I’ve been interested in the metaphysical for a while, having dabbled in the study myself. So when I was asked to interview Max Liang; adept face reader, numerologist and Feng Shui Master (amongst other things), I was pretty stoked.
When dealing with things as “abstract” and possibly life-altering as this, it’s important to tread carefully. Especially after that one time, a fortune teller told me I’d meet my future husband at the age of 19, newsflash: I didn’t.
So I’d implore you to take this the same way I did my meeting with Master Max: with an open mind and no expectation of walking away with next week’s winning 4D numbers.
Meeting With A Master
For the greater sceptics out there who chalk things such as Feng Shui and the likes up to hocus-pocus, Max once shared the sentiment.
So how did a man of science like himself, with a degree in Life Sciences from NUS, managed to find himself practising something that isn’t easily proven with a simple “pics or it didn’t happen”.
“I didn’t always believe in metaphysics, but I had a sort of clairvoyance since young,” he recalled.
“I could sense things but I couldn’t see them, which was quite scary for me as a child because I was always wondering what was going on.”
His inability to explain what he was experiencing made him conservative when mixing with people, and eventually his constant fears turned into anger. “These things became a habit and I had a barrier between myself and people that grew over time” he explained.
During his time as a pharmaceutical salesman, he started dabbling in face reading to help pick out viable prospects that’d show indicators of being willing and able to spend on his premium products.
“If they’re not gonna buy then I won’t bother and that saved me a lot of time and effort actually, it gave me really good results actually,” he says with a laugh.
Things, however, took a more serious turn when his daughter was born.
“Through face reading, I could tell she would actually have very strong Hua Gai, and I was quite sure she inherited my clairvoyance.” Having struggled with a similar ‘gift’ as a youth, Max decided to jump into the study of the metaphysical on a professional level.
After practising for a few years, Max found himself dissatisfied with the way a majority of traditional practices emphasized the potential problems that would arise without supplying much of a solution.
“I came up with a system, where we take the known characteristics of a person and the “likelihood” of a new character this person could evolve into, and we direct our efforts to help the individual achieve the best of what’s there.”
Max prides himself on being one of the few – if not the only Feng Shui master that uses a wide array of techniques including hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming to aid his clients and get them fast and effective results.
A Factual Approach To Feng Shui
“Generally for what I do, I don’t care too much for the “traditional” feng shui techniques” he explains. “I don’t really care too much about the particular direction an item faces, the colour of it or if it represents a certain god.”
Instead, Max looks for element structures that exist and works from there.
“For a particular direction, for example, north would give you a water effect, the south will always be a fire, east would be wood and west would be a metal” he illustrates.
He determines whether the energies that correspond to these elemental structures are strong or weak, and manipulates them to create an overall balanced energy.
“This is how we could “create” a feng shui effect that can work within a few days, and not just a few months or years” he elaborates.
“I’ve been able to help turn businesses around in a few months, from a loss to a profit that goes exponentially from there – that’s what we can actually achieve from feng shui.”
Max stresses the fact that Feng Shui practices should not be rooted in religion, stating:
“We don’t want to deal with religion. I do have Christian, Catholic and Muslim clients and they don’t see it as religious. It’s just about the energy, and how it can help people. It’s not a ritual or rite, in fact, understanding Feng Shui has been around even before religion.”
That, however, shouldn’t be mistaken with a more lax approach to his Feng Shui. “When I do Feng Shui audits, I don’t just deal with places, I deal with the human factors as well” he comments. “When we talk about an individual’s Feng Shui, it deals with their comfort, confidence, resilience.”
“For example. if you’re the pessimistic sort of person, Feng Shui could help you be more optimistic. It can be affected by the colours you wear, a certain ideology that you invite to help you see things differently; which is the same as with the law of attraction.”
There’s also something Max describes as the “knowing”. “When you know you’re gonna achieve something, it’s more likely that you’ll achieve it” he puts across simply.
“If you’re going to be blur about what you’re gonna achieve, then it’s less likely you’ll be able to set the goals to achieve it.”
The Basis Of Numerology
Before we dive into my numerology reading, I ask Max how accurate numerology is in predicting one’s future. “Predicting the future isn’t very accurate, predicting the present is accurate” he replies visibly amused.
“I believe a person can change, you’re not born to be one thing only. You’re born to be something better, of higher quality.”
“For the uninitiated person that comes to me, we’d be able to assess him accurately from his numerology read. But once you give them the right direction, method, resources or techniques to overcome these limitations, you can see a fantastic growth in them and see them step out of their circumstances and achieve much more.”
Max acknowledges that the ability to come out of one’s circumstance isn’t something you get just by meeting with a numerologist or Feng Shui master, but poses it more as a helpful push.
“Of course in life, there are people who can push themselves to do that, but how many people are usually capable of that? If we could get the majority of people to come in and become more aware of their limitations and strengths, then we could give them the direction to be so much more subsequently in life.
Getting My Ba Zi
This was something of a moment of truth for myself as I gave Max my birthdate and eagerly awaited my numerology read.
He does some quick math and soon I’m presented with my very own Ba Zi, which essentially gives Max an in-depth read on my character. “You’re a 6” Max states, breaking the nervous silence.
According to my read, I like to wear nice clothes, and am a kinesthetic person when I communicate with people I’m familiar with. I like to be in control of situations, myself and the people around me – even my parents (yikes).
I don’t like people who repeat themselves or nag me and I’m a go-getter who wants things done fast and can get impatient if it doesn’t. I can communicate what I want in most cases unless it has to do with my emotions, in which I apparently shut down and I also have minor OCD.
Now with that massive chunk of information out of the way, it’s important for me to emphasize that I’ve omitted pieces of information and still have such a thorough and lengthy read. To add to that, Max is also able to read how I deal with external situations.
“You’re always busy,” he informs me as I sigh and nod, “even when you’re free you’re doing something.” Truer words have never been spoken – is what my mother would say to that. He goes on to tell me about the type of people I have around me, and how I strive for financial independence – through the latter could probably be said for many young adults these days.
Max gives me tips on how to achieve my best life, which includes delegating work, networking with people, and learning to quantify my goals. “Though you can’t change your basic characteristic as a number 6, you can manage how you work with it” he assures me.
Face Reading
Now I turn to my assisting cameraman, Leon, and offer him as tribute to get his face read to which he replies “I bet he’s already done it on us.”
Though Max tries not to read people’s faces off the bat, he does admit it’s an occupational hazard. “For me, the process of doing it is quite fast so if I don’t stop myself I’ll just be reading everyone and it’ll affect the way I react which isn’t what I want.”
“With face reading, we first look at the forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth and ears. The bone structure is the main thing I look at because it’s what’s really determined by your genes and the generations before you,” he explains.
“It’s been passed on to you and is in a sense, selective influence. Based on the characteristics you have, we look at what sort of behaviour you develop over time.
“As you develop, your features will change, but your bones won’t.”
It doesn’t stop there though, reading someone’s ‘face’ thoroughly can include assessing hair, characteristics like body language and body structure.
For instance, I’m a metal body type and Leon is a wood which means I have a sportier stature built for power sports, while Leon’s is built for endurance.
None of which matters because my exercise is speed-walking to catch the bus – and that’s an important thing to note too: just because you have the features for something, it doesn’t hold absolute reign over what you choose to do in life.
Max informs us he teaches people how to face read, and conducts a mini masterclass for Leon and I. He asks me to inspect Leon’s side profile; is his forehead slanted back or straight up? Is his chin slanted inwards, outwards or flat? I tell him his forehead slants back and his chin points inwards.
“From there we can tell his thinking is fast and his actions are quick as well,” Max informs us. “So if he has any queries or if there’s something he doesn’t know, he will identify it fast and act on it fast.”
“The thing that’s hard to learn is to identify the look in the eye,” he informs us as he gestures towards Leon. “He has an inward look, which means whatever he sees or hears, he compares it inwardly to himself. Everyone has a look in their eyes and when someone’s mindset changes, the look in the eyes change.”
He goes on to tell us that Leon and I have features that show we are generally “good” people, which piqued my curiosity. After all, wouldn’t that statement be true for a majority of people? Apparently, not as much of a majority as I’d once thought.
“30% of people have facial features that show they’re not exactly to be trusted,” Max hesitantly warns us, “Traits that are easy to pick out, are a crooked nose and mouth that’s crooked while it’s resting.”
“When you can see a lot of the whites of someone’s eyes below the pupil, they tend to be proud and only deal with people they deem are fitting to them. If you can see the whites all around the pupil, they’re thinking of ways to scheme. These people want to have an edge over others, and if you’re in their way you can get in trouble.”
What Max would like us to know is, even things that feel purely physical, such as our facial features, are influenced by our subconscious. “When I look at your body language, micro-expressions and things like that, I can tell how your mind is reacting to what I’m sending across.”
Metaphysics Matters
A large takeaway from this interview for myself and for all of us is how energies exist in all our lives. Those familiar with “The Secret” would understand this principle in a more simplistic context: positivity invites positivity and negativity invites negativity.
We see this in the emphasis of the subconscious’ effect on our bodies and how a change in mindset can spark changes in our so-called “destinies”.
Speaking to Max, however, has illuminated many grey areas that most won’t be able to simply categorise under “positive” or “negative”.
For those who still stand by their reservations about Feng Shui, numerology, face reading or even metaphysics, Max has this to say:
“It’s a skillset that is acquired through comparative studies and experience; it’s a natural science. The science that we know today is just a very small portion of a much wider spectrum of natural science we don’t fully know or understand yet.”
“Because of that, we shouldn’t have the idea that something we can’t see, touch or feel is not there at all” he argues.
“There’s always a possibility, and right now science is all about what can be proven or disproven but when it comes to natural sciences what’s there to prove?”
“My scientific mind propels me to want to believe in the basic theory of evolution. But from what I’ve experienced – dealing with things that are not often dealt with by the general population, you really have to open our eyes to things that are totally different.”
After all, Max has emphasised numerous times that he doesn’t come from what some would describe as a “classic” Feng Shui background or stick to specific schools of Feng Shui teachings.
After our somewhat spiritual journey, I ask Leon if he found Master Max’s readings about him accurate. “I think so?” He replies visibly confused. “I can’t really tell because it might be a placebo effect sort of thing.”
So I’ll say this: as much as fate, destiny, or even our very DNA say that we are what we are. I choose to believe, just as Max does; our choices in life push us to achieve more than what we were given.
To learn more about Master Max Liang and his services, check out his website.
