Do you have any other recommendations in this general arena that you'd consider a must read?

You're also correct when you say Huna is something a white guy (Long) thought up, so it's bound to be polluted.  But I have found it to be one of the most  effective techniques, and I've always been drawn to it.  Unfortunately, it's the closest I'll ever come to understanding the true Polynesian spirituality.  I do appreciate your recommending that book, Change We Must.

First of all, the number 5000 years in an estimate based on the 249 generations between the crash and the present time (Hawaiians are big on genealogy, so it is plausible that they would keep such detailed records).

As to the rest, well, I have similar doubts.  What leads me to believe it is when Makua's ancestors confirmed everything:

This was spoken by a powerful elder too, "Seventh generation descendant of King Kamehameha. Seventh generation descendant of High Chief Keoua Kuahu'ula, who was the one who Kamehameha killed to become paramount chief himself."  The guy has 27 generations of his ancestors in constant attendance, and can communicate freely with them.  I guess if you want to believe that his ancestors are really parasitic spirits or some such, but the fact is that flies in the fact of thousands of years of effective hawaiian spiritual practice.  I'm sure they figured out along the way how differentiate the various astral entities, and if anyone in modern hawaii learned these skills, it is someone like Makua.

Also, I haven't read any on Monroe's works, so maybe I'm off base, but I don't think the future you decribed contradicts a crash scenario, it seems more likely to me that the vision he saw was even farther in the future, when we had evolved even further, if you get my drift.

As far as "huna" goes, I've gotten a lot of great stuff out of it, and many of its concepts are still central to my thinking, but that doesn't change the fact that they have very little to do with actual Hawaiian spiritual practice.  It is mostly based on the work of a white guy who admits the Hawaiians wouldn't give him the time of day when it comes to spirituality (Max Freedom Long).  Real hawaiian spiritual practice is called ho'omana (to make/do mana), but is not written down, so you won't find any books on the subject.

I gotta say though, huna is still darned effective, and it does keep a few kernels of genuine hawaiian thought (like the three minds, etc).

Looking through the two bears site though, it is apparent the author has little knowledge or intuitive understanding of real hawaiian culture.  He/she may have read every book about huna there is, but is obviously an outsider.  He obviously knows a lot about huna and has researched it extensively, but looking at the bibliography's order of recommendation, it is apparent that the author has little feel for authentic hawaiian culture.  I say this because out of all the books I have read, only one actually conveys the true sense of Hawaiian spirituality, and that was placed 15th on the order of importance, and not considered worth reading.  Maybe it is because it doesn't focus on "huna" or even mention it (because it was actually written by a hawaiian).  But if you want to get the true flavor of Hawaii (or even not, it is a great book no matter how you slice it) there is no better written source.

Edit:  I guess I should mention the name of the book I'm talking about, Change We Must, by Nana Veary.

First, I have to admit I'm not Hawaiian myself, but my wife is and many of my friends are, and any of them that have read the book have been blown away.  I just don't see how anyone who has the slightest inkling of the culture could fail to see the paramount important and amazing brilliance of the book (read it, you won't be dissapointed).  I mean, come on, he place 4 Max Freedom Long books above it!!! 

Edit: I guess the only thing I could really explain this with is that "Change We Must" doesn't give you any techniques or theory, but instead gives you a powerful insight and feeling for true Hawaiian culture (which is far more important, IMO)

Also, I can't imagine a Hawaiian choosing the name "two bears" since there are no bears in Hawaii and such association would mean little to them

http://geocities.com/huna101/

This guy has written reviews on Amazon for just about every single book out there on Huna.  This is his web site, which includes a brief outline of Huna, a list of books and resources, and a message board.  I really like this guy for some reason.

But as to whether he's for real.... I just can't say.  I do believe with certainty that some, maybe even most of his experiences were real, at least to him.  I also believe he's coming from an honest place despite his hubris.

The question here is how accurate is what he's seeing in the future?  The real reason I'm concerned with his hubris and his sense of enlightenment is because I know that this is a fulcrum that can be used by the unwholesome aspects of the astral realm to deceive.  IOW, my concern is that they could draw him into a false reality quickly and easily because of the nature of his ego. 

Also, I never quite understood where he got the idea of 5000 years into the future being an accurate representation of the date.  Do you remember how he caluclated this?

Robert Monroe also had a vision of going into the far future, and people were indeed living without technology.  The difference was, they had no need of it.  Their spiritual technology had grown to the point where they could provide everything they needed without exploiting the Earth at all, and they could come and go in their bodies at will.  I think part of me was disappointed in "Dr." Hank's vision of the world, in that I expected people who survived to be more like that.  Instead, Wesselman seems to think of today as our "golden age," one that we'll never reach again due to a lack of iron stores close to the surface.

That still doesn't change the basic truth of the story though, and after reading his books and listening to him talk though, I really get the impression he is telling the truth, at least in general.  In other words, I believe the experiences he speaks of are completely real, though the detail may not be. 

Also, I think his innuendos regarding reincarnation and descendants are more wishful thinking than anything.  I think the possibility that Nainoa is his future self makes sense, and who knows, maybe his descendant, but I don't think he is trying to say that if you fail to reproduce, that's it for your soul.  I do think there may be a possibility of numerous incarnations in the same family line, however, what with soul groups and the fact that we gravitate towards genetics that are appropriate for our development.

I don't think by any means he is enlightened, or anything like that, but most shamans aren't.  I do believe he has intimate contact with the spirit world, and other, true shamans (not this "classical" shamanism bs that is no where near the real deal) confirm this and respect his abilities.  He obviously is a little to enamored with his own powers, but he comes from a good place, and his intentions are good, so I'm willing to overlook a little hubris, at least where information like this is concerned.

Also, the most telling aspect for me is the confirmation the book recieved by the ancestors of Makua.  Traditional Hawaiians like him wouldn't stand for anything that wasn't the truth.  This is a guy who is in constant contact with 27 generations of his ancestors, and can (could, he died a couple years ago) orally recount more than 1000 generations of his ancestry (back almost 26000 years).  Poweful stuff, hawaiian lore, and the fact that Wesselman wasn't hounded by the Hawaiian community for falsehood speaks volumes.

Definitely agree that is slipped into self indulgent romance novel type scenes in a few places though, and overall I'd have to agree with all your criticisms, I just don't agree that that negates the message.

OK-- the books irritated the hell out of me to the point where I just persevered through the last one out of sheer grit.

Problem number 1:  Was I reading a metaphysical adventure, or a steamy romance ala the Mammoth Hunters series?  I get that he reallly likes sex, but is it necessary to give us all the little details, down to oral sex?

Problem number 2:  He's way too proud of his "powers."  I counted at least 10 times when we said variations on these words:  "It would sound presumptious of me to say (fill in the blank), but it would not be innaccurate."  IOW, I'm the shiznit, but I'm attempting to look humble, as all gurus are supposed to.  Aren't I swell?

Problem number 3:  I was right there with him in the first book, up to a certain point.  That point is a fuzzy one, but I just felt myself disbelieving him and feeling he may have been exaggerating some things to make his experiences sound more interesting (and sell more books).

Problem number 4:  He kept harping on overpopulation as being the inevitable cause of our demise, but he intimates that we only reincarnate through our descendants, and that it's important for us "evolved" people to have children so they can save the world.  He often articulates these things back to back in a way that makes me wonder if he ever reads what he's just written.  My guess is that he thinks the unevolved plebes are the ones who should not procreate, not the superconscious mystical ones such as himself.

I had more issues than that, but that's about all I can come up with at this point.

What's your take?

Beginning in the mid 80's Wesselman started having spontaneous shamanic journeys in which he found himself in the body of a Hawaiian 250 generations in the future.  Through him (he was inside mind and body, so language wasn't a barrier), he learned that the Hawaiians had legends of the "time of contact" in which "americans" came to the islands, bringing many fantastic technological marvels, along with new plants, animals, and people from all over the world.  Then, after about 10 generations, they dissappeared, and all the fancy machines stopped working.  Voila, massive social unrest, famine and disease were followed by a drastic rise in sea level (way way way beyond what most scientists are predicting, but duh, every time they learn something new about global warming, they revise their estimates upwards, and they still don't take feedback loops into account, let alone the end of global dimming when industry collapses).  After a couple hundred generations, they managed to send a colony over to america to find out what happened to the people.  The San Joaquin Valley is an inland sea, and the land is covered in rainforest that resembles the Amazon.  No people, until they reach the great basin (which is more savannah then), where they find a people that call themselves the Ennu.  Sound familiar?  Sounds a lot like Inuit.  So there you have it, North America is in for it, unless you get to the arctic or Hawaii (and even then its gonna be rough).

Now, I loved montalks timeline dynamics article (that's how I found this forum actually) and it makes sense that future time travel is probabilistic, but, if contact this clear (his astral body was fully there, not any fuzziness whatsoever) has been repeated so many times, doesn't that mean the the probability of that particular future is close to 1?

btw, it was right around 10 generations ago that Europeans made contact with Hawai'i.