Is Top of the Page the Best Location for Feng Shui Debate?
Can those who dismiss feng shui as being mumbo jumbo (Letters, March 28) also ignore the benefits and relief that acupuncture, acupressure and traditional Chinese medicine have brought to millions worldwide, including here in the U.S., from pain and suffering?
About 20 years ago, Western medical practitioners, who did not understand the basic concepts upon which these, feng shui and other alternative healing methods were based, scoffed at them.
Today, they are accepted and widely recognized as being beneficial and effective in the treatment of a wide variety of ailments and illnesses.
ANGI MA WONG
Feng shui consultant
Palos Verdes
*
In this enlightened era, when lack of understanding of science and poor education in general [are] being lamented by our leaders, you choose to waste several column inches of important newspaper space to publicize and dignify some nonscientific garbage.
If an important and prestigious newspaper, such as The Times, treats this junk as though it were true, what is an uneducated or misinformed person to think? He is certainly going to have his belief in fairies reinforced.
You have done a grave disservice to truth and have greatly set back valiant attempts by many educators to teach scientific reasoning and critical thinking.
BRUCE L. SCOTT
Fountain Valley
*
Don’t let those primitive minds that wrote dissuade you from continuing this column. I applaud you for your progressive thinking and I know that when I buy my first home, I won’t sign the dotted line until the house has been looked at by a feng shui practitioner.
LUCIA DEMASI
Via e-mail
*
As a classically trained feng shui consultant, I can certainly understand why you are receiving complaints about the new feng shui column.
Once again, feng shui is being portrayed as a series of placebos and superstitions, further alienating those who have a right to be skeptical.
Even though Kirsten Lagatree is earnestly trying to dispense information that will help people, her knowledge of feng shui is very limited, and her column contains over-generalizations.
KARTAR DIAMOND
Feng Shui Solutions
Los Angeles
*
I am thrilled that The Times is now running a regular column on the art of feng shui. I’ve been reading about feng shui for several years and have applied some of its techniques to my home and office and have found very positive results.
Though I’m about as American as can be, I find studying about beliefs of other cultures to be enriching to my own understanding of my fellow man.
With the large Asian population of Southern California, I applaud The Times for setting aside a regular section on feng shui for all of us to enjoy.
As for the comments of the letter writers: Chinese culture has been around for many centuries more than our own. I find it offensive that they scoff and make fun of something that nearly one-third of the world’s population believes in.
DAN WEISS
Santa Monica
*
Regarding your March 28 column on feng shui, you should have heard from every real estate person who is not Chinese by now. Basically what your article said was that Chinese deal with Chinese because they know feng shui.
The Chinese have already taken over the San Gabriel Valley, and when a local Realtor puts a home up for sale, it does not sell until a Chinese person comes in and takes over and makes the sale, and then that means a split commission.
I am not a real estate person, just a person feeling pushed out of the San Gabriel Valley area, and I have been watching all of this happen. These people wonder why we in the San Gabriel Valley do not get friendly with them; this is one of the reasons: They buy what they want.
Remember, Los Angeles is made up of many cultures, not just Chinese.
ALICE HICKS
Temple City
*
We Americans pride ourselves on our ability to adapt. Nonetheless, we still need time to make changes. Feng shui is new, so it will take time to accept it. We are a clever bunch, though, and we know a good thing when we see it. So I doubt it will take long.
SHIRLEY JERRELS
Interior Designer
Feng Shui Consultant
Costa Mesa
*
It is disservice to people of faith to simply say that your house should not be located near a temple because these can make you too passive.
Can you imagine the late Martin Luther King Jr. being too passive or Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa being too passive for living close to a church?
And where does this leave the countless Christian and Buddhist monastics--and monastics of other faith traditions--who spend their lives in the proximity of a church or temple in search of a more profound unity with the sacred?
Churches and temples are places of renewal and enlightenment, where people go to expand their human potential, build community and be closer to the source of all life. This is hardly a negative.
THE REV. WILFREDO BENITEZ
Anaheim
*
It is sad to see people so rigid in their beliefs. Too bad that they are not able to realize the possibilities that our “seen” reality may not be all there is. As electricity cannot be seen, is it possible that there is more that we don’t yet know how to measure or use?
Our known reality is a very small part of the whole. I hope these nonbelievers “feel” the other energies out there soon. It will improve their life experience and that of others.
BLANKA M. LUKES
Woodland Hills
*
I am a real estate agent who specializes in high-end homes in the Studio City area. Twice in recent years I have had a sale fall through because of “bad” feng shui.
On one occasion the buyers brought in their so-called expert who persuaded them not to purchase a home that was on the market 18 months ago for $2 million and is now easily worth $2.8 million.
I do believe that houses have good and bad “vibes,” and these “vibes” can be felt immediately upon entering. I also believe that a house can be changed and that whoever lives in a house can create a warm, creative, happy environment.
MARGIE BURROWS
Studio City
*
I want to applaud your column on feng shui. Of all the features in the paper, this one was the one I most enjoyed.
I was not surprised to see some skeptics call it the “stupidest thing.” However, I am afraid that it is they who are really stupid to believe that only material things exist and energies and influences do not.
It is well established in science now that matter is mostly ether. The ether exists in everything and can be influenced to bring lighter or darker energies into matter and around it. These energies affect human beings.
Feng shui is an ancient science from China, revered and respected long before Western civilization, with its ridiculous narrow-minded rejection of anything metaphysical, even got started.
Thank you for not being afraid to provide what your more enlightened readers enjoy reading.
RUTH TRIMBLE
via e-mail
*
I am dismayed by the fact that one of the largest and most influential publications in America is running regular columns on the superstitious belief in feng shui.
Come on, folks, this is the Age of Science. We are nearly at the millennium marker. Five hundred years of science showing that such superstitions are meaningless, and you offer valuable space to someone who promotes the ideas of spirits infiltrating homes, the alignment of doors and walls?
At least the astrology column carries the tag line that says it should be read “for entertainment.” Would you be willing to join the 20th century before it is over and either dump such silliness or run an “Entertainment Only” line with it?
MICHAEL SHERMER
Publisher
Skeptic magazine
*
The column is wonderful. I enjoy learning more about feng shui, and I’ve seen the results of following the advice. The Crustacean restaurant in Beverly Hills has a “wonderful feeling” too. . . . Feng shui?
DONNA SHAW
Westlake Village
*
Someone at The Times has a screw loose.
I object to this column not only for the wastefulness of its followers-believers-whatevers’ practices (i.e.; cutting down “evil” trees and trees which “block good luck,” etc.) but also to the column’s placement in the Real Estate section. Put this “ancient practice” (read superstitious silliness) in either religion or lifestyle.
SHAWN V. CUNNINGHAM
San Gabriel
*
Regarding the letters about the feng shui column, why is it that people call something they don’t understand and know nothing about “stupid”?
By the way, Greg Bart, leeching is an important treatment today in certain post-surgical treatments in hospitals.
ERIKA HELMS
Sylmar
*
In the 46 years I subscribed to your paper, I have seen it wobble in various directions, but this is the first time it was visibly abducted by complete morons. Have you no sense whatever of your own self-esteem?
G. CLARKE
via e-mail
*
I would like to express my dismay at your decision to include a feng shui column in the Real Estate section.
By printing this nonsense you are bringing down the quality of the newspaper in general. The Times is a respected paper. Why would you jeopardize your reputation by subscribing to this idiocy? The space should be used for something of real value, not pseudoscientific New Age drivel.
KIMBA SPENCER
Long Beach
*
I understand now why people get the idea that feng shui is some wacko New Age craze. I don’t care whether your columnist has written a dozen books; if they are the caliber of her articles, they are all a waste of perfectly good trees.
It is incorrect to say that feng shui “is the art of manipulating one’s physical surroundings for the purpose of nudging fate in a favorable direction.” That is entirely a New Age idea.
The goal of feng shui is to harmonize human habitations with the cosmic breath (geomagnetic patterns of the planet and of the universe). And by habitations the ancients meant the entirety of civilization, not just the arrangement of furniture.
Furniture and room color weren’t a concern until New Agers decided they needed interior decorating.
Feng Shui can be overridden by one’s personality and luck.
Successful people often don’t need feng shui because they are already in tune with the planet. It is primarily New Agers who blame “fate” or “destiny” for their inability to succeed.
CATE BRAMBLE
Encino
Letters must include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number, and should be sent to the Real Estate Editor, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, faxed to the Real Estate Editor at (213) 237-4712 or e-mailed to Real.Estate@LATimes.com. Letters may be edited.
