Feng Shui Essay

Feng shui traces its origin to ancient China. Although it was often utilized by the ancient Chinese to predict the future, feng shui was more than that. Literally translated as â€Å"wind water,† it was fundamentally a part of their beliefs concerning nature – specifically the anchored on the principle that when man elects to live with nature, he and his environment both benefit by his actions. This is in contrast to what happens when he is living against nature where his activities destroy either himself, nature, or both. (Carroll, 2007) According to Feng shui man is greatly affected by his physical and emotional surroundings. In other words, a man who finds himself in the midst of a negative atmosphere like noise, ugliness, or death is debased, while he who surrounds himself with things associated with the positive such as beauty, music, kindness, and sweetness joins the ranks of the virtuous and the noble. (Carroll, 2007) The so-called experts in feng shui claim that they utilize their knowledge about the five elements of nature (wood, water, fire, metal and earth) and the two energies called chi and sha to sense â€Å"metaphysical energies† and predict the directions of their flow. This is what occurs when they arrange the furnishings inside a house, recommend the best directional position that a building should take, or where to locate it within a piece of land before construction work starts. For instance, these masters would position the beds in every room in certain ways, they would tell the homeowners where to locate the dining room or bathroom, where the appliances should be, what kind of paintings or framed pictures to hang and where, or even which direction the house should face – all of these after using their â€Å"sensors† to tell which way the good energy flows. The objective of the exercise, according to feng shui masters, is to make optimum use of the good energies and avoid the bad energies. For some people, however, feng shui is nothing but superstition. (Carroll, 2007) Reference Carroll, R. T. (2007). feng shui. Retrieved September 23, 2007 from http://skepdic. com/fengshui. html