The Hawaiians Knew: An Introduction to Huna

The Illusion of Static Balance

You think you're in control. You think balance means finding a static point of calm, a place where nothing changes and you can finally rest.

That's not how life works. That's not how anything works.

The biggest lie we've been sold is the myth of equilibrium. We're told to seek balance as if it were a destination—a fixed state we can achieve and hold. But as Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine demonstrated through far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics, life itself is the opposite of equilibrium. A discharged battery is at equilibrium—it can't do anything. A charged battery is far from equilibrium—it has potential, it can create, it can live.

Health is your distance from equilibrium. The further you are from that static, dead state, the more alive you are. Aging isn't about getting older—it's about your collection of molecules randomizing, moving closer to equilibrium until you undergo what I call a "far-from-equilibrium phase change." Death.

The Physics of Life and Creativity

Here's what conventional science gets wrong: they tell you that life is statistically impossible. The probability of all the molecules that compose you coming together randomly to form this organization is infinitesimally small. And yet, here you are. Here we all are.

How do we resolve this? Through understanding that flowing energy organizes matter.

When energy flows through a system, organization spontaneously emerges. Put heat under a liquid and watch hexagonal convection cells form—billions of molecules spontaneously cooperating, creating structure from chaos. This isn't magic. This is physics. This is the creative force of the universe expressing itself through thermodynamic principles.

We are flow-dependent structures. Stop eating, stop breathing, stop the flow—and we die. The structure that is "you" requires constant flow to maintain itself. We get smarter by making the universe stupider quicker—we take in organization (food, information) and we export disorder (waste, heat). That's the deal. That's life.

The Endocannabinoid System: Nature's Master Regulator

What the ancient Hawaiians intuited about mana—life force energy—modern science has identified as the endocannabinoid system. This system, which first appeared with vertebrates hundreds of millions of years ago, regulates everything in your body from conception until death.

Your immune system. Your digestive system. Your cardiovascular system. Your nervous system. Your reproductive system. Every one of these is homeostatically maintained by the cannabinoids your own body produces—endocannabinoids made from essential fatty acids.

Every time you get hungry, it's because your brain makes endocannabinoids. You're giving yourself the munchies. Every time you feel relief from stress, every time you adapt to change successfully—that's your endocannabinoid system doing its job.

Free radicals are the friction of life. Cannabinoids are the oil of life.

When we do things—when we live, think, move, create—we generate free radicals as a byproduct. These reactive molecules cause damage, create stress, accelerate aging. The endocannabinoid system exists to counteract this friction, to keep the flow smooth, to help us adapt to change without falling apart.

Forward-Looking People vs. Backward-Looking People

Here's where it gets interesting. Not everyone has the same cannabinoid activity. Some people are naturally more "endowed" with endocannabinoid function, while others are deficient.

Forward-Looking People (FLPs) are those with robust cannabinoid activity. They're:

• Open-minded and adaptable
• Optimistic about the future
• Able to embrace change without excessive stress
• Creative and exploratory
• Willing to agree to disagree

Backward-Looking People (BLPs) are cannabinoid-deficient. They tend to be:

• Resistant to change
• Anxious about the unknown
• Stuck in old patterns of thinking
• Unable to "unlearn" outdated information
• Prone to seeking control through rigidity

Think about it: In experiments with mice lacking CB1 receptors—the knockout mice that literally cannot get high—they can learn where a platform is located. But when you move the platform? They can't adapt. They keep going back to where it used to be. They're stuck. They cannot relearn.

This isn't just a mouse problem. The world is run by BLPs—people who look backward because looking forward requires adaptation they're biochemically incapable of. They seek consensus based on what already happened rather than creative solutions for what's coming. And because they share this backward orientation, they accumulate in positions of power, reinforcing each other's rigidity.

Why This Matters Now

We cannot evolve fast enough. Our biochemical set points were calibrated over millions of years for a world that no longer exists. A hundred years ago, we died of infectious diseases. Today, we die of age-related illnesses—cardiovascular disease, autoimmune conditions, cancer, cognitive decline. All of these have inflammation and free radical damage at their core.

The endocannabinoid system evolved to protect us from the inflammation needed to fight infections. But now we're living longer in an environment that demands rapid adaptation, and our internal thermostats are set wrong. We're making too much inflammation and not enough anti-inflammatory protection.

The solution is more cannabinoid activity in the human population.

This isn't just about individual health—though eating your essential fatty acids and supporting your endocannabinoid system absolutely matters. This is about the collective consciousness of humanity. Cannabis promotes open-mindedness, creativity, cooperation, and adaptability—exactly what we need to navigate the challenges facing our species.

Practical Wisdom

Understand that you are flow. You're not a static thing; you're a process. Every cell in your body is constantly being made and unmade. Embrace impermanence because that's literally what you are.

Support your endocannabinoid system. Eat essential fatty acids. Consider cannabinoid supplementation. Your body needs the "oil" to counteract the "friction" of living.

Burn fat, not just sugar. The balance between carbohydrate metabolism (CB1, sugar-burning, doing things) and fat metabolism (CB2, fat-burning, recycling and repair) is crucial. Modern diets push us too far toward sugar-burning, generating excessive free radicals.

Cultivate forward-looking consciousness. If you can't naturally look toward the future with optimism, it may be because your biochemistry is working against you. Address that biochemistry.

Accept that stress is change. Any change—good or bad—is biochemically stressful. The question isn't how to eliminate stress but how to help your system adapt to it. That's what cannabinoids do.

The Cannabis Awakening

We are in the middle of a far-from-equilibrium phase change on a planetary scale. The old structures are destabilizing. Weather patterns, financial systems, political orders—everything is showing the increased variability that precedes transformation.

This is also happening in human consciousness. The Cannabis Awakening is unstoppable because it represents truth—the alignment of ancient wisdom with modern science, the recognition that we have within us (and access to through a plant) the tools for adaptation and survival.

The meek shall inherit the earth. And who are the meek? Perhaps they're the ones willing to say "agree to disagree" rather than "comply or be jailed." Perhaps they're the FLPs, the cannabinoid-endowed, the ones who can look forward into uncertainty and embrace it rather than fighting desperately to preserve a past that no longer serves us.

The universe is not against you. It's not for you either. It's an unfolding creative process, and you are part of it. Your molecules are part of a chemistry experiment that's been running for 4.5 billion years on this planet.

Learn to surf the wave of increasing entropy. Use the tools nature has provided. The Hawaiians knew something essential about the flow of life force. Modern thermodynamics confirms it. Your endocannabinoid system embodies it.

The question is: Will you align with the creative force of the universe, or fight against the very nature of life itself?