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 physical disorder, mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the vertebral column, spine. It is based on sever ...

, osteopath and

naturopath Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a form of alternative medicine. A wide array of practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", or promoting "self-healing" are employed by its practitioners, who are known as naturopaths. Difficult ...

who founded polarity therapy, a technique of

alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...

. He had an interest in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

s, and encountered

Ayurvedic Ayurveda (; ) is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practised throughout India and Nepal, where as much as 80% of the population report using ayurveda. The theory and practice of ayur ...

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 patients and effect positive results. The field is defined by shared beliefs and practices relating to m ...

, including Ayurveda,

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...

, 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 is based on several pseudoscientific ideas. Many c ...

. Dissatisfied with Western approaches, he also traveled and studied 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 worked for about ten years in a clinic in India. Stone was initiated into the

Radha Soami Satsang Beas Radha Soami Satsang Beas is a spiritual organisation in Radha Soami movement. It is headed by Gurinder Singh and Jasdeep Singh Gill. The main centre of Radha Soami Satsang Beas is located on the banks of the Beas River in the northern Indian ...

tradition under

Baba Sawan Singh Sawan Singh (27 July 1858 - 2 April 1948), also known as The Great Master or Bade Maharaj ji, was an Indian Saint or ''Sant''. He was the second spiritual head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) from the death of Jaimal Singh in 1903 until ...

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 Ignorance, ignorant medicine, medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or public ...

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'' difficult to read 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. There are many polarity associations around the world.

Polarity therapy

Stone invented "polarity therapy". It is a type of

based on the idea that the positive or negative charge of a person's electromagnetic field affects their health. Although Stone promotes it as effective for curing many human ailments, including cancer, the American Cancer Society says "available scientific evidence does not support claims that polarity therapy is effective in treating cancer or any other disease".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steiner, Rudolf 1890 births 1981 deaths 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century Austrian philosophers American chiropractors American osteopaths Austrian spiritual writers People from Austria-Hungary Austrian Theosophists Naturopaths