How Dr. Hew Len healed a ward of mentally ill criminals with Ho'oponopono
Ho’oponopono, the Hawaiian system that heals oneself ... and the world, too
More than thirty years ago, in Hawaii, at the Hawaii State Hospital, there was a special ward, a clinic for the mentally ill criminals. People who had committed extremely serious crimes were assignated there either because they had a very deep mental disorder or because they needed to be checked to see if they were sane enough to stand trial. They had committed murder, rape, kidnapping or other such crimes. According to a nurse that worked there in those years, the place was so bleak that not even the paint could stick to the walls, everything was decaying, terrifying, repulsive. No day would pass without a patient-inmate attacking another inmate or a member of the staff.
The people working there were so frightened that they would walk close to the walls if they saw an inmate coming their way in a corridor, even though they were all shackled, all the time –but more than once this wouldn’t stop an agression. The inmates would never be brought outside to get fresh air because of their relentlessly threatening attitude. The scarcity of staff was a chronic occurrence. Nurses, wardens, employees would prefer to be on sick-leave most of the time in order not to confront such a depressive and dangerous environment.
Dr. Hew Len, the Teacher of Ho'oponopono
Dr. Hew Len, the Teacher of the healing system Ho'oponopono
Enters Dr. Hew Len
One day, a newly appointed clinical psychologist, a Dr. Stanley Hew Len, arrived at the ward. The nurses rolled their eyes, bracing themselves for one more guy that was going to bug them with new theories and proposals to fix the horrid situation, who would walk away as soon as things became unpleasant, around a month later, usually. However, this new doctor wouldn’t do anything like that. Actually he didn’t seem to be doing anything in particular, except just coming in and being always cheerful and smiling, in a very natural, relaxed way. He wasn’t even particularly early in arriving every morning. From time to time he would ask for the files of the inmates.
He never tried to see them personally, though. Apparently he just sat in an office, looked at their files, and to members of the staff who showed an interest he would tell them about a weird thing called Ho’oponopono. Little by little things started to change in the hospital. One day somebody would try again to paint those walls and they actually stayed painted, making the environement more palatable. The gardens started being taken care of, some tennis courts were repaired and some prisonners that up until then would never be allowed to go outside started playing tennis with the staff. Other prisonners would be allowed not to be shackled any more, or would receive less heavy pharmacological drugs. More and more obtained permission to go outside unshackled, without causing trouble to the hospital’s employees.
In the end, the athmosphere changed so much that the staff was not on sick leave any more. Actually, more people than needed wished now to work there. Prisonners started gradually to be released. Dr. Hew Len worked there close to four years. In the end, there remained only a couple of inmates that were relocated somewhere else and the clinic for the mentally insane criminals had to close.
Another self-help book?
I have to confess that I don’t remember reading in my whole life one single self-help book. Titles like how to get wealthy in two simple steps or the sure road to love and riches or marketing with the stars or secure your health with this ancient secret of the mayas never passed from my eyes to my consciousness, I simply never paid attention to them.
So when my neighbor Norma, an 81 year young lady filled with strength, enthousiasm and New York witt, told me: “rosario, you have to read this new book by Joe Vitale”, I stared at her with probably a blank expression, and I asked “who is Joe Vitale?” The extent of my ignorance was too wide for her to try to diminish it, so she replied, “never mind, you have to read this book”. “It’s about a doctor who emptied a ward for mentally insane criminals in a couple of years, just saying a few words to himself.”
I asked, “could you repeat what you just said?” And she did. The book displayed all the signs of the self-help book: ZERO LIMITS, The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More, but it was too late, I had heard about the doctor and I had developed an instant frenzy, a desperate need to learn what he had done with the crazy criminals, so I grabbed the book and rushed home and started reading, and I didn’t stop until the last word.
What did Dr. Hew Len do to the patients, how did he treat them that the results were so spectacular? He didn’t do anything. Not a thing to them nor with them, except looking at their files. He only tried to heal himself, applying an old, traditional community problem-solving system from Hawaii, called Ho’oponopono, adapted to individuals by his Teacher, the late Hawaiian sage Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona. And what was he doing to himself? In his own words: “I was simply healing the part of me that created them”.
Actually, he used to sit in his office and look at the patients' files. While perusing them, he would feel something, a pain, an empathy. Then he started the healing on himself, taking full responsibility for what was going on with a given patient. That's how those people got better, because their doctor had the strange view that it was himself who needed the healing, not them.
Ho’oponopono
Simply put, Ho’oponopono is based on the knowledge that anything that happens to you or that you perceive, the entire world where you live is your own creation and thus, it is entirely your responsibility. A hundred percent, no exceptions.
Your boss is a tyrant? It’s your responsibility. Your children are not good students? It’s your responsibility. There are wars and you feel bad because you are a good person, a pacifist? The war is your responsibility. You see that children around the world are hungry and malnourished if not starving? Their wont is your responsibility. No exceptions. Literally, the world is your world, it is your creation. As Dr. Hew Len points out: didn’t you notice that whenever you experience a problem you are there?
It’s your responsibility doesn’t mean it’s your fault, it means that you are responsible for healing yourself in order to heal whatever or whoever it is that appears to you as a problem.
It might sound crazy, or just plain metaphorical, that the world is your creation. But if you look carefully, you will realize that whatever you call the world and perceive as the world is your world, it is the projection of your own mind. If you go to a party you can see how in the same place, with the same light, the same people, the same food, drink, music and athmosphere, some will enjoy themselves while others will be bored, some will be overenthousiastic and some depressed, some will be talkative and others will be silent. The “out there” for every one of them seems the same, but if one were to connect their brains to machines immediately it would show how different areas of the brain would come alive, how different perceptions there are from one person to the next. So even if they apparently share it, the “out there” is not the same for them, let alone their inner world, their emotions.
How do you heal yourself with Ho’oponopono? Three steps: by recognizing that whatever comes to you is your creation, the outcome of bad memories buried in you mind; by regretting whatever errors of body, speech and mind caused those bad memories, and by requesting Divine Intelligence within yourself to release those memories, to set you free. Then, of course, you say thank You.
There are seminars where they teach you many tricks to help this process, but according to Joe Vitale, Dr. Hew Len himself uses the simplest of the formulas from Ho’oponopono. Whenever a matter arises –and they arise incessantly– adressing the Divine within you, you only have to say: I love You, I’m sorry, Please forgive me, Thank You.
That we can obtain big things from Ho’oponopono has already been shown: the healing of an entire ward of insane criminals seems far more difficult a task than any of our personal troubles. There are, no doubt, piles of testimonies from practitioners. Dr. Hew Len says, however: this is not fast food. The cleaning of memories requires a lot of concentration and persistence and is an unending job. But the result is what he calls Zero Limits, a state where one is free from the past, and suffused with Divine Intelligence and love.
Rosario Montenegro
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Poll
Dr. Joe Vitale, author of Zero Limits
Comments
Cathy Smith on December 07, 2019:
I encourage you to try Ho’oponopono. Make it a daily practice for the next month. I’d love to hear what shifts and changes in you and in your life! ... Love from Jewels Healing jewelshealinggarden.com/dr-joe-vitales-hooponopono-certification-review-hooponopono-certification
Anonym on October 27, 2019:
Dr. Hew Len used at Hawaii State Hospital (between 1984 - 1987) allegedly a Ho'oponopono-process, which was developed by Morrnah Simeona. This Ho'oponopono-process is said to involves 12 or 14 steps (depending on how you count the steps). Therefore would the success due to the 12- or 14-step Ho'oponopono-process.
There is are exist allegedly positive testimonies from people, who have also used Morrnah's ho'oponopono-process. This states that Morrnah's ho'oponopono-process must be enormous powerful.
This may be of interest to many people, and especially to those who are looking for a powerful way to sustainably / permanently resolve their problems.
PS: According to my research, there exists an organization called Pacifica Seminars (see Wikipedia - Morrnah Simeona), which was founded by Morrnah Simeona in 1990 in Germany. The website can be found on the Internet at:
www.pacificaseminars.de (an online-translator is recommended.)
Bruno on July 12, 2017:
There is a very good book on Ho'oponopono I recommend called "How to Become a Miracle Worker with your Life. You can find the link here.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Miracle-Worker-Y...
Read more
Wendy on April 10, 2017:
It sounds like an interesting new way to deal with guilt, fear, and the non forgiveness I think we all deal with ....especially for ourselves. Will be thinking about this concept for sure.
Thanks for sharing this.
Nicola on November 30, 2016:
Hi, I'm an italian boy...Are there evidences that Dr. Hew Len worked in the Haway State Hospita, or Zero Limits is the only source? In the web there are many articles of people who phoned to the Hospital and discovered Hew Len never worked there. I don't want to be polemical, I'm interested in Ho'oponopono and i'd like to know the truth about Hew Len's story...
Quentin on July 18, 2016:
I have been reading a lot of this Ho'oponopono a system to transform oneself by Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. Various writers write about the Doctor transforming the lives of the prisoners thirty years ago, in Hawaii, at the Hawaii State Hospital, what has happened is only hearsay. If the doctor who performed this is still living they will be atleast one prisoner who can give a testimony to this healing.
This system is just another mind game. If one begins to think that this will take place if they do this or that, it is bound to happen. It is sort of they themselves building their faith. If the doctor states that he has healed those criminals why then is there not another such instance carried out by so many of his followers or for that matter Mabel Katz or Joe Vitalale. Joe Vitale talks in his video about getting the cars he always desired and the wealth that he acquired, why not try this and heal the criminals. He will do more good to society. This is what happens with these positive training thinkers. They play on these foolish people’s minds who believe such crap will benefit them. They are like goats all led to the slaughter. These positive trainers reap the moolah while the others who try these silly practices for a couple of months find themselves where they were earlier and realise they are hoaxed. I do believe that positive conditioning of the mind is very powerful and can get very good results but how many have that strong will power to achieve the impossible. This is a trait developed by a select few who have made the impossible a possibility.
This is one of Joe Vitales money game to sell his book and has got the Dr. to tag along.
Louis Duvall on February 20, 2016:
Mentally ill criminals are still criminals in spite of what the good doctor wants to believe. In truth and in fact there is a very low percentage of criminals who are released back into society that will not return to a life of crime. The majority WILL return to crime . And the amazing thing is that ,besides committing crimes, they manage to violate their probation and end up back in jail. It's not the crimes they commit ,because they are educated on the streets and learn more ways of not getting caught. It's not showing up to report to the MAN !
Beppe on January 11, 2016:
G. Gharda Ward MD
This review is from: Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More (Paperback)
I am a Board-Certified Psychiatrist. In 1987 I worked at Hawaii State Hospital. ON THEIR FORENSIC UNIT, where Joe Vitale says these "miracles" took place. I can assure you this is completely phony and false. IT NEVER HAPPENED. There were no psychotic murderers and rapists that were "cured" by this Ho'oponopono. It is false and misleading. Many of the things in the book are completely untrue. There were no car washes (can you imagine letting murderers and rapists off the unit to go outside and wash cars?), patients did not walk around in shackles nor were they held for long periods in seclusion. This is a STATE HOSPITAL!! Can you imagine what would happen if the Honolulu Advertiser (the local paper) had gotten wind of these patients being allowed outside? What if one of them escaped?? The Doctor, the hospital administrator, heck, the Governor of the state would be in big trouble. Think about it!! The events described in the book simply did not happen.
Harsha Vardhana R from Bangalore on August 15, 2014:
In current days, my anger due to others behavior has increased. It is getting reflected in my own health due to wounds, warps and bleeding etc. I intend to open ZeroLimits again and heal myself by 100% responsibility.
SYLVIN on August 14, 2014:
I love Ho'oponopono and it has changed my way of thinking.
Life has been very hard, my sister, her husband are having health problems and my sister is a miracle she is alive. I am thank full of that.
I am praying for her, and her husbands health, for complete cure. My mother is 93 and now she is forgetting lots of things.
Am I asking for too much?
God bless you!
kymberleyp on August 13, 2014:
Hi
I am writing a book and would love to add part of your article. Please can you tell me how I would do this?
Thank you
Guma on August 03, 2014:
Thanks you for sharing your wisdom and love so freely, I have been off and on called to Ho' oponopono process for quite a number of years, yet today as I read through your responses to people's questions I have come to understand so much more.
I have renewed strength and perspective to begin again practicing with my internal self talk, my despairing 92 year old mother in law, and the prisoners I work with.
I feel you should make a guide to Ho' oponopono process from your own writings here, it would benefit many. Thank you.
Dhr on May 06, 2014:
Wonderful work rosariomontenegro.
I just came by your hub.All i wish to say is i love you . i am sorry. pls forgive me. i thank you. :)
coolingstar9 on October 11, 2013:
Mind set can be changed. All have hope already.
Rosario on September 02, 2013:
Yes, there is an extensive testimony from a nurse who was working there at the time, she gave it to Joe Vitale for his book.
bernard on September 02, 2013:
Is ther any evidence that the Hawaiin mental patients story actually happened? I cannot find anything online except hearsay.
rosariomontenegro (author) from NEW YORK on April 16, 2013:
I´m very glad that you were able to use the practice with such good results. Thank you.
Harsha Vardhana R from Bangalore on April 16, 2013:
Thank you, for this great reminder to me. It has inspired me take out "ZeroLimits" from shelf and start the practice again. The miracle was instantaneous. My visit to Schizophrenic brother was cool and hopeful
rosariomontenegro (author) from NEW YORK on February 13, 2013:
Dear Larrycreativeguy, thank you again. But please don´t be sorry for "any" information in memories that you share with me. I´m sure we share a bunch that are wonderful and worth cherishing.
I wish you the best in your spiritual quest.
Larrycreativeguy on February 13, 2013:
You are welcome. My personal relationship to ME is crucial. There is the relationship I think I have and then the one I really have. In addition to the Ho' oponopono process, I'm sitting quietly and examining the life I really want to create for myself and the beliefs I really have about doing that. Getting quiet, breathing, being still and opening my heart to listen. The process of Ho' oponopono has helped in some way with that experience for me. And I continue to find myself subconsciously cleaning energy whenever I'm noticing an internal reaction. As the "I AM" presence that I am, I'm feeling my life shifting dramatically. How cool to share that with others here.
I'm sorry for any information in memories that I share with you. I love you. Please forgive me. Thank You!
Ahola....
rosariomontenegro (author) from NEW YORK on February 13, 2013:
Dear Larrycreativeguy, thank you for stopping by and offering us here such a wonderful, uplifting story.
As soon as I have the opportunity I will enjoy the inteview, thank you so much for that, too.
I love you, I'm sorry for any memories that we might share from the past that are not conducive to happiness, please forgive me, thank you !!!
All the best!
Larrycreativeguy on February 13, 2013:
Hello Rosario,
Thanks for posting this information here. How lovely to have the conversation continuing for several years!
I read "Zero Limits" years ago, loved the process but felt disappointed when the book seemed to turn more toward how much money you could make form it. Recently, Ho' oponopono came back into my life and...the first thing I did was use it for the uncomfortable feelings I had about it! WOW, what an idea.
Recently, I was mountain biking in Colorado, rode up hill for 50 minutes and while sitting on a rock enjoying a warm and windless day, the back tire on my bike blew out. While problem solving and seeing if I had anything that could repair my tubeless tire, I felt annoyed by the mountain bikers riding down past me and not even saying hello let alone asking if I could use help. Noticing the irritation, taking responsibility for it, I went through the steps of forgiveness and love. Suddenly, EVERYONE was stopping. And there more people on the trail on a weekday than I had ever seen before. AND, everything I needed to make my way home showed up. Instead of walking an hour or more in uncomfortable cycling shoes, I was able to ride all the way back.
I'm even finding myself using it in my sleep as I slowly rise in consciousness and notice things that are bothering me.
Take responsibility. As Dr. Hew Len might say, it's the information in your subconscious automatically running your life. Be responsible, it's the only place real change can take place.
There are video's on YouTube interviewing Dr. Hew Len. If I may, here's a link to one short interview I stumbled upon: http://youtu.be/3xCmvZZFQI0 Seeing Dr. Hew Len in his humble and authentic self is touching and carries his spirit of him doing this work.
Blessings...
anubha.tyagi@gmail.com on February 09, 2013:
Hi Rose,
Thanks for reminding me once again, and yet so beautifully -
"Beyond the use of your discriminating mind to determine the general morality of not harming others nor yourself, there is no need to be dividing things into this and that, like inspiration or memories. Just clean whatever you have doubts about."
That is something I have highlighted in bold, for me to remember, should I begin to forget it!
I love you, I am sorry, please forgive me for discriminating things into this & that, and Thank you for responding back so promptly and guiding us with your love and light - without discrimination! :)
rosariomontenegro (author) from NEW YORK on February 02, 2013:
Anubha ... overthinking stuff ... yes, no doubt you are doing that. Please always go back to basics, to heal your heart through taking responsibility for everything and anything that happens in your world.
Beyond the use of your discriminating mind to determine the general morality of not harming others nor yourself, there is no need to be dividing things into this and that, like inspiration or memories. Just clean whatever you have doubts about.
Dr. Len mentions a woman that learned ho'oponopono years ago. In the meantime her children became adults. Every morning she wakes up and does Ho'oponopono for herself and every one of her children, their spouses, their own children, their business, their day ... every morning. I don´t think she has time to be pondering about memories or inspiration. No doubt her family is thriving. Hers is a beautiful example.
I suggest that whenever things come to your mind on a loop, first do ho'oponopono on them right away and then forget about them, do ho'oponopono for somebody else, or for a situation.
I love you, thank you for letting me know that you are being successful, please forgive any part not well explained, thank you for being so brave.
Best to you.
rosariomontenegro (author) from NEW YORK on February 02, 2013:
Hi Rosemary, I´m glad that you understood.
Actually, I´d like to extract another paragraph from the article, that sheds still more light on the subject.
Speaking about his actions that gave such results with the criminal insane, he said:
In his own words: “I was simply healing the part of me that created them”.
Actually, he used to sit in his office and look at the patients' files. While perusing them, he would feel something, a pain, an empathy. Then he started the healing on himself, taking full responsibility for what was going on with a given patient. That's how those people got better, because their doctor had the strange view that it was himself who needed the healing, not them.
Rosemary, I love you. Thank you.
Anubha on February 02, 2013:
Hi Rose,
Thanks for your continuing guidance to all of us here....I especially loved how beautifully you summed up the essence of the entire process to arcticmonkeys. I have been practicing Ho'oponopono religiously now, and needless to day, I have seen some amazing changes in myself, and the world and its people, around me.
I can see, how we clean the memories/data within us first, to clean something that we percieve as a problem, or as something "negative" on the outside. We effect change within us through this process, by clearing the memories in us that are replaying a particular problem in our life, and in time, we witness that change in our surroundings. So far so good! I am able to actally feel the freedom from those memories within - which happens naturally as I continue to clean. And of course, in time, that freedom is reflected back at me, in my outside surroundings...
And as already stated - at any given point in time, we are either operating from memory, or from inspiration. Now, pertaining to certain events and things in my life - I have seen some of those negative memories clean up from within me & have seen them stopped replaying ( some of which I consciously recognized, and others, which I obviously, could never know of ), but I clearly feel the difference in myself, so I know that a lot of garbage has been cleared from my soul. Of course, the work continues.
But here's something that gets me in a loop & I can't help but wonder --
In any given moment, if there's a good feeling picture going on in my head - something like a beautiful imagination, then, how do I know whether - I am coming from Inspiration, or its rather, just a "positive-feel good" memory? And, if its the latter, should I be concerned, and is there a harm, if that's what continues to replay in my head? If both "feel" good, then how shall I know, which of the two, am I operating from?
I am looking for your wisdom here yet another time , so I can come from a place of clarity and understanding, once again....
I love you, I am sorry if I am overthinking stuff, Please forgive me, & Thank you sooooo much for your pearls of wisdom, which are eternally and always, priceless!
Rosemary on February 01, 2013:
There is one sentence that I believe should have been emphasized, perhaps put in bold or italics, because for me it is the "hook" that makes sense of the whole message:
"It’s your responsibility doesn’t mean it’s your fault ..."
Frankly, the idea that "it's your fault" has created a lot of resistance in myself. I believe other people have had that reaction, as well.
"... it means that you are responsible for healing yourself in order to heal whatever or whoever it is that appears to you as a problem."
Now, THAT I could wrap my mind around.
Thank you. I just discovered this. I find Dr. Hew Len trustworthy and will listen to what he says.
Rosario Montenegro on January 17, 2013:
Hello arcticmonkeys, I´m sorry that your sister is under that stress. If you want to help please apply Ho'oponopono first to your "thinking in a negative way". After you do this in a heartfelt way, then do the Ho'oponopono for your sister.
I don´t recommend any specific new formula of words, the four lines formula, if said with the heart, are the essence of the Ho'oponopono and radically efficient.
So remember: you address Divinity in yourself, you say first: I love you, because this love is the connector, the healer, the all pervading ways of the Divine, the key for you to access the Divine. Then, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all memories in my heart that knowingly or unkowingly I created in the past with my actions and now are contributing to the creation of this painful situation I am witnessing, my sister´s illness. Please forgive me, forgive all actions known or unknown to me, of body, speech and mind, that created those memories. Thank you. You say Thank You because from Divinity the best of outcomes is going to flow toward yourself and your sister.
I love you, I´m sorry, please forgive me, thank you.
arcticmonkeys on January 16, 2013:
Hello Rosario! :)
I'd like to ask you something very important for me.My elder sister is going to have a kidney operation soon. As I know from Ho'oponopono, this all is my resposiblity.Can you recommend some cleaning sentences for me to repeat until and during the operation.Because I'm really hard-stressed about it and can't take myself of thinking in a negative way.What should I do,
thank you soooo much! :)
rosariomontenegro (author) from NEW YORK on December 31, 2012:
Hours now from the beginning of a year that comes after the most talked about year in recent history. We are leaving behind 2012 but not the lessons it brought to us, so kindly.
Let's welcome 2013, and for the world, for all of you and your families, from my heart I'd like to make a huge Ho'oponopono:
I Love You, I'm Sorry, Please Forgive me, Thank You.