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results of experiences by the astral travel (wailua) of Hawaiian persons• Such experiences as related describe extraterrestrial journeys through known parts of the galaxy in the form of light, while the soul escapes from the tear ducts and returns through the toe. Other experiences of Hawaiian astral travels (wailua) are walks through familiar places, watching people in their daily doings, and then returning to the body; or, the astral travel (wailua) moves upward to a place of great light, only to find it is not ready to be allowed entry and must go back to the corporeal body (kino) to live out the corporeal existence. Persons who have had such experiences are often described by relatives as living a daily life of prayer and having an expectation of dying with no fear of passage from human life to death. Stories told by persons having had these experiences usually fortify strong Hawaiian faith in the reality of an afterlife and tend to also assist in conversion to both Western and Eastern forms of world religion without any loss of faith in the older religious beliefs. Where there has been no experience of this kind, there is conversion accompanied usually by rejection of the older religious beliefs and total absorption of the family into the adopted norms.
One must regard these beliefs and experiences in the life of the soul as a social condition that allowed the Hawaiian a margin of belief in similar ideas voiced in other sacred works and foreign forms of religion that were not inconsistent with native Hawaiian beliefs. Thus, prophecy based on visions and dreams is accepted practice, whether found in native Hawaiian or foreign religions, and dream interpretation in the Bible as practiced by the prophet Daniel on the dream of Nebuchadnezzar is given wide credence. Hawaiian attitudes of belief in dream interpretation, however, vary between dreams or visions considered "prophetic" and those that are brushed aside as rubbish. Dreams with prophetic value contain symbols of wide application in meaning among Hawaiians, and visions that are seen when the conscious mind is fully alert receive the most credence. In the same context, experiences of an extrasensory nature perceived by more than one individual at the same time are given more credence than the same perceived by only one individual. Dreams visualized while the disembodiment (kino wailua) is moving around but the conscious mind is asleep are therefore called moe 'uhane (spirit sleep). Visions beheld while fully alert are called aka-ku (shadow-standing, or shadow substance).
For each Hawaiian individual a lifetime of collected experiences of this nature, whether by himself or by other family members, continues a record of the spiritual life as witnessed psychologically. Hawaiians do not doubt others' experience but are also equipped to recognize when these states are injurious to mental health and to separate true prophetic visions or dreams from hallucinations and defective, abnormal perceptions. The criteria of evaluation is difficult to determine and needs research, study, and clarification. Hawaiians are sensitive, however, to being called "superstitious" so far as these areas of belief are concerned, and denials of acceptance when these experiences are offered bring either deep-seated resentment or open anger. This may be one of the pitfalls of religion, that it requires belief and acceptance without proof or demonstrability, and the Hawaiians in being converted to other religions have never required proof or demanded demonstration of the efficacy, for example, of Christian beliefs. As with other converts the world over, the Hawaiian people take the
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