How Spiritualism Shaped Early Chiropractic Healing

A visit to the chiropractor is nothing unusual in modern society. It’s a common part of the performance toolkit for athletes (and even kangaroos); a way to wring out the aches and pains of deskbound workers; and the stuff of viral videos showcasing the audible effects of spinal adjustments.

But chiropractic has historic origins that belie its modern reputation. The discipline begins with Daniel David Palmer, a charismatic figure and late-19th-century Canadian émigré to the United States. Interested in then-popular practices like magnetic healing, Palmer claimed to have discovered chiropractic in 1895 after performing a spinal manipulation on a man named Harvey Lillard, which he said restored Lillard’s hearing.

Palmer developed a therapeutic discipline based on physical realignment, claiming that “95 percent of diseases are caused by displaced vertebrae; the remainder by luxations of other joints.”

In forming and promoting his new method, Palmer emphasized practical, hands-on knowledge of the human body, placing practical experience over formal training, specialized equipment or academic authority.

“For chiropractors, the locus of scientific teaching and research rested not in the laboratory but at the bedside and in the museum,” explains author Steven C. Martin. This was in line with a broader 19th-century trend in which popular voices pushed to democratize knowledge and science, and place authority in the hands of the individual.

Chiropractic relied heavily on another 19th-century craze: spiritualism.

For a number of reasons, Americans were receptive to the possibility that people could contact spirits in a world beyond. The deadly aftermath of the Civil War made the idea of speaking to departed loved ones attractive. And evolving technology harnessed previously unimaginable, unseen forces like electricity or telegraph messages; why not spirits?

Religious revivalism and budding spiritualist mediums emphasized the ways in which the spirit might move someone. “This development transpired in an era when otherworldly and nonscientific answers were captivating the masses," says magic historian Gabe Fajuri. "Science could not explain oh-so-many things. Not the least of which was what happens when you die or how to speak to the dearly departed.”

When Palmer created chiropractic, many people were ready to hold science and metaphysics in the same hand through spiritual harmony. This is not as strange as it may seem to us today.

“Modern observers often think of spiritualism as sitting squarely in the realm of irrational superstition," says Yale historian Murphy Temple. "To the contemporary [19th-century] practitioner, however, spiritualism and related practices (which we might today call 'pseudoscience') were as much about science as they were about faith and the metaphysical.”

Despite the fact that Palmer’s discipline held a lot in common with osteopathic and “bone-setting,” practices that had been spreading in America, he went to pains to demonstrate its alleged extraordinary origins as a resurrected ancient therapy—and to position himself as a visionary leader.

Palmer claimed he had received inspiration and instruction from the “other world,” specifically a deceased doctor named Jim Atkinson who channeled information to him. In Palmer’s chiropractic textbook, he proclaimed that “Dr. Atkinson has frequently informed me that the replacing of displaced vertebrae for the relief of human ills had been known and practiced by the ancient Egyptians for at least 3,000 years.”

Referring to himself with nicknames like “Old Dad Chiro,” Palmer believed he would be remembered for generations as a storied founder. He saw himself as a religious patriarch, writing, “I occupy in chiropractic a similar position as did Mrs. Eddy in Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy claimed to receive her ideas from the other world and so do I. She founded thereon a religion, so may I...Ye, Old Dad always has something new to give to his followers.”

Palmer was a prolific writer and active participant in chiropractic education as it became more widespread in the United States. He established what is now known as the Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1897, a school that was later led and expanded by his son B.J. Palmer in the early 1900s.

It was not a smooth road for chiropractic medicine into the 20th century. The discipline struggled to place itself within culture and science; many states considered chiropractic and osteopathy to be the same thing, and wanted chiropractors to register and pay license fees as medical practitioners.

In 1906, Palmer was arrested for practicing without a license in Iowa. He served 23 days in jail before agreeing to pay a fine. During a two-day trial in 1907, a student of Palmer's in Wisconsin successfully argued that osteopathy and chiropractic were distinct practices. This opened the door for chiropractors to practice legally and eventually develop separate licensing systems.

While chiropractic’s early history was steeped in the metaphysical and alternative currents of the late 19th century, the field today encompasses a wide range of evidence-based practices and continues to evolve within modern healthcare.

“As one of the most widely utilized forms of alternative medicine,” writes Candy Gunther Brown, “chiropractic enjoys dual cultural citizenship,” offering the structure and status of modern science but appealing particularly to Christian communities and wellness culture enthusiasts through its usage of drug-free remedies.