Dr. Hew Len has extensive experience in working with the developmentally disabled and the criminally mentally ill and their families. The Ho`oponopono process is central to his work as an educator. He lectures and conducts the Ho`oponopono training throughout the world.

Guy Spiro: I usually like to start by asking people just to tell how you came to be who you are. What were the steps along your path?

Ihaleakala: I was born in Hawaii. Over the years, I got a degree from the University of Colorado; and another graduate degree at the University of Utah; and then a Ph.D. at the University of Iowa. My field of work has been in the area of developmentally disabled children. I’ve done that for years. I also had the good fortune of working at a facility that provided psychiatric care. So I was trained to help other people. But ultimately I found out that doesn’t work. At least it doesn’t work for me. It was better for me to work on myself and clear up any perception in my mind that I saw a problem out there. When I began to do that, life became calmer for me and anyone else that I worked with. I’ve been doing this work for almost 42 years.

GS: The work that you do is based on Hawaiian mysticism?

I: It is based on work developed by a Kahuna. A problem is a memory in the subconscious mind and the process is about redemption and forgiveness. You ask the source in you to cancel or to erase the memories to zero so your mind gets clear. Then you become more insightful.

GS: What are the steps that people would take?

I: If people were interested in this information, we have a website, www.hooponopono.org. There is an article at the website called, “Who’s in Charge?” It gives a basic intimation on the process and says that you have a choice to either let memory run your life or let zero.

GS: I went to the website and read that article. It was very interesting. It looked to me to be much like a mystical understanding of Christianity.

I: Well, that could be. I don’t know. Here’s the bottom line. When I was working at Hawaii State Hospital, the way I worked with patients was not to work on them, but to work with my perception of them. Whatever their perceptions were, most of them I didn’t know, so before I went to the hospital, I would petition the Divinity in me and I would ask that, whatever was in me, I would perceive patients in a certain way, or staff, or the building, or being annoyed or irritable; whatever was going on with me I made amends for.

     I followed the process of asking for forgiveness and allowing the Divinity to convert whatever the memories are that caused me to perceive people as being sick, and convert them to zero.

GS: Now the Divinity Within that you speak of, would it be much the same as some may call the higher self or who Jesus called The Father?

I: This process says that there are four aspects of mind. The first aspect is the Divine Creator which has the ability to create mind; to transmute error memories to zero; has the ability to provide inspiration or insight. The second aspect is the super-conscious. That part of the mind is connected into the Divine Creator so they are always in tune.

     The problem occurs at the subconscious. When the memory displays, it displaces the relationship with the Divine Creator. So when a memory plays, you get displaced and you’re in a state of separation. This means that you’re in a state of what I call, “being dead.” It’s like you’re asleep or in a dream. You are not alive.

     When you petition Divinity, it’s only in you; you’re never working on anybody because everybody is perfect, including you. What is imperfect are the memories that play past events. So when you do this process, you’re asking Divinity to erase the memory, the dreams, and the death states. When this happens, you become resurrected, alive, pure, and whole. That’s the whole process, to let these memories be erased so you can be resurrected into the original state which is clarity.

GS: Are the memories actually erased or are they just minimized?

I: The idea of the memory is, for example, you have a CD player and you put in a CD and it’s playing. You want it not to play anymore, so you hit the eject button and it gets released. You have the mind there, but it doesn’t have the CD and you are free. The Ho’oponopono process of redemption and forgiveness is about asking Divinity to convert the CD, or the thought-form, that plays all the time to zero.

GS: Some might call that the monkey-mind; there are a lot of ways to refer to that.

I: The bottom line is that if you look at the world today, especially therapists or educators, we are taught to help other people. This process teaches that you’re not here to help other people. Other people are perfect. What you’re here to work on are those perceptions in you that need to be converted to make amends for it, and then you get to see the other people as perfect. That’s the whole story. So there are only two approaches to working on problems. There is the approach that I was trying to do, where you’re working on other people, or the approach that says that everybody is perfect. The only imperfection is the data in the mind.

GS: So how does one do the work?

I: Before I would go to the hospital to do the work in the ward, I would do this process before I showed up.

     I want to come without judgment or preconceived notions. I make amends before I come to work, and while I’m working I keep looking inside of me to find those things that say that something is imperfect. When I leave the hospital, I do the cleaning again. I want to make sure that I don’t take anything home; any problem in my mind which will stay with me. I want to give up the debt that I hold in my mind that causes me to suffer. I’m not working on anybody else. I’m not even working on myself. I’m working on the memories that create my experience of suffering and judgment. That’s what I’m going to teach in Chicago. How people can be 100% responsible for the script, the data, the CD ... whatever people want to call it. That’s where the problems are.

GS: When I was reading the article, Who’s in Charge?, I saw a couple of steps. One was “repentance” and the other, “gratitude.”

I: The repentance is feeling sorry for the data or memory in me that is the problem. The next step is forgiveness from the Divinity, to forgive whatever this data is that causes me to perceive a patient to be sick. The final step is called “transmutation” which only the Divinity can do. The Divinity will take whatever memories are in me, that I perceive the patient as being sick, convert it to zero; transmute it from a thought-form to pure energy; release the energy from my mind, and now I’m back at zero which means no judgment. The next step is insight. The insight moves in and the Divinity tells you what you can do next. I was not originally trained to do this. I was trained to help other people and it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work with me.

GS: I understand. The work has to be done internally, by the individual.

I: Yes. As Shakespeare said, it’s the stage. The stage is in your soul and the players are your memories. You can either hear the sufferer and dwell with the memories or you get to free them up and free yourself.

GS: Interesting. What else would you like to communicate to our readers?

I: Well, the only thing that I would like to add is that in the end, each of us has a choice. The choice is either that we suffer; that is, we suffer with these memories that we play regarding all kinds of problems—financial, cancer, human relationships—or we set ourselves free. Then we get the sweetness of Divinity: insights, ease of life, and good health. The bottom line is choice of suffering or freedom.

GS: What can people expect to experience if they come to your workshop?

I: What people will learn is how they can set themselves free. They will get answers to questions like, “Who am I?” That is the fundamental question. You have to first realize who you are. Then secondly, “What and where is the problem?” The whole idea is about being 100% responsible for what you experience. It isn’t anybody doing it to you. It’s the memories replaying. When we are willing to take complete responsibility for these memories and have them converted to zero, that means we are free and everything that we need, we automatically can get. So the bottom line is like the Biblical saying, “Seek ye first the kingdom and all ye need will be added.” So in modern language we’re saying to seek you first zero and then everything else will be added. This is the core of what the weekend class will be.

GS: Does this go way back in the Hawaii teachings?

I: It goes hundreds and hundreds of years back. It’s been seal-tested by thousands of people who use this process. It’s ancient. But the process itself has been updated for today’s language and insight.

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