Chiropractic "medicine" is controversial still after all these years for a reason. It isn't science. It isn't even bad science. I have always suspected it had more to do with manipulating one's wallet than manipulating one's spine, and most serious scientists, doctors, scholars and legal professionals will agree with me. Yet it persists like chronic pain, bilking pain sufferers now for 100 years.
Since we recently had an election where candidates who deny evolution, climate change and even the legitimacy of social security not only were on the ballot but WON is an indication of how gullible a good percent of our population is...and since several bloated "entertainers" on the radio continue to line their pockets while spewing nonsense as news, things will only continue to get worse. Let's face it...the windbags (one with a crazy brush cut and chalkboard, the other an obese joke who avoided jail after doctor shopping for his Oxycontin addiction) have a hold of hundreds of radio stations, just like so many quacks of the past. And just like the earier generation of quacks, they blanket huge swatches of the country like a blizzard of bile and bilk.
In fact, the quack who invented Chiropractic "science" was a quack with a radio station. Like Dr. Brinkley, who planted goat gonads into people to cure their libidos, D. D. Palmer and his nutty son "B.J." factored in a radio station to broadcast their crazy ideas. BJ's station was WOC (by strange coincidence the station Ronald Reagan would later lie the sports news on) which stood for Wonders Of Chiropractic. Guess who fills the time slots on WOC now? I don't have to tell you.
D.D invented chiropractic after failing to get rich off his first "scientific" discovery, magnetic healing. Now THAT is a strong foundation for your research.
Anyway, the point of this story is Crazy B.J. Palmer and his "Little Bit of Heaven" shown above. Can the story get any stranger? Well, BJ (who once ran over his father with a car contributing to his death...can you hear the bones cracking?) fancied himself an art aficionado. In fact he had an enormous collection put together on the fortune built from bone tugging...including a gigantic collection of phallic symbols, totem poles and salon nudes. Maybe B.J should have invented a cure for impotence instead of stretching limbs. Lil' Bit O Heaven was built to show off the tons of useless bric-a-brac he lugged home from his world travels. Among the live alligators and fertility objects on display, he added trite platitudes to the good, honest and healthy life he advocated along with his insane ideas of medical care.
I swear...what a country.
To learn more about B.J Palmer's Grotto of Greed see the sources highlighted.
Little Bit O Heaven real photo postcard circa 1920 Collection Jim Linderman
NOTE: I've been getting lots of mail from Chiropractic practitioners (not surprising since "marketing" is one of most intensive classes in the school of chiropractic stuff, another fact, look it up) I refer ANYONE who is either interested in, or disputes ANY PART of my essay above to consult the reasoned and detailed Wikipedia article on same...which is not only well-researched...to be fair upon reading I find I could have actually been far, far harder on both the "profession" AND those who pay for the services. At least I didn't refer to it as an "unscientific cult" as others have, but I would clearly been on solid ground if I had! If it helps anyone, fine, great...but as you can see in the article and the references cited...I'm far from alone. In fact, I seem to have been more than generous. Keep those cards and letters coming anyway!
In fact he had an enormous collection put together on the fortune built from bone tugging...including a gigantic Chiropractic medicine collection of phallic symbols, totem poles and salon nudes.
ReplyDeletewell... you have a lot of your facts wrong. dd was long gone by the time bj did his radio station. the reason reagan "coincidently" worked there was because it had one of the most powerful signals. I went to chiropractic school and marketing was not a class. just because you don't slant the facts as much as you could have, doesn't make them true. Entertaining none the less. I was looking for some pictures. Do you have any more you can post?
ReplyDeleteSorry Doctor Rick, that's the only one I own. Thanks for writing in!
ReplyDeleteWow, I guess the thousands of patients who have benefitted from chiropractic were just imagining it. I am currently a student at a chiropractic college and I can say that not only is marketing not even offered in any regard, business is the last thing you learn and you learn hardly anything about it other than how to accept insurance. In fact the program is rooted in medical science and the course's are so rigorous that in being compared to the classes taken at medical schools our's come out as equal or greater in difficulty. Medical doctors don't like chiropractic because someone can spend 80 bucks and have their problem fixed or spend thousands on an invasive medical procedure that will leave them in about 100 different kinds of pain. Furthermore modern medicine is all about throwing pills at patients instead of trying literally anything to fix the problem first. Over prescription of oxycotin nearly killed my cousin and did destroy his life, and his is just one of thousands of stories. Finally, modern chiropractic has almost nothing in common with what the original palmer ' s were practicing, in fact they would hate what the practice has turned into because it is so deeply rooted in medical science.
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