Huna Angles on Psychoanalysis
May 15, 1951
For Huna Research Associates
Covering the experimental approach to the use of Huna in HUNA and related religious and psychological fields.
From Max Freedom Long
P.O. Box 2867, Hollywood Station, Los Angeles 28, California, U.S.
Dear HRA Friends:
I have been greatly warmed and encouraged by the many letters which have come in answer to the last bulletins which told of the feeling by some HRAs that Huna had failed, and I along with it, because their efforts to get help through Huna type prayers had failed. I had not realized how many of you there were who saw the problem so clearly and who realized so fully that our work is still in the experimental stage and that we cannot expect to be able to duplicate the best works of the old kahunas until we have spent sufficient time to learn what they knew – and to develop the ability to use that knowledge, once it has come to light.
It has also been a great pleasure to hear from almost all of those who had become despondent, and to have them say that they did not really blame either Huna or me – that they knew, when they stopped to think things over, that there must still be things we do not know and have not done, or done correctly.
Thanks to each and every one of you.
M. F. L.
AT THIS POINT in this bulletin, I wish to review a book which may be of great value to any who are a little desperate and who cannot wait for the experimental phase of Huna to bring us more positive answers to prayer. It is a book by another of the many gifted HRA writers, Dorothy Thomas, and its title is THE KEY TO SPIRITUAL MAGIC. If ordered from the authoress directly, she will autograph your copy to you if requested to do so. (Address is 1530 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles 26, Calif. Price $2.12 post paid. Add tax if in California.)
In this book is told the simple and direct story of a long search for understanding and healing. The search covered a surprising scope. Every ancient religion from Egypt forward was studied as well as the living and very modern religions teachings and cults. If anything was overlooked, I was not aware of it in my reading. The book was written in 1943, before the writer came across Huna, so is ideal for any who feel that Huna is too long a way around and who wish to turn to the more familiar lines of religious thought and experience for possible help.
Whether others can find help in the same way, I cannot say, but Dorothy Thomas did, and she tells how she did it. Her need could hardly have been greater at the time of final crisis. On page 55 she says: “One morning at about ten I collapsed. But there were other problems besides my misery. Payments, dwindling savings. Our car gave out. We lost some furniture. This was the crisis. Something HAD to happen. Mary Baker Eddy must have felt something like this when she went to Quimby, as a last resort. But I didn’t have any Quimby.”
It takes over thirty pages in her book to tell how, when she had given up and counted everything lost, she was able to draw on that strange deeper inner reserve of power (of which I wrote on page 1 of Bulletin No. 54) and without recourse to any particular religious concept, except that of “a Heavenly Father,” literally pulled herself up by the boot straps of stark courage born of the desperation of her weakness and need. Suddenly she found strength to draw upon. She began to see a pattern in the tangle of her past studies. She began to simplify and soon, she “stood entranced, and staring at light and the day Eureka! I had found it. Heavenly Father, I cried, MORE LIGHT, MORE LIGHT, MORE LIGHT!” The Light that came to her is described, page after page, with verse used where prose failed in setting down the glow of the “Revelation” and her inspiration. There speaks first the student, then the poet and at last the mystic.
Two years later, Dorothy Thomas had come on so swiftly that she had finished another book to try to put into words the heart of her findings. She based it on a remarkable manuscript by Charles E. Sleater, and put it into novel form, THE CALL OF THE PHOENIX. ($2.75 plus Calif. sales tax and la postage, from the same address.) It is a story of Egypt, the pyramids and initiation. In fiction form, it shows her philosophy in action in the lives of her characters.
PSYCHOANALYZE YOURSELF by E. Pickworth Farrow
This was a book mentioned in a letter from HRA L.H. in Bulletin 54, (International Universities Press, 227 West 13th St., New York 11, N.Y. 157 pages. $2. Copyrighted 1945 and perhaps still in print.) Through the kindness of [an] HRA of Los Angeles, who tells me that she has used the method advocated in the book, I have the loan of her copy, and so can review it after a fashion. For a beginning, let me pass on to you parts of the letter from HRA E.H., telling of her experience with the method.
“Back in 1946, when I first got the book, I used the method to dissolve a complex which had caused distorted reactions for about fifteen years. More recently, while having a session with the pendulum, I didn’t get an answer to a particular question, and this made me suspect a complex. So I switched to the method suggested in the book and began writing. Before long my subconscious balked and then began a tussle; I had to resort to writing down a series of questions working all around the last point that had come up and caused the refusal to answer. Two full 8½x11 pages were filled with nothing but written questions and then the complex finally showed enough so that I knew what to go after….. The shying away from the subject pointed to a very deep-seated complex of which I had been unaware. I use the method whenever I am deeply troubled and always feel better and clearer-minded afterwards. One caution: be sure to use smooth paper so that your writing with your pen will be effortless.”
The author of the book, Mr. Farrow, tells the story of emerging from World War I with his health in poor condition and his mental reactions of a nature that caused him to decide that he was reacting to hidden fixations and needed the help of a psychoanalyst. He tried one doctor for a time, then another, eventually finding that he could get better results by himself by sitting down every day for an hour or so and writing out whatever thoughts came into his mind.
By this method he freed himself of all reluctance to mention any and all thoughts, also any and all memories of his past actions, ideas and emotions. He kept his sheets of writing locked away securely.
WHAT TO WRITE DOWN was left to the subconscious. Care was taken not to judge or be critical, not to be surprised or ashamed. He remained apart with an attitude of friendly and impersonal interest, noting all that came to be written out on paper and so exposed to the light of reason – thus being automatically drained of some elements of force. (He found that talking was not so good and had little of the good effects of writing. It may be noted that many people are much more impressed with what they read than what they hear. The visual impact on the Aunihipili seems naturally greater than the auditory.)
The writer is not too good about explaining just how he went about the job of directing the subconscious self to give ideas on earlier events in his life. It is, however, to be supposed that he asked himself questions and wrote down the answers that came into his relaxed mind. Or he may have begun a session by thinking of some troublesome event of the day or of his past life, then letting the Aunihipili give him ideas that were called up by “free Association,” one idea prompted by another in a long train.
JUDGING THE WRITTEN IDEAS is hardly mentioned, but it must be that as he impersonally observed what had come into his thoughts, and as old memories caused old emotions to return with them, he was well enough versed in the art of psychoanalysis that he was able to spot significant reactions to certain memories – or to see in the “blind spot” surrounding some memories, the evidence that a complex was being touched, avoided or skirted.
MANY EXAMPLES ARE GIVEN from his own experience to show how he got back into blocked-off memories and was able to understand the fixations behind them. Once understood and the painful memories lived over and over a sufficient number of times, the fixations were removed.
THE GENERAL BENEFITS included improved health and clearer thinking as well as normal response to situations met in daily life and work. He writes on pages 50 and 51, “It will be found that the getting of a large number of thoughts written down and off one’s mind renders the mind clearer, and that one subsequently does the things of greatest importance first in one’s daily life more readily than previously when a certain amount of confusion and repression was in the mind. The process also reduces any nervousness which may be present by eventually dissipating the underlying repressed emotion. In this respect, it is much better than experimenting with the psycho-galvanic reflex or with the word-association test, for the latter processes only indicate the presence of emotions without removing it to any great extent. Nevertheless the removal of emotion is painful, and thus this method requires far greater determination than merely experimenting with the other process.
A confidential friend whom one could consult and with whom one could discuss any trouble or difficulty which might arise might be a great help with self-analysis. It is undoubtedly true that ‘a trouble shared is a trouble halved’ and analysis certainly indicates the advisability of every person having a confidential friend – preferably his medical adviser if the latter is at all interested in the subject of mind. (And on page 41) ” ….. one’s mind is never a blank, but is always thinking of something, though one may not be fully aware of this, or of what it (our Aunihipili) is thinking about at any given time or moment.”
THE PART PLAYED BY DREAMS in the method is interesting. One thinks of a remembered dream and writes a corresponding set of lines. Then, thoughts related to the dream or apparently not at all related, may come. All are reduced to writing, and many unrelated thoughts are later found to be closely connected with the thing lying behind and under the dream as under a “cover memory” with which the subconscious often hides complexed materials. By demanding the meaning of a dream on wakening (page 8), much or little information may flash into the mind about it. The writing may later complete the picture and show what the full and actual meaning or significance of the dream is.
“TRANSFERENCE,” which the author explains, seems not to be necessary to get the beneficial results. Transference is the reacting of the early complex-forming incidents by the patient. As the complex is brought to light, the emotions associated with it are stimulated and felt. Such emotions are transferred very often (unconsciously) from the original one who aroused love, fear, hate etc., to the doctor. It is generally thought that this helps wear out or exhausts the complex by using up the store of emotions locked in with the complex. This is good for the patient, but often hard for the doctor.
The author experienced little or no transference in his work with the two psychoanalysts, although both antagonized him to some extent because they would not let him tell what came into his mind and which he felt was important to tell. They had tried to force or direct him into the recall of special things to the exclusion of other things that he seemed instinctively to know entered importantly into the search which was being made. Once he had broken with the doctors, he began freely to follow where the subconscious might lead, and in no long time arrived at periods in his early life where fixations had formed and where the actual incidents, because they were actually or emotionally painful, had been buried by other and substitute memories. He went from later memories back and back and back, always finding reactions which had been made abnormal by some mysterious something inside him. When at last the “something” was reached and seen as the original cause of all later and similar reactions, the results were most pleasing and quite permanent.
NO DANGER WAS DISCOVERED by the writer in his experience with the writing method. From his scant description of his condition as a person in need of this type of help, it does not appear that he was in a markedly bad way. He would seem to have been only slightly touched by emotional storms or reactions or by physical ills rooted in fixations.
It is barely possible that there would be no danger in the method for any person. It could be that the writing method brings the Aunihipili so slowly and reluctantly to the point of disclosing complexed memories that the step-by-step process will drain off the emotions gradually. It is, unfortunately, found to be a common experience in the work of the doctors, that the patient may uncover a complex and react to it so violently that he may suffer seemingly far greater pain, fear, hate etc., compared to the reaction at the time of the original event. The patient has to be helped through this storm rather completely lest he become a murderer or a suicide in the interval between the treatments. The precaution, it would seem, should be taken by everyone to have at hand a friend who would stand by if a hornet’s nest of reaction was suddenly touched off and control of the Aunihipili lost to a dangerous degree. The friend could stand by and keep encouraging the outburst of emotions so that by repetition they could be exhausted and the danger safely, even if painfully, passed.
HUNA ANGLES ON PSYCHOANALYSIS
The fact that the Aunihipili and the Auhane are TWO separate entities, is a very great help in clear understanding of what happens when psychoanalysis is undertaken. As many HRAs will wish to try the method proposed by Mr. Farrow, it seems rather important to me to call attention to several points of theory and practice in this end of the psycho-religious field and to see what light Huna may be able to throw on them. (For reference, I suggest Dr. Karl Mennenger’s book, THE HUMAN MIND, 1945 revision, available at all good libraries, and written for the layman.)
We have begun to suspect in recent years that some of us bring over completed and normal memories from a past incarnation. (Huna admits a few reincarnations for each of the three selves as they go upward along the path of evolution.) The evidence in hand is none too good to support this conjecture, but we may do well to remember that some strange material which appears from the depths of the Aunihipili mind may only be explainable in terms of former incarnations and experiences in those dimly remembered times.
As a substitute for the reincarnation theory, we have the suggestion that race memories may be carried by the germ cells which transmit our hereditary characteristics from generation to generation. It has also been suggested that from conception, the human being remembers what is said and even done, by the mother or those near her. This theory stands inspection rather well from the facts of many recollections of prenatal events, but fails dismally when described in terms of functioning memory before the highly specialized brain cells for remembering are even slightly developed.
Huna throws much light on this theory by explaining that the Aunihipili may be present with the parents even before conception. It would have to be in the aka or shadowy body, but, as we see in the case of the Aunihipili as a ghost, it has, in the aka body, all the organs of thinking and remembering, also of hearing and seeing, even if these organs are not filled with the dense matter of the physical body.
Huna tells us that the Aunihipili remembers well but lacks the higher form of reason that belongs to the Auhane. This gives us a good explanation of the fact that the complexes seem often to be formed before birth. The expectant mother falls. She says in her distress, “I can’t get my breath!” The baby Aunihipili is deeply impressed and a complex is formed in which it applies to itself the words and ideas carried by them. In later years, a fall may re-stimulate the complex and the gasping for breath of asthma materialize.
We may say that in all probability the Auhane does not join the Aunihipili as a guest and partner in the new body until birth, and that, therefore, all impressions retained by the Aunihipili of prenatal events lack the rationalization which can only be given by having thoughts and impressions pass inspection by the Auhane. The Aunihipili, having learned to pick up and retain impressions without the rationalizing help of the Auhane, seems to have an unfortunate way of continuing to do this from the time of birth onward. In times of physical, emotional or mental stress, the Aunihipili seems to revert to the prenatal practice and take impressions to itself, thereafter retaining them and reacting to what it judges those impressions to mean to it and its well being.
The Aunihipili, when not in its usual state of being comfortable and well satisfied, is engaged in one of two actions – engaged slightly, moderately or frantically. These actions are (1) wanting something, and (2) not wanting something to the extent of trying to avoid it by every means possible.
The baby instinctively learns to try to get what it wants and to get rid of what it does not want. All goes well until the time arrives for the lesson that some desired things cannot be had and some undesired things must be put up with, with what grace may be possible.
All students are fairly well agreed that most complexes are formed when, for any reason and under any set of circumstances, the Aunihipili reverts to its prenatal or other way of pushing aside the Auhane and grabbing impressions before they are seasoned with reason. It is also agreed that these unrationalized impressions are then reacted to with a strength and dogged determination out of all proportion, and with amazing cunning used in carrying out the reactions.
Another characteristic of the Aunihipili is its almost incredible stubbornness in refusing to listen to reason where a complex is involved. In the old Hawaiian word for the Aunihipili, two of the roots have the meaning of “stubborn” and “secretive.” The kahunas must have known these characteristics a very long time ago.
In its effort to prevent the rationalization of its complexes, impressions, and beliefs, it will hide them out of reach of the Auhane by all manners of trickery. When cornered, it will use symbols to cover actualities.
When the psychoanalyst begins to probe for complexes, the Aunihipili will usually do a characteristically childish thing. It will lay the blame for all its real or imaginary woes on the doctor. Or, if there is a matter of complexed desire, it will transfer to the doctor all the desirable attributes and love him for that. This is “transference,” and, sad to say, the frequent and sudden cures wrought by this step last only so long as the transference lasts, and that is only as long as there is constant contact with the doctor. The complete cure is brought about only when the patient has vented the emotions behind the wants and NOT wants and has been made to understand and rationalize his actions and reactions and release his hold on the doctor, stop placing the blame on others and seeing that no one was to blame.
So strong is the resistance of the Aunihipili to all attempts to uncover its hidden complexes, that there is little danger that the really badly ailing individual will do himself damage through the writing method. This is simply because the people who most need help are least in control of their own Aunihipili, and therefore will almost never be able to keep it from preventing the steady daily use of the writing. A thousand excuses will be made by the Aunihipili and a thousand absolutely necessary duties will be recalled as having to be done each time the thought of writing is brought up. Never once will the Aunihipili overlook the opportunity to blame the avoidance of writing on someone or something else, and it will convince its Auhane that the blame is always properly placed. If a friend or the doctor puts pressure on the patient to attend daily to his share of the work of analysis, blame and often hate is their reward.
It is a strange commentary on the Aunihipili, but it really holds to pain and sadness and hate – all the uncomfortable things – if they have been brought about by it in accordance with complexed ideas of the meaning of complex-forming events. On the opposite side of the picture we find individuals who cling as illogically to foundless and irrational loves and joys growing out of their fixations. For them, everything is “so wonderful!” and “so exciting.” They are often the envy of their companions and friends who feel dull and lifeless beside them.
The goal of psychoanalysis is first to relieve physical ills due to the fixations, second, to restore normal mental and emotional reactions to daily happenings and personal contact, and third, to release the energy wasted in reacting to complexes so that it may be used to better advantage in normal living.
A VERY IMPORTANT MATTER which must be considered and well remembered by all of us who may decide to experiment with the writing method (or any other method) is this; Nearly all complexes are to some degree coupled with the big “NO” of artificial INHIBITION. A child may have its complex of blind fear of a big man caused by an early beating from a thoughtless and angry father who thinks only that he is teaching the child to mind. Take the example of the man who was beaten in early childhood when he kicked and cried in a fit of infantile temper at being denied his sister’s doll. Later in life, any man who denied him something symbolically representing the doll, aroused in him the same fear and hate aroused by his father.
To continue the example, say the man becomes successfully psychoanalyzed and recalls and drains off the complex. UNAVOIDABLY, and at the same time, HE GETS RID OF THE INHIBITION which had been a lesson only too well learned – the lesson that one does not take from others a thing belonging to them. For years this inhibition had served well to make the man respect the possessions of others. Now, with it gone, along with the complex, there is great danger that attempts will be made to take things from others – so that the lesson will have to be relearned, and perhaps in the hard way.
None of us need be even slightly surprised if we see someone who has been cleared of complexes suddenly seem to run wild and show the lack of all social restraints. We must understand what has happened and realize that a hole has been left in an otherwise orderly train of memories – memories containing all the lessons of “musts and “must nots.” They strike a circumstance demanding a reaction in accord with the painfully learned pattern of social inhibitions, and with the saving inhibition drained off with the complex, they react as they would in babyhood – react with a direct grab for what they desire, or a violent kick at what they wish to avoid.
Here is the RULE TO FOLLOW. When in the process of analysis, act and react only in the most usual and ordinarily quiet way to avoid the pitfall of lost inhibitions. No matter what new thing you wish to do, or how very right or plausible such an act may seem to be to you, consult your closest friends and follow their advice in the matter. Make NO important decisions on your own until at least six months after the finish of the analysis. Above all, as one writer warns, do not marry or begin divorce proceedings during this dangerous period when the lessons of inhibition are being relearned and the holes left by the complexes are completely filled in with healthy and well rationalized mind material.
I would like very much to have as many HRAs as possible do a bit of experimenting along these lines and to report in findings and results. The writing method, used with a close friend to stand by and use good judgment if ours gets muddled, seems safe enough, but each must take his own chances or else let the method alone.
In addition to the standard ideas on the subject, keep Huna in mind, especially if you ask yourself questions and write the answers which rise up in your mind from the subconscious. Remember that if you uncover the memory of a hurt done another, and find a storm of guilt sensations or shame aroused, you must make amends directly, or, if too late for that, substitute amends until you convince yourself you have more than balanced the score. Until this is done, do not hope to be able to convince the Aunihipili that you are no longer guilty and deserving of punishment in the form of ill health or “bad luck” or failure to get the Aumakua to hear your prayers.
A final word of warning from the kahunas and from modern psychic science is most important of all. This is the warning that when you stop the active thinking of the Auhane and relax mentally while inviting the Aunihipili to present its thoughts to you, some spirit on the other side may take the opportunity to present its thoughts.
Some of us are naturally well protected against such intrusions, others protected hardly at all. If mediumistically inclined, it may be wise to continue to live happily with your complexes and let well enough alone. If, after the proper prayers have been made to the Aumakua for protection and guidance, any day’s use of the writing method begins to develop angles which cause suspicion, break off at once. Above all, do not allow fear to take you and cause panic. Where one refuses to be afraid and remains cool and firm, most spirit intruders can be ordered away successfully. If the writing is stopped, all will be well.
Many of us are fortunate in that we have for some time been taking time out to strike up an acquaintance with our Aunihipili. We have learned to know it as another entity, and gradually have learned to talk to it, listen to it, and to establish a relationship of love and reciprocal confidence – as the ideal relation should be between parent and child. The daily practice together at accumulating and putting to use mana surcharges is the best possible training, as is work with the box exercises and practice in the telepathic contact in the TMHG work.
HRA A.H., brilliant student and able experimenter, found recently that her Aunihipili, whom she calls “Pansy,” needs symbols or pictures to work best. She understands about finding a lost article and finds it promptly if a picture of it is drawn and it is described in close detail. If the lost article is only called by name, she may not get the idea and may not find it for a long time. In trying the box exercises, a peculiar thing was accidentally discovered. As an experiment, Pansy was presented with a small jeweled elephant which A.H. sensed to be desired and admired by her. It was presented with considerable fuss and ceremony “to be her very own and to be kept by her always.” Thereafter, with six assorted trinkets used in six boxes in the box exercise, Pansy might make mistakes as to what was contained in other boxes, but never did she fail to find at once the box containing her “very own” little elephant. Perhaps all of us can make similar valuable discoveries. Ours is an experimental project. Let’s experiment and get on with our work with Huna. MFL
