IF it sounds to you like an ancient folklore art, then you’re not that far wrong.

Because bed thwacking has a delightfully old fashioned sound. It fits somewhere along with shin kicking, gurning, Morris dancing and thatching.

It’s also among the specialities of Karen Kingston, one of the world’s leading Feng Shui experts, who has written a million-selling book in 25 languages and has returned to live near Malvern after 20 years in Bali.

Swapping Indonesia for Upper Welland can’t have been easy, but there again there always has been a touch of the “alternative” about the lifestyle of a certain strata of society in the hillside spa town.

So welcoming back to its midst the author of the best selling Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui will be a doddle. Be prepared for an outbreak of bed beating – and from Karen, the writing of a few new books.

By way of introduction to the subject, I should point out that more than 30 years ago, while finding her feet in London, Karen discovered quite by chance she had the ability to “read” surfaces.

By simply passing her hands over them, she could sense their energies and influences for good or bad. Walls, furniture, textiles, they all responded to her.

Now this might be regarded as verging on the dippy, until you learn that by the age of four little Karen Kingston could read, write and type and by 11 she had read every book in her both her school and local libraries.

Wacky, she is decidedly not. And she is also very certain about her abilities.

“Everything that happens in a building is imprinted in the walls, furniture and objects,” she said.

“And mattresses get more imprinting than just about everything else. Not only are they made of the most absorbent types of materials, but they also get the greatest degree of up-close-andpersonal usage.

“Most people spend a third or more of their lives in bed, so they leave a deep imprint of themselves where they sleep.

“Over the last 35 years I’ve developed the art of being able to read these imprints with my hands and can tell just about everything about the person who sleeps there by doing so. Often I’m called in when someone has remarried and they are living in the same place their partner lived with his or her ex.

“The focus of the consultation is always getting the old partner’s energies out so the new relationship can really begin.

“But the one area where more than space clearing is needed is when it comes to clearing out energies embedded in the mattress, simply because so much stuff accumulates there.

“My advice is to get yourself a new mattress every 10 years, and sooner if you start a new relationship that you are serious about and want to succeed. The basic rule is: new relationship, new mattress.”

But what happens if you can’t afford a new bed or have a fairly new one imprinted with a history you want to make history? This is where bed thwacking comes in.

“For this you’ll need an object such as a cricket bat, baseball bat, or even a rolled up umbrella will do,” said Karen. “Drag the mattress outside the house if you can, but if this isn’t possible just open a window, peel back the bedcovers, and start thwacking it with the bat, or other hard object, vibrating the energies out. When you’ve done one side, flip the mattress and do the other side.

“But be warned. Loads of stuff will come out. You’ll probably see dust flying around and there will also be energies you can’t see.

“So if you do this indoors, don’t stay in the room afterwards.

“Leave the window open so there is some circulation of air, and come back a few hours later after the dust and other energies have settled. Do a quick once-round with a vacuum cleaner and that’s it.”

Bed thwacking is just one element of the Feng Shui art of space clearing, the particular gift/talent/ability with which Karen has made her name worldwide.

“And it’s nothing to do with dumping that pile of old magazines in the skip, clearing out the sock drawer or turning the settee to face south. Space clearing is the clearing and revitalising of energies in buildings,” said Karen.

“It’s as essential to the energy maintenance of a place as physical cleaning is to the physical maintenance.

“The words have passed into the English language as a generic term for all kinds of energy clearing techniques, but originally it was the name I coined to describe the specific ceremony I have pioneered and developed since 1976.

“Energy is stagnated by clutter and clutter clearing primarily involves clearing physical objects from a space. Although there are also deeper levels that address mental, emotional and spiritual types of clutter.

“People generally begin with physical level clutter clearing and then progress to the other less tangible but equally important types.”

Prepare for the hills to come alive to the sound of bed thwacking.