In East Pasadena, California, a group of boys was playing field hockey, all on unicycles. I was astounded. If I put on figure skates and tried to do the same spins, somersaults, etc., I'd fall flat on my face. I can't even ride a unicycle, let alone play games on one. One must start easy and then practice. After a month of daily practice, there is a lot of skill developing.

What has this got to do with palpation?

Students begin chiropractic college to learn chiropractic, not medicine. With an orientation course, I gave students an easy task the first week: to palpate their own mastoid processes.

Just behind those bones one feels the posterior tips of the Cl transverse process. With both hands comparing the prominence, they turned the head to one side and then to the other. As the head is turned, the atlas becomes prominent on one side while its opponent disappears. With Occ-Cl in line, it's possible to tip the head from side to side and notice the close approximation of mastoid and the atlas. You can do this right now, while reading, even if you've never felt a bone before.

After becoming familiar with the "feel" of these bones, I had the students try to find the suboccipital muscles which were pulling the joints from the normal. Many could do this the first day. Then, with the head returned to the normal resting position, it's easy to figure which muscles are too tight.

If the atlas (Cl) is prominent on the right and is pulled there by a tight superior oblique muscle, there is usually an additional contra-rotation of axis (C2) with right inferior oblique and the left inter-transversarius (C2-3) in hypertension.

By leaving a finger lightly on any of these tight muscles, I next had students lightly lift the helix of the right ear with the other hand. Then, tipping that ear forward to one o'clock, two, three, four and on around, they would notice that at one vector the tight muscle would either relax or twitch. By refining the angle of that vector just one or two degrees, they would feel even more relaxation. Tipping the ear in the opposite direction would tighten the faulty muscles and aggravate the subluxation.

Within one week, the students were palpating the upper cervical spine and were able to start effective muscle palpation. After practicing this they found that the sensitivity doubled every week. They could soon palpate the muscles better than the senior students.

Within two months, they were correcting or improving subluxations of their friends and neighbors. The action is not only of Occ-Cl but covers every joint of the spine, even down to the muscle balance in the calf of the leg.

I was doing a demonstration of Auricular Proprioceptive Reflex Technique and had about five D.C.s with their fingers on various tight muscles. The prone patient had the calves cramp when riding a horse. One leg length specialist asked why I didn't check the leg lengths. I was contacting the ear and Cl. I told the fellow that I knew the legs would be uneven at that time. How far off? He said about three-quarters of an inch difference. By tilting the ear closer to the optimum, all five others noticed an immediate muscle relaxation.

Again, I asked about the leg length, because I knew that it would be better. He said about one-eighth of an inch difference at that time. A slight change of tipping the ear and the feet were quite even. This is a common occurrence.

Back to the students again. One fellow had a dog that was good except that it could not walk up the stairs. After repeatedly tipping the dog's ear in the correct direction, the dog was able to go up any stairs easily. These were students less than two months into their first year. They were learning palpation very easily and with eagerness.

In the third week, I had them make a three finger straight edge to glide down alongside the spinous processes. With the fingers lightly touching together, one feels the difference of prominence as they slide together along an opposite extended finger or along the spinous processes. Fingers apart lose much of that feeling.

Now these freshmen were able to find spinous laterality, then to find the rotator brevis muscle pulling that spinous process to the side. Next, they could monitor the intrinsic muscle imbalance and find the trigger points out along the occluded nerve. This is the basis of chiropractic.

Later, I had technique seminars with senior students from another college. They did not know of a three finger straight edge. Their palpation was to press and see if the spine bent. If not, they would bend it. I was shocked. That mobilization is not chiropractic.

How can I "fix" a subluxation if I can't find it? How can I find it if I can't palpate a spine? Nowadays, the intern on meeting a patient the first time in fourth quarter is afraid to touch the "irreversible" pathology. How many subluxations did Boyd, Cecil or Robbins ever palpate and adjust? It's much harder to unlearn the errors than to learn the correct methods.

That is why at Life College we started teaching chiropractic from the first day, not later after many basic sciences. It worked great. Instead of the 150 "treatments" required now, the clinic winner did more than 5,000 adjustments. The second did over 2,500. They became proficient.

Now, to my original question, "why palpate?"

Starting at the first week when students are eager and willing is productive. Starting later after being bored with the many "irreversibles" is a poor time to begin to palpate.

The photos in the books with fingers apart and not touching each other lose much effect. With a proper beginning one should be able to describe each bent, each large and each short spinous process. When I began, all patients had a C2 (axis) spinous but nothing else could be found.

By feeling the intrinsic muscle balance changing, even with a distant reflex contact, I know what that spine is doing. Of course, that will be impossible for a beginner or for one who has never done any palpating of spines. Palpation is helpful.

If you have never done this spinal palpation, it's not too late to start. The first three fingers lightly touching each other should lie easily on a flat surface. Now, little finger leading, start down the spinous tips. Then down the near side and then down the far side. With a deviation, there must be a muscle, rotator brevis pulling that spinous aside. Its synergist, the opposite inter-transversarius, will also be tight with foraminal occlusion.

I find over 90 of symptoms on the side of occlusion. A few are on the opposite side of stretching. With these several findings of a subluxation, one can visualize the tilt and rotation of the joint. The x, y, and z axes are fine on a computer but in real life the joint moves in the plane of the articular processes, with the muscles pulling when they should be at rest. Hence, the spinous will move right and headward while the opposite transverse moves down (footward) and back. Correction is just the opposite direction. We learned this within the first week of college -- when it was easy.

As one D.C. mentioned, "There are too many techniques taught." If a joint does not feel right, then visualize the error and correct it. There are many ways to do that. Most techniques, like other materials, do have a small element of truth. The rest is packaging.

For a beginner to choose and discard the fat and feathers can be difficult. All of you readers should find this directive fairly easy to visualize. With the medical lab tests being far from accurate and the "treatment" based upon very scant results, I wonder why some D.C.s neglect their own truly scientific methods in favor of much less accurate medical procedures. Again, If I can't find it, how can I fix it?

Try palpating.