Origami and Chiropractic
Origami intrigues me.
One night a few months back, I happened to watch on Netflix a PBS documentary, Between the Folds.
While debates ebb and flow on issues of folding technique, symbolism and purpose, this unique film shows how closely art and science are intertwined. The medium of paper folding—a simple blank, uncut square—emerges as a resounding metaphor for the creative potential for transformation in all of us.
What appealed to me the most about this movie was realizing the interesting similarity between origami and chiropractic.
Painting is the fine art of addition-- the application of oils or acrylics onto a canvas. Medical drug therapy is also about adding: ingesting something from the outside, hoping that the effects of the merging of the drug with the body leads to something good.
Sculpting marble or carving wood is the fine art of subtraction-- the careful removal of unwanted pieces. Medical surgery is also about subtracting: cutting out something that is damaged and pathological, hoping that the removal of the undesirable part leads to something good.
The art of paper folding simply transforms what is there without adding or subtracting. The parameters of the spine, like the single square piece of origami paper, are set and constant. The chiropractor, like the origami artist, can only create through controlled application of force and pressure. Nothing is affixed. Nothing is combined or connected. Neither is anything purged. No cuts. No rips.
And yet, despite the absence of the art of addition and subtraction, both chiropractic and origami when done correctly with wisdom and dexterity, yield incredible, amazing results.
An elegant paper crane emerges.
An optimal nervous system allows the flow of innate intelligence.
Art, science, and philosophy manifested.
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