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Before beginning the explanation of how fire-walking and other magic is performed through the use of three invisible elements which are still almost unknown in modern psychology, a few things need to be told about the religious beliefs of the kahunas.

The "Secret," or body of information handed down from one magician to another, was what may be called applied psychology for the most part. The element of religion was very small, especially if we accept the technical definitions of religion in the best modern sense.

Dr. Paul Tillich, Professor of Philosophical Theology at Union Theological Seminary writes, "Magic is a special kind of interrelation between finite powers; religion is the human relation to the infinite power and value.… Magic is the exercise of imminent power, religion is the subjection to the transcendent power."

All religions are mixed with magic. Prayer is magic. Everything we do to gain benefits for ourselves in this life or the next is a part of magic. Magic is getting something from supernormal sources. Religion is worship of a Supreme Being and an acceptance of whatever It gives us, whether pleasant or unpleasant.

While the kahunas got from the common source of such tales—the Nile Valley and neighboring lands—the stories of Adam and Eve, the Creation, the Flood and so on, and brought those tales with them to Polynesia, they did not share the concept of a personal and patriarchal God.

The kahunas taught that the human mind is not capable of understanding a form of consciousness unlike and superior to its own; therefore, all human efforts to imagine the characteristics of a final, ultimate and supreme God were a waste of time. They believed that there must be some Ultimate Creative Source, but they did not pray to It.

Take a flower, for example. It can have but a vague idea (if any) of the cow in the pasture. The cow can have a very vague idea of the nature and motives of the herder. The herder, therefore, when he has decided that there must be a Supreme Being who created the universe, can picture It only as another man. Although he cannot picture this Great Man except in the vaguest terms, he fears Him, prays to Him in hope of receiving favors, tries to bribe Him with sacrifices or sacrificial austerities, tries to obey such commands as he imagines this Supreme Man has laid down, and, last, worships him.

In a like manner, the invisible world of spirits and spiritual beings is to us much as our world is to a fish in the sea. The fish is hardly aware of a world above his watery realm. But as we ascend in the scale of intelligence, we of the realm of earth and air can know and understand the fish in his depths, even while remaining unable to share those depths as a place in which to live.

The kahunas, while supposing that there were levels above levels of consciousness above man, as there are levels below him, paid scant heed to any level other than the one directly above our own. On this level existed the thing we would call the superconscious part of mind. They called it by various names, one of which, the favorite, was Aumakua. This translates, "Older, parental, utterly trustworthy spirit." As it takes two to be a "parent," the Aumakua was considered to be a spirit composed of a male and female pair. All prayers and rites were addressed to this dual spirit, but because it was considered as much a part of ourselves as the conscious or subconscious is to the modern way of thinking, the Parental Spirit was worshiped not at all—it was LOVED. No sacrifices were made to it. No bribes were offered. It laid no commands on the lower selves. The relation was one of mutual love and trust—the parent and child relation.

Very logically, the kahunas taught that if any prayers to still Higher Beings were necessary, the Parental Spirit would know when they were needed and how to make them, doing for us such things as we are unable to do for ourselves because we have minds of a lower level of ability.

Because of this common sense attitude the kahunas remained simple and free from man-made dogmas to a surprising degree. They were direct and to the point. They could afford to be, for they possessed a system that actually WORKED. A workable system leaves little room for vagueness and dogmatic speculation.

This practical system by which magic was performed left no unfilled needs of a philosophical nature for the kahunas. They had, therefore, no saviors, no salvation, no heaven or hell, and no revealed religion with books in which were written, "Thus said God …" In very fact, they had no books. Their language was never written until modern times.

While few of us may ever wish to fire-walk, this ancient rite is of great importance because it is a clear demonstration of the fact that there is a magical power that may be called into action if we know the methods to use.

Most of us pray for blessings of various kinds. The lore of the "Secret" brings definite and immediate results much superior to those we get. We cannot pray for fire-immunity and get it. Need more be said of the value to us of a study of the ancient lore?

Dr. Brigham, it will be recalled, had analyzed the basic nature of magic before understanding it. He had told me to watch for (1) a form of consciousness which used (2) some form of force, and (3) manipulated that force through some invisible kind of physical matter.

The Aumakua or superconscious part of mind is the consciousness involved in giving fire-immunity. The force it uses in this work is called mana by the kahunas, and is known to us as vital force. It is electrical in its nature and shows strong magnetic qualities. The invisible substance through which the vital force acts is called aka, or "shadowy body stuff." As we already know that there is such a thing as vital force, let me begin my presentation of Huna (the "Secret") by pointing out some of the things already known about the uses and nature of this force, and then go on to things better known and explained by the kahunas.

It will be seen that the kahuna explanations also cover much that has been unexplained in the field of Psychical Research.

The three elements, consciousness, force and invisible matter, give us three measuring sticks with which to measure all magic. Notice how they apply more and more to magic as we come to see it unfold.