Many people are fascinated with the idea of ghosts. Certainly the feng shui of a house has a powerful impact on its occupants and their well being, but did you know that certain houses are more likely to be haunted than others? I have consulted on such homes where the owners complained of ghostly occurrences.

The purpose of feng shui is to identify and correct the imbalance of yin and yang energy in a home or other building. There are several factors that can invite the supernatural into a house, but the most influential is the strong presence of yin energy.

Yin qi is feminine, cool, dark, receptive and still while yang qi is masculine, warm, bright, assertive and active. Houses for the living are yang while houses for the dead (gravesites) are yin. Living people are yang and thus need yang qi - bright light and fresh air - to thrive. The deceased are yin so it is generally preferred for gravesites to be quiet and darker.

Here are some things to look for and consider when studying a haunted house:

House #1 - "We Don't Want To Stay Here Again!"

This house is situated at the top of a steep hill, with a sharp drop-off at the facing. The facing sections are fairly bright, but several large trees in the backyard make the sitting sections of the house quite dim during the day. While the South and Southwest sections were decorated attractively, I felt a sense of loneliness that I did not feel in other parts of the house.

The wife told me later during the consultation that their young son said that he kept seeing a "green ghost" in the South-Southwest sections of the house. Because he was only about 4 years old at the time and children have strong imagination, she did not give much thought to his story.

However, her opinion changed when friends stayed at the house while they were out of town. Upon their return, their friends were quite distressed and relieved to be able to leave. They stated that they had repeatedly heard inexplicable noises coming from the South and Southwest rooms of the house - when no one was in there - and constantly felt "watched" by an unseen presence. They told the owners that they did not want to stay in the house again.

The house was built in Cycle 6, and sits Bing and faces Ren. It is "double facing" -- the mountain 6 and the water 6 are in the facing of the house. The house was built in Cycle 6, so it is in its Shuai (Decline) cycle.

The ghostly phenomena occurred in the SW and South sections. Remember that the feminine is related to yin qi. SW is related to the Kun trigram (the wife and mother), and South is related to the Li trigram (the middle daughter). 7 is related to the Dui trigram (the youngest daughter) and 9 is related to Li. Additionally, both the mountain and water 5's are present in these sections, creating more trouble.

3 and 1 are related to yang/masculine trigrams, so the sections are not entirely yin, but the SW and South were very dim. They contain far more yin qi than yang, and hold both the mountain and water 5's, thus allowing the presence of ghosts.

I advised the clients to trim the trees and install stronger lighting to brighten the SW and South. They also treated the 5's and added their other remedies, and have not had any other complaints of ghosts in the house since.

House #2 - "Don't Make Me Sleep in My Room!"

This house sits on fairly flat land and faces toward the backyard. The entire sitting side of the house is very dark because of tall trees in the front yard. The main entrance is on the sitting side, and is further darkened under a carport. The occupants complained of being unable to think clearly and experiencing depression.

The youngest daughter sleeps in the SE-East sections of the house. Her room is very dim and had two metal wind chimes. I felt uncomfortable in the room, as though someone was looking over my shoulder.

The owner later told me that the daughter complained of not liking her room. She refused to spend any time there except to sleep, and always begged to be allowed to sleep on the couch in the living room. When pressed, she said that ghosts were watching and bothering her in her room.

The house was built in Cycle 5, sits Jia and faces Geng. It is "reversed" - the mountain 5 is in the facing and the water 5 is in the sitting.

The SE section is related to Xun trigram (oldest daughter). 2 is related to Kun trigram (wife and mother), and 4 is related to Xun trigram. There are two 5's present in the East - the water 5 and the annual 5.

Interestingly, there is more yang qi present here than in the first house. SE has two 6's, which are related to Qian trigram (yang), and East (related to yang trigram Zhen) has 1 (Kan trigram) and 3 (Zhen trigram). But I suspect that the addition of the dark main entrance, the dim lighting and the wind chimes in the little girl's room contributed enough yin qi to allow spirits into the house.

House #3 - Hauntings in the Night

This house has an interesting story. It is a very attractive rental property in Pacific Palisades, California. Beyond the street in front of the house, the land drops off sharply. The master bedroom is quite dim during the day and contained a wind chime.

The wife complained of frequent and frightening nightly occurrences. She would suddenly wake up and see figures staring at her, especially that of a woman with a shroud over her face, with swarthy skin and wearing rather wildly patterned shirts. My client also saw spiders hanging overhead that weren't "really" there, i.e., she could see them but when she reached out, she could not feel them. As she had just become pregnant, I was concerned that she have restful sleep to help ensure a healthy baby.

While the master bedroom was dim, it did not feel uncomfortable to me, just very quiet.

This house was built in Cycle 5, and sits Bing, faces Jia. It is "reversed" - the mountain 5 is in the facing and the water 5 is in the sitting of the house.

The entrance is in the East, which has no Wang or Sheng numbers (7,8,9). The master bedroom is in the SW section. SW is Kun (the wife and mother) and the construction number of the section is 2 (also Kun). The mountain star is 4 (Xun - the oldest daughter) and the money star is 9 (Li - the middle daughter). This section and its permanent numbers are all related to female or yin trigrams.

Additionally the annual 5 Yellow star was in the SW that year. 5 has no gender, but exacerbates problems.

The combination of the lack of strong numbers at the entrance, the dim light and wind chime in the bedroom, the overwhelming female (yin) trigram energy and the annual 5 in the SW all contributed to the ghostly disturbances.

My client removed the wind chime immediately after I left, treated the 5's and installed the other advised remedies. She said that within a week the occurrences had almost entirely stopped. She had a healthy baby girl and is delighted.

She later discovered startling information that helped explain the strange things she had seen. Her landlords told her that they had previously lived in this house during the 1970s. They were friends with a couple who lived down the street and often hosted séances in this house, trying to contact spirits. They all agreed that if any of them died, they would attempt to contact each other from beyond the grave.

It turns out that the female neighbor became ill and died. Some years later my client's landlords moved out of this house to another.

The landlord told my client that the female neighbor was dark skinned and an artist who wore wild, unusual shirts. This was the exact description of the female form that appeared to my client late in the night!

So it appears that the dead neighbor did not realize that her friends no longer live in this house, and that she was merely attempting to contact them as they had all agreed.

While ghosts are an interesting phenomenon, they can cause great discomfort and fright to the people they haunt. Although certainly not exhaustive, this article will give you some ideas on what to look for and how to treat a house that is disturbed by ghosts.