Theos-Talk Archives (August 1999 Message tt00001)

Feng Shui Gaining Momentum in West

By Helene McEntee
Reuters

CHICAGO (July 27) - Gaining success at work, at home, in your finances and in 
your relationships could be as simple as rearranging furniture, adding color 
or tossing out clutter.

Feng shui (pronounced ''fung schway''), the ancient art of placement to 
direct energy flow used by the Chinese for more than 4,000 years, is emerging 
in the West as a tool to create a sense of well-being in any environment.

Donald Trump used it in one of his developments. Actress Halle Berry employed 
its principles in her Hollywood Hills home.
And it is finding its way into office buildings and homes around the United 
States.

''Feng shui is growing in momentum and popularity,'' Pamela Kai Tollefson, 
founder of the Feng Shui Institute in Milwaukee, said. ''It's very hot. 
People are getting the idea and understanding the principles.''

The number of businesses seeking Tollefson's advice has jumped 50 percent in 
recent years, she said.

Internet book seller Amazon.com lists more than 120 books on the subject, 
more than half of them published in the past two years.

EAST MEETS WEST

Feng shui planted roots in the mid-1980s in the San Francisco Bay area, where 
martial arts academies and health clinics using acupuncture and Chinese 
herbal medicine were already becoming popular.

As word of this growing interest in Asian culture and philosophy spread, 
experts from Hong Kong and Taiwan began to travel back and forth to teach the 
principles, said James Jay, co-director of Feng Shui Designs of Nevada City, 
California.

Lin Yun, a Tibetan Buddhist priest and grand master in feng shui, was one of 
the first Chinese experts to move to California in the 1980s and begin 
teaching the principles. Tollefson and Jay are both his students.

Another student, Sarah Rossbach, wrote the first major U.S. book on the 
subject in 1991, called simply ''Feng Shui.'' A follow-up book, ''Interior 
Design with Feng Shui,'' came out the same year. Rossbach's books nudged the 
topic from the obscurity of little-known workshops toward the mainstream.

Four years ago, real estate mogul Trump hired a feng shui expert to help 
build a skyscraper in New York. He said he needed the expert because the 
buyers were Asian and wanted the principles used in the project. ''They  
believe them and that's good enough for me,'' Trump told Dateline NBC.

A London magazine called ''Feng Shui for Modern Living'' is packed with 
articles that demonstrate the principles in Architectural Digest-type photos. 
There is even a page on ''celebrity'' feng shui with references to stars like 
Ms. Berry, Johnny Depp and Liam Neeson. The May issue gave a positive review 
to the energy flow in the home of Britain's Prince Edward and his new wife, 
Sophie Rhys-Jones.

THE FLOW OF ENERGY

Feng shui, based on the flow of energy called ''chi,'' studies the 
electromagnetic energy that flows in and around everything. The words 
literally mean ''wind and water'' and Chinese believe chi mimics the flow of 
these elements.

With knowledge of how these energy patterns work, feng shui experts like 
Tollefson said they manipulate environments to benefit nearly every aspect of 
life.

Mark Miller, a Chicago architect and builder, was so impressed with the 
effect of chi on the human body he decided to bring the same energetic 
benefits to physical space. Using his understanding of chi as a starting 
point for his designs, last year he redesigned work spaces for a photographic 
studio, a marketing and communications firm and a gourmet food chain.

For Chicago-based BHI Design, Miller got rid of square cubicles and glaring 
lights at employee work stations. He designed walls that curve up behind each 
computer to aid individual concentration, then swoop down to facilitate work 
with team members. He vaulted ceilings and hid florescent lights to create a 
sense of space and relax the eye.

BHI Design President Steven Reagan said sales rose 30 percent and 
profitability 10 percent after the changes. ''I can't ascribed it to feng 
shui specifically because that's hard to quantify,'' he said. ''I do know the 
employees like the space better and our overall work product has improved.''

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, MARKETING AND ADVERTISING

Feng shui is also being used in various stages of product development, 
marketing and advertising.

Nancilee Wydra, founder of the Feng Shui Institute of America in Wabasso, 
Florida, has consulted with Takasago International Corporation for the past 
year. Takasago conducted market research in March to test word recognition of 
''feng shui'' and found 6 percent of Americans recognized it, enough for them 
to think it useful for developing product lines.

''She guides our perfumers in what ingredients would be the most harmonious, 
using the right balance of scents associated with the five elements of earth, 
fire, water, air and wood,''  Kate Greene, director of marketing for 
Takasago's fine fragrance division in Rockleigh, New Jersey, said.

''The idea of feng shui is to clear away the clutter and make things 
simple,'' Greene said.  ''With perfumes, that translates as 'less is more.' 
We use quality ingredients but less of them to come up with a pure 
fragrance.''

Wydra, whose sixth book on feng shui debuts in October,  said she has noticed 
an increase in the number of corporate marketing directors using feng shui 
principles.

''Any business that creates a product wants the form, shape and advertising 
content to have a message that conveys what the product is suppose to do,'' 
she said.

Orange is the color of fusion, she said. ''When people see orange (in an 
advertisement) they subconsciously get an impulse to fuse with that product. 
... Pink puts them in a relaxed state so they want to continue reading the 
advertisement.''

It is cheaper to incorporate feng shui into existing designs, but 
practitioners noted more businesses are starting to incorporate the 
principles at the blue-print stage.

Wydra charges between $1,500 and $2,000 to redesign office spaces with fewer 
than ten employees. For bigger clients and projects, flat fees or retainers 
are negotiated.

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