Sunday, January 07, 2007

Pseudo-science: Vaastu Shastra

A word on pseudo-sciences

Most pseudo-sciences are designed to deceive people. Smarter the people, smarter the deceivers! The proponents of pseudo-sciences devise elaborate mechanisms, terminology, and introduce new concepts which closely resemble those of real science. This ‘resemblance’ is played upon heavily. This ‘resemblance’ to science is what makes them attractive to gullible educated masses. By using astronomical objects, such as planets and stars, and using mathematical tools, such as calculations, calculators and computers, astrologers try to posit their belief systems as science. The educated people do not like to be seen as gullible people- they never want to admit to themselves or to others that they are gullible. Instead, they like to be seen as those who ‘question’, then ‘verify’, and only then ‘accept’, just like in real science. Such educated people, while growing up, study science as if it is a complicated subject, never actually question what is taught, but accept it as another dogmatic notion. To some extent, they think that Theory of Gravity and Quantum Physics is some imaginary topic concocted by some weird scientists, whom they cannot relate to. They end up not understanding the real meaning of such topics. For them scientists are too far away- unable to connect to them, while these quacks, knaves, godmen, astrologers, vaastu experts, etc, seem to connect to them so well. Just because these educated people have scored high marks in the subject called Science, they think they don’t need to learn anything new. Without actually understanding what science is and what science stands for, they enter the real world; without having developed the scientific temperament, they start representing the elite.

They spend little time in trying to ‘question’ and ‘verify’ if astrology, vaastu shastra, numerology are indeed sciences. Enter the proponents of pseudo-sciences with tools and theories constructed from false assumptions built on fantastical premises, substituting fallacious argument for logic where necessary. These gullible educated people fall for it. Actually they are believers already; they have acquired these belief systems through parents, teachers, books, TV shows, college friends, etc. At a minimum, they have resorted to ‘questioning’ as a perfunctory exercise. They ignore most of these obvious fallacies, get enamored with other 'seemingly logical' explanations, get satisfied that indeed it is science. Such educated people who become believers are the dangerous lot. They occupy high positions in the society- they are celebrities, sports players, famous actors, prominent leaders, top businessmen, elite academicians, and highly reputed professors. When such people endorse the pseudo-sciences, the believers get further boost. When such people enter the mainstream media and use these notions as accepted truths, the belief system gets further fillip. Now, it is no longer a question of being valid, it has already become the truth- it is science indeed. The argument goes- “if it was bogus, how come it is prevalent for so long and how come it is accepted by so many?

A word on Vaastu Shastra

I didn’t know where to start. So, I start with an article that appears yesterday in the THE HINDU in Property Plus section.

# 1. Here, S. BS. Surendran is considered a ‘specialist’ in Vaastu and Feng Shui. He is an electrical engineer who turned into a believer. When such learned people endorse it, what becomes of common man? He says, “Basically vaasthu speaks of air, ether, water, earth and cosmos”.

What is ether? Didn’t we debunk it long ago? What is cosmos? Does he mean the Universe? If so, isn’t earth, air and water already a part of it? No science can take on such elements to construct a theory. That the whole world has five elements, fire, earth, water, air, and ether, is a very old and archaic notion that has been debunked, rejected and completely relegated to myth and folklore hundreds of years ago. That it should reappear in a newly packaged form is unfortunate. It’s like studying once again that earth is flat and that it is the center of the universe, that sun is actually an angel running around in a chariot pulled by horses.

# 2. Next, this Surendran jumps into the world of science from the world of faith without making any distinction between the two. He says, “Vaasthu predominantly focuses on the flow of energy, i.e. the magnetic lines of forces existing in the earth”.

Yes, the magnetic lines are a theoretical construct to study and explain the behavior of magnetism. By borrowing an idea from science, a proponent of a pseudo-science tries to posit his belief system as science. The electromagnetic theory from real science is good enough to completely deal with all effects of magnetism, so how come we need vaastu to explain the same force once again? Most proponents resort to using the concepts from accepted sciences once in a while. This way they confuse the believers. The believers think: “we know this already from science, we cannot deny this, therefore what he says next is also undeniable.”

# 3. Talking about vaasthu, he says, “It is believed that each has a specific wavelength and field; so, adding and removing a few things ensures balance in your environment”.

Hmm... notice how he has used the terms like, ‘wavelength’ and ‘field’. Those are the words used in real sciences. Any heat generating object radiates and has a wavelength. A charge or a magnetic pole has a field around it. This is known to all who study science. But a home does not have a charge, it is grounded. We don’t speak of a man’s wavelength in science. We do that figuratively in language. Now, do homes have a specific wavelength and a field? That’s complete gobbledygook. What is balance when talking about a wavelength? Can we say, ‘Ah! Now we have attained the balance in wavelength?’

Another favorite thing these pseudo-sciences try to do is humanize the sciences. The proponents realize that scientific theories like Theory of Gravity have no bearing on one's personal life. Gravity cannot better your scores in the exams or solve your marital problems. To bring home the science, they concoct theories which seem to have a bearing on your life- affecting your daily life, helping you in business, in exams and personal relationships. They talk about energy all the time- positive energy, negative energy, cosmic energy, balance of energy, etc. We all went to school. I ask you all one question- can energy be negative or positive? That’s complete bullshit. Energy is neither negative nor positive. It’s a scalar quantity. There’s no such thing called ‘negative’ energy in science. One can use this term for describing emotions, but that’s not science- it does not come in joules. Most of these proponents use these words interchangeably, changing the context arbitrarily- sometimes it’s the energy from the magnetic field, and next moment it’s the ‘negative’ energy surrounding a person. By using these words which are used in science and also in literary world, these proponents deceive us into believing that they are all the same. According to them, emotions is science, science is emotions.

# 4. He, then says, “There may be a sudden change in the ‘luck cycle’ of the occupants”.

Hmm, this is where it becomes completely nonsensical. You say it is science, and then you talk of ‘luck cycle’! What is ‘luck cycle’ anyway? How can luck be changed by adjusting wavelengths and fields? This is something nobody knows and nobody cares to explain. All pseudo-sciences are based on big gaps in logic which they cover up with weird new concepts, like ‘luck cycle’, ‘chakras’, etc.

# 5. He says, “The most common negative energy built up is the cluttered home.” Really? Does home’s energy go down because it is cluttered?

# 6. And it becomes more interesting. He says, “This mess is either cleaned or moved and causes a block to the free flow of energy leading to some kind of a stagnation”.

I say, “Imagine a gutter, throw some garbage in it, and see how the movement of the water gets restricted. Hmm, let’s apply the same analogy to energy as well. You see, the energy is liquid, it is flowing from one place to another, if you don’t clean your home, this flow gets restricted; it stagnates, like in the gutter”. Such wrong analogies are dangerous. People can be easily swayed into thinking that energy indeed gets obstructed by clutter and mess in the house.

# 7. He then says, “It’s sad that one looks at these sciences as a ‘first-aid-kit’”.

You know, what’s sad? That engineers like him should embrace such rubbish notions calling them science to fool people and to earn some quick money. The history is fraught with miracle men, who sell you trinkets telling you that it will get you good luck. The danger now is that even educated people are turning into miracle men who want to bring you good luck by selling you some fantastic stories as science.

# 8. Talking about Fish tanks, laughing Buddha and miniature fountains, he says, “Symbolisms and gadgets are sidetracking people”. What he means is that these 'other' frauds are taking away his business. He wants to make sure people do not get their luck sorted out by such quick-fixes. He says about them: “These commercialized items enhance negative energy if placed in wrong places”. Hmm, that’s interesting. Do they enhance ‘negative’ energy because they are commercialized items, or because they are in the wrong places? Make up your mind!

Before the reader goes away, he wants to make sure you take his expert advice (which always includes some kind of remuneration and reward for him): “I carried corrections by just re-orienting furniture and cots”. If it is indeed science, shouldn’t we all be in a position to buy a book, study it, calculate the amount of ‘negative energy’ our home offers, and then add ‘positive energy’ item to strike a balance? We should be able to put our map of the house into an open-source software, and get the results! None of the pseudo-sciences offer such packages. They all want you to consult an expert. All these proponents profess to be experts, look down upon and talk down upon ‘other’ experts, dismiss them as knaves, and tell you that it is something like a rocket-science-complicated-complex-equation-oriented-art-craft-science that only he can solve and make it right for you. That’s when you should wake up and walk off.

# 9. Talking about wind chimes, he says: “In all our religious practices too, sound energy is used to cleanse the space, invoke positive feelings and disperse negativity”.

In our ‘religious practices’? I thought you were discussing science here. When did we change the topic to religion? Oh, I forgot, all you quacks mix religion, faith, belief, superstition, and position it as science, right? Imagine sound energy cleansing the space. So, I guess, I can play music at extremely loud volume and clean up the entire space, and kick out the ‘negative energy’ for good!

And hey, how come you started talking about positive ‘feelings’ now? I though you were talking about positive ‘energies’. Oh, never mind! You guys interchange these words at your whim-and-fancy to suit your purpose. Feelings=energies! Great! To increase the potential energy of a rocket, one just has to put lot of good ‘feelings’ into it. Lo and behold! It is now flying away into the space powered by the ‘feelings’ of the entire nation! Not a drop of rocket fuel needed anymore. From tomorrow, I want to ride my scooter on my feelings- I don’t have to spend money on petrol!

# 10. And now for the finale! He says, “We in India have a mindset to be skeptical about our own faiths and beliefs”.

I on the other hand think that we are better off being skeptical. What we need is an overdose of that skepticism towards our faiths, beliefs, and superstitions, not the renewed faith in such arcane belief systems. We need to embrace science, question superstition, and bring in rational thought. I am happy to know that he thinks that we are being skeptical. But coming from him, who has been selling me a completely cooked up and fantastic story, I don’t believe this either!

Vaastu is another of those hobbies that is being touted as alternate science. Such belief-oriented pseudo-sciences curb creativity by imposing not-so-well-understood rules, bringing in occultism back into our lives. Such methods are based on how one man's interpretation is better than the other without allowing the common man to make an independent verification.

55 comments:

  1. A wonderful blog. I hope many youngsters in India read it and know how to interpret interviews with words that sounds scientific and does not mean anything scientific. It was a wonderful read for me after a long time.

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  2. Read the post a few days back through the feed reader. Forgot that time to put a word of praise here. So here it goes:

    Nice debunking one, as usual from you, Sujai... ;)

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  3. Wonder how much you know about any of this vastu shaasthra, to debunk it!! similar comments can be passed of as debunking a 'theory of gravity' by another self-styled debunker with half-baked knowledge reg. what hez talking about!

    Having a skeptical attitude towards something is not the same as ridiculing the comments of a bad practitioner.. and coming to a conclusion based on that!!!

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  4. Hmmmm....What a pseudo-intelligent write up. I wish folks stop commenting and writing on stuff they have no knowledge about.

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  5. the lone sailor:
    Do you have an authentic source on vaastu so that we can debunk that instead of a practitioner?
    I would gladly do that.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Why it is a science at all? Only because something cannot be disproved should we accept it as a science? I wrote about similar things at -
    http://horizonspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/02/epicurus-riddle.html

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  8. High time we call off all this crap! Vaastu, astrology, chinese vaastu (whatever is the name for it) all bullshit!

    Keep writing, I will have your site linked to mine! I wish you have more readers.

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  9. I am really impressed with the article. I totally agree that use of scientific vocabulary does not make Vaastu a science and many of their claims are just bullshit.

    However, would you agree that design of buildings is more of an art? For instance, I think that inhabitants of a well lit and ventilated house are likely to be more healthy and possitive than those living in poorly designed houses. This may be difficult to explain using a scientifc theory but can be verified by sampling a population.
    Do you agree?
    - Manu

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  10. Of all the stupidest ppl in the world, Indians would make the toppers.

    Thsi Astrology/palmistry/vastu are all truck load of horse shit.

    It has no proof and it is a way of cheating ppl by instilling fear.

    I can't believe what i saw on a u-tube video in India. A kid was born and immediately his stupid parents called up an astrologer and asked him what name should be given and what field he should take up and if there are any bad omens in his birth chart.

    Indians are the syupidest a-wipes in this entire world.

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  11. Vaastu, in its original form, deals with air and light. In ancient architecture, open ponds and wells were constructed to receive the maximum amount of UV radiation to purify the water. Now, the vaastu pundits ask us to place our water sumps in the NE corner.

    In Tamilnadu, the kitchen is positioned in such a way that the cook faces the East or South director since the wind blows from both these directions.

    In Kerala, the cook faced South or West since the wind blew from those directions. This was to ensure that the smoke / ash from chulas that were used did not get into the eyes of the cook. Now, the vaastu pundits, speak of vaastu purusha, and unequivocally recommend that the kitchen be placed in the SE quadrant, wherever in the world.

    The bedrooms were always built with windows facing the South, to enhance natural ventilation. In fact, earlier kings built "Haasya Mahals" where the air was let in through jaalis to cool the monarch in the evenings, so that he would be in a good mood. Flowers were planted in the South direction to ensure that the fragrance wafted through.

    The construction in the SW corner was always the tallest so that the shadow could fall over the rest of the house during the hot afternoons. The vaastu pundits of today have converted this tall structure to mean the heaviest structure, and ask people to keep God and safes / jewellery in this corner since these are considered heavy.

    It is unfortunate that in today's urban world where fans, airconditioning and electric bulbs control our wind and light, the so called vaastu pundits make money by duping people.

    In fact I saw a programme on TV where the pundit (obviously a fake) asked people with certain horoscopes to paint their bedrooms lilac and wear rings with amethyst. Now if a wife and husband had different horoscopes, what color would the bedrooms wall be, I do not know. Obviously this guy was a paint merchant with a side business in semi precious stones!

    Humans have to ask why frequently - and expose these fraudsters! TV channels should stop accepting ads from these dupes and stop showing programmes on vaastu!

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  12. Excellent article on Vaastu Shastra. The book Yoga Vashistha also criticises astrology to be a pseudo-science and a falsehood though it appears to be a truth and it is also a fact that when a lie is repeated many times it appears to be a truth. Similar is the case with Vaastu shastra which has gained popularity due to peoples ignorance who trapped by these clever astrologers. You have done a great work in bringing out this article. Well done.

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  13. I went for a client meeting today( i am an architect),there was a vastu expert the client had called. After a point in the meeting i realised there is no point arguing with this guy.
    I am wondering what to do. Everyone wants vastu (doesnt matter what it is)I dont want to do this vastu thing. so here is what I am going to do:

    1Sell vastu through a website (become a virtual vaastu consultant.)Cheat people who deserve to be cheated because they do not trust themselves but some arbit science Make money.

    2 Then in the real life ( non virtual) simply refuse any clients who want any vastu in their buildings!
    its only a dream!

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  14. Somehow, as much as I resist it, there is some truth to the statement of a friend of mine - "Most people in the world are stupid"

    So, let's make use of the stupidity and make money without guilt.

    ~ Vinod

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  15. Impressive article. Majority of Hindus seem to have a firm belief in vaastu shastra. Psychologically it is proven that a cluttered home produces irritable and unhappy people not because of the 'negative energy' produced by the clutter itself but the negative effect it produces on the human mind. However as you said vastu experts happiyly interchange science,psychology, emotions and everything under the sun to justify their beliefs.
    Some people I know have also told me that they experience strong 'vibes' when they enter a temple. When I prodded them further they said that they cannot explain it in any known terms but that they definitely felt it and where surprised that I didn't feel any such thing. They talked in the same way about positive energy, vibrations especially when they had visited famous temples such as Tirupati, Ayyappan temples. It seems the more poplular the temple the stronger the 'vibe'.

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  16. Very informatiive article. Vastu is not relevant in the modern world, for example Vastu claims that east facing house is auspicious, and even for aparments people blindly buy east facing aparments. In cast of aparments if your main door is facing east, most likely you won't get any sunlight from east as it will be closed by another apartment. As such there are are many points in Vastu which has no logic in today's world.

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  17. U da man...... what you wrote is a pure common sense and thats what is needed to debunk any think complex.. i will belive a vaastu expert if comes in BMW with a million dollar in the bank.. just giving me a case study of himself.. most of these people dont even own a house.. want to build one by cheating people.. but one thing for sure.. they are getting more and more lucky adding more more fools around the world..

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  18. Thanks bro,fortunately i went through your article before altering stair case of my dream home ,which is faulty according to vastu science..keep it up yar

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  19. It is too late I came to this site. However I tell one thing. I have firm belief that keeping lovebirds (or any birds) or fish tanks in the house will bring disaster. It is a challenge. And the disaster will come through liquids.

    Once I was supposed stay in the house of my friend's friend whom I did not see or know any details. Before I reach their I came to know that his only son drowned at the age of 15. I was sure that I will find the answer in their house in the vaasthu way. When I reached there I found that he got 4 fish tanks and three bird cages and I saw he was taking fish from one tank and feeding another monster fish in another tank. Birds were sometimes screaming afraid of something. I was shocked to see how vaasthu worked. If you want test yourself - go ahead and see the results.
    balanbr@eim.ae

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  20. I believe in Vaasthu which is more of common Sense...Its unfortunate that Many Frauds are there without deep knowledge(Sense), Making Money cheating people in the name of Vasthu....

    Any one ready to LIVE in a house that's perfectly Contrary to what Vaasthu suggests ?Can someone try and share his experiences...Re-Design a Home against Vaasthu..Try to live ...Any one ready:)

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  21. I am an Architect. Its no use arguing with clients about Vaasthu being bogus. Its waste of energy, and you end up getting tired. Plans have become very easy to do now. All the so called creativity has gone for a toss, but i do end up struggling if i get a very rare species who do not want to do anything with Vaasthu, because we have lost the habit of being creative.
    In south we prefer East or North plots, and in Northern regions they prefer South face plots because of change in angle of the sun. In one of the comments, i noticed the guy was talking of courtyards, South west being high etc. Its common sense that there are some advantages having courtyards if properly designed along with double walls especially where the walls are exposed to sunlight. Don't forget, with courtyards its a problem with rains, insects and mosquitoes. Now i am not so sure if it is mentioned in Vaasthu shastra, because we cant understand, it as it is in Sanskrit. each vaasthus expert has his own theories. Who has the patience to learn it when i notice since the begenning of my practice, whether you follow Vaasthu or not, you come up and go down. It depends how you handle when you are doing bad. In fact its more fun for contractors and vaasthu experts if the guy is doing badly in his work, health, business, relations etc,because i have seen clients spending crores only for Vaasthu corrections of their buildings or properties. I have seen them instigate the clients in make them do stupid corrections for Vaasthu. As i said, it doesn't help.

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  22. Thank you for your excellent article. Here is a suggestion. Ask a Vasthu expert to put down on stamp paper listing all good things that will happen if his advice is followed and when they will happen adding that if they do not happen he will pay you the construction cost, the cost to bring back the building to its original shape and Rs 1 Lakh for wasting your time. No Vasthu expert will do so because they do not trust Vasthu.

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  23. Vastu, Astrology, Palmistry, and Numerology – all of these are thriving in India because of the superstitious legacy we Indians have. These people know majority of us are irrational to the core and they capitalized big time on this trait of Indians.

    Vastu was probably conceptualized to create house/buildings with a better architecture. A set of principles which allowed a dwelling/building to have lots of natural light, good air circulation etc.

    But today it has a whole different meaning. These people know it’s very easy to penetrate somebody’s beliefs by inducing fear. It works, and using that they are able to sell their ideas and make money. These guys need to be banned.

    We need to create more awareness towards these so called ‘sciences’ from school itself. Probably we could have a chapter introduced in the History book on the ‘Superstitiousness of Indian’s’ :).
    If any of this is true, why hasn’t anybody till this date who practices it ever tried to defend it. They know they can’t because there’s not fact in it.

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  24. All who practise these unscientific principles in life are the most useless. Once such is matching of horoscope for marriage.
    In this world millions of people have differnt faiths beliefs. In india so many women cannot decide their partners due to this unscientific principle of matching horoscope. Are these people thinks that all marriages on the earth is happened after matching horoscope? Same thing for Vastu? Is all Americans and Russians living in distress due to thier house is build on non vastu principles? Is all Indian Homes affected , due to they do not adopt Fen shui ? All bullshits . How they can call Vastu a science when this does not approved by any scientists. I never seen a text book on Vastu , Horoscope or Astrology in any University syllabi.

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  25. Very true and very well communicated. Blind faith stems from insecurity. The more knowledgeable society gets, the lesser should be the insecurities. But I wonder with disgust how Vastu is thriving despite the fact that education is increasing.
    - Sandhya

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  26. Rajgopal
    At least one forum I could find which is attempting to make clear the facts about Vastu.

    Well, Vastu is Construction / arrangement / layout guidelines given in the later vedic period. The guidelines are naturally the ones as how to construct a building without electricity (no lights and fans), no corporation water, no milk federation, no cement no constructional steel etc.,
    The people are required to mange with the resources available in nature. Vastu is scientific to that extent.
    Regarding energy, magnetic field etc those people are not at all competent. Though moon may have some gravitational effect on human beings, it is same whether one stands, sits or sleeps in any direction.
    Why our people that too learned people do not judge these things and get carried away by the Vastu experts who are basically less than 7th standard drop outs.

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  27. >>> Though moon may have some gravitational effect on human beings, it is same whether one stands, sits or sleeps in any direction.

    I am not interested in supporting/opposing vaastu.

    But I beg to differ with this statement. In most cases it could be insignificant, but the difference is still there.

    It is all about how one receives those waves.

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  28. Astrology is all bull-trash. I've known otherwise sane people driven by it and spoil their lives.

    Vastu makes a little sense though. But if someone said I would die if I placed a pit in a 'wrong' place in my house, I would ask him to go to hell.

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  29. I agree absolutely. The same logics apply for palmistry , face reading , tarrot cards , numerology. I hope the youth of India give up superstitions and work with a scientific temper to achieve there goals.

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  30. Wonderful article..same logic applies for tarrot cards , palmistry , face reading , numerology...I hope the youth of India shun all superstitions and work with a scientific temper to achieve their goals.

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  31. abb
    happy to go through this articale,it boosted my confidence as i am constructing a new house without much importance to so called vaasthu.thanks

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  32. Vaastu does effect on human life and everything should follow the vaastu rule while building a home.

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  33. Vaastu may have been some commonsense guidelines created at a time when houses were being built with a lot of yard space around them. And, even then, my guess is that they were meant to be taken merely as guidelines and tweaked/altered/tossed out depending on the specific location/orientation - since not every place gets breeze from the same direction etc. Anyway, in this day and age when most of the houses are apartment buildings that are packed together with barely any space between them, it is foolish to blindly go with kitchens in the SE, houses facing south and so on. And, it is idiotic to think that something bad will happen if you don't follow vaastu. Consider the specific flat/house you are building and put windows where there is a possibility of getting some breeze, put a balcony where you might enjoy sitting out and where you might get some sun to dry your clothes. This is the modern vaastu - new guidelines for the present day.

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  34. In India there are way many people who make a decent fortune flaunting/preaching/propagating beliefs and anti-sciences much of which rely on fears of people. Religious institutions are foremost among them. Vastu, Astrology occupy a distant second. These scumbags add no value to society, are utterly useless and are a huge burden to mankind.

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    Replies
    1. It cannot be denied. Yet the same time these people pale infront of certified Financial Advisors of this country. Please ask somebody to calculate amount looted by Insurance companies just in Unit Linked Policies. Ask how many Mutual Funds ended-up with capital erosion. Only difference is ordinary astrologer does not put up a satuatory warning.

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    2. So you encourage looting!!

      Delete
  35. I had a plot in india. Facing it comes a road. My friend too had a plot. but no road problem. As road is coming against my plot they said it has bad luck. When we both tried to sell our plots people asked my flat for 10% less than what it was worth because there was wasthu defect in it. So my friend sold his flat for 30000 and I said i can not sell. surely my plot carried bad luck. i thought. So far so good. Now after 20 years prices soared my plot is worth of 1500000 and still is with me. My fried,at the same time has no house to live and became poor. He succumbed to Vasthu cheators. Which plot do you think is really lucky flat?. I am benefited by the psuedo-science. I will have my plot for ever with me because its so lucky one. You have now to agree that vasthu is big dog-shit OK?

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  36. A peck of dust on a distant star has an effect on you.
    I do not believe in today's astrologers' ability, who are just fond of money. At the same time i do not make fun of an ancient science. Try reading Vedas before you die.

    "OM TAT SAT"

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    1. Indians have been reading the Vedas for last 5000 years. What has come out of it , eh? The time ,energy and money Indians waste on religious activities, if they had spent that on nation building, like Japan or Israel, then today India wouldn't have remained a 3rd world country.

      posted by UNITED INDIAN

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    2. TO United Indian

      Reading VEDA is not taking us backward ..even Japan and Israel have their strong religious routes ... Vastu Dosha , Falit Jyotish and things like that has no mention in VEDA .. and VEDA shows a very scientific way of knowing our powers in true sense.

      Every Indian must read VEDA .. From scientific angle.

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  37. Pl. ask any of the Vastru Shastra Consultants, that whether the house of Bill Gates is as per Vastru Shastra?

    If the Vastu Shashtra Consultants say that placing certain things in a certain place in a house bring money, then Govt. of India should consult a Vastu Sashtra Consultant and build houses for poor in order to reduce poverty......


    This is all bullshit.

    ~ Shyamal

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  38. I once joined the art of living basic course. The teacher said "When you say OM. A region of 2 kilometers around the speaker gets purified."

    How ? Because the frequencies we emit when we say 'OM' do the purification. WOW. What a theory.

    They explain that the tingling feeling after their sudharshan kriya is because the body is thrived with energy. And where did this energy come from ?
    The tingling feeling is actually because of the increases alkalinity of the blood and its not a good thing.

    The same continued for two days and I dropped out after that, could take no more. :)

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  39. Hey Sujai...This is probably the best article I've read in recent past.
    I cannot fathom how common people fall victim to such a sham. I will definitely try to send this link to as many people as possible.
    But I think you will agree with me on this that People want to be in state of denial rather than accepting these facts. -Anurag

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  40. Actually it is not a shastra it is a kala vasthu kala.ok?

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  41. Great article. I am an architect and I must admit some clients are so misguided by these so called Vaastu experts that they loose sight of basic common sense. I once had a client who want the main door of his house to placed at the rear end of the site to make it vaastu complaint. It made absolutely no sense and he would simply listen to no reason. I put my foot down saying I will not design something so bad as it will reflect poorly on my ability as an architect. He just went with another architect who was willing cheat him in the name of vaastu. I learnt my lesson. If someone wants to make a fool of themselves by all means help them, you stand to gain nothing by trying make them see some reason.

    Common sense is not so common afterall.

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  42. Some even say that if the roof in the NE is higher than the SW sector of the house,the male child of the house will fail his examinations .Believe in that and explain it in a so called scientific way!!!!

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  43. So Called Vasthu Pandits and Vidvans cheating People...
    Good one...

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  44. I admire your work! You write my thoughts in fact on most of the topics here. Thanks mate!
    I would like to point a flaw in one of your arguments (sic):
    'We don’t speak of a man’s wavelength in science. We do that figuratively in language. Now, do homes have a specific wavelength and a field?'
    Scientifically, every macroscopic object has its unique wavelength, the DeBroglie wavelength, you might be aware of it. Everything has it, but its too large to measure. We practically ignore it. BUT it will not support the stupid arguments Vaasthu practitioners make in anyway!

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  45. I always had my vehicle insurance proper. Once while renewing, by mistake (or rather say because of the poor terminology used to ask the new date), my new insurance started 1 day after my old got expired. In general consider myself a good driver, but that day I almost had close shave with 3 vehicle, 1 pedestrian and finally got an edge with one bike. This is all because I was in a stress of not having insurance that day. I was constantly thinking, what will happen if a traffic police catches me or if anything else.
    From next day, everything became fine again.

    So, it all boils down to what you believe in or you think is required. Absence or presence of that will matter in that case only, otherwise not.

    For me what matters is my house should get proper light, should be properly ventilated and convenient to live. It does not matter if I have to place my kitchen, open space, bedroom in x, y, z corner of my property.

    If vastu says kitchen to be kept in SE corner and your neighbor is already having his smelly septic airflow pipe opened towards your that SE corner (which is his backside), then would you follow vastu and let that smelly air come in your kitchen?

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  46. Although this is a good n well thought out blog article I would add my two cents thus. What we cant understand yet we continue to judge it as what we understand it to be for SURE. But once truly have given it a deeper study, time, energy and an unbiased thought, we begin to understand it better. Hence we stopping jusging others, those that have gone through this process lime you did now, much before. To end this comment, I would add that both Aztrology n Vastu are not about energy but about energetics regarding the three primary forces aka Rhythm, Mobility and Inertia. Then we talk energy n consciousness. Good read though. Best.

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  47. I agree with you on this count -- there are thousands of quacks, frauds and cheats around the world who use these tools to deceive people. But there are also a handful few who don't cheat anyone and they don't even take a dime from anyone to provide excellent counsel. Such a rarity but they do exist and I have met a few. All are not bad but most are. That part is true. You could have simply said it in a one line "I don't believe in astrology and Vastu". Period.

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