselves as the conscious or subconscious is to the modern way of thinking, the Parental Spirit was worshiped not at all—it was LOVED. No sacrifices were made to it. No bribes were offered. It laid no commands on the lower selves. The relation was one of mutual love and trust—the parent and child relation.

Very logically, the kahunas taught that if any prayers to still Higher Beings were necessary, the Parental Spirit would know when they were needed and how to make them, doing for us such things as we are unable to do for ourselves because we have minds of a lower level of ability.

Because of this common sense attitude the kahunas remained simple and free from man-made dogmas to a surprising degree. They were direct and to the point. They could afford to be, for they possessed a system that actually WORKED. A workable system leaves little room for vagueness and dogmatic speculation.

This practical system by which magic was performed left no unfilled needs of a philosophical nature for the kahunas. They had, therefore, no saviors, no salvation, no heaven or hell, and no revealed religion with books in which were written, "Thus said God …" In very fact, they had no books. Their language was never written until modern times.

While few of us may ever wish to fire-walk, this ancient rite is of great importance because it is a clear demonstration of the fact that there is a magical power that may be called into action if we know the methods to use.

Most of us pray for blessings of various kinds. The lore of the "Secret" brings definite and immediate results much superior to those we get. We cannot pray for fire-immunity and get it. Need more be said of the value to us of a study of the ancient lore?