From Marin: Dr Harte's Thoughts on Chiropractic's 116th Birthday

Here in my San Anselmo home, as the 116th birthday of Chiropractic concludes, I have some thoughts that I'd like to share with you.

I am from New York, the 3rd to last state to license/legalize Chiropractic, in 1967. Since I began my studies at new York Chiropractic College only 10 years later, most of my older professors were jailbirds... they had been arrested for "practicing Medicine without a license." I thought of this because I just saw some video of Dr. Reaver, THE most jailed chiropractor in history. Check it out on my facebook page.

So what did this mean, in real life? Well, graduating chiropractors in New York State could not get a business loan, since their profession was illegal. Most kept a "jail bag" in their office containing a toothbrush and an extra pair of underwear in case they were arrested.Sometimes the harassment got so bad that to get into a New York chiropractor's office in the 50's and the early 60's was sometimes like getting into a speakeasy in the 20's.

Often, the case would be that the bigger your mouth, the more often you would be arrested. Such was the case of one of my mentors, the man who developed and taught me my core chiropractic technique, Directional Non-Force Technique (DNFT), Dr. Richard Van Rumpt. Ask me about him. Besides a genius, besides full of love and a boundless passion to serve, he was a real character. Anyway, he got arrested many times. Once, he was walking down Lexington Avenue in NYC and someone said "Good morning, Doctor." He nodded his head in acknowledgement, and was handcuffed on the spot and taken away.

Before you Californians get all smug about these goings on in NYS, let me tell you the California story. Chiropractic was legalized here in California in 1922, not by the legislature, but by an initiative from the people. (Big surprise there, huh?) But, before that legalization, California jailed more chiropractors than anywhere else.

What is all this nonsense, chiropractors getting arrested for "practicing medicine without a license," when Chiropractic is, philosophically, the exact opposite of Medicine? Medicine is Outside-in thinking and practice. Chiropractic is Above-down, Inside-out thinking and practice.

When I hear someone say "I don't believe in Chiropractic," I think "What a fool!" Chiropractic is not something to "believe in" like a religion. It is based upon solid scientific principles that the brain and the nervous system runs the body, and that interferences... subluxations... alter that running, resulting in dis-ease. Correct the subluxation, and the body heals itself. On the other hand, it is Medicine that people "believe in" like a religion... no, more like a cult. Don't get mad. Take a breath, and think about this.

Chiropractic is for everyone with a spine and a nervous system. Whether you have a backache or not is immaterial. You want health? You need to be under lifetime wellness chiropractic care.

In future years, I sincerely hope that this obvious truth becomes obvious to the vast majority of people, especially parents, so that kids get started off right in life. I, and other chiropractors like me, look forward to a day when enough people get this Truth for themselves and their children that, as their genetic potentials unfold, so will that of the human species. We may very well end up with a better world. This is the Big Vision of Chiropractic.

What will YOU do to be part of this? You want change? Change yourself, and lead as many as you can to change, from Above-down, Inside-out.

Don Harte, D.C.
Corte Madera Straight Chiropractor
Liberator of Innate