Thankfully Four Pillars hasn't been widely embraced by the fraudsters. Actually they can't: it requires an education. The fraudsters can't fool people with "energies" and "intuition" and all the other sound bites. They have to do some work instead of talking their way around their ignorance.
Four Pillars is not conducive to doing it yourself unless you've had training.
Raymond Lo has a great introduction.
A Four Pillars analysis is not mandatory for feng shui analyses, but Four Pillars does supply a level of detail on individuals that is not otherwise obtained.
This series of articles presents research showing how Four Pillars syncs with what is known about the world today.
It has only been recently that a justification for Four Pillars (beyond entertainment) has been available in the West.
Four Pillars considers you, your parents, your grandparents, and your siblings. Because feng shui considers genetic influence to occur over three or four generations (a belief that can be traced to the Shang era), it's worth reviewing evidence that such belief is relevant today.
You may also find information that relates to some things people say about feng shui.
How is it possible for someone long dead to have an influence on the living, and especially those who are some generations removed? This core belief of Chinese culture, found in feng shui and Four Pillars, is also found in other cultures. It was Euripides (c. 485-406 BCE) who wrote
The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.
In science there is known "transgenerational effect." Eric Berne (1910-1970) noted that in families a behavior —dysfunctional or otherwise— can typically be traced back 150 years.
Our grandparents and even our great-grandparents do have influence on us beyond the grave. And there is nothing mysterious or mystical about it.
With the advent of fetal programming, which traces the origins of adult diseases from the time we are conceived, we can see the philosophy of Four Pillars taking shape.
How we are ushered into life determines how we leave.
