When you’re dealing with scams, women seem to be the victims more often. This is true for bunco scams of most sorts. I’ve often said that the psychic rip-offs are a feminist issue. Our society seems to tell women that they’re more "intuitive" and that’s a way to say something very beautiful in a very ugly way. Being open-minded … does not mean being a sucker. Being skeptical is not being cynical. To me, they aren’t even related.
—Penn Jillette

Many feng shui practitioners live off a client base that echoes the current demographic of the self-help/New Age genre — white women with some college background who, if they work, generally are employed in fields typically dominated by women such as secretarial or administrative work, elementary or secondary school teaching, and counseling.

That’s why the literary attempts of many feng shui practitioners echo the psycho-religious language used in self-help and New Age books, and books that cross over both genres — such as McFengshui books.

This explains why feng shui authors are so repetitive: readers of the material actually expect authors to overgeneralize, oversimplify, and repeat themselves, creating what Wendy Simonds calls a "ritual of self-reassurance," a "crutch for guidance" that works "like a mild dose of Valium."

McFengshui is the opiate of the New Age masses

Readers of this stuff often acknowledge that their reading selections have a similarity to drug use.

Like romance novels, psycho-religious material such as McFengshui books is known to be addictive for certain personality types. Mostly the addiction can be blamed on inherent self-soothing mantras (in which, like the home on the range, you never hear a "discouraging word"), but also because reality never intrudes.

It’s these inborn traits of psycho-religious (and McFengshui) material that concern some people and outrage others.

Particularly offensive is the trait Simonds calls the "unhealthy collapsing of judgment, a postmodern relativism that does away with morality in its focus on self as omnipotent."

Other observers, from Todd Gitlin to Richard Rosen (who invented the word psychobabble) don’t mince words, calling the material inarticulate, jargon-packed, and obscene mindlessness.

Jonesing for a fame corner

No one questions that psycho-religious reading, such as McFengshui, can create addictions. That it influences people to become passive, narcissistic consumers is also accepted by a range of individuals, from book editors to the addicts themselves.

No one disputes the presence of deceit in the marketing and promotion.

Feeding on the larger culture’s view of drug addicts and addiction, the general impression of the genre is that it ruins mental faculties and wastes lives in mindless activity.

For people whose culture and artifacts have been appropriated by members of the psycho-religious subculture, there’s nothing holistic or spiritual or alchemical about it — it’s pure theft, disrespect, and crass materialism. Journalist Ron Rosenbaum was the first to notice the link between get-rich-quick literature and occult language; it permeates McFengshui like the scent of a skunk.

Stinkin’ Thinkin’

One of the big differences between McFengshui and the real thing is the triumph of entertainment over information. A McFengshui consultant uses their McFengshui belief system, personal biases, and some famous con-artist techniques, such as cold reading and the Forer Effect, to render an opinion about a building and its contents.

People addicted to McFengshui receive a small range of psychological benefits because of the Placebo Effect. But because the McFengshui benefit is all in people’s heads, what’s done in the name of McFengshui is actually abusive to the planet.

McFengshui endorses anti-ecological practices, such as the excessive and unnatural trimming and “de-cluttering” of landscapes. Sanitizing nature is the McFengshui equivalent of burning rainforest or applying Agent Orange.

There aren’t any neat and tidy areas in nature. A landscape that is neat and “clutter-free” according to McFengshui rules is actually overmanicured — and dead. There’s no place for life — for example, there are no places for birds to nest or hide, no food for them, and too many chemicals.

McFengshui advocates that we conquer nature, sanitize and “improve” it. However, the planet will not survive. We will not survive.

No matter how McFengshui addicts and suppliers rationalize that they have a great relationship with the planet, it is no coincidence that McFengshui does not acknowledge global warming or have a response beyond “buy more stuff.”

McFengshui is greenwash. Use McFengshui principles and you participate in the rape of Nature.

A real alternative

Environmental awareness is part of the original practice of feng shui. Environmental awareness also keeps you mentally and physically fit. It’s important to the spiritual and emotional well-being of humans (especially children), to other life forms, and the planet.

We have to work within Nature’s rules. That’s the essence of Daoism. From the fourth or fifth century BCE that’s also been the impetus behind authentic feng shui.

Real feng shui acknowledges the power of Nature over humans, for example:

• Building with the land, instead of using cut and fill, typically means less development costs, fewer lawsuits for engineering and environmental problems, and happier clients.
• Orienting houses according to feng shui principles to achieve proper alignment for solar gain — thus reducing cooling and heating bills, and the impact of global warming.
• Painting exteriors of buildings dark at the base and light at the top, with light roofs. This creates less of a heat island effect.
• Surrounding yourself with the natural world increases your overall health. Biophilia increases sales. The absence of nature creates mental illness and despair.

The objective of real feng shui is to play by the planet’s rules. Feng shui provides the rules that have enabled China, the longest continuous civilization in human history, to survive.

Real feng shui does not exist to arrange the environment for our personal gain. It exists to fit us within the environment. That is how feng shui keeps us safe and healthy, and gives us the ability to prosper. That is why feng shui can be used to combat global warming and environmental disaster.

When we ignore the rules we invariably make more trouble for ourselves — think Katrina and the missing wetlands. Think of the missing mangrove forests that would have prevented so much devastation from the 2005 Asian tsunami. Think global warming.

Addiction to McFengshui is persuasive and pervasive. But you need to give it up for the sake of the planet.