Definitions:
physical- pertaining to the material part of all things.
spiritual-pertaining to a non-material part of man.
innate—-pertaining to a non-material part of all living things.
There is a physical dimension to man to which the field of medicine addresses itself. There is also a spiritual dimension to the human race to which theology and its practical application of faith and religion relate. In addition there is a physical/ innate dimension to mankind. Chiropractic addresses its attention to the physical/innate, that is, the expression of innate intelligence through matter. This is the chiropractic definition of life.
Medicine has achieved a certain level of success when dealing with problems related to the physical dimension such as limitations of matter and trauma (which is also technically a limitation of matter). Much of medicine’s success is also due to the fact that problems in the physical dimension often resolve themselves coincidentally with or subsequent to, medical care. In chiropractic we say “the body heals itself” to describe this phenomena. Medicine’s failure has been in trying to treat by strictly physical means, conditions which also have a physical/ innate cause. They simply do not have the tools.
Theology, faith, and religion have achieved a certain level of success when dealing with problems of a spiritual nature. (Their success of course depends on what the spiritual problem is and the validity of the belief system. Failure has occurred when attempting to address problems that have a physical or physical/innate cause. The failures of medicine and religion prompted B.J.’s humorous little epigram:
Christian Science is all mind never matter.
Medical Science is all matter never mind!
Chiropractic has achieved a level of success when dealing with a physical/innate problem, vertebral subluxation, which interferes with the innate intelligence expressing itself over the nervous system to the body in vertebrates.
The difficulties in our profession arise when we begin to address problems that are merely in the physical realm or those that are in the spiritual realm. Improper nutrition is a physical problem, that is, failing to put the proper physical matter into the physical body. It falls into the field of medicine. Medicine has been less than effective in this area, however, this does not justify the chiropractor entering the realm of physical problems. If it did, we might as well handle trauma cases and surgery. Likewise, muscle and joint rehabilitation deal with the physical, a part of the field of medicine.
Another, although less common area of inappropriate practice is that of chiropractors attempting to utilize chiropractic to alleviate man’s strictly spiritual problems. Chiropractic is not effective in this area, no more so than is chiropractic effective in treating strictly physical problems. The failure of chiropractic in treating physical problems is the reason chiropractors begin to utilize modalities and therapies. Failure to alleviate spiritual problems with chiropractic has caused some D.C.’s to begin to incorporate religious and metaphysical concepts into their practices. This is just as dangerous to the future of chiropractic as mixing in the physical realm. This spiritual mixing, while not as prevalent, is much more insidious and dangerous. Mixing in the physical realm will only cause antagonism from the medical/ therapeutic community. Mixing in the spiritual realm will bring down upon the profession the charge of cultism and alienate members of the orthodox religious community. We cannot afford that.v5n3
