Huna Article

What is Huna?
by Graeme Kapono Urlich

Many people express ideas about what Huna is from different perspectives. Some have learned the system developed by Max Freedom Long, some approach it through modern New Age interpretations, and others use the word very loosely for almost any Hawaiian-flavored healing or spiritual practice.

This article is mainly about Kahili Huna, which may also be called Huna Kupua. While I have read Max Freedom Long and respect the importance of his work, my own training is in the Kahili family tradition, as taught by Serge Kahili King. This is a kupua (shaman) tradition from Kauai, maintained through an unbroken lineage to the present day.

In earlier times, this knowledge didn’t have a single formal name in the way modern students expect. It may have been referred to descriptively, for example as ka ‘ike huna, esoteric knowledge, or na‘au huna, gut knowledge. Related language exists elsewhere in Polynesia. In New Zealand Māori, kura huna is defined as important knowledge. Given that Māori and Hawaiians had been separated for many centuries before European contact, the persistence of related language and concepts is significant. It suggests that these ideas are very old, even if the modern use of Huna as the name of a system is more recent.

It is also worth remembering that there were times, both before and after Cook’s arrival, when some kahuna traditions and knowledge were suppressed by outside religious, political, and legal pressures. This does not mean the knowledge was forbidden by the families or by the tradition itself. In those conditions, it simply made sense for some knowledge to be taught quietly, within families or trusted relationships, rather than publicly. The criteria for teaching were not secrecy for its own sake, but interest, aptitude, initiative, and readiness. That kind of privacy was a practical response to the times, not evidence that the knowledge was meant to be permanently secret.

The word huna is often translated as “the secret,” but that can be misleading. As used in this tradition, it refers less to something deliberately concealed and more to something small, subtle, or hard to see — the less obvious principles and patterns of life. Hawaiian also has the related word hunā, which more directly carries the meaning of hiding, concealing, or keeping something secret.

This distinction matters because some people try to claim that Huna is not Hawaiian at all. That criticism is partly understandable when directed at some forms of Huna influenced by Max Freedom Long. Long did valuable work in bringing public attention to Hawaiian esoteric knowledge, but Serge Kahili King notes that Long never claimed to have met a kahuna. He worked from stories, language study using an old Hawaiian dictionary, and then combined what he found with ideas from psychology, Indian culture, Egyptian studies, Theosophy, and his own broader esoteric background.

It is also possible that Long interpreted some Hawaiian words through concepts he already knew from those other systems. Serge describes Long’s system as workable, but also says that some of its ideas — especially the idea of separate autonomously evolving spirits and the method of building and sending mana to a higher self — are not Polynesian or Hawaiian concepts. This does not make Long’s work worthless, but it does mean that Hawaiian vocabulary in his system does not always mean the underlying concept is Hawaiian in origin.

Max Freedom Long claimed to have drawn on material associated with William Tufts Brigham, the former curator and director of the Bishop Museum. However, that connection is disputed, and some modern researchers argue that Long’s claims about Brigham cannot be verified from Brigham’s own writings. The absence of clear evidence does not prove it never happened, but it does mean Long’s account cannot be treated as independently established.

In earlier teaching contexts we often simply called this system Huna. However, because the word has been used in different ways by different people, it is now helpful to be more specific. To distinguish this Hawaiian family tradition from other systems using the same name, I now refer to it as Kahili Huna or Huna Kupua.

So it is fair to say that parts of Freedom Long’s system are not Hawaiian in origin. That does not mean all use of the word Huna is invalid. Kahili Huna, or Huna Kupua, comes from a different source: the Kahili family kupua tradition. In this approach, Huna is not treated as dogma, religion, or a fixed set of supernatural laws. It is a practical philosophy — a set of useful ideas or assumptions — rather than the techniques themselves.

In the Kahili tradition, Huna Kupua refers to the relationship between Huna as a body of esoteric wisdom and kupua or kalakupua as the practical shamanic application of that wisdom. Serge Kahili King defines Huna as “the esoteric wisdom of Polynesia” and kupua as “a specialized healer who works with the powers of the mind and the forces of nature.” He compares kupua in this sense with the Tungusic word “shaman” and connects the kupua path with what he calls the “Way of the Adventurer.”

In this framework, Huna is not simply a list of techniques. It is organized around sets of useful assumptions: the Seven Principles, the Three or Four Selves, and the Four Levels of Reality. These are not presented as dogma, but as practical ways of understanding and changing experience.

Kupua is often used as a shortened form of kalakupua when referring to the practitioner, but like many Hawaiian words its meaning depends on context. The best-known kupua in Polynesian tradition is Māui Kupua. Although the stories of Māui do not usually present him as a “healer” in the narrow clinical sense, they repeatedly show him using extraordinary skill, knowledge, power, and ingenuity for the benefit of the people.

In this broader sense, the healing purpose of the kupua is to restore harmony, increase effectiveness, and bring benefit. This also reflects Serge’s statement:

“Huna is not a philosophy that tells you how to be. It is a philosophy that teaches you how to change, if you want to.”

In other words, Huna is not a moral code, religion, or set of rules. It is a practical philosophy for understanding and changing experience.

So, when people ask “What is Huna?” the simplest answer is not “Huna is a set of techniques.” It is more accurate to say that Huna is a practical philosophy of life, and kupua is one way that philosophy is applied as a shamanic skillset.

The Basic Framework of Huna

In Kahili Huna, the teaching is organized around several sets of useful assumptions. These are not presented as fixed laws or required beliefs. They are ways of thinking that can be tested through experience and used because they are effective.

The first and best-known framework is the Seven Principles:

The English statements of the Seven Principles are not literal word-for-word translations of the Hawaiian terms. They are practical teaching phrases that express how those words are used within this system. Each Hawaiian word has a wider range of meanings than the short English phrase can carry. For example, Pono has many meanings, including goodness, rightness, balance, appropriateness, and welfare. “Effectiveness is the measure of truth” is therefore not a dictionary translation of Pono, but a practical way of applying the concept.

These principles are not commandments. They are not rules for how everyone must live. They are practical ways of looking at experience. Each one offers a different way to change perception, behavior, emotion, relationship, or circumstance.

Strictly speaking, the first four are the core principles or assumptions about experience: ‘Ike, Kala, Makia, and Manawa. The last three — Aloha, Mana, and Pono — can also be understood as behaviors or ways of acting from those assumptions: loving, empowering, and choosing what is effective. This is only a very brief explanation for context. For a deeper reading of these concepts, Serge Kahili King’s book Urban Shaman gives a much fuller presentation.

The first principle, ‘Ike, points to the way assumptions, expectations, beliefs, attitudes, emotions, and habitual focus shape experience. The second principle, Kala, reminds us that limits are not always as fixed as they appear, and that freedom increases as tension, fear, and restriction are released. The third principle, Makia, reminds us that attention is creative. The fourth principle, Manawa, brings power back to the present moment. The sixth principle, Mana, points to inner authority and the power to choose, act, and respond. The seventh principle, Pono, keeps the system practical: the question is not merely “Is this belief correct?” but “Does this way of thinking help produce the best result?”

Because these ideas are used as practical tools rather than fixed dogma, Huna can appear in different forms. Similar principles can be found in other spiritual, psychological, philosophical, and healing traditions. Serge Kahili King’s article “The Gospel of Huna,” for example, compares the Seven Principles with sayings attributed to Jesus, showing that the same kind of wisdom can be recognized in other frameworks as well.

What makes the Seven Principles Huna in this context is not that no one else has ever expressed similar ideas. It is the way these ideas are organized, named, understood, and applied within the Kahili kupua tradition.

The Three Selves, or Four

Another important framework in Kahili Huna is the teaching of the Three Selves, sometimes expanded to four. This is a model for understanding human behavior and experience through different functions of the self.

In Serge’s summary:

The High Self — Kāne or Aumakua — inspires.
The Conscious Self — Lono — imagines.
The Subconscious Self — Ku — remembers.
The Core Self — Kanaloa — wills.

These are not separate beings fighting inside a person. They are better understood as aspects, functions, or ways of describing how a human being operates. This is one of the important differences between Kahili Huna and some interpretations influenced by Max Freedom Long. In the Kahili tradition, the selves are not treated as separate autonomously evolving spirits. They are aspects of one whole person.

In general Hawaiian usage, aumakua may refer to a family or ancestral guardian spirit. Here, however, Aumakua is used more specifically for the High Self. Kāne is also being used in relation to the High Self, but I generally use Aumakua because Kāne can easily be confused with kāne, meaning man or male.

In common usage, Kanaloa is the name of the god of the ocean. In this esoteric context, it refers to the state in which Aumakua, Lono, and Ku are working together in harmony. Kanaloa should not be understood as another part added to the other three, but as their integration, with will, centeredness, and absolute confidence.

This model is useful because it gives a practical way to understand inner conflict, memory, habit, inspiration, imagination, choice, and will. If a person wants to change, it is not enough to think differently at the conscious level. The body, memory, feeling, imagination, inspiration, and will all need to cooperate.

The Four Levels of Reality

A third major framework in Kahili Huna is the Four Levels of Reality. These describe different ways of experiencing and interpreting life:

Everything is objective — scientific reality.
Everything is subjective — psychic reality.
Everything is symbolic — shamanic reality.
Everything is holistic — mystical reality.

These levels are not separate places. They are frameworks of experience. A person can look at the same event objectively, subjectively, symbolically, or holistically, and each viewpoint will reveal different possibilities.

At the objective level, things are treated as separate and physical. This is the level of ordinary practical action, measurement, cause and effect, and everyday life.

At the subjective level, everything is connected. Relationship, feeling, energy, intuition, telepathy, and communication with nature belong more naturally to this framework.

At the symbolic level, experience is read as meaning. Dreams, omens, metaphors, imagery, ritual, and inner journeys operate strongly here.

At the holistic level, the emphasis is identity and oneness. Instead of relating to something as separate, the practitioner may experience being one with it.

The kupua learns to move between these frameworks deliberately, not for fantasy or escape, but to change experience more effectively. As Serge puts it in “The Hawaiian Kupua,” the kupua learns “to view ordinary reality in non-ordinary ways, to recognize non-ordinary events in ordinary circumstances, and to create new circumstances.”

Techniques Are Applications

This brings us back to one of the most common misunderstandings about Huna.

Many people describe Huna by listing techniques: breathwork, meditation, blessing, chanting, dream work, ho‘oponopono, bodywork, hula, imagery, energy work, working with nature, or communication with the Three Selves. These can all be useful practices, and many of them can be used within a Huna framework, but they are not Huna itself.

A person can practice breathing without using Huna. A person can meditate without using Huna. A person can do bodywork, chanting, forgiveness work, visualization, or energy work from many different philosophies. What makes a practice part of Kahili Huna is not the outer form of the technique. It is the way the practice is understood and applied through the principles, the model of the selves, and the frameworks of reality.

For example, a simple breathing practice may be understood through Makia, because attention directs energy. It may be understood through Manawa, because the power to change is in the present moment. It may involve Ku, because the body and memory respond to rhythm, feeling, and repetition. It may become a kupua practice when it is used deliberately to shift state, increase mana, communicate with nature, or change experience.

The technique is the vehicle. Huna is the map.

A Practical Philosophy of Change

Huna is therefore not best understood as a religion, a doctrine, a therapy, or a collection of exotic techniques. In Kahili Huna, it is a practical philosophy of life and change. It gives people ways to understand experience, shift attention, work with belief, increase love, use power wisely, and choose what is most effective.

Because Huna is not a religion, it does not replace a person’s religion, spiritual path, philosophy, culture, or personal values. Instead, it offers tools that can help people live those paths more effectively in practice. The same principles can be used to clarify goals, evaluate objectives, improve plans, change habits, strengthen relationships, solve problems, and increase effectiveness in any area of life.

This does not mean Huna is without ethics. Serge Kahili King explains that although the Seven Principles may appear amoral at first because they contain no fixed “shoulds” or “oughts,” the ethics are implicit in the principles themselves. If the world is shaped by thought, then improving thought matters. If there are no limits and everything is connected, then kindness makes sense. If energy flows where attention goes, then attention matters because it moves energy and increases the effect of whatever we focus on. If love increases happiness, then practicing Aloha benefits everyone involved. If Mana means that all power comes from within, then power is not something to take from others, but something to recognize, develop, and use to empower. And if Pono concerns goodness, rightness, and appropriate effectiveness, then the results of our actions matter for everyone concerned.

This is why Serge’s statement is so important and bears repeating:

“Huna is not a philosophy that tells you how to be. It is a philosophy that teaches you how to change, if you want to.”

That sentence expresses the heart of the matter. Huna does not ask people to submit to a belief system. It offers tools. The value of those tools is found in their use.

So, in the simplest terms:

Huna is the philosophy.
Kupua is the shamanic application.
The techniques are ways of putting the philosophy into practice.

Huna is the study and use of the subtle principles of life — the things that may be small, easily overlooked, or hard to see at first, but which can make a profound difference when they are understood and applied.