EFT and Ho’oponopono are two methods that work miracles together. Ho’oponopono roughly translates to “cause things to move back in balance” or to “make things right.” I’ve found that many don’t experience the full impact of these methods together because they aren’t taught what to focus on during the Ho’oponopono part. Keep reading to understand how to remedy this problem.
The intriguing message of love and forgiveness using ho’oponopono below was spread widely over the Internet a while back. Many who have read this message have found it to be incredibly inspiring, but question whether the story is really true. The author is inspirational speaker and prolific author Joe Vitale, one of the main individuals featured in the popular inspiring film, The Secret.
Vitale has claimed that to the best of his knowledge, the story is true. But even if it is not 100% factual, the wisdom shared has helped many millions around the globe to step more fully into love and forgiveness. Materials are included after the story for you to explore further.
Simple Steps to Healing: Ho’oponopono
I Love You, I’m Sorry, Please Forgive Me, Thank You
by Dr. Joe Vitale
Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients – without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate’s chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person’s illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.
When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane?
It didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t logical, so I dismissed the story.
However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho’oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn’t let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more.
I had always understood “total responsibility” to mean that I am responsible for what I think and do. Beyond that, it’s out of my hands. I think that most people think of total responsibility that way. We’re responsible for what we do, not what anyone else does. The Hawaiian therapist who healed those mentally ill people would teach me an advanced new perspective about total responsibility.
His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. We probably spent an hour talking on our first phone call. I asked him to tell me the complete story of his work as a therapist. He explained that he worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years. That ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous. Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients. It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.
Dr. Len told me that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files. While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. 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,” he told me. “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.”
I was in awe.
“Not only that,” he went on, “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.”
This is where I had to ask the million dollar question: “What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?”
“I was simply healing the part of me that created them,” he said.
I didn’t understand.
Dr. 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.
Whew. This is tough to swallow. Being responsible for what I say or do is one thing. Being responsible for what everyone in my life says or does is quite another. Yet, the truth is this: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life.
This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy – anything 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. The problem isn’t with them, it’s with you, and to change them, you have to change you.
I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, but as I spoke with Dr. Len, I began to realize that healing for him and in ho’oponopono means loving yourself. If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone – even a mentally ill criminal – you do it by healing you.
I asked Dr. Len how he went about healing himself. What was he doing, exactly, when he looked at those patients’ files?
“I just kept saying, ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I love you’ over and over again,” he explained.
That’s it?
That’s it.
Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself. And as you improve yourself, you improve your world. Let me give you a quick example of how this works: one day, someone sent me an email that upset me. In the past I would have handled it by working on my emotional hot buttons or by trying to reason with the person who sent the nasty message. This time, I decided to try Dr. Len’s method. I kept silently saying, “I’m sorry” and “I love you.” I didn’t say it to anyone in particular. I was simply evoking the spirit of love to heal within me what was creating the outer circumstance.
Within an hour I got an e-mail from the same person. He apologized for his previous message. Keep in mind that I didn’t take any outward action to get that apology. I didn’t even write him back. Yet, by saying “I love you,” I somehow healed within me what was creating him.
In short, Dr. Len says there is no out there. It would take a whole book to explain this advanced technique with the depth it deserves. Suffice it to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there’s only one place to look: inside you.
And when you look, do it with love.
Note: This article on ho’oponopono is edited from the book Zero Limits by Dr. Joe Vitale and Dr. Len. You can listen to Joe talk about his experience with Dr. Len and ho’oponopono along with his involvement with the inspiring movie, The Secret, on News for the Soul by clicking here. He starts talking about Dr. Len and ho’oponopono at minute 15 in this engaging one-hour interview.
Dr. Len’s message may be hard to believe, yet it’s amazingly simple. He states that we all share responsibility for everything we see in our world. By taking personal responsibility for our part and then healing the wounded places within ourselves, we can literally heal ourselves and our world.
In his writings and videos, Dr. Len is pretty adamant in saying he is not doing a healing on behalf of any one else–that would be manipulative–he is clearing/cleaning reflection/projection; thus simply healing himself, period. The extension of this is what I call “taking the blame.” This is the secret – and not so easy for some. As you repeat the words “I love you, I’m sorry, Forgive me, Thank you,” you focus on it being your “fault.” This is where the power comes in. See, we are all connected. Oneness is the concept that we are all connected, all parts of one whole. Since everything is one, what I do to you, I do to myself; what is done to you, is done to me.
- From a neuroscience perspective, we are all connected brain to brain and cell to cell.
- Harmony with all living things, said Kirpal Singh, comes from the “recognition that all things are [made of] the same Essence.”
- Everything and everyone is interconnected, interdependent and interrelated. We are part of a natural and social web of life that supports and sustains us. We are connected to nature and dependent on it for the things we need to keep us alive (from WisdomParenting.org).
- A. Spirkin writes of the principle of Universal Connection ( https://www.marxists.org/
reference/archive/spirkin/ works/dialectical-materialism/ ch02-s05.html): The concept of universal connection. Nothing in the world stands by itself. Every object is a link in an endless chain and is thus connected with all the other links. - The Dalai Lama: “We have to live on this planet together.” The potential for happiness is in that connectivity. “Happiness is in the mind.” As individuals and as leaders, when we reach out to others, lifting them up, we experience that connection, and the resulting fulfillment brings us happiness.
- Divine Consciousness: In the context of this physical reality, each of us is a unique expression of the divine consciousness – the collective consciousness to which we contribute our unique experiences during our lifetimes for the sole purpose of consciousness evolution. Like a musical note, each of us has our own unique frequency, but together we are co-creating a beautiful Cosmic symphony. In essence, we are sharing one grand consciousness out of which everything that exists in our physical reality, including our physical bodies were born. (https://spiritualitydecoded.
com/spirituality/spirituality- micro-dose-q2-what-does-were- all-connected-mean/) - Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger is known for the phrase “The total number of minds in the universe is one. In fact, consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings.”
So the secret when doing Ho’oponopono is in repeating the mantra with full feeling that somehow you were involved in the cause of the problem. This can be difficult in the human tendency to point fingers and blame others, or situations, or God, or the weather or any other thing outside of us. But it can be done. and if you try it once (on something light, please), you can get the hang of it fairly quickly. Think of your higher consciousness, and speak from there. No one should walk around thinking everything is their fault. This is more about non-judgement than taking the blame for everything.
- First – focus on the issue that you want to address. (If you blame someone else for any fault in causing it, TAP IT OUT)
- The EFT part: Tap all the points. That’s it. The order doesn’t matter. One or two hands, either side or both at the same time or alternate. Easy peasy.
- The Ho’oponopono part: Say each sentence, one at a time on different points and slowly breathe in and out before moving on. So while tapping, you say “I love you” – breathe in and out slowly, move to the next point and say “I’m sorry” – breathe in and out slowly, move to the next point and say “Please forgive me” – breathe in and out slowly, move to the next point and say “Thank you” – breathe in and out slowly, move to the next point and start the phrases over. Do it as long as you can (15 to 20 minutes.)