# Feng Shui? Nonsense! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 20, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267 "2004-01-20T01:33:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/1 "2004-01-20T01:33:55Z")
I have never paid any attention to the Feng Shui fad going around these days. I was completely ignorant of these ideas although I have a cousin that is a big fan of Feng Shui and is always telling me how the distribution of my current dwelling “is not good for my energy”. Well, I don’t know about energy, but when you are fresh out of school “energy” is not your main concern when you are buying furniture. Well, today I was watching this show where somebody analyzed somebody else’s house following the precepts of Feng Shui. I am, eh, flabbergasted. These were a just few of the suggestions they gave her. 1- Change the entrance to the house because it had a straight path. Energy can’t travel in a straight line, so it would not reach the house. 2.- Get rid of the security bars on doors and windows because the “element metal” should not be present at the entrance according to her “chart”. Whatever that is. 3.- She should not buy used furniture anymore as she can’t know what kind of energy they could bring from past owners. 4.- Change the kitchen because it is white. Being the kitchen a “point of fire” and white represents metal. Metal melts with fire. 5.- Get rid of the mirror because it faces the bathroom mirror and the energy bounces and could cause accidents. 6.- Get rid of the bed because it was inherited from her grandma and she had died of a painful disease. WTF? What a truckload of nonsense. Is this what this is really about? Do people really believe this? Wow! Why is this so popular? The world is full of morons. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![FaerieBeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FaerieBeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FaerieBeth)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/2 "2004-01-20T01:50:26Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > WTF? What a truckload of nonsense. Is this what this is really about? Do people really believe this? Wow! Why is this so popular? The world is full of morons. :eek: Well, I have never really paid any attention to the Feng Shui craze. In fact, for the better part of a couple years, I have been wondering what all those stupid home decor books were doing in the occult section of the local bookstores. Now I see. Feng Shui is home decor for the cosmically challenged? It has made for some interesting moments at the bookstore, though, as I browsed the herbals and tarot decks…to see a primly bunned and stoutly shod, no nonsense matron venture into the EEEEEEEEvil occult section for her instructions on aligning the energy of her kitchen and bathroom. Gee, I wonder what sort of energy all these empty soda cans are gathering here at my desk. FaerieBeth ---
**Author:** ![CheekyMonkey613](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@CheekyMonkey613](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheekyMonkey613)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/3 "2004-01-20T02:34:19Z")
Feng Shui might be popular now, but it’s certainly no fad. It’s been around for thousands of years. To be qualified to teach feng shui, you must study with a master for years. Feng shui was originally reserved for Chinese Emperors. The feng shui masters at the time knew that they could make money by selling the “philosophy” to regular folk. They knew that for this, they could be killed. So they wrote a “fake book” for the general population. Unfortunately, the bogus theories have carried on and still exist. Another problem is that people figure if they read a few books on the subject, they know what they’re talking about. Feng Shui is SO precise in calculations, etc that unless you’ve had MASSIVE training with a master, you’re probably not doing too much for yourself ~ or even worsening your situation. A lot of feng shui makes perfect sense, if you think about it. Only scratching the surface (as you seem to have done) can certainly give you a bad impression. If it doesn’t float your boat, that’s fine. But it’s widely practiced and highly respected by many people, especially Chinese business people who won’t even think of setting up shop without a master’s advice. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/4 "2004-01-20T02:43:56Z")
> [@CheekyMonkey613](#): > > A lot of feng shui makes perfect sense, if you think about it. I am willing to be educated. Pls. go ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Petter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dbc845/32.png) [@Petter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petter)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/5 "2004-01-20T02:57:44Z")
[Staff Report.](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mfengshui.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/6 "2004-01-20T04:36:31Z")
[QUOTE=Mighty\_Girl] WTF? What a truckload of nonsense. Is this what this is really about? Do people really believe this?QUOTE] Want to hear the best part?, Feng Shui masters (or whatever they call themselves) are paid a crap-load of money for babling utter nonsense. I guess I picked the wrong career. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/7 "2004-01-20T04:56:44Z")
On the other side of the coin, my mum occassionally says things like, “that shop is badly positioned” or “that house must have bad luck”. And leaves it at that. She doesn’t run over to my house and rearranges the tables, or is anal retentive about ornament placement. It’s the ‘proper’ Feng Shui as practiced by people who actually bothered to talk to their parents (ya know, handed down through the generations), not some garbage from crystal twirling maniacs trying to sell products. Honestly, when people start franchising cultures piecemeal, it’s enough to make me spit. With that off my chest, it’s still no excuse for the Feng Shui consultants in Hong Kong or Singapore. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/8 "2004-01-20T07:47:26Z")
I direct all dopers to the episode of **Penn & Teller’s Bullshit!** (on the Showtime cable network), where the boys sent two _feng shui_ “experts” (separately) to correct the energies for a woman’s house. Needless to say, after hours of studying the layout and rearranging furniture and selling overpriced fountains and wind chimes, the two ended up with furniture arrangements and “sagely advice” that was completely contradictory and at odds with what the other practitioner suggested. _Conclusion:_ feng shui is bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/9 "2004-01-20T07:49:27Z")
> [@CheekyMonkey613](#): > > A lot of feng shui makes perfect sense, if you think about it. Enlighten us. > [@](#): > > But it’s widely practiced and highly respected by many people So is dowsing, homeopathy, and talking to the dead. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/10 "2004-01-20T13:53:13Z")
Y’all are totally wrong. Sure, if it’s done badly, [Feng Shui](http://www.atlas-games.com/fengshui/) can be dull and uninteresting. But when you do it right, it’s immensely fulfilling and entertaining, and can improve the social cohesion of people in a room. I got some people together for Feng Shui one night, and while none of us knew exactly what we were doing, we all had a blast. Some of us literally: when the ninja started shooting at the mook’s motorcycles and hit the oil barrels instead, bodies started flying. Just keep the [Feng Shui](http://www.atlas-games.com/fengshui/) motto in mind: \*\*The true power of Feng Shui is known only to a few. They all want you dead. \*\* Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/11 "2004-01-20T14:00:59Z")
> [@CheekyMonkey613](#): > > A lot of feng shui makes perfect sense, if you think about it. :rolleyes: It only “makes sense” if you **don’t** think about it at all. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/12 "2004-01-20T14:04:21Z")
As **Rjung** noted, feng shui is nonsense, but its roots in Chinese geomancy do extend back in history. If you go to the Forbidden City in Beijing, the taped walking tour (narrated by Roger Moore) discusses feng shui’s influence on the buildings’ architecture, for example, building right turns into walkways to deter evil spirits from following you. If you go to Hong Kong, take a bus to Repulse Bay, where you can see an apartment building with a big square hole built into it so that the dragon that lives in the adjacent mountain can fly to the sea unobstructed. ---
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/13 "2004-01-20T14:10:23Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > I direct all dopers to the episode of **Penn & Teller’s Bullshit!** (on the Showtime cable network), where the boys sent two _feng shui_ “experts” (separately) to correct the energies for a woman’s house. Needless to say, after hours of studying the layout and rearranging furniture and selling overpriced fountains and wind chimes, the two ended up with furniture arrangements and “sagely advice” that was completely contradictory and at odds with what the other practitioner suggested. > > _Conclusion:_ feng shui is bullshit. Beat me to it. Although I thought there were three “experts” with three different findings. I think they had a Fung Shui haircut part too, right? Male twins, one paying excess of $100 for a “Fung Shui haircut” and another going to Lemon Tree for ten dollars. People on the street were asked to identify the fung shui. I believe the results were about 50/50. Fung Shui is just another example how people will pay you just for the perception that you are making their lives better. When in reality they just want your money (See: Evangelists, Psychic Readers, etc). Just because it is thosands of years old does not mean it has any validity to it. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/14 "2004-01-20T14:31:06Z")
You know, if you have a stairway leading directly to a door, your chi could run right outside and get hit by the milk truck. Be sure to cut a “chi flap” into your door so it can get back in at night, too. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/15 "2004-01-20T14:54:19Z")
Despite the more dubious claims of Feng Shui, a number of places I’ve been in that were designed along the principles were great spaces that were comfortable to be in. Aesthetics _do_ have effects on people. To what degree and what these effects are debatable of course. But, the lay out of a room and the colors, light etc, do have effects on the people who occupy the space. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/16 "2004-01-20T15:31:10Z")
And don’t forget to keep your toilet seat lid in the down position. Else your the positive ch’i you may generate with a properly arranged space coulde be flushed into the sewage system. But then I suppose the alligators living down there could use some positive ch’i . . . > [@](#): > > . . . by placing a small statue of the Three-Legged Toad God of Wealth near the medicine cabinet and making sure that the toilet seat was always down, it was possible to prevent positive ch’i from being flushed into the sewage system. And I _love_ these (feng che is feng ch’i for your vehicle): > [@](#): > > THE PRINCIPLES OF FENG CHE: A PRIMER > > 1. Replace all car ornaments with wind chimes, bamboo pipes and red or gold sashes. Remove such objects as velour dice, Fighting Irish Leprechauns or bobbing-head baseball mascots, which deflect positive ch’i away from the vehicle. This is particularly true of leprechauns, whose negative ch’i derives from substratal ethnic incongruity. > 2. Remove all bumper stickers, especially confrontational or vulgar messages. These attract enormous quantities of killer ch’i. > 3. Always drive with the windows closed, even on days when neither heat nor air conditioning is necessary. Open windows squander positive ch’i. > 4. Plug up all apertures such as cigarette lighters, ashtrays, vents, and glove compartments, preventing the egress of positive ch’i. Tape decks and compact disc players must always be occupied by cassettes or CDs. > 5. Never drive to work from the south. If you live far to the south or your office, move. If this is not possible, drive east, then north, then south, but only in a very wide arc. Or hire a driver and sit with your back to him facing an inflatable replica of the Three-Legged Toad God of Wealth. > 6. Never leave your car in the corner of a parking lot, especially if you work in the film industry. There is more negative ch’i in the corner of a Los Angeles parking lot than any other place in the world, not only because of the negative ch’i seeping into the lot from the corners, but because of the residual negative ch’i from all the other drivers who once parked in your spot. > 7. Never try to feng che a station wagon. Sell it, give it away, burn it. Just don’t try to feng che it. You are merely throwing good money after bad. [http://www.csicop.org/sb/2002-12/fengshui.html](http://www.csicop.org/sb/2002-12/fengshui.html) ---
**Author:** ![Aldebaran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Aldebaran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aldebaran)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/17 "2004-01-20T18:04:01Z")
To the claimers that Feng Shui = nonsense, I have only one reply: The nonsense I read here about “knowledge” and “instructions” which are sold for being Feng Shui is nonsense. If you want to undersand something you need more then watching a TV program “demonstrating it” or reading some “book” about it. If you have only done that and then claim yourself to be in a position to dismiss something as being “nonsense”, then I can only say that you show yourselves to be very lazy and very easy to misled and influenced. Especially when talking about something with such a very long history and tradition as what you are talking about right here. You are talking nonsense because you are watching, reading and believing nonsense. Salaam. A ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/18 "2004-01-20T18:27:49Z")
Aldebaran, you don’t have to be a freakin’ Proctologist to know not to step in a steaming pile of poo. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/19 "2004-01-20T18:43:50Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > You know, if you have a stairway leading directly to a door, your chi could run right outside and get hit by the milk truck. > > Be sure to cut a “chi flap” into your door so it can get back in at night, too. Would that be a Chi-a pet door? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267/20 "2004-01-20T21:12:11Z")
So, is a Chia pet good chi or bad chi and will it fit through your chi door? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feng-shui-nonsense/225267.md?page=2)