Dr. B.J. Kale brought his fiery passion to the Parker Upper Cervical club this past Monday, July 27th 2009. He spoke about specific chiropractic to a group of 30-35 students.
He began by explaining that chiropractic school is a journey, mentioning that he went to all the technique clubs at Life, despite being the son of Dr. Michael U. Kale.
He then defined passion as taking it to that next level, going above and beyond to achieve the best results. He followed that up by making the point that those results must be reproduced.
He then spoke about the green books, and more specifically Volume XVIII. He opened his father’s copy to the very back cover and counted off tally marks, indicating how many times Dr. Michael Kale read it. 98 times was the final tally. Dr. Kale mentioned how his father once told him “I still don’t understand all of it.”
He then told the story of when his mom was diagnosed with cervical cancer while pregnant with his older sister. She was told by the allopaths that she would have to abort the baby and have a hysterectomy. His father worked under Dr. Lyle Sherman at the time. He asked Dr. Sherman what he should do. Dr. Sherman simply asked “Is the line straight?”
Dr. Kale’s mother went it to see Dr. Sherman every single day, Monday through Sunday, for 60 days. Everyday she was scanned and checked for nerve interference. During that time she received 7 adjustments.
As a result, her cancer subsided and she went on to have Dr. Kale’s sister and, later, him.
He made the point that it does not matter if you have “South African Dripping Diabetes,” a term his father made up to illustrate a point. The only thing that matters is if the line is straight or not.
Dr. Kale then spoke about horizontal and vertical chains. In medicine, someone develops a cough and goes to the general practitioner. The GP then refers that person to an EENT. The EENT will then refer to the pulmonologist, and so on up the ladder. In chiropractic, if someone doesn’t get better, it is chiropractic’s fault, not the practitioner’s. Dr. Kale made the point that we should be referring within the profession more.
At the end, Dr. Kale differentiated between integrity and character. “Integrity is what you do when you are alone,” he said. “That’s when you’re with a patient, because they don’t know what you are doing.” He continued on by saying “Character is what shows.”
Later that night, Dr. Kale continued his teachings on the chiropractic principle as written by B.J. Palmer in the green books. It was an intense session of learning, discussions, and, at times, debates. The night session began at 6 pm and lasted until 10:15 pm.
Dr. Kale explained that measuring success is how long a patient will stay with you. He revealed that his father’s second patient ever was at his funeral decades later.
He shared a quote his father used to say: “Never, ever do it for the money. If you do, you’ll be broke.” Dr. Kale revealed that by broke, his father meant broke in life, business, marriage, family, and not necessarily monetarily.
Later he spoke on the importance of being well balanced in your science, art, and philosophy. It should be a triangle that balances perfectly on a pencil. If one side is too heavy, the triangle will fall.
Some of the students in attendance shared their thoughts:
“I thought that Dr. Kale’s visit was great! He reminded us that it is crucial to understand where the profession started in order to understand what it means to be a chiropractor today. I am more excited than ever to jump into reading the Green books! “
-Elaine Holland
“Great speaker with the most solid philosophy and faith I have ever seen in chiropractic.
Thanks for bringing him here, Parker College definitely needs people like that.”
-Enrico Pandiani
“I thought Dr. Kale was a man of conviction & passion unlike any other I have ever had the good fortune to encounter. His willingness to share what his family has extracted & cultivated from chiropractic is both touching & motivating.
I am currently VERY impressed that when I emailed him, he emailed me back within an hour. Considering how many people he must encounter in a day, that makes me feel special & important. (Considering I rarely feel that HERE, where I PAY, and am one of less than a thousand, that’s impressive.)
His integrity and character are what I think more people and ALL chiropractors should aspire to. How can patients trust us if we cannot trust ourselves? I love discovering that arrogance stems from ignorance (keeps my own pettiness in check) & hearing him talk about being humble.
I think our discussion about terminology struck a particular chord because I remember Dr. Browning telling us in CPP1 that our lexicon is what makes us & that we need to protect it. I very much believe that if we cannot get a solid grasp on & reclaim the little things that make us special, then we are going to have a hell of an impossible time trying to build ourselves up. As Dr. Kale said, the foundation has to be strong. We desperately need to reclaim the job of defining our profession, and I think that starts with the education we get. If we aren’t exposed to it here, how will we know what we need to work on? At the same time, it is our responsibility to seek our own knowledge. No one ever wants to hear that their health care provider is mediocre/satisfactory.
As people who are willing to go above and beyond the commonly accepted idea of health care, we should also be willing to go above and beyond in other areas. Dr. Kale is an excellent example to follow, and I am VERY thankful for having him as a resource. Thank you for inviting him down. I have no doubt it changed my life.”
-Nikohl Ostermeier
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I think Nikohl summed it up well. I left that night feeling like I couldn’t even begin to process everything that was thrown my way. I realized the next day that it may take weeks, months or even years to understand it all (and that was barely skimming the surface).
It was very exciting and inspiring to be in a room filled with true philosophy, art and science regarding chiropractic for 4 hours! I am still on a high about it. Dr. Kale’s passion is contagious to say the least. What a blessing it was that he was humble enough to serve us.
Monday night changed my life in ways I can not even see yet. I know that is a bold statement, but that is exactly how I feel. Thank you Dr. Kale!