Atlas›Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements›Guide 093
Guide XIV-093

Self I-Dentity through Hoʻoponopono and Zero Limits

Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona1976Hawaii, USA
A 33 · L 50 · M 1714 interventions in the Trinity explorer2 described for recognition only
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Self I-Dentity through Hoʻoponopono (SITH) as the Foundation of I, Inc. (Freedom of the Cosmos) states its purpose (preserving and teaching the work of Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona, 1913–1992), and the "cleaning" practice as Joe Vitale and Ihaleakalā Hew Len present it in Zero Limits (Wiley, 2007). Traditional Hawaiian family hoʻoponopono is a different practice; it is written up in Domain XI 123, with family-systems cross-reference in Domain V. [source: Foundation of I GuideStar profile; Zero Limits publisher sample]

This is a spiritual self-help practice that clients bring into therapy, not a psychotherapy. The psychotherapist does not teach, perform or "clean" for the client; the guide covers what the practice is, as its own sources describe it, and the therapist's clinical work around it. [synthesis]

What it is. Simeona, a Native Hawaiian lomilomi practitioner recognised in 1983 as a "Living Treasure of Hawaiʻi", began adapting hoʻoponopono from 1976 into a process an individual can do alone, drawing on Hawaiian practice, prayer to the Divine Creator, and ideas of reincarnation and karma; she founded the Foundation of I in 1980 and wrote the class textbooks (Basic 1–3). [source: Wikipedia, Morrnah Simeona — uncertain: secondary, unverified; dates of death and the 1983 title also in Zero Limits front matter] The Foundation of I says SITH "adapts Ho'oponopono for individual use" and trains instructors to teach it. [source: GuideStar] The individual process is often described as having fourteen steps, taught in classes from Simeona's textbooks; the steps are not set out here. [uncertain: not verified]

Core idea of change, as its sources state it. Problems are described as memories replaying in the subconscious. The person takes full responsibility for what appears in their experience, appeals to the Divine ("Original Source", "LOVE or GOD") through repentance and forgiveness, and the Divine is said to neutralise and release the memory and fill the space with love, returning the person to a "zero" or void state from which inspiration can arise. The process is summed up as repentance, forgiveness and transmutation. [source: Zero Limits, Introduction and "The Adventure Begins"] Zero Limits popularised a short cleaning formula of apology, a request for forgiveness, thanks and love. [source: Zero Limits sample; Psychology Today, James 2016]

The hospital-ward claim. Zero Limits says Hew Len, a psychologist, helped heal "an entire ward of mentally ill criminals" by working on himself rather than seeing the patients. Vitale first heard it secondhand, from an article his informant could no longer find, and calls the book "one man's experience". [source: Zero Limits, Introduction and "The Adventure Begins"] Retellings add details (patients unshackled, medication reduced, staff absences falling) with no hospital records, outcome data or independent confirmation. [source: Maui Vision 2019; Awareness Massage appendix] The identification of the ward as Hawaii State Hospital, and its dates, are not confirmed by published records. Evidence status: an unverified anecdote; no independent records or outcome data have been published. [uncertain: not verified]

Health claims. The sources frame imbalance and disease as arising from error and memory. No practice here treats any physical or mental illness; evidence status: no controlled trials of SITH or the cleaning phrases appear in the sources cited [uncertain: not verified]. All medical decisions stay with the client's doctor. [synthesis]

2. Framework

There are no therapy phases, session counts or progression criteria in the sources; SITH is taught in classes (the Foundation of I describes classes held worldwide and instructor training; Zero Limits points readers to weekend trainings), and the reprinted article in Zero Limits says the training contains "over 25 problem solving processes". [source: GuideStar; Zero Limits sample] The framework for the therapist is a clinical sequence [synthesis]:

  • Phase A, Orientation and meaning (first contact with the topic). Goal: learn which version the client follows (SITH class, Zero Limits book or courses, online teachers, or Hawaiian family practice), what it means to them, how much time and money it takes. Move on when the client's own account and goals are clear.
  • Phase B, Cultural formulation and assessment. Goal: Cultural Formulation Interview including the spirituality, religion and moral traditions module; screen for OCD-type compulsive repetition, inflated responsibility and guilt, psychosis or mania, dissociation, complicated grief, and medical avoidance. Move on when risks are rated and the client agrees a plan.
  • Phase C, Working alongside the practice. Goal: the client decides whether and how the practice sits beside therapy (resource, neutral, or source of distress). Work on responsibility appraisals, guilt, forgiveness and relationships in the client's own language.
  • Phase D, Review, referral and boundaries. Goal: check for dependency, spending and health-care delay; refer (medical, psychiatric, Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, the client's teacher) as the client wishes.

Phases overlap; risk findings (suicidality, psychosis, medical neglect, child safeguarding) override the sequence. [synthesis]

3. Guiding principles

  • Describe the practice in its own terms. Use "cleaning", "memories", "Divinity", "zero" as the client and sources use them, with a short gloss; do not endorse or dismiss. [source: Zero Limits sample; synthesis]
  • Name the version. SITH (Simeona; Foundation of I), Hew Len's teaching via Zero Limits, later simplified online versions, and Hawaiian family hoʻoponopono differ; ask which one. Practical meaning: never assume the client's practice is "traditional Hawaiian". [source: GuideStar; James 2016; Meyer 1995]
  • Respect the Hawaiian origin. Native Hawaiian sources locate hoʻoponopono in the family, led by a haku (facilitator) with prayer, honest discussion, mutual forgiveness and release; Pukui is quoted as saying it "belongs in the family". Practical meaning: do not present the individual practice as the Hawaiian tradition, and route Native Hawaiian clients' cultural questions to their community. [source: Meyer 1995; Liliʻuokalani Trust 2024; Chun 2006]
  • The therapist is not a practitioner in session. No cleaning "on" clients, no SITH teaching, no claim that the therapist's inner work treats the client. Practical meaning: anything the therapist does privately is not a treatment and is not billed or offered as one. [synthesis]
  • Attribute claims, give evidence status. The hospital story and healing claims are reported as claims, with "unverified". [source: Zero Limits sample; synthesis]
  • Responsibility is a clinical variable. "100 percent responsible" is a stated insight of the practice; for survivors of abuse, people with OCD or depression, it can feed self-blame. Practical meaning: explore how the client applies it, distinguishing spiritual responsibility from blame and legal or moral fault. [source: Zero Limits, "The Adventure Begins"; synthesis]
  • Do not pathologise belief. Differential assessment looks at distress, impairment, compulsivity and loss of reality testing, not at the content of belief. [synthesis]
  • Medical decisions stay medical. The therapist never advises starting, stopping or changing medicines or treatment. [synthesis]
  • Watch money and dependency. Classes, books, courses and products are sold around the practice; ask about costs openly. [source: GuideStar; synthesis]
  • Ethics and competence. Spiritual and religious competencies (Vieten et al. 2013) and the APA Ethics Code frame the work [uncertain: not verified]; specific ethics points below are [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

Part A describes the practice as its own sources publish it, so the therapist can understand what a client is doing. These are not interventions the therapist delivers. Part B is the therapist's clinical work. [synthesis]

Part A. The practice as published

A1. The SITH class process (Simeona; Foundation of I)

  • Purpose and context (as published): an individual, self-applied form of hoʻoponopono for problem-solving through repentance, forgiveness and transmutation, using a model of the self with three parts that Simeona named in Hawaiian and also called the subconscious, conscious and superconscious mind, linked to the Divine Creator. [source: GuideStar; Zero Limits sample; Wikipedia, Morrnah Simeona — uncertain: secondary, unverified]
  • Steps (public outline only): taught in classes by Foundation-recognised instructors from Simeona's copyrighted textbooks; the training is described as containing many problem-solving processes. Step content is not reproduced here; clients who want it learn it from the Foundation. [source: GuideStar; Zero Limits sample; uncertain: not verified]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned you took a SITH class. What did you learn there that you still use, and what does it do for you?"
  • Watch for: class costs and repeat attendance; whether the client uses it alongside or instead of other help; whether the client experiences it as calming or as another duty. [synthesis]

A2. "Cleaning" with short phrases (Zero Limits)

  • Purpose and context (as published): to clean or "erase" the memories said to be replaying behind any problem, by addressing the Divine (or the memory, the body, another person) with short statements of apology, asking forgiveness, thanks and love, said silently or aloud, at any moment a problem is noticed. [source: Zero Limits sample; Maui Vision 2019; James 2016]
  • Steps (general terms): notice a problem or reaction; take it as one's own memory; address it with the phrases of repentance, forgiveness, gratitude and love; let go of expectations about the result. Hew Len's emails in the book also use a phrase about peace beginning with oneself. [source: Zero Limits sample]
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you say the phrases, what happens in your body and mind? How often do you say them on a hard day?"
  • Watch for: helpful use (a brief self-soothing, self-compassion or letting-go ritual) versus compulsive use (repeating until it feels "right", counting, distress if interrupted, hours lost). A Huna teacher criticises simplified phrase repetition as "microwave-ready" and shallow, and says users are likely to be disappointed: disappointment and self-blame when "cleaning doesn't work" are worth asking about. [source: James 2016; synthesis]

A3. Total responsibility and "cleaning on" others

  • Purpose and context (as published): one of the stated insights is that the person is "100 percent responsible" for their physical universe; problems seen in others are treated as the practitioner's own memories, so the practitioner cleans within themself rather than acting on the other person. This is the basis of the hospital-ward claim. [source: Zero Limits, "The Adventure Begins" and Introduction]
  • Steps: none beyond A2; applied to anyone or anything in the person's experience. [source: Zero Limits sample]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your practice asks you to take full responsibility for what you experience. How do you hold that when someone else has hurt you?"
  • Watch for: self-blame for abuse, illness or a loved one's death; staying in harmful relationships because conflict is "my memory"; not acting on safety concerns; a practitioner (including a therapist) offering to "clean on" a client's problem in place of direct care. [synthesis]

A4. Other published "cleaning tools"

  • Purpose and context (as published): Hew Len's emails in Zero Limits suggest talking to one's body with love and gratitude, and a "Blue Solar Water" made by leaving water in a blue glass container in sunlight. Hew Len also advised against teaching SITH to others and urged cleaning one's own memories first. [source: Zero Limits sample]
  • Steps: not given here; these are described for recognition only, as health claims are unverified. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Are there other things you use for cleaning, such as objects, water or products? Where do they come from and what do they cost?"
  • Watch for: use of tools in place of medical care, and spending on products sold around the practice. [synthesis]

Part B. The psychotherapist's work

B1. Client-led exploration of meaning

  • Purpose and when: whenever the client mentions hoʻoponopono, cleaning or the phrases; to learn what it means in their life, with consent, in their language. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) ask permission to talk about it; (2) ask how they came to it (class, book, video, family, Hawaiian community); (3) ask what it does for them and what problem it addresses; (4) ask how it fits with their other beliefs and community; (5) reflect back in their terms; (6) agree whether it becomes part of the therapy focus. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to understand hoʻoponopono the way you practise it. Would you tell me how you started and what it has meant for you?"
  • Watch for / working: the client talks freely without defending the practice; a shared vocabulary develops; the client can name both benefits and costs. [synthesis]

B2. Cultural Formulation Interview with the spirituality, religion and moral traditions module

  • Purpose and when: early assessment; when the practice shapes how the client explains the problem, seeks help or makes choices. [synthesis]
  • Steps: use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview core questions (cultural definition of the problem, cultural perceptions of cause, context and support, cultural factors in self-coping and past help-seeking, current help-seeking) and its supplementary spirituality, religion and moral traditions module; do not reproduce the items to the client from memory, use the published instrument. [uncertain: not verified; synthesis] Include: the client's cultural identity (Native Hawaiian, local Hawaiʻi, other Pacific, or none), the version followed, its explanation of the problem (memories, karma, responsibility), and community supports. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your practice, what causes a problem like this? And what would your teacher or community suggest you do?"
  • Watch for: differences between the client's explanatory model and medical or family models that may cause conflict over help-seeking. [synthesis]

B3. Clarifying the version and its origins

  • Purpose and when: when the client believes the individual phrases are the ancient Hawaiian practice, or when cultural identity is at stake. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) ask where they learned it; (2) if helpful and invited, offer that sources distinguish Simeona's individual adaptation (from 1976) and its later popular forms from the family process led by a haku with prayer, problem statement, discussion, confession and forgiveness, release and closing prayer; (3) leave conclusions to the client; (4) for Native Hawaiian clients, ask whether they want contact with family elders or Hawaiian organisations that keep the family practice (for example Liliʻuokalani Trust training of haku hoʻoponopono). [source: Meyer 1995; Chun 2006; Liliʻuokalani Trust 2024; synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some Hawaiian writers describe hoʻoponopono as a family gathering led by an elder. Is the way you practise connected to that, or to the books and classes?"
  • Watch for: the client feeling corrected or shamed; stop and return to their meaning. [synthesis]

B4. Working with responsibility and guilt appraisals

  • Purpose and when: when "100 percent responsibility" leads to self-blame, inaction on harm, or shame about illness or loss. [source: Zero Limits sample; synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) ask how the client understands responsibility in their practice; (2) separate spiritual responsibility ("what I can clean in myself") from causal blame and legal or moral fault; (3) use a responsibility pie or similar cognitive exercise in their language; (4) ask whether teachers in their tradition say victims caused abuse, and let the client weigh that; (5) where abuse or risk is current, make safety plans regardless of the spiritual frame. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Can cleaning your own memories and holding him accountable both be true at once?"
  • Watch for / working: reduced shame, more self-compassion, ability to set limits, while the client keeps the practice if they wish. [synthesis]

B5. Differential assessment without pathologising belief

  • Purpose and when: when cleaning is very frequent, distressing, or accompanied by unusual experiences; at intake and whenever functioning drops. [synthesis]
  • Steps: assess function and form, not belief content [synthesis]:
    • OCD and scrupulosity: phrases used as neutralising rituals against intrusive thoughts of harm or sin; inflated responsibility ("if I don't clean, something bad will happen to them"); repetition until it feels "just right"; reassurance-seeking from teachers or forums. If present, refer for or provide exposure and response prevention as OCD clinical sources (IOCDF) describe it, agreeing with the client which uses of the phrases are ritual and which are devotion. [uncertain: not verified; synthesis]
    • Psychosis: beliefs that one's inner cleaning controls other people's minds or bodies held with fixed conviction, outside the tradition's norms, with hallucinations, disorganisation or functional decline; compare with how other practitioners in the client's community hold the same ideas. [synthesis]
    • Mania or hypomania: sudden intense practice with grandiosity ("I can heal the whole ward"), reduced sleep, spending on courses. [synthesis]
    • Dissociation: prolonged "zero" or void states experienced as unreal or detached, with distress or lost time. [synthesis]
    • Grief: cleaning used to erase memories of the dead, guilt about a death as "my memory"; assess for prolonged grief. [synthesis]
    • If the practice has led to recovered "past-life" or ancestral memories through suggestion-based sessions, see Domain VI 110 on suggestion and false memory. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people find the phrases calming; others find they can't stop saying them. Which is closer to your experience?"
  • Watch for: the DSM-5-TR category Religious or Spiritual Problem (code Z65.8) may fit distress about the practice without a disorder [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (Unbound Medicine); DSM-5-TR wording uncertain: not verified]; avoid diagnosis by belief content. [synthesis]

B6. Health claims and medical routing

  • Purpose and when: when the client uses cleaning for physical or mental illness, or hears that disease comes from memories. [source: Zero Limits sample]
  • Steps: (1) ask what they hope cleaning will do for their health; (2) state evidence status once: these are unverified claims with no published controlled evidence [uncertain: not verified]; (3) ask who their doctor is and what the doctor has advised; (4) support the client to discuss everything with the doctor; (5) never advise on starting, stopping or changing medicines or treatment; (6) if a child or dependent adult's care is being withheld, follow safeguarding procedures. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You can keep your practice and still let your doctor guide the treatment. What would make it easier to talk with them about both?"
  • Watch for: missed appointments, stopping psychiatric medication because the hospital story suggests cleaning can replace it, shame about illness. [synthesis]

B7. Dependency and financial review

  • Purpose and when: periodic review; when the client attends many classes, buys products or follows a teacher closely. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) ask about money and time spent per month on classes, books, recordings, events and products; (2) ask whether teachers say more courses are needed to progress; (3) ask how decisions are made (by "inspiration" alone, or with practical checks); (4) ask whether anyone discourages them from therapy, medicine or family; (5) agree limits the client chooses. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Looking at the last few months, what has the practice cost you in money and time, and does that feel right to you?"
  • Watch for: debt, secrecy, isolation, a teacher who claims to clean on the client's behalf for payment. [synthesis]

B8. Discussing cultural appropriation concerns

  • Purpose and when: when the client asks, or feels unease, about using a Hawaiian practice; when a Native Hawaiian client is distressed by commercial versions. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) ask what the client knows and feels about the origins; (2) if invited, share that Native Hawaiian writers describe hoʻoponopono as a family practice with a haku, prayer, honesty and mutual release, codified with Pukui at the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children's Center, and that Pukui is quoted as saying it belongs in the family [source: Meyer 1995; Chun 2006; Liliʻuokalani Trust 2024]; (3) note that some Hawaiians criticised Simeona's adaptations [source: Wikipedia, Morrnah Simeona — uncertain: secondary, unverified], and that Native Hawaiian advocates have objected generally to Hawaiian culture "being used inappropriately in the name of profit" (a 2006 statement about commercial use of Hawaiian culture, not about this practice) [source: Honolulu Advertiser 2006]; specific published Native Hawaiian criticism of Zero Limits is [uncertain: not verified]; (4) let the client decide (e.g., learn more from Hawaiian sources, describe their practice as a personal adaptation, or change it). [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "How do you want to relate to the Hawaiian roots of what you do? There isn't a single right answer here."
  • Watch for: the therapist imposing a political view; the client feeling shamed; Native Hawaiian clients' experiences of cultural loss, which deserve space in their own right. [synthesis]

B9. Therapist boundaries and the therapist's own practice

  • Purpose and when: when the therapist practises cleaning personally, or a client asks the therapist to "clean on" them, or cites the hospital story as a model of therapy. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) keep any personal practice outside the therapeutic contract and records; do not tell clients you are cleaning on them; (2) decline to teach SITH or the phrases in session (Hew Len himself is reported as advising against teaching SITH to others) [source: Zero Limits sample]; (3) limit self-disclosure to what serves the client; (4) avoid dual relationships such as attending the same classes in a teaching role; (5) seek consultation if your spiritual view of responsibility affects risk decisions. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm glad the practice matters to you. My part here is to work with you directly, as your therapist, alongside whatever you do in your practice."
  • Watch for: reduced clinical action (safety plans, referrals) because "it's my memory to clean". [synthesis]

B10. Referral and community involvement

  • Purpose and when: whenever needs exceed the therapy frame. [synthesis]
  • Steps: refer for medical review (physical symptoms), psychiatric assessment (psychosis, mania, severe depression, suicidality), OCD specialists (ERP), grief services; with the client's consent, contact their teacher or the Foundation of I for questions about the practice, or Native Hawaiian organisations and family elders for traditional hoʻoponopono (see Domain XI 123); for family conflict, family therapy (see Domain V). [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it help to bring in someone from your community, or a doctor, for this part?"
  • Watch for: the client experiencing referral as rejection; keep continuity. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

All guidance in this section is [synthesis] unless a source is named; the practice's own sources do not address therapy problems.

  • Client wants the therapist to endorse the hospital story. Say it is a widely shared story told by Vitale from a secondhand account, without published records, and ask what it means to them (often hope). Do not argue further. [source: Zero Limits sample; synthesis]
  • Client asks the therapist to teach or do cleaning in session. Decline warmly, explain role, invite the client to use their practice between sessions as they choose and to talk about it in therapy.
  • "It's all my memory" blocks action on abuse or danger. Hold both frames (B4); safety planning and legal duties proceed regardless; consult if needed.
  • Compulsive repetition. Treat as possible OCD (B5); collaborate on which uses are devotional; agree ERP targets with the client; involve their teacher only if the client wishes.
  • Medical avoidance or medication stopping. Name concern once, clearly; route to the doctor; do not advise on medicines; document; follow safeguarding law for children and dependent adults.
  • Children. A parent using cleaning instead of assessment or treatment for a child's illness, development or behaviour: discuss, encourage assessment, and follow child-protection procedures where care is withheld. Never name minors in records shared outside the service.
  • Grief and guilt after a death. Separate "my memory" from blame; allow mourning; assess for prolonged grief and suicide risk using standard risk assessment.
  • Disappointment when cleaning "doesn't work". Normalise; explore self-blame; consider whether the client wants to change how they practise. [source: James 2016 on disappointment with simplified versions; synthesis]
  • Spending or dependency. Use B7; problem-solve limits; involve financial counselling if debt is present.
  • Rupture over cultural or religious difference. Acknowledge, repair, ask what the client needs; seek consultation with someone knowledgeable about Hawaiian culture if the client is Native Hawaiian and agrees.
  • Psychosis or mania emerging. Urgent psychiatric referral; keep the client's practice language in the formulation shared with the psychiatric team.
  • Family conflict about the practice. Offer a family session; let each member speak; the Hawaiian family process is a separate cultural practice, not a technique for the therapist to run.

Sources

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