Chiropractic Philosophy

The great philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, stated that “philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains”.

Surely, chiropractic and its philosophy began in wonder. D. D. Palmer wondered, he questioned why individuals had differences in immunity! Why was it that two individuals could live under the same roof and eat at the same table, yet one would become ill with typhoid or pneumonia and the other would not?

Chiropractic and its philosophy began in a primitive era of healthcare. At the turn of the century while Koch and Pasteur were busy trying to demonstrate how newly discovered microbes were associated with specific diseases, D.D. Palmer, the rugged individualist was hypothesizing about individual differences in immunity.

D. D. Palmer was asking very different questions than Pasteur, and heading toward almost antithetical conclusions.

Then in a moment of wonder, a spectacular moment, after adjusting Harvey Lillard’s upper thoracic spine with a specific thrust and restoring his hearing, D. D. Palmer knew he had found something very special, something wonderful. — something that no amount of ridicule, scorn or persecution could take away from this rugged individualist. He sensed he was on the edge of a new era of health care.

A new paradigm of health and disease was being birthed inside the being of this prairie healer – Old Dad Chiro.

Then in a flash of genius, shortly after delivering his first adjustment, D.D. Palmer linked specific adjustments of subluxations of the vertebral column to the removal of interference in the nervous system — the master
control system which gives life to and vivifies the entire human being.

He theorized that subluxations produce neurological dis-ease, impacting principally the then newly discovered autonomic nervous system. Specific chiropractic adjustments corrected neurological interference or
Dis-ease allowing the body to heal itself naturally from the inside out.

D.D.’s early theorizations were the beginning of a chiropractic vitalistic philosophy based on the body’s inherent wisdom and innate ability to heal itself.

Palmer’s new paradigm and philosophy were quickly labeled as quackery by a medical and scientific community which became infatuated with a mechanistic reductionistic philosophy of science. Medical science focused more on the once invisible microbes and the drugs used to destroy them, rather than on the internal vivifying factors within individuals.

Chiropractic practice and philosophy did not fit the conventional mechanistic reductionistic paradigm and were viciously attacked. Isolated and out-cast, many chiropractors were imprisoned for practicing their healing art. Political medicine did its best to stamp us out. But the vitalistic fire of our philosophy would not die.

There is the example of Dr.William Werner, who went to jail for the cause of chiropractic, and later became the founder of the American Bureau of Chiropractic, a lay organization dedicated to the promotion of chiropractic. He went to jail rather than abandon his purpose. He told the judge, “Your honor, as long as I have these two hands and there are sick people, I will use them in rendering my vocation as a chiropractor.” He refused to give up or give in.

Our patients responded and demanded chiropractic care and licensure for their doctors. We received licensure because we were distinctive, drugless, and non-duplicating. We had a unique legislative niche and a
singular vitalistic philosophy.

100 years of outstanding clinical chiropractic success have proved the visionary foresight of this man, D. D. Palmer. The basic principles which undergird chiropractic philosophy still stand. They have been confirmed
and enriched by B. J. Palmer, by many other chiropractors and also by researchers in psychology,neurology and immunology.