Grandma as a Fengshui Consultat

Remember that McFengshui relies on crimes of persuasion such as affinity fraud and other confidence schemes. The techniques include subjective validation and cold reading along with fishing for details.

Why else — except for aberrant psychology, and that is out of the scope of this commentary — would Jami Lin know and publish so much about her clients?

Would you provide that much personal information to your house painter, or to the people who clean your carpets? How would you feel if they posted your life story on the Internet?

No one in their right mind would supply so much private information to any business without some guarantee their privacy is ensured — yet there's no evidence on any McFengshui websites (including Lin's site) that they understand common business practices to safeguard client privacy (again, not a surprise).

Would you buy a used car from these people?

If Jami Lin's business safeguarded the privacy of her clients, ensured cultural respect, championed the truth, and carefully attended to details, the sloppy writing and hucksterism would have disappeared from her site long ago, and she would craft her words with care. She would stick to information about the structure she is analyzing and not pry into people's lives — nor would she publish so many intimate and irrelevant details.

Getting "feng shui" from Lin suggests her clients are paying to tell intimate details of their lives to the town gossip — only this gossip broadcasts to the entire world.

Sadly, she's merely one in a herd of similar confidence types. Whether these colonials promote their (frequently bizarre) ideas out of ignorance or indifference, it is aall the same — siphoning money from a credulous public to make a living. Few New Agers apparently care that the world sees them as modern-day colonials and fraudsters in hot pursuit of a sleazy fortune.

If you're offended by Lin's contempt for business ethics regarding personal privacy, her rapacious cultural appropriation or her ghastly writing, by all means complain to her. She has to learn to be accountable for how she runs her business.


She would rather screech in protest and make excuses than take responsibility for her work — after all, it is always easier to complain than to do something. Even with Lin's shrill complaints you needn't worry: her histrionics are transparent diversionary tactics to avoid scrutiny and accountability as strenuously as she avoids good business practices, facts and grammar.

People need to express their outrage at the shenanigans of these McFengshui tricksters or they'll continue thinking their way is the only way to run a business.

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