July 2005

Just how far in over your head would you like to be?

by Dr. Will Tickel

I'm not talking financial indebtedness here. Nor legal entanglements nor social unrest. I'm talking instead about practicing in the mysteries and miracles of the unknown. I'm talking about practicing on the spiritual plane and not merely the physical or mental planes. In a word, I'm curious. Just how interested are you in being a healer instead of merely a therapist? It's largely a matter of intent, based in faith and hope in something far bigger than we can measure or understand. In earlier times, I had an acronym for practicing in such a place. It was F.A.I.T.H. for "fully accepting innate the healer."

How far into it are you?

Down through the years, the chiropractic profession has made several feeble attempts at defining and demarcating the difference between the healers and the therapists among us. Early on, pioneers went to jail for practicing chiropractic without a license, refusing to compromise their stand with a confession of "practicing medicine without a license." Then we delineated "straights" from "mixers." Somehow that really didn't define the difference either, as healers and therapists existed on both sides of the fence. Today, it's being described as "vitalist" or "mechanist."

Whatever the terminology, the real issue entails asking who the healer is, who's in control and who are merely the witnesses. I would contend that both the doctor and the patient are merely witnesses.

Years ago, I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Galen Price, long time head (and heart) of the philosophy department at Palmer who said, "MDs make diagnoses while chiropractors make determinations." Those determinations, as Dr. Price put it, were decisions or resolves "to adjust." The issue was leaving the healing to the great unknown, the mysterious essence of all living organisms that we have termed innate intelligence. Later, Dr. Virgil Strang of that very same philosophy department and mindset told us, "MDs often gather data and numbers through a great deal of consternation and effort only to find themselves playing a hunch later on. Chiropractors in contrast," he said, "play their hunch first."

Those "determinations" and that "hunch" reflect just how far "in" you are as a practitioner. In a very real sense, they represent just how far "in" and "above" you are in your thinking and your reliance on the power and the source of all healing. I'm talking, of course, about the power that made the body and heals the body ‑‑ universal and innate intelligence. Or, is it God and soul? Remember that BJ Palmer reminded us "we chiropractors work with the subtle substance of the soul, that tiny rivulet of force that emanates in the mind and flows out over the nerves, stirring the cells to life." And, others have reminded us that "where your energy flows that's what grows and manifests in physical form."

Chiropractic for back pain, neck pain, headaches? Tip of the iceberg, seems to me. Neuromusculoskeletal? Hardly! Psychoneuroimmunological comes closer to describing the change the adjustment makes. Why not simply call it chiropractic? And without prefix or suffix, thank you!

How far up is above?

"Above, down, inside‑out," we chant. What does it mean to you? Brain stem down? Cortex or cognition center down?

For the healer, it encompasses the Godhead, universal intelligence, or the infinite oneness of all living entities. And going down!

In my 59 years on the planet and 25 years in the profession, I've personally suffered through and witnessed in others the phenomenon many have termed "burnout." This form of exhaustion (or ennui), it seems to me, stems from the practitioner's perspective. It comes from seeing oneself as the generator or originator of the healing instead of practicing in the full faith and understanding of innate as the healer. It's... the result of attaching to patient outcomes, not processes... seeing yourself as the healer and not merely the witness... seeking to take credit and accepting blame... applying inductive thought and reasoning for what is more correctly the science of deductive thought and reckoning... and seeing yourself as the power supply instead of the conduit. BJ warned us rather succinctly, "Don't take yourself too damn seriously."

Marlo Morgan in her book, "Mutant Message Down Under," describes it this way: "It is the invisible nonphysical feelings filling the eternal part of us that make the difference between the good and the lesser. Action is only the channel whereby the feeling, the intent, is allowed to be expressed and experienced."

"Get the idea," we say, "and all else will follow." That idea, DCs, is conveyed in all we think, say, and do. Be careful! The confusion, the mix up, is in the thought, not the act. Carry on!

(Will Tickel, DC ‑‑ willtickel@yahoo.com ‑‑ is an internationally known speaker on "things natural." He and his wife, Dr. Pam Tickel, are graduates of a chiropractic college that no longer calls itself such. A son, Bill, and his wife, Tammy, are both DCs. Two other sons, James and Geoff, are now rapidly pursuing their right to licensure at Life College of chiropractic. Dr. Tickel, is finishing up a book on healing, entitled, "Stirrin' it Up! A baby boomer's look at life, liberty, and the pursuit of imperfect bliss.")