Huna (Hawaiian for "secret") is the word adopted by the non-Hawaiian New Age author Max Freedom Long (1890–1971) in 1936 to describe his theory of metaphysics. Long cited what he believed to be the spiritual practices of the ancient Hawaiian kahunas (priests) as inspiration; however, contemporary scholars consider the system to be his invention designed through a mixture of a variety of spiritual practices from various cultures, with roots in New Thought and Theosophy, rather than in traditional Hawaiian beliefs.
History
Max Freedom Long, who was not Hawaiian, went to Hawaii in 1917 to work as an elementary school teacher. He became interested in the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient kahunas and modern practitioners of traditional, indigenous Hawaiian religion, but none of the ceremonial people talked to him so he was unable to penetrate to the inner workings of this religion. He left Hawaii in 1931, convinced that he would never learn these secrets. In 1934, he woke with a revelation that the secrets were encoded into the Hawaiian language itself. He called the religious system he developed from this revelation 'Huna' (the Hawaiian word for secret), and wrote his first book in 1936 to chronicle his beliefs. There are no accepted Hawaiian sources that refer to the word 'Huna' as a tradition of esoteric learning.
In 1945 Long founded Huna Research. In 1953, he published The Secret Science at Work as a Huna textbook, and in 1965 The Huna Codes in Religions, examining parallels between his invented system and religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity.
Principles and beliefs
Max Long
Long believed he had discovered an ancient Truth, not just about Hawaiian spirituality but linking back to India and ancient Egypt. He believed Hawaiians were a lost tribe of Berbers, and wrote that spiritual adepts migrated to Hawai‘i from Egypt, passing on to the priests of India some of their basic beliefs. Long also linked Huna to Theosophy and New Thought movements of the time, writing that Christian Scientists understood positive thinking better than any group he knew, and encouraged his readers to subscribe to Unity Church’s magazine, Daily Word.
Huna emphasizes practical living and harmony with three levels of consciousness or selves, a low, middle, and higher self, which were supposedly recognized by ancient kahunas. Long called these selves the unihipili (subconscious, inner, emotional, intuitive), uhane (waking consciousness, rational) and aumakua (super-conscious, connection with the divine). These are not the Hawaiian meanings of these words, which are traditionally defined as "the spirit of a dead person", "spirit" or "dirge", and "family or personal gods" respectively.
In addition, Long redefined the Hawaiian concept of mana, (privileged as a divine power in traditional Hawaiian belief), and presented it instead as a vitalizing life force, which can, with knowledge of the three selves, be used in a manner of "personal empowerment" to heal body and mind and achieve life goals.
Later teachers
Subsequent Huna teachers have placed the movement firmly in the New Age, with Serge King claiming that Huna came originally from aliens from the Pleiades who were remnants of the mythical advanced civilizations of Mu or Lemuria, and Pila Chiles associating the islands with the New Age versions/interpretations of chakras, vortexes and ley lines.
According to critics, Serge King misappropriated and attempted to redefine three Hawaiian language words for his idea of "the three selves": "Ku," "Lono," and "Kane". However, the meanings he gives these words are not the meanings of the words in Hawaiian, which are in fact the names of three deities in the traditional Hawaiian religion, who respectively presided over war, fertility, and creation.
King listed seven principles of Huna, which are given in the table below. Native speakers, scholars and dictionaries concur that the meanings King gives for these words do not reflect their usage in the Hawaiian language, nor any traditional Hawaiian beliefs. King also calls what he does "shamanism" and cites "West African shamanism" as an influence.