Max Freedom Long - The Teachings of Huna

During this experiment, Spray felt no pull on his body or hand. While the young man weighed over one hundred and forty pounds, Spray did not feel the need of lifting an ounce to cause him to rise.

This experiment has been duplicated by other hypnotists, so we may accept the evidence of a one-sided pulling nature in human magnetism. (Which seems to result from an accumulation of electrovital force charges—these charges being built up through some physical action set in motion by the willed command.)

Baron Eugene Ferson demonstrated this one-sided magnetic pull in Honolulu several years ago before large class groups. He believed that by making a mental command he could draw from the atmosphere an electrical force. There was no doubt that he did draw force from some source, and his pupils readily learned the knack of the process. Under his instruction, one pupil would make the mental command to himself to accumulate a surcharge of force. When satisfied that such a surcharge had been attracted (probably generated in the body from oxidization of foods) the charged pupil would place his hands on the shoulders of an uncharged pupil, then draw them slowly away. If the surcharge was sufficient, the uncharged pupil would be pulled strongly after the hands as they were removed. However, there was no sense of pull on the hands of the surcharged pupil.

I once saw Baron Ferson demonstrate the peculiarity of this form of magnetism by placing his hand on a light folding chair which stood in a row of similar chairs against a wall. He willed the magnetism to leave his body and enter the chair. He then called a sensitive young woman from the next room and asked her to walk along the row of chairs. She did so, and as she came opposite the magnetized chair she was almost violently pulled down upon it. The young lady weighed at least ten times as much as the chair, and one might naturally expect the chair to rise and press itself against her body. But the action was just the opposite. The rule seems to be that the object—regardless of its size or weight—which has the heavier charge of vito-magnetic force pulls to it the less charged object, feeling no corresponding pull on itself as a reaction.

This magnetic force acts over a space of several feet and through such obstacles as cement walls. Baron Ferson, after charging himself, took his place on one side of a ten-inch cement wall while his class stood in an arched opening where both sides of the wall could be seen. On the opposite side of the wall the sensitive young lady (found to be the most sensitive of the class to the magnetic pull) was placed, her back three feet from the wall, and with a man stationed on either side to hold her by the arms to keep her from being pulled too violently against the wall by the magnetic force exerted by Baron Ferson. Ferson raised his arms and stretched them toward the girl on the other side of the wall. Instantly she was so powerfully pulled that the men had to exert all their strength to keep her from touching the wall. Ferson, on the other hand, stood with heels together, very erect, and neither felt a pull nor showed even a slight sway in the girl's direction.

The part that suggestion might play in such a demonstration was discussed by members of the class, and to test the magnetic pull without the possible implication of suggestion, the pulling effect was tried by two of w on a small bull terrier. Dogs are not known to be suggestible. We went through the prescribed exercise of accumulating extra force, then placed our charged hands on the rump of the dog which was made to stand before us, head pointed away. Both the owner of the dog and myself were successful in exerting such a pull on the dog that it was drawn backwards several inches, despite its clawing at the rug to resist. We, in our turns, felt no pull at all on our hands or bodies.

Dr. Rhine, of Duke University, famous for his pioneering in Extra Sensory Perception, has published excellent evidence tending to prove that mind can exert an influence over matter without physical contact. In one of his experiments a machine is used to roll dice. As the cast is made, the experimenter wills the dice to turn up certain sides. A very definite effect has been noted as a result of the use of will.

The more one considers the strange action of mind in conjunction with what seems undoubtedly to be vital force, the more easily one can believe in the various phases of magic. For all our proud scientific advancement, we must admit that we are still darkly ignorant when it comes to the secrets of mind, vital forces, and invisible substances.

Down the long centuries there have been current legendary accounts of human flight through the air. The witches were supposed to travel magically to their meetings. The Greek gods flew through the air at will. The adepts of India and Tibet have been said to overcome gravity and float off through the air to distant places in the twinkling of an eye. Or, they simply fade out in one land and reappear in another. Polynesian folklore is replete with tales of such travels. In modern Psychical Research there are numerous instances in which men have been lifted bodily into the air. The famous medium, D. D. Home, floated horizontally out of the window of one room and back into the house through the open window of an adjoining room—this on the third floor of the building.

If mind has a certain control over matter, it is probably that the control is exerted in some way by means of directing the action of vital force, and through it, the action of magnetism or even gravity. A number of experiments have been carried on in which breathing and will were used in combination to affect gravity.

Dr. Hereward Carrington, dean of all psychical researchers, in his book, The Story of Psychic Science tells of his experiments with the lifting game, in which four people stand ready to lift a fifth with the fingers. All five inhale deeply several times, then hold the breath and make the lift. The person lifted feels lighter than usual. When this game was played on platform scales, the normal combined weight of the five people and a chair was 712 pounds. At the moment of the lifting the scales registered a loss of weight from 50 to 60 pounds respectively in several tests.

Baron Schrenck Nötzing recorded a case in which a young man practiced breath control and was able to lift himself free of the ground twenty-seven times. The other side of this picture is more obscure, but numerous reports have it that individuals have been able, through the use of will and breathing control, to increase their weight greatly.

In Hawaii (as in Tibet, according to a fairly recent book) there was used a combination of will-breathing to gain magical aid in running long distances. There were specially trained messengers who sometimes held races of sorts. In carrying messages for the high chiefs, their speed and endurance surpassed by far that of men not able to use this form of magic.

Another angle of this problem of vital force and its strange motor and magnetic phases awaits exploration. This is the healing power. From time immemorial there has been the practice of the laying on of hands to cure the ailing. It was always apparent that some people had more of this healing power than others. Kings were supposed to have it as their natural right.

In religion, prayer accompanies the laying on of hands. In kahuna practice amongst the Berbers, W. R. Stewart describes cases of immediate relief from pain when his teacher laid her hands on the sick. She told him that her magical force was so strong that it left her body and went into the sick one through the simple process of touching with the hands. In more serious cases she said she would make a ritual prayer and take time to ready the patient with psychological and ritual cleansings.

In Hawaii the transfer of vital force from the kahuna to his patient, or to the spirits of the dead for special ends, was common.