Balance Show Segment

Dr. Paul Pearsall at the Troy Marriott in Troy, Michigan on February 8th 1996 (Please note-We are not certain of the Polynesian spelling- we are non-Maui-literate. Please excuse our attempt at reproducing the beautiful words from this (foreign to us) language.)

Q. Dr. Pearsall, you're going back to Hawaii and I'm not but tell us why you chose Hawaii or did Hawaii choose you?

A: Probably both. Years and years ago, almost 20 years ago I had lectured over in Honolulu on the Island of Oahu and you may remember it in those days the Russians, the Russian scientists and doctors were putting people in mental institutions because they were not Communists. If they didn't follow the Communist Line, they were seen as schizophrenic which was an abuse of Psychiatry so my job was to debate the psychiatry group in Russia from the American Psychiatrists point of view. So we did this debate and the Hawaiians watched me do this and they said, "You must come here because everything you say is our culture." And that's when I learned that there's a two thousand year old culture there and most psychology and pop psychology and medicine is based on other two paths, Western or Eastern, some of the most popular best selling books are theirs. Nobody has talked about what you heard today which is talking about Polynesia and the wisdom of Polynesia.

Q: That's true. Would you say that most of the, like indigenous cultures like Native American and Polynesian and a number of the other ones, the Eskimo and, would these philosophies do you think match up.

A: Almost perfectly and I can tell you why for many reasons. I just came back a month ago from a major conference with the Alaskan Indians, the Hopi, the Apache, the Chepsum Chinese, Japanese, and was called Alternative Approaches. I prefer to call them Complimentary. Alternative makes or somebody will say Modern Medicine, New Medicine, Old Medicine, but the oldest medicine's about two thousand years old. So they match up and they match up in five key ways.

We have a word called Aloha and if I can develop that for you you'll see how these cultures do it. Aloha means, Alo is to give, Ha is the breath. It's a very sacred word to Hawaiians. We even call someone who doesn't take the time and becomes breathless, Haoli. Ha means breath, oli, without sore Halo, so down. So Aloha stands for five things, A, the A letter, stands for Anaheim. Anaheim means patience with perseverance. All indigenous cultures value patience. Slow down, what is the big hurry here. You see that on the main land all the time. Rushing, hurrying, cutting people off in traffic, violent drivers, urgent drivers. So that's one way the cultures overlap.

The L in Aloha stands for Locahi. Locahi means Unity Expressed Cooperatively. There is no competition other than for fun in indigenous cultures. We share. We're not trying to be the best, be number one, which is the motivational thing that Western Culture values. Western Culture tends to be very competitive. Eastern is comparative. You have to be a better person tomorrow than you are today.

Polynesian is collaborative. We're all in this together. No one's work is done in Hawaii unless everybody's done. If I get up from this interview and you're still working, the Hawaiian tradition would be, I don't leave until you're done doing your working. I help people carry the cases for the cameras, that's the way to do it so that's another common thing in those cultures. That's the A and the L. O stands for Ololo in Hawaiian means agreeable expressed pleasantly. Don't raise your voice, don't use vulgar words, don't put people down. Words have Mana. They have energy and if I say something negative about you, we believe in something I'm sure you agree with, what goes around comes around. That is reciprocal rebound theory in psychology and I'm here to tell you as somebody almost died of Cancer, as someone who's spent a lot of, one of my son's have Cerebral Palsy, the other son has a horrendous learning disability, I've had a lot of crisis in my life. Somebody said, "Well how have you been able to manage to come back after that terrible Cancer and a bone marrow transplant?" I do believe what goes around comes around. I'm not saying, however, that when people die and don't get better, they haven't sent out love. You can die because you're mortal and I hate that new age idea that if you have the right attitude, if live forever. That's, that's ridiculous. But I do think you certainly increase your chances to heal, which means to become whole, not just to get better, when you send out. So that's the, that unity. It's part of every indigenous culture I've ever studied. That's the Ahanui, Ololo, Locahi.

A next H is Haahhaah which means humbleness expressed modestly. Don't always tell people what you do. You don't run around saying, "I'm a doctor. I'm a reporter. I'm a camera person." It doesn't matter what you are as a person, it's what you give out. Love can only be had when you share it so we make that big mistake all the time. We think love is something you feel. It's not a feeling, love is a behavior. It is a choice you make, you show it, that's, and all indigenous people believe that. The last A is probably the most important. It's called Akahaii. Akahaii means gentleness expressed tenderly. That means you're always gentle, you're always tender. With machinery, with cameras, with lights, with people, with children. You're not rough. You live in a very rough culture. You, you as a woman, are afraid, rightly so, to go certain places. I'm afraid to go certain places. This culture doesn't really believe that it's being held hostage. It is a shame that the poor people like us can't go anywhere we want to go, when we want to go. That you, as a woman, can't walk down the street without having to look over your shoulder, have your keys right in your hand. I think we, I said today, normalcy is dangerous to your health. Who's going to survive, savages or civilization? I really wonder.

Q: That's true. Do you think that, or, have you always had this way of thinking or did some, something occur in your life that brought you to this understanding of keeping the balance?

A: Well it would make a better story if I said, "It came to me in a flash or an epiphany of great wisdom." There's two ways people learn things, in my view as a Hawaiian and as a researcher and as a psychohumanologist, you learn them by epiphany, sudden insight comes into your life, and you learn them by suffering. Both. So both are necessary. You live in a culture, the Western Culture has pathologized on happiness. Always be happy. There's a researcher named Steven Covey, sold lots of books called The Seven Habits of Effective People. Typical approach to pathologizing. His quote is this. He's never had an unhappy day in his life. Why do people have unhappiness? Well, they made the wrong choices. No. There are people who are unhappy not because they chose to be unhappy, not because they made a mistake, they just have had bad luck. Things can go wrong for you. So this new age psychology, this pop psychology that gets, it sells all the books, is not doing a very good service. So our approach is, and I've always been raised that way, that life includes suffering. I was raised by that with my parents. We say this in Hawaii, Suffering is Inevitable, Misery is Optional. That, you make that, you make that decision.

Q: You do.

A: Sure.

Q: That's interesting. Did you have to go through a practice to learn how to say "No" more. How to be happy with less. You know, these principles you were talking about this morning.

A: Oh sure. You know, I'm a 53 year old man now and I think you keep, it's remarkable how bright I'm getting in my son's eyes as I get older here. I've learned that, now, this does make a dramatic story. When I had Cancer, I had stage four Cancer in the bones, all over my body. All over. I had a Bone Marrow Transplant, Chemotherapy, Sedomeglow Virus, in Intensive Care, I was clinically dead three times. That did really accelerate these lessons because I thought, "What really mattered." then. I'm not talking about selling shells on the beach and not working. You have to be professional, you do your job. That's called Pocala. Hawaiians say Excellence Modeled by Value, not objectives. I have to do my job. I have to help. That's my Culiana, that's my responsibility but, when I was offered a chair position at a major university, I said, "No." When I came back to Michigan, the hospitals around here said, "Come on, open up a ..... I don't want to. I will come in and lecture and give my, give my, Monaho, which is my, called my Wisdom but, as much as it is, but I am not going to get in to that trap. I'm not going to try to have a bigger house and a bigger car and better clothes. I just think that's the wrong way. I don't understand Stress Management Workshops that I see operating. Why do we managing it? Why don't we deal with why it is. Why, matter of fact I said, rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic. I'm going to meditate, I'm going to buy my relaxation tapes. I can't imagine people running up three flights of stairs and, that's good exercise. On the other hand they'll take an escalator up to their exercise class to get on a StepMaster. I don't understand that. I'm telling you, there is not research anywhere that shows that intense exercise prolongs life, or a totally healthy diet prolongs life. You certainly want to do that, you want to eat well. You want to exercise, but what prolongs life, you saw it today when I was talking about it. I asked people to raise their hand. Did you have a grandparent live to over 80? How many ate a good diet, hands went right down. There's something more here. Physicians only know a small percentage of why people get better and why they get sick and if we don't start realizing that, that it's how we lead our life. There was an author that once said that most of us lead lives at two minutes of reflection would lead us to disowned. And when you think about that, that's how it's becoming and I think that's very sad.

Q: Too hectic.

A: That's, my book comes out in September, finally. I couldn't get a publisher in New York to publish my book. That's after eight international Best Sellers translated to ten languages, I don't mean to sound arrogant about it but that's a very good background. They didn't want to touch this book.

Q: Which book is this now.

A: It's called The Five Principles of Pleasure.

Q: Oh yeah.

A: Finding joy in your life, work, love, and play. And they said, "Well, you're talking about radical things here. You're talking about staying home, sitting down, shutting up, having less, doing less, saying no." Absolutely I am. I think every woman in the world has the right to say, "I'm not working, I'm staying home." Every man has a right to say that. Why are we getting into this caring and you can have it all. I'm telling people right now, you want to be happier, you have less stuff. Right away, first thing you can do right now.

Q: In your therapy recovering from Cancer, did you use conventional medicine or were there any other types of therapies that you used?

A: The answer is Yes. I used conventional medicine. I'm stunned at New Age Holistic Medicine which talks about being Holistic and then turns its back on the great advances of, of what we call traditional medicine. It's really not traditional. Here's what I used. I used four types of medicine. One is called the Old Medicine. Arrow One Medicine. That started about nineteen, 1860's Civil War. Amputating legs, surgery, cutting, mechanical approach. We should not demean that, there're some miracles in that approach. I had ten surgeries. I had 20 bone marrows taken out of my hip with a needle grinding into my hip. That's portent, but then you've got what was called mind over body medicine. That started in the 50's. Still popular. Positive attitude, imagery, visualization. Important, but incomplete because it neglects Era Three medicine which is all minds together. What's called non local medicine. My mind .....to your mind. My health pertains to you. In Hawaii, we don't give a physical to one person, we give it to two. You have to come with a brother, a sister, a friend because health does not exist alone. Self healing is impossible. It's always us healing so that New Age stuff, there's somebody going around and writing a book about how you can always have the right attitude, it's just crazy. Crazy stuff. No research to support that. Era four medicine says I'm not only connected with all minds, this is a Hawaiian, Polynesian way, I'm connected with the whole Earth. It's called Alohaina which is Love the Earth and I'll tell you a perfect little story to show you how it works for Hawaiians.

We were fishing about three months ago on the big island of Hawaii and we're fishing all day .....this old rickety beat up truck, works like a charm though. We get done fishing and one of the doctors from Michigan is visiting and he picks up a rock, he'd been playing with with rock all day and he loves it so we get in the truck and I said, "Put the rock back." He said, "I'm going to take it home as a souvenir." We try to start the truck and it goes, .....won't start. I said, "Put it back." He said, "Are you nuts?" "We won't leave until you put it back." So he goes and puts it back, throws it down, comes back, truck won't start. We said, "Go put it back where it belongs." "Oh." He rolls his eyes. Goes over and puts it back, start the truck, still won't start. We said, "Go say you're sorry." "Oh, this is crazy." "Go say you're sorry." He says, "OK, I'm sorry." Gets back, truck starts, we go. That's how Hawaiians believe. We are part of this earth.

I had a patient the other day, she's sitting across from me and she's serious when she says, "I'm not happy. My son's aren't treating me with respect, I don't have enough sex during the week, I haven't got a promotion at work, I really want more...." I says, "Excuse me. excuse me, just before you continue, are you aware that the Earth is dying?" Here's her answer. "Whatever." Now ......that's what I call Echopsychology here.

That's the Hawaiian fourth view. Before I flew over here to give this talk my next door neighbor, beautiful guy, Uncle Charlie I call him, he's going to go fishing. He gets in his truck and like a dummy I yell out, "Uncle Charlie, you're going fishing." He looks at me and says, "Not now, you told them." In other words now the fish know. Why are you doing that. So I said, "Sorry, sorry, sorry." So now I say, "Going for a ride Uncle Charlie." So Hawaiians believe that. They firmly believe that Palia, the goddess of the volcano lives. That you don't take things, you don't litter. Hawaiians pick up everybody else's litter. You don't litter, you don't take things. Every year we get two tons of volcanic stone returned to Hawaii to our Forest Rangers because it says, Don't take it because ......won't like it. So people must get home and they mail it back. Absolutely so yes, I tried all four.

Q: For Heaven's sake. Well that I guess shows that, you know, everything has to work together and we can't, you know, turn our backs on, on scientific development because.....

A: All of it. Hawaiians call it Ohokeepa. Ohokeepa means generosity. Hawaiians have no concept of owning. Westerners believe you can own. Therefore they've taken all the Hawaiian lands and really, they threw our queen in jail, Queen Luilukilani and took over the military base and Westerners think that way. My territory, my station, my ratings, my talk show, my clinic, my patients. Hawaiians don't talk that way. I don't, we don't own land. If you're not territorial, that people don't trespass and if they don't trespass, you don't have anger because all anger is related to trespassing. It means you've taken my time, you got in my territory, so if I don't own it, you don't trespass. So I don't get angry, it doesn't matter. One of the medical students who came today said, "You didn't tell them all the research you did." I said, "Why. They'll value me for what I did today."

Q: Exactly.

A: That's what my value is. So that's called Alohaina, to love the land and that includes the Amakua, the ancestors, we believe that by insult you insult every ancestor standing behind you. They're all part of you. But that's not the Western view. It's not the Eastern view either. Eastern view is very meditative, self enlightened, Western is competitive. Polynesians don't go for that at all. We Polynesian's believe that we're all together. Let's go down to the beach and hula together. Let's go swim with the dolphins. But we don't hold them in captivity. The dolphins come to us. Swim with us, and when they're done they say, "Good-bye Hawaiians" and they go.

Q: So you're a Hawaiian.

A: Down to the heart of my Mana.....

Q: Do you feel like you've always been that? I mean, .....

A: Absolutely. You know, it's in my blood first of all and it's in my soul second of all. It's in my intellect, but I don't fit very well because I came over from the Western education. I understand the Eastern education, but I watch these Infomercials on television. Take some of these, I won't say them by name because I don't want to get in trouble but there's a lady on television talking about how to be married, she's been divorced five times.

Q: I know.

A: Five times. There's a man talking about how men are from another planet and women are from another planet and he's divorced from her. And he's on his third marriage.

Q: Right. Exactly.

A: We have to walk the walk in Hawaii. I've been married 32 years. That's not a bragging statement. That doesn't mean somebody's been married is more wise than anyone else. But if I'm going to lecture on marriage, you have a right to say, "And how do you know?" That's how I know. Not only by science so I don't fit, when I go to new age meetings, they hate me because I'm a scientist. When I go to the scientists, they don't like me because I'm a Polynesian. So I never find my niche. But my Tutumama, my great grandmother said when I was born, they gave me the name Kotenkena which means Person of Vision which means I was supposed to be a Kahuna, a healer, keeper of the ..... and she said, "You were born to trouble the sleep of the world. You must keep troubling that sleep and always remember grandson that anyone who would ever generate light must endure burning. And I never forgot that message. They'll be people at this talk today who, "What did he mean by this, I was bothering them." Some of these women should stop working, go back home and take care of the kids if that's what they want to do. Men don't raise kids well, the research shows that. Are there exceptions, tons of them. But generally speaking women were the people who could read those babies. Men were the hunter, gatherers. They were out there doing it. Now that's a whole other lecture about how we got this yin and yang way out of balance.

Q: I think we could go on and on for hours and hours......

A: Polynesians do. They call it talking story. You get a Polynesian going, we'll talk forever.

Q: Could you maybe give us some words of wisdom to live by or......

A: A Polynesian would never do that. I have no idea of those words of wisdom. I can only tell you what I've tried to do and telling someone else to do it would be seen as breaking the rule of Aha, which is humbleness. Why should I be telling you? Who put me in that position? I can only tell you that I try to walk that walk. I believe that love is not a feeling, it's a behavior. You show that every day. I believe in being patient. I believe in being connected. I'm going to pick up other peoples litter, I believe in showing my unity every day. I believe in being a kind, not angry person. I do not believe in expressing anger. Psychologists are wrong about that. Get it out, get it out wrong. The data does not support that. My strength I guess, and the answer to your question is, I know the Psycho......data. I know the new field of Psychoneuro..... which shows that the heart itself is a neurohormonal organ. It secretes hormones that communicate with the immune system. I know that data so I know darn well that if you practice Alohaina, and if you are patient and if you are gentle and if you are tender and you don't express your anger, you're going to be healthier. If you express anger, your T cells die, I was at John's Hopkin's University lecturing a month ago, and I gave that example and I said, you waste your heartbeats. Everybody's got a certain amount of beats in their heart, which is, by the way, true, we don't know how many. And they said, "Oh, Dr. Pearsall," and Westerners always do that, "caught you." I said, "What's the problem?" He said, "Well then you're telling people not to exercise, because when you exercise, your heart beat goes up." I said, "But doctor, what happens as a result of exercise, to your heartbeat? It goes down over time." Not with anger. So any time somebody starts to get me feeling angry I just think, "Do I want to waste any heartbeats on this person?

Q: That's a good question.

A: Anger only burns the person who's angry. I was taught in Hawaiian that anger is revenging against yourself for the mistakes of others.

Q: Well thanks so much for spending time with us today. We've really enjoyed it.

A: Mahola