Quantum Entanglement and the Ho'oponopono Prayer
Two carved Hawaiian figures, J. M. Booth. 1930s.
Molly Hankins September 25, 2025
The ancient Hawaiian Ho’oponopono forgiveness prayer was brought to modern attention by Dr. Hew Len, a clinical social worker who used it with great success while working in a ward for the criminally insane. He learned the simple prayer from his family, and it had an enormous impact on his patients at Hawaii State Hospital, which he wrote about in the 2007 book Zero Limits. In ancient, tribal Hawaiian culture, whenever a member of Kahuna tribe came to any harm or did anything harmful, everyone in the tribe would sit in a circle around that person and psychically send them the message, “I’m sorry, please forgive me, I love you, thank you.” When Len began using it with his patients, he found their issues began resolving more easily, that they were getting along better day-to-day and, overall, were exiting the ward more quickly.
The effectiveness of Ho’oponopono is based on the principles of quantum entanglement, which theorises that particles of the same origin, if once connected, always stay connected - even across space-time. If we apply the same principle to human beings, it means we’re influencing each other on an ongoing basis whether we’re aware of it or not. It could take the form of holding each other in some form of psychic bondage through our perception of each other, either consciously or unconsciously. It could also take the form of judgment, envy, or any negativity held towards the person experiencing harm. Regardless of how this negativity expresses, the premise is the same - we cannot escape the impact we have on others as individuals or as part of a collective, but we can cleanse our impact to make it positive by engaging in this practice.
For the prayer, the words are sent telepathically rather than spoken because it is communication that happens beyond the world of form that reorganizes reality at the quantum level. Len would repeat the prayer in his mind while looking at his patients’ file until he felt a lightness towards them, then he would move onto the next file. His Zero Limits co-author Joe Vitale realized Len had distilled the complex Kahuna ritual into a simple, ten-word prayer that was having profound and sometimes immediate effects on recipients. They were receiving the benefit without having any awareness of why, and Vitale posits that the prayer lifts a veil of negative perception, freeing patients from their past. Positive regard becomes the organizing principle at the quantum level instead of negativity or disregard, so the recipient of Ho’oponopono begins to perceive themselves subconsciously in a new, positive light. They have not changed,, they are just operating from a new baseline, which is feeling the support of interconnection within community and with their true selves.
“The divisions between us are only in our imaginations. Although bodies and actions appear separate, the mind that is expressing through all of us is the same. All behavior is either an expression of or a call for love. So love is the cause of everything, and the cure at the same time.”
Each line of the prayer combines to create this alchemical reaction, beginning with “I’m sorry.” The apology needs not to be for anything in particular that’s happened in this life, it could simply be apologizing for our souls’ choosing to experience separation from the divine and for all the suffering that choice caused. The next line, “please forgive me”, affirms the idea that forgiveness alleviates much of the suffering we create by choosing to play the human game of separation. It is a gift we’re always in a position to give ourselves and each other. Author David Ian Cowan has his own take on the impact of this line in his book Navigating the Collapse of Time. He writes, “Please see me as an undiluted, invulnerable, eternal and forever joyful spirit, as I now choose to see you. I see you as spirit, who through the majesty of your own creativity and freedom, has created this opportunity to awaken and remember love, and I trust you to love me and forgive me my illusions.” By passing conscious awareness of another’s transgressions, Ho’oponopono allows us to see each other with fresh eyes at the quantum level.
We acknowledge both our unity with others and self-love when we say, “I love you.” According to Cowan, this line recognizes our oneness, that we’re all drops in the infinite ocean of consciousness, and that we serve as mirrors for each other, so to give love to another is to give it to ourselves. By this logic, to judge or condemn another is to judge and condemn our own soul, so choosing love and forgiveness for another heals them and ourselves. Cowan writes, “The divisions between us are only in our imaginations. Although bodies and actions appear separate, the mind that is expressing through all of us is the same. All behavior is either an expression of or a call for love. So love is the cause of everything, and the cure at the same time.” The final line “thank you” shows gratitude for both the opportunity to heal the relationship and for the change of any misperceptions we may have of one another as being anything less than divine.
Len believed Ho’oponopono had the power to restore the mind to its higher purpose and connect with the truth of creation and interconnectedness of all things. When love, forgiveness, humility, and gratitude entangle, they generate an organizing pattern of reality, that moves us beyond identifying with our perception of duality to become pure vessels of divine creation. It effectively functions as a non-duality spell, because the only way to perceive duality is by stepping outside it, and Ho’oponopono by its very nature is based in non-duality. By sending this blessing to another, we take a step outside of duality. Each time we do, we come back into the polarized world of form able to embody more non-dual divine intelligence.
Molly Hankins is an Initiate + Reality Hacker serving the Ministry of Quantum Existentialism and Builders of the Adytum.
