Teaching Hut Village Gate

The Huna Path To World Change
interview with Serge Kahili King

This is an interview with Serge Kahili King conducted by Jennifer Kos on behalf of Science of Mind magazine for their May, 1990 issue. It has been slightly edited and updated from the original.

"The Huna path bears a remarkably close resemblance to that of the Science of Mind in its blending of the ancient wisdom and modern methodology. Both Serge King and Ernest Holmes share a common philosophic platform, for each accepted the intimate relationship of mind, energy and matter. And both teach that we truly can achieve that to which we are all entitled - happiness, abundance, and joy in a world at peace.

Science of Mind: Serge, you are recognized authority on Huna. Please define Huna for our readers.
King: Huna is a Hawaiian philosophy of living. It focuses on the powers of mind and the forces of nature, and how they interact. It is a very old philosophy associated with Polynesia. There are seven basic principles of Huna, which makes it a philosophy and not merely a system of techniques. Huna is simply a way of dealing with a or viewing reality, and because of its simplicity Huna is easy to remember and easy to apply effectively.

Science of Mind: Your writings have described the use of Huna in a form of shamanism that follows the Way of the Adventurer rather than the Way of the Warrior. What is a Hawaiian shaman and what differentiates these two paths?
King: Our definition of a shaman is one who has a particular world view and who operates in accordance with the seven HUNA Principles, primarily the first one, which states: "the world is what you think it is." A corollary of this principle is that reality is a dream and we can change it. We change the inner in order to change the outer. And that is really what designates a shaman - not a particular technique, but a particular way of viewing and interacting with the world.

The characteristic that differentiates the Hawaiian form of shamanism from other forms is that is an Adventurer system, not a Warrior system. The warrior Shaman is a healer who also works with the mind and spirit, but who does this by confrontation and conquest, with the goal of defeating illness or evil. The Adventurer shaman works from a perspective of cooperation, friendship, and harmony, with a goal of changing behavior. The Way of the Adventurer happens to be a lot more fun, because it involves an attitude of harmonizing rather than protecting or defending.

Science of Mind: How does the shaman view reality?
King: From the shaman's point of view, reality has no set limits. Of course, there are certain limits that we accept, acknowledge and operate by, but these are not inherent. There are "creative" limits and "non -creative" limits. A creative limit is like a channel that allows energy to flow in a particular way, and a non-creative limit is like a dam that blocks the flow. We must have some non-creative limits in order to operate here in the physical dimension. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to focus our attention. For example, in order to listen to a program on the radio, we limit our reception to a particular frequency, and then we can pick up that program. That doesn't mean there are no other programs, but in order to hear that one, we must create a limit. Through our senses we narrow our range of perception so we can tune in to the frequency of physical reality. But this does not mean there aren't all kinds of other realities.

Science of Mind: In your system of thought, what is the view of the world and the part we play in it?
King: From the shaman's point of view, there is one world, one earth. We are part of that one earth, creatures on it with our own purpose, and through serving that purpose we are also serving the earth's purpose. When we talk about healing as shamans, we talk about healing the physical body. We talk about healing weather conditions, such as earthquakes, and about healing circumstances, such as poverty or oppression. We talk about healing animals, trees and plants. We view the entire world as one, and we see our role as helping to heal the world.

Shamanism differs from a lot of other healing practices because it is not just a human-oriented system. It is an earth-oriented system.

Science of Mind: Has that always been true?
King: Yes. Shamanism has always treated the whole world as one. That's why some of the traditional cultures talk about animals as brothers and sisters and friends, not totally separate creatures.

Science of Mind: Do you think more people are beginning to have that attitude today?
King: Absolutely. Concern about our environment is growing everywhere.

Science of Mind: There seems to be a shift taking place in consciousness, particularly at this point in time.
King: This shift has been occurring for a long time, and I believe it's happening because there's a growing interest in love and practice of love, like we have never seen before in history.

Science of Mind: Some people might take issue with that statement and say that we're poisoning, destroying, and killing more things than ever before - the water, the atmosphere, the earth, and one another.
King: Those things certainly are occurring. They have always occurred with human beings. Only now, the big difference is that there is more love being practiced than there ever has been.

Science of Mind: What evidence of this do you see? King: Let's take a look at what happened when the Marshall Plan was put into effect at the end of the Second World War. Never before in the history of the human race has a conquering country not only given of its resources to help its allies, but given of its resources to help its enemies, and then turned them into friends.

During the period after the war, private groups formed. Some were church-supported groups, such as the World Council of Churches and Catholic Relief Services; some were private, like CARE and OXFAM. These groups were formed to help other people. Eventually, they served as a model for the Peace Corps. They were formed to help people in other countries with goods, supplies, services, technology, money, assistance, food, and personnel - with no expectation of return, with pure-hearted purpose. The people they helped didn't have to do anything in return. The Peace Corps has very much the same concept. Of course, there were people in the American government who thought of the political advantage of the Peace Corps, but it worked because a lot of Volunteers overseas weren't serving for that kind of reason. They served because they were loving people. They put up with tremendous hardship, giving years of their lives in extremely trying and sometimes dangerous conditions - all for the satisfaction of helping people.

The whole Peace Corps concept, where a government would train and send people to help other countries with no direct demand for return or payment, never occurred before in history. And other governments were doing this, too. The United States was the most publicized, but when I was in Africa I worked with similar volunteers from Austria, England, Israel, and China. Many different countries were doing similar things.

Science of Mind: Is there any other evidence you see of love being practiced on a worldwide scale?
King: Yes. Recently, when a devastating earthquake occurred in a Russian province, the United States who rushed in to help it with goods and services and medicine. After the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, citizens of other countries went over there to help. They didn't say, "You're going to have to pay us so much to do this."

When two whales were stuck in the ice in the Arctic, two "enemies," the United States and Russia, sent their military ships to break the ice so the whales could go free. Two superpowers used their military resources to help a couple of animals! I know of nothing like that ever occurring before. Over and over again, these kinds of things are happening all around the world.

Science of Mind: Perhaps this kind of caring and helping activity happened in primitive times.
King: Not as far as we know. One of the most primitive concepts is fear of the stranger. Many primitive people believed they had to protect themselves from the evil that the stranger brings. Even in Hawaii, in earlier times, when the people here were friendly, they still wanted assurance that you weren't a threat to the community. Or you had to prove that you were so strong that they couldn't do anything about it. Once you were acknowledged as having peaceful intent or superior strength, there was great friendship, but it wasn't automatic.

Science of Mind: So this fear of other people goes far back into our history and we're beginning to take steps toward overcoming it?
King: That's what appears to be happening, and on a scale that has never been recorded before in human history.

Science of Mind: What could account for this?
King: What accounts for it is that a great many people, who have gathered together over a long period of time, are teaching and practicing love. There have been, and are still, spiritual groups of all kinds and all natures. The message keeps coming: love, love, love. There's a change in the inner consciousness. Movements that teach this message are forming. We're getting it all over the place. People talk about there being too much bad news, but there is more good news on television and newspapers now than there ever has been. there are more programs and articles about the environment, about animals, about nature, about things that human beings are doing positively in education.

When San Francisco had its earthquake, Armenia sent food. Think about that. A Russian province sent food to help an American city. Russia is just coming out with a series of stamps. One of the stamps commemorates the Apollo landing. The Russians are actually commemorating an American feat. Yes, they intend to make hard currency on the issue, but it is still remarkable. Now, taken individually, these seem like very little things. But the " one world " is forming faster and faster. In many different shapes and ways and sizes, love is getting stronger.

Science of Mind: Can love make a difference even after we have poisoned everything? King: We have not poisoned everything. Wait a second. Look around you out here. Does this land look poisoned? Look at the world! When I was in Africa, we got news about the United States and the pollution and poisoning. This was in the 60's. I came back in 1971. By 1971 it seemed clear to everybody in most of the rest of the world that the United States was a rotten, stinking mass of pollution - that all the rivers were clogged with oil and debris, all the fish were dead, and all the skies were gray and cloudy. I came home and honestly, my culture shock was not in going to Africa, it was in coming back to find so much of our country in such great shape. We took a camper-van cross country. Marvelous, beautiful! Clear sparkling water, clean-air, gorgeous forests. We could hardly believe it, compared to the kind of news that was given oversees about what the conditions were by American newspapers and magazines.

Most of the world is in great shape. There are places that very seriously need help, that are potentially dangerous. Absolutely no doubt about it. But don't think that the whole world is polluted, because it isn't. That doesn't mean we don't have to act now. We must act now. In the same way that your whole body might be healthy, but if you've got a sore you're going to work on healing it. Right? But don't forget that most of your body is healthy.

Science of Mind: What can people do to begin creating change in the world? King: They have to start from where they are. The United Nations is putting out some great material indicating specific things that everybody in their own way can begin to do that will make a difference. There are guidelines available and there are organizations we can operate through, such as The Sierra Club, Green Peace, the National Wildlife Federation and others. They suggest things for people to do and help them do it.

Science of Mind: What specific tools does the shaman used to help heal the environment? King: The use the same tools that every other human being has available. Shamans do everything that everybody else does, only we do it a little more consciously. We use words, we use imagination, we use emotion, we use sensation and physical movement - we use all of our divine powers in order to change our reality.

Science of Mind: As human beings, then, we can exert a positive influence on the environment, even though it may seem as though we're separate from the trees and rocks? King: Ordinary reality says that we are separate. Shamanic reality says we're not. It is simply a different way of viewing or interpreting phenomena.

When we experience our oneness with everything, we are practicing love, and this love has a healing influence on whatever needs to be healed.

Science of Mind: But can one individual alone really make that much of a difference? King: I'm not saying that one person is going to change the entire world. One person will change his or her awareness of the world, and there's a cumulative effect. In Aloha International we now have more than 2000 shamans who are working separately and together. Other people and other groups are doing other things. The number of people able to operate in this way is increasing. With each one of these individuals doing the inner work to help various aspects of the planet, the changes can be made rapidly. So, yes, one individual makes a big difference because the one individual is never alone. The second principle of Huna says, "There are no limits. " We are all connected. Other minds pick up and are influenced by how we thiink and act. It is partly this which is accounting for all the changes that are beginning to be made all over the planet.

Science of Mind: Then more people having thoughts of peace on earth can at some point totally change the old reality? King: That's the idea. Now, if you start saying, "It's too late," then you are not agreeing with what the Science of Mind philosophy teaches - which is that we can change the world. If we can believe it, we can achieve it. So the question is not whether there is time; the question is, "Can we believe it?"

Science of Mind: As you have said, changes always come from the inner to the outer. How we think and feel on a daily basis is going to affect the world around us. King: Exactly.

Science of Mind: Please take the Huna principle " Now is the moment of power" and relate it to the ability to make positive change in the world. King: Well, that one is easy, because now is the only time when you can effect any positive change. You can't do it yesterday and you can't do it tomorrow. You can't do it this morning and you can't do it this evening. The only moment in which can act, in any way, is right now. So even from the point of view of pure logic, we can see that. Now, the extensions of this in shamanic thinking are that you can change any effect from the past - right now - because here is where your power is. You can set up and begin to create any kind of future from right now. The viewpoint is that we are not bound by the past. In terms of creating change, the past doesn't matter. It's what we think about the past that matters.

Science of Mind: Then it's not so important to know the "why" of what we're going through in the world situation today? King: That's right. What matters is what we're going to do about it. In ordinary reality there is much power given to the past. People think that if they can only figure out the past causes of their problems, then they can figure out how to solve those problems. Certainly we can learn skills and gain information about what's going on now from the past, but the power to change is right here and now. We can gather information, but at some point we have to start to make changes.

The current state of most of the world is that you've got to build up all kinds of justification for change from all the things that happened in the past and give it weight and authority before you can go ahead and change. Shamans just don't look at it that way. If something isn't working right now all, let's start to change it. Sometimes you need information that has been gathered in order to cause change more effectively. Then you use that information, if that's what is needed. But you don't use that for your authority. There's a difference there.

Science of Mind: It's very difficult for some people to believe they create their own reality when they feel influenced by outside influences and forces, such as karma, for instance. King: Well, you see, we don't have that concept. We believe that "Now is the moment of power." Karma is right now. Everything that you are experiencing in this moment is your karma. And in any given moment, you can change that by making different decisions about yourself and about life. We're certainly not saying that these are always easy to make because it depends on your level of confidence as to how easy a decision is to make. If your confidence or your self- esteem isn't high, then you'll find it more difficult to make such decisions. The higher your confidence and self-esteem, the easier it is to make decisions to change.

Science of Mind: What you think the role of self-esteem is in healing the problems we now face in the world? King: The higher our self-esteem, the more we begin expanding our sense of identity with other people. Sometimes we triy to build up self-esteem by separating ourselves from others. Essentially that never works. It produces effects. It can produce a big income, a lot of popularity, but always with a terrific kind of tension inside. Our self-esteem, then, is always dependent upon outside things or other people.

True self-esteem comes from confidence, and as our confidence grows our sense of identity with other people grows. So we become more identified with the world and therefore our concern and compassion increases. Then we're going to think in ways that will be healing, not only for ourselves but for our environment. It's definitely going to affect the world!

Science of Mind: Is it necessary for each individual or for us as a group to have an idea of what we would like the world to be? King: Nothing is necessary. No. However, if you want to change the world in some particular way, yes, then it's necessary to have some idea of how you want to change it and what you wanted to be like. If you don't have a clearer idea of what you want, how are you going to get it? I meet a lot of people who say, "I want to help people." Fine. What you want to do? "I don't know. I just want to help people." Well, you're never going to help anybody unless you finally decide what you're going to do that is helpful. Being specific helps to accomplish your aims.

Science of Mind: Serge, your organization is dedicated to spreading "the aloha spirit." What exactly is "Aloha?" King: Within the seven principles, Aloha is the fifth. It says, "To love is to be happy with." in terms of manifesting, it means two things. First, the more you are a peace with what you presently have, the easier it will be to change it. Many people think they have to get very unhappy with their present circumstances before they will change, and yet all they're doing is developing a habit of getting unhappy in order to grow. This principle presents the startling idea that you can be happy where you are and still grow. And that growth will be faster and easier if you do it that way. The second thing is that the more you love your dream - the more it excites you - the easier it will be to manifest it. Many people have dreams that are born out of fear. They want to manifest prosperity because they're afraid of poverty, or they want to manifest peace because they're afraid of war. But if fear is your only motivation, you will only manifest what you fear.

The fifth principle indicates that the best way to manifest prosperity is to love prosperity, and the best way to manifest peace is to love peace. As a practical step, it helps tremendously to cut down on criticizing what you don't like, and to increase the blessing and praise for what you do like.

Science of Mind: Is there a simple technique you can share with our readers that can enhance our power to praise and bless what we like? King: Yes, there is a simple breathing technique which enhances your power to bless by increasing your personal energy , or ki , as it is named in Hawaiian. This technique requires no special posture or quiet place. And can be done while moving or still, busy or resting, with your eyes open or closed.

First, scan your body with your mind and be aware of any muscles the don't need to be used right now for whatever you are doing. Then, when you inhale, put your attention on the very crown of your head; when you exhale, put your attention on your navel. With a little practice you will feel a buildup of tingling energy. When you can feel the energy, mentally surround yourself with it like an electromagnetic field or a cloud of light. Then attune yourself to the power by making yourself feel as happy as you can. When you bless, surround the object of your blessing with a mentally projected field or cloud of this "love energy." This breathing technique is called pikopiko in Hawaiian because piko means both the crown of the head and the navel.

Science of Mind: In what ways does your organization spread this "aloha spirit?" King: We sponsor a growing, worldwide Aloha Fellowship of people committed to spreading the spirit through the process of blessing. As we have been discussing, we also train shaman peacemakers and healers to work in our modern urban environments. In addition, we teach workshops on effectiveness. We have a new set of seminars for the general public that helps people learn how to love better - how to be successful, healthy, and happy through loving. Also, we have a center on Kauai where we introduce people to the love of the earth and to the love of others. We want to teach people how to bring about peace and harmony in the world.

Science of Mind: Serge, what is your own personal vision for the planet? King: I have a vision of this world becoming a place of peace and harmony like a great orchestra playing a complex, inspiring symphony. There will be a cooperative integration of many different people using many different skills and instruments to play an exciting, enjoyable and adventurous composition of life.

Copyright by Aloha International 2001
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