If you have ever studied philosophy, you know that early thinkers like Confucius and Socrates had these similarities:
- Both wanted to challenge people to be “better.”
- Both were a bit ambiguous in their approach.
- Both refused to tell people how to act – directly.
- Both created foundational thoughts/ideas for their sphere of the world.
Their lives nearly overlapped in time (Confucius being born first) but were thousands of miles apart. Each man’s contributions to thought and philosophy were passed down and are now part of how we think in our modern culture.
In my presentation, Practical Philosophy, I trace the ideas and thoughts from these two philosophers all the way to DD Palmer, the founder of Chiropractic. The Chiropractic profession’s history and foundation are ridiculously wealthy in philosophy. There seems to be an idea today that shunning philosophy is a righteous, or more evolved way, of practicing Chiropractic. That is utter foolishness. To abandon philosophy is to turn the mind off to expanding thought. The brain becomes filled with facts, stats, and details with no underpinning. Without philosophy, we are simply left with sterile bits of information. What makes information tactile is when you rip off the sterile packaging and play with it. Contaminating facts with application, relevancy, lateral connections, ethical/moral implications, and the unpredictable nature of humanity which allows them to be used in the real world. One of BJ’s quotes perfectly drives this point home.
Facts are like a bikini. What they reveal is interesting, but what they hide is vital.
Philosophy takes one dimensional data and allows you to see it in a holographic universe. Allow me to share an example with you.
BJ said,
While other professions are concerned with changing the environment to suit the weakened body, chiropractic is concerned with strengthening the body to suite the environment.
One dimensional thinking is very much like allopathy. It is reductionistic. The whole is taken and reduced to its smallest component. I once sat next to a nephrologist on a flight from Atlanta to Charlottesville. We struck up a conversation. He quickly told me he was on staff at the University of Virginia’s Medical School and started dropping his anatomical terms in an apparent attempt to impress me. I had not told him that I was a chiropractor. He proudly shared his expertise on the nephron. I told him I was familiar with the nephron and had a working knowledge of the related cells and functions. He went on to tell me that his specialty is understanding one chain of reactions in the loop of Henle’s squamous epithelial cells. For the next twenty minutes he told me about his knowledge in this part of the body. His knowledge of facts and data were impressive. I unintentionally stumped him when I asked a simple question, “How does neurologic control impact this reaction?” His first response was that it didn’t. I then quoted Dorland’s definition of the nervous system to him. Paraphrased, it reads like this: The nervous system’s job is to control and coordinate all organs and structures and relate the person to their environment.
Dr. “Nephron” became frustrated at me and began to talk down to me in his defensive posturing. I had been teaching all weekend in Atlanta and found this amusing. I was too tired to argue with him and too happy to get defensive. The remaining 10 minutes of the flight he spent trying to debunk my simple question. The fact that I was passively rejecting his arguments by smiling only condensed his frustration. I was left with one clear thought. Here was a brilliant doctor who knew so much at one micro thing that he had lost the macro view of the whole. To quote BJ one more time:
A “specialist” is one who knows more and more about less and less.
Knowing the mechanics of the body is interesting, but it is vital to recognize the chaotic nature of the person you are caring for! To make an attempt at understanding chaos requires philosophy. Humans are not rational. We like to think we are, don’t we? But watch a three-year old or parent at their child’s soccer game or politician and you will leave scratching your head at our irrational behavior.
We are not rational, and we know it! Yes, we can choose to think rationally at times. But our behaviors indicate that we don’t live that way consistently.
Therefore, “health care” screws it all up when it tries to “treat” people the same (that is medicine!) and not account for each person’s eccentricities. Chiropractic’s philosophy mandates that each person is different and always changing. If I always do the same adjustments on a person, am I practicing chiropractic or allopathy?
If the body is self-healing, how can I justify doing the same adjustments on the same segments over and over, week after week? (Hint: I can’t!!!)
Consider this, maybe Chiropractic’s philosophy is deeper than the body is self-healing? Philosophy is not limited by matter and our bodies are limited by matter. Matter matters! Our philosophy uses that principle as a springboard to jump into the ocean of life. Growing up in Kansas City, I didn’t see the ocean until I was twenty. I remember standing on the edge of the beach, waves lapping around my feet, trying to take in the vastness of the water. I was in disbelief. The ocean was enormous.
I met an astronaut at NASA in Huntsville, Alabama. He recounted his awe at the expanse of space when he first looked out a tiny window on the space shuttle. While I have no idea how vast space looks, I got where he was coming from because of my humbling experience at Virginia Beach gazing out at the ocean.
I feel that way when I approach a person on my table. There is a remarkable life there! A life that is sometimes seriously throttled back from subluxations. I can “see” the potential of their life in my tonal-based analysis. I often feel like their innate is screaming at me to hurry up and do the adjustment so that life can be more wholly expressed. The potential of the person is vast. I continue to be overwhelmed at the life of the person I am serving on my tables each day.