A Vision for Tomorrow
By Guy Riekeman, D.C., President, Life University
Today I received word of Life’s reaffirmation of accreditation with the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). A minor point for the average
practicing DC, but for Life University it was a monumental decision. Monumental
first in that SACS accreditation is critical to the University receiving Title
IV student loan funds, and assuring the outside world of the quality of our
education—this translates to survival and long-term stability. Second,
it is the culmination of nine months of critical events, each of which had to
fall into place perfectly to insure overall success (see article on page 20).
And finally, it positions us at the starting line for building the new Life
University. Already enrollment is up, new research is in the planning stages,
and an innovative curriculum design is being explored. In the months and years
ahead you will see Life University become a leader in world-class health care,
education and research.
When I joined Life on March 5, 2004, most people felt working toward a future
was a futile effort. Based on its recent history the PROBABILITIES of the university
recovering were next to zero. But drawing from Einstein’s world, which
interjects the idea of a universe of POSSIBILITIES that defy linear probabilities;
the future does not have to be a predictable extension of the past, as there
is potential for unique, unexpected and often unexplained phenomena, to occur
to create a future not predicated on the past. We have experienced these phenomena
during the past year.
In consideration of this most exciting day for Life and chiropractic I want
to share Bill O’Brien’s, Ph.D., one of our new Board members, reflections
of Einstein’s theory of possibilities. His words capture perfectly the
essence of this theory as it applies to the future of Life and the profession.
A “Life” of Possibilities
“I am quite convinced that someone will come up with a theory whose objects,
connected by laws, are not probabilities.” Albert Einstein, 1956
Let’s understand the context for Einstein’s comment. By the mid
20th century, two things had happened. First, science had managed to position
itself as the primary source for anything the modern world needed to validate;
mathematical, metaphysical or otherwise. Secondly, the scientific community
had essentially institutionalized itself in the form of a standardized research
methodology based on probabilities science: nice, idealized symmetrical distributions
around central tendencies such as means or averages. The curves told us where
any phenomenon stood in relation to this central tendency.
Accordingly, the mission of the 20th century was to move toward reducing our
deviation to look more and more like the middle of the curve. By the 1950s,
American culture personified this effect. While it produced a seemingly infinite
array of products and services, it simultaneously generated apparently finite
images of people who look and act and think alike. Ideas that were ‘outside
the box’ were mostly ignored by “standard bearers.” These
leaders believed that their probabilities methodology in the context of a nuclear
age had validated their privileged access to the ultimate power of the universe.
What did Einstein and BJ Palmer have in common? Although they understood (more
accurately than others) the contributions of probabilities inquiry, they both
never fell for it; their egos were never seduced by it, and they certainly refused
to be conditioned by it. Instead, they sought the truth by relating to universal
principles. They both understood that science was an inherently spiritual quest.
They dedicated their lives to becoming nature’s biographers. They understood
that the more we could probe the unknown, the closer we could get to understanding
God. Einstein discovered these principles in outer space and applied them to
quantum physics. BJ discovered them in inner space and applied them to the human
experience.
So it is particularly ironic that what the chiropractic profession is debating
these days involves an assumption that BJ dismissed a half-century ago. The
tension within chiropractic rests squarely in our probabilities conditioning.
Numerous chiropractic and health care constituencies are jockeying for the high
ground to determine who gets to describe, predict and control the future behavior
of chiropractors. I don’t believe Einstein or BJ would have prescribed
such a remedy. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that most chiropractors have
neither the desire nor the disposition to condition their future thought processes
pursuant to these results. It has never happened in the past and it isn’t
going to happen in the future.
This is probably why mobilizing chiropractors is a bit like herding cats. And
like cats, most chiropractors are convinced that the profession has nine lives
and will always land on its feet. This may help explain why so many doctors
have relegated themselves to the sidelines regarding the political science of
their profession. The problem of course, is that all-important movements are
dependent upon the existence of a robust constituency. Conversely, constituencies
are dependent upon their organization’s leaders to create viable marketplace
conditions while maintaining the integrity of the movement’s original
intent.
Life University, with its profound sense of purpose and its combination of new
and veteran leaders who are dedicated to continuous improvement, is well positioned
to deliver on that intent. We can mobilize faculty, students and alumni by employing
the ‘possibilities’ process; relating-empowering-freeing. It begins
with relating. We relate by acknowledging that most of our faculty, students
and alumni are primarily on a spiritual quest. They want to experience the intimacy
of a university willing to ask, unconditionally, “How can we help you
to actualize your life’s purpose and express it each day?” Imagine
that; a university that relates universally!
It continues by empowering its students with the academic capability and the
existential disposition to apply those ‘Life’ principles in whatever
occupation they choose to enter and ultimately influence. It continues further
by empowering its future chiropractors with a unifying philosophy, an underlying
art, the rigor of scientific inquiry and the real life application of universal
principles so that they can produce outstanding results in their actual practice.
Finally, once empowered, it is about freeing our faculty and students. Yes,
freeing them to find their own changeable destinies; unconstrained by man’s
law of probabilities and like Einstein himself, committed to discovering God’s
law of possibilities.
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