Randolph Stone
| Randolph Stone | |
|---|---|
| Born | Rudolph Bautsch February 26, 1890 Engelsberg, Austria-Hungary (now Andelska Hora, Czech Republic) |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. India |
|
Main interests
|
Osteopathy, Chiropractic, Naturopathy, Naprapathy, Energy medicine[1] |
|
Notable ideas
|
Polarity Therapy[2] |
Randolph Stone (February 26, 1890 – December 9, 1981) was the founder of polarity therapy, a complementary technique of holistic, spiritually based energy healing.[3][4] He held doctorates in osteopathy, chiropractic, and naturopathy.[4][5] He had an interest in philosophy and religions, and encountered Ayurvedic philosophy on a trip to India.[3] His background in chiropractic was shaped by his studies of various Eastern concepts of energy medicine, including Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, yoga, and reflexology.[6]
Stone's ideas have been dismissed by medical health experts as quackery or untestable.[7][8][9] They have also been criticized as a discredited form of vitalism.[10]
Life and work
Stone was born Rudolph Bautsch in 1890 in Austria. He immigrated with his family to the United States in 1898 and changed his name to Randolf Stone in the 1920s.[3] During that period he began studying several different practices and became qualified in chiropractic. Dissatisfied with Western approaches, he also began traveling and studying non-Western medical practices.[11] He first published his concepts of polarity therapy in 1947 in a book entitled Energy,[5] and then published a series of books and pamphlets to explain his ideas and methods.[12][13][14] He had concluded that a scientifically undetectable but empirically discernible electromagnetic polarity was a reflection of health.[5][15] He held the opinion that this energy was influenced by touch, diet, movement, sound, attitude, relationships and by environmental factors.[15]
He had a successful private practice in Chicago and he also worked for about 10 years in a clinic in India.[16] Stone was initiated into the Radha Soami tradition under Sawan Singh in 1945 and in 1956 published his Mystical Bible, a Radha Soami interpretation of verses from the Bible. Stone spent the last eight years of his life with his niece Louise Hilger in a house at the Radha Soami center in Beas, India.[3][17] He died there in 1981.
According to Nancy Allison in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Body-mind Disciplines, even advocates of Stone's theory consider his books Health Building and Polarity Therapy to be difficult reading due to their inconsistencies and ambiguities.[18] His ideas are thus interpreted widely, and polarity therapists vary in their approaches.[18] His ideas were later popularized by Pierre Pannetier, a naturopath who had studied under Stone.[19][20] There are many polarity associations around the world.[21]
References
- ↑ Claire Gillman (2016). The Healing Therapies Bible: Godsfield Bibles. London: Godsfield Press. p. 139. ISBN 1841814571. OCLC 936402032. Retrieved 2016-03-20
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- ↑ Barrett, Stephen, Jarvis, William T. (1993). The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America. Prometheus Books. pp. 363-364. ISBN 0-87975-855-4
- ↑ Raso, Jack. (2003). Mystical Diets: Paranormal, Spiritual, and Occult Nutrition Practices. Prometheus Books. p. 266. ISBN 0-87975-761-2
- ↑ Perper, Joshua A; Cina, Stephen J. (2010). When Doctors Kill: Who, Why, and How. Springer. p. 182. ISBN 978-1-4419-1368-5 "Polarity therapy is an untestable methodology developed by Randolph Stone in the late 1940s to early 1950s."
- ↑ Bellamy, Jann. (2015). "Massage Therapy rubs me the wrong way". Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
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- ↑ Liebowitz, Richard; Smith, Linda (eds.) (2006).The Duke Encyclopedia of New Medicine, p. 565. Rodale Books. ISBN 1594864942.
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