Reprinted by permission of the Association for the History of Chiropractic

                 HiStory  Volume 7, No. 1 • 1987                                                                                           

 

D.O. Palmer And The Metaphysical 

Movement in the 19th Century

JOSEPH H. DONAHUE, D.C.*

The metaphysical movement was a loosely arranged philosophical and religious movement. It initially emerged during the 1830s from Emerson's transcendentalism but its cornerstone was splritualism from which spread a variety of sects• .

 This paper (click on the words "This Paper”) will explore D.D. Palmer’s activity in both spiritualism and an important off shoot called Theosophy. It will examine how Palmer’s  involvement probably led him into magnetic healing and later strongly influenced his chiropractic philosophy

An article written in the  on the history of the last part of the presentation you just viewed.

D.D. Palmer, who performed the first chiropractic adjustment in 1895, credited the ghost of a long-dead doctor with introducing him to the healing practice.(Courtesy of Palmer College of Chiropractic)

I suspect most if not all those patients have no idea that the $15-billion chiropractic industry owes its existence to a ghost.

Daniel David Palmer, the “father” of chiropractic who performed the first chiropractic adjustment in 1895, was an avid spiritualist. He maintained that the notion and basic principles of chiropractic treatment were passed along to him during a seance by a long-dead doctor.

“The knowledge and philosophy given me by Dr. Jim Atkinson, an intelligent spiritual being ... appealed to my reason,” Palmer wrote in his memoir “The Chiropractor,” which was published in 1914 after his death in Los Angeles. Atkinson had died 50 years prior to Palmer’s epiphany.

Before learning of spinal adjustments from a supernatural entity, Palmer spent nine years as a practitioner of what was known as “magnetic healing,” in which he would diagnose and cure ailments by manipulating a magnetic field surrounding the patient’s body.

MORE:

Note below is the wording of the ‘news article' above

D.D. Palmer’s letter to the editor of the Religio-Philosophical Journal from July 1872, is his earliest known published writing.  It was autobiographical. It was also a testimonial to his wife, Dr. Abba Lord Palmer, medium.

His embrace of such practices started when he witnessed Abba Lord’s abilities to correctly diagnosis diseases. This led him to believe that it wasn’t all phony.

In the letter, Palmer explains that he was originally planning to become a minister. However, after much study, deep thought, and “after spending many hours twisting my reason and the Bible and failing to make them harmonize,” he left his faith. Palmer wrote, “I then felt free and enjoyed a liberty which I never knew while fettered by the prejudices of the church and the Bible’s narrow concocted plan of the future.” To harmonize reason and spirituality would become his legacy.

After attending Spiritualist meetings for five years D.D. Palmer developed a first person experience of trance states, healing phenomenon, and the ability to help others with what we might refer to today as energy medicine.

Also in this letter, he used the term “intelligence” to refer to one’s spirit. Thirty years later, Innate Intelligence became central to his philosophy.

YET MORE:

  Reprinted by permission of the Association for the History of Chiropractic                                                                                                                                                    Chiropractic HiStory Volume 7, No. 1 • 1987

D.O. Palmer And The Metaphysical Movement in the 19th Century

JOSEPH H. DONAHUE, D.C.*

The metaphysical movement was a loosely arranged philosophical and religious movement. It initially emerged during the 1830s from Emerson's transcendentalism but its cornerstone was splritualism from which spread a variety of sects• . This paper will explore D.D. Palmer’s activity in both spiritualism and an important off shoot called Theosophy [According to the Theosophical spiritual teachers, neither their philosophy nor themselves believe in a God.] It will examine how Palmer’s  involvement probably led him into magnetic healing and later strongly influenced his chiropractic philosophy. 

D.D. Palmer bound together several of his favorite books and pamphlets from this period. Many of them were advertised in the journal along with Abba Lord’s ads. 

D.D. Palmer’s Traveling Library has since been abridged and published. The book captures the ideas that inspired D.D. Palmer’s principles and practices.

Some of the books are available online for free such as: Wrights’ The Moral Aphorisms and Terseological Teachings of Confucius (1870), Severance’s A Lecture on the Evolution of Life in Earth and Spirit conditions (1882), Denton’s The Deluge In The Light Of Modern Science (1882), and N.C.’s Thought-Transference with Practical Hints for Experiments (1887).

Common throughout these books were similar attempts to harmonize reason and spiritual phenomena. Miracles of the Bible such as the flood, were 'explained' with science. Healing phenomena and altered states were described in terms of nature and energies. Also, meditative practices were described.

D.D. PALMER’S MAGNETIC PRACTICE

D.D. Palmer moved to Davenport, Iowa, in 1888 and opened a magnetic healing practice. His offices were in four rooms. He took out ads and and his business grew by word of mouth. He eventually rented an entire floor. His broadsides included The Educator (no known copies) and The Magnetic Cure (1896). These short newspapers included many testimonials and several short essays on his philosophy and practices.

His earliest known ad dates to 1887. In the ad he writes, “Dis-ease is a condition of not-ease, lack of ease.” This became one of the central defining aspects of the chiropractic paradigm.

AND YET MORE:

The Secret History of Chiropratic

D.D. Palmer's Spiritual Writings