Exploring Huna with Dr Jane

Have you ever thought you'd dealt with something from your past, only to discover there were deeper layers you hadn't touched? What if the wounds you think you've healed are still affecting you energetically?
 
In this fascinating conversation, host Sarah Gorev speaks with Dr Jane Lewis about Huna - an ancient Hawaiian practice that nearly disappeared from history but holds profound wisdom about healing, forgiveness, and energy work.
 
Jane shares her compelling personal journey from clinical depression and corporate life to discovering a practice that revealed what she thought she'd processed... hadn't been dealt with at all. Not on the deepest level.
 
 You'll discover:
 • What Huna actually is (hint: it's so much more than one practice)
 • Why these spiritual practices were banned and illegal until the 1970s
 • How childhood trauma can be "dealt with" mentally but still hold you back energetically
 • Why Jane travels to Hawaii twice a year to continue learning this work
 • An introduction to ho'oponopono - Hawaiian forgiveness 
 
Jane explains how Huna encompasses energy healing, guided meditation for emotional release, and techniques for resolving both external conflicts and internal dilemmas. She shares extraordinary stories - from faith healing a compound fracture in days to discovering prenatal addiction through craniosacral therapy - that challenge our logical understanding of what's possible.
 
 This episode is perfect for anyone who:
 • Feels like they've "done the work" but something still isn't shifting
 • Is curious about energy work beyond the mainstream
 • Wants to understand how ancient practices are being validated by modern science
 • Is open to exploring forgiveness in a completely different way
 
 What makes this conversation special is Jane's background - she's a self-described "left brain person" who initially resisted everything energetic, even while experiencing it firsthand. Her journey from corporate consultant saying "I don't believe in energy" to teaching Hawaiian spiritual practices offers a relatable bridge for the curious skeptic.
 
Whether you're already exploring alternative wellness or completely new to these concepts, this honest discussion offers genuine insights into a practice that has quietly supported wellbeing for centuries - and is now being shared more widely after nearly being lost forever.
 
Perfect for: Anyone interested in energy healing, ancient wisdom, Hawaiian spiritual practices, forgiveness work, trauma release, complementary therapies, or wondering why past experiences still affect them.

Links mentioned in this episode:

https://DrJaneLewis.com

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/janeplewis

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SecretArtOfHuna

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeplewis/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/Secretartofhuna

 Next week: More fascinating wellness conversations as Season 3 continues.

Thanks for listening.

Transcript

Exploring Huna with Jane

​[00:00:00] 

Have you ever wondered why past hurts still affect you even when you thought you dealt with them? Why patterns keep repeating or why your body holds tension you can't seem to release. Welcome back to Exploring Ways to Wellness.

I am Sarah Gorev, and today I'm absolutely thrilled to be chatting with Dr. Jane Lewis about Huna an ancient Hawaiian practice that might just change how you think about healing, forgiveness, and energy work. If you haven't heard of Huna, don't worry. Neither had I until I discovered Jane's work. And honestly, this conversation completely shifted how I think about the connection between our past experiences and present wellbeing.

Jane's going to explain what Huna actually is, and it's so much more [00:01:00] than just one practice. You'll hear her compelling personal story and how Huna revealed something she thought she'd already dealt with but hadn't not on the deepest level.

We'll explore why these ancient practices were actually illegal until the 1970s, how they nearly disappeared. And why Jane travels to Hawaii twice a year to keep learning and teaching this profound work. Plus, we'll touch on ho'oponopono, the Hawaiian approach to forgiveness that's about so much more than just saying, sorry.

So whether you are carrying old wounds that can't seem to shift, curious about energy work, or are simply open to exploring practices that have supported wellbeing for centuries. This conversation offers genuine wisdom from both ancient Hawaiian tradition and Jane's decades of personal [00:02:00] and professional experience.

Let's dive in.

Sarah: I'm thrilled this week to have Dr. Jane Lewis with us to talk about Huna. We've managed to grab her between her trips to Hawaii to talk us through this fascinating practice. And how it could possibly help you on your wellness journey.

So welcome, Jane. 

Jane: Thank 

you. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you so much. 

Sarah: So I guess the obvious first question is what on earth is Huna? 

Jane: Huna is a Hawaiian word. And it means secret or hidden, but it's not a word that actually the Hawaiians themselves would apply to the practices that I teach. The Hawaiians themselves probably would call it ho'omanaloa which literally means to, to make the highest level of vibrational energy. So mana is energy, manamana is the next [00:03:00] highest level of vibration and manaloa is the highest vibration of all.

Mana is energy. Ho'o all means to make and loa means to spread out. So it's that highest level of vibration that we spread out because fundamentally, the practice of Huna. Energy is at the heart of the entire thing. When I'm doing a quick description, I say, well, it's the spiritual, energetic, and healing and shamanic practices of the ancient Hawaiians.

That's the sort of one-liner, but actually energy really is at the heart of it. And the ancient Polynesians didn't separate spirituality, you know, it's not like there's my spiritual self and there's me, I mean, in the West now we talk it, it's almost like spirituality is something that you aspire to or you, you is separate from you in many cases.

Sarah: It's interesting, isn't it? How we, how we have [00:04:00] got to a point where we separate those things and actually they're all part of the whole. Yeah. 

Jane: You know, and I've had Hawaiians ask me, well, why do you need to come to Hawaii? Why don't you study in your own culture?

And because in my culture. This doesn't exist in the same way. I'm probably always gonna have to borrow from somebody else's, 

Speaker 3: uh, 

Jane: In order to raise my consciousness in the way that I want to raise my consciousness

Sarah: How did you even come across this practice?

Was it a, a trip to Hawaii or did you know somebody that was

Jane: no. I, um, I experienced clinical depression and I was looking around for alternatives and somebody told me about NLP neurolinguistic 

programming.

And I checked out various companies 'cause it was not an insignificant investment. And it happened that the one I chose taught NLP. And also somewhere on their headed note paper. 'cause [00:05:00] this was in the nineties before the before people had any much email. Yeah. Somewhere on the headed note paper.

It said Huna and I, I wasn't. Bothered. I didn't even, I did, I wasn't even curious. Like, oh, okay, they do something else. Fair enough. Yeah. Um, and then I went to do the NLP training and we had a, a free class on talking about Huna, and I was like this is interesting. And then I did the next level.

I did my master practitioner for NLP. And we had a couple more sessions. And by this point I was like. This is, yeah, there's something here. And I was quite involved with that company. I would assist at their trainings 'cause I wanted to develop my NLP skills, right?

And so was more and more exposed to some really basic aspects of huna. And then I realised that there was a, nine day workshop that I could go to in Hawaii. [00:06:00] And 

Sarah: that sounds attractive. I, you know, I like to, I could, I 

could get behind that. 

Jane: I like to travel.

I'd been to the Cook Islands and I'd been to New Zealand and I'd been to Tahiti, but I'd never actually been to Hawaii. So I thought, well, that's the other piece in the puzzle, in the Polynesian puzzle. So I thought. Yeah, sounds like a good thing to do.

So I went and really it would, I mean, my idea was to go to Hawaii and to, you know, expand on what I'd been, what I'd been learning with David. This, this NLP teacher. And while I was there, I was only gonna go once. I learned that if I came back this a second time, I'd get some healing guides which would enable me to do this work with other people.

I thought, well, I'll do that. That sounds good. So I just kept going back and back and back. Wow. Uh, so I first went in 1999. [00:07:00] And I've been going initially once a year and, and then once I started teaching over there twice a year ever since.

Sarah: If somebody is to go and have a session of huna what would a session look like? 

Jane: It depends. So there's different aspects of it.

I mean, there's one aspect of it, which is the nearest parallel is reiki. 

Sarah: Okay, 

Jane: so the, that's one strand in the lineage. That I've studied. We have a couple of strands, and one of the strands is, as I say, reiki ish. Um, so that's 

Sarah: the hands-on or healing.

Jane: It's energy. Energy, it's energy healing. And. I don't tend to do that in as much. The person comes, lies down on a couch and and, and I do the energy session. It's different from Reiki because I'm a reiki master, and I have worked with five Reiki [00:08:00] symbols. With Huna we have 36.

Sarah: Oh, wow. Okay. 

Jane: And they're all ways of expressing the highest feminine energy on the planet. Mm-hmm. And you don't learn all, you don't learn all 36 in one hit. It takes a few years to get 

Sarah: No, you definitely need to lie down after that.

Yeah. And I don't work with all 36 if I'm actually working on somebody physically in the room. So that's one aspect. That's a straight energy healing. Done with intention, work up the chakras and clear. You put the 'Ōpua into the Chakras 

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. So 

Jane: that's a very an easy model I think for people to to appreciate.

And then there's the more emotional, mental way of working with it. So I do a lot of virtual work and if I'm coaching a client I will be using energy in general. But very specifically this system [00:09:00] of energy, these 36 symbols, 'Ōpua and I'll be directing them towards my client as we're working, uh, sometimes formally.

So I'll say, okay, I'm going to send you some energy. Um, right. And sometimes informally where I'm just thinking it and moving it. 

Sarah: Yes. 

Jane: It, it depends. So that's, so that's one aspect of what we do. There's another aspect which is meditation processes for the purpose of release. So I'm putting people into a meditational state, it, if you like, relaxed state, and then giving them instructions and using the energy of Source, the divine, the universe whatever word you wanna put around that to help them release emotional baggage, release limiting decisions. There's the Ho'oponopono technique, forgiveness there's. [00:10:00] Something called the keawe process, which is a process for resolving if Ho'oponopono

I think of it as resolving conflicts with other people. 

Keawe is resolving internal conflicts. You know, where you've got a dilemma, well, it's things like well part of me wants to be really healthy and part of me does not want to go to the gym. 

They're very much internal conflicts and there's all sorts of other forms of release work done through, really through meditation and just instructing the person or the group through the process. 

Sarah: Yeah, I can definitely see why it would take so long to, to learn such a, a wide ranging practice because it, it clearly covers a huge amount of things, and I guess the skill is identifying what it is that that person needs.

Um, yes. And then selecting the appropriate part of the wider Huna practice. 

Jane: Yeah. Yeah, [00:11:00] definitely. I run a monthly spiritual detox g roup. Each month. I use a different process and I help them release whatever's going on.

Now, very often, it's not conscious. They, they don't, they're not quite sure what it is that they need to release. Mm. 

Sarah: And 

Jane: it sort of bubbles up in the process, and by the end of it, they're going, well, I didn't know it was that, but wow. I feel so much better now. 

Sarah: Yeah, but that's a big thing, isn't it? We don't necessarily consciously know what it is that's standing in our way.

No. We just know something's wrong and it might be manifesting itself in, in different ways as if you're having symptoms of something. But um, it can take somebody else to sort of. Do that little investigation in whatever form it takes to identify what it is that we, we sort of don't realise is there.

But, but once you've hit on it, you know, you've shifted, you know, you've hit on the right thing. So that sounds amazing. 

Jane: But one of the [00:12:00] things that is very clear to me is that quite often the challenge with physical healing is that you need to do the allopathic things that you need to do. That's, that's one side of it. Yeah. When it comes to addressing, how did I ever get there in the first place?

How did I ever get this thing in the first place? Quite often people they don't know. 

Sarah: Mm. 

Jane: And so they don't know, well, what are the lessons I need to learn? What is it that I need to be doing differently? What, how do I, how or how should I change my thinking? And when using energy to help that information bubble up and say, oh, it was that.

Sarah: Yeah, 

Jane: that's, that's what started it. That's what triggered it. 

Sarah: Yeah. That there is this really important connection isn't there, between the, the sort of the physical and the mental and emotional and we sort of, [00:13:00] we find we either treat one or we look at the other, and actually it is part of the whole.

And things like Huna can help us sort of find that missing piece Yeah. If you like. Yeah, for sure. Which is incredible. Yeah. Have you got any examples that, that spring to mind where people have discovered something that they didn't realise was holding them back and that's helped them move forward?

Or even any personal experiences where you can say that was the missing piece that's. That's what's changed everything for me. 

Jane: I think there was the, the example I talk about a lot is, I experienced clinical depression, so I was bullied at school quite I went to an all girls boarding school and the bullying was, um, mental and emotional.

It wasn't physical, but it was mental and emotional, and it went on for a number of years and. I, by the time I was sort of in the depths of my depression, I [00:14:00] really did think that I had dealt with that history. I, when I thought about it, I could talk about it. I felt emotionally flat on it. The thing that sort of really triggered the depression then was I was working as a management consultant and we were working for a client. They didn't want us in there because our work was gonna really, um, it was gonna involve staff cutbacks and change and all sorts of things they didn't want.

And it so happened that I, for the first couple of weeks of that project, I was the face of our organisation. Right? So I kind of got spotted and I got bullied, and it replicated the experience that I'd had back when I was a kid, right down to social exclusion.

Right? Where they act as if you don't exist, you just, they talk across you. They won't talk directly to you. They don't [00:15:00] share information. All this, so I'd be, I wouldn't be told about meetings or I'd be given the wrong information for meetings or I'd be in a meeting and they wouldn't talk to me. And it was very uncomfortable. 

Sarah: Yeah. And 

Jane: I realised that was such a big trigger for me, and this happened just as I'd started to get into NLP, and I was like, wow.

The realisation, I mean, using Huna and particularly using Hoʻoponopono the forgiveness process became very clear. The reason it happened was I hadn't dealt with or forgiven the kids that had bullied me when I was at school. I thought I dealt with it. I say I could talk about it. I was flat on it, but I wasn't.

There was something much deeper inside me that needed to be revealed. 

Sarah: Yeah. 

Jane: And then I dealt with it. 

Sarah: So you'd sort of dealt with it on a mental conscious level. You dealt with it on what you felt was an [00:16:00] emotional level, but there was some sort of energetic residue there that, that it triggered Wow. 

Jane: Much.

Yeah, much deeper.

Sarah: Yeah. Did, did you feel that from your sort of corporate background that you were just assessing things always on a, on a logical level and this sort of, was this your first foray into something a little bit more spiritual and, yeah.

Jane: Yes and no. 

Sarah: Didn't necessarily have logical roots. 

Jane: It's yes and no. As a side hustle I'd learn to massage and aromatherapy and craniosacral therapy. 

Sarah: Oh, okay. 

Jane: So they'd taken me into non-logical spaces, energetic spaces, particularly craniosacral therapy.

But because I'm quite a left brain person, I treated them from a left brain perspective. Yes. I tried to treat them from a very logical mental. Perspective, but I had seen and experienced things which the mental, the logical could [00:17:00] not explain. 

Sarah: Yeah. 

Jane: We were doing a program where you, you speak to the brain and this woman had this experience of of being addicted to, I can't remember which drug it was, but it was one of the hard ones 

in 

the womb. Wow. She was on the couch and she had this experience while, while the teacher was speaking to her brain, she went home that evening and said to her mother and, oh, was this stuff going on when you were pregnant with me?

Like drugs, and her mother just went, how did you know? 

Speaker 3: Wow. 

Jane: How could you possibly have known? 

Speaker 3: Yeah. 

Jane: So her mother had been an addict and that had never, ever been talked about. But of course, energetically it was there. 

Speaker 3: Mm. Never, 

Jane: ever been talked about. So I'd seen things I did primal scream therapy and I did Kundalini and I did all sorts of different types of personal [00:18:00] development programmes. Yeah, so I'd sort of come across some things, but really it was when I, it wasn't until I got started to get into and started to learn about Huna that I became open to energetic possibilities. 

Sarah: Yeah, I 

Jane: mean, even when I was, even when I was studying cranio psychotherapy, I would say to people, ah, I don't believe in energy. I'd have my hands on their body. My hands would be about several inches off, and I'm feeling stuff from their body, even though my hands are several inches off.

Oh no, I don't believe in energy. 

Sarah: So even then you're like no, this, this stuff doesn't exist. This is all woo. Doesn't make any sense. You know, my brain can't ratify it, so therefore it, it can't be true even though I'm feeling it, even though I could see something's happening. 

Jane: Yeah. And even occasionally I could even actually, you know, occasionally I'd see, I'd see like ripples, but No, no, no, no.

That's just, that's just the light, that's just the, that's just the air, the movement of the air in the room. [00:19:00] That's. Whatever. 

Sarah: Yeah, I'm sure that's so common though that, that we do sort of feel like we need to be able to logically explain something and actually as times go on and more and more scientific studies are being done into these various alternative practices, I think it's sort of making us aware of how little we know about how the world actually works and how we work. It's worth exploring and, and worth trying things 

Jane: I think there's been a big, I mean, I've seen a big shift. So I, I sort of 99 when I first went to Huna and by then I'd done my NLP trainers, I was teaching NLP and using some of the more esoteric woo woo ideas and I would get so much kickback from people.

Sarah: Yeah. 

Jane: So much resistance. Whereas now, and partly it's because of changes in me, but it's not just because of changes in me. 

Sarah: [00:20:00] Mm-hmm. 

Jane: It's in changes in thinking for all sorts of reasons. Things that I teach now that I was teaching pretty much in the same way.

20, nearly 30 years ago. People are like, yeah, yeah. They get it. And I think some of it's to do with, movies like The Secret or What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole, the Matrix, some of those kinds of movies. 

Sarah: Yeah. 

Jane: They opened up people's thinking a little. And the development in science, particularly neuroscience, but not just neuroscience the quantum physicists, huge developments. Um, and also epigenetics. 

Sarah: As more studies come through, we can start to understand and sort of put a bit of a logical side to it.

The more I look into these things, it almost feels more logical to be open to the fact that something is going on. We might not understand it, but something is going on than it is to [00:21:00] just assume, oh, it's just woo. Yeah, and this is where I think it's interesting with practices like Huna particularly where they have a sort of ancient wisdom attached to them. 

Jane: Yeah. 

Sarah: What happened to these practices that actually people did accept and they did, you know, think these things were part of their lives in terms of aiding their wellbeing. And then it also sort of seems to have got shut away by the, well, we need to follow medicine in a very particular way.

It's great that they, those practices haven't been lost, and now we're sort of drawing attention to them more. Yeah. And being able to draw on them. 

Jane: I think one of the, one of the things about Hawaii was that the the teachings.

Are [00:22:00] relatively close to the surface in the sense that up until the, early to mid 18 hundreds, there was still very much practicing energy, faith healing, in fact, faith healing. One of my teachers, amazing man called, John Ka'imikaua, who unfortunately is now dead, but, he remembers his auntie doing faith healing healing a broken leg. Kid had fallen off his bike. Yeah. And auntie put some herbs wrapped the wound and then prayed over it for I think an hour or two. And the leg, it, it was a compound fracture so that, the bones were sticking out.

That doesn't sound good. Yeah, she, she manually reset it, put the herbs on and within a couple of days, not weeks, a couple of days the kid was bouncing around normally. 

Sarah: Yeah. Amazing 

Jane: walking. 

No, no problem. [00:23:00] So certainly the faith healing practices and, and I think some of the others were around in the fifties and sixties of this century, but certainly the vast body of knowledge was being practiced in the early to middle 18 hundreds.

So it's near the surface. I mean, you can't find what the ancient practices were here. People talk about the druids, but the, the Druidic knowledge. Vanished, and it's accessed again through people channelling the wisdom and, and so forth, because there was very little written about it.

At a certain point. Hawaiian spiritual practices were banned when the missionaries arrived in Hawaii

Sarah: Really? Wow. 

Jane: Yeah.

And, and that wasn't 

just in Hawaii, on the American mainland? 

And they were illegal, I think, until, I think it was in the seventies, that, that was repealed.

Sarah: Okay. So how. How did they continue?

Jane: Underground. Was 

Sarah: it [00:24:00] sort of an underground Yeah, hidden. 

Jane: So one of the reasons I think that Max Freedom Long, the guy who, assigned the word 'huna' to these sorts of practices. I think one of the reasons that he couldn't get people to talk about it was probably because it was illegal and because they were very nervous of sharing it with foreigners with people who were just kind of passing through. 'cause he was there for a relatively couple years, I think, but a relatively short time.

So I think they were nervous about sharing things and also a sense that if they did share it, it might be misused or it wouldn't be understood. 

Sarah: Is there an element of having to sort of bring it up to date, to make it more relevant or 

the human experience is the human experience.

And actually it might have sort of surface level different challenges, but ultimately 

it's often the same. 

Jane: I think. With just about any, with any tradition really when knowledge is passed on. And certainly [00:25:00] until the 18 hundreds, nothing in Hawaii was written down. They didn't have, everything was oral, it was all, it was all spoken word, it was all, all, all through chants or stories.

That's how knowledge was translated. Knowledge changes from was it's passed from generation to generation, because inevitably it's filtered through the filters of that generation, 

Sarah: of course. 

Jane: It has been much more now written down and recorded in, there's videos and

we try to be as true as possible to the original, but of course it's gonna be different than the original because it has, it's changed over time. 

Sarah: Yeah. 

Jane: and the Hawaiian system is, is actually pretty complete in many ways, but some stuff has been lost.

So again, accessing that through channelling or whatever. A lot of it's been handed down fairly verbatim, but some has definitely been lost. And one of the things we know that they had a form of astrology and a form of [00:26:00] numerology that those teachings, as far as I know, and they could be there and, and secret and still hidden, but as far as I know, those practices have been lost.

What we do in the school of Huna that I teach in. And there are different schools different versions, if you like, different lineages. Yeah. We bring in western astrologers, we use western astrology to 

Fill that, to plug 

Sarah: the gaps, 

Jane: to plug that. Right. Um, and similarly western numerology to plug that gap

There's enough in the chants and, and the stories to know that there was something. But we dunno exactly what it was. 

Sarah: Yeah. That's really interesting. Huna's not huge in the UK?

Jane: No, 

Sarah: So I've obviously been following you for a while on social media, the meditations that you do and all this wonderful, um, insights into the work that you do and really enjoyed that. So in a way, I guess I thought it was bigger than it actually is in the UK.

There's only a couple of you [00:27:00] though. 

Jane: Yeah. There's 

a handful of practitioner

it's better known on the US mainland. And it's getting better known. 

But it was secret for a long time and not every, not everything has been shared, that's for sure.

Sarah: Yeah. 

Jane: There's different strands Putting aside the, the, the real energy work. The reiki like system. 

The main lineage, the main tradition, the main body of knowledge that we work with is, comes originally from a family called the Bray Family.

And the reason that we, it ended up in sort of Western hands was because Papa Bray who was the. Last kahuna in his kahuna is, is an expert. It also, it can mean a shaman, but it's also an expert in his lineage. And he wanted to hand the knowledge on, but none of his family wanted it at the time because at the time it wasn't, wasn't useful, it wasn't cool.

Sarah: Okay. 

Jane: It wouldn't get you a [00:28:00] job. There'd been a lot of issues with appropriation of knowledge and appropriation of land and cultural appropriation. But he wanted to hand it on. He could see how important it was that that his lineage continued.

So he looked around for students. 

Um, and he ended up with I think three. One of whom was my original Huna teacher when I first started going to, 

Sarah: oh, wow! 

Jane: Who had met him through a whole, a whole series of what Jung would call synchronicities. And so Papa Bray.

With a couple of other elders who also believe that these teachings are important and that the, they should be available to the world. They were very supportive in setting up the workshops in the first place. 

And several of them were present at the first workshop or couple of workshops because they wanted it to be taught and it wasn't gonna be taught through the Hawaiians at that time.

Sarah: Right. 

Jane: and Tad James is, my [00:29:00] original Huna teacher in Hawaii. At certain point he passed the knowledge on to his son. Matt, and it happens that, Matt's son is part Hawaiian. He's teaching it more and more so it's actually going back into the Hawaiian bloodline.

Sarah: Lovely. 

Jane: Which is beautiful. 

And wherever possible, trying to spread the ideas out because the idea that. All you need to do is do some focussed energy work involving your higher self, which is your connection to source, divine, whatever your word for that is, and you can clear, long held limiting beliefs.

You can clear. Things that actually affect your health, mentally, physically, emotionally spiritually, and you can do it really quickly. 

It's still inconceivable to a lot of people. 

Sarah: Yeah. [00:30:00] Yeah. That's so powerful. 

Jane: That's so powerful. And the teaching of aloha. Which is welcome.

But it also, means love it's more than just love. It's about collaboration. It's about dedication to your spiritual path, to your path. It's about being truthful, honesty with yourself and others.

There's a big community feel in the Hawaiian culture. Community's really important.

Sarah: And again, something that we've sort of lost, but becoming more and more aware of the value of it. 

Jane: Absolutely. 

Sarah: In recent times. 

Jane: Absolutely. 

This, embracing the light persistent perseverance.

So as I say, dedication, honesty, and uh, humility. Not that creepy humility, but. I guess the humility of we're all humans. Mm-hmm. And we're all in the same canoe no matter how, whether you're rich or poor, we're all in the same canoe, really. And how can we, how can we support one another?

[00:31:00] How there, but for the grace of God, when I judge other people, I'm really judging myself. All of that is kind of wrapped up in this one word, Aloha. There's a lot of profundity, profoundness. 

Underpinning some apparently very simple techniques, belief systems.

Sarah: It's fascinating.

I mean, I could talk about this all day, Jane. It is, it's absolutely fascinating. And one thing that I just want to touch on briefly, and I'm hoping that you come back and speak to us again is, um, ho'oponopono, which you've briefly mentioned about forgiveness.

Jane: So within the Hawaiian culture is very much about community. They have a word ohana, which means family. And it's not just blood family. 

It's community in it's absolute best sense, 

Sarah: right 

Jane: But there is an understanding that in any community you will get conflict.

It [00:32:00] happens. We are humans. We have, we have arguments and discussions and people upset one another. Absolutely embedded in the Hawaiian culture, and there are many versions. People who come to it think that there's only one version and it's the Hawaiian forgiveness prayer.

But there are many versions of it. So classically, if let's just say the household, the family group. Um, there's something going on. You get irritated with your brother because he never does the washing up, 

Sarah: right 

Jane: And at some point an elder in the family could be the father, could be the mother, or a grandparent, or an aunty or whatever brings everybody involved in the conflict together. 

Sarah: Okay. 

Jane: In a meeting, and you say what you need to say. Everybody. Everybody has a say. It's a bit like talking stick, right? Everybody has a say and you keep talking until everybody has had their say. And it can take all day, all night, however long.

Sarah: Wow. 

Jane: Until [00:33:00] you're all done. 

Sarah: Yep. Everything's out there on the table. Yeah. And 

Jane: it's forgiven. Everything should be forgiven. That doesn't mean condoning bad behaviour. But even, somebody deliberately hurts you, you should forgive them and they should be punished accordingly.

It's about acknowledging Yeah. Our mutual humanity. So ho'oponopono the idea of forgiveness, which isn't a direct translation, but it's a good enough translation is embedded in the culture. And then there are many different versions. So the version that I teach is

similar, but different to the Hawaiian forgiveness prayer. I teach you, don't thank them. You don't say sorry. You don't even say, I love you because you don't have to love somebody who's violently abused you. 

Sarah: Yes. 

Jane: It's, that's not the expectation. The expectation is, [00:34:00] I forgive you. I let go of it. 

Sarah: Hmm. 

Jane: I say to you what I need to say, it can be done in your head. I say to you what I need to say. You say to me what you need to say because you, we never know 

how our behaviour affects other people. 

Sarah: So is 

it about finding that sort of personal peace about exactly what's happened and then but doing it in a way that the other person can also be at peace with it, rather than sort of laying blame saying, well, I'm happy to move on, but you need to know you are in the wrong. Yeah, 

Jane: yeah, exactly. And, and you can do it in different ways. You can do it face to face, you can do it in your head or you might do it with a, a mix. So you do it in your head and then you find there's somebody that you actually probably do need to have a physical conversation with 'cause d oing it in your head doesn't quite cut it. I mean, the Hawaiians think that, not that all wisdom is in your school. So there, there are many, you know, there's different versions, there's different [00:35:00] schools and they all have something to offer and contribute.

Sarah: Yeah. Beautiful. So, so that's, that's a whole other area that I think is absolutely fascinating. And as you say, depending on the culture can probably be interpreted in different ways. And it's great that you can bring something like that over into the UK. Or into to the communities that you work with and draw on those practices, draw on those learnings to, to make a significant change to people's wellbeing.

So incredible. So we will have Jane back. I'm hoping, like I'll keep twisting your arm to, to talk a bit more about that practice In general though, if people want to find out more about huna or ho'oponopono, um, I know Jane has some fabulous social media profiles.

That I'll put in the show notes for people to follow. Is there anything in particular, Jane, that you would recommend people do if they want to find out more or even [00:36:00] want to try it out for themselves? 

Jane: For women. If you're on Facebook, I have a Facebook group called Secret Art of Huna.

I mix Huna with more European energy. Because the energy that I experience here is very different from the energy that you would experience in, in, even between the Hawaiian islands.

It's different, but the sort of Hawaiian energy is very different from the energy here. When you look up at the night sky, you see different things over there than you would here. So I use Hawaiian approaches, but I try and ground them in a European sense. 

Sarah: Yep. 

Jane: And we do moon meditations and, and all sorts of various things.

So that's Secret Art of Huna. So that's a free group. I also do a, there's a monthly spiritual detox. Uh, there's a, there's a small fee for that, but it's each month we do a different release. So the idea is that people can keep their spiritual practice [00:37:00] going mm-hmm. And do some deeper digging. That goes beyond I go, you know, I go to yoga once a week and I meditate once a week which is a path to spirituality.

But what often happens is that we kind of get stuck we don't really go any deeper or any further either because it's too scary or we haven't got time or whatever. So the spiritual detoxes doesn't take you all the way down, but it, or it might do, but it's aimed to just. Start to go under your regular practice to levels. there's a YouTube channel, secret Art of Huna, a YouTube channel as well. 

Sarah: highly recommend following Jane and finding out more. Um, I think I've, I've been having a look. Is it Sorceress secret? Sorceress 

Jane: secret is the, the monthly spiritual detox?

Yes. 

Sarah: Yes. I have been eyeing that up myself. Um, and I'm sure I won't be the only one. So thank you so much, Jane, for today and for going through in so much detail. A practice people may never have heard of.

Jane: Thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure. 

​[00:38:00] 

Sarah: What a fascinating conversation. I could have talked to Jane for hours. There's so much depth to Huna, and I hope you got a sense of why this ancient practice has survived and is now being shared more widely. A few key things really stayed with me from today's chat. First, that we can think we've dealt with something.

We can talk about it, feel flat on it, but there might still be deeper levels our logical mind hasn't touched. Jane's story about childhood bullying being re-triggered decades later, really illustrates how energy and unresolved emotions can stay in our system. I also love the reminder that these practices aren't woowoo without evidence.

They're ancient wisdom that's now being supported by developments in neuroscience, quantum physics, and [00:39:00] epigenetics. Sometimes the most transformative approaches are the ones are rational brain initially resists. A nd that brief introduction to ho'oponopono, the Hawaiian approach to forgiveness that's about finding peace and letting go, not necessarily loving someone who's hurt you. That's something I definitely want to explore more deeply, which is why I'll be having Jane back next year to dive into that practice more specifically. if you're intrigued by Jane's work, I've put all her details in the show notes.

Thank you so much to Jane for sharing her knowledge and experience so generously today. Until next time, take care of yourselves. And remember, there are many paths to wellness and sometimes the most profound healing comes from practices that have been supporting people for centuries. ​

Thanks for listening