zero limits
The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More
JOE VITALE
IHALEAKALA HEW LEN, PhD
To Morrnah and Ka’i
—Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len
To Mark Ryan and Nerissa
—Dr. Joe Vitale
Ho’oponopono is a profound gift that allows one to develop a working relationship with the Divinity within and learn to ask that in each moment, our errors in thought, word,
deed, or action be cleansed. The process is essentially about freedom, complete freedom from the past. ---Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona,
Ho’oponopono Master Teacher,
creator of Self I-Dentity Ho’oponopono,
named a Living Treasure of the
State of Hawaii in 1983 by the Hongwanji Mission of Honolulu and the Hawaii State Legislature.
Acknowledgments
Two key people deserve thanks for this book: Mark Ryan is the priceless friend who first told me the story of the unusual therapist you’re about to read about, and Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len is that unusual therapist who
has become my latest priceless friend. Nerissa, my love, is my main support person and domestic life partner. Matt Holt and my dear friends at John Wiley & Sons, Inc. are terrific people to know and work with. Suzanne Burns is my key assistant and publicist, and proofread an early draft of this manuscript. My mastermind group supported me in this project, including Jillian ColemanWheeler, CindyCashman, Craig Perrine, Pat O’Bryan, Bill Hibbler, and Nerissa
Oden. Early readers of this book who helped me shape it and perfect it include Mark Weisser and Mark Ryan. I also want to thank the Divine for guiding me in the process of writing this book.
I am grateful to all.
Contents
Preface: Where Peace Begins Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len ix
Introduction: The Secret of the Universe Dr. Joe Vitale xi
The Adventure Begins 1
Finding the World’s Most Unusual Therapist 11
Our First Conversation 19
The Shocking Truth about Intentions 27
What Exceptions? 39
I Love You 51
Eating with the Divine 67
The Evidence 77
How to Create Faster Results 113
How to Receive Greater Wealth 123
Skeptical Minds Want to Know 137
Choice Is a Limitation 147
Cigars, Hamburgers, and Killing the Divine 163
The Truth Behind the Story 177
Epilogue: The Three Stages of Awakening 189
Appendix A: Zero Limits Basic Principles 197
Appendix B: How to Heal Yourself (or Anyone Else)
and Discover Health,Wealth, and Happiness 203
Appendix C: Who’s in Charge? Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len 207
Bibliography 225
Online Resources 229
About the Authors 231
Index 233
How to Experience Zero Limits Right Now 238
Preface
Where Peace Begins
Dear Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona, the creator
and first master teacher of Self I-Dentity Ho’oponopono, had on her desk a placard that read, “Peace begins with me.”
I witnessed this peace beyond all understanding as I worked and traveled with her from December 1982 to that fateful day in Kirchheim, Germany, in February 1992. Even as she lay in death on her bed surrounded by chaos,
she exuded that stillness beyond all understanding.
It was my great good fortune and honor to have received the training from Morrnah in November 1982 and to have been in her presence for a decade. I have been doing Self I-Dentity Ho’oponopono ever since.I am
pleased that, with the help of my friend Dr. Joe Vitale, this message can now reach the world.
But the truth is it only has to reach you, through me, as we are all one and it all happens inside.
Peace of I,
Ihaleakala Hew Len, PhD
Chairman Emeritus
The Foundation of I, Inc.
Freedom of the Cosmos
www.hooponopono.org www.businessbyyou.com
Introduction
The Secret of the Universe
In 2006 I wrote an article titled “The World’s Most Unusual Therapist.”
It was about a psychologist who helped heal an entire ward of mentally ill criminals—without ever seeing any of them professionally.
He used an unusual healing method from Hawaii.
Until 2004, I had never heard of him or his
method. I searched for two years before I
found him. I then learned his method and wrote
that now famous article.
That article swept the Internet. It was posted on
newsgroups and e-mailed to huge lists of
people from all walks of life. My own list at
www.mrfire.com loved it, and passed it on to
tens of thousands of others. They in turn
forwarded it to family and friends. I estimate
about five million people saw that article.
Everyone who read it found it hard to believe.
Some were inspired. Some were skeptical.
All wanted more.This book is a result of their
and my quest. Even if you’re a veteran of the
five steps in my earlier book,The Attractor
Factor, you may not understand the incredible
insights I’m about to reveal to you here, at
least not at first glance. The simple process
I’m going to share in this book will help
explain why I’ve been able to manifest some
huge accomplishments without actually
trying to make them happen. Here are a few
of them:
■ My Nightingale-Conant audio program, The
Power of Outrageous Marketing, happened
after I quit pounding on their door for 10 years.
■ How did I go from homeless to poverty to
struggling writer to published author to best-
selling author to Internet marketing guru with
no plan at all?
■ My desire to attract a BMW Z3 sports car led to
me being inspired with an Internet marketing idea
no one had ever thought of before—which made
me $22,500 in one day and a quarter of a million
dollars in a year or so.
■ My desire to buy and move into a Texas hill
country estate when I was broke and going
through a divorce led to me creating a new
business that brought in $50,000 in one day.
■ My huge weight loss of 80 pounds occurred
after I gave up and opened myself to a new
way to achieve my desire.
■ My desire to be the author of a #1 best-selling
book led to my writing a #1 best-selling book
that I never planned to write at all and wasn’t
even my idea.
■ My appearance in a hit movie, The Secret,
happened without my begging,pleading,
intending,or orchestrating anything at all.
■ My appearance on Larry King Live in November
2006, and again in March 2007, happened without
my ever intending it.
■ As I write these words, Hollywood hotshots are
talking about turning my book, The Attractor
Factor, into a movie, and still others are
negotiating to get me my own television program.
The list could go on, but you get the idea. I have
many miracles happening in my life.
But why are they happening?
I was once homeless. Today I’m a best-selling
author, Internet celebrity, and multimillionaire.
What happened to me to create all this success?
Yes, I followed my dreams.
Yes, I took action.
Yes, I was persistent.
Haven’t a lot of other people done those same
things and yet not achieved success?
What’s different?
If you look at the accomplishments I’ve listed
with a critical eye,you might see that none of
them were directly created by me. In fact,what
they all have in common is a spirit of Divine
planning, with me a sometimes unwilling
participant.
Let me explain this another way: Toward the end
of 2006 I taught a seminar called Beyond
Manifestation (www.BeyondManifestation.com),
which is heavily influenced by what I learned
after I discovered the mysterious Hawaiian
therapist and his method.
In that event I asked everyone to list all the ways
they knew to manifest or attract something in
their life.They said things like affirmations,
visualizations, intentions, body awareness
methods, feeling the end result, scripting,
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or tapping,
and many, many more. Once the group
inventoried every single way they could come up
with to create their own reality, I asked them if
those ways worked all the time, without exception.
Everyone agreed they did not always work.
“Well, why not?” I asked them.
No one could say for sure.
I then hit the group with my observation: “All of
those ways have limitations,” I declared. “They
are toys your mind plays with to keep you thinking
you’re in charge. The truth is, you are not in
charge, and the real miracles come when you let
go of the toys and trust in a place inside yourself
where there are zero limits.”
I then told them that where you want to be in life
is behind all of those toys,which is behind the
chatter of the mind and right there with what we
call the Divine. I went on to explain that there
are at least three stages to life, beginning with you as
victim, then moving on to you as creator of your
life, and ending—if you’re lucky—with you
becoming servant to the Divine. In that last stage,
which I’ll discuss later in this book, astonishing
miracles happen—almost without you trying.
Earlier today I interviewed a goals expert for my
Hypnotic Gold membership program. (See www.HypnoticGold.com.) He has written a
dozen books and sold millions of copies of them.
He knows how to teach people how to set goals.
Most of his philosophy revolves around having a
burning desire to accomplish something. But
that’s an incomplete strategy. I asked him what
he suggested when someone can’t find the
motivation to set a goal, let alone complete it.
“If I knew that,” he began,“I’d be able to solve
most of the problems in the world.” He went
on to say that you have to be hungry to achieve
a goal. If you aren’t, you won’t keep up the
discipline needed to focus on it and work
toward it. “But what if you’re not hungry
enough?” I asked. “Then you won’t reach
your goal.” “How do you make yourself
hungry or motivated?” He couldn’t answer.
And that’s the rub. At a certain point all the self-
help and goalsetting programs fail.They come
up against the troubling fact that if someone
isn’t ready to achieve something, they won’t
maintain the energy needed to manifest it.
They’ll quit. Everyone knows this experience
from setting resolutions on January 1st and
forgetting them by January 2nd. The good
intentions were there. But something deeper
wasn’t in alignment with the conscious desires.
So how do you take care of that deeper state that
isn’t “hungry”? That’s where the Hawaiian
method you’ll learn in the book comes in
handy. It helps clean the unconscious, which
is where the block resides. It helps dissolve
the hidden programs that keep you from
attaining your desires, whether health, wealth,
happiness, or anything else. It all happens
inside you. I’ll explain all of this in the book
you are holding right now. For now, consider
this:There’s a quote from Tor Norretranders’
book, The User Illusion, that sums up the
essence of the mental roller-coaster ride
you’re about to embark on:“The universe
began when nothing saw itself in the mirror.”
In short, Zero Limits is about returning to the zero
state, where nothing exists but anything is possible.
In the zero state there are no thoughts, words,
deeds, memories, programs, beliefs, or anything
else. Just nothing.
But one day nothing saw itself in the mirror and
you were born. From there, you created, and
unconsciously absorbed and accepted, beliefs,
programs, memories, thoughts, words, deeds,
and more. Many of these programs go all the
way back to the beginning of existence itself.
The whole purpose of this book is to help you
to experience wonder moment by moment.
From that place, miracles like the ones I
described will happen to you.They’ll be unique
to you.And they’ll be just as marvelous,
magical, and miraculous. My experience of this
spiritual rocket ship into power beyond
comprehension has been almost indescribable.
I have success beyond my wildest dreams. I have
new skills, and my level of love for myself
and the world is on a level of understanding
words often fail to describe. I live in a near-
constant state of awe. Let me put it this way:
Everyone has a lens through which they view
the world. Religions, philosophies, therapies,
authors, speakers, gurus, and candlestick
makers all perceive the world through a
particular mind-set.What you’ll learn in this
book is how to use a new lens to dissolve all
other lenses. And once you succeed, you’ll be
at the place I call zero limits.
Please understand that this is the first book in
history to reveal this updated Hawaiian method
for healing, called Self I-Dentity Ho’oponopono.
But also please understand that this is just one
man’s experience with the method: mine.While
this book is written with the blessing of the
therapist who taught me the amazing method,
everything to follow is written through my own
lens of the world.
To fully understand Self I-Dentity Ho’oponopono,
you need to attend a weekend training and
experience it for yourself. (Trainings are listed
at www.hooponopono.org and www.zerolimits.info.)
Finally, the entire essence of this book can be
summed up in one phrase—a phrase you will
learn to use; a phrase that reveals the ultimate
secret of the universe; a phrase that I want to
say to you and the Divine right now: “I love you.”
Take a ticket and have a seat.The train into your
soul is about to take off.
Hold on to your hat.
I love you.
Aloha no wau ia oe.
Dr. Joe Vitale
(Ao Akua)
Austin,Texas
www.mrfire.com
The universe began when nothing saw itself in the mirror.(Tor Norretranders, The User Illusion)
zero limits 1: The Adventure Begins
Peace be with you, all my Peace.
O ka Maluhia no me oe, Ku’u Maluhia a pau loa.
In August 2004, I was speaking and working a
booth at the National Guild of Hypnotists annual
convention. I enjoyed the people, the event, the
energy, and the networking. But I wasn’t
prepared for the life-changing event that would
begin that day.
My friend Mark Ryan was working the booth with
me. Mark is a hypnotherapist, as well. He’s very
open-minded, curious, articulate, and penetrating
when it comes to exploring life and all its mysteries.
We often had conversations that lasted for hours.
We talked about our heroes in therapy, from
Milton Erickson to lesser-known shamans. It was
during one of these conversations that Mark
surprised me by asking, “Have you ever heard of the therapist who healed
people without ever seeing them?”
The question stopped me. I had heard of psychic
healers and remote or distance healers, but Mark
seemed to be suggesting something different.
“He’s a psychologist who healed an entire mental
hospital full of the criminally insane (30 to be
exact)w a single patient.”
“What did he do?”
“He used a Hawaiian healing system called ho’oponopono.”
“Ho-oh-what?” I asked.
I asked Mark to repeat the term about a dozen
times. I had never heard it before. Mark didn’t
know the story, or the process, well enough to
tell me much more. I admit I was curious, but I
also confess that I was skeptical, as well. I
figured this had to be an urban legend.
Heal people without seeing them? Yeah, right.
Mark went on to tell me the following story:
“I had been traveling to Mount Shasta in
California for about 16 years in search of myself,” Mark
explained. “One friend there gave me a little
booklet that I never forgot. It was white paper
with blue ink. It was an article about this Hawaiian
therapist and his method. I read that article over
and over again for years. It didn’t describe what
the therapist actually did, but it said he healed people with his method.”
“Where’s that article now?” I asked. I wanted to read it.
“I can’t find it,” Mark said. “But something told
me to tell you about it. I know you don’t believe
me, but I’m as fascinated as you are. I want to
know more, too.” A year passed before the next
convention. During the intervening months, I
poked around online but couldn’t find anything
about any therapist who cured people without
seeing them. Sure, there’s information on
distance healing, where someone heals another
without the other person being present, but I
understood that the Hawaiian therapist didn’t
do that. As I would come to learn, there’s no
distance at all in the type of healing he did.
On top of all that, I didn’t know how to spell
ho’oponopono to look it up online. So I let it go.
Then, in 2005, at the next annual hypnosis
convention, Mark again mentioned the therapist.
“Did you ever find anything about him?” he asked.
“I don’t know his name, and I don’t know how to
spell how whatever that term is,” I explained. “So
I couldn’t find a thing.”
Mark’s a go-getter.We took a break, pulled out
my laptop, found a wireless Internet connection,
and went searching. It didn’t take long to find
the main and only official site for ho’oponopono
at www.hooponopono.org. I looked around and
saw a few articles. They gave me a quick
overview of what I was about to get into.
I found a definition of ho’oponopono:
“Ho’oponopono is a process of letting go of
toxic energies within you to allow the impact
of Divine thoughts, words, deeds, and actions.”
I had no idea what that meant, so I looked
around some more. I found this: “Simply put,
Ho’oponopono means,‘to make right,’ or ‘to
rectify an error.’ According to the ancient
Hawaiians, error arises from thoughts that are
tainted by painful memories from the past.
Ho’oponopono offers a way to release the
energy of these painful thoughts, or errors,
which cause imbalance and disease.”
Interesting, yes. But what did it mean?
As I explored the site, looking for
information on the mysterious psychologist
who healed people without seeing them, I
learned that there is an updated form of
ho’oponopono called Self I-Dentity through
Ho’oponopono (SITH).
I didn’t pretend to know what all of this
meant. Mark didn’t pretend, either.We were
fellow explorers. Our laptop was the horse we
rode into the wilderness of this new land.We
were in search of answers.We eagerly typed
forward. We found an article that helped
explain a few things:
Self I-Dentity Through Ho’oponopono
Being 100 Percent Responsible for the Problems
of My Clients
By Ihaleakala Hew Len, PhD, and Charles Brown, LMT
In traditional approaches to problem solving and
healing, the therapist begins with the belief that
the source of the problem is within the client,
not within him. He believes that his responsibility
is to assist the client ...
( http://files.meetup.com/3684022/ZeroLimitsJoeVitaleINGLES.pdf
...in working through his problem. Could these
beliefs have resulted in systemic burnout throughout the healing profession?
To be an effective problem solver, the therapist must be willing to be 100 percent responsible for having created the problem situation; that is, he must be willing to see that the source of the problem is erroneous thoughts within him,
not within the client.Therapists never seem to notice that every time there is a problem, they are always present!
Being 100 percent responsible for actualizing the problem allows the therapist to be 100 percent responsible for resolving it. Using the updated Ho’oponopono approach, a process of repentance, forgiveness, and transmutation developed by Kahuna Lapa’au Morrnah Nalamaku
Simeona, a therapist is able to have erroneous thoughts within himself and within the client transmuted into perfect thoughts of LOVE.
Her eyes brim with tears. Deep trenches enclose the corners of her mouth. “I am worried about my son,” Cynthia sighs softly. “He’s back on drugs again.”As she tells her painful story, I begin the cleaning of the erroneous thoughts within me that have actualized as her problem.
As erroneous thoughts are replaced by loving thoughts in the therapist and in his family, relatives, and ancestors, they are replaced too in the client and in her family, relatives, and ancestors.The updated Ho’oponopono process allows the therapist to work directly with the Original Source who can transmute erroneous thoughts into LOVE. Her eyes dry up.The trenches around her mouth soften. She smiles, relief dawning across her face. “I don’t know why, but I’m feeling better.” I do not
know why, either. Really. Life is a mystery except to
LOVE, who knows all. I just let it go at that, and
just thank LOVE from whom all blessings flow.
In problem solving using the updated Ho’oponopono process, the therapist first takes his I-Dentity, his Mind, and connects it up with the Original Source, what others call LOVE or GOD.With the connection in place, the therapist then appeals to LOVE to correct the erroneous thoughts within him that are actualizing as the problem for himself first and for the client second.The appeal is a process of repentance and forgiveness on the part of the therapist—“I am sorry for the erroneous thoughts within me that have caused the problem for me and for the client; please forgive me.”
In response to the repentance and forgiveness appeal of the therapist, LOVE begins the mystical process of transmuting the erroneous thoughts. In this spiritual correction process, LOVE first neutralizes the erroneous emotions that have caused the problem, be they resentment, fear, anger, blame, or confusion. In the next step, LOVE then releases the neutralized energies from the thoughts, leaving them in a state of void, of emptiness, of true freedom.
With the thoughts empty, free, LOVE then fills them with Itself. The result? The therapist is renewed, restored in LOVE.As the therapist is renewed so is the client and all involved in the problem.Where there was despair in the client, there is LOVE.Where there was darkness in her soul, there is now the healing Light of LOVE.
The Self I-Dentity through Ho’oponopono training
teaches people who they are and how they can solve problems moment to moment, and in the process be renewed and restored in LOVE.The training begins with a two-hour free lecture. Attendees are given an overview of how thoughts within them actualize as spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, relational, and financial problems in their lives and in the lives of their families, relatives, ancestors, friends, neighbors, and associates. In the weekend training, students are taught what a problem is, where the problems are located, how to solve different kinds of problems using over 25 problem solving processes, and how to really take good care of themselves.The underlying emphasis in the training is on being 100 percent responsible for themselves and for what happens in their lives and for solving problems effortlessly.
The wonder of the updated Ho’oponopono process is that you get to meet yourself anew each moment, and you get to appreciate more and more with each application of the process the renewing miracle of LOVE.
I operate my life and my relationships according to
the following insights:
1. The physical universe is an actualization of my thoughts.
2. If my thoughts are cancerous, they create a cancerous physical reality.
3. If my thoughts are perfect, they create a
physical reality brimming with LOVE.
4. I am 100 percent responsible for creating my
physical universe the way it is.
5. I am 100 percent responsible for correcting the
cancerous thoughts that create a diseased reality.
6. There is no such thing as out there. Everything
exists as thoughts in my mind.
Mark and I read the article and wondered which
author was the therapist we sought: Charles Brown
or this Dr. Hew Len.We didn’t know.We couldn’t
tell.And who was this Morrnah the article
mentioned? And what was Self I-Dentity Ho-oh-
please?
We read on. We found a few more articles that
shed light on what we sought. They included
revealing statements, such as:“Self I-Dentity through Ho’oponopono sees each problem not as
an ordeal, but as an opportunity. Problems are
just replayed memories of the past showing up to
give us one more chance to see with the eyes of
LOVE and to act from inspiration.”
I was curious but I wasn’t getting it. Problems
were “replayed memories of the past”? Huh?
What were these authors trying to explain? How
did this ho-whatever help the therapist who healed
people? Who was this therapist, anyway?
I found yet another article, this one by a reporter
named Darrell Sifford, who wrote about meeting
the creator of this ho’opo-whatever process. Her
name is Morrnah and she’s a kahuna, or keeper of
the secrets.What this Morrnah does to help heal
people is “appeal to the divine creator of our
choice ‘through the divinity that is within each
person . . . who is really an extension of the divine
creator.’ ”
Maybe you understand that. I didn’t at the time.
Neither did Mark. Apparently this Morrnah said
some words, like a prayer, that helped people heal.
I made a mental note to locate that prayer, but
right now I was going on a different mission: to
find the therapist and learn his method for healing.
My eagerness to know more and to meet this
shaman therapist was becoming more and more
exciting.
Even though Mark and I really needed to be back
at our booth at the convention, we let it slide so
we could continue our quest.
Based on the articles and web site, we guessed the
therapist we wanted to find was named Ihaleakala
Hew Len. Some first name. I had no idea how to
pronounce it, let alone spell it. I didn’t know how
to locate him, either.The site didn’t have any
contact information for him. Mark and I tried to
Google him, but turned up nothing. We began to
wonder if this ethereal therapist was a fiction, or retired or even deceased. I closed my laptop and went back to the convention.
But the adventure had begun.
The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More
JOE VITALE
IHALEAKALA HEW LEN, PhD
To Morrnah and Ka’i
—Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len
To Mark Ryan and Nerissa
—Dr. Joe Vitale
Ho’oponopono is a profound gift that allows one to develop a working relationship with the Divinity within and learn to ask that in each moment, our errors in thought, word,
deed, or action be cleansed. The process is essentially about freedom, complete freedom from the past. ---Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona,
Ho’oponopono Master Teacher,
creator of Self I-Dentity Ho’oponopono,
named a Living Treasure of the
State of Hawaii in 1983 by the Hongwanji Mission of Honolulu and the Hawaii State Legislature.
Acknowledgments
Two key people deserve thanks for this book: Mark Ryan is the priceless friend who first told me the story of the unusual therapist you’re about to read about, and Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len is that unusual therapist who
has become my latest priceless friend. Nerissa, my love, is my main support person and domestic life partner. Matt Holt and my dear friends at John Wiley & Sons, Inc. are terrific people to know and work with. Suzanne Burns is my key assistant and publicist, and proofread an early draft of this manuscript. My mastermind group supported me in this project, including Jillian ColemanWheeler, CindyCashman, Craig Perrine, Pat O’Bryan, Bill Hibbler, and Nerissa
Oden. Early readers of this book who helped me shape it and perfect it include Mark Weisser and Mark Ryan. I also want to thank the Divine for guiding me in the process of writing this book.
I am grateful to all.
Contents
Preface: Where Peace Begins Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len ix
Introduction: The Secret of the Universe Dr. Joe Vitale xi
The Adventure Begins 1
Finding the World’s Most Unusual Therapist 11
Our First Conversation 19
The Shocking Truth about Intentions 27
What Exceptions? 39
I Love You 51
Eating with the Divine 67
The Evidence 77
How to Create Faster Results 113
How to Receive Greater Wealth 123
Skeptical Minds Want to Know 137
Choice Is a Limitation 147
Cigars, Hamburgers, and Killing the Divine 163
The Truth Behind the Story 177
Epilogue: The Three Stages of Awakening 189
Appendix A: Zero Limits Basic Principles 197
Appendix B: How to Heal Yourself (or Anyone Else)
and Discover Health,Wealth, and Happiness 203
Appendix C: Who’s in Charge? Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len 207
Bibliography 225
Online Resources 229
About the Authors 231
Index 233
How to Experience Zero Limits Right Now 238
Preface
Where Peace Begins
Dear Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona, the creator
and first master teacher of Self I-Dentity Ho’oponopono, had on her desk a placard that read, “Peace begins with me.”
I witnessed this peace beyond all understanding as I worked and traveled with her from December 1982 to that fateful day in Kirchheim, Germany, in February 1992. Even as she lay in death on her bed surrounded by chaos,
she exuded that stillness beyond all understanding.
It was my great good fortune and honor to have received the training from Morrnah in November 1982 and to have been in her presence for a decade. I have been doing Self I-Dentity Ho’oponopono ever since.I am
pleased that, with the help of my friend Dr. Joe Vitale, this message can now reach the world.
But the truth is it only has to reach you, through me, as we are all one and it all happens inside.
Peace of I,
Ihaleakala Hew Len, PhD
Chairman Emeritus
The Foundation of I, Inc.
Freedom of the Cosmos
www.hooponopono.org www.businessbyyou.com
Introduction
The Secret of the Universe
In 2006 I wrote an article titled “The World’s Most Unusual Therapist.”
It was about a psychologist who helped heal an entire ward of mentally ill criminals—without ever seeing any of them professionally.
He used an unusual healing method from Hawaii.
Until 2004, I had never heard of him or his
method. I searched for two years before I
found him. I then learned his method and wrote
that now famous article.
That article swept the Internet. It was posted on
newsgroups and e-mailed to huge lists of
people from all walks of life. My own list at
www.mrfire.com loved it, and passed it on to
tens of thousands of others. They in turn
forwarded it to family and friends. I estimate
about five million people saw that article.
Everyone who read it found it hard to believe.
Some were inspired. Some were skeptical.
All wanted more.This book is a result of their
and my quest. Even if you’re a veteran of the
five steps in my earlier book,The Attractor
Factor, you may not understand the incredible
insights I’m about to reveal to you here, at
least not at first glance. The simple process
I’m going to share in this book will help
explain why I’ve been able to manifest some
huge accomplishments without actually
trying to make them happen. Here are a few
of them:
■ My Nightingale-Conant audio program, The
Power of Outrageous Marketing, happened
after I quit pounding on their door for 10 years.
■ How did I go from homeless to poverty to
struggling writer to published author to best-
selling author to Internet marketing guru with
no plan at all?
■ My desire to attract a BMW Z3 sports car led to
me being inspired with an Internet marketing idea
no one had ever thought of before—which made
me $22,500 in one day and a quarter of a million
dollars in a year or so.
■ My desire to buy and move into a Texas hill
country estate when I was broke and going
through a divorce led to me creating a new
business that brought in $50,000 in one day.
■ My huge weight loss of 80 pounds occurred
after I gave up and opened myself to a new
way to achieve my desire.
■ My desire to be the author of a #1 best-selling
book led to my writing a #1 best-selling book
that I never planned to write at all and wasn’t
even my idea.
■ My appearance in a hit movie, The Secret,
happened without my begging,pleading,
intending,or orchestrating anything at all.
■ My appearance on Larry King Live in November
2006, and again in March 2007, happened without
my ever intending it.
■ As I write these words, Hollywood hotshots are
talking about turning my book, The Attractor
Factor, into a movie, and still others are
negotiating to get me my own television program.
The list could go on, but you get the idea. I have
many miracles happening in my life.
But why are they happening?
I was once homeless. Today I’m a best-selling
author, Internet celebrity, and multimillionaire.
What happened to me to create all this success?
Yes, I followed my dreams.
Yes, I took action.
Yes, I was persistent.
Haven’t a lot of other people done those same
things and yet not achieved success?
What’s different?
If you look at the accomplishments I’ve listed
with a critical eye,you might see that none of
them were directly created by me. In fact,what
they all have in common is a spirit of Divine
planning, with me a sometimes unwilling
participant.
Let me explain this another way: Toward the end
of 2006 I taught a seminar called Beyond
Manifestation (www.BeyondManifestation.com),
which is heavily influenced by what I learned
after I discovered the mysterious Hawaiian
therapist and his method.
In that event I asked everyone to list all the ways
they knew to manifest or attract something in
their life.They said things like affirmations,
visualizations, intentions, body awareness
methods, feeling the end result, scripting,
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or tapping,
and many, many more. Once the group
inventoried every single way they could come up
with to create their own reality, I asked them if
those ways worked all the time, without exception.
Everyone agreed they did not always work.
“Well, why not?” I asked them.
No one could say for sure.
I then hit the group with my observation: “All of
those ways have limitations,” I declared. “They
are toys your mind plays with to keep you thinking
you’re in charge. The truth is, you are not in
charge, and the real miracles come when you let
go of the toys and trust in a place inside yourself
where there are zero limits.”
I then told them that where you want to be in life
is behind all of those toys,which is behind the
chatter of the mind and right there with what we
call the Divine. I went on to explain that there
are at least three stages to life, beginning with you as
victim, then moving on to you as creator of your
life, and ending—if you’re lucky—with you
becoming servant to the Divine. In that last stage,
which I’ll discuss later in this book, astonishing
miracles happen—almost without you trying.
Earlier today I interviewed a goals expert for my
Hypnotic Gold membership program. (See www.HypnoticGold.com.) He has written a
dozen books and sold millions of copies of them.
He knows how to teach people how to set goals.
Most of his philosophy revolves around having a
burning desire to accomplish something. But
that’s an incomplete strategy. I asked him what
he suggested when someone can’t find the
motivation to set a goal, let alone complete it.
“If I knew that,” he began,“I’d be able to solve
most of the problems in the world.” He went
on to say that you have to be hungry to achieve
a goal. If you aren’t, you won’t keep up the
discipline needed to focus on it and work
toward it. “But what if you’re not hungry
enough?” I asked. “Then you won’t reach
your goal.” “How do you make yourself
hungry or motivated?” He couldn’t answer.
And that’s the rub. At a certain point all the self-
help and goalsetting programs fail.They come
up against the troubling fact that if someone
isn’t ready to achieve something, they won’t
maintain the energy needed to manifest it.
They’ll quit. Everyone knows this experience
from setting resolutions on January 1st and
forgetting them by January 2nd. The good
intentions were there. But something deeper
wasn’t in alignment with the conscious desires.
So how do you take care of that deeper state that
isn’t “hungry”? That’s where the Hawaiian
method you’ll learn in the book comes in
handy. It helps clean the unconscious, which
is where the block resides. It helps dissolve
the hidden programs that keep you from
attaining your desires, whether health, wealth,
happiness, or anything else. It all happens
inside you. I’ll explain all of this in the book
you are holding right now. For now, consider
this:There’s a quote from Tor Norretranders’
book, The User Illusion, that sums up the
essence of the mental roller-coaster ride
you’re about to embark on:“The universe
began when nothing saw itself in the mirror.”
In short, Zero Limits is about returning to the zero
state, where nothing exists but anything is possible.
In the zero state there are no thoughts, words,
deeds, memories, programs, beliefs, or anything
else. Just nothing.
But one day nothing saw itself in the mirror and
you were born. From there, you created, and
unconsciously absorbed and accepted, beliefs,
programs, memories, thoughts, words, deeds,
and more. Many of these programs go all the
way back to the beginning of existence itself.
The whole purpose of this book is to help you
to experience wonder moment by moment.
From that place, miracles like the ones I
described will happen to you.They’ll be unique
to you.And they’ll be just as marvelous,
magical, and miraculous. My experience of this
spiritual rocket ship into power beyond
comprehension has been almost indescribable.
I have success beyond my wildest dreams. I have
new skills, and my level of love for myself
and the world is on a level of understanding
words often fail to describe. I live in a near-
constant state of awe. Let me put it this way:
Everyone has a lens through which they view
the world. Religions, philosophies, therapies,
authors, speakers, gurus, and candlestick
makers all perceive the world through a
particular mind-set.What you’ll learn in this
book is how to use a new lens to dissolve all
other lenses. And once you succeed, you’ll be
at the place I call zero limits.
Please understand that this is the first book in
history to reveal this updated Hawaiian method
for healing, called Self I-Dentity Ho’oponopono.
But also please understand that this is just one
man’s experience with the method: mine.While
this book is written with the blessing of the
therapist who taught me the amazing method,
everything to follow is written through my own
lens of the world.
To fully understand Self I-Dentity Ho’oponopono,
you need to attend a weekend training and
experience it for yourself. (Trainings are listed
at www.hooponopono.org and www.zerolimits.info.)
Finally, the entire essence of this book can be
summed up in one phrase—a phrase you will
learn to use; a phrase that reveals the ultimate
secret of the universe; a phrase that I want to
say to you and the Divine right now: “I love you.”
Take a ticket and have a seat.The train into your
soul is about to take off.
Hold on to your hat.
I love you.
Aloha no wau ia oe.
Dr. Joe Vitale
(Ao Akua)
Austin,Texas
www.mrfire.com
The universe began when nothing saw itself in the mirror.(Tor Norretranders, The User Illusion)
zero limits 1: The Adventure Begins
Peace be with you, all my Peace.
O ka Maluhia no me oe, Ku’u Maluhia a pau loa.
In August 2004, I was speaking and working a
booth at the National Guild of Hypnotists annual
convention. I enjoyed the people, the event, the
energy, and the networking. But I wasn’t
prepared for the life-changing event that would
begin that day.
My friend Mark Ryan was working the booth with
me. Mark is a hypnotherapist, as well. He’s very
open-minded, curious, articulate, and penetrating
when it comes to exploring life and all its mysteries.
We often had conversations that lasted for hours.
We talked about our heroes in therapy, from
Milton Erickson to lesser-known shamans. It was
during one of these conversations that Mark
surprised me by asking, “Have you ever heard of the therapist who healed
people without ever seeing them?”
The question stopped me. I had heard of psychic
healers and remote or distance healers, but Mark
seemed to be suggesting something different.
“He’s a psychologist who healed an entire mental
hospital full of the criminally insane (30 to be
exact)w a single patient.”
“What did he do?”
“He used a Hawaiian healing system called ho’oponopono.”
“Ho-oh-what?” I asked.
I asked Mark to repeat the term about a dozen
times. I had never heard it before. Mark didn’t
know the story, or the process, well enough to
tell me much more. I admit I was curious, but I
also confess that I was skeptical, as well. I
figured this had to be an urban legend.
Heal people without seeing them? Yeah, right.
Mark went on to tell me the following story:
“I had been traveling to Mount Shasta in
California for about 16 years in search of myself,” Mark
explained. “One friend there gave me a little
booklet that I never forgot. It was white paper
with blue ink. It was an article about this Hawaiian
therapist and his method. I read that article over
and over again for years. It didn’t describe what
the therapist actually did, but it said he healed people with his method.”
“Where’s that article now?” I asked. I wanted to read it.
“I can’t find it,” Mark said. “But something told
me to tell you about it. I know you don’t believe
me, but I’m as fascinated as you are. I want to
know more, too.” A year passed before the next
convention. During the intervening months, I
poked around online but couldn’t find anything
about any therapist who cured people without
seeing them. Sure, there’s information on
distance healing, where someone heals another
without the other person being present, but I
understood that the Hawaiian therapist didn’t
do that. As I would come to learn, there’s no
distance at all in the type of healing he did.
On top of all that, I didn’t know how to spell
ho’oponopono to look it up online. So I let it go.
Then, in 2005, at the next annual hypnosis
convention, Mark again mentioned the therapist.
“Did you ever find anything about him?” he asked.
“I don’t know his name, and I don’t know how to
spell how whatever that term is,” I explained. “So
I couldn’t find a thing.”
Mark’s a go-getter.We took a break, pulled out
my laptop, found a wireless Internet connection,
and went searching. It didn’t take long to find
the main and only official site for ho’oponopono
at www.hooponopono.org. I looked around and
saw a few articles. They gave me a quick
overview of what I was about to get into.
I found a definition of ho’oponopono:
“Ho’oponopono is a process of letting go of
toxic energies within you to allow the impact
of Divine thoughts, words, deeds, and actions.”
I had no idea what that meant, so I looked
around some more. I found this: “Simply put,
Ho’oponopono means,‘to make right,’ or ‘to
rectify an error.’ According to the ancient
Hawaiians, error arises from thoughts that are
tainted by painful memories from the past.
Ho’oponopono offers a way to release the
energy of these painful thoughts, or errors,
which cause imbalance and disease.”
Interesting, yes. But what did it mean?
As I explored the site, looking for
information on the mysterious psychologist
who healed people without seeing them, I
learned that there is an updated form of
ho’oponopono called Self I-Dentity through
Ho’oponopono (SITH).
I didn’t pretend to know what all of this
meant. Mark didn’t pretend, either.We were
fellow explorers. Our laptop was the horse we
rode into the wilderness of this new land.We
were in search of answers.We eagerly typed
forward. We found an article that helped
explain a few things:
Self I-Dentity Through Ho’oponopono
Being 100 Percent Responsible for the Problems
of My Clients
By Ihaleakala Hew Len, PhD, and Charles Brown, LMT
In traditional approaches to problem solving and
healing, the therapist begins with the belief that
the source of the problem is within the client,
not within him. He believes that his responsibility
is to assist the client ...
( http://files.meetup.com/3684022/ZeroLimitsJoeVitaleINGLES.pdf
...in working through his problem. Could these
beliefs have resulted in systemic burnout throughout the healing profession?
To be an effective problem solver, the therapist must be willing to be 100 percent responsible for having created the problem situation; that is, he must be willing to see that the source of the problem is erroneous thoughts within him,
not within the client.Therapists never seem to notice that every time there is a problem, they are always present!
Being 100 percent responsible for actualizing the problem allows the therapist to be 100 percent responsible for resolving it. Using the updated Ho’oponopono approach, a process of repentance, forgiveness, and transmutation developed by Kahuna Lapa’au Morrnah Nalamaku
Simeona, a therapist is able to have erroneous thoughts within himself and within the client transmuted into perfect thoughts of LOVE.
Her eyes brim with tears. Deep trenches enclose the corners of her mouth. “I am worried about my son,” Cynthia sighs softly. “He’s back on drugs again.”As she tells her painful story, I begin the cleaning of the erroneous thoughts within me that have actualized as her problem.
As erroneous thoughts are replaced by loving thoughts in the therapist and in his family, relatives, and ancestors, they are replaced too in the client and in her family, relatives, and ancestors.The updated Ho’oponopono process allows the therapist to work directly with the Original Source who can transmute erroneous thoughts into LOVE. Her eyes dry up.The trenches around her mouth soften. She smiles, relief dawning across her face. “I don’t know why, but I’m feeling better.” I do not
know why, either. Really. Life is a mystery except to
LOVE, who knows all. I just let it go at that, and
just thank LOVE from whom all blessings flow.
In problem solving using the updated Ho’oponopono process, the therapist first takes his I-Dentity, his Mind, and connects it up with the Original Source, what others call LOVE or GOD.With the connection in place, the therapist then appeals to LOVE to correct the erroneous thoughts within him that are actualizing as the problem for himself first and for the client second.The appeal is a process of repentance and forgiveness on the part of the therapist—“I am sorry for the erroneous thoughts within me that have caused the problem for me and for the client; please forgive me.”
In response to the repentance and forgiveness appeal of the therapist, LOVE begins the mystical process of transmuting the erroneous thoughts. In this spiritual correction process, LOVE first neutralizes the erroneous emotions that have caused the problem, be they resentment, fear, anger, blame, or confusion. In the next step, LOVE then releases the neutralized energies from the thoughts, leaving them in a state of void, of emptiness, of true freedom.
With the thoughts empty, free, LOVE then fills them with Itself. The result? The therapist is renewed, restored in LOVE.As the therapist is renewed so is the client and all involved in the problem.Where there was despair in the client, there is LOVE.Where there was darkness in her soul, there is now the healing Light of LOVE.
The Self I-Dentity through Ho’oponopono training
teaches people who they are and how they can solve problems moment to moment, and in the process be renewed and restored in LOVE.The training begins with a two-hour free lecture. Attendees are given an overview of how thoughts within them actualize as spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, relational, and financial problems in their lives and in the lives of their families, relatives, ancestors, friends, neighbors, and associates. In the weekend training, students are taught what a problem is, where the problems are located, how to solve different kinds of problems using over 25 problem solving processes, and how to really take good care of themselves.The underlying emphasis in the training is on being 100 percent responsible for themselves and for what happens in their lives and for solving problems effortlessly.
The wonder of the updated Ho’oponopono process is that you get to meet yourself anew each moment, and you get to appreciate more and more with each application of the process the renewing miracle of LOVE.
I operate my life and my relationships according to
the following insights:
1. The physical universe is an actualization of my thoughts.
2. If my thoughts are cancerous, they create a cancerous physical reality.
3. If my thoughts are perfect, they create a
physical reality brimming with LOVE.
4. I am 100 percent responsible for creating my
physical universe the way it is.
5. I am 100 percent responsible for correcting the
cancerous thoughts that create a diseased reality.
6. There is no such thing as out there. Everything
exists as thoughts in my mind.
Mark and I read the article and wondered which
author was the therapist we sought: Charles Brown
or this Dr. Hew Len.We didn’t know.We couldn’t
tell.And who was this Morrnah the article
mentioned? And what was Self I-Dentity Ho-oh-
please?
We read on. We found a few more articles that
shed light on what we sought. They included
revealing statements, such as:“Self I-Dentity through Ho’oponopono sees each problem not as
an ordeal, but as an opportunity. Problems are
just replayed memories of the past showing up to
give us one more chance to see with the eyes of
LOVE and to act from inspiration.”
I was curious but I wasn’t getting it. Problems
were “replayed memories of the past”? Huh?
What were these authors trying to explain? How
did this ho-whatever help the therapist who healed
people? Who was this therapist, anyway?
I found yet another article, this one by a reporter
named Darrell Sifford, who wrote about meeting
the creator of this ho’opo-whatever process. Her
name is Morrnah and she’s a kahuna, or keeper of
the secrets.What this Morrnah does to help heal
people is “appeal to the divine creator of our
choice ‘through the divinity that is within each
person . . . who is really an extension of the divine
creator.’ ”
Maybe you understand that. I didn’t at the time.
Neither did Mark. Apparently this Morrnah said
some words, like a prayer, that helped people heal.
I made a mental note to locate that prayer, but
right now I was going on a different mission: to
find the therapist and learn his method for healing.
My eagerness to know more and to meet this
shaman therapist was becoming more and more
exciting.
Even though Mark and I really needed to be back
at our booth at the convention, we let it slide so
we could continue our quest.
Based on the articles and web site, we guessed the
therapist we wanted to find was named Ihaleakala
Hew Len. Some first name. I had no idea how to
pronounce it, let alone spell it. I didn’t know how
to locate him, either.The site didn’t have any
contact information for him. Mark and I tried to
Google him, but turned up nothing. We began to
wonder if this ethereal therapist was a fiction, or retired or even deceased. I closed my laptop and went back to the convention.
But the adventure had begun.
