There is a physical component to a nerve/mental impulse. It can be measured scientifically by instruments like an EMG. Our philosophy says that carried along this electrochemical phenomena is a mental impulse, a metaphysical message or thought generated by the innate intelligence of the body (another metaphysical concept). Neither the mental impulse nor the innate intelligence of the body can be measured or empirically demonstrated. The nerve impulse, the physical phenomena, can be interfered with, by pressure. That has been scientifically demonstrated for years. Our philosophy maintains that when that happens it interferes with or alters the metaphysical message just as an alteration in a telegraph wire alters the (physical) unmodulated electrical impulse and distorts the (metaphysical) coded message being transmitted over the wires. Can we prove telegraph interference scientifically? Sure we can, and have many times. That is because we generate the metaphysical message in Morse Code and we know the language and the code.
If it is reasonable to believe there is an innate intelligence in the body, it is reasonable to believe that it creates metaphysical messages. If it is provable that nerve impulses can be interfered with, altered or distorted, it is reasonable to believe that these metaphysical messages are affected. Can we prove that scientifically? No more than we can prove scientifically the existence of an innate intelligence. Here is the choice the opposition has. Either they can accept the validity of our approach based upon its reasonableness and because that is how chiropractic has historically been defined. (By a philosophy that recognizes the metaphysical.) Or they can come up with a reasonable/rational reason why it is not true, that is, destroy the logic of our position. What they have to cease doing is maintaining that chiropractic must prove what we say in the scientific arena. We cannot, by virtue of our foundational principle that exists outside the boundaries of science, prove chiropractic scientifically. V22n1