Why Feng Shui is valid, but not magical

I respect Feng Shui and like buildings that are designed or modified to conform with its principles, but with one caveat. The general principles of Feng Shui are quite valid (although it's been taken to such detail as to be rather anal and just the result of "magical thinking" that has no basis in reality). Here's what I mean.

I tend to arrange things in my life a certain way, where I can, because they are both the safer choices and those that promote harmony. It's later that I will read a Feng Shui article and say, "Oh yeah, I already do that." The things that are the foundational components of Feng Shui are valid because they make both safety and harmonious sense. The problem is that they are incorporated in a combination "good fortune" and "spiritual" rationale, or rather, formula, that is fallacious. So I can tell you that Feng Shui principles are worthwhile pursuing and represent genuine benefits, but not because they are manipulative of the unseen spiritual world or of fate in any way. Here is a specific example.

I tend not to like open "edges" in my rooms. An example of an edge would be the shelves of a bookcase where the shelves point edgewise into the room (not toward each other like in the hall of a library where bookcases line the pathways). So I have had a preference for glass fronted bookcases, for example, and had the entire room in my dining room when I had the house lined with glass fronted book cases and curio cabinets. It makes more sense for protection of the contents from dust and also for reflective ambient light, but those are other issues. If I cannot eliminate an edge by a glass front, I might drape it with a pretty cloth. And speaking of pretty cloths, I have many pieces of fabric since I do quite a bit of decorating and sewing, and I leave them out while I am working on them, both to be handy and also because I love colors and patterns. I carry my avoidance of "edges" even to how I fold and display fabric. I have the rounded sides of the fabric bundles pointing toward me or the room in general, with the cut side of the fabric bundles toward the wall or away from me. It's only years after doing this that I first picked up a Feng Shui book and noticed that is one of their big principles. I thought of it first, LOL.

But seriously, the reason I thought of it before seeing it as a codified principle is that I came to the conclusion that the early humans had come to, which is to avoid edges in their every day surroundings. Now why would they do this? Remember, humans have evolved in their bodies and minds for over millions of years in a natural world that does not contain any edges! Think about it; there is nothing in nature that is an edge except for short sections of rock structures. Edges are man made by definition, since they are created using a straightedge and a saw.

Humans are programmed to avoid things that look "out of place" and therefore "dangerous" in nature. That's why most people still jump in fear at a snake, for example (their programming, not that the snake is out of place). Humans are programmed to maximize their survival instincts.

Now, one of the problems with modern society is that we are taught to "override" our natural survival instincts to avoid things that are inharmonious and out of place. People surround themselves with activities and devices that ancient humans would have felt huge instinctive alarm bells going off in their heads to avoid because of their strangeness or potential danger. Like the straight edge of a rock face might have told ancient humans that this is a brittle place that is prone to landslide, so they would avoid climbing those areas or using caves under such areas. It's not because they were geological geniuses, or because "it is unlucky." Humans with big brain capacity have survived for millions of years by observing what works good and what doesn't. So it would make perfect sense for them to have an ancestral suspicion of open straight edges.

So here is why Feng Shui "works." In our modern society we suppress our survival instincts. In fact, much of "entertainment" consists of putting ourselves in not logical places to be, as far as our survival instincts would figure it, and then enjoy the adrenalin rush. Adrenalin is produced as a result of the body and mind going, "Oh, oh. Do you really want to be doing this?" Thrill seekers groove on the adrenalin and suppress the body and mind's caution. But adrenalin takes a toll; it is a known factor in anxiety, depression and physical conditions, including those of the heart, nerves and digestive system. I've explained to people that I counsel that adrenalin is like taking an acidic drink. You may "handle it" and it "passes" but it does have a gradual corrosive effect.

Therefore, when humans ignore their millions of years of evolutionary conditioning, adrenalin is still released, though you may no longer feel it, either because you are "used" to the culture or because each release of adrenaline is tiny. Therefore, living in a room with a bookshelf that has open edges facing you is a "challenge" to your evolutionary survival instinct and caution flagging system, releasing a tiny amount of adrenaline whenever you are in the room, unbeknownst to you. This is obvious if you think about it. Like I said, it's not like the library with millions of shelves down the street is "unlucky" or the attic you never go into with open ended shelves is "unlucky," but it is your presence in a room that has an object that is in conflict with your evolutionary survival instinct that triggers your unknowing "fight or flight" anxiety, accompanied by inner stress and adrenaline. So I "feel better" when I minimize the exposed edges in any room that I am in because I'm not in a place that is challenging a human body's evolved physical and mental criteria for "fight for flight" or "strangeness."

While I take it to the detail of the fabric folding technique, for example, I'm not a lunatic about it. So I don't have a problem with the edge on my glass top table being in the room, though I am not thrilled at where I have to place it due to being in a tiny apartment where I cannot soften it's angles to the room. I often put a cloth over it. And there are some things, such as the plywood boards that I use to put my little toy train systems on, where the "edge-ness" of it really is not noticed by me. Feng Shui is therefore a matter of managing the surroundings so as not to trigger either the collective or the individual thresholds of subliminal stress. This is why "following Feng Shui principles" "works" because it "promotes harmony." If you are feeling constant subliminal stress because your surroundings trigger ancestral evolutionary teachings of your body or mind to feel "caution" or "concern," then you might indeed have "bad luck" because you will feel physical stress and/or ailments, mental or emotional stress and/or ailments, and might possibly act out accordingly in a "self fulfilling prophecy" kind of way.

Let's take just quickly another example. I like houses that are up the side of a hill or mountain slope, but not on the top. I also like that the mountain be on the more northern side of the house. There are practical reasons for this. Water runs downhill, so no basement flooding. Lightning strikes the highest surfaces, so avoid the peak of the hill or mountain. The coldest winds come from the north, so put the north slope in that direction to mitigate the coldness by blocking the wind. Also the home and garden receives sun from the east, south and west directions, not the north, so why "waste" one of those directions being "blocked." In fact, my house had all of the above except the hill was to the west and annoyed me every single day because the sun would set almost two hours early and the houses on our road would be in shadow too soon every day. That's one thing I would have loved on a daily basis to have fixed about my NJ home, and it stressed me to see sun shining down on the town all the way to NYC while me and my neighbors were in shadow. So one day I read the Feng Shui book and find that it recommends houses on slopes, but not the top, and certain north south running hills (going into all sorts of hoo ha about dragons and so forth); in other words, I was "already doing" the "Feng Shui," just as the man who had built the house I lived in had "done it without knowing it." Feng Shui is not magic; it is one of the fruits of human evolution, instinct and observation. I bet lots of people who have the sun blocked on their farms were "unlucky" in their crop growing too. Um, I wonder why. *Thinks a minute* Is it because of the hill being the "correct shape and direction of dragon" or is it because the sun is blocked from shining on your freaking rice paddy or potato patch? It's valid but it's not magic or "spiritual."