Introduction

Four Pillars considers you, your parents, your grandparents, and your siblings. Feng shui considers genetic influence to occur over a span of three or four generations — a belief that is as old as the Shang era.

A Four Pillars analysis is not mandatory for feng shui readings, but Four Pillars does supply a level of detail on individuals that is not otherwise obtained. That is its power.

In expert hands, Four Pillars reveals your destiny, but probably not in the way you think. Profound insights about your health may lie buried in your Four Pillars, waiting to be brought to light by the right analysis.

Don’t know much about Four Pillars? Raymond Lo has a great introduction.

Grandparents

How is it possible for someone long dead to have an influence on the living, and especially those who are some generations removed?

Euripides (c. 485-406 BCE) 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.
—Peter W. Nathanielsz, M.D., Ph.D.: Life in the Womb: The Origin of Health and Disease (Promethean Press, 1999)

What your mother does while she carries you in her womb determines many important factors in your life, just as where you live and how your family functions help to determine who you are.

If you are malnourished as a fetus you may develop “thrifty genes” that help you get the most from your food. This may lead to Type 2 diabetes if your later diet has too many bad foods such as fries and doughnuts.

You could generate fewer kidney cells in the womb and end up with hypertension because your kidneys are not strong enough to regulate your blood pressure.

That much is known. The frontier is where researchers see these known effects skipping generations.

Too few calories, too little protein, or too few other nutrients can all lead to diabetes, hypertension, and other ills decades later.

If your grandmother smoked cigarettes while she was pregnant with your mother, you may have twice the risk of developing asthma as someone whose grandmother didn’t flood her (and your) body with carcinogens.

The dangers from your grandmother are as acute as if your mother smoked while carrying you, even if she did not. It is possible that smoking changes the DNA in the eggs of a female fetus and the defect hits areas related to the effects of cigarettes, notably the lungs.

A similar effect occurs with the amount of protein your grandmother failed to eat while pregnant with your mother, nursing your mother, or pregnant and nursing. This predisposes her grandchildren to Type 2 diabetes.

If you fail to receive enough nutrition in your first trimester as a fetus, you fail to get enough fat padding in the right places. Instead, years later, if you overeat you develop fat around your abdominal organs rather than on your thighs and hips. Your body takes the shape of an apple, rather than the shape of a pear. This substantially raises your risk of heart disease.

If your mother suffered from gestational diabetes, it is very likely you will later suffer from Type 2 diabetes.

When undernourished babies grow into adolescents they may not achieve the same benefit from vaccines as babies who were adequately nourished. And the saddest legacy of all: a malnourished baby girl has a higher chance of not having an easy pregnancy and delivering a healthy baby.

The pillar in Four Pillars related to your grandparents should be studied carefully; you never know what it might reveal about your future.