Spiritual Healing In Polynesia
By Max Freedom Long

If the reader will refresh his mind by going over the
outline of kahuna psychology
which I gave in a recent article we will be ready to
consider the methods by which
those brown magicians (I refuse to call them witch -
doctors) perform their
"mental" healing.

I shall not do more than touch on their "spiritual"
healing in this article, as that
feat of instant healing deserves handling by itself.

For the benefit of any reader who does not have the
outline of kahuna
psychology at hand, let me give it in compact form.

The kahunas are able to perform their high and low
magic because they know
the following things :

There live in the body three separate units of
consciousness which are
independent of one another. We may call them the
subconscious, the conscious
and the superconscious entities or spirit beings.

Each of these has its individual and peculiar form of
mentation. The
subconscious remembers but cannot reason. The
conscious reasons but cannot
remember. The superconscious neither reasons nor
remembers; it knows what is
to be known of a thing or idea by becoming that thing
or idea for an instant. It
becomes a part of the future and knows it as well - or
the past.

Each entity has its own voltage of mama or vital
force. Animal magnetism is that
used by the subconscious. It is positive or negative,
keeps the body working, and
it is manufactured by the body as it uses food, air
and water. This low mana is
taken by the conscious entitv and stepped up to
becomethe middle mana which
we now know as hypnotic power. The superconscious
entity takes low or middle
manaand steps it up to high mana. This it can use to
make instant changes in
physical matter, such as is done in materialization at
a Mance, or in fire - walking,
or as is done in instantly healing a broken bone.

Each entity has more or less power to control the
others by the projecting of its
mana. The conscious can hypnotize the subconscious
entity in its own body, that
of another, or one out of the body as a"ghost". The
subconscious entity, when
complexed, can use its mana to force the conscious to
conform to that complex
of belief. The subconscious and conscious entities can
act together to force their
mana on to the superconscious and cause it to use its
high mana to make instant
changes in matter, as in changing fire or feet to make
fire - walking possible.

There are three vehicles or tenuous bodies, one for
each entity to live in when
out of the physical body. But, as the living physical
body manufactures mana, the
entities cannot act on the physical plane after death
unless they borrow mana
from a living person.

With that review of the kahuna psychology made, we are
now ready to see what
light it throws on our own mental or spiritual healing
practices in the West.

Years ago I studied Theosophy with great interest. In
it I read how the yogi does
his magic. I read of the great magical powers one
could generate and use. Then I
read that it was wicked to use these powers for any
purpose other than attaining
a temporary condition of ecstasy in which one realized
God. Why was this ? It
was because of a thing called "karma".

Now, karma was the balance of good - and bad in one's
past lives. The reason it
was a sin to use magical power for healing oneself or
another was because it
was necessary for each person to "work out" his
illness, unhappiness or poverty
to "pay off bad karma from the past". This was a
stunning blow. I was not spiritual
enough to want to sacrifice and gain powers which
could not be used for daily
living. Madame Helena Blavatsky had not frowned on
using occult powers for
physical ends, but Brahmanism had touched Theosophy in
1893 and later
leaders preached loud and long the mandates of karmic
necessities.

Desiring something practical for living, I turned
hopefully to New Thought. Here I
found no karma to prevent me from using occult powers.
From New Thought I
got the idea that Mind was the one great reality and
that it had positive control
over matter. In fact, mind was responsible for
building all matter and forming
every condition of life, health, wealth, etc.

The idea did not seem very logidal, as I could not
think anything into being.
However, I heard that many people had"held the thought
- and used affirmations
to their great personal advantage.

What made me more ready to accept the illogical
premise, upon which the fine
system could then be built, was an indefinite idea I
got that God was mixed up in
the mechanics of the practice. It seemed that there
was mind and Mind, the latter
being the perfect thought or pattern in the mind of
God - one which would
manifest itself in the physical if we humans did our
best to hold a comparative
thought of perfect conditions in our own affairs.

The subconscious and the complex were not mentioned in
the texts I read - that
is, as the psychologists mentioned them. Illustrations
were given to show how in
sleep the subconscious could solve problems beyond the
ability of the conscious
to solve. At any rate, the subconscious was not a very
definite part of the theory
of "getting what you want when you want it", which was
the ideal of New Thought
in my texts.

Perhaps I did "demonstrate" some good things - I am
unable to say; but I was
soon disappointed in New Thought because it seemed so
hard to make work, at
least, for me.

I next looked into Christian Science. It had very
definite teachings concerning
God and His part in the system. Divine Mind was the
one reality. But, the
physical and man's mental world were "errors" - they
didn't exist. I had a hard
time accepting this illogical premise. In fact, I
never got past that stumbling -
block. However, I read faithfully and a bit
confusedly. I learned that one could
"deny error", which was anything one didn't like in
the physical, and affirm the
Real. If one denied hard enough and if one had Faith,
the perfect thought of
Divine Mind would manifest in the physical instead of
the "error" thought which
was troubling. But there was the joker. I was too
logical in my make - up. I
couldn't get past the idea that the physical was non -
existent. Therefore, I
couldn't seem to get Faith enough to make the system
work.

Others made it work - fortunate beings - splendidly;
but not I. I knew others could
use the system, and I respected that fact; but I was
ready to look about for
something more practical and logical which would fit
my needs.

My friends offered me another system of mental and
spiritual healing which was
named "Unity". It also had many successful
demonstrations to its credit. I read
these new texts and found that good Christians had
taken a partial leaf out of
New Thought and Christian Science texts. Again the
main thing was the
possession of Faith.

Years passed. I found the kahunas of Polynesia and
discovered the secret of
their psychology after a long study. It was only then
that I could see why our
Western schools of mental and spiritual healing worked
as well and as often as
they do.

Let us examine our systems a little further and see
what the kahuna has to say
about their mechanisms. First we may ask what is
happening when one "holds
the thought".

In the light of the kahuna psychology, one is, very
evidently, working day by day
to build up a complex of Faith in the subconscious
entity. - In the conscious entity
one has built up a clear picture of the desired
condition of health or wealth.

Now. how do these things make possible the eventuat '
ion of the picture as a
fact ? The kahuna tells us that when the conscious and
subconscious work
together, and when the subconscious has brought along
its complex - which is
the Faith - then their two manas go up and impinge on
the superconscious.

Next we learn that the superconscious builds all our
futures out of the thought or
imaging material sent up with the manas by the two
lower units of
consciousness. (As the subconscious controls, in part,
the conscious with its
mana when it holds a complex, so the two together
partly control the
superconscious.) What we fear is built into our future
if that fear is complexed in
the subconscious and held as a reasonable fear in the
conscious. Conversely,
that which we confidently expect is also built into
physical fact.

Furthermore, the kahunas assure us that if we carried
the practices of the West
far enough, we would eventually be able to do more
instant healings. However,
we do not know the part played by the complex for good
or bad, and so get that
far by accident, as it were.

Now let us see how a kahuna did his healing with the
lower magic. (I condense
from a case explained in detail in my report of last
year, Recovering the Ancient
Magic.) A patient came to a kahuna. He was suffering
from an illness caused by
a complex which lay at the bottom of the trouble, and
which was made worse by
a something which we miglit call "malicious animal
magnetism - , but which the
kahuna would call, more specifically, 'a spirit', and
not one naturally malicious.

The kahuna's patient was a young Chinese - Hawaiian
man who for two months
had been fainting at times. Once he had wrecked his
car, once had fallen into a
fire, and once had set his bed on fire with a
cigarette and nearly burned to death.
White doctors had failed to help him. These things he
told the old kahuna, who
sat listening and seeming almost asleep as he made his
pyschic diagnosis and
drew his own conclusions.

The kahuna knew that one of two things must be causing
the fainting. Either a
spirit had attacked this man or he had a complex in
his subconscious entity which
was causing the trouble. Perhaps both things were to
be found.

'Mave you anything to confess to me ?" asked the
kahuna. "Have you hurt
another in any way ? Do you feel guilty of some
misdeed ? "

The man confessed that he had been courting a Hawaiian
girl and had suddenly
dropped her without explaining that his Chinese father
had commanded him to
wait and marry a Chinese girl. He admitted that he had
long felt guilty about his
behaviour and that the girl had undoubtedly been hurt.

The kahuna nodded. He closed his eyes. A few minutes
later he opened them to
say that he had used his psychic powers and had been
able to see that there
was a spirit who had brought the punishment of the
fainting. This spirit was that
of the dead grandmother of the injured girl. She had
heard the girl making bitter
complaints. She had taken low mana from the girl, gone
to the young man in his
sleep, used the mana to overcome that of his
subconscious, and, had then used
the mana by stepping it up and projecting it
hypnotically as "suggestion". The
hypnotic suggestion was that the man's subconscious
entity should punish itself
for its guilt and should cause fainting at times when
such spells would endanger
the body of the man.

Now, the kahunas know that no subconscious will accept
a hypnotic suggestion
which is contrary to its ideas of right and wrong -
the ideas it cannot reason out,
but which it has gleaned from the many memories of
periods of reasoning on the
part of the conscious entity. However, if a
subconscious has been given guilt
memories sufficient to form in it a complex of guilt
and so of worthiness of
punishment, it will accept the suggestion that it
react in such a way as to bring
that punishment.

Also, the kahuna knew that as long as the conscious
mind of his patient was not
reasonably or logically convinced that the guilt had
been cancelled, there was no
chance of breaking down the complex of guilt in his
subconscious entity.

(NOTE: In psychoanalysis in the West we have found
that hypnosis seldom
removes an injurious complex in a patient. We might
well ask the kahunas why
this is a fact. The explanation given above is the
answer.)

As to the spirit of the grandmother, the kahuna knew
that she was in possession
of both subconscious and conscious entities. She could
remember and reason.
She was not like his trained subconscious spirits who
had been separated at
death from their conscious brothers - the ones the
magician could hypnotize,
charge with his own mana, and send on errands. The
grandmother spirit could
not be controlled by hypnotic mana and so be driven
out of the picture. Moreover,
if he could not get the guilt complex drained off from
the man's subconscious
entity, the grandmother could keep on using hypnotic
mana and eventually cause
his subconscious to faint at the right time and kill
him.

The kahuna did the only thing which could be done - in
Polynesia or in the West.
He ordered the patient to make full amends for the
injury to the girl.

As there was no other way out, the man swallowed his
pride and went to confess
to the girl the reason for his unfair treatment. He
took her presents and begged
forgiveness. At last he got it. Not until then could
his cure be begun.

It is interesting to observe what the kahuna did in
beginning his treatment, once
the young man was able to report that full amends had
been made. This was a
typical case of the use of an art long known and used
by laymen in Hawaii. In this
case the girl had performed a ceremonial which in the
West we might call
"sending out malicious animal magnetism". But note the
difference in the idea
upon which the procedure is based.

The girl, wishing to punish her inconsiderate lover,
knew of no "malicious
magnetism," animal or otherwise, which she could
direct with punishing effect
toward the man. She only knew of the age - old custom
of her people - the
custom of "grumbling" - to loved spirit relatives. She
did not know just how this
grumbling made it possible for the spirits to take,a
hand in the punishment, but
she did know that it had been proven time and again
that such a procedure was
very effective.

So effective has this "grumbling to the spirits" been
in Polynesia that the natives
fear to injure anyone, because of the danger of that
magical retaliation. The
result of this fear has been to enhance the natural
kindliness and generosity of a
gentle race.

But to go back to the kahuna and his cure. He seated
his patient before him on
the matting, contemplated for a while the atmosphere
of the room, and
announced that the grandmother was there and also a
spirit aunt. These he
proceeded to address earnestly. He explained that
amends had been made and
that there was no longer justification for further
punishment. He did not attempt to
use hypnotic mana on the spirits, as both retained
their conscious entities - not to
be so affected. What he did, instead, was to thank
them for their work in bringing
justice and request them to cease the punishment.
This, he assured his patient,
they agreed to do.

In cases where a subconscious entity or a spirit of
the poltergeist type might have
caused trouble, the kahuna would certainly have used
hypnotic mana to control
them. With the primary cause of the
fainting'eliminated, the next step was to drain
off the complex of guilt in the subconscious of the
patient so that it would not
continue of its own accord to inflict the strange
punishment. Left alone, the
subconscious would gradually have lost its complex of
guilt. The thoughts of the
conscious entit37 - those of the amends having been
made - would have done
their work in time as they came down to conflict with
the complex. But the cure
was not to be so delayed.

The kahuna next proceeded to use a method of draining
off the complex which
was a great improvement over the Western practice. If
we could borrow little else
from the practice of Polynesia, this thing should be
selected before any other. It
is the use of a Physical stimulation to accompany the
use of suggestion in the
process of cleansing or forgiving - of ridding a
patient of a guilt complex.

Let me give an illustration of what is meant by a
"physical stimulation". Suppose
you step up behind a friend and shout, "Snake! Snake!"
The friend looks
hurriedly around and suspects a joke. He does not leap
away. This is because
the conscious entity gets most impressions from the
sense and filters them
through its reason before allowing them to go on to
the subconscious. Now, if
the, cry of " Snake ! " was accompanied by the
touching of the friend's hand with
something cold and snake - like to the touch, what
would happen ? The
sensation would go directly to the subconscious and it
would do its own filtering
through memory instead of letting the other process
intervene. We know that
when we touch a hot stove the subconscious recognizes
the danger and jerks
the hand away before the conscious has time to reason
that heat will burn. The
pain is incidental. The reaction would be the same to
the touch of something
which felt like the cold body of a snake,

Some individuals faint instantly at the sight of fresh
blood, even if it is not their
own. Undoubtedly the kahunas are right here when they
tell us that a physical
stimulation which gives the subconscious a bone to
chew on is a most necessary
and helpful adjunct to the use of suggestion. The
important thing is to imitate as
nearly as possible, in the physical stimulation, the
nature of the process of
cleansing of guilt which is hypnotically suggested.

In this case (I have taken it from my book, where it
is discussed at full length), the
kahuna took a raw egg and a bowl. He instructed his
patient to sit quietly before
him and hold his breath as long as possible. (This was
an additional and very
good way to impress the subconscious that something
unusual was being done.)
The old man explained that he was putting cleansing
mana into the egg, and that
when he broke it he would hand it to the patient to be
swallowed before breath
was drawn.

A signal was given. Kahuna and patient held their
breaths. At last the egg was
broken into the bowl, the young man swallowed it with
a gulp, and the magician
at once threw the force of his hypnotic mana into his
declaration that the egg had
washed away all the old guilt and left the young man
entirely cleansed.

The treatment was complete. The egg, and the
suggestion worked with fine ease
and speed. From that'hour on the fainting became a
thing of the past. And this
young man was one of good education and possessed only
a slight belief in
kahunas and their powers.

Odd as it may seem to us, the kahun as have for
centuries used a baptism of
sprinkled water in their kala (make sacred), or
ceremony for "forgiving" guilt -
draining off guilt complexes. The idea of washing is
the important one here..' It
touches a lifetime of "washing" memories held by the
subconscious entity. In
Christianity we baptise with the same idea of
cleansing the convert from past
sins, but we omit the use of a preliminary making of
amends for past hurts, and
we omit the use of hypnotic mana in the suggestion of
"forgiveness".

In the Church there remains the ritual which would fit
admirably with the use of
kahuna methods for healing. The extreme unction was
once used for treating
illness at any time in life. It could be used again,
and very effectively, did the
priest but understand the kahuna system and use it to
put the original power
back into the old ritual.

In a short article there is little space to call
attention to how the mental and
spiritual healing groups of the West might add kahuna
psychology and practice to
their present methods. I believe that most
practitioners can readily see for
themselves, however, even from the short description
of methods given here, just
how the kahuna system could be adapted and used.

I am inclined to believe that we are little troubled
by the interference of indignant
spirits in the West. If I am right in that conjecture,
we have a simplified task in
healing diseases caused by a complex of guilt.

And, in closing my article, may I add that the kahuna
recognizes accidental injury
and illness. But, he believes the subconscious entity
is able to heal these things,
ordinarily. If it does not heal them, a complex may be
crippling its powers and is
looked for at once.

All things considered, it is my conviction that the
kahuna lore is something which
offers us so much of enlightenment and value that we
cannot afford to ignore or
neglect it.

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