What Is Chiropractic Anyway?

An underpinning of ego is the concept of 'cause', which is implicitly dualistic in nature. It implies 'this' causes 'that'. Ego likes to strut and beat its chest. Ego likes to remain separate and distinct. Ego supposes that it is responsible for every action and its subsequent effect. Observing these effects, beliefs are constructed around them, symbolising that I am what I do. Doing more of it fuels the ego. Ego defines the action as good. Conversely, if it's not done to ego's satisfaction, a void of bad is created, when in fact there is no good nor bad, only a myriad of deluded self definitions setup by ego, blocking the road to any kind of revelation in thought and consciousness.

Attending New Zealand's premiere chiropractic event, Lyceum, with over 200 chiropractors, is not so much the opportunity to learn a barrage of completely new information to inundate my patients with, as it is more of a waypoint to gauge how my thinking has evolved over the last twelve months and note where it sits with the rest of the profession, for my ideas do not - and should not - sit idle between such events. Secretly, we all hope our thinking has evolved a little each year.

It cannot be overstated that we are living in the Information Age. We do not sell what we do, we sell who we are. It is the information shared which is of value and the intrinsic sense of trust and loyalty people place in one another. There is always someone else who can do exactly what you do, and they can probably do it better. A sad fact I came to learn at the tender age of thirteen when I entered high school and trials for the cricket team consisted no longer of twenty boys, but fifty. Odds are: there's bound to be a better bowler. Face it, people. So what you do is really not what is going to set you apart.

There is no technique, was the opening line to my first debate with the legendary Dr. Reggie Gold as a naive first year student. Okay, credit where credit is due: I stole that from my aikido teacher of the time, whom, I believe, stole it from his teacher. C'est la vie. But never had the amalgamation of what I do and what I intend to achieve made so much sense. There is no technique. Remove the ego-afflicted action of the event and one is only left with - what he called - The Way [of attaining the objective]. An esoterical means of saying: Do not serve the technique, achieve the objective. All too often though we're lost in the mechanics of what it is we're doing exactly, looking down at our hands, applying countless rules and boundaries, instead of lifting our chins to see where we're actually going.

This is how it works. And as the subtitle of these newsletters disclaims: This is a biased guide, alright? Chiropractic affects change at the subconscious level . Phew. There, I said it. People get better in spite of technique. Sometimes people get worse in spite of technique. There was a technical segment at Lyceum 2006 presented by a chiropractor that I marveled at. Not because I was enamoured with the sight of yet another technique, but for me it exemplified The Way, irrespective of who says what. For what is an adjustment anyway but an innate-to-innate communication. This is the Information Age, remember? Who you are, and the information you exchange on a physical, verbal, emotional and energetic level will create influence. It just is. Don't fight it. Nup. Nah-uh. Hey! Don't fight it. The span over which this information exchange can take place intrigues me because essentially I could become a distance healer. You could send me a cellular text message and I will pray for you. Overheads would be ridiculously low.

Ten years before I even ventured near chiropractic, I had an epiphany of sorts in my conscious evolution as a young boy. It was founded on psychedelic recreational pharmaceuticals. Not ingested by myself, of course, but by the artist featured in this documentary I was watching. He would regale with a handful of bright, sugar-coated goodies and then lock himself in a room, painting tirelessly for hours on end. Like a spider spinning its web on LSD, the cameramen would capture every wayward stroke of the artist's brush. 24 hours later he emerged with this canvas; an image I can still recall in my mind's eye to this day, and still it defines The Way for me. It was of two beings floating effortlessly in a void of nothingness. It almost seemed like they were touching but it was hard to tell. Their bodies had form but no muscle tone. The presence of each body embraced the other yet remained completely separate. Their bodyminds were mirrored. They healed one another. Each was lifted. They were alive.

The best advice I ever received about writing was to say to myself, Tomorrow at 8AM I will be creative. This philosophy is a far cry from the one of waiting for inspiration in a sea of procrastination, and only then acting upon it instead of just initiating the creative process oneself. This being said, the following thoughts came to me at 11AM today whilst scrubbing the shower floor.

The dilemma I face as a Caucasian male, from a Western upbringing, moving in a typical Western society, is that there's not much East. As plain as that can be said. Point in case: For some ancient reason, speaking generally, Eastern mindsets don't need to be convinced of the innate powers their bodies draw on from moment to moment; of the energy that pulses through their fibres; of the vitalistic mysticism that makes us who we are. It just is. And that chiropractic works because of this vitalism - that we express more than the sum of our parts. Why Westerners need to be sold the idea of better living boggles my mind each and every day. Is it normal for people just to accept this is as good as it gets? I think I left that station a few years ago.

East meets West at the isthmus of Functional Philosophy. There are certain things you feel, experience and act on, without having an intimate understanding of the details. In a world where people demand facts, figures and statistics, each decision is still made based on how one feels. Sometimes these feelings are not just cerebral but manifest physiologically. Name a few? Stage fright, butterflies, a lump in the throat or a weight on your chest.

Plexus is the Latin word for network. Used anatomically for describing a network of interconnecting structures. In this case, nerve clusters. In the style of true Western reduction, we're taught... two: The brachial plexus and lumbar plexus. One for the arms and one for the legs. Makes sense. We're just arms and legs attached to a spine anyway. What more could there possibly be? Um, let Dr. Gray introduce you to the cervical plexus, pharyngeal plexus, bronchial plexus, cardiac plexus, oesophogeal plexus, coronary plexus, gastric plexus, celiac plexus, aortic plexus, inferior mesenteric plexus, hypogastric plexus...

Meridians are said to be the pathways of positive and negative energy, which carries some of the communication between the various parts of the human being. When energy flows freely through the meridians, the body is balanced and healthy. If the energy becomes blocked, stagnated or weakened, it can result in physical, mental or emotional ill health. But in no way am I saying nerve plexuses equal meridians. I'm purely offering another depth to dig to in the musculoskeletal paradigm us Westerners have come to embrace so dearly, bless us. Information exchange is so much more than blinking action potentials along strings of nerves. The somatic feelings we experience could be nodal points where confluences of neuropeptides, hormones, sound, vibration, light and electrical activity all converge to a pre-decision precipice before you buy or sell, quit your job or decide to get married. Lawdy, I sound like Tony Robbins. I should don the head microphone and Hi-Five you all. It's even postulated there are cilia (tiny hair-like structures) in the cavities of our brains, called ventricles, that move in wave-like motions capturing photons of light, processing it as information in a mode similar to fibre optics. This means speed, dude. A quantum viewpoint that makes a lot more sense when considering how fast our bodies compute every minute action. Seriously, think about how fast things have to work inside of you to achieve the things you do without even realising.

Today is a day you can start to appreciate how densely intricate you are. So much more than bones on an x ray. Appreciate how little we know, for the universe within is as great as the universe without. Every feeling, and hence decision, is not a product of your mind, but a product of your mindbody. Everything needs to be in harmony.