Over the past 40+ years of studying and working with feng shui, I’ve realised that one of the best ways to understand it and have better results is to go beyond it. Albert Einstein and others have recognised that in order to solve a problem we need to go to a higher level of thinking or beyond it. Otherwise, as Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” In short, a problem can’t be solved on its own level. Personal problems are notoriously difficult to be solved from personal perspectives – one needs to go beyond to transpersonal, spiritual domains.

Beyond feng shui

The key question is: what is feng shui for?
Feng shui is considered many things: philosophy, art, science, design, cosmology and more. “What is feng shui for?” is the question: “What does it mean to live in a physical environment? “and “How are humans placed/positioned between Heaven and Earth?” and ultimately, “How to live (in harmony with the world)?

For me, feng shui is to affirm life. The function of feng shui is to create a lifestyle you want. Feng shui is a physical affirmation. We do things physically to get results in our personal and professional lives. Most people (consciously or unconsciously) use feng shui or variations of feng shui in order to better themselves. Yes, you can change and improve your life by moving furniture in your home or workplace AND you can get the same results by mentally affirming life – by rearranging or improving the interior (design) of your mind and soul. Feng shui is a holistic interior design of your exterior environment and interior milieu. Obviously, working on both (interior and exterior) can bring better, quicker and more powerful results, not to mention the fun of the journey.

Levels of power
Power is defined as a measure of control you have over your life. The more control and authority you have over your life, the more power you have.

Who or what has authority over your life? You or feng shui/environment? Many feng shui enthusiasts (and practitioners) make a simple thinking error of putting their lives in feng shui ie giving feng shui authority over their lives.

For me, the order of power (top-down) is
1) us (we have the most power),
2) others around us (others, people, our family, friends can influence us), and
3) the environment / feng shui (then external factors can affect us as well, some more than others).

So as you can see feng shui is not the most influential factor in life – you are. You have authority over your life. Put feng shui in your life, not the other way around. It’s just a tool. You don’t want tools to rule your life. Ritual is a servent of intention. Having said that, it’s good to have interesting, nice and supportive environments :). The attitude of people who have gone beyond feng shui is: yes, I choose to create a nice, supportive environment for working and living and I can also function successfully in any environment, good or bad. Feng shui doesn’t determine my life. I do. You are the ultimate potentiality of which the all-embracing consciousness is the manifestation and expression.

Relative vs absolute feng shui
There are many ways to define feng shui. The most fundamental is the locus of control and points of view. Are you coming from a relative, limited perspective which is personal, local and temporal or from the absolute perspective which is universal, impersonal, timeless and non-local? The absolute perspective is like gold and the relative is like the gold ornaments. In feng shui people get bogged down and obsessed with trinkets and ornamental remedies which is a good start and sometimes appropriate. The key factor in feng shui is energy and the rest is just a manifestation of that core energy (qi/chi). You have a choice – you can deal in gold ornaments feng shui or in gold feng shui. When you melt a gold ornament to make another, there is no causal relation between the two. The common factor is the gold. In the same way reality makes everything possible and yet nothing that makes a thing what it is, its name and form, comes from reality. When you look at your world from an absolute perspective you don’t need to worry too much about the details – they will resolve themselves naturally and organically.

How to go beyond feng shui?
The above order of power gives us a clue on how to go beyond feng shui. It’s simple, we are already beyond the physical environment – we just need to realise and accept this as a truth. Don’t give your power away to your environment ie feng shui, is the first step. Next, work on your manifestation process, so you can get what you want without moving furniture in your home or workplace.

Yes is affirmation

Affirmation is a manifestation tool
As I said, for me feng shui is an affirmation of life – we do physical things in order to accomplish something, either because of our desires or fears (pleasure/pain principle). Summerly put, feng shui = intention + ritual/event. In feng shui terms, the rituals or events are environmental ie physical changes. The ritual or event can also be mental eg a prayer is a manifestation ritual or tool. As we know, not all prayers or rituals are successful. If all prayers were successful everyone would be happy, healthy and successful, which is not the case. But some people are more successful than others at manifesting their dreams and goals. They are, generally speaking, better at affirming life (consciously or unconsciously).

Let’s deconstruct how successful affirmations work.

What is an affirmation?
“Affirmation is not action per se, but the power of becoming active, it is the personification of becoming active,” says Gilles Deleuze. He further suggests that “affirmation is itself difference”. Difference is light, aerial and affirmative. To affirm is not to bear but, on the contrary, to discharge and to lighten. This gives us a clue on how to affirm ie it’s not about hard work. To contrast negation with affirmation, negation is difference too but in a bottom-up fashion, whereas affirmation is difference from top-down.

More importantly, let’s look at the key question: where exactly do affirmations take place? The answer is obvious: in our consciousness. To follow our rule of thumb, ie by going beyond the actual domain of something, in order to understand it better – let’s go beyond affirmation or consciousness itself. It is said, that as long as we’re conscious there will be pain and pleasure (desire and fear). We can’t fight desire and fear on the level of consciousness. By going beyond consciousness you can become free of consciousness. How do you do that? It’s a bit tricky because the very intention of stepping out of consciousness or going beyond consciousness happens in our consciousness. It’s literally, a chicken and egg paradox. But if you look at consciousness as something that happens to you, not in you – something external and superimposed – then suddenly you’re free of consciousness. Your very attitude to free yourself from consciousness and to go beyond it, will create a situation that will break the eggshell. Then you’ll embed a true reality where the world is inside you, not the other way around. From that inclusive perspective, whatever you imagine or intend will be the right affirmation because everything is inside you – literally. When you affirm enough, anything, you can’t lose.

How does it look, in practice to affirm something?
Let’s say, for example, you want a new car [or … whatever] for whatever reasons (at this stage the reasons are not relevant). You set your intention by saying, “Yes, I have a new car (model is optional).” in a top-down fashion as a desire. Immediately, a negation/s comes up ie “I don’t have a new car”, in a bottom-up way (you don’t actually have that car yet, physically). This creates a conflict or duality in your mind and reality. To resolve this problem, you need to go to the next logical level above or beyond this illusory/transient problem. You need to affirm both – what is and what isn’t. To visualise how it works, imagine a triangle where on the bottom line are two states/events:’no-car’ and ‘car’  but above at the apex, there is ‘non-car’ event as a virtual potentiality that includes and transcends the duality of the problem. Notice that “non-car” includes your desired car and not having a car. That’s how you can mentally go beyond the paradox of not having something and having something at the same time. From that virtual inclusive space, it will be much easier for you to actualise what you want since there is no friction, no reaction between “no”/”nothing” and “yes”/”something”. You’re saying ‘yes’ to “no” and ‘yes’ to “yes”. It’s a double yes (yes-yes). In short, you affirm all chance, all possibilities, all scenarios –and the event is a positive expression of the whole fate.

In a way, you need to have an impersonal attitude to what you want or desire. You need to go beyond the results you want. You sort of observing yourself doing it all. It’s kind of a contradiction but it’s necessary. When you affirm enough, you don’t care whether you win or lose, get it or not get it, gain something or nothing. When you see the whole process for what it is and thus not expect anything in return for yourself – the object of your affirmation has no choice but to manifest itself. It’s in the nature of love to express itself, to overcome difficulty. People who affirm enough, do it in a single affirmation. Whenever you have any shadow of a doubt, it’s not an affirmation.

This is why research suggests that ordinary affirmations work for about 50% of the population. It’s a hit and miss phenomenon. For example, let’s say I want to become a good golfer (I’m not at the moment) and my affirmation is “I’m the best golfer, like Tiger Woods”. My body knows that I am not that good at golf. And this kind of affirmation can work against me. But for some people, it works! These individuals somehow have managed to go beyond/transcended the duality of a good golfer and not a good golfer. Good players affirm chance enough, and therefore never lose. The phenomenon of a beginner’s luck is well known: beginners don’t really know what they’re doing – they haven’t really formulated what’s good and bad and therefore have more luck at the beginning.

How to go beyond your intentions and expectations?
In order to be fully free and go beyond your desires and fears you need to be open to unexpected and unpredictable. Having a mindset for unexpected and unpredictable (which is active and conscious) is different  from deterministic ‘que sera sera’ attitude which is passive and unconscious. The reason is that your desires based on memory are unreal, so therefore you cannot realise them. Read about the difference between realising your dreams and actualising them.

SOLD = done deal

Feng shui examples
In my feng shui vocation, I was lucky to meet extraordinary individuals who have mastered the art of affirmation. For example, in one case, we hung a piece of chewing gum on a window (instead of a crystal) to boost the wealth corner of the property with almost immediate effect. In another case, we use a postcard with a koi carp to sell a property in literally 5 minutes. In another case, the sheer intention of doing the feng shui ritual did the trick of selling the property. In my life, I just write down what I want and will it – and that’s quite often enough to get the job down. Ultimately, you want to be in such harmony with life that you don’t actually even need to desire anything and all your needs and dreams come true, almost automatically, before you need them or think them – that’s the art of affirmation. When your intention is congruent and resonant with your environment – it doesn’t matter much what kind of ritual you use – it’s the event that matters. Yes, it’s obviously nice to use elegant and appropriate remedies but it’s not essential (so choose a nice crystal or plant, instead of chewing gum). The key is the intention or affirmation, not the remedy itself because it’s a top-down manifestation process. The ritual/event is just the servant of your affirmation.

People often ask me to help with feng shui to sell a property.  This is what I suggest to them. Whenever you do any feng shui rituals, make sure that you have a clear intention for attracting the cash buyer/s quickly and the sale to go through. Write down all the scenarios for sale, including the most unimaginable – as long as they lead to a quick sale. Imagine the deadline of the next 4-5 weeks at the most and be prepared that the property can sell any time, any day, even just right now. It’s a done deal. Affirming the whole process is as essential, if not the most important, as doing the rituals. Feng shui = intention/affirmation + ritual. In a word, feng shui is affirmation. Once the whole sale is affirmed, the divergence of different scenarios is the object of affirmation within the sale. The whole of the sale is then indeed in each scenario. When the whole sale is sufficiently affirmed then, you can’t lose on any scenario (that’s why you need to be very clear about all winning scenarios – writing them can add clarity and actualisation/realisation of them and for the scenarios that you can’t imagine just write Other…). If you’re not congruent about the sale, or if you have any doubts re the sale, you need to clear them using EFT /tapping or Havening technique, or any other way of clearing any negativity (read below point 1).

When affirmations or feng shui rituals don’t work
We can learn from things that don’t work. There are many factors to consider to decipher when and why things don’t work out. Over the years, I’ve been fascinated by cases when feng shui didn’t work to figure out why and how this happened.

The three main factors are:

1) People with their limiting beliefs and behaviours are usually the main cause or friction point in the process of manifestation. Unsurprisingly, people are very good at blocking or sabotaging their own success, even though they consciously want results. As a solution, a useful question in such situations is: how am I stopping myself from achieving…. xyz…? And there are many reasons: from not believing in yourself, to low self-esteem, to guilt, to not deserving success, to not having the right values, resources, etc etc (the usual excuses). Quite often, people get secondary gains from staying stuck, not being successful. Problems attract attention and if that is the only way they’ve figured out to get special attention – they will create problems.

Sometimes, though, it might be nothing to do with you because it’s not the right time, for whatever ‘external’ reasons. BUT you need to distinguish that from YOU not being ready for something. When people use the excuse of not being ready (or it’s not meant to be), it’s usually because they’re afraid of change.

2) Imagination is another factor. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful ones is imagination. To paraphrase a Chinese saying (there are no incurable illnesses, only incurable people): there are no unsolvable problems, only unresourceful/uncreative people. Successful people imagine themselves achieving their goals and dreams. Solution? Exercise your imagination. Read, watch and do interesting, new things. Study art. There are actually books about creativity and how to boost it. Imagine impossible things. Hang out with interesting and creative people. Solve puzzles, to remind yourself that you can solve things.

3) Luck. Luck is a skill and if you haven’t learnt it, or mastered it, even if you don’t block your success and have the right imagination, you still may have issues with manifesting your desires. The solution here is very simple and easy to do: become lucky! How? Master it from Richard Wiseman and his seminal, evidence-based work “The Luck Factor”.

As you can see, the feng shui rituals are not to be blamed on the failure of feng shui. All three factors are mental constructs and within your power to change and improve. Successful people take responsibility for their beliefs, values and behaviours. They are determined, persistent and patient when pursuing their goals and dreams. They never give up on themselves, and what they want. They learn from others, books and intelligently reflect on their progress – they have the resilience and flexibility to adapt their environment to their needs in order to become successful. Ultimately, they’re the masters of their fate and destiny because they’ve gone beyond themselves.

Let me know about your experiences with affirmations that worked well, without any hard work and the ones that didn’t work and you’ve managed to turn things around.

I’m possible

Imagine a dense forest full of tigers and you in a strong steel cage. Knowing that you are well protected by the cage, you watch the tigers fearlessly.
Next you find the tigers in the cage and yourself roaming about in the jungle.
Last — the cage disappears and you ride the tigers!

The post What is feng shui for? The art of affirmation. How to go beyond feng shui? Part 1 appeared first on Feng Shui London UK • The Capital Feng Shui Consultant.

Feng shui ideology and dogma
Ideology does not necessarily refer to a particular political belief like communism or capitalism, but rather to the general use of the word, whereas ideology is a series of discourses that give people false ideas about the nature of reality, providing them with a ‘false consciousness’, how it works, and their place in it. In this manner, ideology is like the way most people see the world in the film They Live, unaware that they are being brainwashed by an infinitude of subliminal messages. Unfortunately, feng shui ideology or dogma has developed over the years starting with classical feng shui and been propagated by ill-informed people.

Apophenia
One in five women says that they believe in astrology, compared to one in ten men, according to a survey by BMG Research. Today, a Google search for ‘astrology’ brings up more than 211 million results. Studies suggest that astrology works because of the self-fulfilling prophecy (placebo effect). For example, in one study, a hundred people with a hundred different astrological charts were given the same word for word reading, and all said that it was accurate. They just read what they wanted to hear and they fall for the obvious recognition and confirmation biases (read below about feng shui biases). They also might experience apophenia – which is the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena. The term was coined by German neurologist and psychiatrist Klaus Conrad (1905-1961). Conrad focused on the finding of abnormal meaning or significance in random experiences by psychotic people.

“As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. “  Donald Rumsfeld , United States Secretary of Defense 

What is feng shui intelligence?
At first, feng shui intelligence may sound like a bit of a contradiction. After all, intelligence is something which, once applied, tends to dispel the old myths, superstitions and pre-rational beliefs. There is even an organisation, The Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University (https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/) which has set itself a task of saving human intelligence which means that the biggest tragedy today/future would be if we have lost intelligence.

Howard Earl Gardner, an American developmental psychologist who proposed the theory of multiple intelligences in his work Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983) listed eight criteria for intelligence. One is that “an intelligence should show a developmental history with a definable set of expert and state performances.” Over the years I’ve identified over 25 skills, mindsets and values that comprise feng shui intelligence and in doing so, teaches my students the steps to begin developing their own feng shui intelligence. For example, spatial intelligence and an ability to visualise, analyse, synthesise and see difference and repetition as well as think systemically and see patterns is part of feng shui intelligence. Another essential part is self-reflective intelligence and mapping ideas into some external formal system of representation. Asking key questions and being able to listen compassionately, non-judgmentally and without projecting one’s models of the world is another fundamental aspect of feng shui intelligence.

Everything you’ve learnt about feng shui might be wrong!

Feng shui intelligence is especially crucial for those in positions of leadership or training since they help us to make decisions on a higher level while in the midst of stress, complexity, uncertainty and high rates of environmental change that can trigger pre-rational beliefs and practices as well as magic thinking. People who, for example, consult astrologers do so in times of anxiety, high uncertainty and under conditions of high stress as a coping device suggests psychologist Graham Tyson in 1980 study on the subject. Many people now are disillusioned with religions and political structures as well as job insecurities, housing crises and ecological systems on the brink of collapse. People have always been looking for some reassurance from something bigger than themselves, that life is governed by something more intelligent than just humans and that there is a higher purpose for life in general and their lives in particular.

Core aspects of feng shui intelligence

Occam’s razor & the law of parsimony
When trying to decide between hypotheses, scientists often invoke an ancient principle known as ‘Occam’s razor’, attributed to a fourteenth-century Franciscan friar called William of Ockham. Essentially this states that they should plump for the simplest idea – the one that makes the fewest assumptions. My favourite formulation of Occam’s razor is: ‘When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.’ Say you were somewhere in Surrey (where William of Ockham was born) when you heard the thunder of hooves, you’d be a fool to infer that a herd of zebras had escaped from a local zoo and were galloping your way – even if there was a minuscule possibility this might actually be true.

Law of parsimony states the simplest explanation of an observation or event or phenomenon is prefered and the principles are (a) make the smallest set of unsupported assumptions, (b) postulate the existence of the fewest entities or aspects and (c) invoke the fewest unobservable constructs or concepts. Albert Einstein was an advocat of parsimony – he said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” His equation E=mc2 is a good example of that.

A lot of feng shui problems can be explained very simply, without evoking supernatural causes. But people don’t like to hear the truth. They like to believe that their financial problems are caused by a toilet in the wealth corner, or compass directions or some other nonsense, instead of taking full responsibility for the problem.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that some, well studied environmental stressors can’t affect our moods, wellness and decision-making and therefore our personal and professional lives. Electromagnetic pollution, geopathic stress and some aspects of the interior design of the bedroom and other factors can contribute to chronic stress and affect our behaviour.

All models are wrong
“All models are wrong, but some are useful.” said George Box, a British statistician and most science is working hard to prove theories wrong.  “Ignorance is bliss.” said, Thomas Gray (1716-1771) an English poet, classical scholar, professor but here comes the warning: Once you’ve awakened and developed your feng shui intelligence you can’t go back to be ignorant and unthinking about feng shui. And another warning: Everything you’ve learnt about feng shui might be wrong!

How many colours are there in the rainbow?

Models, theories, categories, stereotypes, clusters, patterns, paradigms, frameworks, principles, rules of thumb, mindsets and so on are our attempts to generalise and simplify the complexity of the world (through inductive thinking, reasoning). How many colours are in the rainbow? Most people say ‘seven’. In fact, there are millions of colours in any rainbow but we simplify the range of colours to just seven basic colours. And that’s why “All models are wrong, but some are useful.”  and the same applies to all feng shui models and principles.

A map is not a territory
Alfred Korzybski, philosopher and semantician famously said: “ The map is not the territory” but feng shui practitioners and enthusiasts make a basic logical error that a map is a territory.  The map of London is not London. A child knows that. And more importantly, the map of London does not create London. But that’s precisely what some of the so-called feng shui experts are telling others, following literally and blindly some feng shui principles. The blind leading the blind! Like in the famous ‘blind men and elephant’ parable where the blind men don’t even realise that they’re blind. To extend it further, people around the blind men who are listening to their accounts, thinking that they’re true, are also blind. And that’s how unconscious bises start (see below).

“The menu is not the meal.” Alan Watts, writer

Causality and chance
Feng shui proposes all kinds of assumptions without any real evidence. For example, causality. Feng shui suggests that having a house facing a fortunate direction can affect one’s fortune. But much bigger minds (read The Oxford Handbook of Causality) suggest that “there is still very little agreement on the most central question concerning causation: what is it? … laws … counterfactual dependence … manipulability … transfer of energy”. Also, Judea Pearl, in his 2018 work The Book of Why – The New Science of Cause and Effect, states: “Any attempt to ‘define’ causation in terms of seemingly simpler, first-rung concepts must fail. That is why I have not attempted to define causation anywhere in this book.”

Another feng shui concept that hasn’t been evaluated or even attempted to be proven is that feng shui can affect chance. David Hume said, “Chance … is a mere negative word, and means not any real power which has anywhere a being in nature.” In his book A Philosophical Guide to Chance: Physical Probability, Toby Handfield says, “I recommend that we take an anti-realist attitude towards chance, even though chances are posited by our most successful physical theory… I reach this conclusion reluctantly, but no better opinion is available.”

So a very important part of feng shui intelligence is the comprehension that correlation does not imply causation, which most superstitious people are completely bereft of that understanding.

Empirism
I consider myself a feng shui empiricist. I believe that the abstract ideas or concepts such as yin and yang, five elements, bagua, etc – although they refer to or try to map physical reality – do not explain but must themselves be explained. It’s very tempting to invoke some kind of ‘transcendental’ or ‘metaphysical’ explanations to discover the eternal or the universal. As a feng shui empiricist, I’m interested in the conditions under which something new is produced.

Feng shui bias
There are so many biases that feng shui enthusiasts fall for that I wrote a separate blog about it. Read more about feng shui biases. Below is the list of basic biases that feng shui consultants and feng shui enthusiasts need to be aware of as part of their self-reflective intelligence. The most common bias is the confirmation bias where you have a tendency to search for information that corraborates your prior beliefs and pereceptions. Another one is loss aversion where you might have a tendency to prefer avoiding losses to aquireing gains. And there is cogntitive dissonance which is your inner tension associated with holding contradictory beliefs and perceptions.

What’s next for feng shui?
Science is probably the best way to kill off the bad and inaccurate feng shui stories, myths and constructs so that feng shui can make progress. By careful and precise examination and experimentation feng shui can evolve and be useful for longer. When the Chinese coined the term feng shui, they had no idea about a molecule or quantum physics or the electromagnetic nature of the physical world. Environmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive sciences, semiotics and so on need to be used to further feng shui if it wants to be relevant. Otherwise, it will die a natural death as the beliefs, superstitions and false perceptions such as the earth is flat and that it is the centre of the universe. Because feng shui has been around for over 3000 years or so, doesn’t mean it will survive. Dinosaurs existed for millions of years and where are they now? In museums and books. As the joke goes, “What is the best placement for feng shui books in your home – i.e. in the knowledge area or career area, etc? The answer is: Actually, in the fridge – so they don’t get stale.”

That reminds me of the feng shui conference in Lisbon that I attended this year. I was giving a presentation called “Feng shui for business” to a group of feng shui students which was about how to use feng shui in business and also for their new feng shui consultancies that they were hoping to set up in Portugal. At the very beginning, I asked them a very simple and basic business question: “How many people in Lisbon are looking for your feng shui services a month?” Some suggested thousands as an answer. All of them (about 80) were shocked to discover that only about 10 people a month look for a feng shui consultant in Lisbon, which means that there are far more feng shui consultants than people interested in feng shui. And the population of Portugal is about 10 million.

Evidence-based feng shui is the future of feng shui. It will inform you what works, how and why.

In the next part of this blog, I’ll focus on 25+ essential skills, techniques, strategies and mindsets that constitute feng shui intelligence.

The post Feng Shui Intelligence (Part 1) appeared first on Feng Shui London UK • The Capital Feng Shui Consultant.

The best way to deal with feng shui myths, superstitions, biases and false problems that feng shui can give you is to apply a very tested scientific method for sorting out what is true and what is false and that is the scientific method and research. There is not much scientific research into feng shui and the next best thing is to see if another discipline such as environmental psychology – which I’m trained in – has any answers or can offer some clarity on it. Below is a growing list of feng shui myths, superstitions and false problems and my scientific explanations and answers.

Feng shui superstitions. Do numbers have the power of your life?

Feng shui astrology
There is no evidence that astrology works. There are also many astrological systems that don’t overlap, which gives us a clue that it’s not a science. Anything evidence-based works universally. It looks like different astrological systems (Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Vedic, Western, etc) were developed as an early way of defining human typology or personality types. If ever any systems seem to correlate to each other is a pure statistical coincidence. And if it seems to work at all – it’s a placebo effect in action or just a priming effect or confirmation bias (read below).

Studies have shown that we spend 24 per cent of our time thinking about the future, compared to just 5 per cent recalling the past (O’Mara, 2023). Anticipating the future is more important than learning from the past, hence the popularity of astrology and other divination systems.

Compass directions
Traditional feng shui is very keen on directions and how they might affect people’s lives, financially, health-wise, etc. Again, there is no evidence that this is true at all. But some people believe that it works. The way it might work is only because of the placebo effect and confirmation bias. There are only a couple of studies suggesting that people might sleep better when they sleep with their heads pointing towards the north since it aligns their bodies with the North pole. Some animals do the same. But there is no evidence that sleeping in your best direction based on your astrological chart makes any difference to your life. And that’s probably for better – most people can’t arrange their beds with their best direction/s anyway and if you’re a couple and belong to different groups i.e. west and east then you’d have to sleep in different directions (and some people actually do – really?).

Compass directions. Have they got power over your life? You decide.

A missing area in the bagua model
A very misleading and confusing idea is the missing area in the bagua model. It suggests that if your home has not a regular size and some parts look like there are missing from the overall regular plan of the property. So, for example, if the top left corner (or southeast) of the house is missing, then your wealth corner is missing. If the shape of the house is L shaped, then the relationship area of the house is missing. As interesting and compelling it might look – there is no evidence that this is true. First of all, the bagua model is just a mental construct or model to help people to focus on different aspects of their lives. There is no such thing as a wealth corner or relationship corner, etc. It’s completely imaginary. So believing that you have a missing area will only stress you out and give you a false problem. From an environmental psychology perspective, it might be said that some people have a preference for regular-shaped spaces – but that’s all. A preference doesn’t mean it will affect everyone in the same way or cause any problems.

Confusing correlation with causation is the fundamental error that most feng shui consultants and enthusiasts fall for.

Toilets and bathrooms in the house
Toilets and bathrooms have a bad reputation in feng shui. Especially when they’re in the centre of the house or the wealth area of the property. What traditional, classic feng shui falsely suggests is that it will cause problems for the occupants. The biggest problems with classical or traditional feng shui are that it is not based on any scientific enquiry and it confuses correlation with causation. Correlation doesn’t mean causation. But ancient people didn’t have the thinking or logical tools to figure out this simple scientific method. Also, in the ancient days, before the inception of plumbing and central heating – toilets were generally outside of the house for obvious reasons. But superstitious thinking about feng shui doesn’t take into account that things have changed house-wise. A common question I’ve been getting from people with less common sense is: “What do I do with my toilet? The so-and-so, so-called feng shui author says on page 57 in her book that toilets are bad in a particular part of the house.” My response is usually, “Do you have any problems related to this issue?” And very often, the enquiring person says, “No, I haven’t had any problems – until I read this feng shui book.” This is a perfect example of a false problem.

“Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired.” Jonathan Swift

Common sense is very clear on this false problem: if you believe that a toilet controls your finances or any aspect of your life – you are the problem.

Numbers and numerology
Numerology and beliefs in the power of numbers are very common in the East and West. If you believe in the apparent power of numbers – there is no easy way to break it to you –you’re deluding yourself if you believe that numbers have any influence over your life. I’ve met Western people in the UK, Portugal, France and Poland who avoided the number 4, just because, in Chinese culture, it is associated with death (in Chinese, the number 4 sounds like the word ‘death’). I had British and European clients who would give up their common sense and reject a perfect house because it has the number 4 in it, i.e. 44, 24, 14, etc. In the West, people believe that the number 13 is an unlucky number. Some superstitious people are eager to point out that 13 = 1+3=4, so it must be true. Obviously, they’ve never heard of apophenia (see below).

Watch my talk on unconscious bias

Why do some people believe in feng shui myths, superstitions and false problems?

Myths, superstitions and false problems

Myths are traditional and local stories concerning the early history of humanity and basic attempts at explaining a natural or social phenomenon and usually involving supernatural beings or events.

Superstitions are excessively credulous beliefs in and reverence for the supernatural or widely held but irrational beliefs in supernatural influences, especially as leading to good or bad luck or fortune or misfortune and practices based on such beliefs. Superstitions are social constructs and they do exist precisely because they are social constructs, and they’re real because people enact them. But that doesn’t mean that they’re true. One has to admire people’s desire to challenge Jonathan Swift’s dictum: “Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired.”

“Superstitions live longer than books,” said John Clare. The Romans made a distinction between religion which is a sensible faith and superstition, which Cicero believed to be “excessive fear of the gods”. In modern psychology, superstition is linked to mental unrest, obsessive-compulsive disorders and the need for a sense of order and control as well as comforting routines – especially in times of radical uncertainty. For example, walking under the ladder was thought to be unlucky by the Egyptians (who believed that triangles were sacred and walking under a ladder was profane since a ladder can form the shape of a triangle with a wall) and Christians who are obsessed with the ladder against Christ’s cross. Obviously, it can be dangerous to walk under the ladder for basic safety, common-sense reasons and this conclusion simply follows Occam’s razor or the law of parsimony.

Aldous Huxley suggested that superstitions in mankind were “the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough.” Superstitious people have an unconscious ‘negative agency bias’, which is a belief that negative things that happen are caused by external factors. And that’s why people are more frightened by bad luck (must see a second magpie) and do everything to increase their good luck factor.

Superstitions rituals are very common in sports where chance factors play a huge part. For example, Goran Ivanisevic, the tennis player, would obsessively repeat all kinds of rituals that proved successful and lucky, like wearing the same clothes, talking to the same people and eating the same food, etc – forgetting that these things don’t control his tennis, he does. Superstitions are not rooted in a rational belief system but in a supernatural belief system; therefore, it’s very difficult to fight them through reason.

False problems are problems that are conceived based on false assumptions, biases and ill or inadequate understandings of how things work, usually made because of basic ignorance of human psychology and natural laws of physics as well as statistics.

“A desk or table, a chair, paper and pencil” was what Albert Einstein asked in 1933 when he signed up for his new job at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA. And then he asked for one more item: “Oh, yes and a large wastebasket, so I can throw away all my mistakes.” If only all feng shui teachers, authors and consultants had large bins for all the feng shui myths, superstitions and false problems, there would be less confusion in this domain.

Feng shui (unconscious) biases

The most common unconscious bias people fall for when it comes to feng shui is the confirmation bias. It states that people preferentially seek, notice and recall information that confirms their preconceptions, cognitive models, mindsets and beliefs. If only feng shui consultants were aware of their confirmation bias, there would be less confusion and false problems in feng shui.

Confirmation bias was proposed in the 5th century AD by the Greek philosopher Diagoras of Melos, who once pointed out to the people who believed that they were saved from a shipwreck because they were praying to gods to save them – that lots of people died as well, in spite of their prayers but were not likewise commemorated.

Many biases can be overcome if we are aware of them, so incorporate some basic checks for them into our ‘slow’ deliberate thinking. Unconscious bias or implicit bias, as well as ‘debiasing’, have been studied extensively (in behaviour science, cognitive psychology, Watson, 1960 and ‘nudge politics’) and there are many tests online. A good book to start exploring your own unconscious biases and to ‘debias’ yourself is: Sway: Unraveling Unconscious Bias by Pragya Agarwal

Full list of cognitive biases from Wikipedia The Wikipedia article lists and describes over 180 different cognitive biases across various categories like memory biases, belief biases, decision-making biases, and behavioural biases. This is one of the most comprehensive lists available.

Lao Tzu once said, “Those who know do not speak. Those who don’t know speak.” This is not just ancient poetry. It matches what modern psychology calls the Dunning–Kruger effect. When we are beginners we tend to be overconfident because we cannot yet see what we do not know. As we learn more, confidence settles and becomes better calibrated. That dip in confidence after a first burst of enthusiasm is normal. It is the moment you start to see the edges of your knowledge. While the original Dunning–Kruger research focused on self-evaluation errors among low performers, Dunning later noted that such metacognitive limitations also affect communication. People often lack the expertise to recognise genuine expertise, which can lead to misunderstanding or undervaluing more sophisticated insights (Dunning, 2011).

“Incompetent individuals lack the skills needed to recognise their own incompetence. Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realise it.”
(Kruger & Dunning, 1999, p. 1121)

In practice, the Dunning–Kruger effect shows up as a double burden. If you lack the skills to judge a domain, you also lack the skills to judge your own performance in that domain. So strong ideas can look odd, confusing, or even wrong. People with deeper experience are usually better at judging both their own limits and other people’s abilities, which is why the very capable often sound humble rather than loud.

“People often are not skilled enough to recognise when another person is truly expert, which makes expertise both difficult to identify and easy to ignore.”

Think about the woolly mammoth. It was easily overwhelmed and confused by humans’ superior intelligence and strategy. You, too, can feel like that when you meet AI’s growing capabilities. AI has been “domesticated” to seem friendly and useful, like Asimo’s soft, approachable face. Without this taming, its raw power would feel alien and overwhelming.

It is the same in feng shui. Someone new to feng shui might see a mirror opposite a door or a water feature placed for wealth and think, “that is silly” or “how could that matter”. They are not wrong to ask. They just do not yet see the wider pattern. A skilled practitioner reads the whole field of a room, the way people move, how light and imagery cue behaviour, and how symbols nudge mood and decision making. One small shift can open a flow, reduce friction in daily routines, and change how the space is used. Beginners often feel certain because they see a few pieces. Practitioners sound calmer because they see the whole puzzle.

A quick feng shui example. A couple keeps arguing in a kitchen where the main prep area is in a tight corner with a knife block jutting out and a mirror reflecting the stove. A novice rolls eyes at “mirror and knives energy”. A practitioner notices traffic pinch points, sharp visual cues that raise arousal, and a reflective line of sight that keeps the stove in peripheral vision, which can sustain low-grade tension. They move the prep zone, soften the sightlines, relocate the knives, and add a plant to anchor attention. The room feels safer, calmer, and the rows fade. The fix looks simple after the fact, yet it required seeing the system.

How to avoid the Dunning–Kruger trap in feng shui 
• Slow the first yes. When something seems obvious, ask, what important detail might I be missing.
• Run a small test. Try the change on one corner, one desk, one week. Let results speak.
• Use teach-back. Explain your reasoning in plain language and invite a friend to explain it back. Gaps will show.
• Seek disconfirming input. Ask one person you respect to poke holes in the plan before you roll it out.
• Calibrate with feedback. Track outcomes. Confidence should follow results, not vibes.

Remember: If something in feng shui or technology such as AI feels confusing, treat that feeling as a sign to get curious rather than dismissive. Like the mammoth, you can be startled or you can learn. As you learn, patterns come into focus, confidence becomes quieter and truer, and what once looked mystical or scary turns into practical craft.

Cognitive bias codex from https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Cognitive_bias_codex_en.svg

Watch this TED talk about confirmation bias which can be summarised as follows:

1. A story is not a fact. It may not be true.
2. A fact is not data. It may not be representative.
3. Data is not evidence. It may not be supportive.
4. Evidence may not be proof. It may not be universal.

And the practical tips for fool-proving yourself to confirmation bias:

1. Actively seek other viewpoints. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Aristotle
2. Listen to experts but evaluate the evidence (papers published, where and when). “Would you entrust your body to a random man from the street or online blogger to perform a heart operation on you?” 
3. Pause before sharing anything. The Hippocratic oath says, “First, do no harm”.

Finding the truth in the fake news times and using evidence:

1. Is it true? Only if yes, is it a fact?
2. Is it representative? Only if yes, is it data?
3. Is it supportive? Only if yes, is it evidence?

Apophenia
Apophenia is the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena. The term was coined by German neurologist and psychiatrist Klaus Conrad (1905-1961). Conrad focused on the finding of abnormal meaning or significance in random experiences by psychotic people. Hence, the warning: be careful what you say to people, especially if you refer to nonsensical, mythical and superstitious feng shui – they might perceive you as psychotic or losing your mind or not very bright.

Correlation does not imply causation

‘Correlation is not causation’ means that just because two things correlate or appear to correlate, it doesn’t necessarily mean that one causes the other. Correlations between two things can be caused by other factors that affect both of them. These other factors are called confounders. For example, data from seaside towns suggests that the more ice cream is sold there, there more bathers are attacked by sharks. Does it mean that ice cream vendors are to blame? Obviously, the more sensible conclusion is that there is more people on the beach. Confusing correlation with causation or not distinguishing between the two is the fundamental error that most feng shui consultants and enthusiasts fall for. If you don’t understand the causal process, you are susceptible to unconscious bias.

In statistics, even a strong correlation does not imply causation. For example, if your data have a correlation coefficient of +1 or -1, it is critical to note that correlation still does not imply causality. A meaningful nonlinear relationship may exist even if the correlation coefficient is 0.

Darrell Huff, in his classic book, How to lie with Statistics, proves with statistics ‘that storks deliver babies’ (the correlation is real ie that stork nests are more likely to be found on the roofs of family homes.) The book shows that there is plenty of very dodgy statistics around, but when you learn how to read statistics and use your rational mind (emotions and feelings can influence your sound judgement), you can get closer to the truth.

There is a mathematical model of ‘doing’ which allows for the distinction between cause and effect (proposed in the early 1930s by Judea Pearl at The University of California). For example, if you ‘do’ by intervening to force pressure to change, then the reading on the barometer will shift. But if you ‘do’ a change in the barometer reading, the pressure doesn’t’ alter as a result. So, an intervention on the cause will change the effect, but the intervention on the effect won’t change the cause.

For example, it’s wrong to state that red wine causes long life. When it only correlates with long life and also when exercise, etc as confounding factors are involved. A factual case from feng shui: a person in the UK won a lottery after he decided to close the toilet lid, after reading about the feng shui tip that closing the toilet lid prevents financial loss. If there was any causation, in this case, everyone who closes the toilet lid (and there are many people doing it, mostly for aesthetic reasons) would be winning the lottery – which obviously is not the case – feel free to test it yourself and report it to me.

A black pussycat – it’s just a cat but some superstitious people assign it magical powers or simply give away their own power to a small animal. Really?

Debunking feng shui myths, superstitions and false problems
It’s very difficult to debunk feng shui myths because of people’s innate superstitions, biases, magical thinking and lack of common sense, as well as basic ignorance. Ultimately, people are free to believe in whatever they want to believe. Fortunately, most of my feng shui clients are intelligent enough to see beyond feng shui superstitions and myths and appreciate some universal wisdom of feng shui which is supported by evidence as well as modern feng shui developments in electromagnetic stress and other environmental stressors. Feng shui intelligence is required to see beyond myths, superstitions and false problems.

Uncritical thinking
I remember when my son (who was six at the time), after two years of unsuccessful attempts to capture Santa Claus before Xmas, announced proudly and sadly at the same time that Santa doesn’t exist. When asked how does he know for sure, he answered, “I’ve googled it!” At that moment, he woke up from mythical dreaming (I call it Sant Claus thinking) to rational thinking. By the way, according to developmental psychology, there is nothing wrong with mythical thinking, which is a natural stage in human development, as long as it doesn’t cloud your perceptions of what is real or true and what is not.

Some people who are into feng shui are very uncritical and lazy when it comes to thinking about feng shui, how it works and what it does. They follow basic, simplistic, black-and-white magical/mythical thinking because it’s easy and doesn’t require thinking at all. Fortunately, science, psychology and environmental psychology advanced human development beyond mythical, magical and superstitious thinking and it’s now fairly easy to check things and not follow feng shui myths, superstitions and false problems. It’s up to people if they want to give away their power and common sense to feng shui superstitions, myths and false problems.

Choose the evidence-based feng shui consultant

Some feng shui consultants believe in all the above feng shui myths, superstitions and false problems. They usually have anecdotal examples suggesting that astrology works, etc. Unfortunately, most feng shui consultants haven’t been trained in scientific research and base their suggestions on their basic biases and ignorance, which can only create further confusion and false problems for their clients. When challenged to offer some evidence about how classical feng shui works, they don’t have any concrete evidence at all.

So, choose a consultant who is a scientist or at least has some basic understanding of how feng shui works from a scientific perspective so you don’t get false problems.

Read about managing misconceptions of feng shui

References

Dunning, D. (2011). The Dunning–Kruger effect: On being ignorant of one’s own ignorance. In J. M. Olson & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 44, pp. 247–296). Academic Press.
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognising one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121–1134.

The post Feng Shui Myths, Superstitions, Unconscious biases and False Problems appeared first on Feng Shui London UK • The Capital Feng Shui Consultant.

Feng shui (translates as wind-water), the ancient Chinese practice of harmonising individuals with their surrounding environment, has been gaining popularity worldwide. However, along with its rise in popularity come numerous misconceptions. Let’s explore these misunderstandings and clarify the essence of feng shui to help both enthusiasts and sceptics appreciate its true potential.

Listen to the podcast about feng shui misconceptions and how to navigate through them wisely

Misconception 1: Feng shui is all about interior decoration
One of the most common misconceptions is that feng shui is merely a form of interior design. While aesthetics play a role, feng shui goes beyond the superficial arrangement of furniture and decor. It is a complex system rooted in Chinese metaphysics, aiming to create balance and harmony between individuals and their environment.

Misconception 2: Feng shui is a religion or superstition
Another misconception is that feng shui is a religious or superstitious practice. In reality, feng shui is a philosophical system that integrates principles of energy flow (known as ‘qi’), spatial arrangement, and environmental harmony. It’s not about worship or superstition but about understanding and leveraging natural forces to improve well-being.

Misconception 3: Feng shui works instantly and universally
Some believe that implementing feng shui adjustments will yield immediate and universal results. While feng shui can positively impact one’s life, its effects are often gradual and influenced by individual circumstances. The same feng shui adjustments might not work identically for everyone, as each person and space is unique.

Misconception 4: Feng shui is only about furniture placement
Another common misunderstanding is that feng shui is merely about arranging furniture in a particular way. While the arrangement of furniture is a part of feng shui, it also involves understanding the flow of energy within a space, the balance of the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), and how to harmonise one’s surroundings to support personal goals and well-being.

Misconception 5: Feng shui is outdated and irrelevant
In today’s fast-paced world, some may dismiss feng shui as an ancient and irrelevant practice. However, feng shui principles can be adapted to modern living, offering valuable insights into how to create spaces that promote comfort, productivity, and harmony. For instance, applying feng shui principles in office design can enhance focus and creativity.

Misconception 6: Feng shui is a science (it’s not)
Feng shui is often mistaken as a science due to its structured principles and methodologies. However, it is not a science in the empirical sense or established sense as other sciences based on evidence (there are is growing body of scientific papers on feng shui but not enough to make such a bold claim – big claims require big evidence). Instead, feng shui is best understood as an art and philosophy rooted in Chinese metaphysics. It focuses on harmonising human interactions with the surrounding environment, offering a creative and intuitive approach to designing spaces that feel balanced and supportive. While it doesn’t really conform to scientific testing or evidence (yet), feng shui’s enduring relevance lies in its ability to provide meaningful insights and practical tools for enhancing the quality of life. It thrives as an art and philosophy that blends intuition, tradition, and aesthetics rather than relying on scientific frameworks.

Conclusion
Understanding and dispelling these misconceptions is essential for appreciating the depth and potential of feng shui. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater… Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or a curious newcomer, approaching feng shui with an open mind and a deeper understanding is essential for benefiting fully from its wisdom and usefulness.

Approaching Feng Shui with an Open Mind

To truly appreciate feng shui, it’s crucial to approach it with curiosity rather than preconceived notions. Imagine walking into a forest. Some might notice the trees’ beauty, while others may sense the air’s refreshing quality. Feng shui is much like this—it operates on visible elements like furniture and colours, but also on subtler, less tangible energies that influence well-being and mindset.

By clearing up these misconceptions, we make room for a deeper understanding of feng shui’s potential. Whether it’s improving the layout of a workspace to boost productivity or designing a home that fosters relaxation and connection, feng shui offers timeless wisdom adaptable to modern contexts.

Practical Ways to Explore Feng Shui
For beginners, start by observing your environment. Does your space feel welcoming, energising, or draining? Small changes, such as decluttering, adjusting light levels, or incorporating natural elements, can reveal how your surroundings influence your mood. These are steps anyone can take without needing a deep dive into metaphysical principles.

If you’re eager for more, consider consulting a professional feng shui practitioner. They can help you understand advanced concepts like the Bagua map or five-element theory and how they apply to your space.

The Future of Feng Shui
As sustainability and wellness gain global importance, feng shui’s principles align naturally with these values. For instance, eco-conscious designs that promote airflow, natural light, and balance in energy flow resonate with feng shui ideals. Likewise, integrating biophilic design—bringing nature indoors—echoes feng shui’s focus on harmony between humans and the natural world.

The practice is also evolving. Modern feng shui incorporates new technologies, such as architectural tools to analyse floor plans, while still honouring its traditional roots. These advancements make feng shui more accessible and relevant to a wider audience.

Conclusion
By addressing these misconceptions and embracing its true purpose, feng shui becomes more than a trend—it becomes a tool for creating spaces that nurture and inspire. Whether you are designing a home, office, or community project, feng shui offers a path to living more harmoniously.

Remember, feng shui isn’t about quick fixes or rigid rules. It’s about tuning into the energy of your environment and making intentional changes to support your life’s journey. By shifting our perspective, we unlock its transformative potential, bringing balance and vitality to the spaces we inhabit.

Debunking the Toilet Lid Myth in Feng Shui

A popular superstition in feng shui suggests that leaving the toilet lid open—especially if the bathroom is located in the “wealth corner” of the home—can lead to financial loss. This idea often sparks fear and confusion among those new to feng shui, but let’s unpack the origins of this myth and explore its actual relevance.

The Origins of the Myth
This belief stems from the idea that water represents wealth and prosperity in feng shui. Since toilets involve water flowing away from the home, it’s thought that they symbolise money “flushing away.” While metaphors like this can be useful for understanding energy flow, they’re not meant to be taken literally. Feng shui is less about superstition and more about creating harmony and balance in a space.

The Wealth Corner and Bathrooms
The “wealth corner,” or Xun position, is associated with abundance and is typically located in the southeast sector of a space according to the Bagua map or in furthest corner on the left from the main door, according to 3-gate-chi model. If a bathroom happens to fall in this area, it doesn’t mean financial doom. Instead, feng shui practitioners would focus on enhancing the positive energy of the space while mitigating potential imbalances.

Why Closing the Lid Might Help—Practically Speaking
Closing the toilet lid isn’t necessarily about wealth but about maintaining cleanliness, hygiene, and a sense of order. An open toilet bowl can disrupt the overall energy of a room, not because of wealth loss but because it symbolises chaos or neglect. From a psychological perspective, keeping the lid closed can subtly reinforce a sense of control, aesthetics and mindfulness in one’s environment—qualities that support financial awareness and decision-making.

What Really Matters for Bathrooms in Feng Shui
If your bathroom is in the wealth corner, consider these more meaningful feng shui strategies:

• Enhance the wealth energy with appropriate elements: Use decor that represents the wood element (like plants or green hues), as wood thrives in the water-associated energy of this area. This balances the energy rather than “flushing it away.”
• Maintain cleanliness and order: A clean, well-maintained bathroom symbolises respect for the space, which translates into better energy flow and a sense of prosperity.
• Incorporate wealth symbols mindfully: Avoid placing obvious wealth-related items (like a money bowl) in the bathroom, but you can use uplifting artwork or accessories in adjacent spaces to reinforce abundance.
• Ventilation and light: Ensure the bathroom is well-ventilated and well-lit, as dark or stagnant spaces can affect energy flow.

Moving Beyond Superstition
While symbolic gestures like closing the toilet lid can offer peace of mind, they should not be seen as the cornerstone of feng shui practice. True prosperity comes from cultivating a supportive environment in every area of the home, not just one corner or specific actions.

By replacing fear-driven superstitions with intentional, well-informed practices, feng shui becomes an empowering tool for transforming your space—and your life.

Reclaiming Your Power: The Toilet Lid and Financial Faith
The idea of putting faith in something as mundane as closing the toilet lid to improve finances illustrates a deeper concern: the risk of externalising personal power. By believing that a single act—closing a lid—holds the key to financial stability, we inadvertently hand over control of our life circumstances to an object. This approach can undermine our sense of agency and responsibility, which are crucial for genuine growth and prosperity.

How This Mentality Develops
This belief likely arises because feng shui, like many systems, uses symbols to represent larger concepts. Water, for instance, is associated with wealth and flow. Over time, these symbols can become overly simplified, leading to superstitions like the “toilet lid” rule. Instead of seeing the toilet as part of a broader energetic system, it’s treated as a singular force, which limits the practice of feng shui to a surface-level ritual rather than a deeper, holistic philosophy.

Why Giving Power to Objects Can Be Disempowering
When we place the responsibility for our finances—or any other aspect of life—on an external object or ritual, we divert focus from what truly matters: our mindset, decisions, and actions. This can lead to:

• Passivity: Instead of taking steps to budget, invest, or improve skills, one might rely on the illusion that “the toilet is handling it.”
• Fear-based behaviour: Worrying excessively about minor details, like forgetting to close the lid, creates anxiety rather than fostering empowerment.
• A loss of connection to intention: The essence of feng shui is to create balance and harmony, not to induce fear or relinquish control to symbolic actions.

A Better Approach: Feng Shui as Empowerment
True feng shui isn’t about delegating your power to objects or rituals; it’s about aligning your environment to support your intentions and efforts. For example:

• Set your intention: Instead of relying on the toilet lid, focus on cultivating habits and mindsets that attract prosperity, such as clarity in financial planning or gratitude for what you already have.
• Use feng shui as a guide, not a crutch: Think of feng shui as a partner in your journey—not the sole driver. It enhances your efforts but doesn’t replace them.
• Take inspired action: Symbolism has its place, but results come from tangible steps. Aligning your actions with your environment—such as organising finances while maintaining a clutter-free wealth corner—creates real change.

The Symbolism Trap
When we externalise our power to something like a toilet lid, we inadvertently send a message to ourselves: “I am not in control.” Instead, we can reclaim that power by seeing the toilet lid as part of a larger system of care, respect, and mindfulness within the home. Closing it might contribute to a feeling of order and intention, but it’s your faith in yourself that ultimately determines your success.

Feng Shui as a Tool for Empowerment
The most effective feng shui practices are those that strengthen your connection to your goals and your environment. When you integrate feng shui with intentional action—rather than superstition—you harness its true power. This isn’t about what the toilet lid does for your finances; it’s about what you do for your finances, supported by an environment that uplifts and energises you.

By shifting the focus from objects to personal empowerment, feng shui becomes a tool for transformation, rather than a collection of rituals. And that’s where its real magic lies.

Big Claims Require Big Evidence: Feng Shui and the Role of Research

The practice of feng shui often makes sweeping claims, such as improving wealth, health, or relationships by altering one’s environment. While these assertions resonate deeply with many, they also raise an important question: Where is the evidence? This is particularly relevant in a world increasingly focused on evidence-based practices. The saying, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” is a reminder that any belief system should stand up to scrutiny if it is to gain widespread credibility.

Feng Shui: Philosophy or Science?
Feng shui originated as a philosophical system rooted in Chinese metaphysics, with its principles evolving over thousands of years. It uses symbolic representations of energy, spatial relationships, and the interplay of natural forces. However, these concepts—like “qi” or the idea that the wealth corner affects finances—often lack empirical verification.

Unlike scientific disciplines, feng shui has not been rigorously tested through controlled, repeatable experiments. Many of its principles are anecdotal, relying on centuries of accumulated wisdom rather than data. While this historical foundation is valuable, it poses challenges for those seeking to distinguish genuine effects from placebo responses or confirmation bias.

The Role of Logical Thinking and Discernment
Logical thinking is essential when approaching feng shui. Without discernment, practitioners risk falling into superstition or accepting claims without critical evaluation. For instance:

• Correlation vs. Causation: If someone rearranges their furniture and later receives a financial windfall, it’s tempting to credit feng shui. But could other factors—like timing, effort, or external opportunities—be the real cause?
• Placebo Effect: Believing that feng shui will work can create psychological shifts that influence behaviour. For example, a decluttered space might boost motivation, which leads to better decisions, but the effect stems from the person, not the arrangement itself.
• Overgeneralisation: A practice that works in one cultural or environmental context may not translate universally. For instance, aligning a bed to a specific direction might hold cultural meaning in China but lack relevance in other parts of the world.

Discernment helps practitioners and enthusiasts separate practical wisdom from exaggerated or unproven claims.

The Value of Research in Feng Shui

Scientific research brings rigour to feng shui and could help legitimise its practices. While feng shui is not a hard science, studying its effects through an interdisciplinary lens—combining psychology, environmental science, and cultural studies—could uncover measurable benefits.

1. Environmental Psychology
   Research already supports the idea that our environment affects our mental and emotional well-being. Studies on the impact of natural light, decluttered spaces, and biophilic design (bringing nature indoors) align with feng shui principles. For instance, clean, organised spaces improve focus and reduce stress, suggesting a foundation for some feng shui practices.
2. Placebo Effects
   Exploring how belief systems influence outcomes is another area ripe for study. If feng shui rituals improve people’s well-being by enhancing their sense of control or optimism, those psychological benefits are worth examining—even if the mechanisms are symbolic rather than energetic. Read more about placebo
3. Evidence-Based Applications
   Specific feng shui practices, like optimising furniture placement to enhance flow or incorporating natural elements, could be tested for their impact on productivity, relaxation, or social interactions. Studies might also explore how such practices influence specific groups, such as students, office workers, or hospital patients.

Balancing Intuition and Science
While feng shui is deeply intuitive, integrating logical thinking and research enhances its credibility and effectiveness. Practitioners can use scientific insights to refine their methods, while maintaining the cultural and spiritual essence of feng shui. This balance prevents dogmatism and ensures the practice evolves in meaningful ways.

For example, feng shui’s recommendation to avoid clutter aligns with modern research on the cognitive benefits of organised spaces. Similarly, its focus on natural elements echoes biophilia, which is supported by research on how plants and natural materials reduce stress and enhance well-being.

The Future of Feng Shui Research
The integration of feng shui with disciplines like neuroscience, psychology, and design could unlock new perspectives:

• Neuroscience and Feng Shui: How does spatial arrangement influence brain activity, stress hormones, or decision-making?
• Well-Being Metrics: Can feng shui interventions (e.g., introducing balance and natural elements) improve measurable outcomes like sleep quality, productivity, or emotional resilience?
• Cultural Variations: How do feng shui principles adapt to different cultural and architectural contexts?

By asking these questions and conducting rigorous studies, we can bridge the gap between traditional wisdom and modern science.

Conclusion: Empowering Feng Shui Through Discernment and Evidence
Feng shui is most powerful when it empowers individuals to create environments that support their goals and well-being. By applying logical thinking, asking for evidence, and integrating modern research, we can separate practical insights from superstition. This approach doesn’t dilute feng shui—it enhances it, making it a relevant and credible tool for today’s world.

Ultimately, feng shui’s true strength lies not in blind faith but in its ability to inspire intentional living. By combining its timeless principles with research and reason, we honour its rich heritage while ensuring its place in the modern era.

Specific Studies and Feng Shui Principles

Though research directly labelled as “feng shui studies” is limited, many principles within feng shui align closely with findings from environmental psychology, neuroscience, and architecture. Here are a few examples:

1. Clutter and Cognitive Load
   Research in environmental psychology has demonstrated that clutter can increase stress and reduce focus. A 2011 study by Princeton University found that physical clutter in the environment competes for attention, which can lead to decreased performance and heightened anxiety. This finding echoes feng shui’s emphasis on decluttering as a means of promoting clear energy flow and mental clarity.
2. Natural Light and Well-Being
   Feng shui often encourages the maximisation of natural light in living and working spaces, associating it with vitality and positive energy. Similarly, research in chronobiology and architecture confirms that exposure to natural light improves mood, sleep quality, and productivity. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (2014) found that workers in windowless environments reported poorer sleep and lower quality of life compared to those exposed to natural light.
3. Plants and Energy Flow
   Incorporating plants to improve air quality and bring in the wood element is a common feng shui practice. Studies in biophilic design, such as those by Rachel Kaplan and Stephen Kaplan, have shown that indoor plants reduce stress, increase productivity, and enhance overall well-being. Feng shui interprets this as harmonising qi, while science frames it as the psychological and physiological benefits of connecting with nature.
4. Room Layout and Emotional Impact
   Feng shui places importance on the commanding position—the idea that one should face the door while seated, especially in workspaces or bedrooms. This aligns with research on environmental security, which suggests that facing entry points can reduce subconscious feelings of vulnerability and improve focus.

Future Research Opportunities
To truly validate feng shui principles, research must go beyond anecdotal evidence and explore their effects in structured, measurable ways. Here are a few potential directions:

1. Controlled Studies on Spatial Arrangement
   Experiments could test the impact of specific feng shui recommendations, such as bed orientation, desk placement, or room symmetry, on measurable outcomes like sleep quality, work performance, or emotional well-being.
2. Cultural and Contextual Variability
   Research could explore how feng shui principles translate across cultures and architectural styles. Does the concept of the wealth corner resonate in open-plan offices, or does it require adaptation? How do urban apartments differ from rural homes in their energy flow?
3. Longitudinal Studies on Behavioural Changes
   Investigating the long-term effects of feng shui adjustments could reveal whether they lead to sustained improvements in health, wealth, or happiness—or whether their benefits are primarily psychological and short-term.
4. Integration with Technology
   Technologies like virtual reality and AI could simulate feng shui environments to test their impact before implementation. For example, VR could explore how different layouts influence stress levels or concentration in real-time.

Case Studies That Blend Feng Shui and Science
To illustrate the potential synergy between feng shui and research, consider these hypothetical or real-world scenarios:

• Workplace Design: A company reorganises its office according to feng shui principles—such as facing desks towards natural light and creating clear pathways. Post-implementation surveys measure employee satisfaction, productivity, and stress levels, showing marked improvement.
• Healthcare Settings: A hospital incorporates feng shui elements, such as balanced lighting, natural materials, and calming layouts, in its patient rooms. Research then tracks patient recovery rates and overall satisfaction compared to standard designs.
• Educational Environments: Schools integrate feng shui principles by arranging classrooms to minimise clutter, maximise light, and create harmonious energy flow. Studies could examine whether these adjustments improve students’ focus, behaviour, or academic performance.

Balancing Tradition and Modernity
The challenge with research in feng shui is maintaining the balance between its traditional roots and the rigour of modern science. Some aspects of feng shui—like qi or the five elements—are symbolic and may not lend themselves to direct measurement. However, this doesn’t mean they lack value. Instead, research can focus on the outcomes they aim to achieve: harmony, balance, and well-being.

For instance, even if we can’t directly measure “wealth energy” in the southeast corner, we can measure the effects of a decluttered, aesthetically pleasing space on financial decision-making. Similarly, while the concept of qi may remain metaphysical, its practical applications—such as better airflow or lighting—are grounded in observable benefits.

The post Managing Feng Shui Misconceptions: Clearing the Air and Muddled Waters appeared first on Feng Shui London UK • The Capital Feng Shui Consultant.

Theories about how feng shui works

There are many theories about how feng shui works, and I have at least half a dozen. My favourite, because it’s so simple and it covers all aspects of feng shui, boils down to this: feng shui = intention + relationship + ritual. If you’re a beginner feng shui enthusiast, this will give you a good initial understanding of how feng shui works.

Unlock the secret of feng shui with the master key algorithm

Other classical feng shui theories of how feng shui works include qi/chi, yin and yang, five elements, bagua, compass approaches, form schools, time aspects and so on, but, by the logic of chunking up or generalisation, they all fall into the category of intention, relationship and ritual, which to me is the ultimate master algorithm. Let me be very clear: I’m not against any type of feng shui. My goal as a feng shui researcher and environmental psychologist is to gather all the pieces of the feng shui puzzle, understand where and how they fit from multi-disciplinary perspectives, as well as be very mindful that none of the blind men can see the whole elephant and not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

“The grand aim of science is to cover the greatest number of experimental facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.” Albert Einstein

Does feng shui work?

Yes! But it all depends on the feng shui algorithm you use – or your assumptions if you like. In the same way, as “does a recipe for baking a cheesecake work?” it all depends on both the recipe and the way it is made. Even the worst cheesecake in the world, even if it’s inedible, is still a cheesecake – it’s just a bad cheesecake. Thinking about how feng shui works in terms of algorithms is a very useful and instructive way of understanding how feng shui works as well as deconstructing and decoding it.

Feng shui = intention + relationship + ritual

What is an algorithm?
An algorithm is a process or set of specific rules to be followed to solve problems (and calculations, especially by a computer). Algorithms are step-by-step instructions given to a computer when you also feed it with data. In short, an algorithm is a very specific and unambiguous recipe. To be factual, I’ve used the metaphor of a recipe as a starting point to get a general idea across. A ‘cooking recipe’ may not be exactly an algorithm because, quite often, a recipe doesn’t exactly specify the precise quantities, the order of the steps, etc. As experience shows, especially with new recipes, the outcome might be delicious or a mess. An algorithm always produces the same results if followed correctly in its context. And context is everything.

Machine learning algorithms are the future of humanity and are responsible for the future automation of every possible job. They’re behind all the technology you’re using, and they are getting better and better because of machine learning or AI. Algorithms can make deductions that human brains cannot. For example, it takes about 10,000 hours (10 years for about 3 hours/day) for an eye specialist to learn to diagnose eye disease with about 90% accuracy. An algorithm developed by researchers at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London is 94% accurate at diagnosing common signs of eye disease, and it took less than one minute for the algorithm to learn that! Another algorithm developed by researchers in Los Angeles is 90% accurate at predicting suicides, and again, it took minutes to learn how to do it. There are machine learning algorithms that create new art and paintings and even whole films. Watch a video about master algorithm

It might be obvious, but a recipe for baking a cake is only good for that – it’s not good for building an electric car (maybe as a metaphor, but not in reality). You’d be surprised that this is not so obvious to some feng shui enthusiasts who make false assumptions which is a basic category thinking error. For example, you’ve probably heard that some types of feng shui advise people to try to solve their financial problems by closing the toilet lid. This is very disempowering because it suggests that their toilet is responsible for and controls their finances. I resolve such nonsense with a simple question: who is in charge of your finances – you or your toilet?

“There are trivial truths and the great truths.
The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false.
The opposite of a great truth is also true.”
Niels Bohr, Nobel prize winner in physics

‘And’, ‘or’, ‘not’ and overfitting

At its simplest, every algorithm, no matter how complex, can be reduced to just three operations: AND, OR, and NOT, which will be relevant later when I discuss the ‘relationship’ aspect of this formula. Whenever there is a pattern in the data that is not actually true in the real world, it’s called overfitting the data. Overfitting is a big problem not only in machine learning but in any learning situation, including feng shui. Overfitting arises when you have too many hypotheses and not enough data to tell them apart. If you have been studying feng shui and haven’t experienced the overfitting phenomenon, you haven’t seen enough of feng shui yet. Confusion and contradictions (not to mention superstitions and false problems) are very common in feng shui.

INTENTION

Intention

Whatever you’re experiencing in your life right now is a result of previous intentions, conscious or unconscious. Your intention is a mental state that embodies a commitment to future action or actions and involves planning and forethought. Every dream, every goal, every action, big or small – starts with an intention. The Upanishads states, “You are what your deepest desire is. As your desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.” The intention is driven by a simple question: what do I want? (not what I don’t want)

Goethe reminds us about the power of intention, “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” By boldness, Goethe meant clarity and focus for what you want and a congruent decision for the next steps to make it happen. Research into decision-making suggests when you watch people’s brain patterns (using fMRI) while they are making a decision, there’s a huge amount of brain activity because they are evaluating all the options (consciously and unconsciously). And then, as they are reducing the options and possibilities and getting closer to a decision, the brain activity goes down. When they have actually decided, the brain is very quiet and is no longer thinking. What the brain/mind has done was to collapse all possibilities into one direction and one tangible outcome – it has physicalised the intention. It’s very similar to quantum superposition when the observer, by the act of observation, collapses the wave function into a particle which can be measured. In other words, the act of observing something changes the outcome. If you know what you’re looking for, the results will change – you can change the environment, and that’s the gold standard of feng shui.

Space conditioning

Dr William A. Tiller, a physicist at Stanford University, has proven through studies and experiments that human consciousness ‘changes space’ and ‘conditions space’. Feng shui and space clearing are space conditioning technologies – a brilliant way of explaining how feng shui actually works. And once space or building is conditioned (or, as Winston Churchill pointed out, shaped), the building or space shapes us. Tiller says, “The power of intention alters matter – scientific proof that human intention raises local symmetry in the substratum of space.” Another discipline, epigenetics, states that perception of the environment will affect the expression of your genes and your health. “Is the universe a friendly place?” asks Albert Einstein, and how you answer this question will have a direct impact on your life. In short, feng shui is a physical intention or affirmation.

The observer effect

Another aspect of intention is that attention, change, novelty, direct energy, and information flow, as was discovered in the famous Hawthorne effect/observer effect study. In a nutshell, there was the alteration of behaviour by the subjects of a study due to their awareness of being observed. Every parent is aware of this phenomenon when they give extra attention to their children. Children thrive on attention.

Priming

So, how do environmental conditions shape you? In environmental psychology, this is called ‘priming’, and it refers to the passive, subtle and unobtrusive activation of relevant mental representations by external, environmental stimuli. Priming research has shown that the mere passive perception of environmental events directly triggers higher mental processes in the absence of any involvement by conscious, intentional processes. “Over 200 studies have shown such priming effects on impression formation as well as on social behaviour. An extraordinarily wide range of behaviours can be affected by subtle environmental stimuli, such as walking speed, speech volume, academic performance, and economic decisions,” says John Bargh, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University.

For example, studies have shown that crime rates are famously linked to the number of broken windows and the amount of litter and graffiti in the area. But even asymmetry, clutter and wonky edges promote bad behaviour because such visual disorder primes and activates negative mental metaphors such as ‘crooked politician’, etc. As the old English nursery rhyme suggests, “There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile…And they all lived together in a little crooked house.” On the other hand, studies suggest that if you surround yourself with photos of smart people like Einstein, your creativity and intelligence will be boosted. Of course, the biggest priming effect is how we think and talk to ourselves, that makes the difference. You could be living in a perfect feng shui environment and lead a miserable life because of negative thinking and limiting beliefs and vice versa. The feng shui of Nelson Mandela’s prison cell clearly didn’t affect him in a bad way.

Priming and placebo/nocebo are core underlining principles behind how feng shui works

Placebo (self-fulfilling prophecy) and nocebo (self-defeating prophecy)

Feng shui works because of the placebo effect or a self-fulfilling prophecy or positive thinking if you like. Your belief in the efficacy of feng shui ritual will direct your energy, attention and focus and will dictate how it might work. The function of feng shui is to give you clarity, focus, energy and confidence in your own resourcefulness. The inner self-belief that you can achieve your goals is activated by feng shui rituals. However, the miracle-working property of feng shui is not the ritual but the placebo effect behind it. Niels Bohr, Danish quantum physicist and Nobel Prize winner in physics said categorically when asked why he used feng shui, “I understand that it works whether you believe in it or not.”  Obviously, there are environmental stressors such as electromagnetic pollution, dirty electricity, geopathic stress, air pollution, and so on that will affect you whether you believe in them or not.

The opposite of placebo is nocebo, self-defeating prophecy, or negative thinking. People struggle with manifesting their goals and dreams, usually not because of the lack of resources but because of a lack of resourcefulness, limiting beliefs and negative thinking.

The externalisation of the problems, focusing and anchoring

Feng shui works partly because it helps people to get a healthy perspective and distance from their problems or desires. The external environment becomes a metaphor for understanding the issue. The focus is the key to the realisation and execution of our goals and plans. And it also becomes an anchoring solution to the problem. With physical changes that are visually present, we anchor the positive intentions and focus to feng shui rituals which are basically physical affirmations.

Feng shui bias and belief systems

Your mostly unconscious biases and belief systems will influence much of your thinking, decision making and behaviour. What you believe in dictates how you position yourself in life and what you see and experience. In feng shui, confirmation bias, cause-effect, recognition/observation, feng shui ingroup bias and other biases will shape your feng shui outcome. Knowing them can set you free and allow for greater and richer thinking, being and doing, as well as creativity. The confirmation bias is the most common bias that people fall for because they want to believe what they already know by preferentially seeking and recalling information that confirms their preconceptions. This bias is behind the biggest mistake you can make when using feng shui, ie putting your life into feng shui. Once you put your life into feng shui, you’re going to be a slave to it. I get emails from people who “fearful of lighting a candle or drilling a hole or even putting a vase of flowers in the wrong place” without asking a feng shui expert for advice. That is a fear-based feng shui, which is highly unethical. Ethical feng shui suggests putting feng shui in your life and using it as a useful tool, reasonably with common sense and checking if the advice is evidence-based. Another example is the Farmer’s Almanac. In the US, people are used to following it, but it’s only about 37% accurate (according to Jeff Masters from Weather Underground) as opposed to 90% accurate weather forecasts. And there is literacy and misinformation that keep people in the dark. Read why people believe in feng shui and astrology

So, how do you expand your own thinking and keep your biases in check?

Keep an inventory of your own unconscious biases and keep learning about them; keep educating yourself. Unconscious bias, by definition, is unconscious. There is also the Ramsey Theory, which states that given enough elements in a set or structure, some particular interesting pattern among them is guaranteed to emerge. It explains clustering illusion bias when people see phantom patterns in random events. Study how you think. Find out how your thinking is influenced by your upbringing, education, political perspectives, your religion, etc. Challenge yourself and your thinking. Expand your thinking. Learn science. Study philosophy – it will teach you how to think better and expand your understanding of how the world works. Evaluate and check your sources – how do you know if it’s true? The biggest problem for people trying to understand and use feng shui is that they don’t know what they don’t know.

Take an unconscious bias training program, which will give you tools to adjust your automatic thinking patterns and eliminate discriminatory and biased behaviours, as well as create awareness for the most important bias, i.e. implicit bias.

Watch the video below.

Watch this TED talk about confirmation bias

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of meaning-making, sign process, and meaningful communication. “We anthropomorphise everything,”  states Eleanor Sandry, Curtin University, Perth. Humans project intent, emotions, and identities on anything from dolphins to homes, Microsoft’s paper clips to LEGO blocks, koi carp, money plants, and compass directions. We imbue everyday objects and activities with special meanings. Humans are meaning-making machines. We invent stories to make sense of the world around us. We prime ourselves with beliefs, myths, stories and perceptions about how things work and then we believe in them as if they were true. Yuval Noah Harari in his 21 Lessons for the 21st Century demystifies and deconstructs some of the basic stories that humans have been telling themselves for the last 2000 years. Distinguishing truth from belief and the difference between fiction and reality is an important skill when deconstructing and decoding feng shui and how it works.

RELATIONSHIP

Relationship

Relationship in the context of feng shui means inter-connection and interaction. It also means energy or chi or active force. And potentiality. Once you have a clear intention, you need to affirm it physically with a ritual. You need to actualise it in the material realm.

How do you do it? Don’t position yourself in a yin-yang or duality paradigm because then, whenever you want to do something about your life, the opposing reactive force will get activated. For example, if you position yourself to improve your health and boost wellness – the opposite reactive forces will get activated, i.e. illness, etc. That’s how duality works.

Position and align yourself with all potentiality or oneness which has a separate path. It has transcended duality (but doesn’t deny it). Many cultures talk about oneness or immanence and have gods to embody that force. Follow the path of active force, and your problems won’t be so relevant – actually, they will become false problems because you’ve chosen a different developmental path. Einstein suggests, ‘move to a level where the problem doesn’t exist’ because ‘you can’t solve a problem with the thinking that has created it in the first place.’

This is how it works ontologically. History is driven by conflict, usually dualistic between active forces and reactive forces. However, active forces are not in conflict with reactive forces. It is only the reactive forces which are in conflict with the active forces. An active force is the force of creation. It works by following its own path. Creativity is an active force. It has a morphogenic field that has a function and does what it does, i.e. simply create. We have a choice as to what path of development to follow. A reactive force doesn’t follow its own path – in fact, it doesn’t have its own path at all. A reactive force works by stopping the active force. It reacts to an active force. That’s all it can do. 

David by Michelangelo

For example, impressionists in France (Monet, Degas, Renoir) were quite controversial at the time when they started their unique way of painting based on the idea of how changes in light affect your changing perception of physical reality – or, more simply, the visual experience is a product of light. Their art was rejected for exhibition by the previous generation of realists who had a monopoly on who could exhibit at the art salons. So, what did impressionists do? They organised their own salon exhibition called the Salon des Refusés. So, as a new art movement, the impressionists set themselves not to be in opposition to previous art, and rather than write their artistic manifesto in opposition to realist art, they formed their own path and followed it.

In short, ask yourself, ‘what do I want?’ and go for it while transcending dualistic opposites and connecting to it with a ritual. This is where the three algorithmic operations, AND, OR, and NOT, become relevant. Reject ‘or’ and ‘not’ commands and use only ‘AND’ commands. So feng shui = intention AND ritual, and that’s how you connect it and make it relational. Connect, connect and connect. Y becomes X, or more specifically, Y is X. Follow Michelangelo’s advice on creating: “Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

Relationship = energy/power

The relationship is also your power relation and your personal energy. The more energy you have, the better – to manifest whatever you want to manifest and manage your life. Feng shui is important, and environmental stressors can affect your energy and can drain your energy. But you have the most power unless you give it away. People give away their power, their life force in different ways: by living in the past or future too much, by not being present, by holding to false beliefs or false problems, holding on to ‘wounds’, by having unhealthy attachments, by addictions, by ‘dead’ thoughts, by blaming others, by holding on to superstitions, by living in illusion, etc, etc. When something throws you off your centre, or something engages your power in a negative way, it will cost you your life force and your power and then you can’t create. The more attachments you have to the past, the less power you have in your present moment and, therefore, the longer you have to wait for things to be manifested for you, your dreams and goals, synchronicity, healing, rejuvenation, etc. Also, when you’re disempowered, you also stop trusting your instinct and your intuition because you’re fractured and clarity is gone – and it’s all because you’ve attached yourself to an illusion. The good news is that you have the power to decide if something is a spectacle and not attached to it. By changing your perception about it or reframing it, or even just renaming it, you can disengage from any disempowering spectacle or perception, or news. Buddha, Victor Frankl, Nelson Mandela and others remind us not to engage with an illusion because it will cost us our power. You have a choice of deciding what has power over you in your life – you make power choices. It’s absolutely up to you. Nothing has power until you give it power.

When you have all your power, your energy, and your charge in the present moment, you can achieve anything, you can create anything. When you’re centred, you trust your power, your own judgement, your gut feelings. Then, the ritual can be anything, and it will work. Feng shui is a way of ritualising power.

Example/case study

I have many examples from my life of how this principle of intention + ritual works. Once, I received a postcard from a friend from Tallinn in Estonia, and I just placed it in my office in the travel area of the Bagua model. I didn’t have any strong desire to go there, but within three months, I got an offer to do feng shui there.

feng shui formula: intention+ ritual = results

Another example is when I changed the screensaver on my computer to Tropical Islands. I’ve never been to a tropical island then, and I just had a weak intention of going for a holiday there. In six months, I end up living in Barbados. It was a very long, one-year holiday. So, be careful about what you wish for and what you put out to the world on your vision board. It’s interesting to note that in both cases, my intention was ‘weak’; I didn’t have a strong desire for either outcome. Some research (Silverman and Weinberger, 1985) suggests that sometimes, weak intentions can work better.

RITUAL

Rituals

Rituals – which can also become customs – are part of every culture, and they are used to celebrate key life events such as birth, marriage and death. Rituals connect and bind people together. A ritual is an activity you do once or several times in a specific and prescribed way (conscious or unconscious). Feng shui is a ritual. A ritual can be seen as an algorithm (X is Y). It can also be seen as a useful or not-so-useful habit. Up to 40% of our behaviour is habitual. To break a bad habit, a new habit needs to be established, and that’s where rituals are very handy. Any ritual has the potential to break the pattern of a bad habit. What rituals do is force you to become a different person or perform a different behaviour, or interact with others in a different manner. You enter a ritual space of ‘as if’ when you act as a different person and intend a different outcome for your situation. What matters here is that a ritual breaks your habitual pattern in order to get a different response from the world around you. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what ritual you use as long as it works.

Lucky feng shui symbols – very often placed above the doors

What is a ritual?

Rituals mark transition and change for, hopefully, better times. A ritual is a kind of ‘magical’ performance that makes the abstract concrete and the imaginary idea actualise in reality. The essence of ritual is the magical spell ‘Hocus pocus, X is Y!’ (Hocus pocus arose from the garbled ‘Hoc est corpus! in the Christian mass.)

Anything can be turned into a ritual just by taking ordinary activities, such as lighting candles, ringing bells, hanging crystals, walking in the woods (forest bathing) and even consuming food and imbuing them with symbolic meaning. Rituals have been used for political and militaristic purposes. Napoleon noted that people are willing to sacrifice their lives for a ribbon. In today’s China, offerings to the spirits of people’s ancestors include paper models of computers and electronics, luxury goods and even Wi-Fi routers that are burnt ritualistically in the hope that the smoke will transfer the special object or gift to the spirit world and the spirit of the deceased person. Rituals, as such, have no power unless we give it to them. Ritualising power is the function of feng shui. People assign power to all kinds of things. For example, a book – a holy book (pick any) that they specifically believe in. Bret Weinstein, a biologist, calls it “the state of being literally false and metaphorically true. A belief is literally false and metaphorically true if it is not factual but if behaving as if it were factual results in an enhancement of one’s fitness.”

Feng shui, for example, might suggest hanging a prismatic crystal in the wealth area of your home or office to boost your money prospects. This ritual does seem to work for most people, creating an aesthetically pleasing rainbow effect when the sun shines on it. Over the years, I’ve experimented with this feng shui remedy and for fun, I got the same positive results by hanging a piece of chewing gum or, when a crystal wasn’t readily available, a piece of paper with the word ‘crystal’ on it. How come? Because the ritual is only the servant of the intention. It works because of the placebo effect. Having said that, some rituals work better because they have a stronger morphic field (informational, conscious memory or habit), i.e. they’ve been used for centuries, and they have their active, creative force better established.

“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations we can perform without thinking about them.” Alfred North Whitehead

The importance of rituals in enhancing self-control
Enacting rituals which are defined as “a fixed episodic sequence of actions characterised by rigidity and repetition” can boost feelings of self-discipline, according to a study done by Allen Ding Tian (in the Journal of Personal and Social Psychology). Further research is needed to explore the difference between rituals created by individuals for their own purposes and those adopted from or imposed by the surrounding environment or culture. Also, does the effectiveness of the ritual depend on the amount of effort put into it? These questions are also relevant in the context of feng shui rituals.

What is a spell?
Spells can be seen as suggestions, fears, superstitions, rituals, words, memes, perceptions, beliefs, unrealistic or outrageous ideas. It can also be a romantic encounter that clouds your reasoning. People ‘cast’ spells using different rituals in order to influence the fate or destiny of future outcomes. The power of a spell resides in the belief of a person casting a spell as well as the actual ritual. If you believe that you’re under an outside or inside (self-imposed) spell, breaking the spell can change your life. We all are, to some extent, under social, political, financial, environmental and even medical spells that shape our future. With social media and the internet, you might be consciously or unconsciously participating in casting spells through how you talk to yourself, friends and family. By becoming conscious of how you think and what you believe, you can break free from self-imposed and external spells.

‘As if’ principle

William James, the father of psychology, suggested this principle, “If you want a quality, act as if you already have it.” This is another explanation for how feng shui interventions or rituals work. By performing a physical act of changing your environment with a specific intention, you follow the ‘fake it, till you make it’ heuristic.

Horses for courses

Most people don’t know how electricity works, but this doesn’t stop them from using a toaster. And there are many ways electricity can be used – just as there are at least 365 ways of washing up. There is an infinite number of feng shui interventions, in the same way as different cuisines can be combined in an infinitely creative number of ways.

“Information is physical.” Rolf Randaur

Design your own feng shui algorithm

Feng shui is a living discipline and art that evolves and changes. Once you understand how the feng shui master algorithm works, you will be able to see this pattern in other disciplines and creatively transfer it to feng shui in factual or metaphoric ways. For example, Andrew Taylor Still, the father of osteopathy, taught a simple introductory rule of thumb/algorithm to his osteopathic students: “If it is obstructed – unblock it. If it is tight – loosen it. If it is lax – strengthen it.” This osteopathic algorithm can be translated into feng shui as unblocking the energy flow, clearing the energy flow and strengthening the energy flow, or, in short, moderating the energy flow (one of the key principles in feng shui). So, whatever your expertise is, you can translate it into a feng shui algorithm.

In the future, machine learning algorithms will do a much better job than all feng shui consultants combined because they will be more accurate and faster. A feng shui machine learning algorithm will be able to do everything initially given enough data from different sources, consultants, books, clients, etc. For example, if you give a computer enough data about a particular health condition, it will learn in less than a minute how to diagnose a patient for that condition much better than any top doctor can do. The interesting question will be, though: will machines have the necessary intentional force, or is that purely a human quality? For the time being, you can still call your feng shui consultant.

Pattern recognition and creation

Pattern recognition

As a feng shui consultant, you want to be as accurate as possible. The feng shui process is 90% information gathering and 10% intervention. Be aware that there is a difference between observation and interpretation. Good observers focus on what is relevant in particular contexts, and they notice:
• what is exaggerated most
• what repeats the most
• what changes the most
• what is missing the most
Avoid interpreting because it is always incomplete, limited and ‘contaminated’ by your own personal judgment, biases and history. Asking key questions and the perception of different factors (such as appearances, sounds, feelings, objects and smells, and vibes) helps you assess the situation more accurately.

SUMMARY

Feng shui = intention + relationship + ritual

The key operations for a good feng shui algorithm are
Intention: what do I want? Have a clear image. Say it clearly aloud. Thoughts and sounds have frequencies.
Relationship: how can I connect and actualise my desire/goal?
Ritual: what can I do physically / feng shui-wise in my home or workplace to affirm and represent my want, purpose, goal, and desire?

Examples
I want … a new car (you can be specific as to what type, Tesla, etc)
AND
I affirm my desire with a picture of a new car, which I stick on my fridge, in my kitchen, which is in the success area of the bagua (as a reminder to focus on what I want and the first step in physicalising my dream).

I want … better sleep and more energy
AND
I affirm this intention with a new organic latex mattress.

The post The Ultimate Feng Shui Master Algorithm = Intention + Relationship + Ritual. Top Feng Shui ‘Recipe’ for Success and Solving Problems. appeared first on Feng Shui London UK • The Capital Feng Shui Consultant.

Are you confused by feng shui?
If you haven’t been confused by some feng shui claims or suggestions, you haven’t been around feng shui for long. I’ve been studying and practising feng shui for almost 35 years and I’ve been puzzled by many contradictory statements from different feng shui schools. That’s why early on I’ve decided to figure it all out using logic, science, intuition, instinct and commons sense, as well as practical observation. And to date, I’ve done over 10 000  feng shui consultations onsite and remotely, for homes and workplaces. I’ve studied Environmental Psychology, psychology, NLP, ergonomics, priming, placebo effect, cognitive sciences and more to give me a good framework and background to think clearly and systematically about feng shui. My approach to researching and using feng shui is to be open-minded and sceptical at the same time. Otherwise, one can be easily duped by all kinds of false problems, half-truths and superstitions.

Solving the feng shui puzzle

If your premises are false – your conclusions are likely to be false too

Many schools – many perspectives and approaches

Classical and modern feng shui
There are two main feng shui approaches or schools: classical and modern feng shui. They agree and disagree on many aspects of feng shui. That is expected when old traditional and new, modern, progressive approaches clash. Read about the difference between classical and modern feng shui schools

Evidence-based vs non-evidence based feng shui
From an evidence-based perspective, there are only two types of feng shui: evidence-based and non-evidence based. A lot of feng shui is in the second category ie non-evidence based. The evidence-based aspects of feng shui come from environmental psychology, neuroscience, preconscious processing, ergonomics, and priming among many.

What is science for?

Science gets updated on regular bases (even on science), so don’t quote me in one year from now. The function of science is to inform us how feng shui might be working (although some people don’t like the answers – read my blog on how feng shui works). In many ways, science is universal knowledge and wisdom. Science creates facts and it’s evidence-based. Science works everywhere, every time, for everyone – it’s universal. Electricity works in the same way everywhere – it might have a different voltage in different countries but it works the same way. Science is constantly updated to keep it honest and it has self-correction build in. In can be said that wisdom is timeless but knowledge can have an expiration date. So science is not one thing but a set of related disciplines.

Science is impersonal, value-free and the moral status of scientists is irrelevant. Even, if Copernicus was a bad person, the Earth would still orbit around the Sun, and he could and should be able to claim total impersonality for his work. When it comes to art, artists don’t have the pleasure of this get-out clause. Art is about value, aesthetic, social, political and moral as opposed to science which is about facts, truth and data. Caravaggio’s art shines with beauty and truth, although he was a hoodlum and murderer. Elevating feng shui into the domain of science will require a lot decluttering it from superstitious and personal preferences that cloud the subject and cause unnecessary false problems.

How to prove if feng shui actually works – by falsification
Science is all about falsification, not confirmation. It’s a series of conjectures and refutations. It looks at bold hypotheses that can be falsified by evidence. By eliminating all other factors and the one which remains must be the truth. In other words, you cannot prove whether a theory or hypothesis is true. You can prove that it is false with a process called falsification. Falsification is a scientific tool that distinguishes scientific social psychology from folk social psychology, which does not use this process of falsification.

An example of this train of thought would be starting with a hypothesis that “All swans are white…” But instead of looking for evidence of white swans out there in the world, a more efficient, scientific way would be to find a way to refute this hypothesis, and go and look for ‘black swans’ out there and testing it to destruction.

A quick test to falsify feng shui principles would be to do feng shui intervention without any feng shui principles. Can feng shui work without chi/qi, without yin and yang, without bagua model and cosmological astrological models? Going beyond feng shui and looking from other perspectives will help you understand how feng shui actually works.

How else feng shui can be explained
Classically minded feng shui authors explain feng shui in terms of basic principles such as chi/qi, yin and yang, five elements, etc, etc but environmental psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience have other explanations for how feng shui might be working. In short, the working of feng shui can be explained by the placebo effect, priming effect, unconscious biases such as recognition bias and anchoring effect among others.

Evidence-based feng shui
From an evidence-based perspective, there are two types of feng shui: evidence-based feng shui and non-evidence-based feng shui. Evidence-based feng shui relies on scientific research to form evidence for guidance and decision-making in feng shui. At present, there is very little research on feng shui, if it works, how it might work, and why it might work. Any insights on how feng shui might work come from environmental psychology, neuroscience, pre-conscious processing, cognitive sciences, semiotics, priming and placebo studies. The aims of evidence-based feng shui are to establish the efficacy, validity and relevance of feng shui for homes and workplaces by using scientific research methods and distinguish it from non-evidence-based feng shui so the feng shui practitioners and the public can make informed choices.

Instinct

We all have an inbuilt, evolutionary, animal-like and almost automatic ability to detect a threat and distinguish between safe and unsafe environments. It has been honed over 200 000 years of human evolution on this planet. Instinct is designed to keep us safe and survive so we can thrive as a human race. When it works well, we feel safe and can flourish personally and professionally. When it doesn’t work well, we feel stressed. And stress is one factor that can affect our ability to notice the danger. An unnecessary stress overdrive can cause anxiety and stop us from noticing the real danger. “Follow your instincts. That’s where true wisdom manifests itself.” said Oprah Winfrey, pointing to the idea of morphic resonance or collective memory which was proposed by Rupert Sheldrake, the author of The Science Delusion.

Small Truths vs. Great Truths

“There are trivial truths and the great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.” Niels Bohr

Niels Bohr, the renowned Danish physicist and Nobel laureate, is often credited with a profound statement about truth. The quote you’re referring to is typically expressed as:”The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.”

This quote encapsulates a deep philosophical insight about the nature of truth and knowledge. Let’s break it down to understand its meaning:
Small or Trivial Truths: These are straightforward, factual statements. For these, the opposite is usually false. For example, if we say “The sky is blue,” its opposite, “The sky is not blue,” would be false under normal circumstances.
Great or Profound Truths: These are deeper, more complex ideas that often touch on fundamental aspects of existence, human nature, or the universe. For these, the opposite might also contain truth.Bohr elaborated on this concept, stating:”There are trivial truths and there are great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.”

Examples of Profound Truths
To illustrate this concept, consider these examples:

1. “Change is constant” and “Some things never change” – Both can be true in different contexts.
2. “Life is meaningful” and “Life is meaningless” – Both perspectives can offer profound insights into existence.
3. “Everything is connected” and “Each entity is distinct” – Both ideas can be valid in different frameworks.

Implications
This concept encourages us to:

1. Think critically and avoid black-and-white thinking
2. Embrace paradoxes as potential sources of deeper understanding
3. Recognize the complexity of profound ideas

Bohr’s insight reminds us that in matters of deep truth, seemingly contradictory ideas can coexist, each offering valuable perspectives on complex realities.

Complementary Truths and Cognitive Dissonance
Niels Bohr’s quote about profound truths relates to cognitive dissonance in several interesting ways. Bohr’s idea that “the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth” challenges our natural tendency to avoid cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when we hold conflicting beliefs or ideas, causing psychological discomfort. Bohr’s perspective encourages us to embrace seemingly contradictory ideas, which can initially create cognitive dissonance.

Janusian Thinking
The concept of holding two opposing ideas simultaneously, known as Janusian thinking, is closely related to Bohr’s quote. This cognitive process can lead to cognitive dissonance, as our brains naturally seek to resolve contradictions quickly. However, Bohr’s approach suggests that tolerating this discomfort can lead to deeper insights and creative breakthroughs.

Resolving Dissonance Through Deeper Understanding
While cognitive dissonance theory posits that people strive for internal consistency, Bohr’s quote implies that apparent contradictions in profound truths might be resolved by finding a higher-level understanding or hidden dimensions. This aligns with the cognitive dissonance reduction strategy of adding new cognitions to reconcile conflicting ideas.

Challenging Black-and-White Thinking
Cognitive dissonance often leads people to reinforce existing beliefs and reject contradictory information. Bohr’s perspective challenges this tendency by suggesting that opposing viewpoints can both contain truth. This approach can help reduce the discomfort of cognitive dissonance by encouraging a more nuanced, multi-dimensional understanding of complex issues.

Implications for Personal Growth and Leadership
Embracing Bohr’s philosophy can lead to personal growth and improved leadership skills. By learning to hold conflicting ideas without immediately resolving the dissonance, individuals can develop more comprehensive understanding and creative problem-solving abilities. This approach aligns with modern leadership theories that value cognitive flexibility and the ability to navigate complexity. In conclusion, Bohr’s quote encourages us to move beyond the discomfort of cognitive dissonance when dealing with profound truths. By embracing apparent contradictions and seeking deeper understanding, we can develop a more nuanced worldview and potentially unlock greater creativity and insight.

Examples of Cognitive Dissonance in Feng Shui

Cognitive dissonance in feng shui can arise when practitioners or enthusiasts encounter conflicting beliefs or information about feng shui principles. Here are some examples of cognitive dissonance in the context of feng shui.

Contradictory Feng Shui Advice
Feng shui enthusiasts often face cognitive dissonance when they encounter contradictory advice from different sources. For instance:
• Toilet placement: Some feng shui schools claim that toilets in the center of the house are problematic, while modern feng shui practitioners argue that with proper plumbing, their location is irrelevant.
• Directional preferences: Traditional feng shui emphasises the importance of sleeping or working facing certain directions based on astrological charts. However, scientific studies suggest that only north-south alignment might have a minor effect on sleep quality.

Scientific Evidence vs. Traditional Beliefs
Cognitive dissonance can occur when scientific findings contradict long-held feng shui beliefs:
• Confirmation bias: Many feng shui practitioners fall prey to confirmation bias, noticing only the instances where feng shui “works” while ignoring contradictory evidence.
• Placebo effect: Some feng shui recommendations may seem to work due to the placebo effect, creating dissonance when practitioners learn about this psychological phenomenon.

Modern Living vs. Ancient Principles
The application of ancient feng shui principles to modern living can create cognitive dissonance:
• Technology integration: Traditional feng shui doesn’t account for modern technology, leading to confusion about how to apply principles to homes with Wi-Fi, smart devices, and open-plan layouts.
• Cultural differences: Feng shui principles developed in ancient China may not always translate seamlessly to other cultures and modern lifestyles, causing practitioners to question their relevance.

Feng Shui as Art vs. Science
The tension between viewing feng shui as an art form versus a scientific practice can create cognitive dissonance:
• Lack of scientific validation: While some practitioners claim feng shui is scientific, the lack of rigorous scientific studies supporting its efficacy can create dissonance for those seeking evidence-based practices.
• Intuitive vs. formulaic approaches: Some feng shui schools emphasise intuition and feeling, while others rely on complex calculations and formulas, leading to conflicting methodologies.

To resolve these instances of cognitive dissonance, feng shui enthusiasts may need to critically evaluate their beliefs, seek evidence-based information, and be open to updating their understanding of feng shui principles in light of modern knowledge and scientific findings.

Intuition

Intuition is similar to instinct and has bases in instinct. The difference between intuition and instinct is that intuition requires some conscious awareness, feeling or thinking. Gut instincts develop automatically during childhood and intuitive abilities require conscious choice and attention. We need to learn to discern the difference between inner intuitive directives and the automatic instinctual intelligence that responds to life. Psychology suggests that intuition is the subliminal processing of information that is too complex for rational thought, e.g. mate choice. Intuition is learned and not innate as opposed to the instinct that is an innate, ‘hardwired’ or baked into our DNA towards a particular behaviour or response. Instinct and intuition can be described as a spectrum. Instinct on one side of the spectrum is mostly unconscious response and intuition on the other side of the spectrum is conscious reading of energetic downloads.  “The only real valuable thing is intuition.” said Albert Einstein who also said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

There are many domains that intuition works through and many ways to receive intuition ie through physical, emotional mental, spiritual and environmental cues (although it is believed that the sixth chakra is the seat of intuition or where it manifests or where we download it) and all require practice and development like any other skill. An attachment to past time is an impediment to intuition. Consistency and accuracy of intuition is the result of regular focusing in the present time.

Although we are born to some extent instinctual, our intuitive senses must be trained and finetuned in the same way as our intellect and emotional intelligence are educated and developed. Our intuitive intelligence constantly provides us with data and insights as well as energetic readings about our health and everyday choices – for example, what we should or shouldn’t be eating, nudging us to exercise and meditate or sending us a strong, uneasy gut feeling that we should avoid a particular street or situation.

Metaphoric thinking

“We anthropomorphise everything.” says Eleanor Sandry, Curtin University, Perth. Humans project intent, emotions and identities on anything from dolphins to homes to Microsoft’s paper clips to LEGO blocks. We imbue everyday objects with special metaphoric meanings. “The personal mnemonic object becomes as priceless and unique as the memory to which it holds the key.” Cameron (2006). See your situation (home/workplace) in the form of a metaphor which will help you get perspective and clarity on the situation and find the right creative solution. To discover your metaphor, finish this sentence: “My situation/problem/home/workplace/… / is like….” Think about it or reflect on it and see if you can get any extra insights for solutions.

“You don’t see something until you have the right metaphor to let you perceive it.”
Robert Stetson Shaw

Archetypical thinking

Engage your inner ‘detective’ and ‘gambler’ or ‘sage’ archetypes who work closely with intuition. Your inner detective, like Sherlock Holmes, combines great powers of observation with highly evolved intuition. Your inner ‘gambler’ – and it is the positive aspect of your psyche that manifests in the following intuition, even in the face of universal doubt and looks for the ability to follow your intuition in risky situations. Your inner ‘guide’ / ‘sage’ looks for a continuing pattern of devoting yourself to guiding yourself (and others) from your own spiritual and intuitive insights, wisdom and knowledge.

Common sense – ignore the nonsense

Common sense and sometimes called crowd wisdom is a social, shared and group thinking intelligence and sound, practical judgment and culmination of years of observation concerning everyday matters. In short, it is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and use rules of thumb or heuristics. As Voltaire’s saying that “common sense is not so common” suggests that application of common sense is still not very prevailing.

A lot of feng shui advice that you read online is nonsense because it’s mostly out of context and without an understanding of how feng shui works. Stop reading nonsense! Because if you do, you might start believing it and that would be very silly and can cause you lots of false problems.

Critical thinking

Data, facts, truth

“There are trivial truths and the great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.” said Niels Bohr, Nobel prize winner in physics, differentiating between Newtonian and Quantum truths. In the age of fake news, the difference between data, facts and truth can be compared metaphorically to the difference in strength of toilet water, cologne water and perfume. Iain McGilchrist, in his forthcoming book ‘There are No Things – There are Patterns” suggests that in order to arrive at the truth we need to use science, reason, intuition and imagination. He also suggests that “To understand something, whether we are aware of it or not, depends on choosing a model. We get to understand what we see by comparing it with something else, something that we think we understand better. But what we compare it with turns out to have a huge influence on the outcome.” In his new book, Iain will attempt to answer the question of what we mean by ‘truth’ and how different hemispheres see the truth. Left brain sees truth as propositional (true or false) and the right brain sees it as dispositional (relationship). In his previous work called “The Master and his Emissary” he writes ‘Truth is a process.’ (McGilchrist, p.154). ‘No single truth does not mean no truth.’ (McGilchrist, p.150). ‘The statement that ‘there is no such thing as truth’ is itself a truth statement, and implies that it is truer than its opposite, the statement that ‘truth exists’. If we had no concept of truth, we could not state anything at all, and it would even be pointless to act. There would be no purpose, for example, in seeking the advice of doctors, since there would be no point in having their opinion, and no basis for their view that one treatment was better than another. None of us actually lives as though there were no truth. Our problem is more with the notion of a single, unchanging truth.’ (McGilchrist, p.150)

Probability
“It is a mathematical certainty that you can find any pattern you want, as long as you’re prepared to ignore enough data.” says a mathematician Matt Parker and the author of Humble Pi, A Comedy of Maths Errors. For example, Parker has analysed the locations of the 800 Woolworths shops to reveal precise geometric patterns of relationship between them which is similar to those found in location of the sacred sites. When people claim that some data confirms their theory, ask how much data didn’t confirm it. When people are doing good science they should be asking how much are they are ignoring, what your method they’re using and if anyone else has checked the results. It’s very easy to falsify what you believe.

…biggest problem might be that you don’t know what you don’t know

What is logic for?

Logic helps us structure our thoughts. Logic, obviously, by itself, doesn’t guarantee the truth because if your premises are false – your conclusions are likely to be false too. As in this classical example: all yellow things are made of cheese – the moon is yellow – therefore the moon is made of cheese. The other side of logic is those illogical arguments are more effective than logical ones. Aristotle made an assumption that things are either true or not true (“the most certain of principles”) which can make conventional logic blow up on occasions – for example, take this sentence: “this sentence is false”: is that true or false? Also, Donald Rumsfeld reminds us that, “There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don’t know.” which might be our biggest problem.

Use your own creativity to figure out what works

Any problem has a creative solution. And problems are good because they help us to grow and develop.  Claire Colebrook suggests that “A problem is a way of creating a future. When plants grow and evolve they do so by way of problems, developing features to avoid predators, to maximise light or to retain moisture.” There are 356 ways of washing up and that applies to feng shui. There many different and creative ways of employing feng shui to enhance your home and workplace and get more out of life. We’re all creative in different ways and the basic five approaches are: the child-like thinker, the problem-solver, the dreamer, the builder and the imageener. Check below what creative approach is best for you and what questions or words can help you to embody that particular creative approach to solving your problems. Start using the keywords “why not?”, “how to…”, “I wish…”, “yes, and …” and “what if?” in your daily life and notice how they open up and enrich your thinking and life.

Why people are superstitious and believe in predictions and conspiracy theories

Philosopher Karl Popper, in his book The Conspiracy Theory of Society, argues that “conspiracy theories are based on the idea that a social outcome is evidence of an intentional order, and that random occurrences are rarely, if ever, relevant.” The psychology behind this is that people discount unintended consequences and prefer to view certain events of being the result of an intended cause. Although Popper was investigating conspiracy theories, we can see how superstitions and predictions fit the same pattern where a divine force is in charge. Michael Shumer offers three basic explanations for the question Why People Believe Weird Things, which is the title of his book.
1) Credo consolans – people believe in superstitions because they want to.
2) Superstitions offer immediate gratification and simplicity because simple explanations are immediately gratifying while reality is often complex and challenging.
3) Morality and meaning – predictions provide proof of eschatological meaning and morality from a higher power and absolve one from choice and responsibility.
It’s always easier to find blame in the outside circumstances and external forces (stars, destiny, fate, God, karma, government, luck, feng shui, etc) that one’s choices and take responsibility for them. The humans that believe in superstitions just needs to wake up and grow up (hello!, there is no Santa or off-the-planet god that is waiting for your requests). Read Why People are Attracted to Astrology, Divination or Want to Know the Future?

“A problem is a way of creating a future. When plants grow and evolve they do so by way of problems, developing features to avoid predators, to maximise light or to retain moisture.” Claire Colebrook, philosopher and cultural theorist

Top pointers to how to understand and decode feng shui

1) Use your common sense. If it doesn’t make sense or is too good to be true – it probably is. Does it sound like a myth or superstition or is fear-based?
2) Use logic and your logic intelligence.
3) Employ your intuition and instinct – does it feel safe? What are your hunches about the situation?
4) Ask simple questions such as ‘how does it work?’ Educate yourself about the subject. As a beginner, your biggest problem might be that you don’t know what you don’t know.
5) Ask for evidence and research – don’t fall for confirmation bias (watch the TED talk about it below).
6) Experiment and do one feng shui intervention at a time to see how it works in your particular context.
7) Read my blog about the feng shui algorithm and how feng shui works 
8) Still confused – call your feng shui expert and make sure that s/he doesn’t practice fear-based feng shui.

“To understand something, whether we are aware of it or not, depends on choosing a model. We get to understand what we see by comparing it with something else, something that we think we understand better. But what we compare it with turns out to have a huge influence on the outcome.” Iain McGilchrist

Watch this TED talk about the confirmation bias so you don’t make the same mistakes

Bibliography for developing your intuition
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Cappon, Or. Daniel. Intuition: Harnessing the Hidden Power of the Mind. Bedford House Publishing: Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1989.
Cayce, Edgar. “Intuition, Visions, and Dreams,” Commentary: A New Look at the Edgar Cayce Readings, vol. 2, no. 6 (December 1987).
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Emery, Marcia. [muitioll Workbook: An Expert’s Guide to Unlocking the Wisdom of Your Unconscious Mind. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1994.
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James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
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Myss, Caroline. Advanced Energy Anatomy. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2001.
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– Energy Anatomy. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 1996.
– Sacred Contracts. New York: Harmony Books, 2002. Audio: Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2001.
– Why People Don‘t Heal and How They Call. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1997.
Nadal, Laurie, Judy Haims, and Robert Stempson. Sixth Sense: The Whole Brain Book of Intuition, Gut Feelings, and Their Place in Your Everyday Life. New York: Prentice Hall, 1990.
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Shealy, C. Norman. 90 Days to Stress –Free Living. London: Sterling Publications, 2002.
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