Randolph Stone
{{Short description|Founder of polarity therapy}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region =
|era =
|image =
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|name= Randolph Stone
|birth_name = Rudolph Bautsch
|birth_date = {{birth date|1890|2|26}}
|birth_place = Engelsberg, Austria-Hungary (now Andělská Hora, Czech Republic)
|death_date = {{death date and age|1981|12|9|1890|2|26}}
|death_place = Beas City, Punjab, India
|school_tradition =
|main_interests = Osteopathy, Chiropractic, Naturopathy, Naprapathy, Energy medicineClaire Gillman (2016). The Healing Therapies Bible: Godsfield Bibles. London: Godsfield Press. p. 139. {{ISBN|1841814571}}. OCLC 936402032. Retrieved 2016-03-20
|influences =
|influenced =
|notable_ideas = Polarity Therapy{{cite book|last=Caves|first=Tony|title=Mindessence - The Polarity of Life and Death|date=July 20, 2010|publisher=MasterWorks International|isbn=978-0954445096|page=107}}
}}
Randolph Stone (February 26, 1890 – December 9, 1981) was an Austrian-American chiropractor, osteopath and naturopath who founded polarity therapy, a technique of alternative medicine.{{cite book|last=Cooksey|first=Gloria|title=Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Polarity_therapy.aspx|edition=2nd|date=January 2005|publisher=The Gale Group, Inc.|isbn=0787674249}}{{cite book|last=Novey|first=Donald W.|title=Clinician's Complete Reference to Complementary and Alternative Medicine|date=February 16, 2000|publisher=Mosby: Harcourt Health|isbn=9780070510814|pages=423–434}}{{cite book|last1=Wisneski|first1=Leonard A.|last2=Anderson|first2=Lucy|title=The Scientific Basis of Integrative Medicine|edition=Second|date=June 26, 2009|publisher=CRC Press|location=Boca Raton, Florida|isbn=978-1420082913|page=212}} He had an interest in philosophy and religions, and encountered Ayurvedic philosophy on a trip to India. His background in chiropractic was shaped by his studies of various Eastern concepts of energy medicine, including Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, yoga, and reflexology.{{cite book|last=Beck|first=Mark F.|title=Theory and Practice of Therapeutic Massage|edition=Fifth|date=April 24, 2010|publisher=Cengage Learning|location=Clifton Park, New York|isbn=978-1133010869|page=798}}
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. Dissatisfied with Western approaches, he also traveled and studied non-Western medical practices.{{cite book|last1=Goldstein|first1=Myrna Chandler|last2=Goldstein|first2=Mark Allan|title=Controversies in the Practice of Medicine|url=https://archive.org/details/controversiesinp00myrn|url-access=registration|quote=Stone.|date=June 2001|publisher=Greenwood|isbn=0313311315|page=[https://archive.org/details/controversiesinp00myrn/page/228 228]}} 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.{{Cite web|url=http://www.digitaldrstone.org//|title=The Digital Dr. Stone - The Transcribed Texts of Dr. Randolph Stone|website=www.digitaldrstone.org|access-date=2016-03-09}}{{Cite book|title=Polarity Therapy, The Complete Collected Works, vol. 1|last=Stone|first=Randolph|publisher=CRCS Publications|year=1986}}{{Cite book|title=Health Building|last=Stone|first=Randolph|publisher=Book Publishing Company (1693)|year=1999}} He had concluded that an observable (yet undetectable to mainstream scientific methods) 'electromagnetic polarity' was a reflection of health.{{cite book|last=Endacott|first=Michael|title=The Encyclopedia of Alternative Health & Natural Remedies|year=1996|publisher=Carlton Publishing Group|location=United Kingdom|isbn=1858682177|page=49}} 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.{{Cite book|title=Polarity Therapy, The Complete Collected Works, vol. 2|last=Stone|first=Randolph|publisher=CRCS Publications|year=1987|pages=233–237}} Stone was initiated into the Radha Soami Satsang Beas 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.{{cite book|last=Juergensmeyer|first=Mark|title=Radhasoami Reality: The Logic of a Modern Faith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=slX3eRycszMC&pg=PA218|date=December 31, 1995|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0691010927|pages=203; 218}} He died there in 1981.
Stone's ideas have been dismissed by medical health experts as quackery or untestable.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." They have also been criticized as a discredited form of vitalism.Bellamy, Jann. (2015). [https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/massage-therapy-rubs-me-the-wrong-way/ "Massage Therapy rubs me the wrong way"]. Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved 26 April 2016. 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.{{cite book|last=Allison|first=Nancy|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Body-Mind Disciplines|url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc00alli|url-access=registration|date=March 1999|publisher=Rosen Pub Group|isbn=0823925463|pages=[https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc00alli/page/126 126]–127}} 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.{{cite book|last=Neher|first=Andrew|title=Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LkPSTzhYNTkC&pg=PA250|date=August 30, 2013|publisher=Dover Publications|isbn=978-0486144863|page=250}}Liebowitz, Richard; Smith, Linda (eds.) (2006).The Duke Encyclopedia of New Medicine, p. 565. Rodale Books. {{ISBN|1594864942}}. There are many polarity associations around the world.{{cite web|url=http://www.polaritytherapy.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=120:approved-training-program-list-2013&catid=5:general&Itemid=64|title=Approved Training Program List|work=polaritytherapy.org|publisher=American Polarity Therapy Association|access-date=March 20, 2016}}
Polarity therapy
{{see also|List of unproven and disproven cancer treatments}}
Stone invented "polarity therapy". It is a type of energy medicine 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".{{cite book |publisher=American Cancer Society |title=American Cancer Society Complete Guide to Complementary and Alternative Cancer Therapies |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americancancerso0000unse |chapter-url-access=registration |edition=2nd |year=2009 |isbn=9780944235713 |veditors=Russell J, Rovere A |chapter=Polarity Therapy |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americancancerso0000unse/page/235 235–37]}}
References
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Category:20th-century American philosophers
Category:20th-century Austrian philosophers
Category:American chiropractors
Category:Austrian spiritual writers
Category:People from Austria-Hungary