Adapatation is of prime importance in chiropractic. The purpose of this profession is to enable the innate intelligence of the body to be expressed more fully by removing nerve interference at the vertebral level. The most obvious sign of that expression of intelligence through matter (life) is adaptation. Clearly, the body can also adapt better without disease, but addressing disease is not the objective of chiropractic. That’s the objective of medicine. Improved performance and reaching full potential in life will also enable one to better adapt, but that is not our objective either. Those, like disease treatment are possible results of a body adapting more effectively and there are professions concerned with those objectives (like Spinology for example). The chiropractic objective begins and ends with the correction of vertebral subluxation. The results of that service are literally out of our hands and are the responsibility of the innate intelligence of the body.
I’ve got 2 question.
1st:
“Improved performance and reaching full potential in life will also enable one to better adapt…”
Wouldn’t it be the other way around? “Adapting better will also enable one to improve performance and reach full potential in life…” ?
2nd:
Improving performance and reaching full potential in life (being all that one can be) by adjusting the vertebral subluxation would be a spinologist objective and not chiropractic? I see it as the same thing, just the latter is a practical application to the human experience.
1st question: Yes, it would alsobut improved performance is not our objective. If it were, we would do other things that also improve performanc and help to reach full pontential. How about performance energy drinks?
2nd question: I’m not quite sure what the spinology objective is…perhaps one of them out there can tell us. Remember it is not the procedure (adjusting vertebral subluxations) that is our objective but the why, enable the ii of the body to be more fully expressed. As Reggie often says more mixing is done by hand. Mixers are adjusting vertebral subluxations but to accomplish a medical objective (treat medical conditions). The hardest part of what we do is to explain the WHY and as long as we fail to do that we will have mixing with us regardless of what we call our profession. Joe D. had a grat talk at a FSCO seminar years ago entitled “Where do we put the period?” We must put it right after “to enable the innate intelligence of the body to be more fully expressed” but not before
so when the innate intelligence of the body is more fully expressed (our objective) that means that the organizing principle that it is, is more fully expressed, which means that all the parts are once again in coordination, or ease, which means that the body (and mind) functions better, correct?
To say that the body will function better would be deviating from our objective and principle would you say?
Thanks
Paulo, I think you can safely say the mind and body functions better. What we cannot do is quantify that improvement or specify in what area(s) that improvemnt will be noticeable. “Performance”, in my opinion, gets dangerously close to being concluded by some as quantifiable.
Indeed Joe! I’ve put thought to this recently, and no doubt, saying “the body and mind will FUNCTION better” is different than saying “the body and mind will PERFORM better”
Many things will make it perform better: nutrition, exercise, sleep, etc.
Only ONE thing will make it function better.
although most of us tend to use “performance” and “function” interchangeably, even “efficiency” in a talk with Reggie he said was a good word to describe what happens to the body in a state of ease vs dis-ease, I have to say “function” is where it’s at.
Thank you for helping us distill and purify the application our beautiful philosophy.
ADIO
Is it possible to do straight chiropractic research and quantify ii or the manifestations? The goal would be to study function rather then feeling by looking at telomerase length or functional MRI and nerve activity. I understand the difference between normal and average however is there some absolute measure of increased life or potential?
What is labeled a ‘disease’, (syndrome’, ‘disorder,’ etc) is in reality the labeling of particular body arts / systems adapting to their particular circumstances. A disease is a name to describe a particular part or system of the body that had deviated from the accepted average of the public. The job of medicine is to get that particular part / system back to accepted averages. As chiropractors we absolutely KNOW the body will better adapt without vertebral subluxation than with vertebral subluxation.
Bob, good point, however, it (“lableled” a ‘disease’) may also be a “particular body arts(sic)/ systems” failing to adapt. That is an important point because it is the basis for our refusal to diagnose/refer. We do not know when LofM has been reached. Thanks for your input.
Enrique,
YOU did some very good thinking.
No questions about it! Function is where it’s at! There’s no substitute for it. A vertebral subluxation changes the character of the mental impulse (if) and revert it back to a nerve impulse (uf) which completely alters the function of the cell (matter) of the body, causing dis-ease. This may or may not affect performance (I bet Mohamed Ali and Albert Einstein had subluxations most of their lives and they perform exceptionally well).
The fact is that LACVS will bring about a full expression of the innate intelligence of the body. Period.
WHAT results after this, is up to innate intelligence.
What we know beyond any doubt is that it will restore functions within the body to its normal state. And what does that means? WHO knows!!!
Thank YOU Enrique for distilling and purifying the application of our beautiful philosophy of chiropractic.
Dr.Joe,
A question I’ve always had…with regards to adaptation…Isn’t a “failure to adapt” in most or all cases still adaptation? Can we really say what there is a failure to adapt? The ii always works towards the best for the tissue in which is resides meaning everything should just be classified as adaptation. Maybe differing levels or quantities of adaptation? Who are we to judge what is considered a failure? We adapt from day 1 until the final day. Failure to adapt sounds like an oxymoron.
Looking forward to everyone’s thots.
I think adaptation is a word like life. There is an absolute and a relative aspect of it. We say that we “restore life’ with the adjustment. We do in the sense that we restore the expression of intelligence through matter. But we are not bringing people back from the dead (at least I never have….but then, come to think of it, I never tried). The only failure to adapt absolutely is death. Failure to adapt relatively is when certain organs, tissues, and cell are not expressing the ii of the body. The adjustment is meant to enable the body to adapt more fully. Your comment raises the question as to whether symptoms are an indication of adaptation or failure to adapt. Frankly, I don’t believe that we can know. That is why we do not relate to, or address symptoms. I think it was Thom Gelard who said that symptoms are an indication that the body is reaching the outer limits of adaptability. I might add; or at least moving in that direction. Whether that movement needs to be addressed is up to the individual, not the chiropractor. All the chiropractor maintains is that whichever way the body is moving it is better off eith no interference due to vs.
I was speaking in terms of absolutes, so your comments make sense if we add in the relative sense.
One more question…you mentioned if certain organs, cells are not expressing the ii of the body…aren’t they always expressing the ii of the body? otherwise they would be dead correct? or is this one of those relative moments in which meant “not fully expressing”.
Great stuff. Adaptation is at the core of understanding the philosophy.
Jaimie,
When a cell expresses the innate intelligence of the body, it is because of the innate forces which are constructive as regards structural matter. It is the MENTAL impulse that keeps the cell in a state of coordination with the other cells, organs and systems of the body.
When a vs occurs, it interferes with the mental impulse (if) and changes its character back to a nerve impulse (uf). At that precise moment, the cell is NOT expressing the innate intelligence of the body since it is kept in active organization by a nerve impulse which is a universal force (unadapted by ii) which is “destructive” as regards to structural matter (pri.26).
At this point, dis-ease exist and as a result, that cell has lost its ability to function in a coordinated manner, fails to adapt to its environment and is now expressing “cellular” intelligence and not the innate intelligence of the body.
Thank you for helping all of us clarify our phillosophy by your excellent questions! đŸ™‚
I agree with the above.