You may not have heard of Daniel David Palmer before. Palmer is known as the father of chiropractic. He was a Canadian, successful beekeeper, transcendentalist, and practitioner of magnetic medicine. But what makes it more interesting is that the chiropractor said he owed his first ideas to the ghost of a dead doctor with whom he had chatted several times.
What is chiropractic treatment?
Chiropractic treatment is not a medical treatment, but rather a type of complementary and alternative medicine in which a chiropractor uses their hands to correct problems. Chiropractic, although practiced by registered practitioners, is a controversial area of alternative medicine as spinal manipulation can sometimes have serious side effects such as stroke, arterial dissection, and stroke.
Changing from Palmer’s understanding of magnetism, today’s practice involves manipulating the body in the hands of a chiropractor. Palmer believed that as a healer, he could concentrate his magnetism to soothe a sick organ by placing one hand on top of the organ and the other under, and passing healing energy from one side to the other.
Said he owed his invention to a ghost
As his school of thought evolved, Palmer later said he owed the leap in awareness in the “science of chiropractic” to a channeled spirit, the ghost of a deceased doctor.
Palmer, in The Chiropractor’s Adjuster: The Science, Art and Philosophy of Chiropractic, “My first knowledge of this old-new doctrine came from Dr. I got it from Jim Atkinson,” he wrote, adding: “The intellectuality of that time was not ready for this advance.”
As Wiggins and Engel wrote in an article published in the Chiropractic Journal of Australia, Palmer said that Atkinson was an “intelligent spirit being” from the “afterlife” to whom he spoke with inspiration and spiritual indoctrination.
It is not known for certain whether Atkinson actually existed or whether he was a figment of Palmer’s imagination, but given that his first wife, Abba Lord, declared herself a seer, psychometrist, and psychic healer, it can be predicted that she would be open to the idea of spiritual intervention. However, as stated in the rest of the article, considering that everyone was interested in some kind of extra-realism (spiritualism, prophecies, psychic phenomena, etc.) at that time, it does not seem appropriate to use this argument alone against alternative medicine. At that time, many proven practices and discoveries were likewise attributed to spirits, oracles, or vague visions.
The idea behind modern chiropractic treatment has since moved away from magnetism and focused instead towards the manipulation of joints to better align when problems are encountered. However, it is very important to remember that the joints, especially around the head and neck, are also surrounded by vital blood vessels. If these vessels are manipulated incorrectly by someone who is not adequately trained, it can lead to many undesirable consequences, from paralysis to death.
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