Tips From a Feng Shui Master
Do you hear doors banging or footsteps in the middle of the night? Have the lights in the living room flickered on when you swore that you turned them off? Then you could have a ghost in your house. Feng shui master and fortune teller Mak Ling Ling talks to Carrie Anne Hau about dealing with unwanted, undead house guests, and gives some feng shui tips to help you combat them.
You don’t need fancy instruments to detect the presence of a ghost. In accordance with Chinese feng shui philosophies, harmful ghosts create negative physical effects on your body. For example, you might get sharp headaches or start feeling nauseous when you enter a house. Once you step inside, you might feel a chill creeping down your back. These are the signs that Mak uses to tell if a house is haunted.
Don’t fret, though, if you find that your house is indeed haunted. It’s best to have light-colored walls in a haunted flat, as a bright décor frightens unwanted spirits. Mak suggests avoiding the colors red and black. Yellow is often associated with combating ghosts, so a pastel shade is a good choice. In terms of decorations, placing Taoist charms around the house—on which certain spells are written—will supposedly “burn” ghosts when they come into contact with it.
However, living in a haunted house isn’t necessarily problematic. According to Mak, ghosts can experience language barriers. If the ghost living in your flat is Chinese but you don’t speak the language, they won’t bother you, she explains. The personality of your resident ghost is also an important factor. If your ghost is an introvert, then Mak says they probably wouldn’t want to speak to you anyway. Kind of like having a teenager, we reckon.
Finally, when it comes to haunted houses, Mak emphasizes that what’s important is how you feel in your home. If you are comfortable, then there is nothing to worry about.
See 'Hong Kong Supernatural Stories' and 'Haunted Hong Kong Stories'