One of the dictionary's definitions of a cult: "A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease." Now I appreciate that chiropractic has come a long way in almost 100 years, but there is much in our profession that provides justification for being called a cult.
While I am using definitions, the dictionary defines science as:
1.
- observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena
- such activities restricted to a class of natural phenomena
- such activities applied to an object of inquiry or study
2) methodological activity, discipline, or study
3) an activity that appears to require study and method
Which definition does chiropractic fall into? Now I believe that there are three separate forms of chiropractic. First there is the largest group in chiropractic, the so called mixers. These are the doctors that have based their foundations on the techniques of the past but have incorporated the sciences and diagnostic skills of the present. The second largest group are the straights. These doctors are locked in a time warp and choose to ignore anything that wasn't stated by either BJ or DD Palmer. As Bertrand Russell said, "Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know." What straights do works, but for the wrong reason. Now the third, and what I consider the most dangerous group in chiropractic: the technique followers, TF for short.
In every other branch of science, when one develops a concept, idea, formulation or technique, it must first be exposed to review, examination, and reproducibility by ones peers. Only in chiropractic do we allow anyone to create a new technique and directly market it to fellow practitioners. These technique peddlers are unregulated and are no better than the snake oil salesmen of the late 1800s. It is unfortunate that there are many gullible doctors who pay tremendous sums of money to these charismatic figures to be taught universal truths and to tap into innate powers heretofore unobtainable. The peddlers of faith and hope of healing all seem to have similar attributes in common: They have a pseudo-scientific explanation for everything they do; they have tried this for years on their patients before teaching it to you; there always seems to be multiple levels one must reach to master the technique; and they usually condemn research for a variety of reason.
If technique peddlers truly have a gift to give the world, to save mankind from pain and suffering, why not go to the chiropractic colleges first to do the research and publish a paper before selling it to gullible doctors?
So, is chiropractic a cult? The answer is yes and no. The majority are emerging from our primitive origins of being founded by a magnetic healer to an emerging force in health care around the world. Remember, it wasn't long ago the MDs were using leeches for bloodletting. So there is hope for us too.
There is however an impeding danger in our profession. Unless we pose regulation on what is taught in seminars and practiced in our offices, we will all be guilty by association to the cultist in our ranks. For the opposition, this will be their fuel to deny us our just place in the healing arts. Without efficacy by scientific methods, we are nothing more than faith healers.
I call upon the leaders of our profession to make the Mercy document not mere guidelines, but law, and the immediate regulation of all technique seminars (the majority of chiropractors have followed for years what the Mercy Guidelines represent). Our chiropractic colleges appear to sanction all seminars for relicensing out of monetary considerations rather than for knowledge. So it is up to the leaders in the ACA,ICA, the state boards, and associations to pay attention to the silent majority and not the vocal minority. If we choose not to regulate ourselves, others will regulate us.
"The more we study the more we discover our ignorance." -- Percy Shelly
To the profession I love so much.
Michael Vesely, DC
Los Angeles, California