Confessions of a Quackbuster

This blog deals with healthcare consumer protection, and is therefore about quackery, healthfraud, chiropractic, and other forms of so-Called "Alternative" Medicine (sCAM).

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Innate intelligence: its origins and problems

Innate intelligence: its origins and problems

Lon Morgan, DC, DABCO

Animal Magnetism and Radionics were among several occult practices used during the 19th century for the treatment of disease. D.D. Palmer was exposed to these teachings and derived many of his ideas about health from the folk medicine practices of his time.

As a "magnetic healer" Palmer believed he was correcting an undefined fifth force in the body that is otherwise unknown to science. Palmer believed he could influence this fifth force, termed Innate Intelligence, and that it was the explanation for the presence or absence of health.

Today, Innate Intelligence remains an untestable enigma that isolates chiropractic and impedes its acceptance as a legitimate health science. The concept of Innate is derived directly from the occult practices of another era. It carries a high penalty in divisiveness and lack of logical coherence.

The chiropractic profession must decide whether the concept of Innate should be retained.
(JCCA 1998; 42(1):35-41)

KEY WORDS: chiropractic, manipulation, innate.

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Lon Morgan, DC, is a reform chiropractor. In spite of the historical opposition to vaccination by chiropractic and chiropractors, Lon Morgan has one of the best anti-vaccination debunking sites around:

Issues in Immunization - Lon Morgan, DC