Feng Shui and the Simulated Real (Bagua Model): Reimagining Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation

Feng Shui and the Simulated Real (Bagua Model): Reimagining Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation

Feng shui is traditionally understood as a cosmological and symbolic system for harmonising human life with the environment. It offers a structured map of existence through the bagua, a symbolic representation of life’s key domains (such as wealth, health, relationships, and career). This spatial-temporal model is a simulation of sorts — a metaphysical cartography of human potential projected onto physical space. When juxtaposed with Baudrillard’s theory, feng shui’s symbology reveals new dimensions in the philosophical inquiry into simulation, meaning, and the construction of reality.

Feng Shui and the Precession of Symbols

Baudrillard’s idea of the “precession of simulacra” — where signs no longer reflect a real world but precede and determine it — finds a deep resonance in feng shui practice. The bagua functions as a symbolic map imposed upon a home or environment to mirror and influence the energies of life. Although it originates from metaphysical traditions, it now often precedes physical design, determining layout, décor, and psychological orientation before the user engages with the lived reality of a space.

This mirrors Baudrillard’s four stages of simulation:

A faithful reflection of reality (e.g., early feng shui based on direct environmental observation)
A perversion of reality (e.g., symbolic remedies overriding practical interventions)
A pretence of reality with no real referent (e.g., using symbolic enhancements such as golden toads or faux waterfalls in spaces where natural qi is lacking)
A pure simulacrum (e.g., a fully designed feng shui home or virtual space that is only a projection of auspicious symbolism without any natural or energetic authenticity)

Just as Baudrillard writes, “It is dangerous to unmask images, since they dissimulate the fact that there is nothing behind them,” so too might we reflect on feng shui practices that risk substituting symbolism for embodied, mindful interaction with space.

The Bagua Model as a Simulation of Life

The bagua is itself a powerful simulation. It divides experience into eight life domains (plus the centre, representing health and unity) and projects them across physical space. Each area is mapped with associated elements, colours, shapes, and aspirations — a constructed overlay designed to shape psychological and environmental experience.

In Baudrillardian terms, the bagua does not represent life — it structures life through its symbolic order. For instance, enhancing the ‘wealth’ corner with wood elements or purple colours is not merely an aesthetic act, but a ritualised simulation of prosperity. The physical act is less about function than sign value, paralleling Baudrillard’s observation: “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”

Thus, feng shui reveals how humans live within symbolic environments rather than “natural” ones. It reaffirms that human interaction with space is mediated through symbols, intentions, and metaphors — all of which Baudrillard would argue are simulations that may or may not correspond to a real energetic influence.

Hyperreality and the Feng Shui Marketplace

Feng shui has, in some cases, entered a hyperreal phase. As commercialisation spreads through books, online consultations, feng shui products, and digital bagua apps, the distinction between authentic energetic engagement and the simulation of harmony becomes blurred. Homes may be filled with coins, crystals, and cures that no longer relate to the environment’s original qi but function primarily as signs of harmony.

Baudrillard wrote: “Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real.” Similarly, some modern feng shui practices may be presented as symbolic to reassure us that our environments — and lives — are “in order.” The ritual becomes more important than the result, echoing Baudrillard’s critique of the symbolic order: “The simulacrum is true.”

Feng Shui, Technology, and the Simulated Environment

In contemporary practice, feng shui increasingly intersects with smart homes, virtual consultations, and even AI-driven spatial analysis. This shift raises critical questions. Is the virtual application of the bagua as powerful as its physical manifestation? Can qi be assessed through a video call? Baudrillard’s work would suggest that when simulation reaches this degree of abstraction, it no longer refers to any natural energy — it becomes self-referential.

For instance, virtual feng shui consultations may be guided by simulations of simulations — not observation of the natural world but interpretation of uploaded floor plans and digital photographs. This is the fourth stage of simulacra, where feng shui becomes a pure sign system disconnected from the living context. Yet, for many clients, it still feels authentic. And perhaps that feeling itself is the ultimate hyperreal experience.

Quotes Reimagined in Feng Shui Context

“The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth—it is the truth which conceals that there is none.”

When feng shui becomes about objects rather than intention and energy, this statement warns of ritual without awareness.

“Today abstraction is no longer that of the map… It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.”

The bagua applied without regard to authentic qi conditions may become just such a hyperreal model.

“We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”

Modern feng shui faces this danger — of excessive knowledge with diminishing intuitive understanding.

“To simulate is to feign to have what one doesn’t have.”

A wealth corner filled with gold-painted frogs may feign prosperity but not generate it.

Conclusion: Feng Shui Between Sacred Map and Simulation

Feng shui, like many wisdom traditions, walks a delicate path between symbolic structure and experiential reality. Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation offers a provocative lens through which to evaluate whether feng shui remains a spiritual art rooted in embodied harmony or whether it risks becoming a hyperreal system of gestures, signs, and symbolic rituals devoid of their original energetic or cosmological referents.

Yet, simulation is not necessarily falsehood. In both Baudrillard and feng shui, there lies an invitation to reengage with the deeper question: What is real, and what do we project onto reality in order to live with meaning?

Rethinking ‘Missing Areas’ and Symbolic Absolutism

One of the more entrenched interpretations in modern feng shui is the belief that a missing area in the bagua model — such as a gap where the wealth, relationship, or health sector should fall — symbolically signifies a deficiency in that corresponding area of life. Similarly, locations of toilets or storage rooms in perceived “unfavourable” sectors are often cited as inherently problematic. However, this view reflects a symbolic absolutism that borders on superstition rather than grounded practice. There is no empirical evidence from environmental psychology or feng shui research to support the notion that a corner missing from a floor plan directly correlates with misfortune, loss, or deficiency in life outcomes. These claims, while symbolically compelling, risk becoming simulations of problems — what Baudrillard would describe as a false real, an invented issue arising from an overreliance on abstract models rather than lived experience. A “toilet in the wealth corner” is often framed as inherently damaging, yet countless individuals live successful, harmonious lives in such homes. Practitioners and enthusiasts alike must be cautious not to overextend metaphorical interpretations as diagnostic truths. As with any symbolic system, the bagua should be used with discernment, fluidity, and critical reflection — not as a rigid doctrine capable of generating false anxieties about spaces that function perfectly well in reality.

As Gregory Bateson famously observed, “The map is not the territory.” The bagua is a symbolic overlay, a representational tool for perceiving potential patterns — not an absolute mirror of life’s totality. When mistaken for the territory itself, the map ceases to guide and begins to distort.

Symbolic Thinking: A Powerful Tool, Not an Objective Law

Symbolic thinking lies at the heart of feng shui, offering metaphors and representations that help people engage more meaningfully with their environments. Symbols invite reflection, action, and creative adaptation — they are not truths, but mirrors of inner states and cultural archetypes. When symbolic thinking is approached as a tool for dialogue with space rather than as a deterministic system, feng shui becomes a dynamic practice that fosters awareness and agency. However, when symbols are taken as literal, causal mechanisms — when a mirror or a plant is said to singularly “cause” wealth or illness — then the symbolic becomes dogma, and meaning becomes fixed rather than discovered. To preserve the transformative potential of feng shui, we must maintain the symbolic as suggestive, not prescriptive. It is through this interpretive openness that feng shui continues to evolve as both a reflective art and a psychological engagement with place.

The Matrix and the Simulated Home

Baudrillard’s work directly influenced The Matrix (1999), a film that opens with a hidden copy of Simulacra and Simulation. The Matrix represents a digital world so totalising and convincing that its inhabitants do not know they are living in a simulation. In feng shui terms, this could be likened to a symbolic home so curated, so full of metaphors for success, love, and health, that it no longer reflects or responds to actual energy. Just as the Matrix is a world of illusion passed off as real, the symbolic feng shui home may offer a comforting fiction that masks a deeper energetic disconnection. It challenges practitioners to ask: Are we designing real spaces that resonate with qi, or are we trapped within symbolic designs that simulate harmony without embodying it?

Perception as Projection: Neuroscience, Reality, and Feng Shui

Emerging research in neuroscience supports a perspective long familiar to practitioners of feng shui — that perception is not a passive reception of the world, but an active construction by the brain. Rather than recording reality objectively, the brain generates a predictive model based on past experience, context, and expectation (Friston, 2010; Clark, 2013). In feng shui terms, this means that our experience of space is shaped as much by what we bring to it — beliefs, symbols, intentions — as by its physical form. Studies suggest that up to 90 percent of visual perception is based on internal predictions rather than incoming sensory data (Bar, 2009). This process is deeply subjective and interpretive, much like the symbolic overlay of the bagua map. From this view, a feng shui arrangement does not just affect us environmentally but psychologically, activating internal models of harmony, protection, or abundance. As neuroscientist Anil Seth explains, we are constantly “hallucinating” our world, and when we agree on our hallucinations, we call it reality (Seth, 2021). Thus, feng shui can be seen as a conscious engagement with the brain’s natural tendency to construct meaning — offering symbolic structure to help align inner expectation with outer form.

Practical Tips for Feng Shui Enthusiasts Reflecting on Simulation

• Before placing symbolic items, pause and ask: Am I responding to the energy of the space, or merely copying a formula?

• Use the bagua as a diagnostic, not a dogma — remain responsive to changes in qi flow and real-life outcomes.

• Practise spatial mindfulness: experience your home as it is before adjusting it symbolically.

• Focus on intention over ornament — your inner clarity influences qi more than object placement alone.

• Reconnect with natural elements (light, air, temperature, sound) beyond symbolic proxies.

• Question the overuse of commercial “cures” — does their presence increase harmony or only signify it?

Reflective Questions

• In what ways do I simulate prosperity, health, or love in my home rather than cultivate them directly?

• When using the bagua, do I relate to it as a living system or a fixed template?

• Do I rely more on visual signs of balance than on felt experiences of balance?

• How can I restore a sense of authenticity in my feng shui practice beyond signs and symbols?

• Might some of my feng shui adjustments be hyperreal — addressing representation rather than real energetic change?

Reference

Baudrillard, J. (1981). Simulacres et simulation. Paris: Éditions Galilée.
[English translation: Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and Simulation (S. F. Glaser, Trans.). University of Michigan Press.]

https://archive.org/details/simulacra-and-simulation-1995-university-of-michigan-press/mode/2up

Read the summary of Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation

Bar, M. (2009). The proactive brain: Memory for predictions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1521), 1235–1243.
Clark, A. (2013). Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind. Oxford University Press.
Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: A unified brain theory? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 127–138.
Seth, A. (2021). Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. Faber & Faber.