Sunday, February 21, 2010

QUANTUM CHIROPRACTIC

Chiropractic has been around since the late 19th century and its founding principles really haven’t changed much since the early part of the 20th century – in fact one might argue that chiropractic philosophy has devolved from some of the dizzy heights reached by some of the early chiropractic authors.

The science of Physics was going through a quantum shift during this same era, evolving from Newtonian Physics to what is now commonly called Quantum Physics. In chiropractic we often talk about paradigm shifts and this is often in the context of everyone else needing to have one in order to catch up to our principles of health and illness.But maybe we too need a paradigm shift?

Let’s take a look at the shift that occurred in Physics as a metaphor or simile to the paradigm shift that the chiropractic profession needs to make if it is to climb up to its perceived position of superiority on the wellness ladder.

Newtonian Physics was man’s logical attempts to make the universe fit into his objective and mechanistic model of how the world works: Based on the observation that big complex things are made up of lots of little simple things that combine numerically to produce basically a big machine with small moving parts. And as this domineering science invented lots of really cool machines based on this principle, and as they discovered smaller and smaller components that appeared to follow the same principles, the belief system was self-justified.

Within this model matter was made up of particles which behaved in predictable ways, while energy was seen as a separate and distinct component of nature, and this consisted of wave forms: Substances whether organic or inorganic are composed of atoms which are themselves made from smaller particles of electrons, protons and neutrons; while energy forms like light and sound are produced by different spectrums for vibratory frequencies.

But there came a point along the Newtonian quest to find the smallest particle and to better understand more about how these particles behave where this separation started to dissolve. As Physicists studied the behaviour of electrons in different environments they found that sometimes electrons behaved like particles and sometimes they behaved like energy!

This lead to enormous friction within the scientific community and pushed supposedly intelligent men to the point of irrational argument, name calling and sledging. Till finally one man, a school dropout came up with a formula that made sense of it all: E = MC2. That man was Einstein and while the understanding and the application of this seemingly simple formula has progressed with succeeding physicists, they themselves cite this “shift” as the pivotal breakthrough.

Most people can quote the E = MC2 formula as belonging to that cute and cheeky looking silver haired king of the geeks. Many can even translate it as energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. But let’s take a closer look at what this really means? Let’s forget the constant in the formula for a moment – take out the C2 and you are left with E = M! That’s the breakthrough people – energy and matter are actually different manifestations of the same thing. In other words matter is just stored energy, and energy is matter in its higher forms of existence.

We can see this transition in its simpler forms when we do our most basic high school chemistry experiments of heating ice, which becomes water, which becomes steam – they are all still water, but at different states of their energetic existence. But E = MC2 is a much bigger picture than this.

Many modern physicists are still more comfortable referring to matter and energy as almost distinct phenomena, and take solace in the fact that it takes the speed of light squared to make the change between being in a matter state versus being in an energetic state. The speed of light is basically the biggest number scientists can think of, so they argue the formula is saying that it takes something huge to shift energy into becoming matter.

Einstein actually originally proposed the formula as M = E/C2 – that matter was really just another form of energy. And this is what quantum physics is really all about – that matter is really just what we observe when energy is being pooled or stored – but it is really still just energy!

So this is where quantum physics and chiropractic could meet – if chiropractic is ready to make the same paradigm shift. I believe that some of the earlier chiropractic philosophers made this shift at about the same time as the physicists did. But unlike the Physics profession that got to the point of accepting the new idea, the chiropractic profession successfully suppressed and circumvented the shift.

RW Stephenson authored the 33 principles in 1927, and this could perhaps be the analogous shift in understanding the human state as E = MC2. Stephenson talks of the three components of our formula as force, matter and intelligence: This is the chiropractic equivalent of E = MC2! Force equals energy, matter equals mass, and intelligence is the hugest constant that we can possibly think of. Maybe our formula could read as F = MI2.

So why am I saying that the chiropractic profession missed this shift? Firstly the self-proclaimed intelligentsia and political leadership have quite successfully removed the constant from the formula. It has been successfully argued that intelligence is not required to practice chiropractic! And what I really mean by this is that concepts such as innate intelligence and the mental impulse have been denigrated as being pseudo-religious nonsense. When in fact intelligence is the missing piece that makes matter possible!

Secondly chiropractic has been successfully reduced to matter therapy – bones, muscles, ligaments, alignment and manipulation. It is becoming rare to see any reference to the nervous system when reading articles written by chiropractic publishers – but the nervous system connection is the connection between our matter and our force – our energy. And this capability is the ultimate representation of intelligence.

Hence, the current chiropractic formula looks more like “M = M”…

I was listening to one quantum physicist speak and he made the statement that the only place we really see Quantum Physics at work is in space. And then I had the revelation that he was SO WRONG. You see, most living biological organisms are classic examples of quantum converters. And the human being is the best example of a system that is able to use intelligence to continuously convert matter to energy, and energy to matter!

Now let’s get back to the paradigm shift that could happen, which would position chiropractic as the quantum shift in the healing arts: If matter is energy in a different state, then a subluxation is a person’s matter in a different energetic state. In other words a subluxation is not a physical state, it is an energetic state – it has less to do with what the particles of the body are up to, and more to do with what the wave forms of the body are up to.

Wave forms in the human body are represented by frequencies, so a Subluxation could be defined as an abnormal frequency pattern. There appears to be a movement in the chiropractic profession that dislikes the term subluxation because of its medical definition – “less than a dislocation”, which has obvious shortcomings as a clinical description, and at the same time they dislike what they see as almost esoteric connotations of the word to Chiropractors. The problem that results though – is that the offered alternative terms are almost universally less encompassing and in the context of this discussion grossly inadequate: spinal joint dysfunction, biomechanical lesion, mechanical back pain.

So let’s take a fresh look at the word subluxation:
  • Sub = Below; under; beneath; less than completely or normally.
  • Lux = A basic unit of illumination
  • Ation = The act of; the condition of being; the result of
So why couldn’t we redefine the term Subluxation as something like “the condition of less than normal energy transmission”. If you wish to be more philosophically correct you might adapt this to “less than normal intelligence transmission” (Intelligence being the chiropractic equivalent to light).

If we can grow up enough to jettison the Newtonian model of subluxation description, and accept that Quantum Physics has filled the knowledge void, and that our definitions of chiropractic must evolve to a similar level, then we might even find that chiropractic makes more than a paradigm shift – it could make a quantum leap into the hearts, minds and bodies of the community.

How? If Chiropractic persists with its Newtonian descriptions of what it is about then it will continue to receive a Newtonian response from the public – “spine doctor”, “back cracker”, “bone cruncher”. But if the profession shifts to the quantum model, and effectively communicates this shift, then the connection between what we do and the nervous system is completed, the relationship between an adjustment and someone’s quality of life is restored, and the explanations of how chiropractic relates to issues like emotions, human potential and wellness become logical.

Torque Release Technique training provides you with the Science, Art and Philiosophy of how to make this Quantum Leap: Check it out at this link: http://www.torquerelease.com.au/TRT-Seminar.htm

Sunday, February 7, 2010

MAKING EVERY ADJUSTMENT COUNT

I’ve organised a lot of seminars over quite a few years now (my first was in 1996) and as a result I have had the privilege of meeting every “type” of Chiropractor – and I have found that there is one constant trait that exists across all philosophies, techniques, practice management styles and scopes of practice – and that is a strong desire to provide the best possible therapeutic benefit from each and every “treatment”. Ignoring the very small segment of the profession that is more interested in the bottom line, than the spinal column – I know that each one of us hopes for and even expects that when we adjust someone, something good is going to happen for that person.

And that encounter can look quite different between practitioners. For example, it’s Monday morning and the first patient for the day is waiting, eagerly anticipating that they will be feeling “better” after their adjustment: Here are some possible generic scenarios:

1) The Chiropractor goes through their standard procedure of adjusting both sides of the neck, thrusts on a few thoracics, then rolls the patient onto both sides to loosen up the low Back.

2) The Chiropractor checks their notes from the last progress exam to see which segments had been determined to be needing adjustment for the next course of corrections, and then follows that recipe.

3) The Chiropractor palpates down the spine to find tight and tender points then proceeds to manipulate those symptomatic areas to improve the mechanical function of the spinal joints.

4) The Chiropractor uses some form of orthopaedic or neurological examination which can lead them to adjust anywhere between 6 and 12 subluxations on any given visit.

But there are some inherent weaknesses in the above approaches which must be reconciled if our goal is truly to deliver adjustments with that something extra:

1) If we don’t have a method to prioritise where someone really needs to be adjusted then should we call ourselves practitioners or technicians? One root of burnout is boredom: When every spine starts to look the same and when we start to diminish the value of each adjustment, then our sense of importance and passion also diminishes.

2) If we believe that adjustments initiate change, then shouldn’t the adjustments need to change through time? If a person’s spine and nervous system is healing, adapting and even evolving under our care, then why would today’s adjustment be the same as last month’s adjustment? And if someone’s life circumstances have altered since they started care, wouldn’t the pattern of Subluxation change to reflect this, and last week’s adjustment would now be inappropriate?

3) Chiropractors have long made the claim to be treating the cause. But if we treat based on symptoms, whether pain or tenderness, then don’t we make a mockery of this claim? If we claim to be removing interference from the nervous system, then shouldn’t we have some means of determining where that interference is, and how best to reduce that interference?

4) Most chiropractic techniques have talked about concepts such as primary and secondary subluxations, compensations, referral, distant effects from local interference, reflex projection. In other words not all Subluxations are created equal, and not all Subluxations need to be adjusted on every visit, because adjusting the “primary” subluxation will influence and reduce the connected secondary and compensatory malfunction. If we don’t have a method to differentiate between these types of Subluxations then won’t we be wasting some of our precious time?

Now consider a fifth option: On any given day, at the very moment that you are examining a spine, depending on the most recent physical, chemical and emotional stresses to your practice member’s nervous system, and superimposed over the long term accumulation of tension in their spinal system – there is one predominating subluxation, which if adjusted will produce bigger neurological changes than adjusting any other segment in the spine at that time. You would want to know how to differentially diagnose that segment wouldn’t you?

This model has been developed during the research method design for a ground breaking, randomised, placebo controlled, prospective scientific project run in conjunction between Holder Research Institute, Turning Point Addiction Recovery facility, and the University of Miami School of Medicine’s famous Biostatistician Bob Duncan. This technique is today called Torque Release Technique and has been published in major journals such as Molecular Psychiatry, the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, and Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, as well as being featured on the Discovery Health Channel.

Thankfully modern chiropractic can stand on the shoulders of its technique pioneering giants: Palmer, Thompson, DeJarnette, Van Rumpt, Logan, Toftness and more contemporary ground breakers like Epstein; and the development of TRT saw the best of the best being integrated to produce an amazingly streamlined and efficient means of determining which segment of the spine needs to be adjusted, with precise correctional vectors, and to confirm the success of a single adjustment or plot the objective improvement in indicators of subluxation through time.

Another gift from the research project was the Integrator – the first chiropractic instrument to be specifically designed and patented for the correction of Subluxations. What makes the Integrator stand alone is its ability to deliver a three-dimensional correction which includes all of the defining features of a Toggle Recoil adjustment – high speed, recoil, and torque. Plus it offers a feature that takes reproducibility and reliability to new levels – a preloading trigger that means that every adjustment delivers just the right amount of force and frequency.

Because of these breakthroughs TRT developed the reputation for being the twenty first century technique for Chiropractors to shift their practice model away from a mechanical and orthopaedic paradigm, towards a neurological and tonal application of our wonderful vitalistic philosophy.

And the consistent feedback from the hundreds of Chiropractors who have now completed TRT training is that it provides that missing piece in the technique puzzle – how to provide an adjustment which responds to the current physiological needs of the practice members’ nervous system, and how to generate big changes in state of wellbeing on each and every adjustment – physical, chemical and emotional.

2010 sees TRT in its 8th year of training Australian Chiropractors with Dr Nick Hodgson offering training programs in varied locations each year. Nick has organised numerous TRT training programs, has been personally mentored by the developer of TRT, Dr Jay Holder, and is one of Australia’s most experienced practitioners.

Click Here To See Upcoming Dates and Locations…