Since I’ve had the same email address for 11 years, I get my share of spam. In fact, I bet I get more than my fair share of spam. Sure, it’s annoying, but since I have a delete button (and use www.spamarrest.com), I see it as merely the cost of being able to communicate electronically without licking a stamp or picking up the phone, all the while creating a permanent record of the communication in the process.
As a student of marketing, I’ve recently noticed a lot of spam with actual subject lines along this vain: “Large bone - more pleasure,” “Try and give her intense banging,” “Enter her all night,” “More drive for in-out sticking,” “Best manhood augmentors” and let’s not forget what is probably a classic among this type of drug marketer: “She likes it big.”
Hey, it’s revolting to me too. However, it’s a growing reality for anyone who uses the Internet. But here’s what clicked for me chiropractically from these subject lines…
They (and apparently their prospective customers) think sex is simply about the physical. The mechanical. The doing. The how.
The same is true in chiropractic. Some chiropractors think chiropractic is about the physical (posture). The mechanical (range of motion). The doing (procedures). And the how (technique).
And yes, at the first-right-answer level, there’s no question that there’s a physical and mechanical aspect to chiropractic. But in the same way that pornography minimizes everyone involved, lowering chiropractic to merely a physical intervention can make chiropractic equally superficial.
Don’t get me wrong. There is a gorgeous physicality to the chiropractic adjustment. I’ve enjoyed thousands of them. A few, that I’d even consider bordering on orgasmic. But mostly they’ve been routine, yet enjoyed and appreciated just the same.
But like sex, there’s more to chiropractic than the physical. Far more. And this is the battle that the chiropractic profession finds itself in today. Is chiropractic merely a joint mobilization with some unpredictable neurological benefits? Or is there more? Ignoring the intellectual, emotional and spiritual undercurrents of chiropractic is as much an oversight as ignoring it in the sexual domain.
If you attended one of the chiropractic colleges that focused on the linear, mechanistic, recipe book (do-this-when-you-see-that) aspects of chiropractic, I encourage you to expand your horizons and consider the metaphysical aspects of chiropractic. Here are some suggestions:
1. Purchase and read at least one of B.J. Palmer’s green books. My favorite? The Bigness of the Fellow Within published in 1949. Yes, it weighs in at almost 900 pages, but if you’re only going to read one of them, start here. (Order from the Sherman College bookstore.)2. Pick up a copy of Bruce Lipton’s Biology of Belief. Read it. And then track down a DVD or two from him. Or get to a lecture of his. He’s not a chiropractor, but he “gets” chiropractic more than any other “medical school professor and research scientist” you’ll probably ever meet.
3. Subscribe to Dr. Kevin Donka’s ChiroThots emails. Each week Kevin takes a subject, a word or a phrase and plumbs its depths. The result? A one-page essay on some aspect of chiropractic philosophy that you and your patients will thoroughly enjoy. send an email with your first and last names and the word SUBSCRIBE to chirothots@aol.com
4. Attend a New Beginnings philosophy weekend. This tribe of principle-oriented chiropractors gets together on the Jersey shore three times a year. It’s homemade. It’s authentic. And it can provide the encouragement and support you need to see the other side of chiropractic.
5. Get to a monthly EPOC (Epicenter of Chiropractic) meeting. Under the tutelage of Dr. Troy Dukowitz, there are almost 20 of these philosophy gatherings around the US. Organized largely by CLA Total Solutions grads, these meetings affirm the vitalistic underpinnings of the profession, while acknowledging the challenges of practicing in the 21st century.
It was a century ago that D. D. Palmer observed that the purpose of chiropractic was to “…connect man the physical with man the spiritual.” Maybe you’ve never known that. Or you may be inclined to write this off as an especially quaint chiroism. Or find the spiritual aspects politically incorrect, convicting, or merely the hundred years old hallucination of a “fish monger” turned magnetic healer turned chiropractor. However, when you see this bigger picture, you and your patients will see the greater significance of chiropractic.