 |
Health Psychology Home PagePapers written by students providing scientific reviews of topics related to health and well being |
| Search | Home | Weight Loss | Alternative Therapy | Supplements | Eating Disorders | Fitness | Links | Self-Assessment | About this Page | |
FENG SHUI
And
YOUR HEALTH
By
Tamkeen Manasia
What is Feng Shui?
Feng Shui, literally meaning
wind-water, is an ancient Chinese philosophy developed over 8,000 years ago
about the relationship between humans and their environment and the effects of
that connection on a person’s overall well being. It allows people to work efficiently, comfortably, and
successfully by following the patterns of nature, i.e. living in harmony with
one’s natural surroundings instead of disrupting it. Feng Shui calls on individuals to tune into themselves and their
environment which includes interior and exterior space, light, sounds, smells,
materials, furniture arrangement and how all of this affects one’s mental and
physical energy.
Energy or Qi is flowing
continuously all around whether one is aware of it or not. It is not visible and its presence is known
through its affects on physical surroundings or landscape. Qi must flow eternally without interruptions
because it affects all things in the environment and through that, one’s health. Qi is organized into five basic elements:
metal, fire, water, wood, and earth.
These elements of Qi are not static physical elements but rather, they
have direction and unique wavelengths.
Qi is cyclical in that energy changes from one phase to another and is
not created or destroyed.
In order to apply the
philosophies of Feng Shui to one’s working and living space, one must consult a
Feng Shui consultant or enroll in one of the many courses offered across cities
in the country. Yes one must learn this
art from a master for a nominal fee.
Although the art of Feng Shui is not a new fad, the sudden mass appeal
to it in the West is. Unlike other
promoters of get-healthy-quick programs, these Feng Shui promoters do not pose
to be doctors but rather experts of Feng Shui from a lineage of Feng Shui
masters. The promoters of Feng Shui on
the world-wide-web target multiple areas of the western population. Their first target are people who are not
satisfied with the how healthy, happy, or wealthy they are and seek to improve
those aspects of their lives instantly.
Secondly they target those adventure seekers who don’t want to be left
behind in the new trends of society.
How is it supposed to
affect your health?
Feng
Shui, because it is concerned with the flow of energy in one’s space, makes
your environment healthy. One’s
physical health is a part of their environment. So if one’ environment or space is not healthy, the individual is
not healthy. This problem deals
directly with pollutants in the environment.
No not those radioactive pollutants you read about in newspapers or
magazines. These “pollutants” are much
more broadly defined and include anything from extra noise in the environment
(like the hum of a refrigerator) to undesirable Qi from people to clutter in
general. One especially outrageous
claim from a Feng Shui consultant pointed towards the necessity of reducing or
eliminating electromagnetic fields in the home or office environment due to the
detrimental effects of it on health. The solution is to strike an optimum
balance between the five elements within any surrounding.
How are the elements of
Qi in Practice?
Wood
is the first element because it is said to be the beginning of new life. In order to incorporate this element into a
room, one should add a bushy plant because it retains a lot of live Qi. The plant helps to maintain good air quality
as well.
Fire
is the next element and it is said to be the masculine counterpart of the other
elements. The Fire element can be incorporated
into any room by introducing candles or the color red. This energy is said to affect health and
relationships.
Earth
is an element that can be found in soil, stone and clay. It is incorporate into a room by adding any
of the above mentioned to a room.
Metal
is the next element and it can be found in any naturally occurring metal. Incorporating this into a room is really
easy and all one has sharp edges.
Water
is a key element because our planet is mostly made up of water and so are
we. To incorporate it, one can add a
small flowing fountain to make sure the water is not stagnant or by the use of
the color blue. This energy is related
to sex and money. Having a healthy flow
of this is said to reduce adultery and bring in wealth.
One
last essential component to healthy, flowing Qi is to make sure to remove
clutter and maintain cleanliness within the space.
What does the
Scientific Literature say about all of this?
Although many of the supposed ways of eliminating bad Qi and redirecting good Qi are not directly mentioned in scientific publications, some of the vehicles of incorporation of the elements of Qi are mentioned. In other words there are no studies comparing homes of Feng Shui practicing inhabitants in the areas of physical and mental health, happiness, and wealth, to inhabitants of homes without Feng Shui. Such a task would be nearly impossible to do because there would too many variables to control. For instances, it would nearly impossible to find two identical families with the same number of children, economic status, history of mental or physical illness, daily occupation and so on. There are however studies on the effects of plants in a home environment, correlation between color and mood of individuals, effects of electromagnetic fields and related health problems of people, and the effects of cleanliness and clutter in surroundings on the health of the individuals living there.
A study
conducted by O’Reilly and Handforth titled “Occupational therapy with
“refractory” patients” on a selected group of 14 mentally patients looked at
the effects of gardening or taking care of plants as a method of occupational
therapy (O’Reilly, Handforth, 1955). In
the study, the subjects were given the opportunity to care for a garden in the
summer and houseplants in the winter.
Only one subject failed to show a striking degree of improvement
personally and interpersonally after taking care of plants. This study shows the beneficial effects of
planting on individuals. Although the subjects
in this study were mentally ill, the results could also be applied to the
general population in showing that caring for plants is beneficial. With this said, there was no literature on
the good circulation of Qi the environments of the subjects so that claim of
Feng Shui is unfounded.
The next element
for which any studies could be found was the element of fire with its
incorporation of the color red in a room to successfully involve Yang elements
in a room. A study conducted by Nancy
Stone (Stone, 2001) titled “Designing effective study environments” on the
effects of interior design of study environments examined the impact of an
open-plan or private environment and various colors on the student’s mood,
satisfaction, motivation and performance.
The study setting and study material were manipulated in a stimulated
study environment to determine their effects on 124 adult students. Results show that students that had more
negative mood when doing a reading task and slightly higher positive mood when
studying in a blue carrel compared to a red carrel in a open-plan setting. Satisfaction with performance and motivation
were not affected. Performance was
slight lower on the reading task in the red environment. The study actually suggests that the color
red appears to a have negative impact on the mood the people in the room that
contradicts the Feng Shui theory of the fire element’s improvement of personal
health and happiness.
The next claim of Feng Shui’s effects on health I
investigated was effects of electromagnetic fields on sleep in healthy
humans. According to the claim, found
in www.FengShuiTimes.com, the 
presence of electromagnetic fields (EMF) from various
electrical sources and appliances such as refrigerators, computers, and alarm
clocks should be reduced or eliminated because they interfere sleep and reduce
melatonin levels. In a study conducted
by Mann and Roeschke titled “Effects of pulsed high-frequency electromagnetic
fields on human sleep”, it was found that a hypnotic effect with a shortening
of sleep onset latency, a rapid eye movement (REM) suppressive effect with
reduction of duration and percentage of REM sleep was found when there was a
high presence of EMF (Mann, Roeschke 1996).
The study however was not conclusive about the health hazards associated
with pulsed high frequency EMF of human sleep.
This again finds the claim of Feng Shui’s elimination of pollutants such
as EMF to result in healthier individuals to be based more on heightened
perceived risk of health hazards then anything else.
The
only element of Feng Shui I found to extremely important to individual’s health
was one about the importance of cleanliness and elimination of clutter in the
home environment. A study conducted by
Steketee, Frost and Kim titled “Hoarding by the Elderly” looked at the effects
of having extensive clutter in the home environments of 62 elderly subjects
(Skeketee, Frost, Kim, 2001). The study
showed that most elderly hoarders were unmarried women who lived alone. The extensive clutter was associated with
significant impairment, interfering with basic hygiene, and posing a serious
physical threat for many elderly subjects.
The subjects were rarely insightful about their collecting and often
resisted change, rendering interventions ineffective. Never-married status was associated with more severe hoarding and
greater impairment and possibly with worse outcomes of intervention efforts. The study was conducted via structure telephone
interviews and elderly services providers to investigate hoarding behaviors in
relation to functional impairment, cognitive deficits, and physical and
psychological conditions.
What does all of this
really mean for Feng Shui’s claim on improvement in overall health of an
individual?
It
means that Feng Shui, although not harmful to the health of individuals, is
also not particularly helpful. The
placement of various items around in a room to help channel Qi properly has no
known effects on health. The marketers
of Feng Shui in households, like fortune telling gypsies, will tell you that
Feng Shui only works if you really believe it will work. Most of the anecdotes of material and
emotional wealth cited in the websites of Feng Shui are mere coincidences that
happened around the same time as the Feng Shui instructor became involved. It seems highly unlikely that designing a
home properly will prevent a spouse from cheating, mental health of teenage
children to improve, and family affairs to magically improve as is claimed in www.spiritweb.org/Spirit/feng-shui.html
Bibliography
Websites
www.gems4friends.com/fengshui.html
www.liu-fengshui.com/htm_pages/whatisFS.htm
www.spiritweb.org/Spirit/feng-shui.html
Literature
O’Reily, P.O., Handforth, J.R. (1955).
Occupational therapy with “refractory” patients. American Journal of
Psychiatry (p. 763-766). US: American Psychiatric Assn.
Stone, Nancy (2001). Designing effective study environments. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, Vol 21(2) (p. 179-190). United Kingdom: Academic
Press Ltd.
Mann, K., Roeschke, J. (1996). Effects of pulsed
high-frequency electromagnetic fields on human sleep. Neuropsychobiology,
Vol 33 (p.41-47). Switzerland: S Karger AG.
Steketee, G., Frost, R.O., Kim, H.J. (2001).
Hoarding by elderly people. Health and Social Work Vol 26(3) (p.
176-184). US: National Assn of Social Workers.
