Chiropractic Heuristics:

A Study of the Immaterial

Andrew S. Bonci, BA, DC

MSCA D-II February 2012 Seminar
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2 Hours CE
Ars longa, vita brevis,
occasio praeceps,
experimentum periculosum,
iudicium difficile.
Hippocrates
460-377BC

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 Disclosures
I stand before you with NO
conflicts of interest.
I make my living the way
you do, by lightening the
burden of human suffering
with chiropractic.

o nci
I have nothing to sell to
. B
n d rew S or
Dr. A iropract
you, so relax and enjoy
Ch
yourself and your time with
your peers.

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 Dedication
Socrates (Σωκράτης)
(470 – 399 BC)
Founder of Western Philosophy

The Socratic method searches for

general, commonly held truths that
shape opinion, and scrutinizes
them to determine their consistency
with other beliefs.

He was found guilty of both

corrupting the minds of the youth of
Athens and of impiety ("not
believing in the gods of the state"),
and subsequently sentenced to
death by drinking a mixture
containing poison hemlock. www.drbonci.com
Seminar Objectives

We will explore the basis of

chiropractic heuristic methods which
can be found in Stephenson's
Chiropractic Text Book.
We will discuss the limitations of the
Educated Mind as a heuristic tool.
We will remember that philosophy is
something you “do” as opposed to
something you “have.”
This will lay the foundation for our 4
hour discussion on basic
neuroimmune mechanisms of the
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subluxation complex.
 James Firth, DC, PhC

"You do not know enough

the moment you believe
your education is over.
James Firth, DC Chiropractic Symptomatology. 1914

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 Disce
Aut
Discede

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 Heuristics
Heuristic refers to
experience-based
techniques for problem
solving, learning, and
discovery.
Heuristics are strategies
using readily accessible,
though loosely applicable,
information to control
problem solving in human
beings and machines.
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 Father William of Ockham
“Pluralitas non est ponenda sine
necessitate.” Plurality is not to be posited without necessity.

For Ockham, the only truly

necessary entity is God.
This was his Major Premise!
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 The Challenge
Patient has acid
stomach.
Patient takes Pepcid
(famotidine).
After adjusting T6 he no
longer needs Pepcid.
It would be nice if you
could explain that one.
If it's true that these “work,”
 then it should follow that ...
… there is some … a review of the
overlapping pharmacological
mechanism of action mechanisms of action
that can be identified. of Pepcid can help in
our understanding of
chiropractic.

… deductive reasoning can serve as our

methodology in this pursuit.
Nobody's selling
out to the
Pharmocracy.
 Article 12: DEDUCTION

Deductive
reasoning is
exactly suited to
Chiropractic.
Stephenson RW. Chiropractic Text Book. Freshman Text. 1927.
 THE THREE PHASES OF
Art. 19:

CHIROPRACTIC STUDY

1. Study of the Immaterial.

2. Study of the Material.
3. Study of Art.
Stephenson RW. Chiropractic Text Book. Freshman Text. 1927.

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 Study of the Immaterial
The study of the Immaterial
is the study of philosophy;
that is to say, the study of
intelligence, laws, causes,
effects, rules, theories,
functions and other
abstractions.
It is to gain a knowledge of
the group of principles
underlying the science.
Stephenson RW. Chiropractic Text Book. Freshman Text. 1927.

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Video
www.drbonci.com Dr. Jason J. Campbell
http://jasonjcampbell.org/
 The Process
We are interested,
therefore, in a process.
Up-Side-Down
This process is a way of
thinking; a way of
seeing; a way of
interpreting and
understanding the
world around us.

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 A fool's brain digests
Philosophy into folly,
Science into
superstition, and
Art into pedantry.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

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 If we are clear from the beginning …
If we are conscious from the beginning …
If we are precise from the beginning ...

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 Then,
we will not lose our way.

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Francis Bowen (1811-1890)

“Man is not an
organism,
he is an
intelligence
served by
organs.”

See Sinnott's Textbook of Chiropractic Philosophy Vol 1.

2009; page 127.
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Art. 318. INNATE MIND
Innate Mind is the
activity of Innate
Intelligence in the innate
brain as an organ.
The product of this
activity is Innate
thoughts or mental
force.

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 Art. 319: Educated Mind
Educated mind is the
activity of Innate
Intelligence in the educated
brain as an organ.
The product of this activity
is educated thoughts;
such as, reasoning, will,
memory, etc.
Stephenson RW. Chiropractic Text Book. Senior Text. 1927.

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 Te
Nosce
Ipsum
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Patanjali and the Educated Mind
Manas
● sensory, processing mind

Chiropractic needs a Chitta

● storage of impressions

Phenomenology
Ahamkara
"I-maker"
or a study of consciousness/conscious
● or Ego
experience

Buddhi
● knows, decides, judges, and
discriminates
BKS Iyengar

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http://www.amazon.com/Light-Life-Journey-Wholeness-Ultimate/dp/1594862486
 Mind YOUR Mind
● Innate Mind
● Subjective
● Context Oriented
● Synoptic
● Spirit/Soul
● Educated Mind
● Objective
● Content Oriented
● Analytic
● Ego www.drbonci.com
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 Caveat
ChiropracTOR

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 Educated Mind
Objectifies everything.
Preoccupied with effects.
Cannot comprehend cause.
Maintains division.
Fractures reality into arbitrary
subdivisions.
Involves endless iterations.
Moves across every imaginable scale.
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Joseph Campbell
This thing up here, this
consciousness [educated
mind], thinks it's running the
shop. It's a secondary
organ.
It's a secondary organ of a
total human being, and it
must not put itself in control. It
must submit and serve the
humanity of the body.
The Power of Myth (1988)
Innate Intelligence =
Consciousness
The main obstacle
to man's
development, then,
is his lack of
knowledge about
the nature of
consciousness
itself.
David R. Hawkins. Power vs. Force (p. 28). Kindle Edition.

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Dr. Bonci, Please!

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http://www.chiropracticthatrocks.com/category/posters
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Life consists of actions
guided by intelligence.
DD Palmer

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Chiropractic Deals with Biology
Biology and chiropractic
include vital phenomena
in contradistinction to
[the] physical … ; those
functions, energies and
acts that depend upon
life, [… are in ...] contrast
to those which exist
without intelligence.
Palmer, D.D. ((1914)). The Chiropractor (p. 15). Lord Majesty
Productions, a division of The Harper. Kindle Edition.

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Biology Deals Indirectly with Life
BIOLOGY is that branch of
discussion of phenomena
which deals with the
action of life, through and
upon matter, causing
animation.
Biology has been [falsely]
conceived to be a
discussion of life, or of
living things.
From Chapter 9 of Psycho-Bio-Physiology by Willard Carver, LLB, DC;
1920.
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The Force of Life
All things indigenous to
the earth, are in
themselves inanimate,
and only take on the
conduct of animation
when they are impelled
in a specific way by the
force of life.
From Chapter 9 of Psycho-Bio-Physiology by Willard Carver, LLB,
DC; 1920.

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Biology is NOT the Study of Life
Biology is, therefore,
not a discussion of
life, per se, but is a
discussion of the
formation, and
maintenance of
structures ordinarily,
although erroneously
considered to be
alive.
From Chapter 9 of Psycho-Bio-Physiology by Willard
Carver, LLB, DC; 1920.

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 Dr. David R. Hawkins
Man's dilemma –
now and always
– has been that
he misidentifies
his own
intellectual
artifacts as
reality.
Article 122: THE CAUSES OF DIS-EASE
The cause of Dis-ease
is interference with
The subluxation is the
transmission of mental
impulses.
physical representation
The subluxation is the
of the Cause.
physical representation
of the Cause.
Stephenson RW. Chiropractic Text Book. Sophmore Text.
1927.
 HOW THE CAUSE,
Article 123:

CAUSES DIS-EASE
Interference with
transmission causes Dis-
ease by preventing Innate
from producing adaptation
in the tissue cell; hence it
becomes unsound and
not at ease.
Stephenson RW. Chiropractic Text Book. Sophmore Text. 1927.
Fritjof Capra
The main error of the
biomedical approach is
the confusion between
disease process and
disease origins.
Fritjof Capra (1982)

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Fritjof Capra
Instead of asking why an
illness occurs, and try to
remove the conditions
that lead to it, medical
researchers try to
understand the biological
mechanisms through
which the disease
operates, so that they can
then interfere with them.
Fritjof Capra (1982)

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Marcus Tullius Cicero
106-43BC

Meliora sunt ea quae

natura quam illa quae arte
perfecta sunt.
De Natura Deorum (45BC)
Marcus Tullius Cicero
106-43BC

Things perfected by nature

are better than those
finished by art.
De Natura Deorum (45BC)
 Bio-Medicine Chiropractic
intends on the intends on the
production of removal of
Interference to Interference to
promote health. promote health.

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 Chiropractic philosophy is the
knowledge of the phenomena
of life, as explained by the
understanding of the principles,
of the science and art.
Palmer, D.D.; Palmer, Daniel David 1914 The Chiropractor (p. 2).

Ars Chiropracticae
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 And the LORD God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of
it: for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.
God see Genesis 2:16-17 KJV

Ars Medicae
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Do not eat of the
TECHNOLOGY

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 An Interesting Difference

Interference is the Interference is the

Cause of Dis-ease. Cure for disease.

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 Dr. Fred Barge
In other words, the molecular
changes that accompany a
disease are not the cause of
the disease, but the result.
The molecular changes are
simply manifesting the
disease – even at the very
earliest stages of the disease
process.
From: Life Without Fear. (2001)

Dr. Fred Barge (1933-2003)

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Dr. Bonci, Please!

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Ipse Dixit

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 Awareness of Illusion

There is a powerful
temptation to see
biological mechanisms
in a sequential, linear
fashion when, in fact,
they are nonlinear,
parallel, and emergent
in nature.

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Amit Goswami
The current worldview has
it that everything is made
of matter, and everything
can be reduced to the
elementary particles of
matter ... [a]nd cause
arises from the
interactions of these
basic building blocks.
"Scientific Proof of the Existence of God : An interview with Amit
Goswami" by Craig Hamilton in What Is Elightenment? magazine
(Spring-Summer 1997)

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Outside-In, Below-Up
This is what we call
'upward causation.'
So in this view, what
human beings — you and
I think of as our free will –-
does not really exist.”
"Scientific Proof of the Existence of God : An interview with Amit
Goswami" by Craig Hamilton in What Is Elightenment? magazine
(Spring-Summer 1997)

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Emergence: Upward Causation
Consciousness
Intelligence
Organism

Organ Systems

Organs

Tissues

Cells

Organelles

Molecules

Atoms

Subatomic Particles
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Intelligence is Behind It All
“Now, the opposite view
is that everything starts
with consciousness.
That is, consciousness
is the ground of all
being.”
"Scientific Proof of the Existence of God : An interview with Amit
Goswami" by Craig Hamilton in What Is Elightenment? magazine
(Spring-Summer 1997)

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Video
 Biological Emergence

“Emergence is a potentiality becoming

an actuality when local conditions are
favorable and facilitated.”
~ David R. Hawkins ~ www.drbonci.com
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Above-Down, Inside-Out
“In this view,
consciousness imposes
"downward
causation." In other
words, our free will is
real. When we act in the
world we really are
acting with causal
power.”
"Scientific Proof of the Existence of God : An interview with Amit
Goswami" by Craig Hamilton in What Is Elightenment? magazine
(Spring-Summer 1997)

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Emergence: Downward Causation
Organism

Organ Systems

Organs

Tissues Consciousness
Cells Intelligence
Organelles

Molecules

Atoms

Subatomic
Particles

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 Old Dad Chiro
The All-Wise Creative
Intelligence is as
expressed.
The Creator is
unfolding creation,
developing it toward
perfection.
The Chiropractors' Adjustor, 1910.

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Music Video
Esse est percipi

In the West the flower symbolizes Love.

In the East it symbolizes the unfolding of conscious awareness.
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