Misconceptions About Feng Shui

In the United States, South America and those other countries which encompass the “Western World”, Feng Shui was popularized in the 80’s by a gentleman who founded the Black Sect Tantric Buddhist Feng Shui School in California. In his effort to bridge the Eastern and Western cultures, he misinformed the public about Feng Shui, causing havoc and what later resulted in the ancient art of Feng Shui becoming a 80’s fad in the same light as disco, Miami Vice, Rubik’s Cube, pop music and Tab instead of what it truly is, an Ancient Classical form of Asian Philosophy and quantitative method of using your environment and theories of probability for progress.

Within its growing popularity theories became distorted and people started getting hurt. So-called “remedies” became commercialized causing a massive rip-off of the public and people being given false hope using old Chinese superstition and purchasable items providing solutions to their problems - hence the birth of little hanging crystal balls, three legged toads and a strange use of mirrors. As a result of this, Feng Shui became ill-reputed, labeled and pushed aside as an 80’s fad and this resulted in a loss to the so called “Western World” and everyone who could benefit from this experimented and exhaustedly proven method.

Born from this whole 80’s fad were a series of taboos which amazingly survived and have become embedded as a common knowledge of Feng Shui which even people who have no idea what Feng Shui is, when asked about “Feng Shui” chorus the same answer, “Isn’t that the thing where you move your furniture around?” Nowhere is it written that your toilet seat should be closed or your luck will be sucked down into the depths of your septic tank.

The following are other popularized series of “taboos” and their ridiculous theoretical explanations.

Everything must be pretty and clutter free... ?

Although a good practice for personal organization and enjoying a clutter free home, work area an essentially neat existence, it is not a part of Eastern Philosophy that your lawn must be mowed, that your clutter should be kept down to a minimum nor that your home must be nicely groomed. if aesthetically pleasing, it is not a true philosophy of Feng Shui (nor any other) that your environment be pretty and that your furniture need be arranged in any particular manner. Your house does not automatically have “positive energy” if looks prettier than your neighbor’s and there is no “negative energy” in your kitchen if your trash disposal is not in good working order.

If everything is in good working order, so is your Feng Shui....... ?

Not so. Again, great practice to have your home in working order, however, your Feng Shui is not determined by beautifully repaired floors, wonderful paint job and all your appliances in tip top shape. It’s a little more complicated than that. By all means, make all those repairs and have your handyman just a phone call away, however, may be a good idea to have your Authentic Classical Feng Shui consultant as your other lifeline because your handyman isn’t gonna fix it.

When it comes to sleeping, this system sure has a lot of rules...

Don’t sleep under the window; don’t sleep with your feet pointing towards the door; don’t sleep with beams over your head; don’t you dare sleep under a mirror!!! Don’t, Don’t, DON’T! Let me explain. Of course, if you sleep under the window, someone may come in through the window and kill you! No. The reason they say that is because in old, old, OLD times, people had no air conditioning and NO WINDOWS!. Windows back then were basically a hole in the wall. People had a practice of keeping a long little box with their personal treasures under their head while they slept for safe keeping, hence the danger. If you sleep with your feet towards the door, you will die because your feet are pointing towards where your corpse would be rolled out of your room. I’m serious. With regard to sleeping under a beam, of course, one of those beams may get loose and fall on your head while you sleep. Not likely! Mirrors in this system are pretty dangerous. If you sleep under a mirror, that guarantees infidelity since you could see more than one person in the reflection. I hope I’m demonstrating the sometimes ridiculous and superstitious nature of their conclusions. Do not worry, in Classical Authentic Feng Shui, what is important about your bedroom is basically the location of where it is and the direction in which you sleep.

The reason for that is because every individual spends a large percentage of their life sleeping. Think about it, even if you’re not a heavy sleeper, you spend at least 6-7 hours every day sleeping in the same spot. That is the reason for the importance of your bedroom.?

Bathrooms are supposedly equally as dangerous...

Okay, here we go. All the theories regarding your toilets and bathroom stuff supposedly affects your luck. You are not supposed to keep the door open so the toilet is exposed; you’re not supposed to leave the lid of the toilet open because your luck will be sucked into oblivion - I could continue. However, I prefer to state the obvious - Asia did not have toilets back when these theories were supposedly developed. Need I say more!

Eenie - meenie - miney - moe... Front Doors, back doors, no doors, roads.

In Classical Authentic Feng Shui, the door is important. I won’t deny that. However, for other proven and completely logical reasons. Nowhere in the classics does it state that your front door and back door cannot be lined up because the energy will just come into your house and leave out the back door. Aren’t the best and most expensive millionaire homes those which when you walk into the house, you can see straight through a beautiful set of french doors reflecting a gorgeous view of the ocean or perhaps their newly acquired 50 foot yacht? Nor do the classics say that you may not have a solid object lined up with your front door, not even your mailbox. Apparently it’s also a bad idea to have a water placed to the right side of your door because, again, it causes infidelity - why the front of the house? why to the right and not the left? What does this all mean? Well what this all means is that this defective system of Feng Shui is no more than a bunch of superstition and Chinese folklore. More for the list are front doors at the end of a hallway - does that mean that all corner apartments in every building anywhere are bad? How about stairs by the front door that divert the positive energy or columns which need to be wrapped in mirror? All this valuable advice continues through to the outside of the house as well. If you life in a “Dead End” street, this means that your house and its occupants will have terrible bad luck. Oh, of course, if your house rests within the confines of a cul-de-sac, the positive energy is stagnant at the end of the road and, therefore, all the houses at the end of the cul-de-sac will have bad luck forever!!!

Don’t Worry (or should I say worry!) remedies to the rescue....

The things that worry a professional Classical Authentic Feng Shui consultant such as myself are the so-called remedies this system likes to recommend. Hanging crystals, hanging bamboo flutes, three legged toads, baguas - you name it. If it sells, they recommend it.

All these taboos and remedies for these taboos only cause more problems and prolong innocent people’s agony. People who need guidance and help are entitled to receive actual advice and help from a professional who could actually make a positive difference in their lives.

True Authentic Classical Feng Shui is a science - it is not a fad and it is not Chinese superstition. There is a tangible timing aspect to practically any activity a personal undertakes. Why not have a timing forecast so we could plan ahead instead of solve. All patterns in our lives (and corporations are also viewed as an individual entity), are cyclical and can, therefore, be calculated. Patterns repeat and, therefore, can be foreseen. n n n