In the 6/8/2012 issue of Newsweek, there is an interesting article called “What a Killer Thinks”. In this
article the forensic psychiatrists classified the recent mass murderers into 3 types –1) The Delusionally
insane, 2) the psychopaths, and 3) the suicidally depressed. Examples are : Type 1 - Seung-Hui Cho,
the killer in Virginia Tech in 2007, Type 2 – Eric Harris, and Type 3 – Dylan Klebold, both are killers in
Columbine school massacre on 20/4/1999.

The Delusional type is “way out of touch with reality”, there is fear and internal terror -thinking
everybody is threatening his safety. Lost the ability to discern reality from fantasy.

The psychopath –“kill for amusement”, “born with no capacity for empathy, complete disregard for
suffering of others.

The Depressed - feel hopeless, helpless, in deep despair, may have history of suicide attempts, blaming
self and others.

This analysis is amazingly in parallel with what are reflected in the respective Four Pillars of these killers.

Eric Harris is extremely weak fire – Follow the Leader type. Therefore, his favorable elements are earth,
metal and water. His resources – Wood is most unfavorable. When he commit the crime, he was 18
year old in the luck pillar of tiger wood, also the year, month, day of the crime form a string of wood,
Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon. This massive amount of wood is unfavorable resources, which means wrong and
sick ideas, wrong thinking, false knowledge. This is matching with the psychopath type. He is sadistic,
enjoy killing, enjoy inflicting pain to others – these are sick thinking, sick state of mind.

He is strong water and he needs fire and wood as outlet for his excessive water energy. Metal and
water are unfavorable. As his major problem is excessive amount of metal in his year and month pillar,
such unfavorable resources element will suppress his intelligence – wood, making him frustrated and
depressed. The massacre happened when he was 18 years old, in the luck of earth supporting the bad
metal element, also the massacre took place in 1999 – year of Rabbit. The Rabbit clashed against his
year of Rooster and month of Rooster, such clash very much activated the metal rooster, making his
depression even more unbearable and he was desperately seeking an outlet. So Suicidal depression is
accurate in describing his state of mind.

In accordance with the above classification, we can examine the Four Pillars of the more recent killers –
James Holmes and Anders Breivik and see what is their type .

Breivik’s four pillars bear similarity to Cho SHeung Hui of the Virginia Tech massacre. Both are weak yin
metal needs support of earth and metal, and water and wood are unfavorable. Both are in the bad luck
pillar of strong water. This is bad intelligence element, Chinese call this “Killing the boss”, such people
resent any restrictions, rules and regulations, and they are rebellious, aggressive, anti- social, anti-
establishment. They have the delusions that all established values are their enemies. This falls in the
category of delusional type.

However, I notice there is some difference. In Cho’s four pillars, the power element – fire is totally
absent. But in Breivik’s case, his power element fire is quite strong, and the day he killed shows a lot
of wood – money element. Such wood will very much activate his fire. There is a saying in Four Pillars
that “excessive money will attract the ghost to attack the self” (財引鬼氣, 鬼旺攻身 ). So for a weak
self element, money is unfavorable, and it will support power and draw trouble with the Power element
– can be the law, the police, can be the ghost, can be the demon, or just heavy pressure stimulating his
aggressive action?

James Holmes, The killer in the recent massacre at Aurora theater in Colorado, is quite similar to the
case of Anders Breivik. He is also weak self element, in the luck pillar of aggressive intelligence and
money, and there is strong presence of power element in his four pillars.

The shooting occurred at mid night, early rat hour of 20/7. However, after adjustment for daylight
saving hour, it actually was 19/7 late rat hour.

James Holmes is weak fire person and he needs support of wood and fire. His unfavorable elements
are earth and metal. At the age of 25, he is in bad luck of earth over metal, earth is his aggressive
intelligence element, making him aggressive and rebellious. In this respect, he is similar to Cho Sheung
Hui. The aggressive intelligence element is “Killing the boss”, and he is anti social, anti establishment,
and against the law. So he can also be classified as Type 1 killer – Delusional. In his four pillars, there
are also strong water, which is Power element. In this respect, he is more like Anders Breivik. His luck
is also strong metal rooster, and the day and hour he killed were also metal. This is money element
attracting power – the ghost. So it is also a case of “Excessive money attracts ghost to attack the self”.

What is the role of Power element in the killers Four Pillars? In the above two examples of Anders
Breivik and James Holmes, both of them carries strong power elements. Does this make them a new
category of killers? This I have to leave to forensic psychiatrists to study and analyse. In terms of Four
Pillars of Destiny, the power element can be interpreted as psychological pressure they face in their
environment. Their delusional feeling could interpret such pressure as their enemies, and their luck of
aggressive intelligence stimulate their action to rebel, to fight the law, and go against the society and

establishment. However, both are eventually overcome by power – the police and the law. Again this
is “Money attracts ghost to attack the self”.

Before I conclude this article, I may as well show another example of “Money attracts ghost to attack
the self”. This is one of the victim who died in the Aurora theater shooting – Ms. Jessica Ghawi.

This girl was present in two shooting incidents. First time in Toronto Eton Centre on 2/6/2012, second
time at the Aurora theater in Colorado on 20/7/2012. The first time she was not hurt, but unfortunately
she was killed in the second shooting on 20/7. She is a weak metal girl in the luck of strong wood, which
is unfavorable money element. She died in July, which is a month of goat, combining with her birth year
of Rabbit, and birth month of pig, forming the massive three combination of wood – Pig, Rabbit, Goat.
Such big amount of wood –money supports the fire, the power element that appeared in July as well as
appeared in her year pillar. To this metal girl, the power element fire is her killer. This is clearly a case
of “Excessive money draws the ghost to attack the self”.