Rediscovering The Soul of Chiropractic

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An excerpt:

Research continues in the science of Chiropractic to explore the ramifications of the vertebral subluxation and its correction, hoping to document all the findings so we might “standardize” our art and gain acceptance in the insurance industry and induction into the scientific community.  Such activities do not serve the soul of chiropractic, or our profession.

In the first place, our science and art have been searched and researched enough already.  As for standardizing our practice, like our forefathers before us, we are all such maverick individualists that I don’t see how we can agree on a “standard of care,” and I’m certainly not one for imposing any more guidelines than what we already have, even if those guidelines may give us the dubious distinction of being the “experts” in correcting spinal subluxations.

My question is, “What are we looking for?”   I propose that what we are looking for is ourselves!  It appears we have forgotten who we are, and therefore we don’t know where we fit anymore.  A large number of chiropractors are leaning toward becoming more medically-based than chiropractic-based and the handwriting is clearly on the wall.  Our profession is in crisis and on the brink of a major schism.

Why should we continue catering to the demands of the scientific community for “proof,” and of the insurance industry for more documentation?  When will enough be enough?   I personally feel we have allowed ourselves, as a profession, to become imprisoned by these demands on our science and art, while our philosophy has become an optional belief system one can either take or leave and still have a successful practice.  Yet it is the truth in our philosophy that gives us a real sense of who we are and where we fit, a truth that would set us free from the “golden handcuffs” which keep us bound to and enslaved by third-party-pay healthcare management.

Over the last two decades, I have watched the soul of chiropractic wither away and chiropractors’ hearts grow disenchanted.  That concerns me deeply, because I feel have a part to play in their revitalization and in the renewal of their spirit.  I would start by focusing our thoughts on the founding and humble beginnings of our great profession.