E Pluribus Unum is a hopefully familiar phrase. It is found on our coins and means, “Out of many, one.” Besides being the original motto of the United States, it also applies nicely to chiropractic philosophy.
Looking out for me
We are made of trillions of cells and in our body; those cells have essentially two lives. Each cell lives for itself, carrying out the five signs of life in order to stay alive and thrive. Our philosophy points out that having intelligent living cells is necessary to receive and be able to respond to the mental impulses created and sent by innate. In Stephenson, Article 63 notes that the tissue cell is “the smallest unit of tissue considered in function. That unit of tissue which, with one mental impulse, will perform one unit of function.” But we could remove different types of cells from the body and culture them in a lab. Placed in a nutrient medium, they would continue to exhibit the five signs of life. However, separate from the body, they would live only for themselves.
Wholeness of the Organism
In the body though, these same cells have another life. In addition to living for themselves, they also have the function of contributing to the wholeness of the organism. In the Normal Complete Cycle, function considers only the function of the cell that contributes to the wholeness of the organism. Function is how the tissue cells response to the mental impulse serves the needs of the organism as a whole. In other words, the trillions of cells in our body act as one. They live in service to the whole. Necessary as intelligent individuals, it is through their cumulative expression of innate that the organism as a whole expresses biological life. In other words, out of many, one.