The story of how I became involved with Feng Shui is one that is possibly interwoven across most of my life.

My first encounter with a Chinese metaphysical science began on my sixteenth birthday, when I was given my first book on the I Ching. Little did I know at the time that the I Ching was the basis of Feng Shui, the entire Chinese compass or what this would mean to me in the future.

At the age of eighteen, I became interested in Chinese medicine and began to study it informally. Whilst I understood that Chinese medicine had a direct relationship to the meridians, the flow of Chi, the relationship between the five elements, etc, I did not know that it was so intertwined with the I Ching. For many years the I Ching was my guide and companion in life, and the study of Chinese medicine was just something I was interested in.

At the age of twenty-three, I entered a period of serious illness and came very close to dying. At the time, the doctors did not give me a good prognosis and a friend of mine suggested I do some meditation classes to calm my life, heal my health issues and connect to the Supreme Soul (because I really was facing not surviving...). Within ten days, the difference the meditation had made to my health and my life was significant. Not only was a I calmer but my health actually improved. In particular, connecting to the Supreme was very soothing and healing.

For the next twenty years, I traveled to India regularly for spiritual self growth study and the study of human life force energy. During that time, I have had the remarkable fortune to be closely connected to some of the most powerful Yogi Souls in India. Also during that time, I came to be around a study known as the Vastu Shastra.

The Vastu Shastra is the Indian equivalent of Feng Shui. In India the Vastu is commonly practiced (by the wealthy), but never spoken about openly. According to Indian tradition, Vastu practitioners usually come from a long lineage of specialized Brahmin families where the secrets of the Vastu have been handed down from generation to generation. In truth, even though I accepted the Vastu through my exposure, I had never really given much thought to it except to say that whenever I was choosing a new house to live in, I would never take a house where the toilet was next to the kitchen or opposite the front door.

One year I returned from India and moved into a house with a good friend of mine. Prior to me living there, a mutual friend had been living with my good friend. Eventually our friend moved out, having developed chronic fatigue syndrome and financial problems. At the time my housemate and I had been really amazed, because our friend was very clever, she'd spent many years in the financial industry and she wasn't really the bankruptable type. Unfortunately, in only a short space of time (after moving into the same room where my sick friend had been staying), I began to develop the same symptoms of sickness our mutual friend had developed!

I kept saying to my housemate, "There’s bad energy in this house – I can sense it – it’s strong!" And, within a few short months of living there, my finances and luck began to dwindle in a way that I could not explain. I spent the next few months mumbling on about the energy in the house and feeling quite helpless at the same time. Indeed, my health was rapidly declining to the point where I was going to have to give up my full-time job.