Morrnah Simeona: Reminiscenses of a Kahuna

Mornnah Simeona: Reminiscenses

There are 2-3 emails about ho'oponopono going around the Internet now. I thought it might be a time to write another of my nostalgic emails.

Morrnah Simeona came to lecture I gave in Honolulu in the mid-70s. She presented me a very special maile lei from Kauai, a very great honor from a Hawaiian to a ha'ole. She sat quietly on the right side of the room, my left as I was facing the audience. I paused continually during the lecture because I was acutely aware that she knew from personal experience and inner sight what I was teaching from a completely different perspective. I said to her several times, "You can speak if you wish because I know you know this." Modestly and without doing anything to attract attention to herself, she instructed me to continue. She kept saying, "You are doing fine," but she didn't say this in any condescending fashion. I felt that she was approving the content and that if I really did hit a reef, she would probably bail me out of a sinking boat. I had immense respect for her presence from the moment we met, but I had no idea at that time how this connection would unfold in the years to come.

The next event I remember was a dinner party at the home of a quite well known person. I won't mention his name. He lived at the top of Mt. Tantalus and the party was small, just a few people seated at the table. I believe he suggested I bring a guest, perhaps intended more to mean "a date" but the purpose of the meeting was to discuss something having to do with Hawaiiana, and I still feel a need to protect his identity because his behavior was inappropriate, more than rude. I could say he exhibited hostility towards Morrnah; and I felt an instant urge to defend not just her but every single person whose skin was darker than my own. Morrnah, of course, took matters in her stride, but I never forgot how someone with a reputation for being an expert on Hawaiian lore could be so insulting to a guest in his own home. Still, nothing ruffled Mornnah's feathers.

The rest of what I would like to share is a little random and probably not chronological at all. I want to talk about a few warm and comical situations to give you a feel for Morrnah. I had invited her to speak at a retreat on the Big Island, 1978 (I think.) Among other events, we were going to watch the stars while an astronomer explained Hawaiian lore and navigation. There was a heavy cloud cover. He was indoors for the introductory part of the lecture, but the rest would be canceled . . . unless. . .

I was seated next to Morrnah and she appeared to fall asleep. By then, I had seen this many times and learned that we should not be fooled by what seems to be. When her eyes opened, she said very softly, "Did he say it?" I asked, "Say what?" She said, "Did he say it?" Well, what he said was that "At exactly 10 minutes to nine, Morrnah is going to move the clouds so that we can go outdoors and observe the stars." I have this on tape, but the speaker totally denied saying it. He said he did not believe in kahunas and magical powers and that he would never have said it. I said, "Well, regardless of what you believe, you said it, and 175 people heard you say it." I don't think he ever forgave me or her. I was blamed for letting the recorder run and Morrnah for duping him.

This said, the clouds were moved and we had perfect visibility. Morrnah asked me how many planets I use in my horoscopes. I responded, as is often my wont, with "How many planets do Hawaiians see?" She said there are 70 and she began naming them. I said, "Are you counting etheric planets?" She said, "Yes, don't you?" I said "No, we don't?" She looked quite puzzled and asked if the horoscope was helpful and reliable . . . when so much is missing. I can assure you she was very polite but you can imagine this is vexing.

There were many dramatic events at the retreat. For one, there was a storm warning and we were told to prepare to evacuate. Once before, all the furniture in the museum had been washed out to sea so the threat was regarded as real. I knew by then not to pay attention to the National Guard but rather to follow Morrnah. Moreover, I knew I would never be "caught" following her because she believed she was the reincarnation of Lot and she would never turn around lest someone turn into a pillar of salt. So, with this tiny comfort zone, I followed her to the ocean. I watched her stand on the edge of an enormous rock and move her hands downwards. The waves obeyed instantly. The sea went from wild and raging to totally calm. She managed to get off the rock without making eye contact with me but I had no illusions that she knew I had been watching.

Others came rushing to me with incredible stories about the ocean changed so suddenly. I was silent.

During the World Symposium on Humanity, we went to concert together. She was, as seemed often to be the case, seated on my left. I cannot remember the name of the singer, but she had her profile to the audience and as she inhaled, something shaped like a parachute filled up behind her. It was about 70 feet long. When the sound came out, the parachute moved to the front. I started rubbing my eyes. I asked Morrnah, "Is that an aura?" She said, "Yes, but she is only 1/16th Hawaiian." Obviously, the inference was that a full-blooded Hawaiian would have an even more enormous aura.

Which brings me to my next point. Someone at the retreat who fancied herself quite psychic reported to me that Morrnah had no aura. I asked her how she had reached that conclusion. She said she could see auras and had not seen one around Morrnah. I asked her where she was standing when she was watching. I suggested she go on a long hike up the mountain. She came back hours later and was speechless. We were all inside Morrnah's aura so when I talked to Morrnah about this, she said it was very important that one's aura is totally without friction. No one should feel anything by standing close or moving in your space. If they do, you are creating a disturbance of some kind which means you have work to do on yourself.

MORRNAH'S MAIN TEACHINGS

My relationship with Morrnah spanned many years, even after I moved to Santa Fe. It's hard to zero in on the most important aspects of her being and her teachings and mission.

She taught a system of esoteric understanding referred to in the interview with Dr. Len. She used to draw a pyramid and say that the aumakua was the tip of the pyramid, the part that is connected to every other aumakua. The middle part, uhane, is the conscious self but she always drew it so it was relatively small in comparison to the unihipili which is not just the subconscious but the battery operating the pyramidal structure of our psyche. They all have to work together and in harmony. She made it really clear that without the cooperation of the unihipili, things go "wrong."

A neighbor who graduated from Harvard University met Isabel Hickey when she visited Hawaii. He told her he had tried to take her courses in Boston but there was a snow storm one time and his car broke down another time. Izzie said he should have tried harder. Morrnah said we should always watch which way the water is flowing and go with the flow. Every time I have to make a decision, I fuss with the conflicting advice of these two pundits, but even when I make effort, I try never to do so without the help and cooperation of the unihipili.

There is a place on the Big Island called the City of Refuge. Over the years, I have thought about it often. I took Izzie there, but I don't feel to tell that story now. It is a sacred place to Hawaiians. Even people who have committed heinous crimes could go there and atone. No one would imagine interfering with their processes while they are in the City of Refuge, and once they have left, they are exonerated from deeds of the past. I have always reflected very hard on this because I cannot think of any traditional culture with prisons. Do the Aboriginal People of Australia or Maoris of New Zealand or Bushmen have jails? I doubt it. They had ways of resolving situations that restored people to society. Even Vikings preferred exile over imprisonment so the situation we see today is a sorrowful commentary on just how messed up we are. I have thought about this long and hard. Basically, I do not believe society has the right to imprison anyone. Yes, there are some people who really do pose a risk to others, but our task is to rehabilitate them. I cannot understand putting someone "away" for twenty years for smoking a joint or stealing a slice of pizza. We are just totally out of tune which is why we see this chaos projected everywhere, not just on our televisions but in every aspect of our dysfunctional lives.

Ho'oponopono

One of the rituals for resolving problems is ho'oponopono. Dr. Len seems to have connected with Morrnah later so perhaps he learned a modified version of it. I was told that whole families were to be sequestered until everyone had spilled his guts and gotten everything out into the open. An elder would mediate the process and keep it focused. That person tried to take the old issues, grievances, and guilt and find ways to disentangle the ropes and produce accord. It is very liberating to find a way to reproach someone who has injured or offended and give them the chance to make amends. Everyone wins. Obviously, this works when there is sincerity and also a kind of spiritual, psychological, and/or cultural acceptance of the ritual and the process the ritual entails.

Morrnah had many gifts, including traditional lomi-lomi. One day when I was in Honolulu, she asked me to lie face down on a hardwood floor. It was a muggy day and everyone in the room smelled a little sweaty. I wasn't sure I wanted to be touched when my skin was a bit tacky. I remember the smell of her feet as she came closer. They smelled of fresh roses, but roses are not that common in Hawaii. I figured she created the odor to send me a pleasurable experience. She told me she was going to walk on me with those feet. I remember her standing on the bottoms of my feet. It felt like paradise. Then, she walked up the back of my legs, back, neck, and head, yes, my head. Only one physical experience in life could even compare with this. It was perfect beyond my idea of total bliss.

Someone had asked me once if I would ask Morrnah how tall she is. I asked "Why?" She said, sometimes Morrnah seems tall and sometimes short. I asked why she didn't ask Morrnah herself, why I had to be the one appearing to ask dumb questions. Morrnah chuckled ever so slightly and then said, "Tell her I weigh 165 pounds and that is constant but my height changes all the time depending on what energy is most prominent at that moment." So, she walked up my back with her 165 pounds. I was perhaps 125-130 pounds at that time, would I still were!

Morrnah talked a lot about areas of psychic tension in places where there had been accidents or events. I believe she implied that these tensions cause more accidents to occur in the same places. I think my mind is unusually open, but I never actually believe anything unless I prove it to myself. I think this is years of Buddhist practice. In any case, I did not believe in black crystals, this whether in an individual's aura or perhaps the Bermuda Triangle. . . that is, until one day I saw it for myself. That happened quite independently of Morrnah after I had a particularly nasty allergic reaction to mushrooms.

I went on to write a book about the unconscious because I began to recognize its power.

Morrnah had been going back and forth to Japan and was going to take on Munich and then, presumably, the Second World War. Her mission was immense. There were a lot of tensions to resolve.

After I moved to Santa Fe, Morrnah visited. On one occasion, she asked if I would drive her to Albuquerque to meet a Native American medicine man who was working with aliens and walk-ins. On the way down, she shouted "watch out". I had not seen anything and was quite astonished by her voice. Still trembling and trying to process all the adrenaline in my system, I said, "Morrnah, I didn't see anything at all." She said, "You nearly hit a dinosaur." I said, "You mean an etheric dinosaur? I swear I never saw him." She often had these bewildering experiences because she saw what others did not see and never really knew whether or not they saw the same things themselves. For instance, once she asked me, "Who's the gladiator?" I asked her for a little help getting a context for the question. She was referring to someone I had not met yet. A friend was dating "a gladiator." Morrnah said, "Doesn't she know who she is?" I said, "Morrnah, none of us know who we are. We keep hoping you will get around to telling us." She could not understand this. Well, sometimes she could, but usually it was hard to find a wavelength where communication was clear.

There's just one more story I want to tell today. I was living in Hawaii on the same property as my mother but in a different house. One morning, I heard glass bells when I awakened. I was very quiet because I had a guest and I figured my guest was meditating. A long time passed and I really wanted to get dressed so I started behaving normally and then my guest appeared and said she also had been quiet because she heard bells and thought I was meditating. We went over to my mother's for breakfast and I looked at Morrnah and said, "I'd love to see your Austrian crystals." She said she hadn't brought them because they are fragile so she was playing etheric bells and hoped she hadn't disturbed us.

More Reminiscenses of Morrnah Simeona

Ingrid Naiman
10 August 2006