Self-Suggestion and the New Huna Theory of Mesmerism and Hypnosis, by Max Freedom Long, , at sacred-texts.com
In addition to the vital force used in all forms of mesmerism and suggestion, one must consider the nature of THOUGHTS.
In modern psychological circles it is postulated that thoughts arc chemical actions coupled with electrical charges in some way. The brain can be stimulated by a probe which has been mildly electrified, and the patient will then recall something that had happened earlier in his life, a scene, a sound or a series of thoughts. These memories tend to take on all the semblance of reality of a dream. The electrical ingredient in the thought process is now measured by a very sensitive instrument, the electroencephalograph, which charts the electrical activities caused in the brain by thinking or even by dreaming. But still, no one has decided what a thought maybe unless it something which leaves a small imprint on certain tissues of the brain.
In Huna, things invisible and intangible are considered just as material as things which register their qualities on one of the five senses. All substance, tangible or not, is called "mea". We have no word in English to match it.
So, to the kahunas from the earliest times, THOUGHTS WERE THINGS. And, as they traveled about the world, they left this and other concepts scattered among the peoples whom they visited.
In Asia, particularly in parts of what is now
India, there may still be found very definite indications that the kahunas had passed that way. They taught that bringing the High Self into close integration or union with the low and middle selves was the true goal of living. In India, this belief gave rise to Yoga, "the Science of Union".
From Yoga the idea of the three selves passed into Hinduism, and, with the passage of time, became contaminated by other beliefs. Today in India, the basic Huna beliefs can still be recognized, but they are badly distorted. In Theosophy, which was made up largely of borrowings from Yoga and Hinduism, one may often read, "Thoughts are things".
One may read of mana, or vital force under the name of "prana", but the three selves have become "seven bodies", and vehicles and selves are mixed together so that their true identity can no longer be recognized.
Psychology has been called "the science of consciousness", but it fails dismally to recognize consciousness when it is found in the possession of the spirits of the dead, the survival of which has been well proven by the new science, Psychic Science, the outgrowth of earlier psychical research.
The dead return—and this is the point of importance to our discussion—THEY BRING BACK THEIR MEMORIES WITH THEM.
This fact has thrown all theories covering the nature of thought out of line for the psychologists and physiologists. They cannot explain it, so they prefer to ignore it. They are also forced to ignore the fact of the human "will" although it shows itself in the activities of the spirits who return.
If the modern materialistic psychologist would
[paragraph continues] "strain over the gnat" of the Huna conception of an idea charged with vital force and "will" force from the middle self, he would certainly refuse to "swallow the camel" which is now to be selected from Huna for presentation.
The kahunas not only taught that thoughts were things, but they also explained that they were made of very real substance, even if this were invisible as well as intangible. This was called "aka" or "shadowy" substance. It was to be found in the invisible "double" surrounding and interpenetrating the physical body. Each of the three selves was said to have a body of the shadowy substance, and in these they lived as spirits after death, as well as in life.
The shadowy double or "kino aka" was the mold of the body. It provided the mold into which the seed or the embryo could grow, and it expanded to match growth in size.
Science is taking slow steps in the direction of the rediscovery of the shadowy body. It has now recognized it as a "field" which surrounds the seed and guides its growth and expansion. But no scientist has yet approached the Huna concept of a thought having a similar field—a shadowy body made of the same shadowy substance, and carried as a memory, not in the physical brain, but in the shadowy body of the man. It goes without saying, that, even should a scientist accept the fact of the shadowy bodies of thoughts, he would probably reject the idea that such thought form structures were sturdy enough to survive physical death and to be preserved as memories for use by man as a spirit.
The kahunas believed that the low self has a shadowy body which replenishes its substance and
from which enough material may be taken at any time to form a very small "body" to surround each thought as it is made by an action of the consciousness of the selves and by the use of the vital force. As each tiny idea in its new shadowy body is made, it is tied by a thread of the shadowy material to the thoughts which have gone ahead and to those still to come. In this way a "cluster" of thought forms is created to embody each related set of ideas.
Once a cluster of ideas is given to the low self to preserve, it becomes a memory.
The tiny threads of invisible shadowy substance which connect thought forms, also connect the whole of the individual with things once contacted. This point brings up a peculiar quality of the shadowy body substance. It is STICKY and it can STRETCH almost indefinitely.
If a person touches the hand of another person, the shadowy body substance of each may stick as if two blobs of soft taffy were pressed together and then pulled apart. In pulling apart, a long thread of the shadowy substance is drawn out and remains as an invisible attachment connecting the two people.
Everything one touches becomes attached to one by an invisible shadowy thread, much as a spider, upon touching a twig, fastens the end of a strand of web to it before spinning out more of the strand.
These shadowy strands can also be formed when a thing is touched by the sight of the eyes, and perhaps by hearing or smelling them. But the tiny threads so formed amount to little or nothing unless they are strengthened by being put to use.
If two people meet, plan experiments together in telepathic sending of mental ideas or images, and
make a good contact, a cord or strand of threads connects the pair. When they are apart and ready to experiment, their low selves (who have an instinctive way of knowing how to do certain things, just as birds have of knowing how to build nests) reach out, following the connecting shadowy strands and find each other. Along the threads they cause a current of vital force to flow, and with the flow of force can be sent reproductions of the thoughts to be transmitted telepathically. The original ideas must be remembered by the transmitter, so they are not sent as messages. They are duplicated and the duplicates sent.
When a message sent by this telepathic method comes in, the low self of the receiver takes the little thought forms and places them in the center of consciousness where the middle self can sense them. When they have been properly considered, they are stored in the memory.
As far back as the days of Mesmer, the French word "rapport" was used to name the invisible, but unmistakable connection established between the mesmerist and (1) the things he charged with his vital force and "will" mixture, or (2) the subject into whom he had poured it to bring the healing reaction.
This rapport, we learn from Huna, is made possible by the connecting shadowy threads. It has been observed many times that a suggestion can be given telepathically by an operator to a distant subject. Of course, this is not within the ken of materialistic science, so the whole matter of rapport has been attacked rather than met with an honest attempt at understanding and explanation.
The vital force may be likened to an electrical
current, but it does not necessarily have to flow. It can fill a thing and remain static. But when it is guided into flowing or moving in any way by the consciousness of the low or middle self, it can flow magnificently. Unlike electricity, which gets weaker and weaker as the wire lengthens and resistance wears it out, the vital force finds in the shadowy threads a perfect conductor which offers no resistance. It can flow great distances and arrive as strong as when it started. The shadowy substance as well as the vital force is ALIVE, and both are capable of accepting guidance when it is built into them in the form of an idea tinctured with the "will".
The shadowy substance has still another strange characteristic. When rightly handled and filled with vital force, it can grow progressively solid. It can remain invisible, or it can become visible. The spirits of the dead, who have often returned to visit the living in spiritistic seances, are often expert in manipulating their low self shadowy bodies—these being taken across to the other side of life with them at the time of physical death. Solidifying structures of shadowy body substance are called "ectoplasm". They may appear as thin and hardly visible outlines of "materializing" faces or forms at seances, or they may act as molds and be filled solidly with substance and so be, to all appearance, the dead returned temporarily to life.
Visible ectoplasmic hands may be produced by spirits to move objects, or the projecting hands and arms (or simple "rods") may remain invisible and still move objects. When heavily charged with vital force (usually supplied by the living who are attending the seances) these ectoplasmic structures can use up
all the vital force in an instant and so exert amazing strength. In this way pianos, heavy tables, and even living human beings can be lifted.
All of which brings us back to the matter of the ideas or sets of related ideas which are created by the middle self to be used as the core of the suggestions which are to be given. We can better understand how the low self takes these ideas, as they are produced, and surrounds them with the invisible shadowy body substance drawn from its own "double". Once the idea is encased in this substance, the charge of vital force can be poured into its ectoplasmic mold and the further charge of "will" force added to it. This will cause the low self of the subject to react as to a stern command.
The mechanism is the same no matter whether a hypnotist has made ready the suggestion and implanted it in the subject, or whether one is using self-suggestion. In the latter case, the middle self, with the automatic help of the low self, makes the suggestion and then implants it in the hidden center of the low self consciousness. There it will be "out of sight and out of mind" in so far as the middle self is concerned, but very much to the fore for the low self, as it is already causing it to begin to react.
This, very naturally, raises the question of where the middle self lives and creates the ideas, and, where the low self lives and stores them. Huna informs us that both selves have their own shadowy bodies. That of the middle self is composed of thinner shadowy substance than that of the low self. During normal waking life, the two selves blend their invisible bodies, and thus the middle self, which has no physical body of its own, comes in to live as a
guest and guide with the low self in the physical.
It must not be forgotten that the ideas are created by the middle self by a process of reasoning based on remembered things—the memories being supplied by the low self. But after the middle self has made the ideas and charged them for use as a suggestion, these idea structures and their charges must be given to the low self to examine, classify and store as memories. Ordinarily, a set of ideas so passed down to the low self to be stored as memories, is almost instantly classified and stored where it can be found if needed. But, when a set of thought form ideas has arrived carrying a heavy charge of vital force and a proper addition of "will" force to command the low self to react in accordance with the idea, the low self is compelled either to react or to reject the donation before it can stow it away as a memory and stop paying attention to it.
Yes, the low self can reject suggestion. Often it has a set of its own unrationalized beliefs which holds ideas quite contrary to what the command in the suggestion idea offers. Thereupon, the low self decides for itself that its own idea is better, and refuses to react to the new idea. Now and then a spirit of a dead person comes back and moves in with the low self, fully or intermittently, or it edges in at times just enough to impose its ideas on the low self. This condition falls under the heading of Abnormal Psychology and is popularly mentioned as "obsession" or multiple personality.
If there is this spirit influence behind the scenes with the low self it may be responsible for the rejection of the suggestion just as is the presence of a complexed belief.
What is called a "posthypnotic suggestion" by the hypnotist is one in which the low self is given a built-in time schedule for reaction in the set of ideas implanted into it. The low self reasons imperfectly, but it has a good understanding of the measurement of time and distance. When the suggestion is given that an action will be performed at a given future time, it will remain aware of the passage of time and will react on schedule.
The question of whether or not the low self can recall events and even words spoken in its presence at the time of birth has very little light thrown upon it by Huna. The Dianetics theory of L. Ron Hubbard advances the idea that one is influenced in later life by unconsciously remembered events or spoken words, these exerting undiminished compulsive power from the moment of birth onward through life. Such obstructing sets of ideas have been given the name of "engrams", and the devotees of Dianetics often spend much time trying to recall such memories in order to render them harmless.
Not content with starting at birth to turn up harmful and coercive command-memories, the "pre-clear" is often urged in Dianetics to pick up memories of similar things all the way back to conception then, all the way back through former incarnations.
While Huna advocates the belief that one usually has several incarnations, these occur under circumstances quite unlike those accepted by the standard Reincarnationists, little light being thrown on bringing over memories of these experiences. No mechanism is indicated or named which would make one think that memories made into shadowy body substance units are carried over from a past incarnation
at the times of rebirth.
The Theosophists, who follow the lines of belief laid down by the founders and by some of the later leaders, accept many things gleaned from the beliefs of the people of India, especially from Vedanta, Yoga and Brahmanism. One of the accepted beliefs is that memories of past incarnations may be recovered, and, to explain how this is possible, recourse is had to a theory that all events and all thoughts are impressed on what might be called the shadowy body of the earth—the "akasa". To recall events in a past incarnation, one has but to learn to read or recall certain memories preserved in the "akasic records". The success of making such readings, as reported by people over a period of years, has not been too impressive. Too many have remembered an incarnation as Napoleon or Cleopatra, and, sad to relate, the memories have not matched.
In the years 1956–57, few literate Americans failed to hear about "Bridey Murphy". Dr. Morey Bernstein hypnotized a housewife and regressed her to past lives. She relived in detail a former life in Ireland as Bridey Murphy. What she said during the periods of hypnotic trance and regression made a book, and an investigator was dispatched by the publisher to Ireland to see if evidence could be found to substantiate the material.
A report was made in which the investigator presented a number of his conclusions and told why he had reached them—mainly tending to show that the conditions described in the hypnotic state had really existed. The press discussed the pros and cons. Church authorities were interviewed, and some of them bitterly attacked the belief in reincarnation
as well as the validity of the Bridey Murphy findings.
Later, a wordy battle was waged through the pages of magazines, some writers trying to prove that the housewife had recalled, under hypnosis, only things told her about Irish life of past years by a certain acquaintance whose name was, actually, Bridey Murphy. The implication was that there had been black fraud. There were rebuttals, and then silence. No authority existed to render a decision one way or the other.
But the interest in hypnosis and possible regression which had been aroused became general. Many amateur and professional hypnotists tried their hands at it, and some subjects came up with variations on the standard pattern of reaction. In Boulder, Colorado, Robert W. Huffman, amateur hypnotist, and his collaborating subject, Irene Specht, were responsible for the widest variation. Adding explanations to trance statements recorded on tapes, they also produced a book. It was titled, "Many Wonderful Things", and it told how Mrs. Specht, under hypnosis, was regressed to a time between incarnations when her spirit was in a "Place of rest". In the suggestions used to regress her to this point, the word "love" was much used as a part of the trance producing formula. Whether or not this caused the low self of Mrs. Specht to fasten upon the theme of "love" or not is open to question. In any event, while in hypnotic trance she described a condition in which her spirit was resting between lives and was able to see the greater verities behind living. The spirit called herself the "I am I" during trances, and preached a doctrine of love with which she sought to solve many
problems which were laid before her. She took up passages from the Bible and assigned new meanings to them—and once more there developed controversy and antagonism. But for some reason or other the newspapers gave this experiment scant notice.
What we do not understand, we fight and fear. This is true the world around and it has been that way in all ages. Not understanding the nature of suggestion or what makes it work, the public has come to distrust it. Some religious organizations have condemned the use of hypnosis, and the Theosophists have been issuing warnings against its use for many years, although the founders advocated the use of mesmerism for healing purposes and proudly told of how their Colonel Olcott had healed fifty cases of paralysis in Ceylon by the use of that beneficial power. Even the astute founder, Madame Helena Blavatsky, failed to recognize the fact that mesmerism and hypnosis differ only in the matter of how much or how little suggestion is mixed with how much or how little vital force and "will" force.
Later Theosophists have usually preferred to take no chances. Accepting the authority of the dictionaries rather than that of the founders, they have chosen to consider mesmerism and hypnotism one and the same thing.
The main argument against hypnosis was, and continues to be, that if one is once "dominated" by the will of another, the domination continues to a large degree, and, worst of all, the rapport which is established between operator and subject is a bond which cannot be broken. It ties, it is explained, the dominated one to the operator for life, and continues to tie him for, perhaps, all following incarnations.
[paragraph continues] The ability to control a subject for evil purposes, over miles of distance and years of time, is exaggerated and viewed with great alarm. The horrible example of a black school of Yoga practitioners, who misuse hypnotic power is often pointed out.
Little evidence of this master-slave relationship between operator and subject has ever been produced, but the lack of understanding of what really happens in the use of suggestion has fertilized the ground of fear.
With the increase in the numbers of amateur hypnotists in recent years, cries of alarm and indignation began to arise on every side. The consensus of opinion seemed to be, "They shouldn't be allowed to tamper with the human mind!" In response, the state legislatures set to work to make laws forbidding the use of hypnotism-mesmerism to all who are not trained to stringently high standards in the dental or healing professions.
Fortunately, no laws are being passed to encroach on personal liberty and to prevent the use of suggestion by oneself on oneself.
Self-suggestion is safe to use even if all the horrendous dangers of hypnotism, pointed out by such Theosophical writers as William Q. Judge and Dr. G. de Purucker, had been proven to be valid even to a small degree.
Dr. de Purucker, as quoted in a recent book of gathered Theosophical writings titled, "Hypnotism-Mesmerism and Reincarnation", (see page 76) says, "Autosuggestion, which means suggestion practiced upon yourself, is always right, and we should practice it continually, if it means merely suggesting to oneself night and day and all the time pictures of
spiritual and moral and intellectual strength, self-control, and improvement—things of beauty, of glory, of holiness, of purity, of charity, of kindness; in short, all the great and noble virtues. Autosuggestion in this sense is right because it is simply teaching ourselves. . . ." (It will be noted that nothing is said here of the use of autosuggestion to help heal ourselves. Some of the writers represented in this book lean to the belief that healing may prevent suffering and so the paying off of bad karma, but if this archaic belief were to be followed to the logical extreme, all forward looking Theosophists would at once set about torturing themselves.)
To sum up, we may conclude that suggestion made by a moral operator and containing only beneficial and good ideas, cannot be harmful. If the rapport between operator and subject should by chance remain unbroken for many incarnations, then, by the same argument it would have to be admitted that each of us builds thousands of strands of shadowy substance connecting us with others in a definite form of rapport. If this is so, it is unavoidable, and we will not go too far wrong in adding one more strand to a good hypno-therapist.
In self-suggestion, there can be no danger of domination by anyone other than oneself.