Philosophy of Chiropractic

11/24/10 7:56 AM

__ Secret History __ B.J.'s Writings

The First Chiropractor volume two (cannot locate volume one)

By Dr. Simon A. Senzon

The Secret History of Chiropra[c]tic

D.D. Palmer's Spiritual Writings

Introduction

Before developing chiropractic in the 1890s, Daniel David Palmer (1845-1913), moved to Davenport, Iowa around 1886. He had already established himself as a magnetic healer in Burlington a few years before. One account claims that after the death of his second wife Lavinia in 1884, Palmer had devoted himself to this study, and had been reading books on esoteric healing and Spiritualism since 1871.

Magnetic healing became his chosen field after years of trying to survive in the Midwest just after the Civil War. He crossed the frontier with his brother Thomas from Canada the week after Lincoln’s assassination, and had tried his hand at the goldfish business, the grocery business, cultivating berries and honeybees, and teaching grade school (D.D. himself only had a sixth grade education, and was mostly self-taught). But he always had an inclination for healing others through his touch.

Another major influence on Palmer was Spiritualism, which was in vogue at the time. Spiritualism was a belief system that focused on the ability to communicate with spirits in the afterlife. Its popularity at the time is no surprise given that so many loved ones—some 558,052 casualties—had died during the Civil War.

America was searching for the new and healing went right along with that attitude.

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Philosophy of Chiropractic 11/24/10 7:56 AM

Palmer was attracted to both Spiritualism and then Mesmerism, both of which fit his spiritual beliefs. As the story goes, he underlined passages from his bible so many times that the entire book was blackened. Spiritualism and Mesmerism became D.D.’s two primary roots, and before exploring their influence in more detail, we will examine the early days of chiropractic (with previously hidden facts and allegations exposed).

That the discovery of chiropractic was set in a specific historical epoch is not lost on the many historians that have told this tale. We must however step back even further than the traditional explanation of historical forces and cultural influences, and look to actual stages or “waves” of consciousness development. By doing so, we might finally have an examination of the enigma of chiropractic from an integral view. This will be explored in Part II.

The extraordinary documents that comprise this book are virtually unknown in the chiropractic profession. The most familiar of these are Palmer’s two books The Chiropractor’s Adjustor (1910) and The Chiropractor (1914, published posthumously). Well-known if not well-read, the books were suppressed by D.D.’s rivals in his own time, and very few chiropractors have taken the time to study them since.

In 1921, his son B.J. edited and then reissued both books; only a close reading of the originals and these later editions will reveal his many changes. B.J.’s stated intent was to purge the many criticisms directed towards him in his father’s work. But, as we will see, other statements were omitted, statements that had nothing to do with B.J., other than that they did not conform to his own spiritual understanding of chiropractic! D.D.’s books were not republished in their entirety until after B.J.’s death, in 1966, by his son David Palmer.

Part I of this book examines four crucial documents and thee lost history of chiropractic they reveal. The first is The Lerner Report, a groundbreaking, myth-shattering document comprised in 1954 by an investigative lawyer, Cyrus Lerner, searching out the true history of chiropractic for legal purposes. The four-hundred page Lerner Report has never been published and was gathering dust in the Palmer Archives until Dr. Joe Keating retyped it and made it available. There is also the incredible Ph.D. dissertation by Pierre- Louis Gaucher-Pelsherbe published in book form as, Chiropractic: Early Concepts In Their Historical Setting, which documents the scientific research that went into Palmer’s writings. The text contextualizes Palmer’s insights according to the social and cultural circumstances of the time, as well as the medical history that preceded his creation of chiropractic. In addition to these books, I have acquired from the Palmer Archives (with the help of Sherman College’s librarian) a copy of the rare document entitled, D.D.’s Traveling Library. 

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This is a selection of books on spirituality and magnetic healing that Palmer had bound together for travel purposes. The books are dated from 1871 to 1886, Palmer’s formative years, and provide a background to Palmer’s thought that neither Lerner nor Gaucher reveal, as it seems that neither of them had read it. And finally, a letter written by Palmer in 1911 (also located in the Palmer Archives by Keating) to a jailed chiropractor named P.W. Johnson. The letter outlines Palmer’s vision of chiropractic as a religious movement free from political persecution.

Each of these documents sheds new light on the origins of the first chiropractor, and together they weave a tapestry that presents an entirely new perspective on the history and philosophy of chiropractic. As we will see in Part II, this rich, multidimensional tapestry can best be understood with the use of Integral Theory.

Integral Theory is an approach to understanding reality developed by philosopher Ken Wilber. In short, the theory encompasses body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature. Wilber’s theory is perfectly suited to examine the early history of chiropractic because it is based on science, grounded in spiritualism and philosophy, and focused on healing the body.

The Integral framework will be very useful as it will allow us to have a map through which we can integrate the seeming paradoxes of these many secret documents and forgotten histories. The idea that “everyone is right” will be stretched to its limit as we include Lerner and B.J., Gaucher and Keating, Palmer and Langworthy, all seemingly opposed to one another. And yet, when taken together through the Integral lens, what unfolds is a story of great depth and unmatched richness, never before seen in chiropractic history.

Part I will describe the documents themselves and roughly follow Palmer’s path from body (what he did) to mind (what he thought) to spirit (what he believed). Part II will examine the many perspectives within chiropractic and how these new facts can be interpreted in an Integral fashion. It will also place chiropractic in a much broader historical and cultural context, one that includes important issues regarding spirituality and science from the last century. Part III is comprised of excerpts from Palmer’s two books, broken down into six chapters: Spirit, Soul, Life, Thots, Tone, and Vibration. The Appendices are comprised of The Moral and Religious Duties of a Chiropractor (1914) and an abridged chronology of Palmer’s life composed by Keating.

All in all, I believe this book is very significant to chiropractic. I say that because of three reasons. First, by using the Integral model, the text employs what is arguably the most comprehensive map of human experience. Second, these documents have never all been discussed in one treatise before. And third, I trace my chiropractic lineage directly to the students of B.J. Palmer.

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 B.J. graduated in 1902 as the fifteenth graduate of his father’s school. (I graduated in 1999 from a school founded by his students and named for his director of research.) Not much time has passed since that fateful day, yet very little is really known about what actually happened. As a student of B.J.’s students, I understand how important it is that the chiropractors of today fully understand their heritage: who they are and where they come from.

This book is a history of as well as a primer on the basic theories that underlie D.D. Palmer’s chiropractic. For this reason, not only will Palmer’s words be extensively quoted, but other authors as well. The historical nature of the text will surely be revealed, but hopefully the book will establish itself as a new primary source. For those who would like to research the documents first hand, many of them will be posted at http://senzononline.com/

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AND YET MORE, AGAIN:

The Religion of Chiropractic

In part: 

“Chiropractors declare that God is the All-pervading Intelligence, that each individual, segmented portion of spirit is a part of that intelligent creative principle; that only matter changes its form; that spirit modifies its environment, and dissolution is but a process of reproduction.” (p. 14)

Of course, Palmer goes on to say that Chiropractic is not being re-labeled as a religion because all religions are based upon superstition. The reason Chiropractic isn’t a religion is because it’s not based on superstition: it’s based on the knowledge of principles and facts. (p. 16) [Do demons lie?]

Indeed, DD Palmer said all of this thinking wasn’t developed in a void. He said he got the idea of chiropractic from the spiritual world the same way that Mrs. Eddy did in Christian science. Indeed, Palmer unabashedly says that he’s the religious head of this religion. He’s like Christ, or Mohammed or Martin Luther.

He says  that as he spoke to his long dead friend, he got the idea of this physical phenomenon:

Webmaster note: This is nothing but  satanic practice. Avoid at ALL cost!