Huna Article

Huna International

Mind Over Matter
by Jo Danieli

Recently I got an email from a young friend who had just left Hawaii and who was returning back to the mainland after a few months of happy island life with lots of beach experiences, sunshine and hanging out with new friends.

He told me that a little "bug bite" on his leg had turned into a "gunshot hole" after having become a large, painful infection with a lot of swelling and pus ... well, I will spare you the details.

My advice for him was, to take care of some urgent "inner business" that had to do with "moving forward in life". I had observed during his stay, that this young man absolutely lacked any initiative in making any step towards any form of future career, in whatever field of life. He told me, "My plan is to not have plans". "This, my dear, doesn't work," I told him. "You are abusing and misusing your creative powers by investing them in a nonsensical strategy. " He was contradicting himself and raising an inner conflict, because on the other hand he longed for fame as an artist, and, indeed, he is very talented! He seemed to be waiting for somebody to show him the way, and I was not meant to play this role for him. He was very reluctant about "moving on," and therefore it was no surprise to me that the infection showed up on his leg, the symbol of "moving forward," and forced him into immobility for a few days. Maybe he did use these days for self-reflection and for making the right decision. I don't know, I can only hope he did.

Whenever the body gives signs and shows symptoms that can't be ignored, something severe is going on in the mind. Let's say, rather, in the spiritual world, because "mind" is not all that makes up our spiritual functions. As a directing mind you are then asked to make one decision or another on how to proceed in life. This is what it's all about. This is why you are startled or irritated by your physical condition when something goes wrong. You are being asked by some part of yourself to decide how to go on in life. And in order to do this you require some self-awareness and the courage to clear your life's clutter.

The story of that young man and his infection reminded me of my own experience some years ago, when it was my turn to end up in a Kauai hospital with a severe staph infection, so severe that the physician in charge called in several colleagues because he wasn't sure how to handle my problem. My hip was "eaten up" to the bone, the flesh had liquified, and the swelling was huge. They all wondered how I could have made it through the pain for so long to allow something vicious like that grow. Well, I had been in a relationship with a man that occupied all my thoughts (and I had also used Ti-leaves and self-hypnosis). I wanted to be with him, but EVERY spontaneous tuning in to my gut told me, "LEAVE".

I didn't leave. I had the abscess cut open and it took an hour until ... I spare you these details, too. It was a mess. But it wasn't over after that. It took two years to get over the infection. WHATEVER I tried worked only for a little while. Homeopathy? Oh yes! Great insights, a lot of secondary layers revealed, a wonderful Homeopath to talk to, but after a while - abscesses again. Antibiotics? Sure. I took them. Lots of them. As soon as the last pill was taken and I had been a few days without the bacteria-killing substances, new abscesses showed up.

The warnings couldn't have been more apparent, since those nasty things began to develop at spots that were certainly crucial in keeping up a relationship with a man.

To make a long story shorter, I ended up with deep scars on my body. Many of them I treated with Kukui nut oil, and they disappeared. The oil did not help against the abscesses, although Kukui nut oil obviously is an old herbal skin remedy of Hawai'i. Kukui nut oil can soften stone, according to some old information, but there is one thing stronger than the mana of a really effective medicine: your own "body-spirit" with all his/her energetic powers that just insists on telling you something about an inner issue. An issue that takes up so much of your life-energy that the body-spirit system that you are begins to malfunction. You get warned. Through dreams first. Through weird experiences. And if you are still playing dumb you will suffer a physical condition. This is the only way left, that "Ku," your "active" inner spirit, can use to direct your attention to the FACT, that you are not well INSIDE!

You've GOT to clarify this inner issue. You need to kaukau (put things on the table with yourself), look at them in all 'oia'i'o (absolute truth), find out about hihia (entanglements with other issues and people), and then kala (clean up)! Only this can restore your health and peace of mind.

Physical pain or physical symptoms ARE signals from within. Always. The idea of "Somography" developed by Serge King and described in his books is the best available system on the globe to "read" your own body. It's understandable and absolutely enlightening. It's logical, too. You only need to open your mind and your eyes. Your physical functions are so obviously reflections of spirit that it takes a lot of stubborn ignorance to deny this.

Well, I didn't really care about all that "the body reflects the spirit"-stuff when I had "my infection" - although I really knew better. I was consciously aware of the fact that I WAS ignoring my knowledge. The symptoms of discomfort and disease that you develop are always YOURS. Nobody else has them and they are meant to raise your awareness of inner issues.

I ended up with a swollen breast, due to a large collection of rotten flesh with pus in it. And this shocked me. There I was, still not sure about how to proceed in that relationship and on the way into another one that made me feel kind of shaky. There was NO remedy left that I could try.

In a dream I heard the voice of the physician who had first examined me in the Kauai clinic: "If I was allowed to do what I wanted to do, I would use something Hawaiian." He actually named it. But he wasn't allowed to do that. Working in a "modern" institution obligated him to use "modern" means. He told me, though, that this kind of flesh-eating staph infection was one of the most widely spread diseases in the islands. From a Huna perspective, some people simply get it when they "need" it, because their "body-spirit" wants them to become aware of an inner issue that has to do with lack of self-love and self-respect. And it's expressed through ugly, painful swellings of the skin that help you to avoid being touched by anybody. Get the meaning?

"... something Hawaiian ... something Hawaiian ..." I whined through the following day. Experiences and physicians had told me that those abscesses had to be cut open to be drained, otherwise "the dirt" wouldn't get out and the spot couldn't heal and you could be poisoned ... and on and on. In Norway I had already gone through home-made surgery, all by myself, high up on a glacier, with a scalpel and the help of ice-cold lake water ...

To make an already too-long story shorter again: I decided to ignore that "truth" about needing to have my breast cut open, because had I believed in it, I would have had to allow somebody to do something unimaginable to my body. The pain was unbearable.

But I decided: I shall now UNDERSTAND what I have to do! And I made a clear decision and swore myself to respect my na'auao (my gut knowledge) and clarify ANY relationship in my life.

The next day I was invited to a kahuna (surprise, and that could be a story of it's own with all the "magical" aspects to it) and he gave me a remedy to take in and put on, and he agreed to my idea to pick Noni fruits and drink their juice. Everybody who has ever had a close encounter with fresh Noni knows what I went through, but, folks, I must tell you that I was looking forward to drinking that stuff every day! I found a garden where Noni lay in the grass under a huge tree, and the owner was more than happy that I gathered the fermenting fruits to get rid of the stink. And I did what I had to do. I pressed the fruits through a shirt, far away from my landlady ...

After two days, the swelling was only half the size. It totally disappeared within a week.

Believe me, folks, the body can handle anything you want it to. I had established a very strong notion of my body being perfectly able to absorb the pus and dispose of it or do whatever else with it and to restore my breast tissue. It worked, although every doctor on the planet would have probably insisted on surgery.

Mind over matter is not just an esoteric wish. It's a truth. Every case of discomfort and disease or sickness, however, is a UNIQUE case, and it will require unique thoughts to deal with it and unique treatment! Nothing can be taken for granted in a Cosmic network of inevitable change and unique creatures with unique mana everywhere.

I went back into a relationship with that man and developed abscesses again. In Austria, where I come from, people say that you develop that kind of skin condition when you have "bad thoughts." And I had a lot of bad thoughts those days. I was torn like never before in my life, for a great variety of reasons. I had to make major decisions about how to move on in life. I had to do what I had to do, but I kept in mind that my body was giving me angry warnings again.

After a dramatic incident, there was no doubt left at some point, that certain relationships had had their times in my mind. I grasped a lot of learnings and quit what I had to quit.

When I got that email from that young man concerning his "rotting leg" that kept him from moving while he was in a situation where he was afraid of moving anyway, one of these learnings flared up newly: I found that a new kaukau was necessary concerning relationships in my life, and I know that there is a huge need for kala. I now spare myself from having abscesses again by witnessing somebody else suffer them. I am getting the right insight in time. The scars on my body keep reminding me that I better listen to what "Ku", my "body-spirit", wants to communicate. Those large, terrible abscesses have never showed up again after I had left that one guy, shattered and sore at that time, but in peace with myself knowing that this time I had done the right thing.

My advice for you out there is this NEVER, ever, ignore the fact that you are a body-spirit-system that works in perfect cooperation. There is NOTHING you ever think, feel or experience that is of no meaning. It may take a while until you get it, but trust yourself and expect the best. Your self-confidence is the only protection you will ever have in your life.

Copyright Huna International 2005