Peace, development and environmental protection are interdependent and indivisible.

—Rio Principle 25

We are a product of the Pleistocene, shaped by an untamed planet and creatures that are both nearly gone. If we succeed in destroying nature, choosing instead to replace what shaped us with objects of our own design, our entire species is likely to go mad.

The natural world, as David Orr points out, will have been supplanted by

the demented image of the [human] mind imprisoned within itself.

That’s not to say that dropping Cartesian anxiety cold-turkey will be any less stressful. In the book Ecopsychology, Anita Barrows concludes that “Nonattachment and interconnectedness receive far less validation by competitive consumer culture than the neediness and greediness of the little screaming ego.” She continues,

When by grace or by accident or even by intention something like what Freud described as the “oceanic feeling” does arise in us, our response is often terror, as though it signified the brink of madness. We defend against such loosening of boundaries as though our very survival were threatened; and the numbing which we ensure by our addictions to drugs, alcohol, entertainment, and so forth, prevents us from experiencing not only the depths of our anguish, but the potential we have for real communion with our world.

A substantial body of research indicates that human concepts of “landscape esthetics” are a mirror of the world that existed in the Pliocene and Pleistocene.

The reason our bodies respond favorably to the introduction of elements of this landscape into our modern lives is because we are hard-wired into the planetary landscape that existed before the Industrial Revolution, all the way back to the way the world was when our species was young.

The cult of wilderness is not a luxury; it is a necessity for the preservation of mental health. — Rene Dubos

That’s why pets, ponds and views of parks, waves, and scenes of antelope safely grazing in savannas can reduce systolic pressure and inhibit adrenals from secreting adrenaline. Ulrich, Simons and others (1979, 1983, 1986) have accumulated a large and consistent volume of research on the stress-reducing effects of natural settings and human observation of animals.

By and large we have destroyed the world our bodies and minds love best. Across national, racial, and cultural differences humans will choose an unspectacular or even mediocre natural setting over an urban setting devoid of nature. Vegetation and water together elicit the highest responses — they constitute “a guide to human behavior that is both ancient and far-reaching.” (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989)

This was echoed by another series of studies, which concluded that “Human genetic needs for natural pattern, for natural beauty, for natural harmony [are] all the results of natural selection over the illimitable vistas of evolutionary time.” (Iltis, 1973)

Water elicits a wide range of positive effects on the human psyche. As a species, we associate relaxation and peacefulness with natural settings having a water feature. A variety of researchers have tracked the behavioral responses of humans to water and concluded that the motion of water in fountains has the same “hypnotic attraction” as a waterfall.

Ulrich noted in a study that “a capacity for restorative responding to certain natural settings had major advantages for early humans” including, for instance, fostering the recharge of physical energy and “rapid attenuation of stress responses.”

Richard Leakey and others concluded that our early ancestors generally located their camps at the edge of water. Bands of humans also found landscape features such as boulders, mountains and rock outcroppings to locate at their back. These offered natural protection against attacking animals or rival human groups.

Science acknowledges that humans are hard-wired from the time of Australopithecus to prefer calm water before us to refresh us and offer a soothing view, to prefer the presence of vegetation and animals around us, and to desire a mountain or other imposing natural feature at our backs to allay fears of attack or predation. How strange it must seem to people that traditional Feng Shui has always preached this very setting as the ideal for human happiness and well-being!

The solution for … world alienation is not a Luddite uncoupling of mathematics and science. Instead there needs to be a juncture between education and direct sensory experience of life and nature.

—Aaron Katcher and Gregory Wilkins

Embrace the science but remain attached to the planet.

I am sure there is a powerful link between Feng Shui and Judaism (not historical, but spiritual). After all, Feng Shui is about being in place and one of the ancient names for God in Hebrew is ha Makom,  “the Place.” Finding place and being sync with Place is at the heart of spiritual awakening.

—Rabbi Rami Shapiro (from private correspondence)

Mark Johnson, trained in traditional Feng Shui and Chinese astrology in America and the East, pronounced the current state of Feng Shui use and knowledge in the U.S. as “ludicrous and confusing,” echoing American public opinion as well as most traditional masters and every traditional Feng Shui practitioner who ventures an opinion.

The explosion of theories and practices of something called “Feng Shui” among non-Asians has prompted many Asians to wonder if any of these self-proclaimed “Feng Shui masters” ever studied Asian philosophy and science, or if they just browsed a New Age bookstore. “There doesn’t seem to be any controls or standards of proficiency in this field at the present time,” Johnson says, echoing public sentiment regarding practitioners of Feng Shui.

The lack of systemized, widespread standards as well as conflicting opinions on philosophy and techniques make the possibilities for great scams likely. The public confession of Thomas Lin Yun, creator of Black Sect Feng Shui and the Black Sect Tantric Buddhist church, makes it clear that few of the New Age Feng Shui “celebrities” have much traditional or theoretical background.

Feng Shui Sellout

The public is keenly aware of the Babel of competing claims for Feng Shui, manifested most clearly in the wild variety of confusing information sold to them in Feng Shui books and Web sites by one “master” and “instructor” after another.

The quality of Feng Shui books depends on how the information was obtained and the relative depth of the publisher’s pockets. Literary agents in years past gobbled up clients who exhibited a good Feng Shui “pitch.” Until the end of the fad it was a lucrative market.

Many literary agents weren’t apparently concerned with qualifications. They didn’t know the material themselves, so they didn’t seem to realize their clients’ experience is limited to “repurposed” material gleaned from an introductory class on New Age practices interpreted as Feng Shui.

Some journalistic hacks have created Feng Shui careers by interviewing practitioners for a hefty fee. Some reasonably interesting (even conflicting) interviews and a little browsing in the New Age bookstore create profits for a writer who doesn’t know authentic practice because he has no education and relies on the validity of whatever his interview subjects tell him.

This lack of discernment is calculated solely to sell books. The consumer is ignorant of these goings-on.

A reasonable person can’t help but wonder if the current American fascination with Feng Shui has more in common with Charles Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and publishers’ profit margins than transmitting personal and environmental benefit, which has always been the science’s traditional purpose.

Unraveling the maze of confusing marketing claims, accreditations, and purported quality standards is difficult for consumers, especially when so many Feng Shui practitioners are extremely resistant to the idea. The ones who complain loudest believe that this kind of analytical approach and scrutiny of their practice is a personal attack. This could not be further from the truth, if the example of Feng Shui’s sister-science is any indication.

Feng Shui’s position in the Western world is roughly what Chinese medicine’s was when Nixon came back from China. However, with alternative medicine research programs in place at most of America’s premier traditional teaching hospitals, the move toward accreditation of Chinese medicine is fast approaching. Although cold comfort to the most outrageous so-called “Feng Shui masters,” the public should take heart that systematic Feng Shui practitioner accreditation may not be that far behind.

Recent years have witnessed a move by some Feng Shui schools toward certification programs to ensure quality among their practitioners. Feng Shui associations are springing up all over; continuous education is being stressed to recent graduates, and advanced certification requirements at some institutions are regularly “raising the ceiling” on quality. But there is far to go.

Consumer Guidelines Until There are Standards

If authors’ and practitioners’ claims for Feng Shui are confusing, chances are that they have exceeded the bounds of certainty. The information is unstable and unlikely to provide “high trust stretching into eternity,” which is the optimal zone for human endeavor. It is right to distrust and avoid this conflicting and confusing “information smog” and retreat to a more certain level of knowledge.

This does not mean a creative approach is undesirable — in truth, all humans use creativity and intuition. But beyond certain limits it is unworkable and leads to a dead end. Dr. Laurie Fitzgerald says

The universe is governed by a law which ordains that every system is subject to limits to its own growth; over time, the conditions that once fostered growth change or cease to exist and growth must stop.

Feng Shui within the context of complexity theory

We can understand the basic situation regarding Feng Shui in terms of certainty.

How far from being certain are we when we employ someone to do a reading for us — have they had extensive study and experiment under the watchful eye of instructors, are they accredited, or are they “winging it” after reading a book or taking a few hours of instruction in a college extension class?

Does the practitioner offer references? Does he or she belong to any Feng Shui associations or organizations that work to ensure quality among members? Can the practitioner show you files of case studies so you can gauge the measure of their skill, or do you accept their expertise on blind faith?

Have you ever heard of the teacher or school the practitioner is affiliated with — and is that school in agreement with Asian Feng Shui practitioners? (Remember the example of Lin Yun, the “wandering impostor” and “grand master” of disappointment, who is not well regarded by fellow Asians.)

Does the practitioner rely on spontaneous divination — the psychic reading or “intuitive approach” to Feng Shui — to gather knowledge about a structure, or is the assessment based on an accumulation of facts?

Do you know enough about the subject to know whether the practitioner’s views are in agreement with traditional theories, with millennia-old tried and true methodologies and applications, and with traditional authorities on the subject — most of whom have several hundred years of observation and experiment to draw from?

These issues are only now beginning to be raised, but they are coming from within the Feng Shui community. The infighting occurring between practitioners is deadly serious, but it’s not about competing claims. It’s concern about the quality of the service offered to the paying public.

Dr. Steven Rosenblatt, a family practice physician, is also trained in Chinese medicine and is a licensed acupuncturist. He leads the alternative medicine research program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Though he’s talking about Chinese medicine, consider his words a glimpse of the future of Feng Shui.

According to Dr. Rosenblatt, “We have to go forward with accreditation to ensure quality.” He says it is difficult but necessary from the consumer’s point of view, though

we’re taking [a study] from the Orient that has its roots in a different culture and are attempting to graft it onto our … system in this country. This transplant … will not be without its attendant problems and opportunities.