The COMMON SENSE of
CHIROPRACTIC
By JAMES G. GREGGERSON
National Lecturer for the Universal Chiropractors’ Assn.
All Rights Reserved
CHIROPRACTIC does not deny that the body
is composed of chemicals; that the air,
water an\l earth are filled with germs; that
eating too much or too little or eating foods
that disagree with one may produce injurious
effects; but it does assert that all the methods
and theories based upon these facts alone, ignore
one, and that the greatest single factor in the
problem of health. That factor is life, spirit,
soul, ego, innate intelligence or anything else
you may choose to call it. We prefer to call it
“Innate Intelligence”—Innate, because it is in
born and inborn means innate—and intelligent,
because that something in the humblest thing
that lives knows what all the learned men on
earth have yet to learn. That something inside
of everything that lives, knows the secret of tak
ing from the earth, air, sunshine and water what
is necessary to build and repair the organism it
animates.
In the tiniest seed that slumbers in the bosom
of mother earth there is this something that
knows how to send roots into the ground and
blade or branch into the air, and how to take
from the earth and air and convert into its body,
the elements by which it is surrounded.
This something, which we call Innate Intelli
gence, is found in everything that lives upon the
earth, and without it the form it animates—•
whether it be the form of bush or tree, or flow
er, the form of fish or flea or man—becomes as
dust and mixes again with the elements. And
what is more, this romething does everything
that is done in the living organism. It not only
converts the food, air, water and sunshine into
living tissue, but it co-ordinates every part of
that organism and meets the changes of the
world without—the changes in temperature,
food, air, etc.—by a change within, that per
mits the .organism to live and thrive in spite of
that which would otherwise destroy it.
In the spring the farmer turns his stock into
the meadow—the horse, the cow, the sheep and
the goose—and they all eat the same grass,
drink the same water, breathe the same air and
bask in the rays of the same sun. Yet in the
horse these things are converted into strength,
in the cow they become milk, in the sheep, wool,
and in the goose, feathers and eggs.
Can you explain these results in terms of
grass, water, air and sunshine, or must you ex
plain them in terms of a chemist within that
knows the secret of transforming the grass,
water, air and sunshine into strength, milk, wool
or feathers and eggs?
You place two bulbs or seeds in the same
ground, side by side. They are warmed by the
same sun, watered by the same rain and nour
ished by the same air. One of these bulbs or
seeds develops into a flower or a plant, while
the other, under precisely the same environment
al Conditions, rots. What and where is the de
termining factor? Is it outside or inside that
bulb or seed?
You place eggs under the mother hen or in
the incubator, and from some come chicks, while
the others rot. Where is the power that trans
forms yolk and white into baby chicks? Is it
inside or outside the egg?
To find this "power within” vivisectionists
have practiced the most fiendishly inhuman
things on living birds and animals. They have
cut and poisoned, torn parts from the quivering
bodies of the living and then gravely announced
that "no seat of the soul has been found.”.
This practice of vivisection has so shocked the
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sensibilities of people of humane tendencies
that they have formed anti-vivisection societies
in an effort to stop this cruelly inhuman practice.
People of good sense know that it is just as
idiotic to try to find tl_e principle of life by tear
ing a living body to pieces, as it is to find the
principle of mathematics by burning an arith- •
metic, or to find the principle of gravity by melt
ing a bar of iron.
Our friends who call us fakes, outlaws,
quacks, etc., cover these miracles of life with the
terms “chemical reaction,” “reflex action,” etc.
In comparison with drugs, germs, food, combina
tions, serums, monkey glands, etc., this SOME
THING that carries on the life processes through
the soul, mind and body of man is, in their opin
ion, insignificant while to us it is, of all the
factors in dis-ease, the most important.
We call this something wthin, Innate Intelli
gence, and we say tiiat Innate Intelligence comes
in contact with the outer world through the
medium of the senses—sight, hearing, smell,
taste and touch. To us the eye and ear, and the
bulbs in the nose, tongue and skin are but re
ceiving stations for vibrations of various kindk
that are gathered by these receivers and trans
mitted over the nerves to the brain, wherein
Innate Intelligence receives and interprets them
as color, sound, smell, taste and feeling.
Our conception of this function may be illus
trated, by diagram at the foot of this column.
In this the large outer circle represents the
body, and the small inner circle the brain. In
side the brain is the interpreter o-f these vibra
tions that we call Innate Intelligence. The ear,
as the instrument for gathering sound waves,
gathers the vibrations, which are transmitted
over the auditory nerves to the brain and there
interpreted by Innate Intelligence. The other
organs and nerves of special sense work the
same way.
What does the interpretation of these waves
depend upon? Upon the character of the intelli
gence within. No two people listening to the
some sound or looking at the same sight, will
give precisely the same interpretation. A mil
lion people reading this article will interpret
various statements in different ways, according
to their experience in life and according to their
intelligence within, and their individual reac
tion will depend upon their interpretation.
You are driving your car at night and see a
red lantern. The light wave is gathered by the
eye, transmitted over the optic nerve to the
brain, and there interpreted by Innate Intelli
gence as danger. Immediately upon the light
wave being interpreted as danger THIS IN
TELLIGENCE WITHIN sends an impulse to the
hands to shut off the gas, and an impulse to the
feet to push out the clutch and put on the brakes
to stop the car. A cow comes ambling down
the same road; the same light ray is gathered
by the eye of the cow, is transmitted over the
optic nerve to her brain* but is NOT interpreted
as danger by the cow’s intelligence and she falls
into the ditch.
Our friends explain it as a difference in “chem
ical reaction,” “reflex action,” etc., and we ex
plain it as a difference in interpretation due to
a difference in intelligence.
In what has just been described there are
three distinct things done by “Innate.”
First—The reception of the vibration from
outside.
Second—The interpretation of the vibration.
Third—The reaction, to the vibration accord
ing to the interpretation—by Innate Intelli
gence.
This difference must be noted, the vibration
gathered by the five organs of special sense,
travels from the OUTSIDE TO THE INSIDE,
while the motor impulse travels from the IN
SIDE TO THE OUTSIDE.
Chiropractic teaches that just as the body is
MOVED by means of impulses that travel from
the inside to the outside, so also is it nourished,
built, heated, cleansed, repaired and reproduced
NOSE