Randolph Stone (February 26, 1890 – December 9, 1981) was an Austrian-American

chiropractor Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the spine. It has esoteric origins and is based on several pseudoscie ...

, osteopath and naturopath who founded polarity therapy, a technique of

alternative medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

. He had an interest in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

s, and encountered

Ayurvedic Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population rep ...

philosophy on a trip to India. His background in chiropractic was shaped by his studies of various Eastern concepts of

energy medicine Energy medicine is a branch of alternative medicine based on a pseudo-scientific belief that healers can channel "healing energy" into a patient and effect positive results. Practitioners use a number of names including various synonyms for ...

, including Ayurveda,

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

, yoga, and

reflexology Reflexology, also known as zone therapy, is an alternative medical practice involving the application of pressure to specific points on the feet, ears, and hands. This is done using thumb, finger, and hand massage techniques without the use of ...

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. During that period he began studying several different practices and became qualified in

chiropractic Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the spine. It has esoteric origins and is based on several pseudosci ...

. Dissatisfied with Western approaches, he also began traveling and studying non-Western medical practices. He first published his concepts of polarity therapy in 1947 in a book entitled ''Energy'', and then published a series of books and pamphlets to explain his ideas and methods. He had concluded that an observable (yet undetectable to mainstream scientific methods) 'electromagnetic polarity' was a reflection of health. He held the opinion that this energy was influenced by touch, diet, movement, sound, attitude, relationships and by environmental factors. He had a successful private practice in Chicago and he also worked for about 10 years in a clinic in India. Stone was initiated into the

Radha Soami Satsang Beas Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) is a spiritual organization in Radha Soami movement. It is headed by Gurinder Singh. The main centre of RSSB is located on the banks of the Beas River in the northern Indian state of Punjab. Establishment of t ...

tradition under Baba 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. He died there in 1981. Stone's ideas have been dismissed by medical health experts as

quackery Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, ...

or untestable. They have also been criticized as a discredited form of

vitalism Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...

. 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. His ideas are thus interpreted widely, and polarity therapists vary in their approaches. His ideas were later popularized by Pierre Pannetier, a naturopath who had studied under Stone.Liebowitz, Richard; Smith, Linda (eds.) (2006).''The Duke Encyclopedia of New Medicine'', p. 565.

Rodale Books The Crown Publishing Group is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House that publishes across several fiction and non-fiction categories. Originally founded in 1933 as a remaindered books wholesaler called Outlet Book Company, the firm expanded int ...

. . There are many polarity associations around the world.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steiner, Rudolf 1890 births 1981 deaths 19th-century philosophers 20th-century Austrian philosophers American chiropractors American osteopaths Austrian spiritual writers Austro-Hungarian people Austrian Theosophists Naturopaths