| Critical thinking and feng shui |
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Some initial thoughts on the importance of critical thinking and feng shui:One frequently hears of the concept of Critical Thinking when looking at ways of addressing social and scientific issues (think global warming and the contentious arguments for and against as to whether or not manmade carbon emissions are a significant contributor towards it). Political and moral questions, e.g. abortion and the death penalty are two hot potatoes in which opposing factions frequently each lay claim to the use of critical thinking as the means by which they have reached their respective and supposedly scientifically and/or morally correct conclusions. Critical thinking is often cited as an effective antidote to conspiracy theories and is for the most part deemed to be a fairly modern construct. Here are three widely accepted definitions: …… the ability to analyse facts, generate and organise ideas, defend opinions, make comparisons, draw inferences, evaluate arguments and solve problems. (Chance, 1986, p6) Reasonable, reflective thinking focussed on deciding what to believe or do. (Ennis, 1992) Skilful, responsible thinking that facilitates good judgement because it (1) relies upon criteria, (2) is self-correcting and (3) is sensitive to context. (Lipman, 1995, pg 146. But an interesting question to ask is just how modern are the basic ideas that underlie the concepts enveloped by Critical Thinking? Buddhist teachers talk of the ideals presented within the Noble Eight Fold Path, so named because it is composed of eight categories: Right Understanding Right Thought Right Speech Right Action Right Livelihood Right Effort Right Mindfulness Right Concentration In particular it is the categories of Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration that mesh comfortably with the modern concepts of Critical Thinking. So just why is something like Critical Thinking important when considering something like feng shui? Let’s take the last definition and see how Critical Thinking might help us evaluate the efficacy and reliability of classical Chinese feng shui within the confines of Lipman’s definition. Skilful responsible thinking that facilitates good judgement: First off, we need to consider carefully just what it is we might be trying to judge or assess about feng shui? Let’s say we are trying to decide whether or not feng shui is centred on anything consistently reliable and may have at least some scientific basis, or is just simply all superstition. First of all I think we cannot legitimately claim that feng shui is a science. There are simply too many variables currently in its application and not enough known about any scientific reasons for why it seems to work, for us to make this claim. I do think however we can claim that it is based on scientific principles, by which I mean it is clearly founded on nature’s own laws and that those laws are demonstrable. How can we justifiably make that claim? Well to quote one of today’s real feng shui masters, Grand Master Raymond Lo who says: ‘Whatever is based on natural principles is predictable’, we need to examine whether or not the effects of feng shui, consistently applied across a broad spectrum of recognised criteria, are in fact, predictable. This includes both diagnostic and the remedial aspects of feng shui. Literally it means that if x can be found in every situation that is defined by the rules of feng shui as being innate to x, and the accepted prescribed feng shui remedy of m can be proven to result in alleviating the recognised symptoms of x in every, or almost every case, then we can say we have a consistently predictable or repeatable factor. Let me give you a simple but common example. Take a house which has a view right through the building from its main used entrance. A properly trained feng shui master would in 99.9% of all such cases, predict that the occupants will have trouble saving money. This is either provable or not. If it can indeed be substantiated in 99.9% of all cases encountered, and the prescribed remedy (an appropriate screening of the views in the right place) can then also be proven to relieve the problem, and those same occupants can then demonstrate that they indeed do have more money at the end of the month on a consistent basis than they had previous to the feng shui being adjusted, we can begin to say we just might have a consistently repeatable factor. Now of course all of this is assuming that the occupants of house b are operating under the same circumstances as the occupants of say house y with the same factor also found in it, (a view directly back out again at the main point of entry, same domestic economy, same income levels etc.). And here is the rub, because of course, there are enormous and terribly difficult to extrapolate differing circumstances: personal, psychological, financial and otherwise at work in each individual house and group of occupants. This is an example of why at present, it is impossible to say feng shui is an exact science. I think we can safely say however, supported by a great deal of circumstantial and anecdotal evidence, that feng shui is a time honoured technology, that provides what appears to be a reasonably consistent and reliable template for defining and assessing certain recognisable factors in an around our physical environment. Another example we might use is that trade always occurs at the boundary of water where no view to the mouth (entranceway) of that water can be seen. This is just the macro example of the same micro principle demonstrated above but it is perhaps more easily proven in the macro. When it comes to defining proven and acceptable criteria for Flying Stars School feng shui, however, the game suddenly notches up a whole different level and will eventually take a great deal of skill indeed to be able to organise and collate acceptable methodologies for scientifically proving the flying star’s veracity.So what would help to start collating and extrapolating all this theoretical material? One recognised method would be to collate an empirical record of all such factors. There are in fact many of these that have been kept over many hundreds of years by the Chinese but they have yet to be collated and their results extrapolated in a modern and more recognisably scientific manner. The above is, I hope an example of Lipman’s ‘skilful responsible thinking that facilitates good judgement’. Relies upon criteria: The application of pre-set criteria when analysing feng shui should be that feng shui must fit the profiles of at least one of two classically recognised and accepted Chinese systems; known generally within a Chinese cultural context as schools: The San He and San Yuen Schools. These classical feng shui schools set out and define the generally accepted criteria by which the principles of feng shui may and may not be applied. These have been empirically tested and recorded consistently since at least AD 25; the only weakness by so called modern western standards being that so far, the system lacks any recognised, systematic method of peer revue. There have however, been many cases of highly respected masters writing up their theories and experiences and publishing them for others to have access to. Not quite the same thing I accept, as the modern practice of peer review but still it’s been open to some pretty rigorous debate historically. Another preset criterion we could use is training. The properly trained feng shui consultant needs considerable skill in his or her practice of geomantic principles, none less than in their thought processes. In order to be able to accurately assess, analyze and order the regulating of the myriad known effects of the environment on those for whom they practise feng shui, they need to have had a great deal of guided thought. This thinking needs to have been moulded and shaped by thoughtful, experienced feng shui teachers who are able to impart through (often years of) rigorous systematic training, the definitions of the boundaries and roles that the principles of classical Chinese feng shui can and cannot achieve for their clients. These traditional thought processes form very strict criteria which, when applied properly, do in no small way, help to regulate the standards by which the technology is supposed to be administered. Much work is currently being done by senior Chinese feng shui masters to clean up the training field and to ensure long term professionalism within feng shui: yet another example of recognised criteria. This leads us to the concept of Self Correction: Although it must be readily conceded that the modern practise of peer review would go a very long way to further fulfil the requirement of Self Correction, there is nevertheless a pretty much globally accepted societal mechanism inherent in today’s market place that applies to the practise of feng shui as much as to any other commercially available service and which works just as well today as it did in 9th century Tang Dynasty China; namely that of supply and demand. Let’s face it, if feng shui did not bring some perceived benefits, no one, especially those for whom it is not a cultural norm, such as it is for the Chinese, would ever dream of using it. Yet today, in spite of the colossal abuse by so-called New Age feng shui masters in recent years in the West, it has still become standard practise for many non Chinese who have been exposed to its benefits. (When I first opened my practise part-time here in Auckland in 1995, I was the first and only classical practitioner in New Zealand listed in the phone book. By 2002 there was something like thirty eight businesses listing themselves as feng shui consultants. Even then I was still the only classical practitioner. Today there are fewer than three consultants working consistently in New Zealand and I am still the only one actually doing purely classical Chinese feng shui.) End results and the market, eventually correct the system. This is also the case in Asia where from time to time new whiz-bang Masters suddenly appear and then just as quickly disappear, but the real practitioners of the art show the power of their feng shui and their professional stamina year after year, decade after decade, quietly serving the interests of their clients. Finally then we come to the third requirement. Is sensitive to context: Logically speaking, I think, this Critical Thinking principle must also apply to the use of feng shui in the West, as much as its use within the Chinese Diaspora. I frequently find a surprised disbelief amongst some new Chinese clients that anyone but a Chinese person would even be interested in feng shui, let alone become an expert in its application. ‘Do Westerners really believe in feng shui?’ they ask me in wonder. ‘Isn’t feng shui a part of Chinese culture? How can you a Westerner learn feng shui’ Therein lays the rub of course. If feng shui really works, it must work because it is based on something which supersedes mere cultural values, and relies instead upon recognisable laws of nature. To return to R. Lo’s maxim of ‘anything which is based on natural principles is predictable’, one of the Critical Thinking criteria we must apply to feng shui has to be, does it verifiably work or doesn’t it? And does it work in reliably and consistently predictable ways? If a suitably acceptable answer in the affirmative has at least to be based in part on recorded empirical studies, which feng shui clearly has been, then we can say it works within the confines of its classical application. (This therefore clearly excludes the practise and use of all those multitudinous systems of the so called: Tibetan Black Hat, the New Age, Western and Southern Hemisphere schools as none of these have ever had any of the above criteria applied to them. There is no historic recorded study of their results and no systematisation of their methodologies. Neither do they fit the prescribed rigours of traditional training methodologies. They therefore disqualify themselves automatically as no recognised criteria can yet be applied to them) The idea of ‘sensitive to context’ then must be that it either works or it doesn’t work on reliable and consistent terms in and out of the Chinese Diaspora and, not that it must be applied and only work within the context of Chinese culture. To repeat: feng shui either works or it doesn’t and if it doesn’t, then it’s simply all froth and cultural bubble. On the other hand however, if it can indeed be demonstrated to work, then it can only be because it actually is based on the application of a set of natural principles, defined and utilised by classical feng shui, regardless of the culture but which remain sensitive to the contextual application in which it is made. Two examples of this are: Real feng shui does not require faith or belief on the part of the applicant in order for it to be effective The mistaken use of Yin House feng shui to commercial enterprises such as an office building, which would ordinarily have Yang House feng shui principle applied. There are many such instances where this has happened and the results have been less than satisfactory and predictably salutary in their endings. The story of Choice Plaza on the Corners of Wellesley Street and Lorne Street here in Auckland is but one example. But… ‘We need more discussion yet on the possible placebo affects that might be inherent in feng shui?’ I hear you ask? “Don’t we need more blind testing to check out the possible placebo effect?’ Well, I think I agree and I think it is the above type of criteria which will, when eventually fully explored, begin to satisfy the arguments for and against the placebo affect in feng shui. So yes, I must concede, structured blind testing can in my view, only strengthen the case for testing the veracity of classical Chinese feng shui. So is Critical Thinking important then when trying to figure out something like the overall worth of feng shui? Yes, clearly and vitally so I believe, if we want to have some reliable method by which we can prevent ourselves from falling for any old scam; be it the newest conspiracy theory, the latest line a political party might be pushing or differentiating between real, authentic feng shui and some huckster and their New Age feng shui gimmicks. I will conclude with the following quote from Walpola Rahula’s famous book, What the Buddha taught. “To force oneself to believe and accept a thing without understanding is political, and not spiritual or intellectual.” In no way is this article meant to be a definitive argument for proving the scientific basis of feng shui. It is meant rather, to help us start thinking critically about feng shui; that’s all. Here are three fun books to read that just might enrage you but at the same time might also encourage you to further develop your own Critical Thinking: ‘Would you eat your cat?’ (Suitable for older kids/teens as well as adults) By: Jeremy Stangroom Published by: Allen and Unwin ISBN: 978 1 74237 2587 ‘Letters to a young contrarian’ By Christopher Hitchens Published by: Perseus Books ISBN: 0 – 465 – 03032 7 ‘Bad Science ‘ By Ben Goldacre Fourth Estate ISBN: 978 - 0 – 00 – 728487 - 0 A stimulating thought provoking and engrossing DVD: ‘The Four Horseman’ Starring: Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and friends.
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