Randolph Stone | |
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| Born | Rudolph Bautsch (1890-02-26)February 26, 1890 |
| Died | December 9, 1981(1981-12-09) (aged 91) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Main interests | Osteopathy,Chiropractic,Naturopathy,Naprapathy,Energy medicine[1] |
| Notable ideas | Polarity Therapy[2] |
Randolph Stone (February 26, 1890 – December 9, 1981) was an Austrian-Americanchiropractor,osteopath andnaturopath who foundedpolarity therapy, a technique ofalternative medicine.[3][4][5] He had an interest inphilosophy andreligions, and encounteredAyurvedic philosophy on a trip to India.[3] His background in chiropractic was shaped by his studies of various Eastern concepts ofenergy medicine, including Ayurveda,traditional Chinese medicine, yoga, andreflexology.[6]
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 inchiropractic. Dissatisfied with Western approaches, he also traveled and studied non-Western medical practices.[7] He first published his concepts ofpolarity therapy in 1947 in a book entitledEnergy,[5] and then published a series of books and pamphlets to explain his ideas and methods.[8][9][10] He had concluded that an observable (yet undetectable to mainstream scientific methods) 'electromagnetic polarity' was a reflection of health.[5][11] He held the opinion that this energy was influenced by touch, diet, movement, sound, attitude, relationships and by environmental factors.[11]
He had a successful private practice in Chicago and worked for about ten years in a clinic in India.[12] Stone was initiated into theRadha Soami Satsang Beas tradition underBaba Sawan Singh in 1945 and in 1956 published hisMystical 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][13] He died there in 1981.
Stone's ideas have been dismissed by medical health experts asquackery or untestable.[14][15][16] They have also been criticized as a discredited form ofvitalism.[17] According to Nancy Allison inThe Illustrated Encyclopedia of Body-Mind Disciplines, even advocates of Stone's theory consider his booksHealth Building andPolarity Therapy difficult to read 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]
Stone invented "polarity therapy". It is a type ofenergy 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".[22]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)Stone.
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