Updated and revised by Kahuna Lapa`au (healer) Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona, this ancient Hawaiian process of problem-solving has universal application and may be used effectively in a modern setting by anyone regardless of one's ethnicity, culture or background.

According to Morrnah, "We are the sum total of our experiences, which is to say that we are burdened by our past. When we experience stress or fear in our lives, if we look carefully, we would find that the cause is actually a memory. It is the emotions which are tied to these memories which affect us now. The subsconscious associates an action or person in the present with something that happened in the past. When this occurs, emotions are activated and stress is produced."

The Ho`oponopono process is designed to remove the negative memories, energies, vibrations, blocks and attachments that cause the emotions to be triggered. All that is required is an appeal to the Divinity within you - which is an extension of the Divine Creator of your choice - for forgiveness for past offenses. Immediately, or over time, the people, places, objects and situations which were once triggering lose their effect, and a greater sense of peace arises.