The Enlightenment and Captain James Cook

Kekiopilo Takes a Timeless Journey

Kekiopilo sat in a lush clearing on the mountainside, in the tropical rainforest on a particularly beautiful day in the 16th century. The smell of the giant leaves wet with dew filled the tropical air with a clean and crisp vibration. Some of the fern leaves had fronds that were bigger than the indigenous natives’ small brown bodies. Kekiopilo was one of these men small of height and stature, with his chocolaty-brown skin that glistened with dancing rainbow colors. Sweat beads trickled off his body as he hid from the heat of the sweltering noonday sun. He sat preparing a bowl of kava root by chewing it and spitting it into a bowl, masticating its contents. When he finished, he drank the liquid kava to relax himself for the special meditative journey he was about to take, a journey for the children of a future generation, as his name translates; a journey for the “children of the coffee.”

            While chanting and rocking to and fro and around in circles, Kekiopilo made high-pitched noises, and his eyes appeared as slits that were half open. The masticating process is one of slowly chewing and spitting the kava root and its remnants into a beautiful hand-carved koa wood bowl. After it is prepared, a small piece of woven kapa cloth, made from a taro plant, is taken and used to hand-wring the juice from the pulp. The root when ingested has a mild tingly taste and gives one a slight numbness in the mouth and a sense of lightheadedness. Kekiopilo took the cloth, squeezed the excess root from the drink, and, taking a small half coconut shell, tasted a sip of the concoction, relaxing into the moment and going further and further into a trance, as he chanted softly. The meditation journey he was about to endeavor upon was not something he or his ancestors were foreign to, for they had been practicing this sacred esoteric practice preserved by them for as long as their oral history remembered.

            He took a final drink, rested the bowl, and opened his eyes unblinkingly to the sun, now barely peeking through the natural portal in the immense foliage. Suddenly a large crow, or Alala bird, appeared overhead, and then another. Soon there were seven birds in all. A crow then landed on Kekiopilo’s woven lauhala mat and rested passively and instinctively. Kekiopilo took the bird, gently squeezed it, broke its backbone, and, raising the bird to his mouth, sucked its last breath into his own. Suddenly, rain began to drizzle and dark clouds gathered overhead. He laid the bird’s lifeless body on the mat and squeezed his buttock muscles tightly, breathing rapidly and nearly hyperventilating. His body trembled with prajna energy, or manna, as it was known in old “O’Hawaii.” Kekiopilo’s body wracked with tremors and his back thrust up into an arch, slowly leaving him hunched down and rested in a lotus position. Suddenly his body vibrated with electric energy and his neck bent back as his tongue pressed heavily onto his upper pallet. His eyes rolled inward as he thrust upward and his life juice and essence left through the crown of his head. He was suddenly catapulted onto a higher plane of existence, where he heard the primordial sound of the universe. It sounded like angels singing, felt like thunder, and was swift.

            Flying overhead he heard the loud chanting of his ancestral spirits that were guiding him. Fearlessly Kekiopilo’s spirit joined with the bird as it left its body, and together they took one form as the bird flew from Kekiopilo’s great cosmic mouth. Together they raced through a time portal and into another consciousness time zone, flying throughout the cosmos and arriving at a summit on Roseberry Topping, North Yorkshire in Great Britain, in the year 1740. On this beautiful day, the bird appeared again in the blue sky and gave a mawkish cry. Another crow appeared to greet its arrival. Both birds were crying out. Other crows began to appear and they circled gloriously far overhead. James Cook could hear their faint cry in the distance.

            Just below Roseberry Topping, at a plateau near the top, a group of five lads were being led by the young and sprightly James Cook, who was 13 years old. They were playing at the fairy well all afternoon, a favorite pastime. James, being a tall lad, seemed more of a leader than some of the other boys. He took a stand on a rock and began to point out the neighboring towns of Staithes, Stokesly, Guisborough, and Great Ayton. Growing up, he was a daring and benevolent child, and he now insisted that the other lads accompany him in chasing the crows that had newly appeared flying overhead. The other four lads refused and began their descent, leaving young James to his independence and all alone. James blurted out, “Alright then, fail to be daring! I’ll be the first one down!” and off he went.

            Descending to the cliff below, the crow landed in a nest with