Ho' oponopono and the Power of Love

From a metaphysical-mystical-spiritual perspective I am you and you are me. We, together, are the tallest mountain and the tiniest grain of sand. We are the sun, planets, stars, galaxy and universe. We are everything we can see, everything our most sensitive scientific instruments can measure, and much, much more than that. Any perception of separation we may feel from each other, or anything else, is indeed an illusion. Why? Because everything in the universe is connected, and that connection is through the energy that comprises us and everything else in existence.

In order to understand all this we must first set aside the ego's notion that some things are impossible, and accept that anything is possible. This doesn't mean you have to blindly believe everything you're told; use your discernment. Skepticism, however, for the sake of itself is ego-based and consciousness-limiting. It's doubtful that you'll ever convince a skeptic of that, but it's not like you should care.

Human history is filled with examples of ideas that were thought at one time to be impossible, and are now commonplace. Did the Wright brothers believe the prevailing conventional wisdom of their time, and accept that human flight was impossible? Why should you accept what you're told, or what your ego (the single most limiting factor to human awareness) would have you believe?

There is no duality even though our egos convince us there is. We are not separate. We are all One, infinitely bound together through energy.

Metaphysicians and mystics know love to be the greatest, most powerful force in the universe. Love is the essence of God (Or Goddess, Mother-Father God, Source, Creator, All-That-Is, etc -- whatever name suits you for a concept well beyond man-consciousness). Through applying the power of love we can affect significant changes in ourselves and others.

How do we do that? The first step is to take complete responsibility for everything in our lives. Most people would deny it, but it is a Great Truth that we do, indeed, create the events of our lives from birth to death and beyond.

The reason we don't realize it is because in our four-dimensional world it takes time for the energy of our thoughts, words, and emotions to coalesce into matter. We don't see the connection between what we thought, expressed and felt months ago, and how it all manifests into our reality today.

The reason we deny it is we're more comfortable seeing ourselves as victims of circumstances beyond our control, rather than the actual creators of those circumstances. Many people just love playing the victim because it's an excuse to feel sorry for themselves. That's not meant to sound harsh. It simply is as it is, and quite true.

When we take responsibility we begin to see the connection. Once we see the connection, we can no longer deny our full and complete role in how our thoughts, emotions, and verbalization of it all creates the details of our lives. They are ours, aren't they? They are our creations. Why not take ownership of them? It's a powerful step.

You may have created the majority of what is in your life. I however, have created you in my life. Putting our energy connection aside, by virtue of the fact that you're reading this, you're a factor in my life, and I am a factor in yours. Do you see the connection?

The next step to profoundly changing things is to love ourselves and express that love, and through that bring our God-essence into our conscious Being. When we channel that essence we become capable of miracles.

The story below was described to me last summer. I'd forgotten about it until I "stumbled" (I use quotation marks because metaphysicians know we don't accidentally "stumble" on anything!) upon this excerpt from a book about it. I thought it worth sharing. It further illustrates how every thing and every one is connected. It also describes how profoundly we can change other people, even if we've never met them.

Excerpted from the book Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More

by Joe Vitale and Dr. Hew Len

Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients--without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate's chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person's illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.

When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane?

It didn't make any sense. It wasn't logical, so I dismissed the story.

However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho 'oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn't let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more.

I had always understood "total responsibility" to mean that I am responsible for what I think and do. Beyond that, it's out of my hands. I think that most people think of total responsibility that way. We're responsible for what we do, not what anyone else does. The Hawaiian therapist who healed those mentally ill people would teach me an advanced new perspective about total responsibility.

His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. We probably spent an hour talking on our first phone call. I asked him to tell me the complete story of his work as a therapist. He explained that he worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years. That ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous. Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients. It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.

Dr. Len told me that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files. While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal.

"After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely," he told me. "Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed."

I was in awe.

"Not only that," he went on, "but the staff began to enjoy coming to work. Absenteeism and turnover disappeared. We ended up with more staff than we needed because patients were being released, and all the staff was showing up to work. Today, that ward is closed."

This is where I had to ask the million dollar question: "What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?"

"I was simply healing the part of me that created them," he said.

I didn't understand.

Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life--simply because it is in your life--is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.

Whew. This is tough to swallow. Being responsible for what I say or do is one thing. Being responsible for what everyone in my life says or does is quite another. Yet, the truth is this: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life.

This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy--anything you experience and don't like--is up for you to heal. They don't exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. The problem isn't with them, it's with you, and to change them, you have to change you.

I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, but as I spoke with Dr. Len, I began to realize that healing for him and in ho 'oponopono means loving yourself. If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone--even a mentally ill criminal--you do it by healing you.

I asked Dr. Len how he went about healing himself. What was he doing, exactly, when he looked at those patients' files?

"I just kept saying, 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you' over and over again," he explained.

That's it?

That's it.

Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world. Let me give you a quick example of how this works: one day, someone sent me an email that upset me. In the past I would have handled it by working on my emotional hot buttons or by trying to reason with the person who sent the nasty message. This time, I decided to try Dr. Len's method. I kept silently saying, "I'm sorry" and "I love you," I didn't say it to anyone in particular. I was simply evoking the spirit of love to heal within me what was creating the outer circumstance.

Within an hour I got an e-mail from the same person. He apologized for his previous message. Keep in mind that I didn't take any outward action to get that apology. I didn't even write him back. Yet, by saying "I love you," I somehow healed within me what was creating him.

I later attended a ho 'oponopono workshop run by Dr. Len. He's now 70 years old, considered a grandfatherly shaman, and is somewhat reclusive. He praised my book, The Attractor Factor: 5 Easy Steps for Creating Wealth (or Anything Else) From the Inside Out. He told me that as I improve myself, my book's vibration will raise, and everyone will feel it when they read it. In short, as I improve, my readers will improve. "What about the books that are already sold and out there?" I asked. "They aren't out there," he explained, once again blowing my mind with his mystic wisdom. "They are still in you." In short, there is no out there.

It would take a whole book to explain this advanced technique with the depth it deserves. Suffice it to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there's only one place to look: inside you. "When you look, do it with love."

Joe Vitale

Back to the blog. Here's how I perceive the ho' oponopono technique worked in this story, from my consciousness in this moment, as I write this:

The statements are all self-directed. The "I'm sorry" statement is an apology, and also an acknowledgment of responsibility. "I love you" is of course an expression of love. In addition, two more phrases are used (Guess you need to read the book to get all the details), "Please forgive me", asking for forgiveness, and "Thank you", the all-important element of gratitude. The healing didn't happen overnight because the energy Dr Len was deliberately creating took time to manifest in matter, but the statements, repeated over and over, worked miracles upon the patients.

Ho' oponopono is from Huna, the Hawaiian shamanic tradition. It must be performed with pure intention, i.e. no personal feelings or agenda can be brought into it. I assume this is why Dr Len did not meet any of the patients. Through preserving that distance he was able to keep any personal impressions and feelings out of the process, and maintain his pure intention. By taking responsibility and accepting, even believing, it was possible, Dr Len was able to apply the power of love to himself, and with that heal an entire hospital ward of criminally insane patients.

Brilliant.

Ultimately, my analysis of this does not matter. There are undoubtedly factors at work in the process that I can't even begin to understand. So, I throw it out there as one person's perspective only. What really matters is the process works.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all put these concepts of responsibility and love into practice? We could change not only our immediate world, but the entire planet as well. Another tool for the Lightworker's tool box, and a very powerful one indeed.

I'm going to put this technique to work in my life. How about you? Are you willing to assume that level of responsibility? Can you apply it to yourself, and tell your friends about it, so maybe they can do it too? Why don't we get to work?

Peace to all.

Changing Our Thoughts

We’ve all known people who are chronic complainers. They complain about this, they complain about that. It seems that they never run out of things to complain about. Of course there’s a reason for that, and the reason lies in how our thoughts and the words we express them with bring what we think and talk about into our lives. By complaining, we create more to complain about. Conversely, if we express gratitude we bring ourselves more to be grateful for. Have you noticed?

We’re powerful creators, all of us. For most of us it’s an inadvertent process; we aren’t aware of the mechanism that causes these things to happen. What we put out to the universe in the form of thought and verbal expression will inevitably come back to us, and when there is emotion behind it, what comes back is even more powerful than it would be otherwise. It’s Law of Attraction.

Give you an example: I had a friend I met with for breakfast every month or so. She is very intuitive and to some degree a kindred spirit. I really like this lady; she is very loving and has a huge heart. Unfortunately, she also has a very challenging life and would complain constantly about how unhappy her life is, and the complaints manifested in (guess what?) a miserable life and fibromyalgia. I don't normally see energy, but one time I actually saw blackness emanating from her. Another time, when I was at a particularly high vibration, I was inspired to walk her through shifting her thoughts and frequency right at the restaurant table. She was wide-eyed with amazement at the result. Still, she wouldn't subsequently apply what I had shown her because she is, I’m sorry to say, addicted to her misery. I bought her books and counseled her to no avail. Why? She’s seen herself as a victim for so long it’s become her comfort zone, and creating more misery is so habitual she can’t break the habit. Even though we met infrequently I could very accurately predict what our conversations would be like. It became very tiresome.

One day she called me to describe more negative experiences, and I told her I didn't want to hear any more of it. I told her not to call me until she could describe what she was doing to change her life, and how she visualized it changing. Well, that was over two years ago and I haven't heard from her since. We really do get addicted to our misery, and create more of it through focusing on and talking about it, and sometimes we just don't want to change it because doing that involves leaving our comfort zone.

OK, so your life is a bucket of shit, your breath is bad, your dog ignores you, and all these nasty experiences keep befalling you. But you really, really want to change all that! How do you do it?

When we strive to change our lives and/or our health, we first need to fundamentally change our thought patterns and the emotions that spring from those thoughts. So take a look, a very hard look, at your thinking and how you feel as a result of the thoughts you have. How often do you think about the situation you’re in? How does that make you feel? Take a look at your talk. How often do you verbalize your unhappiness?

Every time you think about it, every time you talk about it, every time you allow yourself to feel like a victim of it, you affirm and empower it. By doing that, you continue to create more and more of what you don’t want. In order to break that pattern, you’re going to have to change your thinking. By changing how you think you’ll also change how you feel. The emotional charge that is such a powerful element in creating what you don’t want will begin to diminish as a result, and so will the level of crap in the bucket.

The thought patterns you have are literally hard-wired into the synapses of your brain in what are called neural networks, or neuronets. If you change the thought patterns to something else, something positively affirming, the old neuronets will break down from disuse and be replaced by the new ones you create. This is scientific fact. However, accomplishing this requires you to vigilantly observe your mental state, and when you see thoughts and feelings that don’t serve you begin to surface, you need to immediately shift them to something positive.

What do I mean by “something positive”? Make a list of your negative thoughts. Next to each negative one write a positive substitute. For example:

I’m fat and ugly — I’m thin and beautiful
I do stupid stuff without thinking — I deliberate before I act
I have this ___________ illness — I am vibrantly healthy

Note the absence of terms like “not” and “don’t” on the positive side. Law of Attraction doesn’t differentiate between your thinking or saying you “are” something, “aren’t something, “do” something, or “don’t” something. The universe only sees the “something” and brings that something to you. In other words, if you express you’re “not fat”, what the universe sees is “fat”, and brings you fat! The key is to use words only for what you WANT, and not use words for what you don’t want.

Memorize the list of substitutes and watch your thoughts. When the negative ones begin to surface QUICKLY replace them with the positive substitute.

Do NOT give thought to diseases or illnesses. By giving thought to illness you empower it and dis-empower yourself. Give thought only to health.

Imagine what it feels like to have what you want, and FEEL it. Bring that powerful element of emotion into it.

It’s going to take some practice and a lot of work for you to alter your thinking. Didn’t you say you really want to change your life? If that’s actually true and genuine then you won’t give up. Changing our thinking is not an easy task; we have to keep working at it. In many cases the existing neural networks have been in force for years, or decades, and even lifetimes, so you’re not going to dissolve them overnight. Over time, though, you will find yourself beginning to naturally go to the positive thought, rather than the negative one, as your new neuronets form. You will also become aware of other negative thought patterns to work with. And your life will improve as you see and confirm the sheer goodness of it.

Find things to be grateful for. Even if your life is a bucket of shit you have things to be grateful for. For starters be grateful for the opportunity you have to shift the shit to something better. Be grateful for every day you’re alive. Be grateful for the opportunities you have to learn something, anything. Express your gratitude, feel your gratitude, and the universe will automatically bring you more to be grateful for. That’s how it works.

So much of life comes down to the choices we make in response to the challenges we face. Do we choose to be a victim of circumstance? Or do we recognize that there are no accidents, that everything happens for a reason, and the reason is to provide us with opportunities for personal growth? It all comes down to attitude.

I’ll share more techniques for life-changing with you in later articles.

It's Christmas Eve. Peace and happiness to all.

Who Are We?

Who are we, and what does our interest in metaphysical matters say about us? It could safely be said that we're people who don’t necessarily accept what we’re told. In many cases we intuitively know there’s more to something than what we’ve been told, and we seek to find what that “more” is. There’s a “knowing” involved that extends far beyond what we hear.

Spirituality is a good example. Although many accept the mainstream religious interpretations of God, for some of us the conventional explanation is lacking at best. At worst, it seems shallow and controlling. We know within ourselves that there’s much more to God and the nature of reality than what we’re told.

Often this means we strike out on our own in search of our own Truth. We attract others of a similar persuasion and learn with and from them. Much reading and listening commonly take place. Seemingly endless discussions ensue, as we try to get a grasp of how things really work.

Ours is typically a personal path within a community of other seekers. As our ideas and concepts evolve, we may decide to apply what we’ve learned to improve ourselves and help others. Some of us realize that yes, we can act as a conduit for God’s healing energy, and we become healers. Others step onto the path of enlightenment. The personal work, the Great Work, can impact people to the point they become teachers (like Eckhart Tolle), or intuitives and channelers.

So, who are you? Could you be described as a spiritual being in physical lesson? Are you becoming the Master you’ve always been in Spirit, bringing that Mastership to Earth? That is indeed who you are. And to some degree you’re conscious of it, or you wouldn’t be here reading this.

Peace to all.