The above three terms often cause some confusion and are likely to be interchanged. Let’s look at them individually and see how they relate to our chiropractic philosophy.
Natural is the most difficult of these terms to describe. For some, especially the mechanists, it involves everything that exists in the physical world, from the movement of the planets to actions of an atom. Sadly, it is a term that has been taken over by the scientific naturalists. Those are people who reject the idea that there is anything in this world that exists apart from that which you can experience through your senses. They are the mechanists, and the atheists who maintain that nothing exists outside the visible world. To them the natural world is all that there is. Life is just a matter of chemistry and physics. There is no deity.
Supernatural is a term that should be clear. Something occurs that is totally inconsistent with natural law. Those that accept a supernatural world maintain that it is the action of a deity or an angelic being, not man. Walking on water is not natural, floating in air is supernatural. It is an event that has no natural explanation. Those who reject the supernatural maintain that there is a natural explanation but that it is not yet understood. The key word is “yet.”
Metaphysical is perhaps the most difficult term to understand. It is not really physical but not supernatural either. Supernatural means that a natural cause was set to make one thing happen and then something else contrary to natural law occurred. If you drop your car keys and instead of hitting the ground they float off into space that would be an action contrary to physical or natural law.
The idea of an innate intelligence falls into the metaphysical. With this phenomena, more than one thing can happen at any time. If you mix sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and hydrochloric acid (HCI) you get salt (NaCI) and water (H2O). That is a natural law. It occurs every time. However, if you were to mix those two compounds and get a test tube of merlot wine you would have a miracle. When you put food, say pizza, into a living organism (expressing an innate intelligence) a number of things can happen. It can make flesh and blood. It can even make hydrochloric acid. There is an explanation for that action but it does not occur in non-living organisms, so it is not a miracle, it is not supernatural. It is also not natural in that it is a result that we can say will happen every time like dropping your keys. The metaphysical is somewhere in between natural and supernatural.
One might argue that what we call innate intelligence is merely one natural law interacting with another, that is, the manifestation of various natural laws. For example, when the natural law of gravity interacts with the law of aerodynamics—an airplane leaves the ground and flies. There is nothing metaphysical or supernatural about that action. “Innate activities” may be the result of some natural laws, but the laws are incomplete or inadequate in explaining all innate action. That assertion reminds me of the cartoon of the scientist standing in front of the blackboard with a complex equation, with hundreds of numbers and symbols explaining a reaction. Right in the middle of this lengthy equation, the scientist has written “then a miracle occurs.” The process we call life is not explicable by physics and chemistry. Again, the naturalist would add to that statement “yet.”
A metaphysical process is far above the level of natural function, but it is less than a miracle. Metaphysical activities occur all the time in living organisms. Miracles do not. Metaphysical activities can be explained physiologically, up to a degree. Miracles have no reasonable explanation. When a person gets well from a so-called terminal disease, it may be a miracle but it could also be a manifestation of the innate intelligence of the body doing what it does every day, healing the organism.
Chiropractic does not perform miracles. That is reserved for Deity. While we do deal with, what B.J. called the “Law of Life,” and he often described the innate intelligence of the body as a natural law, we understand that it is something metaphysical. It cannot be seen or understood by the senses.
I recently heard a chiropractor refer to the changes he saw in people under chiropractic care as miraculous. We might compare the people in D.D.’s day who would have thought of air travel as a miracle. That is not quite correct. The law of aerodynamics was around long before D.D. and was manifested in the flight of birds. Whether it was fully understood was not the issue. We do not classify the flight of birds as a miracle.
The logical question arises as to where metaphysical constructs come from. It is not a question that falls within the framework of the chiropractic philosophy. Leaving that an open question allows for the conclusion that they are just natural principles different than mere physical laws. That would be the position of some of our profession and allows them to not have to address the cause of those principles.
The theists, on the other hand, would argue that Deity supernaturally created these metaphysical laws and while we observe them as just that, principle or laws, they are maintained by that Deity much the same as the laws of our land are maintained by the three branches of government.
The important conclusion is that we must be careful and accurate with our terminology. We should not refer to the miracles of chiropractic nor should we ascribe theistic characteristics to universal and innate intelligence. v24n1