Article on 100% responsibility: Ho'oponopono: Could a kahuna's liturgy have wrought these changes?

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100% responsibilityHo'oponopono:Could a kahuna's liturgy have wrought these changes?

By Darrell Sifford -- Tuesday, 2 December 1980 Philadelphia Inquirer

I'm not even sure why I agreed to the interview -- except that I

was curious. After all, how many times in your life do you have a

chance to meet an honest-to-goodness kahuna?

No, it's not a typographical error. I really talked to a kahuna. That's

a Hawaiian word that literally means " keeper of the secrets, " but that

among Hawaiians commonly refers to a spiritual teacher and healer of

what ails us --- either physically or psychologically.

So there I was, with my notebook and pen, and there she was, Morrnah

Simeona, a grandmotherly looking woman in a white cable-knit sweater

and gray flannel skirt, the daughter of a member of the court of Queen

Liliuokalani, who was the last sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.

Morrnah, who has lectured at the University of Hawaii, was in the

Philadelphia area for a weekend workshop in what was described as

" Hawaiian metaphysics, " and was then due in Baltimore for a lecture at

s Hopkins University.

What exactly does she do -- not as a lecturer, but as a kahuna? Well,

although her English is as flawless as a radio announcer's, I had

trouble grasping what she was saying. Essentially, it seemed to come

down to this.

We tend to be haunted by our old fears, emotions, ideas and reactions,

which contribute not only to present-day psychological distresses but

also to physical illnesses -- since many illnesses can be " attributed

purely to the pressures we create. " A kahuna's role is to help us

dredge up and erase the garbage that is polluting our existence -- in

much the same way that we would retrieve and kill useless information

stored in a computer.

Now that doesn't sound too unreasonable, does it? Obviously what must

happen, if anything really does happen, is that we feel better after a

session with our kahuna because we expect to feel better- It's the old

placebo effect, about which Dr. Herbert Benson, the Harvard

cardiologist, has written extensively and for which modern medicine

finally is beginning to show some respect.

Well, Morrnah hadn't heard about the placebo effect but, after it was

explained, she said that it wasn't a factor, since some of those with

whom she dealt really had no grand expectations. For some, it was just

another pause in their endless search for happiness and fulfillment.

But the strange thing, Morrnah said, was that the search inevitably was

abandoned after they met with her --- because their problems went away,

Besides, she said, she could help people she never even met --- by

working through those who came to her.

All that was required, she said, was an appeal to the divine creator of

our choice " through the divinity that is within each person ... who is

really an extension of the divine creator. "

The liturgy she said, goes like this:

" Divine creator, father, mother, son as one ... If I, my family,

relatives and ancestors have offended you, your family, relatives and

ancestors in thoughts, words, deeds and actions from the beginning of

our creation to the present, we ask your forgiveness ... Let this

cleanse, purify, release, cut all the negative memories, blocks,

energies and vibrations and transmute these unwanted energies to pure

light ... And it is done. "

This appeal is called ho'oponopono, and can be identified with just

about every religion, Morrnah said, because " in every faith there

always is a portion (of the liturgy) in which we ask forgiveness of

those we offend ... But we go beyond that ... to family, relatives, and

ancestors ... because possibly some of the problem stems from a

grandfather who chopped off somebody's head in another century. " That

which we expel is transmuted into " pure light, " she said, because

otherwise, " we would pollute the atmosphere " with our discarded

garbage. " But as pure light, it does not contaminate. "

At the instant that she utters " and it is done " the transmutation takes

place, she said, and " the computer automatically erases " the garbage

that has been stored for ... who knows for how long?

The great thing about the system, she said, is that it is " simple,

workable and infallible ... and anybody can do it, from the very young

to the very old. " It is, she said, " difficult for a lot of

intellectuals to comprehend " because it's so simple, but it really is

infallible- Didn't I have some problem that I'd like for her to work on?

Well, how in heaven's name was I going to write anything from this

interview? People would think I was crazy -- and I wouldn't blame them.

But, OK, Morrnah, anything to go along with the program. Things have

not been too good with my older son, Jay, since my divorce -- and

things certainly have been sour with my former wife. How about it,

Morrnah?

" Divine Creator, father, mother, son, as one ... If I, my family, relatives and ancestors have offended. "

Not long after that the interview ended, and I forgot about it.

After all, I had a plane to catch to North Carolina, where the lawyers

were tying up a final piece of business left over from the divorce.

Jay is 22, and last winter, when I had seen him for the first time in

three years, he kept at arm's length, told me that he never could

regard me as his father, that we perhaps could be friends -- but not

very close friends, because we didn't have much in common.

The other night we'd finished dinner in a restaurant -- he and I and my

younger son, Grant. After Grant had driven off to go back to his

college campus apartment, Jay and I climbed into my rental car and

started to leave the parking lot. That's when Jay turned down the

volume on the radio and told me that he now felt differently toward me.

" I know you love me, " he said. " And I really need that. I want you to

know how much I respect you, how much I admire the person you have

become. "

The next day, I met with my former wife and, after the lawyers had

departed, she told me that she wasn't bitter any more, that what

happened probably had been for the best and that both of us probably

had grown as a result of it.

Each of the conversations immediately struck me as drastic reversals

from previously staked-out positions. lt was strange, I thought, that

they should take place within 24 hours.

lt wasn't until I had returned to Philadelphia and was shuffling

through my backlog of work that I ran across the notes from my

interview with Morrnah Simeona, the kahuna.

Morrnah, you didn't ... did you?

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