Max Freedom Long - The Teachings of Huna

"I could have shouted in my triumph as I set to work to massage the twitching limbs which seemed to react as if they had been frozen and were gradually becoming warm again. Little by little circulation was restored and the toes began to wiggle. The men crowded around me to offer timid congratulations. It was the high point in my career as a kahuna. In an hour the boy was up and eating his poi .

"But that isn't the end of the story. I had a pleasant conviction that I had killed something deadly. I wanted to check on my performance and see what had happened to the kahuna. I decided to cut my trip short so I could go down to the boy's village—the collecting had been less successful than I had hoped, anyway.

"We covered the ground rapidly in the few days we stayed on the mountain-tops. We camped one night at the lake on Mauna Kea, and explored the crater of Mauna Loa. We roasted by day and froze by night.

"In due time we pulled out for the lower country on the north side of the mountains. Water was easier to get, but the country was badly cut up and the forests heavy. At last, however, we got down to the ocean and struck a trail which took us along the bluffs and up and down through valleys and ravines. Always we followed the sea.

"Late one afternoon we came straggling out of the brush into a clearing in a fair valley. An old woman and a girl were working in a taro patch as we came along. They took one look at me and the boy, then flew screaming before us. We followed and soon came to a cluster of grass houses. Not a person was to be seen. I sat down outside the big hut where the kahuna had lived, and waited while the boy went to see if he could find someone.

"I heard him shouting for a time and then it was quiet for several minutes. Pretty soon he came back with news. On the night I had sent back the death prayer to the kahuna he had been asleep. He had awakened with a scream and rushed around to get ti leaves and began to fan himself to fight off his spirits. Between gasps he told the people what had happened. He had neglected to kala himself and the white kahuna had taken a low advantage of him. In a very short time he had fallen to the ground and lay there groaning and frothing at the mouth. He was dead by morning.

"The people were certain that I had come to wipe out the entire village. I told the boy to go back and tell them that I had taken my revenge and that if they behaved themselves I would consider them my friends.

"We waited some time before the head man came back with his flock. He wasn't at all happy, and most of the women were frightened nearly to death. However, I soon reassured them, and in no time we were all great friends. In fact, they seemed to consider me quite a fellow. No one seemed to resent my having killed their kahuna—that was all a part of the game to them.

"Some of the horses were tired out, so we accepted an invitation to stay and be fêted. They gave us a luau (feast), which, considering the poverty of the village, was not bad. They had no pigs, but the dog was as tasty as you please—being poi -fed meat. I had never taken kindly to dog, but as a full-fledged kahuna, I no longer hesitated. We parted blood brothers.

"The one thing which I could never understand about the matter is this: The old kahuna had found out that I had hired the boy—and by psychic means—but he had not found out that I had turned kahuna and was sending his death prayer back to him. The only way I can account for this is that he must have turned in for the night at dusk and gone at once to sleep.

"Another thing which seems certain is that the kahuna was of a fairly powerful class. Only those well up in their art can see at a distance. Just why he had not seen into the future, I cannot say, unless he was not quite up to that."

Comment:

There is another kahuna method of causing death by magic, known as kuni or the burning. It seems to be one seldom used in the old days, but was said to consist of the rite of burning a hair or other part of the victim's body and casting the ash into the sea. I have no reliable data to offer in this matter, and simply mention it in passing lest there be something of importance in this practice which later investigators might overlook if left unmentioned.

The killing of a person by magic was thought by the kahunas to depend upon whether or not the victim had a deep sense of guilt which was caused by wrongs done others. Such a guilt sense (complex) made the attack of the unihipili or subconscious spirits successful. Without this sense of guilt, the subconscious of the victim would successfully ward off the attacking spirits.

Down the centuries there has been a form of magic practiced (or tried) which consisted of making a doll or image of the intended victim, then thrusting pins into the image, a fresh pin each day. The idea was that some form of sympathetic connection was established with the victim, and that a magical reaction would be set up to cause death in due course of time. While this practice may have little potency, it cannot be tossed aside contemptuously. We are on the far forward fringe of exploration in a field which has not been fully explored. We must consider all possible sources of information lest we overlook some important clue to the full understanding of such things as instant healing.

The vital force or mana of the kahunas has three strengths. If it is electrical in nature, as modern experiments have demonstrated, we may safely say that the three strengths of mana known to the kahunas equal three voltages.

The kahuna words for the three voltages were mana, for the low voltage used by the subconscious spirit, and mana-mana for the higher voltage used by the conscious spirit as "will" or hypnotic force. There was a still higher voltage known as mana-loa or "strongest force," and this was thought to be used only by a superconscious spirit associated with the two lesser spirits to complete the triune man.

Modern studies of the vital electricity have been made by attaching wires to the skin of the body and of the scalp, then using very sensitive instruments to measure the electrical discharges carried by the wires.

Life magazine files show in the issue of October 18, 1937, some pictures of tests with charts and graphs. Two voltages of electricity have been found, a low voltage in the body tissues and a higher voltage in the brain. From this it has been discovered that all thinking involves electrical activity of the higher voltage of vital force.

The kahunas associated all thinking processes with mana . The word mana-o means "to think," the "o" added to show that the process is one of using mana to produce thought.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the ancient kahunas were good psychologists. They knew the subconscious and conscious as two spirits, and they knew the two strengths of vital electrical force which we call "body waves" and "brain waves." The kahunas also knew a superconscious spirit and a voltage of vital force used by it, this voltage being the highest. Although these last two elements are not yet known to modern science, they probably will be in time. In our present investigation there is much evidence to be considered which points to the correctness of the kahuna psychology. (One must always remember that the kahuna system of psychology, even if not complete and accurate in its smallest details, made possible such things as fire-walking. It was a workable system, and we cannot rest on our oars until we find one equally workable.)

Either the vital force or the magnetic force generated by the presence of vital force in bodily tissues, has been found to exert other strange effects on various things. Experiments carried on in France with a famous medium showed that meat and fish could be prevented from decaying by being held in the hands and treated to a "magnetizing" process. Oranges and other fruits, as well as vegetables, so treated, did not decay but slowly dried up.