Fields Within Fields

Aka is a Hawaiian word that refers to the essence of matter, or what might be called the "Universal Matrix." It is related linguistically and conceptually to the Sanskrit akasia and can be thought of as the Hawaiian equivalent of the Akashic Records. It can also be compared in some ways to "astral matter" or "etheric matter."

Esoterically, aka serves two main functions. One is to take on form in response to thoughts. In other words, the idea is that thoughts give form to the aka. The weaker the thought, the less substantial the form; the more intense the thought (i.e., the more energy that accompanies it), the more substantial the form. It is for this reason that the Hawaiian word for physical matter--kino, which is usually the term for the human body--can be reduced to its roots and translated as "a highly energized thoughtform (ki=energy or force; ki'i=image; no with a macron over the o=an intensifier; no'o=thought)." The second function is to act as a perfect medium for the transmission of energy.

There are different ways in which this can be understood. One way is to use the concept of aka threads.The idea here is that whenever you think of a person, place, or object, you send out a line of force through the omnipresent aka, a portion of which forms itself into what can be called an aka thread. Through this thread you can then send or receive ideas and/or emotional-psychic energy, and information from any of the senses.

A further concept along this line is that whatever you come into contact with through any of the senses results in the automatic creation of a "sticky" aka thread that serves as a continuous link between you which is activated by thought and which makes future contact easier. The people, places, and objects with which you have the most contact produce a multitude of threads, which serves to explain why mental contact is easier with them. It also gives rise to the shamanistic symbolism of a spider web to illustrate these connections.

However, the above is a simplistic and pragmatic teaching which serves the needs of non-technological people. If you apply it as a hypothesis it will work as a practical way of thinking. But there is a more refined approach used by some present-day "Hunatics" in regard to the psychic links between persons, places, and objects. This approach teaches that within the universal aka field are an infinite number of individual aka fields. Furthermore is the idea that the aka field of every physical thing acts like a radio/television transceiver. It radiates or broadcasts its own unique frequency or energy pattern and receives and retains impressions from other patterns radiating toward it. When you pick up a rock, for instance, the aka field of the rock retains an impression of your energy pattern and your aka field retains an impression of the rock's pattern.

Thereafter, no matter where you are, when you think of that rock it is like tuning in to a unique radio/tv signal and establishing a resonant link with it. If you concentrate your thoughts on that rock, it is then like beaming a specific signal of your own, or "sending out an aka thread."

The more energy associated with such contacts, the stronger the impressions received or the signals beamed. The strength of the impression depends on: (1) the nature of the contact (physical touch leaves a more energetic impression than mere proximity); (2) the frequency of contact (a high number of contacts leaves a stronger impression); and (3) the amount of emotional energy present during the contact (handling the rock while in a highly emotional state would result in a stronger impression).

Thus, in picking up objects handled by others, the first and most powerful impressions received would be those which had been impressed with the most energy. Similar principles apply in beaming thoughts outward. Continuing along these lines, we have the idea of aka experiential memory fields. This would mean that the experiential memories of individual people and things form fields that continue to exist even after the physical forms are gone. It would also mean that similar fields could resonate with each other and form what might be called group fields. This could be used to explain things like electronic technology products were difficult to understand and absorb by adults when they were first made available to the general public, but today seem to be second nature to children as young as three.

Of course there is a strong resemblance to the theories of Rupert Sheldrake in all of this, and that makes it more intriguing. More important, though, is the fact that this admittedly hypothetical system can be put to practical use for teaching and learning just by assuming it's true and finding ways to access these fields through such practices as meditation, self-hypnosis and creative imagination.

A Different Point of View

As we know from the first principle of Huna, there are many different ways to think of anything. In this brief article I am going to explore a different way to think of how we experience life.

According to this point of view, we have direct experience of this world in two ways: through physical senses and emotional feelings.

We probably don't even think twice about the fact that we make contact with the world through our physical senses, because that seems so self evident. With our eyes we see light in the form of color, shade, intensity, contrast, shape, size, and texture; vertical and horizontal distance; movement and patterns. With our ears we hear sound in the form of tone, intensity, harmonics, loudness, dissonance; and blends of frequencies that enable us to recognize individual people, objects, and sound sources. We experience touch in the form of pressure, texture, heat, cold, movement, and more. Taste and smell have their own ranges of physical perception as well. What I am proposing here is that we make a parallel contact with the world through our emotional senses. 

When you experience anything you have both a physical perception and an emotional one.

Some philosophies have used the concept of an "emotional body" to get this idea across, and the idea that we sense emotionally through our aura or energy field is intriguing, but we can instead simply say that you have two sets of senses, or two main ways of perceiving the universe.

In addition to the physical perception of sight, there is an emotional perception of sight that occurs at the same time. It's important to understand that I am not talking about an emotional reaction to what you see, but to an emotional perception that is related to the act of seeing. I'll bring up the subject of reactions a little further on.

To help you understand what I mean, think of it this way: physical seeing produces an image; emotional seeing produces a feeling. To use an example, when you look at a sunset, your physical perceptions include the ones I mentioned in the third paragraph above. At the same time you may have emotional perceptions of beauty, expansion, happiness and the pleasure that comes from a release of tension. So, looking at something produces both an image and feeling feelings about that image. The same would be true for our other senses. Each one would produce a physical perception as well as an emotional perception. And perceptions relate to awareness, not to reactions.

Reactions are separate experiences that occur as a consequence of perception. Of course, when reactions become habitual it is very difficult to make that distinction. However, perception is a characteristic of our senses. Reactions are learned, consciously or unconsciously.

It is possible to simplify our understanding of the physical and emotional reactions themselves by recognizing two categories of reaction for each set. All of the physical reactions can be described as varying degrees of pleasure or pain. All of the emotional reactions can be described as varying degrees of insecurity or confidence.

Recognizing that all your emotional reactions fall into one of these categories can be helpful in dealing with them. Fear, anger, hate, jealousy, anxiety are all expressions of insecurity with their own parallel to physical pain. The body tension that accompanies them is a well-intentioned but poor attempt to regain security. Happiness, joy, true pride, and the sense of accomplishment are all expressions of confidence, which is akin to physical pleasure. The names that are given to emotions based on insecurity or confidence merely reflect the thoughts in our mind at the time.

It is curious that in English we use the verbs "to sense" and "to feel" both physically and emotionally. French is more clear, with sentir used more for physical sensing and both se sentir  and ressentir used for emotional sensing. Hawaiian equivalents are too complicated to go into here.

Staying with English, like many animals we can sense danger, fear, friendliness, confidence, and that mysteriously compelling awareness of what we call charisma.

The main thing to note, to contemplate, and perhaps even do something about, is that, just as we can train our physical senses, so can we train our emotional senses. Further, just as we can develop our physical skills , there is the possibility of developing our emotional skills, as well.