INTRODUCTION
Throughout history, when confronted with the unknown, human beings have not only relied on tools and theories but often reached for magic. From ancient habits, magical thinking has been a powerful means of making sense of an unpredictable world. This tendency is not merely born of ignorance but reflects a deeply human impulse—to impose meaning, exert control, and locate comfort amidst uncertainty.1
Lilienfeld and colleagues2 state, “Magical thinking refers to the attribution of causal relationships between actions and events where scientific consensus finds none, often grounded in superstition or personal belief.”
In the context of healthcare, where suffering is complex and outcomes can be elusive, such thinking persists. In regards to medical physicians, Klitzman3 states:
"Doctors felt again and again that they wear magic white coats. Illness happens to them over there, not to us. It starts Day 1 when you go to medical school. The first day you are given a cadaver and told to start opening it up. It immediately distances you. Over there is sickness, illness, patients, disease and death. And you are here.
It’s part of the hubris of medicine. It teaches a professional hierarchy over patients and over disease. Some of the doctors in the book said they worked harder when they were ill. One doctor said, ‘If I worked harder and harder and treated more patients and helped more people, then I wouldn’t get sick, and I wouldn’t die.’" (See Figure 1.)
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It appears that the sort of “magical thinking” described above is perhaps strong amongst all varieties of physicians. I know personally, many doctors, of all types—MD, DO and DC—who counsel their own patients against poor lifestyle choices (smoking, over eating, drinking alcohol to excess, etcetera), while at the same time engaging in such practices themselves, perhaps believing that their education and training grants them immunity from the consequences of such behaviors.
DISCUSSION
Among the many healing professions, chiropractic stands out for its distinctive blend of biomechanics, manual therapy, and, in certain traditions, mystical assertions. The profession’s historical narrative is interwoven with concepts such as vitalism, innate intelligence and universal intelligence—frameworks that resonate with notions of unseen forces and “magical” or “mystical” restoration. While much of the profession never ascribed to, or has abandoned vitalistic concepts, a subset of practitioners continues to operate within paradigms that blur the line between science and mysticism.4 This commentary explores the chiropractic profession’s ongoing relationship with mysticism and magical thinking—how it arose, why it persists and what it reveals about the identity and future of chiropractic.
Historical Roots in Vitalism and “Innate Intelligence”
The inception of chiropractic at the close of the 19th Century occurred within a cultural milieu saturated with spiritualism, magnetic healing and religious revivalism. D.D. Palmer, the founder of chiropractic, conceived of health and disease in spiritual as well as mechanical terms. He hypothesized that the human body possessed an inborn, self-regulating force he called “Innate Intelligence”, which flowed through the nervous system and could be obstructed by spinal misalignments also known as “chiropractic subluxations.”5
Palmer’s final view of chiropractic was explicitly mystical (See Figure 2.). In his 1914 memoir published posthumously, he claimed his foundational understanding of disease came through communication with the spirit of a deceased physician:
“The knowledge and philosophy given me by Dr. Jim Atkinson, an intelligent spiritual being . . . appealed to my reason. The method by which I obtained an explanation of certain physical phenomena, from an intelligence in the spiritual world, is known in biblical language as inspiration.”6
Palmer also discussed the triad of laws governing health:
“The human body represents the actions of three laws, spiritual, mechanical and chemical, united as one triune. As long as there is perfect union of these three there is health. This machine, like all others, is run by power, called mental impulses, made in the brain and connected with the body by a system of nerves through which this force passes in currents, inducing the highest exemplification of the intellectual power. Functions are the names given to these actions, and any interference to the passage of these vitalizing currents produces abnormal functions—disease.”5
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Additionally, Palmer proposed that chiropractic adjustments held the power to connect man the physical to man the spiritual:
"Through the five or more senses we take cognizance of and become acquainted with, the physical world, its facts, laws and forces. Through the spiritual, by communication, we may receive intelligence from other spirits in or out of bodies.
This linking together of the spiritual and physical, makes it our duty to so keep the corporeal frame in proper alignment that the spirit may manifest itself in a natural manner. It is not only our inalienable right, but our moral duty, to become acquainted with the osseous and nervous makeup, that we may intelligently adjust any displaced portion of the skeletal frame; so that Innate (that portion of Universal Intelligence usually known as spirit) may manifest itself through, and take in a correct knowledge of, the material world."5
Confirming the relationship of chiropractic to the mystical, nearly a decade after D.D. Palmer passed from this earth, Greggorson would make a passionate explanation of the chiropractic profession’s relationship to unseen forces:
"We chiropractors work with the subtle substance of the soul. We release the prisoned impulse, the tiny rivulet of force, that emanates from the mind and flows over the nerves to the cells and stirs them into life. We deal with the magic power that transforms common food into living, loving, thinking clay; that robes the earth with beauty, and hues and scents the flowers with the glory of the air.
In the dim, dark, distant long ago, when the sun first bowed to the morning star, this power spoke and there was life; it quickened the slime of the sea and the dust of the earth and drove the cell to union with its fellows in the countless living forms. Through eons of time it finned the fish and winged the bird and fanged the beast. Endlessly it worked, evolving its forms until it produced the crowning glory of them all. With tireless energy it blows the bubble of each individual life and then silently, relentlessly dissolves the form, and absorbs the spirit into itself again.
And yet you ask, ‘Can Chiropractic cure appendicitis or the Flu?’
Deep within us somewhere, in every one of us, there is a something that stirs at times and breathes upon the dying embers of our souls and fans them into flame; that touches the stringed instrument called our mind and produces a single note of genius—and then recedes again. It is the divine in us.
It is the power that ever urges us onward and upward along the path that no man sees. It built every home and lit every fire upon every hearth. It glorifies the names of father, mother, husband, wife and friend, and sheds a soft effulgence around the names of those who died that we might live.
It bends in reverent awe over every cradle and bedews the falling clay of every grave. Through all the circling threescore years and ten it drives us over the billowy fields of life and lulls us into our last sleep with the dream of immortality.
Chiropractors call this ‘innate intelligence.’"7
Invocation of supernatural insight positioned chiropractic not merely as manual therapy, but as a kind of inspired revelation. Parallels can be drawn between Palmer’s ideas and other vitalistic systems, such as qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine or prana in Ayurvedic healing. Additionally, allopathic medicine has its own version of innate intelligence known as “vis medicatrix naturae”, or “the healing power of nature” that was first invoked by the father of medicine, Hippocrates.8 Palmer’s late 19th Century vitalistic formulation of the healing power of nature, however, was grounded in a uniquely American ethereal worldview, fusing spiritualism with natural healing.9
Theatrical Healing and the “Magic Hands” of Chiropractors
In the early to mid-20th Century, chiropractic developed a reputation for dramatic, hands-on healing. Patients frequently reported near-instantaneous relief following spinal adjustments—claims that ranged from pain resolution to the alleviation of organic disorders.10 These outcomes, combined with the sensory experience of the adjustment (the tactile engagement, audible cavitation of joints and focused attention), contributed to the perception that chiropractors possessed “magic hands.” (See Figure 3.)
This image was reinforced by the performative aspects of chiropractic care that persist to the present, and one need only do a casual search of Youtube to find modern-day examples of such performances. The adjustment itself often follows ritualistic patterns that are delivered with authority and confidence. The ceremonial rhythm of care—the palpation, the sudden thrust, the satisfying “pop”—could be psychologically powerful, especially when contrasted with the impersonal and pharmaceutical-focused interactions typical of conventional medicine.11
Patients disillusioned with the limits of allopathic medicine gravitated toward chiropractic, drawn by the promise of immediate, non-invasive and intuitive care.12 In this context, chiropractic adjustments sometimes resembled the interventions of shamans or traditional healers deepening the public’s association with magic and miracle healing.
Persistence of Magical Thinking Among Practitioners
Despite major strides toward scientific validation and biomechanical understanding, a segment of the chiropractic profession continues to use metaphysical frameworks. These practitioners may invoke terms such as “life force,” “energy flow”, or “innate intelligence”, maintaining that spinal subluxations are not only biomechanical dysfunctions but disruptions in the body’s self-healing energy system.13 In some practices, one still finds diagrams portraying energy meridians, language referencing innate intelligence and promotional materials promising wellness through spinal adjustments connecting man the physical to man the spiritual.14 These ideas often resonate with patients already inclined toward complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and serve to distinguish chiropractic from conventional care. Yet, they simultaneously invite criticism from within and outside the profession—especially in academic and regulatory circles striving for evidence-based legitimacy.
This observation is made not to openly condemn vitalistic practices, but merely to point out that such attitudes persist and are embraced and perpetuated by some chiropractic academic institutions.4 Innes et al.15 found that, amongst a set of 231 chiropractic students, an average of nearly 25% held magical beliefs regarding the effects of spinal manipulation.
Many chiropractors, including myself, occupy a middle ground between the 2 extremes: grounded in science, respectful of evidence, yet humble in the face of the unknown. Such a practitioner integrates biomechanical knowledge and clinical research with a reverence for the body’s inherent wisdom, knowing that healing unfolds not only through intervention but also through processes beyond our full understanding. This type of chiropractor trusts in the capacity of homeostasis to orchestrate recovery, recognizing that not all variables in healing are quantifiable. Rather than rejecting science or clinging to dogma, they seek a balanced path that honors both measurable outcomes and intangible influences, such as physician behaviors that enhance placebo effect16 and “tincture of time”.
Patient Psychology and the Appeal of the Mysterious
Magical thinking is not only sustained by providers but actively co-created with patients. As Eisenberg et al.12 and others have noted, patients frequently seek not just cures but experiences that feel meaningful and affirming. Healing, after all, is not solely a physiological event—it is also symbolic, emotional and social.
The therapeutic rituals of chiropractic—extended consultations, tactile engagement, empathetic listening and the dramatics of a spinal adjustment—can evoke a profound sense of care and connection. Brown16 highlighted the importance of the provider’s demeanor in healing, finding that warmth, empathy and enthusiasm significantly enhance treatment outcomes via placebo effects. These dynamics are often deeply present in chiropractic encounters and may partially explain the high levels of patient satisfaction, even in cases where clinical outcomes are ambiguous.
Furthermore, the language used by some chiropractors—describing adjustments as “releasing blocked energy”, “restoring balance” or “turning on the power”—can fulfill a psychological need for order and coherence in the face of illness. Such language, while unscientific, can offer comfort and meaning that mechanistic explanations may lack.
Tradition, Tension and the Fight for Identity
The enduring presence of magical thinking in chiropractic reflects a longstanding philosophical divide. On one side are evidence informed chiropractors who reject vitalistic constructs and emphasize manual therapy, neurophysiology and musculoskeletal rehabilitation. On the on other side are those who maintain allegiance to chiropractic’s foundational principles and its identity as a distinct healing philosophy. This schism has been described by Leboeuf-Yde et al.17 as a “family feud” threatening the coherence and future of the profession. (See Figure 4.)
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This internal tension affects not only clinical practice but also educational accreditation, policy advocacy and interprofessional collaboration. Scientific chiropractors may feel frustrated by what they perceive as pseudoscientific outliers tarnishing the profession’s reputation. At the same time, traditionalists argue that distancing the profession from its philosophical roots risks reducing chiropractic to mere physical therapy—a loss of identity and distinctiveness.
The result is a profession often at odds with itself: celebrated by patients, scrutinized by scientists and divided in its own self-conception.
Conclusion
The chiropractic profession’s apparent love of magic and the mystical is neither accidental nor entirely irrational. It is the product of its spiritualistic origins, its patient-centered rituals and the psychological needs it addresses. While many chiropractors have embraced modern scientific frameworks, a persistent minority continues to draw on vitalistic, energetic and spiritual language that blurs the line between healthcare and mysticism.
This legacy presents both opportunities and challenges. On one hand, the theatrical and symbolic aspects of chiropractic care fulfill human desires for connection, mystery and healing beyond the physical. On the other hand, these elements can undermine scientific legitimacy, foster public confusion and complicate professional advancement.
Whether one sees the “magic” in chiropractic as an asset or a liability, it remains a defining thread in the story of the profession. And perhaps, in an age of algorithmic medicine and digital detachment, this human impulse toward the mysterious is not something to be dismissed outright—but understood, studied and ethically integrated into the broader tapestry of healing.
Disclosure
Portions of this manuscript were developed and edited with the assistance of ChatGPT (OpenAI), an AI language model. The tool was used for language refinement, summarization, and organizational suggestions. All historical claims, interpretations, and citations were researched, verified, and authored by the human contributor, who retains full responsibility for the accuracy and scholarly integrity of the work.