Are there still Kahunas today?
June 15, 2007
Question: “Are there any kahunas still around to learn Huna from?”
Answer: There most certainly are. Kahunas (Priests, Ministers, and Experts) are still in Polynesia and they are in Huna as well.
But your question needs to be re-stated to avoid confusion.
First, of all I assume that you mean a kahuna that teaches the religious or spiritual side of things. The are kahunas who are experts in many different areas such as wood carving, canoe making, etc.
Further still, there are religious kahunas of Hawaiian and Polynesian tradition and of the tradition of Huna. The term “huna” is a word in the Hawaiian language that means “secret” or “dust”. But it didn’t refer to a system of spirituality like it means to many people now. The teachings of Huna are actually not Hawaiian, though have many roots and links to Hawaiian spiritual traditions.
Max Freedom Long wanted to give a name to the system of teachings and practices he had learned from his kumu (teacher) Kahuna Ha`ole Nui (Great White Priest) William Tufts Brigham, other religious kahunas or inferred from his own research. This system he called “Huna”. So from here on when we refer to “Huna” we mean the religious and psychological system created by Max Freedom Long and continuing until this day.
So you ask, are there religious Kahunas of Huna? There most certainly are.
There are a couple of people who learned directly from Max and many other people who have spent their lives studying the writing and recordings he has made and trained under these mamo or “descendents” of Kahuna Max. These Kahunas of Huna function as religious priests and ministers to people who need help or as teachers for people who want to learn about Huna for themselves.
There are Kahunas of 3 main organizations that originated from Max Freedom Long.
- Huna Ohana (Huna Research, Inc) - This is an extension of the original HRA organization founded by Max Freedom Long. It focuses mostly on the psychological systems taught by Max. Lots of techniques have been integrated and added, such as hypnosis, NLP and other techniques. http://www.huna-ohana.com
- Huna Heiau - This is a religious organization that has focused on creating a Huna Priesthood. The kahunas of this organization have specialized training in area originally laid out by Max Freedom Long. Examples are Haku Pule (Prayer), Kalo (Tarot), Ho’ola (Healing), Firewalking, Koa (Exorcists). The kahunas offer service to people with problem that may be helped by the application of those particular Lores. http://www.hunaheiau.org
- Huna Life - This is a religious organization which is a moderate balance between the psychological focus of the HRI and the religious/ceremonial focus of the Huna Heiau. Bottom Line: Use only what works the best. http://www.hunalife.org
Back to your original question…were you wanting to know if there are kahunas in Polynesia or people trained in these traditions to teach you? Well we are certain that there are. But we don’t know much about those things since the Huna tradition is now only loosely linked to Hawaii. It has some important ties that you will learn about if you continue to explore MaxFreedomLong.com, but not enough that we would know who these kahunas are at this time. But if you want to discover maybe a search online or a trip to Hawaii would help.
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