How aware are you of your own home environment?

The space you live in, not the furniture and the fixtures and fittings, but the space itself?

Do you just take it for granted and assume everything is OK? Maybe that's not such a good idea. And here are some reasons why.

For example, did you know that there are probably more unhealthy homes than healthy ones? That's not just a wild guess. No lesser a body than the World Health Organization has stated that about 8% of all buildings are, or should be, uninhabitable due to various factors. Such buildings are generally suffering from Sick Building Syndrome (SBS).

8% is only the tip of the iceberg. It really only deals with chemical issues and toxic building materials.

But research over the last 100 years has shown that there are a wide range of other factors which can also individually create an environment which is unhealthy.

For example, EMFs or Electro-Magnetic Fields are all around us. They are a natural part of our lives. They are present whenever electrical equipment is connected and 'live'. They are also a natural part of the Earth's atmosphere.

EMFs have been shown to interfere with human physiology and there are numerous reports of people suffering from pain and energy loss whenever they are in these fields.

Before you start thinking, 'I don't have that happen to me', you must realize they are only the extreme cases. Everyone gets affected, to a greater or lesser extent.

Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is given off by light bulbs or fluorescent lights. The bad press around cell phone usage is due to their giving off EMR. In other words, it's not the fact that the radiation exists, it is that there is so MUCH of it nowadays.

But it is not the only problem. Take underground water.

As water trickles or forces its way through rocks, the friction at the edges of the stream causes a strong but very narrow band of EMR to be formed. This band, often only an inch or two across, affects those living above it. Particularly susceptible are those who sleep above such bands.

Detailed research has revealed that spending just 15 minutes in such areas affects up to 17 different functions of the body. It is no surprise, therefore, that houses where strong bands associated with underground water are found are known as 'sick houses' or, worse, 'cancer houses'.

Indeed, such is the effect of these streams that cancer patients, particularly in Europe, are advised first to move their beds. And, in many cases, this is enough!

Similar energies are associated with certain types of rock formations, particularly quartz-bearing rocks.

So far, these are the examples which can be measured by current scientific instrumentation.

Yet there are other, less accepted, factors which can and do affect you physically, though they are harder to prove scientifically.

For example, there are certain energy flows in the land. The Chinese have long referred to them as lines of good or bad energy. Feng Shui specialists assess such flows and attempt to alter or disperse them.

We humans are incredibly sensitive to very subtle energy levels indeed, so living in a negative or noxious flow of energy can have a generally debilitating effect on us.

It doesn't have to happen all at once or be dramatic for it to affect us. Low level exposure over years can mean we experience continued illness, a general unresponsiveness to treatments, poor sleeping, depression, nightmares and a wide range of other symptoms.

Even schoolwork can be affected. (Does your child's school regularly rotate the children so that they never sit in the same place all the time? Many in Europe have this as standard practice.)

Past energies affect us. For example, we all know that we wouldn't want to live on the site of one of Hitler's death camps. But we might, unwittingly, be living on the site of an old battlefield, or graveyard and have those energies affect us.

Ghosts? Sure, they exist. But they're not all bad. But the ones which cause unrest, unease and stress are the ones which get the press. And they are linked in some way to the land as well.

And, finally, there's the area which is really difficult to talk about because it's not even clear exactly what is going on. But there are cases where it's clear that none of the above explanations will work. Whatever is affecting the person is not to do with the land nor is it human. But it's there.

The sense of being stared at, the feeling that you are not alone in your house. The feeling you're always being watched. These are not the idle ramblings of the mentally ill. They are genuine feelings which are experienced by a wide range of people and which disappear when dealt with. I leave it to you to provide your own reasoning.

What is important to understand about all this is that such effects can all be dealt with… some more easily than others. But you don't have to live with them or move away from home.

When you then consider all the ways in which your environment can affect you, you can easily see that the original WHO figure of 8% is way on the low side.

So, next time you're home alone and it's quiet, just listen, feel, sense and begin to understand the role it is playing in your feelings of health and well-being.

You might be in for a surprise!