All too often, when a relatively young culture imports an ancient, esoteric system from another culture, they tend to accept it without question and they invariably interpret that knowledge according to their own limited understanding. I have observed this happening with Feng Shui but we need to go beyond those tendencies in order to get to the real depth it has to offer. If we continue with our superficial practices, I am afraid that Feng Shui will never be taken seriously by the general public. I am convinced there is a validity and a profundity that is being lost due to our unwillingness to question, test and verify our results. In other words, our reluctance to go deeply into it.

Because Feng Shui claims to be able to affect almost all aspects of a person's life, it is imperative that we start investigating it in a scientific manner in order to find out what is valid and effective and what is simply superstitious nonsense. That way we can be more accurate and honest with our claims and hopefully more effective in our practice. However, this is easier said than done. It seems there are as many schools of Feng Shui as there are practitioners and there also doesn't seem to be any controls or standards of proficiency in this field at the present time. It is entirely possible that on any given day, if you hired a number of practitioners to Feng Shui your house because you started loosing money the day you moved in, any or all of these scenarios could actually happen....

Practitioner #1 walks in and says your "money corner" has stagnant Qi and puts a mirror in the corner.

Practitioner #2 determines with a compass which direction your front door faces and says your office is in a bad portent area called "Severed Fate". They suggest you move your office to the room called "Lengthened Years".

Practitioner #3 says the mountains to your west look like a dragon with its mouth open and is eating all your profits. They suggest you block the view of those mountains with a wall.

Practitioner #4 asks for your birthday while checking the orientation of your house and concludes that since you are born in a "Metal" year, the pointed fiery shape of your house is destroying your "metal" (or money making energy).