Feng Shui and its influence on Americans
We had a student ask the question: What is the influence Feng Shui has had on Americans?
This is an interesting question. One that can only be answered from a non-scientific and historical reflection on what has occurred over the last 15 years since the American Feng Shui Institute was founded. I say this as it is our frame of reference, being instructors at the Institute and early students. Let’s begin with that history. The AFSI began in 1991, when Master Larry Sang looked around and saw a lot of misunderstanding of what Feng Shui truly is. The only other school in the US, at the time, taught Black Hat Sect Tantric Buddhist Feng Shui. This school really began the craze of Feng Shui because of its easy to understand and very flexible methods. It was however not really Feng Shui as was passed down in China. Because of this, the AFSI was founded.
The AFSI began its classes at the University of Southern California. From there, it moved to Monterey Park. In the early days, nobody knew what Feng Shui was and only Asians and few adventurous non-Asians took the classes. Little-by-little, people started coming to the Institute. Mostly by word-of-mouth. People started practicing Feng Shui and seeing results. A few ventured out and became consultants. But for the most part, it was still unknown in the early 1990’s.
Master Sang wrote The Principles of Feng Shui in 1992. This book was the first book to speak of trigrams, the xuan kong method, flying stars, etc. It was also the first book to speak of the reductive cycle of the elements. It is now in its seventh edition. Today, many books show this same information. It is included in Architecture and Interior Design books. Many Feng Shui books now reference the same concepts that were introduced in the early 1990’s.
Then in the mid 1990’s the Institute setup its first website. (Click on the link to see an archive copy of the site!) A crude site by today’s standards (but then again, weren’t they all?). The interesting thing was that many more people started coming to the classes. People were looking for something. Feng Shui fit the bill. It wasn’t the cure all, but it helped people to understand their homes better.
Along the way, Feng Shui somehow became a fad. Suddenly there was a large demand for both classes and consultants. Talk shows spoke of Feng Shui, Radio DJ’s joked about it. Even Sunday comics spoke to it. People were having their homes redone and balancing their qi. Feng Shui books suddenly blossomed. There were so many people that were choosing to use Feng Shui in their homes, that it was amazing. Most people only read a book or two and through up a crystal or two, but they felt that they had done something to improve their lives. Of course, the reality is that crystals are not part of Feng Shui and the myths surrounding Feng Shui continued. But people wanted it.
In 1998, the AFSI then began having classes online. This allowed more people to study and understand Feng Shui. Now people were turning to the Internet to find out about Feng Shui. There were less than 100 Feng Shui websites in 1996. Now, in 2006, Google has more than 10 million pages listed. There are newsgroups, chat rooms, bulletin boards, and all sorts of Feng Shui information.
Architects and designers were studying Feng Shui too. In addition to studying Frank Lloyd Write and I.M. Pei and others, they turned to Feng Shui to balance their buildings. Hopefully this has had an impact as many architects stretch the limits and create buildings that are amazing, but not necessarily good in terms of Feng Shui. It had an impact though as some architects are still using and mentioning the concepts of Feng Shui today.
Then 9/11 hit. Suddenly people were no longer obsessed with having the perfect qi in their home. As with many things in American post-911, Feng Shui left the spotlight for darker things such as terrorism, WMDs, etc. Only last year, did the Feng Shui economy turn. People are now looking again for a solution to their problems. Heath, wealth and relationships are always a constant in human life. It seems that the current students are approaching the subject with a desire to explore deeper. Some students in the 1990’s saw Feng Shui as a way to make an easy living. As with most fads, the money rather than the study was the motivation. Not all were like that, but there were a few (as with many things). I do know that many students from that time, are no longer regular Feng Shui students or consultants, but still practice and understand the principles.
Now it seems that there is a stronger commitment, from current students, to an understanding that Feng Shui is a deeper study that takes time. Feng Shui is not difficult, but because like an onion, there is layer after layer, it can take you as deep as you wish to go.
That brings us to today and to the original question. What influence has Feng Shui had on American Society. In short, hopefully it has given a perspective that the environment around us is important. That by having a more balanced environment in our homes and office, that we can prosper. The Chinese culture for thousands of years has had this understanding, even if Feng Shui was only an Imperial pursuit. Ask any Chinese person about qi or the elements and they can relate the concepts to you. The people have a cultural understanding. China is the oldest nation-state on Earth. America is the young child, who is still maturing. With any luck, this Chinese study of the environment has instilled a new value for where we live and work upon us.
