Bits & Pieces

May 1, 1955

 

“THE NEW VISTA” title for our Bulletin seems to be something to be considered carefully over a longer period before being put to use. Perhaps I can obtain a good used offset press after a bit, for the HUNA RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS, and so can have it for use in getting out the Bulletin. Such a press would run on both sides of the sheet and would allow a more presentable masthead. Such a press would allow us to print most of the ad material needed to sell the Huna books, and might make possible the manufacture of the little booklets on the Tarot and other subjects which are of general interest to students of the materials of our corner of the field.

THE NEW HUNA BOOK HAS BEEN GREATLY DELAYED by many unexpected things, and, although expected to be ready for sale by April 1st, has not progressed as hoped. It takes three months for printers to manufacture a book, and what with strikes of printers, binders, paper mill workers and the like, or very large editions of books such as Bibles clogging production, one can never tell. Now, to play safe, we have set the release date at early July, and will hope that the book may get off sooner. Those who have already placed their orders and even sent in the price of $3 for the book may have back their money if the delay is too long, otherwise, their orders will be filled – “rush” the first possible moment.

OUR OPEN HOUSE PLAN FOR SUNDAY AFTERNOON failed utterly to work. The good friends all refuse to be hampered by such a setting of time and insist on coming at any time that suits their convenience. Sunday is also a bad day for comfortable driving, so, NO MORE SUNDAY OPEN HOUSE. I will reserve Sundays to put on the old work clothes and to do the work in the garden and grove which I cannot get done on week days. I realize, of course, that each friend and each HRA, as well as most of the Very Important People who happen to wish to drop in on us night or day, are, individually, “different” and not at all to be limited by such rules as may cause others to call at set times. But, even if very necessary work does not get done and the old place remains almost as jumbled as when we moved in and piled up the plunder in late December, we have had much fun and many pleasant visits – far more than we ever had 1n Hollywood and before we stopped hiding out in an effort to escape telephones and doorbells. It may come to the place where I will hang a row of pullovers on nails just inside the door of the cluttered screen porch (sizes to fit even the largest and smallest) and put guests at once into work garb and take them with me into the garden or grove to weed, repair sprinkler lines, irrigate, or (and this job promises to be everlasting) hack at the jungles of wild berry bushes which have been allowed to invade the lower ones of our 75-odd avocado trees and turn them into dying haystacks of leaves and wicked thorns. (Bring your own gloves with long cuffs, and your own heavy boots. I have the hoe, ax, fork, etc.)

DESPITE LACK OF TIME TO DO MY WORK and answer an average of thirty letters a day, care for book orders and learn to be the much-hoped-for thing, a “grove man,” I am having the time of my life and love every minute of it here at Vista. It is such fun to have projects to look forward to and to work out – and I have no end of them. So have Miss Doherty and Mrs. Long (Ethel and Louise to all our friends). We have a Sears store within 20 minutes drive, and there one can get almost anything for a few dollars down (a great temptation to bring home the whole hardware and gardening department stock). I have wangled a little “Roto Spader” that is the joy of my few free hours. I use it to dig up the weed and oat patches and then hastily throw in seeds from most fascinating and alluring seed packets. (I started planting a lot too early, not knowing this climate is colder than that in Hollywood, and most of the seeds failed to grow.) The little digging machine has a small engine which can be hitched to other things and, needing a power saw frequently, I bought a mandrel and saw blade, mounted them under a proper piece of plywood, set the whole on legs from an old radio cabinet stand, hooked on the little engine, and now I can rip and saw amazingly. I plan to glass in one end of the long screen porch and, given time, to build on some storage space, even a garage! (Cigbo instructs me not to forget a new “kat house” for him, as the duck house which was to be his, is chuck-a-block with fertilizer, boxes, tools and “stuff.”)

THE LECTURES ON TAPES which were started at the behest of HRA Charles Pitts and the others of the Sunnyvale, California HRA Group, have hit two snags. First, my time has been so full that I have not been able to make up more lectures since the 6th. Second, the duplicating and sending out of the tapes by the Sunnyvale Group became a cropper because members were too busy to handle the matter and, more particularly, there came to be some trouble in the instruments used to “dub” off the duplicates of the lectures – the result being that some of the tapes were so poor that they could not be heard clearly. I understand that these tapes have been replaced by proper ones, but have no record of the deals. As I have a fair dubbing arrangement, thanks to the generosity of friends in the Sunnyvale Group and to the trading around to get a second player, I can now make up the tape lectures. Mr. Pitts may soon be moving from his present home, and has requested me to take over the tape dubbing and sending. He has returned to me the three original five inch tapes with a 30 minute talk on each side, and I have set up in a corner of the garage the equipment needed. So, for the lectures on tapes, write to me direct and I will do my best to keep the ball rolling. Please give me a little time, however, to dub off what you may wish.

PRESENT LECTURE TAPES AVAILABLE ARE: (All on 5 inch reels, running at 3 3/4 speed.)
Reel #1: “The Necessity of Knowing and Using Huna.” 30 minutes. Side 2: All about the Biometer and group work with same.
Reel #2: General talks on both sides about various Huna angles.
Reel #3: More general talks on Huna angles.

I suggest that those groups or individuals who have access to tape recorders, order the reels one at a time, play a side at each of two meetings (one side being 30 minutes and all a group can take at one sitting comfortably), then return the reel and trade it for the next. I will try to make up one or two reels of each pair of talks and have them in hand so that they can be sent at once, but it may be a short time before I can find minutes to get stock dubbed up. Cigbo will scratch up a few reels of tape for me to start with, and each of you who order can start by sending in an empty five inch reel or sending me the money to buy you one. I can get them for $3.25 each for you here, or write to WESCOTT’S TAPE, P.O. Box 1153, Columbus, Georgia, and ask them for prices on single five inch tapes. They handle several grades at reduced prices and sent me a pair of the larger reels with very fine tape for my own use. (I have bought spools and will cut them in two and each will make two reels of our lecture size. Mr. Wes Scott, the proprietor, puts out a small release, “Talk About Tape Talk” if you are a fan and interested in getting tape stock for your recorder. For the time being, and until the tape lectures may have come to have more demand and so take more time, there will be no charge for sending out the dubbed lectures, but something for Cigbo’s box will be welcomed to provide a small fund to be used in the activity. (Three or four groups and individuals have, so far, sent in for the first lecture or two.)

MIMEOGRAPHED LECTURES taken from the tapes and edited may become available in a few months for those not having players. Thanks to the kindness of a new HRA in Texas, who offers to transcribe the lectures in rough draft for me as his Service to the work, this project may get ahead. Should the offset press materialize, the edited lectures might be made up in more compact form as small booklets – the typing reproduced better and on two sides of the sheets. More will be said of this plan later if it works out well. (I am sure that if I desired an offset press greatly and asked Aumakuas with enough emotion in Huna-type prayer actions, one would soon appear. However, I have first to get time to use it, and it is also well to remember times when I asked for something and suddenly found myself burdened with a white elephant which was not worth paying out on. We seldom are given things like this out of the blue as they have to come from some other person who has to be repaid in one way or another.)

NEED A CRYSTAL BALL? If so, two of the HRAs have written to say theirs are for sale at reduced prices. They are Lamar Smith, P.O. Box 25238, Los Angeles 25, Calif., and Clem Johnson, 2518 N. Orange Ave., Orlando, Fla. No sizes or prices were given. HRA Smith, I find on checking his letter, says his crystal ball is 5 inches in size. He also told me of his attendance at a materialization sèance held by the Tabor Family in San Bernardino, California. He found it most impressive and writes that he attended a sèance in charge of a daughter of the family, Gloria, in which “Masters” materialized and a special guide, “Deborah,” proved to be very unusual, using flowery language and seeing to it that everything was beautifully timed and conducted. He also called my attention to the materialization sèances of Bertie Lilly Candler of Miami, Fla., of whose work he says, “the most remarkable phenomena I ever saw, the spirit forms walking to the center of the circle and talking intelligently.” Rev. Candler, according to a program Rev. Buelah Englund has sent to me, will hold classes and sèances all summer at the church. 837 So. Parkview St. Los Angeles 57, Calif.

H.R.A. Clem Johnson, who is deep in Scientology, has for some time past put out a small publication named THE GHOST OF SCIENTOLOGY, the avowed purpose of which has been to protect L. Ron Hubbard, inventor of Dianetics and Scientology, against any and all detractors. I believe he sends his releases free or for a small contribution, to anyone who wishes to be on his mailing list. He once thought Huna was at least interesting, but later went into Dianetics and then into Scientology with a will. He is now a D.Scn. and perhaps a minister of the Scientology church. So far as I can gather, he is the top man in Scientology in Florida and is giving others the doctorate and lesser courses. I take it from his letters that he has given up his enthusiasm for the electronics instrument so much to the fore in the Scientology practice a year or so back, and may also have a bargain to offer in that line. As for Huna, it would seem that he prefers the idea of the “Thetan” to that of the Aumakua. Every man to his own poison, say I. For me, the Aumakua is still by far the most reasonable concept and the most useful in answering my Huna-type prayers.

SPEAKING OF GHOSTS, no sign of one has appeared here at the old house which we have taken over near Vista. Some of the HRAs have said in letters that the former owner – who loved the place so well and gave it such patient care in building and planting, might come back to see how things were being cared for by us. By the way, I found his signature and ran it on the Biometer. The reading was much as I had expected. A good and creative will and personality pattern and a degree reading well into the 300 level, indicating the exceptionally good builder and an inventive person able to use hands and head well. One of the neighbors who knew him well remarked the other day, “He would be happy, I know, if he could see how much you three love the place which he loved so much.” Should he ever return, and should I be able to see him, I am sure it would be a most pleasant visitation. For one thing, we could talk endlessly about the problem of the wild berries in the grove, and always be in complete agreement.

INFORMATION ON FIRE-IMMUNITY THROUGH HERBS is requested by one of the Australian HRAs who sent a newspaper article stating that a holy man in the hills near the Himalayan border territory had been observed to stand naked and unharmed in a roaring fire built in a cave. The observer was a young Hindu who was traveling about in search of a religious teacher. So impressed was he that he took time out to take a medical course, then returned to the holy man and managed to get from him indirectly the names of the several herbs which he made into a paste and smeared over his body to give fire-immunity. He learned to make the paste after some effort, and found by accident that when he had the paste on his hands, he felt no electric shock in picking up a live wire. Later, he found that X-ray pictures could not be taken through a layer of the paste. This suggested the possibility that radiation from atom bombs might also be warded off by the paste and harm from all such radiations avoided. The article said nothing of any tests of fire-immunity by the young doctor, but stated that he had taken a quantity of the herbs to America and Europe to demonstrate before scientific bodies and to get help in continuing his research work. The name given was Swami Narayanand Saraswati. If you run into articles, news dispatches or other reports which tell of his arrival or progress please let me know. Nothing was said in the article of a religious ritual accompanying the use of the herb paste, but it would seem that the cave demonstration was of the nature of a ritual performed to show the onlookers the presence of some super physical power or other.

(The theory that some substance was rubbed on the feet to give fire-walkers immunity to heat has been exploded long since and, it would seem, on the face of the matter, that protection from heat by any thin paste, no matter of what materials, would be useless unless used as a part of some mental action such as has been found commonly associated with fire-immunity and the work of making contact with (1) entities similar to the Aumakua or (2) spirits of the departed who seem to have some contact with Higher Beings who are able to provide the immunity. The famous medium, D.D. Home, was able, through spirit aid, it will be remembered, to hold live coals in his hands or in a linen cloth with no sign of injury to either. He repeatedly held his head in a blazing coal fire in his sèances and not a hair was burned. In the straight non-spirit ritual fire-walking, only Higher Beings are called upon to provide protection for the fire-walker or his friends, mediumship being quite out of the picture.)

THE “MYSTERIES” AND GNOSTIC LITERATURES continue to be the major materials for my Huna research studies at the present time, as they have been for the past year. The mention of fire-immunity calls to mind something which we should all keep well in mind when taking the measure of modern “teachings” which are presented by self-appointed teachers on all sides. These individuals either invent from whole cloth an entirely new set of concepts or stir up a new hash from the fragments of the older religions, superstitions and general beliefs. Huna, on the other hand, is a system which we are not inventing or rehashing. It gives stronger and stronger evidence of being an ancient body of knowledge slowly accumulated by many men over a period of many centuries. We have much evidence to convince us that it was a system that worked miraculously well and that approximates basic facts. All our studies and experiments are aimed at recovery of Huna basic beliefs and practical applications of beliefs. The last thing in our work is to try to invent something and to acclaim “This is true because I, the final authority and teacher, say it is true.” Nor do we arbitrarily state that this word or phrase from some religious writing means this or that or the other thing, again, “because I say it does,” and with no reasonable proof offered – unless a childish play on words can be called rational proof.

In the very valuable books by the late G.R.S. Mead, M.A., one finds a splendid source of information on the ancient Gnostic and related Mystery writings. For instance, in his THRICE-GREATEST HERMES (3 Vols. John Watkins Co.,21 Cecil Court, Charing Cross Road, London, W.C. 2, England, 3 pounds three shillings, plus postage) pages 275 and 276 of Vol. 1, we find a translation and running comment  on Plutarch’s effort to explain to a lady, Elea, some of the meanings behind the outer sayings of the initiates into the mystery schools of Egypt, Greece and other lands near at hand. Mead, not knowing Huna, was unable to understand what is so often apparent to me in reading what he presents for inspection. Item 7 on page 276, for instance reads:

“7. And they write Heaven, as unageing through eternity, with ‘heart’ – that is – spirit – rising from ‘altar’ underneath.”

Mr. Mead comments in a footnote that “heart or spirit,” as indicated in the Greek word used by Plutarch, carried the more primitive meaning of the general “life-principle.” To the Huna student that at once calls to mind mana, and the sending of a flow of this basic force to the Heavenly Aumakuas in worship or any ritual involving the “altar” which is, in Huna, the symbol of the “high place” or of an offering to the Aumakua, as I once pointed out in some detail in a Bulletin discussion of words used by kahunas. Plutarch and others who did us a great service by setting down in writing things they heard but did not understand, may have garbled the original sayings which they reported but, even then, they often saved for posterity some item pointing straight to one of the Huna beliefs and practices.Through such studies, more and more, I am able to see the thread of the ancient “True Light” running in and out and back and forth. Proof of the correctness of our findings accumulates by slow steps. It may be possible that, out of the continuous studies, there will appear the precise method which we wish to know for applying Huna more exactly to get swifter and greater results.

ANOTHER HUNA POINTER FROM THE SAME SOURCE is to be found on page 274, item 6. This reads: “Wherefore when they call to the First God – who they think is the same for every man – as unto the Unmanifest and Hidden, invoking Him to make Him manifest and plain to them, they say ‘Amoun!'” (And, going back to item 5, just above on this page, we read …) “Hecataeus of Abdera, however, says that the Egyptians used this word (Ammon) to one another also when they call one to them, for that its sound has got the power of “calling to.”

Mr. Mead comments, “H. seems to suggest that it (Amen) was a ‘word of power,’ a word of magic for invoking the ka of a person, or summoning it to appear. It does not seem probable that the Egyptians shouted it after one another in the street.”

In Huna we know that kahunas considered the first step of any prayer action that of making the “call” to get contact with the Aumakua or High Self. One form of prayer-action for healing was known as “The Calling.” The word “Aumakua” seems to have appeared in many languages as a borrowing from kahunas. It was given many twists as it was adopted into various languages, and its true meaning was lost in part but never in its entirety. The “First God – who they think is the same for every man,” gives us the Aumakua or Parental Self Pair, of which each man had one standing over him as a veritable god in wisdom and power. However, the man had to make contact with it through the Aunihipili and to send it enough of the basic and dense mana or vital power of the earthy level to empower it to cause changes in the matter of the earthy things or our bodies. The quotation given by Plutarch appears to have been commonly known – an outer shell made to convey to the initiate such inner or Huna meanings as we have just discussed. The “word” never contained the actual “power” or mana. It was the thought or mental picture, often described thrice over in exact terms to make the aka or thought-form picture or mold of the condition for which one prayed to have materialized by the Aumakua. Plutarch wrote during the second half of the first century A.D., immediately after Philo. Neither knew about the Christians, but both knew much of the mystery teachings preserved in Christianity.

ONE OF THE IMPORTANT THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND is that Huna differs radically from all other systems of religion and psychology. Let me list the differences briefly and comparatively.

1. The concept of God and a lesser god or personal “savior” is very clear in Huna. The Aumakua is the personal god-being and “savior.” In Christianity, Jesus, a man, replaces the older concept of the Aumakua. He is as much God as man, however, and is not a personal savior, being assigned to act in this office for all human beings.
2. In Huna, the prayers are addressed very definitely to the Aumakua, not directly to an incomprehensible Ultimate God. Prayer in Christianity is directed to the Ultimate God, but is said to be passed along “in my name” in some vague way through Jesus. In all the New Thought types of modern “science” religions, the prayer tends to be made less and less. It is replaced by a constant holding of the mental picture of what is wanted. The vague “Universal Mind,” which Troward gave a subconscious part, is often supposed to react in part as to prayer or to a form of hypnotic suggestion. In India, the personal god has been made from former men, but these are discarded by the learned who recognize only the Universal Brahma type of God. Lacking the knowledge of the personal god, or Aumakua, many cultists pray ritually or directly to supposed “masters” who are still men, but not confined in the body. In some places the priests have taken the post of intermediary gods and supposedly pass along prayers to God as represented by images. In Catholic circles prayers are addressed to saints very often, leaving God and Jesus out of the matter.
3. As a preparation for prayer, cleansing has been practiced in most religions of old. In Huna the cleansing is of the contents of the memories and mind. Amends are made to those who have been hurt as hurting others or our own bodies is considered the only “sin.” God and the Aumakua are beyond our power to hurt. Thinking evil is stopped as a cleansing of the Auhane mind. The Aunihipili and Auhane are cleansed into hurtlessness. The thoughts, deeds and attitudes we tolerate in ourselves, and which attract to us evil spirit “eating companions” which use our mana and influence us to hurtful acts and thoughts, must be changed in order to drive away the spirits – to cleanse the man and his shadowy body in which they often live. In the modern religions based once on New Thought more or less, there is little or no cleansing. The hurts done others in the past are swept under the rug and the mind is filled with fine new thoughts of “good.” “Sin,” in the old way of thinking, is just a way of incorrect thinking. Acting is given a very secondary place in the scheme of things – “All is mind,” being the dictum. In India the suffering out of present ills as a means of wearing out old “karma” is practiced. Cleansing may also take the form of abstentions, bodily, mental and emotional. Austerities are popular. Some amends to those hurt are made. Gifts to the temple images or gods are in some cults cleansing. Walking through fire is a test of complete cleansing in some cults. In Christianity amends are made for sins, especially in the Catholic Churches. In general, Jesus is called upon to accept the burden of the individual’s sins and to “forgive.” The rite of baptism, repentance and conversion revolves around the need for cleansing. One is thought to be cleansed from the sin taint inherited from Adam and Eve. After the baptismal cleansing, the forgiving of sins as they are committed becomes a matter of prayer for forgiveness, and in some cults, a making of some form of amends. Sins are largely considered as an affront to Ultimate God, not that He can be hurt, but in as much as His commandments are disobeyed. The element of obedience to commands given supposedly from God, but through men (the “Great Law Givers”) is not confined to Hebrew and Christian beliefs.
4. The idea of SACRIFICE or payment in some form or other for the giving of things requested in prayers was universal in the older religions, the “spirit” of the sacrifice supposedly going to the God or gods, or the vital force of the animal sacrificed. The gods got the invisible substance while the priests took the meat. Fruit and flowers served in Buddhism for sacrifices to a partly deified man, Gautama the “Enlightened.” Some of the cleansing rites were in places looked upon as slightly sacrificial in nature. A pledge to give up some usual enjoyment for a time served this dual purpose. IN HUNA the sacrifice was a giving of mana to the Aumakua to empower it to work with physical or denser substances and so to answer prayers on that level, as in healing the body. Some mana was also needed to construct the desired future and to bring about such changes as cannot be considered purely of the physical or earthy plane of life. It was also believed that the mana might be sent by the Aumakua to still more evolved and god-like entities who then could shape tribal and world events to make them more desirable. The idea of evil spirits or entities of a high order is not clear in Huna as we now know it, but there are indications in many of the ancient religions that there was something veiled and real behind the idea of “Forces of Darkness” which remain always in conflict with the “forces of Light.” Kahunas and their people made ritual prayers at certain times for the greater good of the tribe and perhaps of the world as they knew it. In the modern “science” of religious circles, the idea of any sacrifice or repayment in kind has been discarded. In a way, the giving up of non-good thoughts has been looked upon as a form of sacrifice by a few – this being largely a hangover from Christianity which is still outwardly retained as a covering, but which has been reduced to a very different form stripped of all the old dogmas or at least most of them. In Yoga practices, while no sacrifice of mana or prana to the gods or God is intended, the breathing exercises actually come very near to the original method used by kahunas – that of breathing deeply as a part of building up a mana surcharge in order to send a strong flow to the Aumakua.
5. Life after death, as well as heaven and hell, are left out of the modern New Thought type of religions. Reincarnation replaces the one-life concept dogmatized into Christianity and Hebrew beliefs. Huna presents a limited form of reincarnation in which the three selves of men reincarnate and evolve, but much more rapidly than in the Hindu systems. All the systems to be traced in the Mystery religions and Gnosticism, like Huna, show a belief in the evolution of the man as a soul or spirit – in Huna, as a three-self man.

THE TMHG HOURS REMAIN ALWAYS AT 3 AND 7 P.M. California time, but on April 15th will be set forward one hour to conform with daylight saving time. Make your adjustment accordingly, and also adjust your time to match that of California. Special work is often done with and for those who have urgent needs, and this work is begun on the even hour at any time of the day or night. Many of the HRAs also work as they can on the even hour (as at 1, 2, 3, 4 o’clock etc.) and so we keep the combined or “braided cord” of the group activated and mana flowing at almost any time. Letters come almost daily to report TMHG prayers answered. Please remember that the list here with me as the center is cleared each month unless the individuals making the requests for aid or participation send in a report and a request to continue for the month ahead. A few arrange to be kept on in the TMHG until they ask to be taken off. There is no charge for participation in this work, but a stamped and self-addressed envelope should be sent if a reply is desired.

For those unfamiliar with the history and methods of this TELEPATHIC MUTUAL HEALING GROUP work, selected sheets from the back Bulletins are to be had as the “TMHG UNIT” for $1.50, post paid (plus sales tax in California,) by addressing our company, the HUNA RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS, P.O. Box 875, Vista, Calif. This explanation is especially for those new to our HRA work, of course.

FROM THE LETTER FILES may be taken random notes of general interest.

HRA Mrs. J.E.D. of Oakland, Calif., a seasoned student of the materials of our field, writes to suggest that one allow at least an hour to elapse between a meal and prayer. She gives no reason except that her experience indicates that this is good practice. One is reminded of the age old use of fasting to make one ready for effective prayer. Perhaps a hungry Aunihipili is better able or more willing to accumulate and send mana to the Aumakua – and to get and use the return flow of refined or stepped-up mana which harmonizes the body and heals.

Brand new HRA, F. W. from Idaho writes, “A group of us have decided to carry out some of the Huna experiments. At this early stage, all of us are enthusiastic about the possibilities of Huna. Several individuals have already made a great deal of progress working independently.”

A stranger wrote from San Bernardino, Calif., saying that he was expert with the pendulum for many purposes, and telling me of something very strange. He wrote, “I took the liberty of checking your book (SECRET SCIENCE AT WORK) when shown to me by a patient. My pendulum shows that every book is positive on one side and negative on the other except the Bible, which is positive on both sides. Your book was also positive on both sides.” I was much intrigued by this news, never having tested books in this way. I tested ten taken at random from my shelves, and found that all showed the positive and negative sides, as he had said. I then tested my old and much worn Bible and found it positive on both sides. I followed by testing my book, SSAW, and found it also positive on both sides. Does this indicate something, and if so what? Check tests and your guesses as to meaning are invited. Could it be that the Aunihipili recognizes the Huna or “True Light” presented in both books? Have they been changed in polarization by their context, or by spirits? Or has the Aunihipili simply repeated the operator’s opinions?

HRA F.McC., of Redlands, Calif., has each year shared with me certain foreknowledge obtained by his brother or by himself. He writes, “Do you remember my telling you a year or more ago that George said you “would move, but not to San Diego – to a place somewhere between there and Los Angeles.” I do remember, and count this a case of accurate prediction. Speaking of his brother and his vision of the west coast and many eastern cities sinking, he writes that the vision included the prompt stabilizing of all places soon after the populace had been horrified by the thing that started to happen. His brother felt that the vision of sinking was symbolic and that it might foreshadow a sudden depression which would be checked. (Here in Vista we can well believe a depression is under way, for the price of avocados has dropped from last year’s price to the grower of 250 a pound to 100, and is still falling. (The pickers are at work in our bit of grove this afternoon, as I cut this stencil. Of course, a 45% rise in production this year may have something to do with the glutted market.)

Too often I get letters from HRAs and others which tell of trouble caused by spirits. Usually they have started with the pendulum or Ouija board, have made contact with spirits who interested or amused them at first, then could not be driven away. The development of automatic writing has often been part of the progressive slide into semi-obsession. The spirits often demand that their orders be obeyed without question and sometimes they inflict much physical pain or mental anguish on their victims if they refuse to obey. Voices speak into unwilling ears, and at night the victims may sense ghostly presences and be terrified, choked or otherwise bedeviled and hag-ridden. A letter recently in told of a long period of battle against just such forces and the final complete revolt and declaration of freedom from them and their influence – which was followed in time by actual freedom and, it may be noted, by the complete healing of a very bad eye condition which had been involved in the early pendulum tests. So do be careful. If you must play with spirits, sit with a good medium, which is known to be normal and at peace with good spirits only. Ask that good spirits be urged to stand over you as guides and guards, and stop the moment there is the slightest indication of coercion or danger. So little is gained from spirit communication, at least as a rule, that the risk seems hardly worth taking. The 4 learned teachings and messages which have come through and which fill endless forgotten books are always contradictory on everything from heaven to reincarnation, and in these modern days, on the matter of saucers and their nature.

HRA W.C., of Minneapolis, most earnest student of Huna (and who sold an expensive camera and used the proceeds to buy Huna books to give to libraries), writes a fine long letter saying that he has found that the old feeling of physical weakness that once followed a heavy action of accumulating and sending mana with prayers to his Aumakua, has been replaced by replenishment. He now hunts for passages in “the teachings of the Sages,” which passages will, in the reading, cause the surcharge to begin to build automatically, the breathing to become faster and deeper, and a “worshipful state-of being in tune” to develop. This gives him a great feeling of certainty and “knowing.” He seems to experience the thrill of the return flow of high mana and writes, “Thank you, Max, for the help from your labors. I am several rungs up the ladder.”
MFL

Dear HRA and Friend:

So many have written to ask what lay behind the request to have no gifts sent to Cigbo to apply later than June 1st that a little explanation seems in order.

About a year ago I came to realize that something would have to be done about the new HRAs who joined up but who couldn’t find out all that had gone before unless they got all the back Bulletins and things and took time to read them – some of the material, by now, of course, out of date, there having been much water under the bridge since the first Bulletins came out early in 1948. It was apparent that what was needed was a book to give in well ordered form the things of importance. So, I decided, after prayers for Guidance, to bend every effort to writing such a book.

The next problem was one of a personal nature – that of how to keep myself provided with an income of sorts. More Guidance was sought on that point with the result that it seemed best to kill two birds with one stone – to borrow money to live on so that I could write the book and print and sell it. This plan to become my own publisher and sales agent was necessitated by the decision of my former publisher, Kosmon Press, not to put out such a book as I planned.

Decisions reached, the writing of the book began last April, with much study of the Huna-in-Bible materials and sorting and assembling, then writes and rewrites with Mrs. Long and our closest friend and fellow writer, Miss Ethel Doherty, editing and assisting in every way. The writing was hampered by the need to stop all the time to answer my very heavy and growing correspondence and get out the Bulletins. Eventually, however, the book was finished, and it exceeded all earlier expectations, shaping up beautifully and giving promise of being a lasting and valuable contribution. It tells enough of Huna to make the reader independent of SSBM or the Bulletins as preliminary reading, and it rounds up simply and practically all of the things one needs to know to put Huna to work. It is much more simple and understandable than SSBM, and is laid in part against the more familiar background of Biblical teachings. Of course, it is a book which the HRAs have helped write by our combined efforts in five years of research. It is dedicated to the HRAs, with my aloha. Its title is THE SECRET SCIENCE AT WORK or New Light on Prayer, [and it] will be ready by June 1st, if not sooner, and will sell for $4. It will be in a binding and type uniform with SSBM and will run 352 pages. I will rent the lists of names of those who bought SSBM and send out ad letters to sell the first small edition, with more editions to follow if plans work out.

All of this brings up the question of where I am to get time to handle all the chores and details of a publisher – even a very small one. For some time I have been working late into the night, seven days a week, to keep up with present letter and Bulletin work and, when the book is off the presses, it may be necessary to make changes to create more time. Guidance seems to be excellent and I am sure that what is seen to be needed from time to time will be good to undertake. We shall have to see what Aumakuas show us is to be the next step in the task which has been given us.
All best alohas