Understanding Chiropractic Philosophy is Easy - Accepting it is Hard
By Joseph Strauss,D.C.The chiropractic philosophy is a very simple idea. There is nothing difficult in comprehending the idea that there is a principle of life within living organisms that runs them, that this principle uses the nervous system and that consequently every person in the world is better off with a good nerve supply. It is not exactly rocket science. I have never met a person with average intelligence and who understood the English language who could not intellectually grasp the chiropractic philosophy.
But while the philosophy is easy to understand, accepting it is much more difficult. It is our nature to want to place our will over that of the Wisdom of the Universe. We are not satisfied with "letting nature take its course." We want to help it. It is an ego thing. It really doesn't matter whether it is a medical doctor who wants to do major surgery or a patient who wants to put ice on a sore muscle. This is saying "I know more than the innate intelligence of the body, it needs my help" We want to take control so we can take the credit. Letting the innate intelligence run our body brings no glory to us. You see, innate intelligence is not us. Any honor or credit for what happens when that principle is expressed goes to the principle itself or to the One who created it.
We are not that principle or that One. We are, in fact, our educated intelligence and often the educated cannot accept the fact that in the scheme of universal things, it plays a small part. Even in the running of the body in which it resides, it plays a minor role and that at best is to listen to and follow the dictates of the body's own intelligence.
We must realize that as a philosophy chiropractic can be universally understood. But being universally accepted necessitates an act of the educated intelligence in acknowledging its inadequacy in running the universe in general and the human body in particular. That is far more difficult and it will be the one thing that keeps the world from accepting our philosophy. Accepting the philosophy is a major exercise in humility! Unfortunately, that character quality is missing in too many members of the human race, of all strata of society. It exist in the teacher, the policeman, the laborer, the office worker and the garbage man. This is not an essay of pessimism, but one of reality. For there are also those people out there, in all walks of life who acknowledge their limitations, and acknowledge a Power and a principle greater than their own educated minds. There are millions of them. Our goal should be to identify them and reach them with our message.
The Pivot Review (Vol. XIII, No. 1)