An Introduction to Ho’oponopono – An Ancient Hawaiian Healing Practice

This is a summary of an article by Dr. Joe Vitale which describes an ancient Hawaiian healing practice called ho’oponopono. A Hawaiian shaman and psychologist, Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len, had healed a ward of criminally insane patients – without ever treating them in person. Dr. Hew Len instead, worked on himself, while looking at the patient files. 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. 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. Not only that, 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.”

Dr. Vitale asked Dr. Hew Len, 'What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?'

Dr. Hew Len replied, "I was simply healing the part of me that created them.” Dr. Hew 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. Everything is inside us, according to Dr. Hew Len. If you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life. This means that anything or any person 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 – your experience of them. The problem isn't with them, it's with you, and to change them, you have to change yourself.

So doing ho’oponopono means loving yourself and healing your life. By healing yourself, you can heal others. Here is what Dr. Hew Len said repeatedly when he looked at the patients’ files:

I love you
I am sorry
Please forgive me
Thank you

Dr. Len’s process is called Self I-dentity through ho’oponopono and is a Hawaiian problem solving process which releases toxic memories that show up as problems in our everyday lives. When toxic memories are released, you connect with Zero Limits which means you are guided by inspiration instead of memories replaying. The Ho’oponopono process provides “a step by step approach to achieving peace, balance and a new meaning of life through an understanding of one’s Self-I-dentity.” So, whenever you want to improve anything in your life, look inside you and do it with love. When we are willing to take responsibility and let go, what is right and perfect unfolds. Dr. Vitale and Dr. Len co-authored a book, Zero Limits, a fascinating description of this healing practice.

For Dr. Vitale’s complete article,
go to http://educate-yourself.org/zsl/hooponopono25jul06.shtml.
To buy his book, go to http://www.zerolimits.info/
For more info on ho’oponopono go to http://hooponopono.org

I was so fascinated by Zero Limits that I went to Dr. Hew Len’s Los Angeles seminar on ho’oponopono in November. More later on this book and on this profound healing method from the seminar! See my January 2009 newsletter, To Your Health.