Huna Article

Huna International

The Oki Effect
by Jo Danieli

"You are a bad girl!" the lady angrily told her niece because the little one had refused to eat the bread-part of the hamburger.

"Susan good girl," the little one answered, with a desperate expression on her face like she wanted to ask "What is wrong with following the body's needs?" Of course you cannot always let the kids determine what to eat and what not, but sometimes it is a good idea to pay closer attention to children's behaviour, beyond the judgements of whether their ideas of how to act are appropriate or not.

"You are a loser," one teenager tells another. "I am not!" the other quickly answers, "I am cool!" What sounds like angry resistance is basically a remainder of an "innate" spiritual healing- technique that each and every single human being knows "automatically." Seen from a Huna point of view, the person protects his/her integrity by pointing out the "quality" of one's own inner being. "Lono" gives the impulse of self worth to "Ku" and at the same time takes the power out of other people's words, setting the boundary to the other person and changing the main memory of what had been said right on the spot.

"Free spirits," people who travel the world fearlessly and live to see breathtaking endeavours, are being asked frequently when telling about their adventures, "... but what if something had happened to you? What if it would not have had that safe ending?" Good heavens! Why ask these questions when nothing bad had actually happened? What good reason could a human being, whose major spiritual power is his imagination, have to image something bad and hurtful instead of the actual memory of the good and successful?

Unfortunately, many of us suffer from misuse of imagination from childhood on, as our parents tell us terrible things that might happen or might have happened when referring to our greatest adventures that, in fact, ended (fairly) safe or at least without major injuries. What parents tend to ignore is that he happening is over and will never happen again! So why imagine a second version of something that was a result of all the differents aspects of life and ended as it ended?

Why should anyone cling to a picture of something bad happening before starting out into any kind of endeavour. "But how could I have prepared myself any better," I asked back, "as, in fact, I did come back safely? Doesn't this show that I did the right things and that my focus was well tuned in with my abilities?" Answers like "Coincidence!" "Luck!" or something about a "guardian angel" made me shrug my shoulders or take a deep breath to explain the Huna principles.

People are mostly meaning well when they tell you about their personal catastrophes to warn you. What should you be warned of, though - of the milliards of possible experiences in this universe? No two human beings on this planet share the same memories or the same "material" within their "inner factories," so no two human beings can ever experience the same or can ever end up in to same situation, as they will always react differently according to their belief systems and behavioural patterns. Even if somebody stands beside you looking at the same spot on the horizon - the fact of the togetherness does not equal "the same experience." In fact, he doesn't stand at the spot where you stand, he does not have the same eyesight, he does not see the same things like you do, because he has different ideas about everything to be seen ... and, boy, look at him: He doesn't look like you at all (not even if he/she is a one-egg-twin!) So why should the mistake or the accident that occurred to another person occur to you as well? The same is true, of course, concerning the good things. Nobody can guarantee that you will gain the same pleasure like somebody did who tells you about and advises you to do this and that in order to experience "exactly the same."

Don't hesitate to say "No!" to horror-stories that other people want to tell you. Be aware of the fact that whatever you hear will become part of your memory and might add to fear. Be aware as well, though, that you never end up in a situation that does not "fit." Everything you experience is based on what your thoughts beforehand and what your "cosmic personality" leads you to, in order to achieve something or to clear something. The learning may not always be clear, it may not even reveal itself to you at all, so the only thing you can do is to react according to what feels right for you. There is no universal law on how to behave, although most spiritual "schools" want us to believe that.

Your attention may only dwell in the catastrophic scenarios of other people if you feel you need to hear that. And then you may decide to let go of a plan, or you may feel even forced to go for it. If a little doubt, uttered by a friend "makes" you doubt your own project, it might be time for a little "Kala" - inner cleansing - in order to find out about conflicts and limiting decisions. Be open for the feelings or warnings within yourself, but be also open for experiencing your own power of decision. The things people say to you first of all tell you something about that person and his/her ideas and motivations, fears and hopes.

Communication is always an exchange. Either you are getting help or you are giving help (mostly without knowing). If someone tells you "Be extremely careful! There are so many accidents happening in the mountains!" before you go on a hike, you might think "Well, this might be true, but there are many accidents in supermarkets, too" or "But there are also so many wonderful things happening on hikes!" And here's where the "Oki" effect comes in: Place an optimistic thought against a frustrating one and your "Ku" will get the message: "We are going to experience something nice."

Communication is full of "triggers" for our inner Self. If, after a "warning", you spontaneously feel like giving up the hiking-project, change the colour of your nail-polish or plan a barbeque, it is as telling as if you choose a more challenging mountain to climb, give your new red jacket to the Salvation Army.

If you can, don't be at the disposal of people who have the tendency to enforce their fears by focusing on the bad over and over again. You don't do them a favour, in spite of the old saying that "Shared suffering is half suffering." It actually is doubled. I know from many personal experiences how wildly people can react to positive words when they try to dig themselves deep and deeper into their despair. The most harmless outcry is "You have no idea how bad I am feeling, so how can you expect me to think positive?" Good question. But trust. Steady drops make a hole in the stone. And "Ku" of the "victims" remembers your calming efforts and wise words in a Huna-sense very well, as everybody's "active mind" tries to heal the "owner" and to make use of everything helpful and comforting. Never let yourself being "spiritually abused", that is, to help to enforce hurtful patterns of habits, even though they are familiar to the "victims". Here comes the "Oki"-effect again: In case you are confronted with other people's very dark ideas, say to yourself the positive contrary, silently, if necessary, but let your "Ku" know, that this is not what you want to use for yourself. Don't hesitate to say "Delete!" to exclamations like "You will die in despair like everybody else on this planet!"

Sometimes, another person's "mana" drags us into experiencing his/her ideas of life, but unless you are actually looking for a "Guru" or another kind of authority you want to believe in, take whatever this person says just as what it is: as information which you might use in any way that is right for you.

"Ka Po'e Kahiko", the "People of Old" of Hawai'i knew very well about the power of words. Words are directly connected with the power within of anybody speaking, with all his/her beliefs and with her "mana." But whatever you hear, you understand it according to your own "inner material" and "mana." Language is not always a means of connecting people, very often it is a source of misunderstandings. No two people on this planet understand the same thing by hearing one and the same word. So sometimes, you might react to a saying in a way that does not correspond to what the speaker actually meant to say. In this case it is doubly important to know about the power of "Oki": It "deletes" the bad understanding of a word or a sentence. It is a direct order to one's own "Ku" to focus on the positive contrary of whatever was felt threatening or weakening. "You will never come back!" grandmother cried in a movie, and the grandson was petrified in fear. "Oh yes I will come back to you, in perfect health and as a rich man!" would have been the perfect "Oki"-answer, and it would have done good to Granny, too, to hear that.

"You will never be successful!" is just based on the ideas of the doubting person, but it can let a "bell ring" within you, who hears that. "I will achieve what I want to achieve" is not a respectless contradiction, but a healthy way of enhancing focus.

Notice that children naturally apply their self-rescue mechanism in everyday life. Children don't contradict automatically, it depends on how much freedom of expression, threat and punishment they grow up with and how many ridiculous rules of how to behave and how to think they learn. "Oki" is a reflex to the negative influence of others. Children like to experience their parents as powerful and wise to feel safe, but they often have much more spiritual sensitivity and natural understanding than the grown-ups.

Many people who live according to the Huna principles know that sometimes it takes only tiny little changes in thinking and habitual behaviour to cause great changes in everyday life. To think the contrary or a habitually thought negative pattern intensively enough can bring the whole being into new situations that finally enable changes for the better. Why? Sometimes our "active mind" craves for clear direction to be given by "Lono", the "directing mind." And it will obey the first direction available.

No matter who utters something that feels hurtful and damaging for you - you always have the right to make sure it doesn't affect your own spiritual health, so why put energy into fearful images? Try the "Oki-effect" whenever you encounter someone else's negativity (or even your own). If it's in words, say the positive opposite to yourself; if it's in imagery, imagine the positive opposite. "Oki" is Hawaiian for "to cut off," and the sooner you cut negativity out of your life, the better your life will be.

Copyright Huna International 2002