2006 Heart-Brain summit proceedings

Paul Pearsall, PhD

Clinical Professor, Department of Nursing
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Board of Directors, Hawaii State Consortium for Integrative Medicine
Honolulu, HI

info@paulpearsall.com

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(Contextual cardiology: What modern medicine can learn from ancient Hawaiian wisdom)

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ARTICLE INTRODUCTION

A Hawaiian mo`olelo (legend) speaks of the importance of loving connection, a concept that 2,000-year-old Hawaiian medicine considers to be the essence of health. To Hawaiian kahuna (healers), all illness takes place in the context of some form of disconnection, and all healing requires reconnection by “restorative justice” through which responsibility for the disconnection is taken and amends are made. To Hawaiians, health is an interpersonal matter, and the pu`uwai (heart) develops and functions in interaction with other hearts. This power of heart-to-heart connection is illustrated in the Hawaiian legend of Naupaka.

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