Hawaiian Facts

As I have discovered in my travels, it is a mistake to assume that people know very much about our fiftieth State, so here are some facts to give you a better sense of the spiritual home of our teaching.

The State of Hawaii is a fifteen hundred mile long chain of 132 islands, reefs and shoals stretching from the southeast at about the latitude of Mexico City to the northwest at about the latitude of Houston. However, 99.9 % of the land area is on a fairly close group of eight major islands around the lower latitude. In land area only, the State is larger than Connecticut. 

There are about one million and a half persons living in the State, with 80% of them living on Oahu. About 23 % are haole, or of Caucasian descent, about the same are of Japanese descent, and about 21 % of Native Hawaiian descent. The rest are from all over. Even those born in Hawaii are not called Hawaiians. That word is reserved for Native Hawaiians and part Hawaiians only. As a side note, there is no such word as "Hawai'ian" either in English or Hawaiian, so please don't use it.

Hawaii, "the Big Island," (or Hawai'i in Hawaiian) from which the State gets its name, has about two-thirds of the land area. No one knows what the name means because it is probably part of a much older name, but one possibility is "Place of the Water of Life." The island is famous for its orchids, coffee, macadamia nuts, and volcanoes. In fact it has five large volcanoes. Mauna Kea (where it snows sometimes) and Kohala (in the north) have not erupted in historical times. Hualalai, overlooking Kona on the west coast, last erupted around 1800. Both Mauna Loa (tallest mountain in the world measuring from sea bottom and also where it snows sometimes) and Kilauea (legendary home of Pele the volcano goddess) still erupt fairly frequently. A new volcano, Loihi, is erupting underwater about twenty miles off the southern coast. 

Maui, the second largest island, is shaped like Tahiti with two volcanoes and a valley between. Many believe it is named after the shaman hero of legend, Maui Kupua. Its largest volcano, Haleakala, last erupted in 1790. Maui is famous for pineapples, Lahaina (an old whaling port and modern tourist mecca), superb sweet onions, and condominiums. Maui also produces some very good pineapple and grape wines. On the northeast coast are the lush jungles of Hana and the Seven "Sacred" Pools (which were used for bathing and laundry and have nothing sacred about them at all except for the fact that they are part of Maui).

Oahu (or O'ahu), third largest, is usually called "The Gathering Place" which may come from ahu meaning "collection" or "heap" or may just refer to it as a population center. However, it if is really named O'ahu, then that refers to a coat or a cape and no one knows what that is supposed to mean. Oahu is famous for Diamond Head, Honolulu, Waikiki, and Pearl Harbor, as well as many military bases. It is "in" to put down Waikiki as a tourist trap, but it still has the best shopping and one of the finest beaches in the islands. The Bishop Museum in Honolulu is a wonderful place to study old Hawaiian culture. Oahu is also famous for some of the best surfing in the world on its North Shore, and sometimes the most dangerous (30 foot winter waves).

Kauai (or Kaua'i) is the fourth largest island. Called "The Garden Isle", its name can mean "The Great Rains." Today it is considered by Hawaiians as the most spiritual place in the islands. It is famous for its magnificent natural beauty, including the Fern Grotto and the Na Pali Coast, for the legendary Menehunes (Hawaiian elves in the very old sense), the high mountain forests of Koke'e, the dangerous and mysterious Alaka'i Swamp, and Mt. Waialeale (wettest spot in the world with 451 inches annually).

Molokai (or Moloka'i), the fifth largest, is now called "The Friendly Island," but a few years ago it was called "The Lonely Island." A desire for tourism prompted the change. I think the name means "to train (ka'i) to tie bundles (molo)" and refers to the training of kahunas, for it is a fact that there were more schools there than anywhere else. Molokai is famous for its former leper colony, its mule rides down cliff trails, its many temples, and its low level of development.

Lanai (or Lana'i) is the sixth largest and called the Pineapple Island because that's mostly what used to grow there. The name Lanai means either "stiff-backed," referring to its single ridge, or "porch" (referring to it as the porch of Maui, perhaps), but Lana'i means a type of sweet potato, a very important crop in the old days. The pineapples are gone now and resort development has taken their place, but there is still a lot of empty land and isolated beaches. The island's population is around 2000.

Niihau (or Ni'ihau), the seventh largest, is called "The Forbidden Island" and a lot of tourist hype is played around that. Actually, it is forbidden because the whole island of 70 square miles is a private ranch, owned by the Robinson family. The Hawaiian name is a type of yam, another important crop. Tourist agencies like to give the impression that the Hawaiians there live in the old ways, but what that really means is that they live in a company town like the plantation era of the 1800s. The island is famous for a particular kind of shell necklace made there and the population of the single village is about 200. Hawaiian is the first language through 3rd grade, according to the last I heard.

The smallest "major" island is Kahoolawe (or Kaho'olawe), only 45 square miles. The name means "The One That Was Taken Away." I don't know when that name was given, but that's how the Hawaiians and the State of Hawaii feel about it today because after Pearl Harbor the Navy took it over for bombing practice and still won't give it back. There is currently a strong movement to make it into a center for Hawaiian culture, and some progress has been made in that direction. The old name of the island was Kanaloa, also an ancient god of the sea, and it was an important place for navigation training.

The motto of the Monarchy, the Republic and the State is Ua mau ka 'ea o ka 'aina i ka pono, usually mistranslated as "The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness," which sounds nice, but makes no logical sense. In context, the statement was made by Kamehamena III on the occasion when the British government restored sovereignty to the kingdom after it had been illegally taken over by an over-ambitious naval officer. A more appropriate translation would be "The sovereignty of the country endures because of proper behavior" (on the part of the British).

Scientific Magicians

One aspect of the modern scientific view is that if something can't be measured in some way then it isn't real. This has led to some pretty unreal conclusions that most people today in scientifically-oriented societies accept without question. Take public opinion polls as an example. When you hear that a scientifically designed poll has determined that 67% of Americans (or Germans, or Japanese, or Pueblo Indians) favor this or that policy, this or that person, or this or that flavor of ice cream you tend to accept the results as having some realistic basis. The unspoken assumption for most people is that the 67% is a percentage of the whole population, which is, of course, absurd. In any given poll there is neither the time, the money nor the technology to ask everyone in the country what they think about something. 

What happens is that the pollsters ask a few people (sometimes a hundred, sometimes more or less) what they think and give you the percentage of that group. Using complicated mathematical formulae to justify the process they pretend that what the small group thinks is what the whole nation thinks.

For a poll to be really scientific you would have to ask everyone whose opinion you wanted. Using a small group to represent a large group isn't scientific, it's magical. 

A fundamental premise of what is called "sympathetic magic" is that a small thing can represent a much larger thing to which it is symbolically connected, and that by acting upon the small thing in some way you can influence the behavior of the larger thing.

Among some Inuit Indians in the Arctic region, when a man goes out to hunt a whale his wife stays home and lays down on the floor under a sealskin. For this purpose the sealskin represents the ocean and she represents the whale. During the whole time of the hunt she stays as still as possible so that the whale her husband is hunting will also stay still and allow him to harpoon it. It is my understanding that the symbolic connection ceases the moment the husband casts the harpoon so that the wife is not symbolically injured in any way. It is assumed by the Inuit that purposely deciding to have the woman represent the whale sets up a magical (or at least decidedly unscientific) connection between her and the cretacean in which her behavior will modify that of the sea-going creature. This is an example of sympathetic magic.

In old Hawaii foot travelers would carve semi-circular patterns on lava boulders around their camping grounds in order to ward off malicious or unfriendly spirits. The pattern was in the shape of an arch called hoaka, a word that means both "arch" and "protection." The carving was supposed to have the same power as the alternate meaning of the word it represented. This was also a form of sympathetic magic.

In the USA (and increasingly elsewhere) people give and receive valentine cards on February 14th. These cards have hearts on them that represent the physical heart of the giver or that of the receiver. The physical hearts in turn are assumed to represent the affections of one or the other party. By getting the receiver to look at the card the giver intends to influence the receiver's emotional state, thereby influencing the behavior as well. There isn't anything scientific at all about this. It's purely sympathetic magic.

When a poll is undertaken it isn't being done for altruistic reasons. It is being done to influence people. The pollsters themselves are actually magicians dressed up as scientists, and their mathematical formulae differ only in form from the incantations of ancient wizards. The use of a small group of people to symbolically represent a much larger group of people is nothing more than sympathetic magic. The use of the opinions of those people to influence the opinions of the larger group falls into the same category. When you hear or read the results of polls, just remember that it's a magical result. It might also be useful to remember that, just like science, magic sometimes works.

Love, Power and Harmony

It is very clear to any serious student of society that all human beings share the same needs, desires, and, to a large degree, even symbolism, regardless of race, color, creed or culture. What every human being enjoys and wants can be defined as Love, Power and Harmony.

Love is part of our nature. It is the state of feeling happily connected to another, or the act of becoming connected. It is extending our self to include another. We do not have to strive for love unless we feel we do not have it. When human beings gather under circumstances where there is no fear, love simply happens. I have attended many gatherings in many different countries where dozens of complete strangers became loving friends after two or three days of just being together. What they did and why they were there didn't seem to matter. Merely close proximity and a lack of fear produced love without effort.

In times of danger love also manifests naturally. When there is a disaster or an accident, people who are not locked in fear automatically begin to assist the ones who need help. They don't have to be taught or instructed, except in how to help better. The desire to help, which is a form of love, arises spontaneously. This automatic love response is so great that some people will put their own lives at great risk to help another person. We call such people heroes when they jump into raging rivers to save someone from drowning, or run into a burning building to bring out a child, or do any one of a hundred other brave things to help another. And yet, few of these people think of themselves as heroes. Most of the time they say they did it because it was the thing to do, or they did it without thinking. It was a spontaneous act of love.

Doubt is the one thing that weakens the connection of love. When a person doubts the existence of love, then fear is born and love begins to die. Fear interferes with love because it is the opposite of love. Fear comes from feeling or being disconnected. When love diminishes, fear increases; and when fear diminishes, love increases. More than that, when love diminishes, so does the need and desire for love.

The need and desire to love and be loved influence all our actions and reactions to the degree that we feel a lack of love in any form. In addition to the powerful force of sexual love, we are also driven by a love for approval and recognition. Many of our behaviors are guided by the hope of approval, or the reaction to disapproval. And many are guided by a quest for recognition, however small or temporary, especially when affection and approval do not seem imminent. Great acts that benefit all of society and vicious acts that harm society may both come from the need and desire for recognition. When recognition is lacking some people will force it by seeking respect, perhaps through doing something worthwhile, or perhaps through achieving a false respect by causing fear.

When there is sufficient frustration in satisfying the need and desire for love of any kind, the result is mental or physical sickness. This happens when the fear that results from the lack of love has no outlet. When, according to the beliefs of the individual, there is nothing that can be done, the fear causes a withdrawal inward, producing great tension on the body and therefore illness.

Power is part of our nature. Like love, we do not have to strive for power unless we feel we do not have it. Power itself is the act of being effective. From the very moment of conception we are all in the process of expressing our power, of doing that which is effective for our survival and our pleasure. From then on, in every moment of our lives, we are engaged in expressing our power, more or less effectively. Physically, our bodies are engaged in maintenance, repair, growth, learning and pleasure-seeking. Mentally, our minds are engaged in problem-solving, creativity and extending our influence into the world around us. We are always powerful, but for many reasons we may not always realize it. When the expression of power is not effective, the natural reaction is to seek a different solution to a problem or to find another way of being effective. Inventors may experiment with thousands of different approaches before their inventions work; sports teams may try dozens of different strategies to win against their opponents; politicians may devise many different economic and social plans to achieve their ends. Individually, people try different healing techniques and approaches, different careers, different relationships, and different religions with the aim of being more effective in their lives.

Again, doubt is the one thing that weakens the natural expression of power. When a person doubts his or her personal power, or source of power, then anger is born and power begins to flee. As power decreases, anger increases; and as anger decreases, power increases. And, as with love, when power decreases, so does anger as well as the need and desire for power.

The most popular technique for trying to regain power while doubt and anger are still operating is control. Many people confuse power with control, but control is what people use when they are feeling powerless. Active control is used to force people to do what you want. It usually takes the form of intimidation or physical force. Passive control, also called passive aggression, takes the form of getting people to do what you want by refusing to act, or by making them feel guilty enough to do what you want. Besides being bad for relationships and effectiveness, the attempt to control causes a lot of tension in the controller.

When control isn't possible, another technique sometimes used is vandalism. A child who feels hurt and powerless may break things to display anger. This seldom works to control parents, but it does get a reaction, and that substitute for effectiveness brings a little satisfaction, at least. The child thinks, "I can't get what I want, but at least I can make someone unhappy." It is a very poor substitute for effectiveness, but it can progress from childhood tantrums to teenage vandalism to adult terrorism. And of course it brings tension with it. However, when there is no outlet for the anger and no return to real power the anger is directed inward and the result is mental and physical illness.

Finally, there is the natural inclination toward harmony. By harmony I mean the mutually beneficial integration and cooperation of people with their social and natural environment. We can see this most easily in isolated tribal groups, but it exists also in many small communities, neighborhoods, groups, clubs and associations. We may see attempts to create harmony by national governments and the United Nations, but the larger the group the more difficult it seems to be. This partly because the larger the group the easier it is for it to be more impersonal. That is, the easier it is to lose a sense of connection and personal influence. But harmony involves more than that; it really has to do with a sense of one's place and purpose in the world, and a recognition of interdependence with the rest of the world. When a person doubts that interdependence and doubts one's own place and purpose within it, then alienation is born. Instead of "you and I or we and they together" it becomes "me or us against them." Alienation, which often includes extreme restlessness, apathy, confusion and despair, creates great internal tension and, of course, mental and physical illness.

The solution for illness caused by fear is to be more loving, by giving more acknowledgement, appreciation, admiration, tolerance, mercy, caring and help to others and to yourself. The solution for illness caused by anger is to increase your knowledge, skill, and self confidence. The solution for illness caused by alienation is to first seek spiritual harmony with a higher or deeper being, and then look for that spirit in all things. If you want a quick fix, though, because of the ultra-fast pace of modern life, then simply cease to doubt. Keep a healthy skepticism whenever necessary, but refuse to doubt your own value, the value of others, and the value of the world.

Along The Rainbow Trail To The Temple Of Mu

A number of years ago on Kauai a friend and I hiked the Rainbow Trail from Princeville, around the Makaleha Mountains, up to the 2000-foot trail summit of Kualapa, and down a ridge between the Keahua and Uhau 'Iole valleys to the Arboretum west of Wailua. This trail roughly follows an ancient Hawaiian foot trail that went from Hanalei to Koloa, well inland from the coast. Although the trail is more well known as Powerline Trail because the original trail was used as a guide for setting up the towers to carry electrical power from south to north, I call it the Rainbow Trail for several reasons: 1) it starts by a forest of rainbow eucalyptus trees in the south; 2) it ends overlooking the Hanalei River and Bay, a famous birthplace of rainbows; and 3) because of the full spectrum of colors displayed by clay deposits all along the trail. The condition of the trail, by the way, is that of a very, very badly eroded dirt road. It is the height of folly, as many people (even locals) have discovered, to attempt the trail in a vehicle without four-wheel drive, and even then some of the holes are too deep to traverse, especially after heavy rains. It can be tricky on foot, too.

On that first trip with a friend, however, the weather was very dry, and as we were striding along a couple of miles from the end of the trail our attention was attracted to a strange pile of rocks on the other side of the Keahua Valley, about three-quarters of the way up a hill to the right of the cleft containing Kapakaiki Falls. I say strange because they had the appearance of two very large black boulders leaning against each other, with what seemed like a cave entrance below them. The boulders were exceptionally large and unlike any others along the whole trail. The hill was too low and eroded for them to have fallen from anywhere, so they must have been remnants from the gigantic, 20,000-foot volcano that used to be Kauai. It was the idea of a cave that fascinated us most, though, and we talked about coming back some day to explore it.

In August 2001 my Navy Seal son Dion and his wife came to visit us on Kauai. He wanted to go on a hike, so I suggested we take the Rainbow Trail and scout the area with binoculars to see if the assumed cave was even approachable. Another friend, Thierry Pfau from Switzerland, joined us, and so we three set off from the Arboretum side for what I expected to be a short jaunt. This time, however, the undergrowth was lush and high, recent rains made Kapakanui and Kapakaiki Falls exciting to look at, and it had been several years since I'd been there, so we hiked almost to Princeville and back before I walked to the base of one of the new power pylons and spotted the big black boulders in the late afternoon.

A careful survey with binoculars made the place seem even more intriguing. The boulders appeared to be held in position by a straight-edged pillar under each one, about a third of the width of the boulder and made of a different, lighter material. It also appeared to me through the binoculars that the left-hand pillar was carved to represent a woman with breasts and at least one arm, her left, crossing over her body. Dion and Thierry saw the same effect. Also, the apparent ravine they were sitting in had no visible water flow during a time of heavy rains, and no visible stream bed below the boulders. I knew that these impressions were probably caused by an over-active imagination propelled by wishful thinking and late-afternoon shadows. Most likely the boulders were left over from a time when the mountains of Kauai were much higher, and the water flow was simply not visible from any of our viewing angles. Because of these impressions, however, and as an act of fancy, I dubbed the location the "Temple of Mu." We had a lot of fun speculating on the prospect of treasure or even an underground city from an ancient civilization before heading home.

Late the next day my adventurous son suggested that we try to reach the "temple." My adventurous self said, "Why not?" and our adventurous friend, Thierry, was excited by the prospect. So, without much thought, and without much preparation, we left early the next morning for the Arboretum. On the way to the trailhead there were omens we couldn't decipher, but which made it clear that this would be more of a spiritual quest than a simple hike. For instance, as we drove along Kuhio Highway we saw an older Hawaiian man dressed in a black kihei and carrying a tall staff walking on the shoulder as if he were an ancient kahuna on his own quest. And as we approached the lookout an owl, my Hawaiian family's aumakua, flew over our heads and down into the valley.

Dion's wife and mine accompanied us to the pylon from which we had the best view. A more careful and detailed binocular survey revealed that the "pillars" were most likely just rock and earth material at the end of the ravine that the boulders were resting on, and both Dion and I thought we could see a wall of earth just a very short distance into the cavity made by the boulders. It seemed even more like a couple of old boulders blocking a natural ravine. On the other hand, one of the boulders seemed to have a channel carved into it, and and we were already there after all...

We took a quick look at the terrain. We would have to descend a fairly steep slope on our side to the Keahua Stream and we picked what looked like a feasible route down to an open field. On the other side of the stream we identified a finger ridge that didn't look too bad, and which could lead us directly to the boulders. We figured it would be a six hour round trip. Plenty of time to make it home for dinner. "Oh what fools we mortals be."

Before we started I chanted in Hawaiian to the spirits of the place, requesting their cooperation and help, and I am extremely glad I did. The wives wisely decided to go shopping and we three adventurers ambled along the trail, looking for a place to start. Soon Thierry plunged into the jungle and down the slope, followed by Dion and myself. Within the first twenty-five yards my pack came open and I lost all my gear, but Dion retrieved most of it (my binoculars are still up there as of this writing). Downward we went through mud and monstera (one of the thorny, imported scourges of the wilderness), guava and 'akala (a thorny, Hawaiian raspberry with delicious fruit as its saving grace) to a steep creekbed that we followed until we realized it was clearly going in the wrong direction. Then we headed across our "open field" which turned out to be a tall, thick mesh of sword fern, uluhe fern, and 'akala bushes. Dion tried to break a trail, but it just wouldn't break. Balked by a cliff, we went uphill again and - two and a half hours later and only halfway to the stream - we had lunch by a dead tree left over from Hurricane Iniki.

Somewhat refreshed, we trod on uluhe fern across the face of a cliff and slipped and slid down a short ridge to the stream. By this time I was exhausted, and after an all-too-brief rest we clambered up the far bank through forest and fern and found ourselves at the foot of the finger ridge we had seen from the trail far above and behind us. So up we went: Dion first, Thierry, and finally me, lagging way behind. The ridge was steeper than we had expected and now I was glad for the presence of the ferns because their tough roots gave me something to hold onto as I painfully pulled my way up.

At the top of the finger the ridge got very narrow, with the valley end dropping off quickly to the right and the mountain end heading left like a roller coaster, then curving to the right and up to Makaleha. In front of us the ridge fell in a steep slope to a small hanging valley, and about halfway up the other side, almost directly across from us, were the giant boulders. Unfortunately, we were now seeing them at an angle that gave us a view from the left which was obscured by a smaller boulder, so we couldn't see the "entrance."

The narrow ridge to the left was covered with ferns, of course, and part of it looked very steep. After that, however, it looked reasonably level as it followed the perpendicular cliff on the right side of Kapakaiki Falls, which were not visible from where we were. Further on was a small finger of the ridge that sloped down to the big boulders. My body absolutely refused to go any further, so I sat and waited while Thierry and Dion tackled "Rollercoaster Ridge." Some time later Thierry came back, saying that his body had no interest in attempting the steep part.

Dion plodded on, slowly following the ridge up the steepest part, along the dangerous cliff face, and down the finger toward the boulders. Halfway down the finger he stopped for awhile, then came all the way back to our resting place without reaching the boulders themselves. He explained that he had given himself a half hour to make the final trek, and when that was up he decided that to go any further would take far too long. It was now four-thirty in the afternoon and we were still at the top of the finger ridge in the middle of the wilderness. Even so, from our current vantage point we could see far down the Keahua valley to the outline of Sleeping Giant, and even to the ocean beyond.

Now the three of us made a critical choice. Looking across the valley we could see the signs of our fern-supported cliff crossing and our slippery slide to the stream. We could also see the Rainbow Trail and the power pylon we used as a lookout point. They looked tantalizingly near, but we knew that the climb up that slope would be very difficult. I estimated that we could make it to the trail in 2-3 hours once we reached the stream bed. On the other hand, there was the Keahua valley stretching peacefully now to our left. The valley bottom was covered with dusty green hau trees, and I knew what a tangle they could make over a stream, but to Thierry and Dion it looked better than the slope. I argued for the slope because it was shorter, but even though I pride myself on being a good wordsmith I used exactly the wrong words in my argument. "The slope is a known quantity," I said. "It's difficult, but we know we can make it, and even if it takes a little longer than we expect we know we can be home before too long. The stream is an unknown quantity. It will definitely take longer and we have no idea what we will encounter. We could be hiking into danger." Whoops! Too late I noticed their eyes glazing over. "...unknown quantity...no idea...encounter...danger..." I forgot that I was talking to adventurers. Outnumbered, outvoted, and outclassed, I willingly went along with their decision to follow the river.

We made it to the stream bed by five-thirty and immediately began walking the rocky bottom. Fortunately, the recent rains had been light and the stream was relatively shallow. I should mention that by now we had run out of fresh water and the stream did not look or smell potable. Our walking quickly fell into a routine: Dion would usually lead, Thierry was next, and I would stumble along far behind. At some point they would wait for me, and as soon as I caught up they would take off again. The stream had a routine, too. First there were shallow rapids, followed by a deep, quiet pool, followed by rapids, followed by a pool, and so on. As I expected, hau tree branches broke the monotony quite frequently, criss-crossing the stream above and below the water and turning it into a maze. Very rarely were there any walkable banks and we made use of them whenever possible. The hau trees were not continuous, however. Long streches of the stream were bordered by ferns, pu'ohe'ohe (Job's-tears) and guavas. Whenever we came to a pool that we couldn't go around we had to carry our packs on our shoulders and wade as close to the edge as we could. Often we waded up to our chests through such pools. Once, when a pool was blocked by impenetrable hau branches I had to wade across the width and the water came up to my neck. That was a shallow one.

Darkness came sooner than we wanted, making a tangle of hau trees up ahead look like an inky black cave. When it got really black Dion pulled out his flashlight and guided us. Somewhere in the middle of the night the batteries gave out and I provided one of those intense, cobalt blue key lights that worked extremely well. However, Dion used it very sparingly from then on, and most of the time we marched along by starlight or no light at all, with the blue beam being used only to silhouette low hau branches or warn us of otherwise invisible pools. I remember Venus appearing so bright I hopefully thought it was a headlight at first, and later a brilliant quarter-moon came up, swam in and out of clouds, and passed over. Finally there was a lightening of the sky that I took for the glow of a town, but it was only the sun rising. With a shock I realized we had been hiking through the stream the whole night long.

We knew we were heading toward the stream crossing at the Arboretum, and always hoped to see it around the next bend. Sometimes, however, we wondered if we were on the way to Po'ipu. As the morning wore on I was so dehydrated that my throat closed up when I tried to swallow and I started having dry heaves. I searched for a tributary of any size that might have clean water, and when I found one that looked clean and smelled clean I went ahead and took a few swallows, telling my body to assimilate what was good and eliminate whatever wasn't.

I was in much worse shape than either Dion or Thierry, being much older and lazier than either of them. I was exhausted when we started the trek along the stream and my energy level went down from there. Once, during the night, a small part of my mind suggested we quit, but all the other parts chimed in, "We don't do that, ever." Still, I had to reach beyond myself for the strength and skill to go on because willpower wasn't going to be enough. I drew on several basic shamanic techniques to help me survive.

The most useful of all was la'a kea, the conscious use of my energy field. For this, I imagined my field extending beyond my body and connecting to the energy of my environment - rocks, water, plants, stars, etc. Then I called on this field to draw on the energy of the environment for its needs, and to do the walking for me. As long as I remembered the field was there, doing its thing, I was fine. However, the longer we trekked, the more my mind tended to wander, and that was dangerous. When I was fully in the present moment, letting my energy field do all the work, I walked effortlessly and with balance. But if my thoughts strayed out of the moment I would stumble, and sometimes fall. Three falls could have been very serious, but I employed the famous "Repetition" technique (a.k.a. "Mindblower") quickly enough so that pain dissipated right away and injuries were averted. The second most useful technique, however, was a simple affirmation to help keep my mind focused: "Solid footing, here and now" was a chant that brought me back to balance and presence over and over and over again.

Some curious things happened late into the night. For one thing, I had two persistent hallucinations. One was of purple flowers that I saw on all kinds of bushes, and the other was of red dirt or mud that I saw sometimes on bushes and sometimes on whole stretches of stream bank, making it look like a cliff where there were really hau trees. Once the mud looked so real as I stood in some pu'ohe'ohe that I had to reach down and touch the leaves to make sure the mud wasn't really there. Another perception was of bright energy particles in the air, but I don't consider that a hallucination because Thierry also saw it and I have seen it before. In addition to phenomena with eyes open, both Thierry and I had similar experiences when we closed our eyes even briefly. On some occasions we both saw beautiful geometric patterns in brilliant colors. They reminded me of the "Eye of God" patterns used by some Native Americans. On other occasions both Thierry and I experienced intense "dreamlets" when we closed our eyes and we had to force ourselves to keep our eyes open in order not to get lost in other worlds. One time, however, deep in the night, Dion had led the way across a point of bushy land to avoid a pool. As I approached the spot I saw Thierry standing and apparently waiting for me as usual, so I climbed ashore and stood next to him. He said Dion had gone on ahead to find a way around, so I waited, too, slipping in and out of dreamlets and patterns. I also hallucinated that Dion was standing next to Thierry consulting a GPS device to determine where we were. After what seemed like a very long time I said, "Maybe this would be a good place to wrap ourselves in a poncho and go to sleep." Thierry said,. "Where did Dion go?" At that moment we both saw a flash of blue light signaling us to come forward. As it turned out, Dion had been calling and signaling us for a long time and neither of us noticed because we were mostly in a dream state.

With morning my own energy came back to some degree, but it seemed like we were still plodding on in a never-ending story. Finally, Thierry pushed ahead while Dion stayed close to me because I was going more and more slowly. And at last the miracle occured. Dion, up ahead, signaled to me that we had reached our destination. There was the concrete roadway of the Arboretum, covered by the waters of the stream, and there was Thierry, video-taping our final emergence from the wilderness. We had been fifteen hours in the stream; it had been twenty-five hours of almost non-stop hiking since we started. Our hands were full of thorns, our arms were covered with angry red scratches and welts, and our feet looked as if they belonged to corpses. Nevertheless, we had made it, without serious injury and without getting sick. We were tired and hungry, but alive and essentially well. I thanked the spirits for their help. The trek had been extremely difficult, physically and mentally, but in spite of numerous opportunities no one was badly injured; in spite of the hardship no one complained or got upset; in spite of the recent storms it hadn't rained the whole time we were out; and, most miraculous of all, in spite of all the standing water there weren't any mosquitoes. We celebrated with gratitude, warm water and ice cold beer.

And out there in the wilderness, the Temple of Mu still stands untouched.

For photos of this journey go to http://www.sergeking.com/Hsites/kauai/kau14001.htm

To Pay Or Not To Pay

To pay or not to pay, that is the issue. Whether 'tis wiser to charge for a service or give it away for free. Oh, conundrum of conundrums!

It's a pretty strange world in a lot of ways, and one of them is the inconsistency of attitudes about paying for education and healing.. A fair percentage of the population in modern countries is quite willing to pay handsomely for "conventional" health care and private schools or tutoring, but balks for some reason at paying anything for "alternative" health care or education.

One argument I hear is that "people shouldn't charge for healing." Somehow drug companies, medical doctors, nurses, psychologists, chiropractors, homeopathic doctors, hypnotherapists and a host of others are exempt from this, and somehow herbalists, energy therapists, spiritual counselors, hands-on-healers and a host of others are not. In some cases the perception seems to be that "conventional" healers had to work hard and pay for their skills, while "alternative" healers were either born with it or had it drop into them out of heaven, and that this somehow justifies the difference. It doesn't take much research to discover that the "alternative" healers had to work just as hard and pay just as much in money and/or time to develop their talents or learn their skills, so that argument doesn't work.

In reference to education, I hear people say "you shouldn't have to pay for knowledge." Again, "conventional" education seems to be exempt from this, as are books and other media, but "alternative" education (in which category I include all manner of workshops, seminars, and lectures by private teachers in any subject) is not. I have never found even a glimmer of justification for this one.

A variation of the inconsistent attitude comes up in regard to "traditional" knowledge and healing. What I am talking about has nothing to do with the unethical and exploitive practice of a "modern" person learning from a "traditional" teacher and then going on to make a lot of money from that learning without any equivalent compensation or benefit going back to that teacher. Instead, what concerns me here is the belief among many modern and even indigenous people that "traditional" knowledge and healing was always provided free of charge. Let's look at that more closely.

The use of money is merely a medium for exchanging goods and services, something humans have done ever since there was more than one of them. Money itself has taken many forms, and in some places it still does. When I visited the island of Yap in the Western Pacific I discovered that they use shell money for bride prices, wheel money for real estate, and American dollars for beer. In Africa, where I lived for seven years, they used gold, iron, and cowrie shells, among other things. But in a great many traditional societies the more common way of exchanging goods and services was through barter or gift.

The barter system is based on exchanging tangible goods or specific services value for value, using negotiation to determine the trade. For instance, if I am a potter and you are a farmer we have to decide how many goats will buy how many pots, or vice versa, depending on whose need is greatest. Or if I am a teacher and you want to be my apprentice, either your family will give me so many cattle a year or you will indenture yourself to me as a servant for so many years. This is very common in Africa, for instance. In all my years of travel, along the coasts and into the interior, among many different tribes, I never once came across traditional teaching or healing being given to non-family members without some kind of exchange taking place.

A gift system is based on treating all exchanges of goods and services as gifts in which negotiation plays no part. This is similar, really, to the "donation" system used by many spiritual healers and counselors today. In Africa, the gift system came into play most often when goods or services had been given and received without negotiation. For instance, one time the women of an African village, for whose children I had been providing dry milk and grain, invited me to a gathering at which they danced and sang in my honor and presented me with fifteen eggs. The use value of their presentation and the food I provided had nothing in common, but the gift value was equal. A few minutes ago I picked up my car from a service station and they didn't charge for checking out a problem, so I bought some gasoline there (I usually buy elsewhere). That was also a gift exchange.

Early Hawaiian society was organized into districts composed mostly of extended family systems, and gifts were the predominant means of exchange. A district, or ahupua'a, typically extended from the sea to the mountains, and feathers might be exchanged for fish in gift-giving, without regard to amounts. There is a Kauai story about a chief who paid Menehune stoneworkers one shrimp each for their work. Modern interpreters think it was a tricky thing to do, but there is no indication in the original story that the laborers were upset about their gift.

Modern times are not the same as ancient times, and although barter and gift-giving is still done, money predominates for most exchanges. More important than that, however, is the fact that there have always been exchanges of some kind in every society. Even in families, where knowledge and healing may be shared freely, there is the subtle recognition that the family members will exchange something at some time when it is needed. In the early part of the last century Hawaiian kahuna healers felt perfectly free to publish a list of prices for their different services.

Now I am going to share how I operate, not as a model for anyone else's behavior, but as an example of one person's solution.

First, in my teaching for Aloha International (workshops, books, counseling, etc.) when I charge I do not charge for the knowledge. The knowledge is out there in the universe for anyone else to get the same way I did, or by many other ways. What I charge for is my teaching skill, which I have developed over many years of hard study and practice. Some people feel they cannot afford my workshops, so we provide an abundance of free information through booklets, articles, email counseling, websites, healing circles, live lectures, and video on a voluntary gift-exchange basis. No one has to go without the knowledge, but if they want to take advantage of my special teaching skills in an intensive way they have to pay for it. As for the source of my knowledge, my Hawaiian family has been very well taken care of, thank you.

In my healing work I take a somewhat peculiar stance. First, I make a distinction between counseling and healing. Counseling, for me, is teaching people how to help themselves. Although I do a lot of it for free, I have no problem with charging for it. As for healing, I believe that anyone who has healing skill or ability has the right to charge whatever he or she wishes for that service. However, I have personally chosen not to charge for any direct healing help that I give, whether distant or immediate, and an emergency always gets first priority for my time. To my way of thinking this is my gift to the Universe, and any return donations that people give are forwarded to Aloha International.

What I have stated in the last two paragraphs is my personal policy, not the policy of Aloha International or it's Alakai. As a matter of practical fact, Aloha International's policy tends to follow mine rather closely, but the individual Alakai are free to develop their own.

So, to charge or not to charge; to pay or not to pay, those are the choices. That's called free will. And that's what I believe in.

Power and Purpose

The essence of power is influence. It is that which enables you to be effective at doing what you want to do, to get the results intended, to move others to help you, and it is that which affects the power of others even when it is unintentional.  Everything has both active and passive aspects of power. A flower has the active power to grow, blossom and reproduce. It may also have the passive power to give food to a bee or pleasure to a human, both of which enhance its active power to grow and reproduce. A human may have the active power to perform a certain task. He or she may also have the passive power to inspire other humans by that performance. There are several kinds of power: 1. The power of energy (as of the elements, strength, emotions, vibrations). 2. The power of favor [ability to give or withold] (as of money, position, prestige, affection, punishment, protection, pleasure, etc.). 3. The power of intimidation (threat or act of violence or loss, emotional manipulation, etc.) 3. The power of knowledge (as of skill, information, wisdom). 4. The power of authority (as of self-confidence, or confidence in one's access to another power). 5. The power of focus (as with decision, determination, motivation, desire). 6. The power of belief (as with assumptions, attitudes and expectations). Personal power is the power to direct one's own life, and to take responsibility for the effects of doing that. Everyone uses personal power to some degree, and most of them accept responsibility when it works the way they want it to. However, relatively few people want to take responsibility when it doesn't work out, and relatively many prefer to transfer the authority for running their own lives over to someone else. "Take care of me" seems to be a more popular cry than "Help me take care of myself." "It's not my fault" is heard more often than "I'll change myself." Personal power does not just affect the individual; it also has social consequences. I was told about an incident that took place during the time when relations between the US and communist China were just opening up. As a form of cultural exchange the US had sent a table tennis team to China to compete with their Chinese counterparts. During a break the teams were discussing life in both countries with the help of a translator. An American happened to mention a statistic current at the time that on the average Americans move their residence every two years. A Chinese asked whether the Americans were angry at the government for moving them so often. When it was explained that Americans move whenever and wherever they want to, he exclaimed with disbelief, "How can you possible control your economy if everyone moves around at will?"  It's hard for some people to understand that the most powerful, i.e., influential, nation, and the most successful, prosperous, and compassionate nation, will be the one whose citizens have the most freedom to make their own choices. A way to increase personal power, i.e., power to develop one's own life, is by combining the techniques of ku'uwelu, ho'ohui hoaka, and nalu. Ku'uwelu is roughly translated as "hang loose", and as intended here it means to enter into a state of non-resistance to influences from within and without. The non-resistance takes place in both the mind and body, and the process is accomplished by using words, images, thoughts, feelings, movement, awareness and intent. In practice it consists of monitoring the body to continually release the slightest increases in unnecessary tension (necessary tension, as an example, is that required to remain upright in a standing position) and tension reactions, and monitoring the mind so as to continually release all negative thoughts and thought reactions. The effect is to achieve a kind of mental and physical transparency, a kind of "empty awareness." This does not mean no awareness, but a heightened awareness unclouded or restricted by automatic reaction patterns. The heightened awareness includes clarity of thought, increased sensory perception, increased perception of energy, and an ability to act or react almost instantly to any stimulus. In practicing the technique there is often an experience of body releases and "aha!" realizations. Ho'ohui hoaka means "to connect the aura," and it refers to a technique of extending your aura to connect or join with the auras of your environment. In the proper execution of the technique you are highly aware of the shape, texture, movement and "feel" of whatever you have joined with. It is a 2nd level technique, though, and not like the "grokking" of kulike, because you are still very aware that the object or person is not you. Yet you are strongly bonded or blended just like you are when you hold or touch a familiar, well-liked object or person. Ho'omaika'i, the blessing technique, is a great aid for connecting. Nalu is a contemplation technique that works on the EFWAG principle ("Energy Flows Where Attention Goes"). Whenever the mind is focused on something, especially with intent, not only is there a reciprocal energy flow, but the nature or quality of what is focused on tends to be reproduced by the ku, the body mind. So if you focus on the energy of a fire you tend to get energized, and if you focus on the freedom of an eagle, you tend to feel free. In addition, nalu can be used for telepathic and psychokinetic influence. When ku'uwelu, ho'ohui hoaka and nalu are combined, the results can be very powerful. If you have ever experienced a high power or love state, this is a way to get back into it consciously. The idea is that the non-resistant state will allow an uninhibited flow of energy, the aura extension will connect you with your environment, and the contemplative process will direct the energy according to a natural intent, thus turning you into a sort of super-conductor for super-effectiveness.  Once you are "transparently connected" the key factor is the focus of your contemplation. This does not have to remain the same. For instance, you could start by contemplating beauty, move on to energy, then to a desired effect or influence. The combination is also very useful for eliminating personal blocks, for as you contemplate a problem area you will have many opportunities to keep releasing mind and body. Power, however, is meaningless without a purpose, and no purpose can be achieved without power. The larger the purpose, the greater the power, but it doesn't work the other way. You can't accumulate tremendous power first and then set about applying it to a great purpose. It is the purpose that expands the power. Using power for the purpose of immediate self gratification is natural. We do that every time we act to increase our comfort, our pleasure or our effectiveness. Shopping is an expression of personal power, as is driving a car, playing a game or making love, but the degree of influence - and therefore the level of power - is relatively small. As we involve others in our expression of personal power, by helping them to increase their influence, our own power grows. All great religious, political, military, economic or social leaders have used this idea, consciously or unconsciously. Most have also encountered two major problems based on a misunderstanding of power. The first problem is the false association of power with control. This error is very common, and is the main reason so many people are afraid of the whole concept of power. Actually, control is just a technique, and not a very good one, for exerting influence. Control requires the threat or the fact of punishment to be effective, and the response to that is always fear and anger. Therefore, the use of the control technique sets up a natural resistance to its use. If you look at the surface of a situation the control technique may appear to be effective, either in a family or a police state, but the underlying resistance is constantly working to undo it. Even if the situation lasts for many years, the control technique will produce a very poor record of achieving the desired results. The second problem is the use of power against something. Now, exerting influence induces change, and the universe has a built-in resistance to change that helps to keep it from falling into chaos. In all of existence we can see a constant interplay between the forces of change and resistance to those forces. We also see constant attempts to reduce resistance in order to make change easier, such as the path taken by molten lava, the shape of a raindrop, the structure of a palm frond, the strength of an elephant, the streamlining of an airplane, and the altering of a lifestyle. Very rarely do we see power used consistently and purposefully to get rid of something, except among humans. Some people are not satisfied with developing their own religious or political system; they have to make theirs the only one by destroying the others. Some people do not want to compete; they want to eliminate the competition. Some people do not want to cure cancer or heal the drug problem; they want to make war on them. The use of power to willfully oppose, subdue or destroy another power generates tremendous stresses which reduce the effectiveness of both. "Power over" and "power against" are very inefficient uses of power. A far more efficient use is "power to." The former are inherently destructive, while the latter is inherently creative. Sometimes the difference is as subtle as an attitude, but the effects can differ vastly. For instance, two very different approaches to healing are to treat illness as an enemy or as a behavior. If an illness like cancer is thought of as an enemy then that can lead to the thought of making war on it, and then treatments like surgery, radiation, chemicals, and x-rays are thought of as weapons for winning the war. In addition, any treatment without the power to suppress or destroy the cancer, or to reveal its secrets, is put aside as irrevelant at best, or a hoax at worst. On the other hand, treating the cancer as a behavior, or the effect of behaviors, leads to the thought that any treatment that changes the behavior of body, mind or environment may be helpful, and that could even include treatments that are weapons in the "enemy" approach. The biggest difference is that the attitude of war produces far more resistant stress in the body, mind and environment than an attitude of peaceful behavioral change. The result of that, naturally, is that in the latter, more of the power applied to the healing is actually used for the healing, and less is needed for overcoming resistance. This is simply an aspect of the physics of energy. In nature we see abundant examples of rocks, plants and animals following the path of least resistance. We find it in humans, also, alongside what seems to be the practice of following the path of most resistance. However, the path of least resistance may be so glaringly obvious that it takes a radical shift in attitude to recognize it. A blade of grass apparently has the power to break through a slab of concrete, yet it clearly doesn't have the strength to accomplish this feat. But perhaps it isn't breaking through the concrete at all. Perhaps, using the principle that energy flows where attention goes, it is focusing all of its attention on reaching the sun, and it is ignoring the concrete completely. Perhaps, in the face of such a love, the concrete simply parts to let it through. And perhaps this same idea might be applied to our human lives. That is to say, perhaps the path of least resistance is the path of love. If this is so, then perhaps there is greater power and higher purpose in keeping our attention on what we want, and not on what we don't want; less on what we hate and fear, and far more on what we perceive as the highest good.

The Huna Path To World Change

interview with Serge Kahili King

This is an interview I did that was conducted by Jennifer Kos on behalf of Science of Mind magazine for their May, 1990 issue. It has been slightly edited and updated from the original.

"The Huna path bears a remarkably close resemblance to that of the Science of Mind in its blending of the ancient wisdom and modern methodology. Both Serge King and Ernest Holmes share a common philosophic platform, for each accepted the intimate relationship of mind, energy and matter. And both teach that we truly can achieve that to which we are all entitled - happiness, abundance, and joy in a world at peace.

Science of Mind: Serge, you are recognized authority on Huna. Please define Huna for our readers. 

King: Huna is a Hawaiian philosophy of living. It focuses on the powers of mind and the forces of nature, and how they interact. It is a very old philosophy associated with Polynesia. There are seven basic principles of Huna, which makes it a philosophy and not merely a system of techniques. Huna is simply a way of dealing with or viewing reality, and because of its simplicity Huna is easy to remember and easy to apply effectively.

Science of Mind: Your writings have described the use of Huna in a form of shamanism that follows the Way of the Adventurer rather than the Way of the Warrior. What is a Hawaiian shaman and what differentiates these two paths? 

King: Our definition of a Hawaiian shaman is one who has a particular world view and who operates in accordance with the seven HUNA Principles, primarily the first one, which states: "the world is what you think it is." A corollary of this principle is that reality is a dream and we can change it. We change the inner in order to change the outer. And that is really what designates a shaman - not a particular technique, but a particular way of viewing and interacting with the world.

The characteristic that differentiates the Hawaiian form of shamanism from other forms is that is an Adventurer system, not a Warrior system. The warrior Shaman is a healer who also works with the mind and spirit, but who does this by confrontation and conquest, with the goal of defeating illness or evil. The Adventurer shaman works from a perspective of cooperation, friendship, and harmony, with a goal of changing behavior. The Way of the Adventurer happens to be a lot more fun, because it involves an attitude of harmonizing rather than protecting or defending.

Science of Mind: How does the shaman view reality? 

King: From the shaman's point of view, reality has no set limits. Of course, there are certain limits that we accept, acknowledge and operate by, but these are not inherent. There are "creative" limits and "non -creative" limits. A creative limit is like a channel that allows energy to flow in a particular way, and a non-creative limit is like a dam that blocks the flow. We must have some non-creative limits in order to operate here in the physical dimension. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to focus our attention. For example, in order to listen to a program on the radio, we limit our reception to a particular frequency, and then we can pick up that program. That doesn't mean there are no other programs, but in order to hear that one, we must create a limit. Through our senses we narrow our range of perception so we can tune in to the frequency of physical reality. But this does not mean there aren't all kinds of other realities.

Science of Mind: In your system of thought, what is the view of the world and the part we play in it? 

King: From the shaman's point of view, there is one world, one earth. We are part of that one earth, creatures on it with our own purpose, and through serving that purpose we are also serving the earth's purpose. When we talk about healing as shamans, we talk about healing the physical body. We talk about healing weather conditions, such as earthquakes, and about healing circumstances, such as poverty or oppression. We talk about healing animals, trees and plants. We view the entire world as one, and we see our role as helping to heal the world.

Shamanism differs from a lot of other healing practices because it is not just a human-oriented system. It is an earth-oriented system.

Science of Mind: Has that always been true? 

King: Yes. Shamanism has always treated the whole world as one. That's why some of the traditional cultures talk about animals as brothers and sisters and friends, not totally separate creatures.

Science of Mind: Do you think more people are beginning to have that attitude today? 

King: Absolutely. Concern about our environment is growing everywhere.

Science of Mind: There seems to be a shift taking place in consciousness, particularly at this point in time. 

King: This shift has been occurring for a long time, and I believe it's happening because there's a growing interest in love and practice of love, like we have never seen before in history.

Science of Mind: Some people might take issue with that statement and say that we're poisoning, destroying, and killing more things than ever before - the water, the atmosphere, the earth, and one another. 

King: Those things certainly are occurring. They have always occurred with human beings. Only now, the big difference is that there is more love being practiced than there ever has been.

Science of Mind: What evidence of this do you see? 

King: Let's take a look at what happened when the Marshall Plan was put into effect at the end of the Second World War. Never before in the history of the human race has a conquering country not only given of its resources to help its allies, but given of its resources to help its enemies, and then turned them into friends.

During the period after the war, private groups formed. Some were church-supported groups, such as the World Council of Churches and Catholic Relief Services; some were private, like CARE and OXFAM. These groups were formed to help other people. Eventually, they served as a model for the Peace Corps. They were formed to help people in other countries with goods, supplies, services, technology, money, assistance, food, and personnel - with no expectation of return, with pure-hearted purpose. The people they helped didn't have to do anything in return. The Peace Corps has very much the same concept. Of course, there were people in the American government who thought of the political advantage of the Peace Corps, but it worked because a lot of Volunteers overseas weren't serving for that kind of reason. They served because they were loving people. They put up with tremendous hardship, giving years of their lives in extremely trying and sometimes dangerous conditions - all for the satisfaction of helping people.

The whole Peace Corps concept, where a government would train and send people to help other countries with no direct demand for return or payment, never occurred before in history. And other governments were doing this, too. The United States was the most publicized, but when I was in Africa I worked with similar volunteers from Austria, England, Israel, and China. Many different countries were doing similar things.

Science of Mind: Is there any other evidence you see of love being practiced on a worldwide scale? 

King: Yes. Recently, when a devastating earthquake occurred in a Russian province, the United States rushed in to help it with goods and services and medicine. After the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, citizens of other countries went over there to help. They didn't say, "You're going to have to pay us so much to do this."

When two whales were stuck in the ice in the Arctic, two "enemies," the United States and the Soviet Union, sent their military ships to break the ice so the whales could go free. Two superpowers used their military resources to help a couple of animals! I know of nothing like that ever occurring before. Over and over again, these kinds of things are happening all around the world.

Science of Mind: Perhaps this kind of caring and helping activity happened in primitive times. 

King: Not as far as we know. One of the most primitive concepts is fear of the stranger. Many primitive people believed they had to protect themselves from the evil that the stranger brings. Even in Hawaii, in earlier times, when the people here were friendly, they still wanted assurance that you weren't a threat to the community. Or you had to prove that you were so strong that they couldn't do anything about it. Once you were acknowledged as having peaceful intent or superior strength, there was great friendship, but it wasn't automatic.

Science of Mind: So this fear of other people goes far back into our history and we're beginning to take steps toward overcoming it? 

King: That's what appears to be happening, and on a scale that has never been recorded before in human history.

Science of Mind: What could account for this? 

King: What accounts for it is that a great many people, who have gathered together over a long period of time, are teaching and practicing love. There have been, and are still, spiritual groups of all kinds and all natures. The message keeps coming: love, love, love. There's a change in the inner consciousness. Movements that teach this message are forming. We're getting it all over the place. People talk about there being too much bad news, but there is more good news on television and newspapers now than there ever has been. there are more programs and articles about the environment, about animals, about nature, about things that human beings are doing positively in education.

When San Francisco had its earthquake, Armenia sent food. Think about that. A Soviet province sent food to help an American city. Russia is just coming out with a series of stamps. One of the stamps commemorates the Apollo landing. The Russians are actually commemorating an American feat. Yes, they intend to make hard currency on the issue, but it is still remarkable. Now, taken individually, these seem like very little things. But the " one world " is forming faster and faster. In many different shapes and ways and sizes, love is getting stronger.

Science of Mind: Can love make a difference even after we have poisoned everything? 

King: We have not poisoned everything. Wait a second. Look around you out here. Does this land look poisoned? Look at the world! When I was in Africa, we got news about the United States and the pollution and poisoning. This was in the 60's. I came back in 1971. By 1971 it seemed clear to everybody in most of the rest of the world that the United States was a rotten, stinking mass of pollution - that all the rivers were clogged with oil and debris, all the fish were dead, and all the skies were gray and cloudy. I came home and honestly, my culture shock was not in going to Africa, it was in coming back to find so much of our country in such great shape. We took a camper-van cross country. Marvelous, beautiful! Clear sparkling water, clean-air, gorgeous forests. We could hardly believe it, compared to the kind of news that was given oversees about what the conditions were by American newspapers and magazines.

Most of the world is in great shape. There are places that very seriously need help, that are potentially dangerous. Absolutely no doubt about it. But don't think that the whole world is polluted, because it isn't. That doesn't mean we don't have to act now. We must act now. In the same way that your whole body might be healthy, but if you've got a sore you're going to work on healing it. Right? But don't forget that most of your body is healthy.

Science of Mind: What can people do to begin creating change in the world? 

King: They have to start from where they are. The United Nations is putting out some great material indicating specific things that everybody in their own way can begin to do that will make a difference. There are guidelines available and there are organizations we can operate through, such as The Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation and others. They suggest things for people to do and help them do it.

Science of Mind: What specific tools does the shaman used to help heal the environment? 

King: The use the same tools that every other human being has available. Shamans do everything that everybody else does, only we do it a little more consciously. We use words, we use imagination, we use emotion, we use sensation and physical movement - we use all of our divine powers in order to change our reality.

Science of Mind: As human beings, then, we can exert a positive influence on the environment, even though it may seem as though we're separate from the trees and rocks? 

King: Ordinary reality says that we are separate. Shamanic reality says we're not. It is simply a different way of viewing or interpreting phenomena. When we experience our oneness with everything, we are practicing love, and this love has a healing influence on whatever needs to be healed.

Science of Mind: But can one individual alone really make that much of a difference? 

King: I'm not saying that one person is going to change the entire world. One person will change his or her awareness of the world, and there's a cumulative effect. In Aloha International we now have more than 2000 shamans who are working separately and together. Other people and other groups are doing other things. The number of people able to operate in this way is increasing. With each one of these individuals doing the inner work to help various aspects of the planet, the changes can be made rapidly. So, yes, one individual makes a big difference because the one individual is never alone. The second principle of Huna says, "There are no limits. " We are all connected. Other minds pick up and are influenced by how we think and act. It is partly this which is accounting for all the changes that are beginning to be made all over the planet.

Science of Mind: Then more people having thoughts of peace on earth can at some point totally change the old reality? 

King: That's the idea. Now, if you start saying, "It's too late," then you are not agreeing with what the Science of Mind philosophy teaches - which is that we can change the world. If we can believe it, we can achieve it. So the question is not whether there is time; the question is, "Can we believe it?"

Science of Mind: As you have said, changes always come from the inner to the outer. How we think and feel on a daily basis is going to affect the world around us. 

King: Exactly.

Science of Mind: Please take the Huna principle " Now is the moment of power" and relate it to the ability to make positive change in the world. 

King: Well, that one is easy, because now is the only time when you can effect any positive change. You can't do it yesterday and you can't do it tomorrow. You can't do it this morning and you can't do it this evening. The only moment in which can act, in any way, is right now. So even from the point of view of pure logic, we can see that. Now, the extensions of this in shamanic thinking are that you can change any effect from the past - right now - because here is where your power is. You can set up and begin to create any kind of future from right now. The viewpoint is that we are not bound by the past. In terms of creating change, the past doesn't matter. It's what we think about the past that matters.

Science of Mind: Then it's not so important to know the "why" of what we're going through in the world situation today? 

King: That's right. What matters is what we're going to do about it. In ordinary reality there is much power given to the past. People think that if they can only figure out the past causes of their problems, then they can figure out how to solve those problems. Certainly we can learn skills and gain information about what's going on now from the past, but the power to change is right here and now. We can gather information, but at some point we have to start to make changes.

The current state of most of the world is that you've got to build up all kinds of justification for change from all the things that happened in the past and give it weight and authority before you can go ahead and change. Shamans just don't look at it that way. If something isn't working right now all, let's start to change it. Sometimes you need information that has been gathered in order to cause change more effectively. Then you use that information, if that's what is needed. But you don't use that for your authority. There's a difference there.

Science of Mind: It's very difficult for some people to believe they create their own reality when they feel influenced by outside influences and forces, such as karma, for instance. 

King: Well, you see, we don't have that concept. We believe that "Now is the moment of power." Karma is right now. Everything that you are experiencing in this moment is your karma. And in any given moment, you can change that by making different decisions about yourself and about life. We're certainly not saying that these are always easy to make because it depends on your level of confidence as to how easy a decision is to make. If your confidence or your self- esteem isn't high, then you'll find it more difficult to make such decisions. The higher your confidence and self-esteem, the easier it is to make decisions to change.

Science of Mind: What you think the role of self-esteem is in healing the problems we now face in the world? 

King: The higher our self-esteem, the more we begin expanding our sense of identity with other people. Sometimes we try to build up self-esteem by separating ourselves from others. Essentially that never works. It produces effects. It can produce a big income, a lot of popularity, but always with a terrific kind of tension inside. That kind of self-esteem, then, is always dependent upon outside things or other people.

True self-esteem comes from confidence, and as our confidence grows our sense of identity with other people grows. So we become more identified with the world and therefore our concern and compassion increases. Then we're going to think in ways that will be healing, not only for ourselves but for our environment. It's definitely going to affect the world!

Science of Mind: Is it necessary for each individual or for us as a group to have an idea of what we would like the world to be? 

King: Nothing is necessary. No. However, if you want to change the world in some particular way, yes, then it's necessary to have some idea of how you want to change it and what you wanted to be like. If you don't have a clear idea of what you want, how are you going to get it? I meet a lot of people who say, "I want to help people." Fine. What you want to do? "I don't know. I just want to help people." Well, you're never going to help anybody unless you finally decide what you're going to do that is helpful. Being specific helps to accomplish your aims.

Science of Mind: Serge, your organization is dedicated to spreading "the aloha spirit." What exactly is "Aloha?" 

King: Within the seven principles, Aloha is the fifth. It says, "To love is to be happy with." in terms of manifesting, it means two things. First, the more you are at peace with what you presently have, the easier it will be to change it. Many people think they have to get very unhappy with their present circumstances before they will change, and yet all they're doing is developing a habit of getting unhappy in order to grow. This principle presents the startling idea that you can be happy where you are and still grow. And that growth will be faster and easier if you do it that way. The second thing is that the more you love your dream - the more it excites you - the easier it will be to manifest it. Many people have dreams that are born out of fear. They want to manifest prosperity because they're afraid of poverty, or they want to manifest peace because they're afraid of war. But if fear is your only motivation, you will only manifest what you fear.

The fifth principle indicates that the best way to manifest prosperity is to love prosperity, and the best way to manifest peace is to love peace. As a practical step, it helps tremendously to cut down on criticizing what you don't like, and to increase the blessing and praise for what you do like.

Science of Mind: Is there a simple technique you can share with our readers that can enhance our power to praise and bless what we like? 

King:Yes, there is a simple breathing technique which enhances your power to bless by increasing your personal energy , or ki , as it is named in Hawaiian. This technique requires no special posture or quiet place. And can be done while moving or still, busy or resting, with your eyes open or closed.

First, scan your body with your mind and be aware of any muscles the don't need to be used right now for whatever you are doing. Then, when you inhale, put your attention on the very crown of your head; when you exhale, put your attention on your navel. With a little practice you will feel a buildup of tingling energy. When you can feel the energy, mentally surround yourself with it like an electromagnetic field or a cloud of light. Then attune yourself to the power by making yourself feel as happy as you can. When you bless, surround the object of your blessing with a mentally projected field or cloud of this "love energy." This breathing technique is called pikopiko in Hawaiian, because piko means both the crown of the head and the navel.

Science of Mind: In what ways does your organization spread this "aloha spirit?" 

King: We sponsor a growing, worldwide Aloha Fellowship of people committed to spreading the spirit through the process of blessing. As we have been discussing, we also train shaman peacemakers and healers to work in our modern urban environments. In addition, we teach workshops on effectiveness. We have a new set of seminars for the general public that helps people learn how to love better - how to be successful, healthy, and happy through loving. Also, we have a center on *Kauai where we introduce people to the love of the earth and to the love of others. We want to teach people how to bring about peace and harmony in the world. [*the center is now on Big Island]

Science of Mind: Serge, what is your own personal vision for the planet? 

King: I have a vision of this world becoming a place of peace and harmony like a great orchestra playing a complex, inspiring symphony. There will be a cooperative integration of many different people using many different skills and instruments to play an exciting, enjoyable and adventurous composition of life.