Feng Shui

Although some people dismiss Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese art of design and placement, as mere "mumbo jumbo" and "hocus pocus," I found it to be more along the lines of "silly superstitious claptrap." Feng Shui, which literally means "wind water," is more feng than shui, with its superimposition of something called a "ba-gua" over your floor plan--instead of dividing the house by rooms, the space is separated into areas like "wealth," "fame," and "marriage." If you add an addition to your house, you literally enhance some of these areas--depending on where you place the extra wing--while possibly diminishing others. In the example shown onscreen and on the video jacket, "knowledge" appears to be located in the garage. Come on; most of us "know" that tool kits with missing pieces, games that haven't been played in centuries, and small appliances that should rightfully be tossed except that they just need a little Mr. or Mrs. Fix-It action, are really what's found in the garage. The overriding idea seems to be that if we rearrange our furniture, we can unblock our chi or solve major behavioral problems. Say you find yourself making a beeline for your fridge when you shouldn't be, for instance; just hang a crystal from the ceiling halfway to the kitchen and you'll be deflected (I, on the other hand, will continue straight to the ice cream,. since crystals do not have a kryptonite-like effect on moi.) I suspect that there's more to this feng shui stuff than is represented on this video, but--for practical purposes--I'm not sure what to make of such vague unexplained remarks as "bonsai is a solution for people with illness" or "if your current relationship is on shaky ground, put a rock in your marriage area." A pet rock, maybe. Not recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)