[Note: To follow is an excerpt of an interview with Dr. Matthew B. James, inspirational trainer, whose passion is teaching and living the path of Huna, the ancient science of consciousness and energy healing of the Hawaiian Islands. To listen to, or download the show archive MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/082008.]

Mosca: Of all the systems you studied, why is Huna the most complete?

James: I carry a fourth-generation lineage of Huna that was taught to me by my father. I’ve carried it on in what I teach and in what I practice, including real estate.

Mosca: How do you define spiritual and do you consider Huna to be a religion?

James: No. Huna was the psychology in ancient Hawaii that looks into the energy you have and how it promotes your best physical expression. People of different faiths come and take the trainings and incorporate the teachings into what they do. The Hawaiians were pretty flexible though with their language. It only had seven consonants and the five vowels so words were pretty vague and ambiguous. Spirituality isn’t the best word I would use. There isn’t really a good English word. Huna is the teaching of how to think and feel in order to wake up and be in control of your energy.

Mosca: Huna helps you make better personal decisions, but does it help you make better professional decisions as well?

James: It definitely does help you make better business decisions as well. A seminar that I started teaching because of the economic times is called, "Huna and Prosperity." The ancient people here believed that the word success and spiritual success included being successful on the physical level, which would include money. The two are linked together and Huna teaches how to balance that with trusting your gut. There is an aspect of who you are that contains or maintains all of the information that you know. In modern labels we call it the unconscious mind, the subconscious. In ancient times they referred to it beyond that, they said it was your gut. Huna teaches that it is your instinct that occurs from the gut and from your heart. It’s learning how to harness that energy or Huna, in order to have it flow through your gut.

For example, I wanted to buy a house. We took everything we had and I had done all of the research. I learned the market, I learned the trends, and I looked at the 10-year and the 20-year trends in Hawaii. I found this one property and my gut was screaming buy it, you’ve got to get this. Everyone said no -- my father, my mom, my friends, and my other family members. My real estate agent said the property was too high. My gut, however, knew this was the house. I put all of my money into this house and it tripled in value. We ended up selling it for just under $1 million, took that equity, and bought and sold enough properties that we now invest in commercial. I did exactly what the most successful people did; trusted my instinct.

Mosca: So there is more to it than your gut instinct?

James: You definitely need to do your homework. Huna teaches to study and with real estate you need to understand the marketplace. I love to focus on the success of Sam Walton, whether you like or dislike Wal-Mart. He came to Honolulu, took a quick look around, gathered a little bit of information because the Hawaiian market is a little bit different, and he said that he wanted to put the Wal-Mart "over there." He pointed at this place right near a shopping center but tucked away. Everyone told him, "you can't put it there, everything that we've put there has been unsuccessful." That Wal-Mart ended up being one of the most successful stores around the planet. How did he do that? He went against everything else that everyone was saying. He trusted his gut and he walked into a situation with all the knowledge necessary.

Mosca: I couldn't agree with you more. The sponsors this show, RealSource, has an entire economics department that does nothing but analyze the 360 plus MSAs across the country, and I go out and do location-investing seminars and a great part of that is explaining to real estate investors and potential investors how important it is to understand markets and market disciplines. Does research and knowledge go hand in hand with gut instinct when making a decision?

James: Absolutely. You can't just walk in without any knowledge and say I'm going to leave it all to my gut. When I teach people this technique in my Huna trainings I say to them, "trusting your gut doesn't negate the conscious mind." The reason why we trust the gut to create our physical resources is because the mental trickles down to the emotional and the emotional trickles down to the physical. The emotional body, the emotional aspect of who you are is related to your gut instincts. It’s related to your memories and your knowledge.

Mosca: Is there more to this than just the gut?

James: In addition to needing to learn how to think and become a lot more focused in their life and learn how to trust the gut, people need to begin to have a reason for what they are doing. Huna teaches that you need to have a purpose and that brings in your energy or your motivation in order for you to accomplish what you’re accomplishing. Most successful people don’t tend to focus on money. I worked with a guy whose net worth is well over $500 million and I said to him did you ever focus on money? He said no, I focused on wealth and prosperity. That flows from your purpose. You need to know your purpose.

Mosca: What knowledge or what gut instinct convinced you that real estate was the way to generate some wealth outside of your workshops and seminars to enhance people professionally and personally through Huna?

James: Working one-on-one with people and of the hundreds of thousands of people that I've met in my seminars and trainings around the world, I've gotten to work with people that have a lot of money available to them. With a few exceptions, most of these people built their wealth or maintained their wealth with real estate. Owning land, owning property is clearly a foundation for building huge wealth in your life. The way you build wealth is to find your purpose -- why are you doing what you're doing -- and you pour your energy into that. Your purpose needs to include a long-term plan and then the short-term plans are dictated by this long-term purpose.

Mosca: How do you convince the cynic that attends a workshop that the Huna teaching helps people reach the goal f being better personally and professionally?

James: Let go of what Huna refers to as ‘black bags.’ If you have fear of putting money in real estate then that fear could prevent you from taking action and taking advantage of a wonderful market. If you can get that information and knowledge and trust your gut, it's a good time to invest right now.

Mosca: Fear could almost be looked upon as gut instinct, so how do you tell people to differentiate between the two when making a decision to invest money in real estate?

James: Negative emotions like fear are valuable because they provide feedback in the moment. Fear in the moment is an indicator of something not right. Huna teaches that the fear is just something from your gut saying look there's a reason why you should stop for a moment and figure out what's going on. From there, you have to let go of that fear. You would never move forward based on a negative emotion. You wouldn’t make a decision out of anger and I tell this to people all the time. If you make a decision out of fear isn’t that the same as making a decision out of anger? It’s not going to be a good decision. Fear tells you to stop, find out what's going on, and then you need to go ahead and make a decision based on positive thinking. Don't ignore the fear. Utilize that as an opportunity to figure out what you need to know in order to make a positive decision.

Mosca: What is the golden nugget for the show today?

James: The golden nugget would be to find your purpose. Find your why. Why are you doing what you’re doing? Not just the real estate investment, why are you doing what your doing in your life? Find your purpose, find your why, and that will give you your bigger direction.

Published: September 11, 2008

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Peter L. Mosca is president and founder of BAK Communications, Inc. He has over 22 years of communications and media consulting experience, serving a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the CCIM Institute and the REALTOR Association on all three levels – national, state and local. He is the Spokesperson Trainer for the CCIM's Jay Levine Academy and trains hundreds of residential REALTORS nationwide to be effective industry spokespeople. He is consistently ranked as "excellent" by about 90% of those who attend his presentations. While his principal consulting focuses are public speaking and media relations development and content delivery and management, Peter is also the host of the Voice America Network's weekly radio program, "Income Property Investment Talk," a one-hour program that brings the powerhouses of commercial and residential real estate to property investors every Wednesday at 11 a.m. EST. Peter is married 17 years to his wife Barbara. They have two children: Ashley, 15 and Kelli, 12. Hence, the name BAK Communications, Inc.