What Is Chiropractic Anyway?

Healing comes from you, not to you. As I look back over my first five years in chiropractic and the quintessential thoughts that gave rise to the writings which distilled to the surface, I recall the simplicity of it all. The elegant simplicity of the idea this profession was founded on.

I sat in my first "health care class" all those years ago, presented by the same chiropractors who still check me today. With all the knowledge we acquire, with the entire physiologic and philosophical ramble that enhances and enriches us to the point of total saturation, the elegant simplicity of thought that a nerve system without interference has the power to heal is timeless. And with the nerve system being the ultimate tool of thought and creation; love, emotion and desire; the interface between you and the world around you, the philosophy extends far beyond the objective here and now. This healing art can be a gateway to understanding all subjective experience in this life - depending how far down the rabbit hole one wants to go.

I was reminded recently about what I said that evening of the health care class. Having no prior experience with chiropractic, but being marginally well educated, I thought I knew something about the way of the world. Yet, allegedly, it was reported I exclaimed after the class, "This is brilliant! Why isn't this room full?"

So therein also lies a lesson for the doctor: No matter how few you're presenting to, not only could you be creating a lifetime patient, but another doctor of chiropractic with vision beyond sight. In that instant, it all made sense to me. Compounded quickly by years of frustration as to why I hadn't seen it like this before. In that instant, plans were actioned promptly to do what needed to be done. I had no idea I was living a short drive from one of the best colleges in the world. I had no idea how much it would cost. I had no idea how I would be accredited. I had no idea how long it would take. So making a life altering decision in a moment like that was irony defined for someone who occasionally takes fifteen minutes to choose a pair of pants in the morning.

Something as simple as a thought placed in the centre of one's life can be the source of all contempt or the source of all life.

I had travelled halfway round the world to find new beginnings and, boy, did I find them. The work and toil to get through college is inconsequential to the gift of understanding that I have acquired over the last five years about my place in the universe. The fact that there is no "me" to start with and that I'm only a witness to these writings makes me laugh already. That the human physiology is part of the cosmic physiology and every rhythm of the universe naturally has an effect on the individual and vice versa, in the words of Maharishi Yogi. That I can give up my positionalities on genetic determinism and false healing pretenses. That I can give up my positionalities on biomedical paradigms. That I can give up the pay-offs for making excuses about things I don't feel I am worthy of, nor deserve, nor can achieve for lack of stoic self concept. That I know my ego can now relinquish all these things through the understanding of chiropractic teachings, I am eternally grateful. That I have found a new zest for spiritual awareness where once before I only trundled amongst man-made constructs, and that I can connect to the Divine without the middle man any time I choose, I am also grateful.

Healing comes from you, not to you. A very sickly man was once in need of help where no help could be offered by any conventional means. He was told to seek out the saintliest of healers on the highest of mountain peaks. For days the man walked to find him. And when he did, he came upon the healer kneeling by a creek, praying. The man knelt down next to him, but in that moment, the healer thrust the man's head into the water. Believing this was a test, the man did not struggle initially. But the seconds wore on and his lungs were beginning to burn. He began to writhe, thinking now the healer was surely going to murder him for disturbing his state of placid meditation. The healer then jerked his head clear of the water and the man gasped like he had forgotten what it was ever like to breathe. "Are you trying to kill me?!" he panted in exhaustion. The reply came, "When you truly want healing, it will come as easily as that first breath."

To my family, healers and teachers: I am forever thankful.
In our lives the miraculous is ongoing and continuous.