1895, a Deaf Janitor, and the Idea That Started a Profession
Chiropractic began with a single adjustment and a radical premise about the body. More than a century later, its founding philosophy is still worth reading in full.
On September 18, 1895, in Davenport, Iowa, a man named Daniel David Palmer did something that would eventually put tens of thousands of practitioners on the map. Palmer was a healer and a relentless student of the body, and in his office that day was Harvey Lillard, a janitor who had been profoundly hard of hearing for years. Lillard told Palmer that his hearing had faded around the same time he’d felt something give in his back. Palmer examined his spine, found a vertebra that seemed out of place, and delivered a specific, deliberate thrust to move it. By the account that founded a profession, Lillard’s hearing improved.
Palmer didn’t believe he’d found a trick for deafness. He believed he’d glimpsed something larger: that the body’s structure and its function were linked, that the spine and the nervous system it protected were central to how a person worked, and that restoring proper motion to the spine could help the body express its own health. He named the new practice chiropractic, from the Greek cheir, “hand,” and praxis, “done.” Done by hand. His son, B.J. Palmer, would spend his life developing it into a discipline and a school.
Done by hand. The name itself is a thesis: that a great deal can be accomplished with trained hands and a clear understanding of the spine.
The philosophy, written down
In 1927, a chiropractor named R.W. Stephenson set the young profession’s philosophy into a numbered creed, The 33 Principles of Chiropractic. They are vitalistic, unapologetically so. They begin not with bones but with the premise that intelligence runs through all of life, and they build from there toward the body, the nervous system, and health. You do not have to adopt them whole to find them worth reading. They are the philosophical spine of the profession, and they still shape how many chiropractors think. Here they are, as Stephenson numbered them.
1. The Major Premise — A Universal Intelligence is in all matter and continually gives to it all its properties and actions, thus maintaining it in existence.
2. The Chiropractic Meaning of Life — The expression of this intelligence through matter is the Chiropractic meaning of life.
3. The Union of Intelligence and Matter — Life is necessarily the union of intelligence and matter.
4. The Triune of Life — Life is a trinity having three necessary united factors: intelligence, force, and matter.
5. The Perfection of the Triune — In order to have 100% life, there must be 100% intelligence, 100% force, and 100% matter.
6. The Principle of Time — There is no process that does not require time.
7. The Amount of Intelligence in Matter — The amount of intelligence for any given amount of matter is 100%, and is always proportional to its requirements.
8. The Function of Intelligence — The function of intelligence is to create force.
9. The Amount of Force Created by Intelligence — The amount of force created by intelligence is always 100%.
10. The Function of Force — The function of force is to unite intelligence and matter.
11. The Character of Universal Forces — The forces of Universal Intelligence are manifested by physical laws; they are unswerving and unadapted, and have no solicitude for the structures in which they work.
12. Interference with Transmission of Universal Forces — There can be interference with transmission of universal forces.
13. The Function of Matter — The function of matter is to express force.
14. Universal Life — Force is manifested by motion in matter; all matter has motion, therefore there is universal life in all matter.
15. No Motion without the Effort of Force — Matter can have no motion without the application of force by intelligence.
16. Intelligence in Both Organic and Inorganic Matter — Universal Intelligence gives force to both organic and inorganic matter.
17. Cause and Effect — Every effect has a cause and every cause has effects.
18. Evidence of Life — The signs of life are evidence of the intelligence of life.
19. Organic Matter — The material of the body of a living thing is organized matter.
20. Innate Intelligence — A living thing has an inborn intelligence within its body, called Innate Intelligence.
21. The Mission of Innate Intelligence — The mission of Innate Intelligence is to maintain the material of the body of a living thing in active organization.
22. The Amount of Innate Intelligence — There is 100% of Innate Intelligence in every living thing, the requisite amount, proportional to its organization.
23. The Function of Innate Intelligence — The function of Innate Intelligence is to adapt universal forces and matter for use in the body, so that all parts of the body will have coordinated action for mutual benefit.
24. The Limits of Adaptation — Innate Intelligence adapts forces and matter for the body as long as it can do so without breaking a universal law, or Innate Intelligence is limited by the limitations of matter.
25. The Character of Innate Forces — The forces of Innate Intelligence never injure or destroy the structures in which they work.
26. Comparison of Universal and Innate Forces — In order to carry on the universal cycle of life, universal forces are destructive, and Innate forces constructive, as regards structural matter.
27. The Normality of Innate Intelligence — Innate Intelligence is always normal and its function is always normal.
28. The Conductors of Innate Forces — The forces of Innate Intelligence operate through or over the nerve system in animal bodies.
29. Interference with Transmission of Innate Forces — There can be interference with the transmission of Innate forces.
30. The Causes of Dis-ease — Interference with the transmission of Innate forces causes incoordination or dis-ease.
31. Subluxations — Interference with transmission in the body is always directly or indirectly due to subluxations in the spinal column.
32. The Principle of Coordination — Coordination is the principle of harmonious action of all the parts of an organism in fulfilling their offices and purposes.
33. The Law of Demand and Supply — The Law of Demand and Supply is existent in the body in its ideal state; wherein the brain is the clearing house, Innate the banker, brain cells the clerks, and nerve cells the messengers.
Reading them today
Modern chiropractic spans a wide spectrum. Some practitioners hold these principles close to the center of their work; others focus almost entirely on the mechanical and the musculoskeletal, treating the philosophy as heritage rather than doctrine. Both are at home in the profession. What the 33 Principles preserve is the founding conviction: that the living body carries its own organizing intelligence, that the nervous system is how that intelligence reaches the body, and that the structure protecting it is worth tending with care.
More than a century after a single adjustment in Davenport, that conviction still brings people to the table. The philosophy is optional. The respect for the body underneath it is not.
A Chiro+ feature is a member-written article reviewed against published editorial criteria before publication. Verified means license checked, standing confirmed, feature published, membership active.