Over the years, I have expressed the opinion that classical Feng Shui is a scientific practice. Now, I have adopted that view of Feng Shui all over the world, when I teach Feng Shui, BaZi and Mian Xiang in seminars. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that my comments had created a debate on the question of what creature is Feng Shui: is it a scientific practice? Pseudoscience? Or purely belief? Therefore, I thought I would go into this topic in more depth and explore the scientific side of classical Feng Shui.
You have to believe in Feng Shui, so it is not science.
Wait a minute, you should also believe your doctor before you go to see him. You should also believe in your attorney before appointing him to defend you in a case. Does that mean the whole body of medical science is invalid if you don’t believe your doctor’s diagnosis? Of course, no.
When people exhort that Feng Shui is not a science or it is not scientific, the problem is that, to begin with, people may not understand what science is. The word ‘science’ comes from the Latin word scientia, which means knowledge. According to Wikipedia, science can be defined simply as “any field of systematic study or the knowledge obtained from it”. So how does Feng Shui compare to this definition?
There is no doubt that classical Feng Shui is a systematic field of study: by systematic I mean that it has basic models, basic principles, empirical evidence, and most importantly, documented observation. It is not invented. It is not this today, that tomorrow. It is not without a logical explanation.
How do scientists come to scientific conclusions? They conduct experiments, observe the results, repeat those experiments if necessary to ensure a consistent result, and then document their observations. Feng Shui has basic models and principles: the Five Elements, Yin and Yang, He Tu, Lo Shu, the principle of the Cosmic Trinity are examples of principles at the core of Feng Shui and many Chinese metaphysical practices. What about the empirical evidence? This has been building up since the Tang Dynasty! The ancient classics contain not only descriptions of landforms and the principles of Qi, but also pictures of mountains and water.
New books and new theories on Feng Shui, adjusted to the modern world we live in, are constantly being published and written in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The study and body of knowledge are constantly growing, as are scientific practices such as medicine and engineering.
In any science, a critical component is observation. Feng Shui is a component of the physiognomy, which is one of the five Chinese arts. It is known as the science of observing the environment. Many of the principles of Feng Shui are the result of observation by practitioners since the Tang Dynasty, which are later documented in classics such as Qing Nang Jing (Green Wallet), Ru Di Yan (Entering the Eye of the Earth) and Zi Bai Jue (Purple White Verse). ). Some of the classics that form the basis of the study of Feng Shui are not original classics that propose new ideas, but eliminate the observations that did not work and those that did. Feng Shui until the beginning of the 20th century was exclusively for imperial use. So the research was often carried out from one generation to the next, without breaks or pauses. This allowed the observation of what worked and what did not, over several hundred years.
Today, while not all Feng Shui masters can claim lineage affiliation, those who do document their cases extensively and comprehensively, so that the body of knowledge gathered during their lifetime can be passed on to the next. generation of the lineage, so that they can continue to observe the results and grow the body of knowledge.
Science is not just physics, chemistry, and biology. That is an extremely narrow perception of science. Science encompasses, among other things, the social sciences such as anthropology and sociology, the earth sciences such as geography (traditionally perceived as an “arts” subject in Malaysia), and applied sciences such as engineering, computer science, and science. psychology.
You can’t touch it, you can’t see it, how do you measure it?
Many people also point out that it is difficult to accept Feng Shui as a science because it is not possible to measure Qi. Again, that is a faulty perception.
Before Michael Faraday (1831-79), electricity and magnetic forces could not be measured. Does that mean that until Faraday’s time, electricity and magnetic forces did not exist? Electron microscopes helped pioneer the field of virology or the study of viruses. But does that mean that before that, viruses didn’t exist? Quasars and black holes still cannot be measured, but no one believes Stephen Hawking when he talks about wormholes in the universe, even if no one has seen one to know how it works, except in Star Trek.
Can you measure blood pressure with a stethoscope? Of course, no. We tend to assume that all things in our world and universe can be measured by rulers, test tubes, and electronic devices that we read about or have heard of. But if that were the case, then there would be no need to design special tools for measurement or observation in new fields like space exploration or quantum mechanics. Until the Hubble telescope, man studied the stars and the universe solely through observation. We had to build Hubble. Just like to explore space, we had to build the rocket.
So when we talk about measuring Qi, we must ask ourselves: what is the device for this particular kind of practice? Can’t we measure it because we are not using the correct device?
The Chinese already had devices to measure Qi. The solar and lunar calendar, the Luo Pan and observation skills: using your eyes to study the environment. Of course, today some of us use Google Earth. And you can buy an electronic Luo Pan. And plotting Flying Star or Da Gua calculations (a method for quantifying and identifying types of Qi) can be done electronically with a computer these days, or even with a Palm program. So who says that Qi cannot be measured? It is simply that Qi cannot be measured through the devices or means that people assume are used to measure everything in this universe, from gases to insects. After all, you don’t use a stethoscope to measure blood pressure, do you?
Art in all sciences
The other debate about Feng Shui is whether it is an art or a science. Let me make a potentially bold suggestion: in all science there is art. I think if you ask a doctor or a dentist, they will surely tell you that there is an art in the science they practice. This art is judgment. These are subtle elements that come with experience and the application of knowledge in different cases. Even in the purest science, the queen of science, mathematics, there is beauty and aesthetics!
Science only gives us the pure application. Art is what allows a person trained in a scientific practice to make a decision about which technique to apply and in which cases a technique can or cannot be used. This is also true in classical Feng Shui. There are universal principles in Feng Shui and formulas. This is science. But choosing the correct instance to apply the interpretation, or qualifying the instances in which a formula can be used, this is the art behind the science. In the same way, the environmental formations, the mountains and the water, are unique in each environment. So while they will conform to certain basic rules (for example, mountains always stop in water) and fall within a more sophisticated set of rules, the best way to harness and use Qi, depending on the structure (house, office building, tourist center) is art.
It makes sense if you consider all of this within the context of Yin and Yang, which is a fundamental principle of Feng Shui and all of Chinese metaphysics. Yin and Yang symbolize balance, perfection. Within science, that which is based on strict principles, there is room for artistic interpretation or application. Yin and yang.
Metaphysical thinking
Today’s metaphysics is sometimes associated with wacky practices like the occult, but this ignores the very venerable history of metaphysics in the Western world. Aristotle was one of the famous thinkers associated with metaphysics, as were René Descartes and Albert Einstein. Western metaphysics is a heartbreaker and I don’t pretend to be an expert on Western metaphysics. But a cursory search on the internet will reveal that metaphysicians are interested in questions of existence (why are we here?), The study of gods or the divine, along with an understanding of causality (why things happen). , relationships and the universe. It combines reasoning and logic, with philosophical ideas.
Classical Feng Shui and the five Chinese arts were always recognized as metaphysical themes by the Chinese, in other words, scientific practices with philosophical existential problems. Metaphysics is a more accurate means of describing Feng Shui, BaZi, and Mian Xiang (although this does not detract from their scientific nature) because these scientific practices originated from the desire of the Chinese to understand the issues of destiny, the universe, destiny, existence and identity, which are essentially metaphysical or philosophical questions. Feng Shui, BaZi, and Mian Xiang have philosophical overtones in their scientific discoveries because they are essentially sciences for understanding a person’s life.
Now I am a Feng Shui practitioner and trainer. I am not a philosopher and I am certainly not an expert in metaphysics or science. My goal in this article has been to give you an idea of how I have come to my conclusion about Feng Shui as a scientific practice. I don’t expect people to be immediately convinced of my point of view, but I think getting to the truth is never about what a person thinks, but about opening the mind to possibilities before reaching conclusions. Stimulating debate, opening the door for discussion, and presenting alternative perspectives is part of how new ideas can be accepted.
For a long time, people believed that Feng Shui was about superstition, cultural beliefs (symbols and trinkets), or religion. Fewer and fewer people think that today. Like thousands of years ago, people thought that the world was flat. People may not be convinced that Feng Shui is a science or a scientific practice, but if they open their minds to the possibility, just as Galileo opened their minds to the possibility that the earth was round, I have done! my job!