Did you ever wonder how some people just will not accept the simple logical truth of our chiropractic philosophy no matter how well or how often it is explained to them, both lay person and other chiropractors? It was one of the most frustrating parts of my practice and teaching. This principle even holds true for many concepts apart from chiropractic. It’s really a form of brain/thinking damage. I think there is a natural law that may help explain why. The Greeks have a word sklerentes (from which we get sclerosis) to explain it. When an individual continually rejects some concept or principle over and over, they build up a mental resistance to it. We see it in the natural realm. If you work with your hands in the yard for long periods of time you tend to build up resistance to the friction of your tools which would ordinarily cause a blister. It happens by the body building up tough insensitive tissue which we call a callous. It is a form of scar tissue and it does not have all the characteristics of normal skin tissue. It is not entirely sensitive to normal environmental factors like heat, cold, pressure, trauma and pain. The same holds true for the educated brain and that part of it we call educated intelligence and the theologians call the soul. In fact we sometimes refer to a person as being callous or say “he is hard hearted.” The Bible in Genesis talks about the Pharaoh of the Exodus having his heart hardened (the heart in the Bible refers to the seat of thinking in the individual rather than the physiological pump of blood located in the chest cavity. Here’s the application: constant rejection of truth makes a person impenetrable or insensitive and resistant to that truth. Sometimes it gets to the point of them seeming like they are not even able to grasp that truth despite the fact that they have a normal or even above normal IQ. We sometimes describe that inability with phrases like “we are not on the same page”, “you’re out in right field”, or “are we in the same universe?” Often we wonder why the person cannot understand a simple common sense concept. The fact is their educated brain or educated intelligence is so “hardened” that the thought cannot get through. There are of course other reasons why this happens, why thoughts cannot get through the “gunk”but this is one and a very important one when we try to communicate with those in our profession or with the public.
Ouch 😉
I agree with you 100%. But we are the ones who “get it” so we have to share it even if it is never accepted. People do not care how much we know they want to know how much we care. This must come through more than what we say. No one wants to be preached to no matter how good the message is.