Kahuna was the Hawaiian title for a priest, expert, teacher, and/or adviser. Among the legendary magical powers of the kahuna nui was the "Huna death prayer." Usually, it's mentioned in passing while saying that the secret was lost. Not true. This is how the Huna death prayer was done:
The Kahunas believed that man had two spirits, the lower or subconscious one being illogical and subject ot the influence of hypnotic suggestion. To become able to use the death prayer, a Kahuna had to inherit from another Kahuna one or more (usually about three) unihipili or subconscious spirits though he could, if sufficiently psychic, locate subconscious spirits himself and use hypnotic suggestion to capture and enslave them. When a person was to be prayed to deat, the kahuna called to him his enslaved spirits and gave them hypnotic orders to absorb mana (vital force) from food and drink, which were placed on a mat on the ground and surrounded with ceremonial objects such as small white stones and pieces of wood. The Kahuna transferred his own mana into the food, drink, and the ceremonial objects, which were called papa or "forbidden."
The spirits were then given precise instructions as to what they were to do with the mana. They were to catch the scent from a bit of hair or soiled garment belonging to the intended victim and follow it the way a dog follows a track. Upon reaching the victim, they were to await their chance to enter his or her body, which they were able to do because of the power to use as a paralyzing shock the surcharge of vital force given them by their master.
The order which the spirits were trained to obey was recorded in one case. It was:
"O Lono,
Listen to my voice.
This is the plan:
Rush upon __________ and enter;
Enter and curl up;
Curl up and straighten out."
The "curl up" and "straighten out" had other meanings than we give the words in English. The process was one of entering the body of the intended victim or attaching themselves to it. That done, the vital force of the victim was absorbed by the intruding spirits and stored in their spirit bodies. As the vital force of the victim was withdrawn from the feet a numbness came to them, which rose gradually over a period of three days to knees, hips, and, finally, to the solar plexus or heart, at which time the victim died.
When the death had been accomplished, the spirits left the body, taking with them their charges of vital force and returned to their master. If the victim had been protected by another Kahuna and the spirits were sent back by him to their owner with hypnotic orders to attack their master, they might make such an attack with fatal results. In order to avoid such a danger, a magic ritual of cleansing was usually performed by the Kahuna sending out the spirits (kala), or, as was more often the case, the person who had hired the Kahuna to send the death prayer to another, and who had vouched for the fact that the intended victim deserved such drastic punishment, would be named as the one responsible, to be attacked should another Kahuna send the spirits back before their task was accomplished.
In the event of a return from a successful mission, the Kahuna ordered his spirit slaves to play until they used up the vital force they had taken in the process of the guilty one. Their play usually took the form of what we would call poltergeist activities. They would move or throw objects, make loud noises and generally create bedlam.
The killing of a person by magic was thought by the Kahunas to depend upon whether or not the victim had a deep sense of guilt which was caused by the wrongs done on others. Such a guilt complex made the attack of the unihipili or subconscious spirits successful. Without this sense of guilt, the subconscious of the victim would successfully ward off the attacking spirits.