Atlas›Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements›Guide 187
Guide XIV-187

Huna (Long)

Max Freedom Long1948Hawaiʻi
A 26 · L 54 · M 2014 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Max Freedom Long's Huna as set out in The Secret Science Behind Miracles (Kosmon Press, 1948) and as carried on by Huna Research Inc. (Cape Girardeau, Missouri, led after Long's death by E. Otha Wingo). Serge Kahili King's later Huna (Huna International, Aloha International; the "seven principles") is a distinct version and is marked where it appears. Traditional Hawaiian family hoʻoponopono is a separate guide (XI 123); Self I-Dentity through Hoʻoponopono is XIV 093.

Huna (Hawaiian huna, "secret") is a Western esoteric and New Thought-style self-help and prayer system that Long, a white American schoolteacher who lived in Hawaiʻi from 1917 to 1931, presented as the rediscovered "secret science" of the kahuna [source: Morgain 2016; Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified for dates]. It is an esoteric practice taught openly in books, study groups and fellowships, not a psychotherapy. Its core idea of change: a person is three selves (a "low self" or unihipili, a "middle self" or uhane, and a "High Self" or aumakua); a vital force, mana, can be accumulated and sent with a clearly formed prayer from the low self to the High Self, which then brings about the desired result; guilt and fixed ideas ("complexes") lodged in the low self block this and must be cleared [source: Long, ch. XXII; Morgain 2016, pp. 289–292; Southeast Missourian]. King's version recasts this as seven principles about belief, attention, present-moment power and "effectiveness" [source: King 2013, Theosophy Forward].

Cultural status, as scholars state it: Morgain describes Long's system as "a western esoteric system dressed up with a few Hawaiian terms" drawn chiefly from Theosophy and spiritualism; its three-self meanings differ from Hawaiian dictionary meanings (ʻuhane and ʻunihipili refer to spirits of the dead, ʻaumakua to family or personal gods) [source: Morgain 2016, pp. 288–289; Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified]. Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-based writers, among them Charles Kenn, Pali Jae Lee, Lisa Kahaleole Hall and Makana Risser Chai, have said Huna is not Hawaiian tradition, that Long's claimed museum source is unsupported, and that its marketing appropriates Hawaiian culture [source: Morgain 2016, pp. 287–288, 302–303]. King himself notes the word is controversial among Hawaiians and presents his Huna as one family's tradition [source: King 2013].

Evidence status (one line): Long's claims of healing, telepathy and "changing the future" rest on anecdote and reported cases, without controlled results [source: Long, ch. XXII; uncertain: not verified beyond the text]. No practice described here treats any physical disease.

2. Framework

Huna has no clinical phase model or session protocol; it is a self-study and group practice. The structure below is how the sources lay out the path, followed by how a psychotherapist can frame work with a client who practises it.

The practitioner's path as Long and Huna Research describe it

  1. Study of the system – learning the three selves, mana and the low self's role as the carrier of prayer; Long urges daily rereading because the low self forgets what it does not see repeatedly [source: Long, ch. XXII].
  2. Belief review and "clearing" – critically examining one's beliefs daily and holding that the only sin is hurting another person; Huna Research's motto is "The Hurtless and Helpful Life" [source: Long, ch. XXII; Southeast Missourian]. Long says hindering complexes must be removed before "High Magic" and that this is best done in a group [source: Long, ch. XXII].
  3. "Low magic" – building vital force and passing it to another by touch with healing thoughts; Long says almost anyone can learn it [source: Long, ch. XXII]. Public outline only (see 4.4).
  4. Prayer-action ("High Magic") – deciding exactly what is wanted, formulating it as a prayer, repeating it and commanding the low self to carry it with mana to the High Self; Huna Research teaches an eight-step version, not listed here [source: Long, ch. XXII; Southeast Missourian].
  5. Group work – partner telepathy experiments, and study groups under an appointed leader with set projects and meeting times; Long's closing note invites readers to form study groups [source: Long, ch. XXII and Note]. A local Huna Research group was reported meeting weekly for discussion and body work [source: Southeast Missourian].

Membership and cost as published: Huna Research reported yearly dues of $25 and members in about 50 countries (article undated) [source: Southeast Missourian; uncertain: current figures not verified]. King's organisation, Huna International, was formed as a religious order in 1973 with three branches [source: Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified]. Course fees for King's or other teachers' trainings: [uncertain: not verified].

Psychotherapy framing (all [synthesis])

No source gives session counts or formats for therapy with Huna practitioners. A workable sequence:

  • Engagement and assessment – the client's presenting problem; what Huna means to them; the CFI with the spirituality, religion and moral traditions module; risk and differential screening. Move on when you have the client's own explanatory model and a shared, non-religious therapy goal.
  • Working phase – using Huna concepts the client already holds as material for meaning-making, values and coping; monitoring adverse effects (guilt, magical thinking, avoidance of medical care, dependency). Move on when the agreed goal is progressing and no red flag is active.
  • Consolidation and ending – the client's own synthesis of what helps; community and referral links; relapse plan.
  • Return to assessment whenever psychotic, manic, dissociative or obsessional features, medical neglect, or financial or relational exploitation appear.

3. Guiding principles

  • The client's practice, the client's words. Use "low self", "High Self", "mana" or King's terms only as the client uses them. Practical meaning: ask what each term means to them before using it. [synthesis]
  • Describe, attribute, neither endorse nor dismiss. Huna concepts are the current's own; empirical claims (healing, telepathy, prediction) have no controlled support. Practical meaning: "In Long's system…" rather than "your High Self will…" or "that's not real". [synthesis]
  • Hold the cultural-origin question respectfully. Native Hawaiian writers regard Huna as non-Hawaiian and appropriative [source: Morgain 2016]. Practical meaning: do not present Huna as Hawaiian tradition; if the client is Native Hawaiian, or Huna is affecting their relationship with Hawaiian culture, explore this and offer culturally grounded resources (XI 123) on the client's request. [synthesis]
  • The therapist is not a kahuna, healer, teacher or prayer partner. Practical meaning: no prayer-action, "mana" transfer, laying on of hands, telepathy exercises or readings in session, even if you practise Huna privately. [synthesis]
  • Belief is not pathology. Practical meaning: assess form, distress, function and conviction, not content; Huna beliefs are shared by a community of practitioners. [synthesis]
  • Medical care is never displaced. Long and Huna Research practitioners apply Huna prayer to illness, including serious illness [source: Long, ch. XXII; Southeast Missourian]. Practical meaning: ask about current medical care for any condition the client is "working on" with Huna, and route decisions to their doctor. [synthesis]
  • Watch the guilt mechanism. Long's model ties blocked results to guilt and complexes in the low self [source: Long, ch. XXII]. Practical meaning: listen for self-blame when prayers "fail" and for scrupulous rumination about hurting others. [synthesis]
  • Consent and choice at every step. Practical meaning: ask permission before discussing the practice, its origins or its evidence; the client may decline. [synthesis]
  • Separate roles and interests. Practical meaning: disclose no personal practice unless clinically useful, sell nothing, and refer to no teacher you have ties to. [synthesis]
  • Culture-informed assessment. Practical meaning: use the CFI and its spirituality module routinely, linked to the core questions [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules].

4. Intervention inventory

Part A gives the practices as Huna sources publish them, so the therapist can understand what a client is doing; the therapist does not teach or perform them. Part B gives the psychotherapist's own procedures.

Part A. Huna practices as published

4.1 Study of the three selves (self-study or study circle)

  • Purpose (as the current states it): to understand the low self (unihipili: memory, emotion, habit, carrier of vital force), the middle self (uhane: reasoning, waking mind) and the High Self (aumakua: a "parental" superconscious spirit) so the low self can be trained and prayer can reach the High Self [source: Morgain 2016, p. 289; Long, ch. XXII]. Huna Research has glossed them as the "basic self" or "inner child", the middle self, and a guardian-angel-like higher self [source: Southeast Missourian]. Scholars note the model is Freudian in form and Theosophical at core [source: Morgain 2016, p. 289].
  • Steps (as published, paraphrased): read the system repeatedly, daily if possible, because repetition is how the low self is said to learn; discuss it in a group [source: Long, ch. XXII].
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you talk about your low self, what does it feel like it wants or fears?"
  • Watch for: the model used to disown feelings ("that's just my low self"), or to explain away symptoms that need assessment. Working signs: the client uses the language to notice and name emotions, not to split them off. [synthesis]

4.2 Defining the desire and forming the prayer

  • Purpose: Long holds that blind or vague prayer fails; the practitioner must decide exactly what is wanted [source: Long, ch. XXII]. Huna Research teaches that a clear visual image of the outcome is sent to the higher self, likened to planting a seed or athletes' visualisation [source: Southeast Missourian].
  • Structure (as published, in outline): Long and Huna Research describe deciding precisely on the desired outcome and holding a clear picture of it before praying [source: Long, ch. XXII; Southeast Missourian]. The eight steps of the Huna Research prayer are not listed here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "If this prayer were answered, what would be different in your week? What part of that is in your hands?"
  • Watch for: goals that substitute for action (bills, symptoms, relationships left to the prayer); rigid, repeated picturing that becomes compulsive. Working signs: clearer values and goals that the client also acts on. [synthesis]

4.3 Accumulating mana

  • Purpose: Long treats mana as a universal vital force in three "voltages" (one per self), to be accumulated and sent to the High Self for goals and healing [source: Morgain 2016, pp. 290–292]. King later wrote that mana is "the ability to direct energy" rather than an energy [source: Morgain 2016, p. 295]; his 2013 article glosses mana as authority or influence [source: King 2013].
  • Outline: Long refers practitioners to an existing method (the Baron Ferson method or a variation) for building low-voltage force [source: Long, ch. XXII]. These methods involve breathing and physical effort; no breathing, retention or exertion instructions are given here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you build mana, what do you notice in your body and mood, before and after?"
  • Watch for: dizziness, tingling, panic, derealisation or exhaustion after forceful breathing or effort (a possible hyperventilation pattern: refer for medical review if recurrent); belief that one's "mana is low" driving shame or withdrawal. [synthesis]

4.4 "Low magic": transferring force by touch (public outline only)

  • Purpose and context: Long describes passing vital force to another person by touch, carrying healing thoughts; he also devotes chapters to lomilomi and laying on of hands and to "instant healing through the High Self" [source: Long, ch. XXII; Long, table of contents]. This is an energy-healing practice taught in Huna groups; it is outlined, not taught, here. Healing claims are Long's, without controlled support.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What happened in you when that was done? Did you feel free to say no?"
  • Watch for: touch without clear consent, especially from a teacher; use for illness instead of medical care; sexualised or boundary-crossing contact (safeguarding and reporting, section 5). The therapist does not do this in session. [synthesis]

4.5 Prayer-action ("High Magic")

  • Purpose: the central Huna practice: a prayer, charged with mana, carried by the low self to the High Self, which Long says can heal and change the future [source: Long, ch. XXII; Morgain 2016, p. 292].
  • Structure (as published, in outline): the desire defined in 4.2 is held in prayer with the intention that the low self carries it, with mana, to the High Self; Long pairs this with daily belief review [source: Long, ch. XXII; Morgain 2016, p. 292]. Long's "aka thread" image (an invisible cord linking selves and people) is widely attributed to him [uncertain: not verified]. No prayer wording or sequence is given here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "How do you understand it when a prayer seems not to be answered? What does that say about you, in your view?"
  • Watch for: self-blame or scrupulosity when results do not come ("my complexes are blocking it"); escalating repetition or checking; decisions deferred to signs. Working signs: comfort, focus and hope without loss of agency. [synthesis]

4.6 Belief review and the "hurtless" ethic; clearing complexes

  • Purpose: Long tells practitioners to examine beliefs critically each day and dwell on the idea that the only sin is hurting another human being; hindering complexes must be removed before High Magic, preferably in a group [source: Long, ch. XXII]. Huna Research's motto is "The Hurtless and Helpful Life" [source: Southeast Missourian]. Long's specific method for "treating the complex" (ch. XV) is not detailed here [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You said hurting others is the one real wrong. Who decides what counts as hurting, and how harshly do you judge yourself on it?"
  • Watch for: obsessional moral doubt and reassurance-seeking (assess for scrupulosity/OCD, 4.11); groups using "complex clearing" to pressure disclosure. Working signs: a kinder, more realistic conscience and repair where harm was real. [synthesis]

4.7 Partner telepathy, group projects and King's seven principles

  • Purpose and steps (as published): Long says telepathy practice needs a partner and that group tests show who works best together; groups work under an appointed leader with set projects and meetings [source: Long, ch. XXII]. He also titles chapters on psychometry, crystal gazing and dreaming into the future [source: Long, table of contents; content uncertain: not verified]. King's Huna centres on seven principles: the world reflects one's beliefs; there are no real separations (so total responsibility); energy follows attention; power is in the present; love grows as judgement lessens and is expressed as blessing, praise, appreciation and gratitude; all power comes from within; effectiveness is the measure of truth [source: King 2013, paraphrased]. His 2008 book adds proverbs, visualisations and practices on focus, presence, money and decisions [source: Brussat review].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Which of those principles helps you, and is there one that ends up making you feel to blame?"
  • Watch for: "total responsibility" or "the world reflects your beliefs" turning into self-blame for illness, abuse or poverty; telepathy experiments feeding ideas of reference or thought-broadcasting experiences; a leader's authority over members' choices. ESP claims: no controlled support. [synthesis]

Part B. The psychotherapist's procedures

All of Part B is [synthesis] except where a source is tagged.

4.8 Client-led exploration of meaning

  • Purpose: to learn what Huna gives the client (hope, agency, an ethic, community, a language for the inner child) and what it costs, in their words, with consent. Use at intake and whenever Huna enters the material.
  • Steps: (1) ask permission to talk about the practice; (2) ask how they came to it (book, Huna Research fellowship, King's courses, online teacher); (3) ask which version and teacher they follow; (4) map which practices they use and how often (4.1–4.7); (5) ask what it helps with and where it leaves them stuck; (6) reflect back in their terms; (7) link to the therapy goal.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it be all right to hear how Huna fits into your life? Which teacher or book do you follow, and what has it helped with?"
  • Watch for: the client checking whether you will mock or convert them; idealisation of a teacher. Working signs: the client talks openly and links practice to feelings and choices.

4.9 Cultural Formulation Interview with the spirituality, religion and moral traditions module

  • Purpose: to clarify how the client's tradition shapes the problem, coping and help-seeking [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules].
  • Steps: use the core CFI; add the spirituality, religion and moral traditions module (16 questions, linked to core questions 6–12, 14 and 15), inserting the client's own word for the tradition ("Huna", "my Huna practice") and exploring each tradition if there are several (for example Christian upbringing plus Huna) [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules]. Its domains: identity and affiliation; role in daily and family life; practices at home and outside it; how the tradition helps with the problem and whether leaders were consulted; tradition-related stress, conflict or discrimination [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules, paraphrased; items not reproduced]. Add the Explanatory Model and Cultural Identity modules where Hawaiian identity or appropriation concerns arise.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Have you talked with anyone in your Huna group about this problem? What did they suggest, and how did that sit with you?"
  • Watch for: conflict between Huna and family religion; a Native Hawaiian client's feelings about Huna's claims to Hawaiian origin; non-Hawaiian clients unaware of the critique (raise it only if relevant and with consent).

4.10 Talking about origins and appropriation (when relevant)

  • Purpose: some clients learned Huna as authentic Hawaiian tradition; learning otherwise can bring loss, embarrassment or anger, and Native Hawaiian clients may experience Huna as harm to their culture [source: Morgain 2016, pp. 302–303, reporting Hall and Chai].
  • Steps: ask whether the origin matters to the client; if they want to know, summarise the scholarly view neutrally and with attribution; explore what changes and what stays valuable; for clients seeking Hawaiian tradition, offer pointers to Hawaiian-led cultural organisations and to XI 123, on request.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some Hawaiian scholars say Huna was created by an American author rather than handed down. Would it be useful to talk about that, or is it beside the point for you?"
  • Watch for: shaming the client; turning therapy into debate. Working signs: the client holds both what Huna means to them and the cultural critique.

4.11 Reality testing and differential assessment without pathologising belief

  • Purpose: to distinguish ordinary Huna belief and experience from psychosis, mania, dissociation, OCD or complicated grief.
  • Steps: (1) note whether experiences (High Self guidance, telepathy, sensed mana) are shared with and recognised by fellow practitioners; (2) assess conviction, flexibility, distress and functioning; (3) screen for first-rank features (thought broadcasting or insertion, commands, ideas that others read or control one's mind), reduced sleep with grandiosity or pressured "mission", depersonalisation or derealisation after practice, intrusive moral doubts with compulsive praying or reassurance; (4) for the bereaved, ask about attempts to contact the dead through practice; (5) gather collateral with consent; (6) where a disorder is present, treat it with standard care while respecting the belief; for obsessional moral doubt, ERP as clinical OCD sources (IOCDF) describe it, adapted with the client's tradition [uncertain: not verified]. Code-level framing: DSM-5-TR "Religious or Spiritual Problem" is coded Z65.8 [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8; DSM-5-TR wording uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Do others in your Huna group have experiences like this one? What makes this one feel different?"
  • Watch for: pathologising the belief itself; missing a prodrome because content is spiritual.

4.12 Monitoring adverse effects

  • Purpose: catch harms early.
  • Steps: at intervals ask about: self-blame when prayers fail; scrupulosity about "hurting" others; anxiety or dissociation after mana-building or group body work; delayed or replaced medical or psychiatric care (Huna prayer is applied to serious illness by some practitioners [source: Southeast Missourian]); decisions deferred to the High Self; isolation from non-practitioners.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Since we last met, has the practice brought any difficult side, like feeling guilty or unwell afterwards?"
  • Watch for: any untreated physical condition: encourage a medical review and route all treatment decisions to the doctor; never advise on medicines.

4.13 Dependency, leader relationships and financial exploitation

  • Purpose: check for unhealthy reliance on a teacher, group or paid healer.
  • Steps: ask about costs (dues, courses, healing sessions, travel to retreats) relative to income; who decides for the client; whether doubts can be voiced; touch or sexual boundary crossings by teachers; pressure to recruit or to disclose "complexes". Huna Research's published dues were modest [source: Southeast Missourian]; fees elsewhere vary [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Roughly what do you spend on Huna in a year? Does that feel right to you?"
  • Watch for: debt, secrecy, loss of other relationships. Support the client's own decisions; no confrontation of the group.

4.14 Referral, community and role boundaries

  • Purpose: connect the client with the right help and keep roles clean.
  • Steps: refer to medical care for any physical symptom; to psychiatry for psychotic, manic or severe dissociative features; to OCD specialists for scrupulosity; to religious-trauma or high-control-group specialists if the client is leaving a group; to Hawaiian-led cultural resources if the client asks; involve a Huna group leader or other community figure only if the client wishes and it serves the goal. If you practise Huna, King's Huna or related energy work yourself, keep it entirely out of therapy and do not take clients as students.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not a Huna teacher or healer here. My part is helping you think through what this means for your life and health."
  • Watch for: requests to pray together, send mana or do a reading: decline warmly and explore the wish behind it.

5. Handling problems

The Huna sources do not address therapy problems; all guidance below is [synthesis] unless tagged.

  • "My prayers don't work, so something is wrong with me." Long ties failed prayer to guilt and complexes [source: Long, ch. XXII], which can feed depression or shame. Validate the disappointment, explore the self-judgement separately from the belief, and check for depression and suicidal thinking with standard risk assessment. Illustrative: "Whatever the reason the prayer wasn't answered, I notice how harshly you're judging yourself. Can we look at that part?"
  • Scrupulosity around "hurting others". If the client spends long periods reviewing whether they caused hurt, seeks repeated reassurance or repeats prayers to undo it, assess for OCD and offer ERP with a specialist, framed so it does not attack the ethic itself.
  • Using Huna instead of medical or psychiatric treatment. State your concern plainly and respectfully, encourage the client to discuss the condition with their doctor, and note it in the record. Never advise on starting, stopping or changing medicines. Where a child's care is being refused or delayed on these grounds, follow local safeguarding and child-protection procedures.
  • Overwhelm or dissociation after practice or group body work. Ground in the session (orienting to the room, slow ordinary conversation), suggest the client pauses the intensive element and reviews it with their teacher and a doctor if physical symptoms recur. Assess for panic, hyperventilation, trauma reactivation and dissociative disorder.
  • Unusual experiences escalating (High Self messages, telepathy, mission). Assess for psychosis or mania (4.11); arrange urgent psychiatric review if there is reduced sleep, grandiosity, commands or risk. Keep respect for the tradition in the conversation so the client stays engaged.
  • Client wants the therapist to join the practice (pray, send mana, lay on hands, give a reading). Decline clearly and kindly; explore what they hope that would give them; offer a therapy equivalent (for example, a values or visualisation exercise grounded in their goals, without Huna rituals).
  • Rupture over the origins critique. If raising the Native Hawaiian critique felt like an attack, acknowledge it, own the misstep, and return to the client's own meaning. Raise origins only when relevant and with consent (4.10).
  • Native Hawaiian client distressed by Huna in their life or family. Treat this as a cultural-identity and possibly a cultural-harm issue; use the CFI Cultural Identity module, follow the client's lead, and connect with Hawaiian-led cultural support on request.
  • Teacher boundary violations, sexual contact or financial pressure. Believe and support the client; explore options (leaving, reporting to the group, police or a regulator where the teacher holds a licence); follow mandatory reporting for minors or vulnerable adults. Do not name or contact the group without consent.
  • Leaving a Huna group or King's order. Expect grief, loss of community and identity, and possible religious-trauma reactions; build a non-group support network; cross-refer to the domain's guidance on leaving high-control groups where control was present.
  • Bereavement and contacting the dead. If the client uses practice to reach a deceased person, explore the grief directly, watch for paid intermediaries exploiting the loss, and screen for prolonged grief.
  • Non-adherence to therapy tasks framed as "not Huna". Re-frame tasks in the client's own values (for example the "hurtless and helpful" ethic) without adopting the religious claims.
  • Stuck in intellectual debate about whether Huna is "real". Name the pattern, return to the agreed goal, and ask what the debate protects them from.
  • Therapist's own beliefs (for or against). Seek supervision if you notice urges to convert, correct or join; keep any personal practice out of the room.

Sources

Primary, organisational and scholarly sources

Books and articles cited [uncertain: not verified]

  • Long, M. F. (1953). The Secret Science at Work.
  • Chai, M. R. (2011). Huna, Max Freedom Long, and the idealization of William Brigham. Hawaiian Journal of History, 45.
  • Hall, L. K. (2005). "Hawaiian at heart" and other fictions. The Contemporary Pacific, 17(2), 404–413.
  • Lee, P. J. (1999/2007). Hoʻopono.
  • King, S. K. (1983). Kahuna Healing. Quest Books; (1985). Mastering Your Hidden Self; (2008). Huna: Ancient Hawaiian Secrets for Modern Living.
  • Wingo, E. O. (1973). Huna Psychology. Huna Press.

Cross-references: XI 123 (traditional hoʻoponopono); 093 (Self I-Dentity through Hoʻoponopono).

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