When you think about Feng Shui dating back over 3000 years you have to wonder if it still works or can something that old be effective in today technically advanced society. Maybe it's just a little too old fashion and needs to go the way of the spinning wheel or the windmill. After all, everything outlives its usefulness and is replaced by something better, right? Perhaps the key to this question is keeping in mind that Feng Shui is not a piece of technology but a science and a philosophy. Feng Shui does not grow obsolete like a machine but remains constant like gravity or the rotation of the planets around the sun. Feng Shui survives the test of time because it is a basic truth not an evolving technology. The things that men invent become obsolete; the basic principals of the universe remain intact and constant. That is the essence of the longevity of Feng Shui. It's based on unchanging universal principals.

So what principals are we talking about, and why are there so many different schools or methods of feng shui world if it's a universal constant? The different disciplines of Feng Shui all have the same common denominators and that's what makes them all work. Drawing the "bagua" as a square or a hexagon doesn't really change the philosophy underlying the bagua areas and their relationship to each other. Whether you create your Bagua Map with a compass or a reference point doesn't change the concepts of "Intention and Balance". To understand Feng Shui and to apply it successfully you must understand the basics in addition to the individual traditions or presentations. It is said that a skilled practitioner can make any of the disciplines work, and that is the key to understanding the nature of Feng Shui.

So does Feng Shui work? Did it ever work? Will it always work in the future? Why doesn't everybody accept it if it's so good, and why after 3000 years is it still a relatively unused philosophy? These are good questions. My short answer is "basic human nature". There isn't anything in this world of a philosophic nature that's universally accepted. All of the great religions, all of the different types of healing arts, all of the schools of philosophy, are at best partially accepted at any time, in any place. Feng Shui is a piece to a much bigger picture, an important and useful piece, but nonetheless just a piece. It should be applied within its scope and not consume or replace any other elements of our existence. The very nature of Feng Shui is balance and harmony and Feng Shui itself must be used in balance without becoming an obsession.

So does it work? Does it work for everybody the same way to the same degree? And if it does how can you prove it? The answers I have to these questions is; "I don't know." How you prove the power of Feng Shui is a little beyond me. It falls into the category of working on faith rather than quantifiable measurable results. We can see the effects and theorize about the process but proving them like you do the law of gravity is difficult, maybe impossible. There was a classic movie made in the 1947 called "Miracle on 34th Street" with Maureen O'Hara, in which a court of law tries to prove if a man claiming to be Santa Claus really was. The movie of course was purely entertainment but the portrayal of proving such a thing one way or another may give us some insight to our question at hand of proving or disproving if Feng Shui is real.

I'd like to use a quote that is credited to Henry Ford who stated, "If you believe you can, or you can't, your right". If you have not heard that saying before read it a couple of times until the message sinks in. This theme has been expressed a number of different ways by a number of different people through the ages. Belief is strongly related to faith and our ability to imagine the things we want. Imagining is made possible by our ability to think and think rationally. We can imagine all kinds of new and wonderful things and thereby set the creative process into motion that will manifest anything that we can believe in. Feng Shui did not invent this principal it simply organizes it into a process that we can use to apply it. Does everyone believe in this principal, No! Does every one believe in Feng Shui, No! Does everyone have the faith that Feng Shui works and therefore the ability to apply its techniques and enjoy its results? Unfortunately the answer again is, "No". Some will, some won't, so what. Part of being a human being is having a free will and what we believe or not is an individual privilege, and we are all different.

Does Feng Shui work in the modern world, I will say yes. I will qualify this by saying it will work for anyone that believes it will work and has the faith to apply its techniques and the gratitude to credit its results. Feng Shui is not time dependent. It does not function differently in the modern world than it did in the ancient world. The power behind Feng Shui is the same today as it was yesterday and was at the time of creation. So whether we draw the Bagua Map inside a box, or inside some other shape, there are still nine life-event categories that we need to balance and seek harmony with. If our intentions are strong and our belief is positive we will initiate the creative process that will deliver what we want and Feng Shui can help us with that effort.