INTRODUCTION

You are interested in some scientific proof of Feng Shui? Read on.

The ancient Chinese traditions have classified Feng Shui as part of "ti li", meaning "Earth Science". That is, unlike so many naive practitioners today, the ancient Feng Shui masters never had any doubt that Feng Shui is a sophisticated geographical science. They knew that Feng Shui is very important, because energy patterns regulated by the geographical landforms have strong effects on human physical and mental health, thereby affecting talents, success, prosperity and happiness.

The real scientific basis had long been selfishly monopolised by the Chinese imperial clans who did not want others to supercede them. Eventually, around and after the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the imperial families also lost the scientific understanding of Feng Shui and believed in Feng Shui in the same superstitious way the ordinary people do.

Let us re-discover what the ancients knew to be the scientific evidence for Feng Shui. Do not be misled by the skeptics who are out of date. There are enough scientific evidence to show that Feng Shui is very scientific! In fact, it is because there are ill-understood health affecting radiation from landforms, that you better, even as the ancient royal families knew, believe in Feng Shui. The extra edge in life can well come from Feng Shui, i.e. a scientific Feng Shui.

Royal famlies in the ancient civilisations all over the world hid the true scientific basis of geomancy and Feng Shui from the populace. The royal priests, often regarded as mysterious magicians, administered these great secrets. It is time for the ordinary people to know.

HAUNTING ASSOCIATED WITH BAD FENG SHUI CHARACTERISTICS

There is a special way to scientifically show how landforms are involved in Feng Shui. It is through a comprehensive investigative scientific study and analysis of the phenomenon of haunting, of how it is linked to the physical geography of the site. The pioneering findings had been published in the books, Haunted Buildings: Science and Feng Shui " (Ong 2003) and "Haunting in Natural Landscape: Science and Feng Shui" (Ong 2005). The books concern scientific analysis and comparison of the environmental features of the haunted buildings and natural spots with the Feng Shui features of inauspicious spots.

Persistent associations between haunting and certain features of the landscape had been noted by other investigators (Tom Graves 1989, Budden, 1999):

• "One aspect of their work that has come over most clearly is the close link between certain types of haunting and the special characteristics of certain types of place... By studying the various categories of haunting and their relationship with places, we can use them to tell us what the energies involved..." (Tom Graves 1989).

• During my investigations, and from reading other case reports, various features of the landscape such as proximity to quarries, hills, minerals, faults, open bodies of water and radio masts had been linked to high strangeness cases... I realise that electromagnetics was the common thread... the electro-staging hypothesis appears to satisfy all of the characteristics of the close encounter experience... (Budden 1999 p. 12).

There are remarkable relationships between the environmental features of haunting and features of inauspicious spots in Feng Shui. A study of the geographical environment of haunted spots could provide some scientific support or proof of the validity of Feng Shui principles, especially of the Form School.

Haunting at Hill Tops, Hill Spurs and Promontories

In an investigative study of the locations of about 170 haunted buildings in Malaysia and Singapore ("Haunted Buildings: Science and Feng Shui"), it has been found that most of the locations of haunted buildings could be associated with these natural geographical features:

THE HAUNTED GUNUNG LEDANG, MALACCA, MALAYSIA Trekkers experienced all sorts of supernatural events. Some have seen the old man dressed in white, the guardian angel of the mountain.

Mountain tops all over the world have their fantastic supernatural tales. In the West, mountain glows occurred and scientists are still trying to explain why.

The investigation shows that 70% of haunted buildings are associated with hills, either at the tops or at the ends of the hill spurs. If the seaside promontories are regarded as ends of hill spurs, then the percentage would be about 80%. It will be found that similar geographical features are involved in haunting in various locations in the rural natural landscape.

There are less reported incidence of such haunting in rural areas, probably because there are less people staying in or near such rural spots. If the different intensities of human population are accounted for, one would find that similar spots in rural areas would have the same rate of haunting as those in urban areas.

Other Countries

The author surfed the Internet to obtain listings of haunted buildings in various countries, vis in America, Britain and Australia. Most of these do not have details about the geographical feature of the sites. It was only for some web sites that descriptions could be carefully examined, in order to gauge the geographical environment of the haunted spots. The analysis is given in the Table.

An analysis of the above data through Friedman 2-way Analaysis of Variance of the rankings shows that the terrain effects are significant at 2%. That is, the haunting is related to some ill-understood physical features of the terrain features - there is no need to invoke "spirits" or "ghosts".

Feng Shui Signficance of Haunted Buildings

In four different groups of sites of haunted buildings, haunting is highly associated to the extent of about 80% with sloppy hilly terrain, with far less cases from relatively flat lowlands. This offers scientific statistical evidence that hill tops and the ends of hill spurs are more prominently associated with haunting in buildings.

If these associations of haunting with the geographical features of the terrain are analysed statistically, the statistical analysis in the Table shows that the terrain effects are very significant at the 2% level.

Along coastal and banks of water bodies, it appears that haunting in buildings frequently show up in promontories. In Malaysia, the haunting in buildings along the northern beaches of Penang Island and then the coastal stretch from Malacca to Port Dickson offer scientific statistical evidence that haunting along beaches are often highly associated with promontories. As promontories are essentially ends of hill spurs and often flanked inland by hill slopes, it further highlights the roles of hilly terrain in haunting.

Promontories and the tops of hills have been recognised as bad Feng Shui sites:

• Do not buy a property that is located on a promontory (a piece of land that juts out into the sea). This will be overexposed to the elements of wind and water. Such a property will not be able to accumulate the chi. (Merton 1993 p.237).

• 1. As a rule, avoid steep, abrupt hills and slopes that conduct ch'i too quickly and can cause mudslides....
  5. Build on the flatter side..., never on the top of the hill, or on the cliff.....
  7. Do not build above or below and overhang, an unstable formation known as the tiger's jaw, or the beast will gobble up your luck... avoid building on top of a steep hill. (Rossbach 1987 p.35. The term "tiger's jaw" refer to a cliff or overhang).

Invariably, when other haunted building sites could be examined for their geographical features in newer cases, they would often turn out to be located on tops of hills and the bottoms of the foothills.

It is important to note that these trends above related to buildings and reflect the nature of the geography in the vicinity of haunted buildings. Buildings obviously would not be built on top of water bodies like swamps, lakes, rivers or the sea! Haunting is also found in various water bodies of rivers, pools, lakes, waterfalls. However, as shown in the book "Haunting in Natural Landscape: Science and Feng Shui (Ong 2005), many of these haunted water bodies are also associated with the kind of hilly terrain which leads to haunting in buildings.

Rocky promontories all over the world are known to be favourite haunting spots. Promontories are essentially ends of hill ridges or spurs jutting into the sea.

Rock promontory at Teluk Bahang east end, Penang, Malaysia.