Characteristics of an ADIO Philosophy
It is important to realize that everyone has a world and life viewpoint. Even the supposed absence of a viewpoint is a viewpoint. There are probably only two viewpoints: we in chiropractic call them the ADIO (above-down, inside-out) viewpoint and the outside-in viewpoint. It often seems like people have more than two viewpoints. This is because people often combine aspects of the ADIO with the outside-in creating almost innumerable hybrids of a viewpoint of life. These combinations arise due to inconsistencies between what people think and what they do. Behavior that is inconsistent with beliefs can be the result of emotion, or habit, or tradition. In fact we all on occasions act in a manner inconsistent with our viewpoint regardless of what it might be. B.J. often spoke of clergymen who preached about God on Sunday but rejected the chiropractic philosophy and the idea that there is a wisdom within the body.
There are a number of characteristics of an ADIO philosophy. This essay by no means covers them all but it is helpful to understand a few. The first I would like to examine is the idea that there are absolutes in life. Often those who hold to an ADIO philosophy are accused of seeing everything in terms of black and white, right and wrong, good or bad. While that is not accurate, the fact is there are absolutes and we need to recognize these absolutes. The outside-in philosophy teaches that everything is relative. The situation ethics of Joseph Fletcher and other modern philosophers have convinced people that there are no absolutes. It is true that there are gray areas, issues that are relative, but that doesn’t mean we can conclude that there are no absolute issues. Everyone ultimately recognizes that something is wrong, that somewhere a person steps over the line of right and wrong. The difference is the outside-in philosophy says that point is different for everyone while the ADIO viewpoint maintains that there is right and wrong applied to everyone.
The second characteristic of the ADIO philosophy is that everything has a cause and that it makes sense to address that cause whenever possible. The outside-in viewpoint does not see a cause in the sense that it considers addressing or treating the effects to be at least as important as the cause itself. From this viewpoint, the cause of the world and its inhabitants is random chance. The cause of disease is bad luck or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, so as to catch a germ or some such nonsense. The ADIO philosophy recognizes that there is a cause. However, we also recognize that at some point you must acknowledge a causeless cause or a “First Cause” or cause that you cannot affect. For example, common sense tells us that it is impossible to address every cause of the subluxation. This leads to a third characteristic. The individual embracing an ADIO philosophy understands and accepts that there is an authority greater than the educated mind of man.
In chiropractic we refer to that authority as a law, particularly the law of organization or universal intelligence and in the living organism, the law of life or innate intelligence. Just as the U. S. Constitution is the authority in this country, so are these laws the authority in the world. That is not to say there is not a cause for these laws. Just as some very intelligent men framed the Constitution, common sense would tell us that Someone created the laws of universal and innate intelligence. Of course, the recognition of, naming of, or worship of this cause, while part of an ADIO philosophy is outside the parameters of the chiropractic philosophy. We end with innate and universal intelligence. The outside-in philosophy considers the educated mind of man to be the ultimate authority in matters of life and health and social conduct. There are other characteristics of the ADIO philosophy which will be explained in future essaysv18n2