The New Paper Tuesday, Oct 23, 2012
When clients want
Mr Zen Neo to guarantee that "the money will come rolling in", the
fengshui consultant's standard response is: "I'd like that too. "And if I
can guarantee you that, you'd not be seeing me now." The man, who is
in his early 50s, says in a mix of English and Mandarin: "Such demands irk
me. How can you expect success without hard work?"
People pay
geomancers for life analyses based on a person's date and time of birth. These
fengshui masters also help in selection of auspicious dates for various types
of occasions, auspicious names for people and companies, and personal
characteristics appraisals.
Mr Neo's fees can
range from $88 for a simple date selection to as high as "some tens of
thousands" for a more "elaborate" reading. His profession
has garnered him a semi-detached bungalow "somewhere in Bukit Timah"
and he alternates between driving two luxury cars.
He gets annoyed
when he hears snide suggestions about his wealth. "Why can't
geomancers be rich? Please, you are paying for expert advice and of course,
that means we are qualified professionals," defends Mr Neo, who has been
practising fengshui for nearly 30 years.
The wealth of
fengshui masters became a hot topic of late when well-known geomancer Goh Chuen
Meng, tried to take out a court injunction to prevent his long-term mistress
from selling two properties.
A national
newspaper carried a diagram charting the various relationships between the
master and his women. When Mr Neo is
asked about the case, he bellows with laughter. He adds: "I
can tell you honestly that there are at least three women in my life right now
and I treat all of them fairly. "Do I love
them? Of course. But I can also tell you that from the reading of my personal
life analysis, one relationship looks set to end soon...and a new one will
begin soon." Mr Neo confesses
that he uses his reading expertise to seek new partners - particularly
"the ones who can complement certain aspects in my life or career
positively".
"I'm sure
some people will be very critical (of his declaration) but I'd rather be honest
than lie about it," he says unabashedly. A good
practitioner, he feels, does not insist that his clients must buy fortune or
good luck emblems. "Some
practitioners set up an alternative business and make money by selling the
items at exorbitant rates," he says. "It does not
mean that people who want you to buy these emblems are cheats. But, frankly,
they are not really a must."
He has seen an
increase in requests by companies who want him to appraise their potential
hires. He sees an average of 10
a month, compared with two to three in the past. Says Mr Neo:
"Often, it's for top or crucial positions and clearly, the corporations
want to ensure that the best man - or the most ideally suited one - is hired
for the job." And sometimes, he
claims, his clients prefer to cut their losses than hire someone they had in
mind after they hear his analysis.
He recounts an
incident about three years ago. "This company had already offered the
position of finance controller to a prospective employee, but from my reading
of his 'ba zi' (eight characters derived from date and time of birth), I felt
that my client had more to lose if he was hired." As a result, Mr
Neo's client offered the prospective employee compensation for reneging on the
agreement. "About a
year later, that man was in the news for misappropriating funds from the
company he had joined," he says.
He insists that
the practice is not mere superstition. He explains:
"Fengshui is based on the concept that everything in our environment and
even in our body has a life force or energy, better known as 'qi'. "The art of
finding a perfect balance of the positive and negative aspects of this energy
produces a vibrant qi."
Mr Neo adds:
"As practitioners, our job is to help you ensure that all things are in
harmony with the surroundings."
No comments:
Post a Comment