Answer: That is a great “selfish” question if you understand how far you can go with Huna.

1. First, decide what you want for yourself. You must be very specific. That was the very thing Max said in his first Huna Bulletin in 1948. You must decide what you want and stick to it. Lani says, “Pray as if you can’t get out of bed without the help of your Aumakua, and live your life as if your Aumakua doesn’t exist.”

2. The second step is to improve your ability to be Self Sourcing in your life and to do the TMHG.

If you are Self Sourcing you take complete ownership and responsibility for your actions and their consequences. If you want to be happy, decide to be happy. If you want a friend, be a friend. You don’t need anything external to yourself in order to be happy, for example, for you are the source of your happiness, and the fulfillment of all your needs

3. The third step though would be to stop and ask yourself what is the most important thing that you want. Max said that the most important thing you can seek in life is to Graduate into an Aumakua. I know this may be hard to fathom. What if you made your agenda in life to spiritually grow and evolve as much as possible and still enjoy your life? That is probably the most important thing you can strive for.

There are things you can do right now to cause growth.

Spiritual growth occurs naturally by being alive. Daily challenges cause a person to grow even if the person lives poorly. By waking up in the morning there is some evolution. Challenge polishes a person’s soul. Image the friction of life causing spiritual growth similar to how oysters create pearls because of the grain of sand rubbing against it.

You have a choice in the challenges you take on for yourself. What if the concerns you handle are in the service of other people, not just your own well being? Isn’t this something that we all long for? To make a difference for other people?

Service to other people puts a person on an accelerated spiritual growth path. You still get the struggles for the growth, but the lesson come quicker because you have chosen this rather than having it forced upon you.

Answer: The secret is in who and what you are affiliated with, not just your personal capabilities to heal and be powerful. Huna is not merely a set of techniques to apply for yourself. Rather, it is a living and breathing tradition of people working together to help each other live better lives and evolve throughout this life and even through death. Huna is a lifestyle choice.

To summarize, your power can come from these main sources:

1. Power comes from the Po`e Aumakua which is the collection of individual na Aumakua (High Selves) that works on the behalf of the group. This is enhanced with the TMHG, the prayer created by Max and still continuing today. It works by sending mana (energy) and prayers (‘ano’ano) for manifesting into reality. Some Huna groups have their own prayer groups for members. It is very important to know how the prayer group or TMHG is led before you begin to participate.

2. Power comes from your own Aumakua. You can develop this power by improving the relationship within yourself and properly seeking its support. Your Aumakua opens the way as you pursue what you choose in life.

3. Power comes from your Ohana, or chosen Huna community. In the West we have lost the family-oriented and tribal way of life. The culture emphasizes independence and self-reliance. A person can accomplish much more in connection with like minded people.

4. Power comes from your own personal ability to decide what you want and to use tenacity and intention to make it so. Many techniques are available in Huna to support this.

5. Do you need power after you have died? The teaching of Kahuna Max and Kahuna Oscar Brunler is that there is almost no mana in Po (The Void) and land of the dead.

As you have very little mana after you die, your physical power is limited as well. But in Huna, the duty of the living is to support the deceased on their journey and while they’re in the Dreamworld. This is done through an offering of mana-infused `Awa (kava kava) during a formal `Awa ceremony held on the Holy Day of Remembrance.

Answer: Well, from my perspective, that would be the TMHG and Firewalk of course. Both require initiation to do.

The Firewalk has been a sacred ceremony for thousands of years in many tribes. The Huna Firewalk Ceremony that has emerged in Huna is tribal with roots in Polynesia.

In fact, Huna was born in the Fire. It was in 1872 when William Tufts Brigham walked over hot lava with the last three Volcano Kahunas on the Big Island, Hawaii. This was his initiation to direct contact with the spiritual forces that evolved through his life and Max’s into Huna.

It is kind of ironic that Max never firewalked ,since he spoke so much about it and unraveled so many other mysteries in Huna. But nobody was available in his day to initiate him. This was long before the Firewalk movement of the 1980s. At one point he almost had somebody to initiate him but the Firewalk Priest died before his Firewalk Initiation could occur.

But Max did lay down the groundwork for firewalking in Huna as a ceremony. In Huna, the Firewalk Ceremony is proof that a person has faith and becomes the model for how to live with the 3-part self in lokahi (unity and harmony).

The TMHG (pronounced: tim-hug) is the other critical Huna practice. You can access the TMHG by submitting a Prayer Request to a Prayer Kahuna. All 3 organizations in Max Freedom Long’s lineage have an active TMHG for joining on a regular basis or submitting requests for prayer support.

Answer: There most certainly are. Na Kahuna (Priests, Ministers, and Experts) are still in Polynesia and they are in Huna as well.

But your question needs to be re-stated to avoid confusion.

First of all, I assume that you mean a kahuna that teaches the religious or spiritual side of things. There are na kahuna who are experts in many different areas such as wood carving, canoe making, etc.

Further still, there are religious na kahuna of Hawaiian and Polynesian tradition and of the tradition of Huna. The term “huna” is a word in the Hawaiian language that means “secret” or “dust.” But it didn’t refer to a system of spirituality like it means to many people now. The teachings of Huna are actually not Hawaiian, though have many roots and links to Hawaiian spiritual traditions.

Max Freedom Long wanted to give a name to the system of teachings and practices he had learned from his kumu (teacher) Kahuna Ha`ole Nui (Great White Priest) William Tufts Brigham, other religious na kahunas or inferred from his own research. This system he called “Huna.” So from here on, when we refer to “Huna,” we mean the religious and psychological system created by Max Freedom Long and continuing until this day.

So you ask, are there religious na Kahuna of Huna? There most certainly are.

There are a couple of people who learned directly from Max and many other people who have spent their lives studying the writing and recordings he has made and trained under these mamo or “descendents” of Kahuna Max. These na Kahuna of Huna function as religious priests and ministers to people who need help or as teachers for people who want to learn about Huna for themselves.

There are Kahunas of 3 main organizations that originated from Max Freedom Long.

• Huna Ohana (Huna Research, Inc) – This is an extension of the original HRA organization founded by Max Freedom Long. It focuses mostly on the psychological systems taught by Max. Lots of techniques have been integrated and added, such as hypnosis, NLP and other techniques. http://www.huna-ohana.com
• Huna Heiau - This is a religious organization that has focused on creating a Huna Priesthood. Na kahuna of this organization have specialized training in areas originally laid out by Max Freedom Long. Examples are Haku Pule (Prayer), Kalo (Tarot), Ho`ola (Healing), Firewalking, Koa (Exorcists). Na kahuna offer service to people with problems that may be helped by the application of those particular Lores. http://www.hunaheiau.org
• Huna Life – This is a religious organization which is a moderate balance between the psychological focus of the HRI and the religious/ceremonial focus of the Huna Heiau. Bottom Line: Use only what works the best. http://www.hunalife.org

Back to your original question… were you wanting to know if there are na kahuna in Polynesia or people trained in these traditions to teach you? Well we are certain that there are. But we don’t know much about those things since the Huna tradition is now only loosely linked to Hawaii. It has some important ties that you will learn about if you continue to explore MaxFreedomLong.com, but not enough that we would know who na kahuna are at this time. But if you want to discover maybe a search online or a trip to Hawaii would help.