Huna Article

Huna International

When Ideas Become “Facts”
by Graeme Kapono Urlich

How Made-Up Things Turn into Truth — and What Happens When We Forget They Were Ever Flexible

I’ve watched this happen more times than I can remember now. Someone mentions Lemuria—casually, almost like you’d mention an old country you once lived in—and the room changes. Eyes brighten. A few people lean in. And if you ask a simple question—“Do you mean as a metaphor, or as literal geology?”—the warmth can flip in an instant.

The story of Lemuria is a useful example, not because it is unique, but because it clearly shows a process that happens everywhere: a provisional idea becomes a belief, a belief becomes an identity, and an identity becomes something that must be defended as fact — sometimes aggressively.

Human beings are extraordinarily good at turning ideas into reality. Sometimes this is a gift. Sometimes it becomes a trap. Understanding that process matters more than arguing about whether Lemuria “really existed.”

From Placeholder to Homeland

In 1864 Philip Lutley Sclater, a British zoologist, noticed lemurs were found in Madagascar and India and wondered how that could be. He proposed that these regions were once connected by a now-sunken landmass across the Indian Ocean — which he called “Lemuria” (from lemur) — a hypothetical landmass to explain the distribution of lemurs before plate tectonics was understood. Once continental drift provided a better explanation, Lemuria quietly disappeared from science — but the name didn’t disappear.

Instead, it migrated into other contexts: Theosophy, New Age spirituality, romantic ideas of lost wisdom, and eventually into stories linking Lemuria, Mu, Hawaiʻi, and star ancestry. Over time, these strands blended into a coherent and emotionally appealing narrative that ebbs and flows depending on the storyteller.

A key turning point in that migration occurred in the late nineteenth century, when Helena Blavatsky and the Theosophical movement adopted the name Lemuria and repurposed it within an occult cosmology. Detached from its original scientific role, Lemuria became a vast prehistoric continent inhabited by early spiritual “root races,” known not through geology but through esoteric insight. From that point on, Lemuria no longer needed evidence to survive; it had acquired meaning. The name carried authority, mystery, and antiquity, and that symbolic weight allowed it to continue evolving long after science had set it aside.

What changed was not the evidence.
What changed was the use of the idea.

Lemuria stopped being a temporary explanation and became a story that worked — offering meaning, beauty, belonging, and a sense of ancient connection.

At that point, questioning it no longer felt like questioning a theory. It felt like questioning a home.

How “Interpretation” Turns into “Reality”

This process is not limited to Lemuria.

In many areas of life, we begin with incomplete information, patterns, or interpretations. Over time, repeated retelling smooths out uncertainty. Ambiguity becomes confidence. Eventually, the idea is no longer held as “one way of seeing things” but as “the way things are.”

And somewhere along the way, something subtle happens:

• A model becomes a rule
• A story becomes a fact
• A preference becomes a moral position

And then a further step often follows:

If this is an immutable fact, then not believing it says something bad about you.

This is where trouble begins.

When Facts Become Identity

Once a belief is tied to identity, disagreement feels personal.
Once it is tied to morality, disagreement feels dangerous.

This is why people can become angry or dismissive when Lemuria is questioned — or when any deeply held belief is treated lightly. Often, the reaction isn’t really about geology or history. It’s about belonging, meaning, and self-definition.

From this position, ideas are no longer tools. They are badges.

And badges must be defended.

The Cost of Treating Ideas as Immutable

When something is treated as an unchangeable fact rather than as information, a few predictable costs show up:

1. Curiosity shuts down
   If the answer is already fixed, questions become threats.
2. Paradox becomes intolerable
   Contradictions can no longer coexist, even when they are harmless or useful.
People are sorted into “right” and “wrong”
Or worse: enlightened and unenlightened, awake and asleep, good and bad.
3. Growth slows
   Because growth requires the ability to revise one’s understanding.

Ironically, the very ideas that once felt liberating can become confining.

A Different Way to Hold “Truth”

Without that flexibility, it’s easy to fall into an exhausting spiral: always hunting for the truth, the final answer, the one version that will remove all uncertainty. But the search itself can become a kind of trap — not because truth is bad, but because life keeps moving, and “certainty” keeps receding.

From a Huna perspective — particularly as taught in the Kupua tradition — ideas are not primarily true or false. They are useful or not useful, depending on context and purpose.

This does not mean “nothing matters” or “evidence is irrelevant.”
It means something more subtle and more practical:

• Facts are information
• Beliefs are interpretations
• Interpretations are choices
• Some interpretations harden into “rules”

And choices can be changed.

Huna does not ask us to abandon science, myth, or spirituality. It asks us to know which game we are playing at any given moment — and not confuse the rules of one game with the rules of another.

It’s worth noting that many of the “facts” we rely on every day began as ideas, then became real through use. Cars, for example, were once experimental and contested; now they’re ordinary facts of daily life because they work in practice. People still argue fiercely about what kind of car is best — petrol or EV, performance or safety, freedom or environmental cost — but those debates are about interpretation, values, and purpose, not about whether cars exist.

Reinterpretation Instead of Policing Belief

One of the most useful moves we can make is reinterpretation.

It’s especially helpful when an old “rule” starts to wobble—when new evidence shows up, doubt creeps in, and the tension begins.

Instead of asking: Is this absolutely, immutably true?

We can ask:

• How am I using this idea?
• What does it give me?
• Does it make me more effective, more compassionate, more present?
• Does it help me live well — or does it make me rigid, fearful, or defensive?

Seen this way, Lemuria can be appreciated as:

• a symbol of harmony,
• a poetic expression of longing,
• a narrative of loss and remembrance,

without needing to be defended as a geological fact — and without needing to feel attacked either.

Holding Ideas Lightly, Living More Freely

The danger is not that people believe things that are speculative, symbolic, or even incorrect. The danger is when beliefs harden into unchallengeable facts and start being used as measures of worth.

When we remember that all systems of thought are human creations — invented, adapted, borrowed, and refined — we regain flexibility. We can keep what works, discard what doesn’t, and stop demanding that others play by the same rules.

Ideas then return to their proper place: not as masters, but as tools.

And tools, used wisely, can build rather than divide.

A Huna Perspective: Facts as Information, Not Authority

This is where Huna offers a practical way forward — not to dismiss facts, but to work with them skilfully.

The Seven Principles are not claims about how the universe must work. They are not there to win arguments. They are tools for navigating experience.

1. IKE – The world is what you think it is
   Not what it is, but how you experience it. Facts are filtered through perception. Knowing this prevents blind acceptance — or blind rejection.
2. KALA – There are no limits
   Limits can be questioned — but questioning is not the same as ignoring evidence. This principle invites exploration, not denial. Limits are useful in the context of a purpose, but they aren’t universal.
3. MAKIA – Energy flows where attention goes
   What we focus on grows in importance. Obsessing over unproven ideas gives them power; letting go reduces their influence.
4. MANAWA – Now is the moment of power
   Ancient continents, future civilizations, and cosmic origins matter less than how we act now with the information we have.
5. ALOHA – To love is to be happy with
   We can hold beliefs gently. We don’t need to fight over them. Curiosity and goodwill keep learning alive.
6. MANA – All power comes from within
   No idea has power over us unless we give it that power. Facts inform; they do not command.
7. PONO – Effectiveness is the measure of truth
   The key question is not “Is this absolutely true?” but: Does this belief help me live wisely, compassionately, and effectively?

If it does, use it.
If it doesn’t, set it aside — without hostility.

Lemuria did not survive because it was true; it survived because it was useful — as a story that filled scientific gaps, spiritual longings, and cultural disconnection all at once.

Graeme Kapono Urlich (December 2025) ©

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