Is Feng Shui Relevant to Economic Development?

Feng Shui anyone? Could the Chinese field of Feng Shui have anything to do with the location of businesses or how economic activity should be organized in a geographic area?

This is definitely an "out there" subject for economic development, but I think it's worth thinking about...at least a little bit. I believe it is important to stretch our minds and belief systems in different directions. It makes us stronger.

Some time ago, I read Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life: How to Use Feng Shui to Get Love, Money, Respect, and Happiness by Karen Rauch Carter (Published 2000, Simon & Schuster, Inc., NY.) I relocated the book on my bookshelf after it was buried behind Michael Porter's book Competitive Strategy. (Now that says something about feng shui. Doesn't it?)

Don't get too excited. The book is not about using feng shui in economic development, but if you read my short summary below, it might raise some questions about how feng shui could relate to the location of economic activities in geographic areas. At a minimum, it may suggest some ways that you can better organize your ED office.

Carter explains the ins and outs of the ch’i, gaus and bagaus that can completely transform your job, your bank account, your relationships and your happiness, according to the feng shui doctrine. The book is written in a casual, unpretentious style that helps to offset some of the grand notions of the concept.

Feng shui experts say there are certain forces revolving around us at all times. That’s right, at this very moment, unbeknownst to you, the room or office you are in is having an impact on every aspect of your day-to-day life. The plant near the window, the picture of your wife on your desk, the old pair of sneakers that you chucked in the corner three months ago: these things shape your future as much if not more than your daily transactions and conversations. Sounds spooky, doesn’t it? It doesn’t have to be. According to Carter, we can learn to control these invisible forces. You can learn to make them work for you through the application of feng shui.

The doctrine of feng shui (pronounced fung shway, Chinese in origin) states that you can arrange the environments you live and work in so as to modify the existing conditions of your life. Surely you remember the first time one of your science teachers told you that nothing, not your books, not your desk, not your hands, is truly solid — that all matter is built of atoms that revolve around one another and create the appearance of solidity. Feng shui is based on the same principle. Everything affects everything else. As a result, moving things with the right intentions can produce positive results.

Ch’i, or energy, spurs these results. When you move your couch, you push ch’i out in all directions. Who knows how much you’re losing when you move your couch without being aware of the forces you are displacing. And who knows how you’re affecting your life.

Every environment that you spend time in, whether it’s your one-bedroom apartment, your three-story house, or your office, is split into nine invisible guas, or spaces. Each of these guas matches up with a significant aspect of your life. The guas fall into a natural order called a bagua. When you walk in the (true) front door of your house or office, you are in the career gua.

Directly to the left is the skills and knowledge gua. To the right is the helpful people and travel gua. In the middle of the living or working space is the health gua, which is bordered on the left by the family gua and on the right by the creativity and children gua. Moving from the far left hand corner of the living or working space to the right hand corner you will find the prosperity gua, the fame and reputation gua, and the relationships and love gua. Each gua calls for different cures. When you apply a cure to a gua, you move things around in it or add things to it in order to have an effect on that aspect of your life.

There's more, but I will stop here. The seed of an idea has been planted.

Too weird for you? That's ok. You can read continue reading Site Selection Magazine or Expansion Magazine to figure our where and how businesses are locating their facilities.

Want to learn more, you can buy Carter's book here at Amazon.com.