Self-Sabotage is really a family dispute. The “family” I’m speaking of, however, is so intimate with us as to be practically invisible.

I’m speaking of the “three Selves” that make up our so-called individuality . . . and how they may sometimes disagree.

For most of us, knowing about these selves is crucial.   This knowledge can  unlock the secret to getting congruent – both inside and out – so that you can attract whatever you want into your life.  Without congruence, our failures and self-sabotage will persist and bear more fruit.

Ceylon Yaka Masks

The Search for Kahuna Magic

Max Freedom Long discovered these “selves” during his search for the stories about how the Kahunas – or original Hawaiian shamans – performed their miracles.  In his study of the ancient Polynesian language, he came across words that told these stories about how the shamans could walk on burning hot lava, heal the sick, and control inner bodily functions.

Many of these so-called miracles have today become commonplace.  In the 1980’s, Tony Robbins became one of the first few westerners to teach fire walking and demonstrate other aspects of our subconscious power to large numbers of people.  Today, we have simply to turn on the Discovery Channel to catch the latest exploits of another miracle-worker or urban shaman.

The underlying principles of these miracles have not changed. To be congruent and powerful, you must have a laser-like focus and connection between the conscious and subconscious minds. These aspects – what we consider as “mind” in the west – have a much deeper and richer story in much of Asia, and in the Hawaiian Huna, or “secret.”

Max Freedom Long was the re-discoverer of the Huna in the 1930’s and author of many books on the subject.  He based much of his research on the 1865 edition of “A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language” by Lorrin Andrews, where the word “Huna” means:

“To hide or conceal; to keep from the sight or knowledge of another. To conceal, as knowledge or wisdom.  That which is concealed (in conversation or writing this definition is expressed as ‘ka huna.’)” [i]

The “Ka-Hunas” (Kahunas) kept this secret in order to preserve the knowledge of real power from being diluted or destroyed by western explorers and missionaries.  Long was able to re-construct much of this knowledge by studying the language of the ancient Polynesians, and deciphering the hidden meanings.

Long found, for example, words in the native language that described in detail the “three selves” and other phenomenon he described as the “three kinds of vital force” and even “complexes” as we know them in modern psychology.  According to Long, the Kahunas had a name for each of these three selves:

• Low Self (Unihipili, Ku or Subconscious)
• Middle Self (Uhane or Conscious Mind), and
• High Self (Aumakua, Spirit or God)

The Low Self

This self – also called Unihipili - was, according to Long, made of Polynesian root words for “spirit” “grasshopper” and “leg and arm bones.”   In digging further, he discovered that these terms were descriptive metaphors for certain “powers” exhibited by this self.

Among them, Long described the ability of the Low Self

• to know itself as a separate and conscious spirit,
• provide life force, or “mana” to all three selves, and
• to become subject to hypnotic suggestions and commands from the middle self or conscious mind.

According to Long, the Low Self or Ku also ruled

• the body (except for the voluntary muscles),
• the emotions,
• the memory,
• all sensory impressions
• all telepathic and psychic abilities.

In fact, so much of the body and the emotions and the memory was tied up in this being that the Kahunas considered it the guardian of Mana (or “life force”).  This Mana was shared with the Middle Self (conscious mind) which converted it into will or intent.

The Low Self also had the unique ability to contact the High Self through “prayer.” The middle self or conscious mind is unable to do this – only make suggestions to the low self.  For example, if a prayer is contrary to a previously-establish command by the middle self (e.g., childhood hidden decision), then the prayer would not be sent or heard.

The Low Self is so powerful that I originally called it “The One Who Makes Things Happen” before I discovered Long’s books.  This self, “inner child,” Ku, or Unihipli, is the one we communicate with through muscle testing.

The Middle Self

This entity is what we normally considered as our “self” or ego.  According to the Kahuna, however, this same self is practically powerless without its servant, the Ku. The middle self was labeled by the Kahunas as Uhane, or “the spirit which talks.”

Besides the ability to form words and speak, the middle self also has the ability to rationalize, solve puzzles, think logically, and – most importantly of all – make decisions. This ability above all others makes the Uhane the captain of this ship we call “our life,” and guide to its destiny.

The limitations of the middle self, however, are many.  It cannot get input from its surroundings, remember anything, or feel anything without the help of the low self.  By itself it is a ghost, a wandering apparition, with no memory of its past or knowledge of its environment.

The middle self also lacks the ability to pray for what it wants. All it can do is make a request of the low self who then transmits this as a “prayer” to the High Self to “rain down benefits.”

The High Self

Aumakua means in Polynesian “utterly trustworthy parental spirit.” It is equivalent in meaning to the Judeo-Christian “Father in Heaven” and “Great Spirit” of the Native Americans.  To the Kahunas it is the ultimate creator of all things in Heaven and Earth.

The High Self manifests all things, seen and unseen, on earth and in the cosmos.  The middle self, however, has no direct contact with this Being.  It must go through the low self to accomplish this.  Only the low self can extend it’s “aka cord” or ectoplasmic thought substance to the High Self in the form of a prayer.

According to Long:

If the three selves are working normally and freely together, the low self – at the request of the middle self – can at any time call up the High Self by way of the aka cord and give it a message. ^[ii]

Long’s “prayer” therefore becomes a dance between the three selves, to the benefit of all.  Nothing happens unless all three are in harmony – together!

How The Magic Was Lost

Freud and modern psychology have given us the knowledge of three divisions of consciousness, i.e., the conscious, subconscious and superconscious. While this knowledge was light years ahead of anything we knew before, it still treats the three “selves” as parts of one consciousness we call the “individual” – or undivided being.

We have the Greeks and other western cultures to thank for this idea.  By elevating the individual as Hero, the Greeks, Romans and early church created an ignorance of human interconnectedness, and a kind of arrogance that said we could do things without any real inner guidance. This growing reliance on outward signs and prophesies forestalled our search for inner awareness and divine power.

In fact, before Freud we westerners could never conceptualize what the ancient Kahunas meant by “three selves.”   Kahuna references to “selves” sounded like mere idol worship to early Hawaiian Christian missionaries of the early 1800’s.

This was our loss.  The missionaries – and western society itself – had much to gain from the Kahunas. Instead, they burned all their materials and sacred objects from that time.

Long pointed out:

The idea of one supreme God was the Hebrew contribution to the world’s thought on this subject.  But in doing this masterly bit of reasoning, the reasoners accomplished for many branches of religion the wiping out of every level or form of consciousness between the middle self and Ultimate God, leaving a vast emptiness . . .[iii]

Ancient Hawaiian history was lost. The only resources Max Freedom Long could find were a few natives who were able to re-construct some folk stories, and the Polynesian language itself.  But re-construct he did, and we owe Mr. Long a huge debt of gratitude.

NEXT: Soul Logic and the Three Selves

[ii] Max Freedom Long, The Secret Science At Work (DeVorss & Co. Publishers, 1953 ed.), p.  84.

[iii] Ibid., page 85