Traditional Feng Shui primarily addresses the energy of the Macro-cosm, the Sun, Moon, cosmos, gravity, magnetics and landforms and how this chi imprints your home. It observes how time cycles and physical forms can alter chi. Space-clearing is primarily about changing the emotional energy of your immediate surroundings or Micro-cosm. This is quantum physics and the part of your environment you can adjust through positive thinking. Both practices use different techniques to accomplish a shift in your home’s energy. Feng Shui uses the Chinese 5-element system: water, wood, fire, earth and metal to balance chi. Space clearing uses chants, prayers, bells, salts, essential oils and white sage to clear a space, but cannot relieve issues that are created from the structural form of the house.

How do you know if you need a space-clearing, and what are the clues? Maybe a ghost has been attracted to your home or a family member, (been to any funerals lately?) If there is a persistent sense of gloom or doom in the family, sadness or despondency–or maybe you’ve been having trouble sleeping or one of your children is having recurrent nightmares. You might have a ghost. Entities are not all scary, sometimes they are just wounded and lonely souls who don’t know how to ascend and need our prayers, or a proper burial.

Draining energy in a home can also be your own negative or fearful feelings that are out of control. Your vibrations will affect and be “registered” by the things around you. This is how psychometrists can pick up information from your car keys, for example. Remember that everything is energy and there are recording mechanisms in many different types of materials. Don’t forget we know how to record complex sounds/music on a piece of plastic tape or disc. There is a lot going on in the environment that we still have yet to understand scientifically.

Low sound vibrations below 20 hz called infrasound can also make us feel anxious. 20 hz. is below what normal human ears can hear, but these vibrations can make us feel nervous and uneasy. Some sub-woofer speakers can generate these sound waves. Animals can hear these lower sound waves and it is theorized that these sounds are emitted right before earthquakes–and this is why animals act so strangely before a quake strikes.

Positive and negative ions can also affect mood and health. A plethora of positive ions from air conditioners, heaters, dust, dirt, electronic equipment, computers, smart phones, wireless signals and smoke can make one feel anxious, cranky or tired. Taking showers, walking barefoot on earth or sand, salt lamps, pointed-leaf plants like pine trees or asparagus ferns all generate negative ions that help to refresh the environment and recharge your own energy making you feel better naturally.

Aromatherapy and essential oils is another tool to improve the healing energy of your home. Some oils lift spirits and energize–while others calm and assist your sleep and relaxation. I particularly like burning white sage to lift the energy. The smell is not unpleasant and disperses quickly.

All these methods can improve your home’s energy and your well-being. Feng Shui adjustments will last a year and do need minimal annual adjustments. In my observation, space clearing usually lasts about 3 months and needs to be redone on a regular basis for best results. You can lengthen its effect by opening windows, airing the house out and keeping it clean on a regular basis.

So if you have a ghost, a troubled teen or a depressed tenant… you may need to call a Space-clearer. But if you are having issues like accidents, illness, financial lack or relationship problems, it may not be a ghost, but the draining magnetic energy of the home (created by the structural form of the house) instead that needs adjustment.