Randolph Stone
Encyclopedia
Polarity therapy
Polarity therapy is an alternative energy medicine system developed in the 1940s by Doctor Randolph Stone. It proposes that health benefits can be achieved through manipulation of complementary forces, a form of energy currently unknown to science...
, was born Rudolph Bautsch on 26 February 1890 in Engelsberg, Austria. The youngest of six children his mother died when he was two and at thirteen he emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with his father and one sister. The family settled in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin, with relatives living in Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
and Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
and began working as a farm hand. He was given a scholarship to Concordia College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he studied to be a Lutheran minister, learning English by reading the Bible.
His religious studies turned to Indian thought - an avid reader and book collector, he was to serve as librarian of the Theosophical Society Adyar
Theosophical Society Adyar
The Theosophy Society - Adyar is the name of a section of the Theosophical Society founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others in 1875. Its headquarters moved with Blavatsky and president Henry Steel Olcott to Adyar, an area of Chennai in 1883...
for many years. By the time he was nineteen he had decided to pursue a path in the health profession. He passed his State Board Examinations in 1914, gained degrees in complementary medicine including D.O.
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine is a professional doctoral degree for physicians in the United States. Holders of the MD degree, Doctor of Medicine, have the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as osteopathic physicians in the United States.The American Osteopathic Association’s Commission...
, D.C. and N.D
Naturopathic medicine
Naturopathy, or Naturopathic Medicine, is a form of alternative medicine based on a belief in vitalism, which posits that a special energy called vital energy or vital force guides bodily processes such as metabolism, reproduction, growth, and adaptation...
and was granted an Other Practitioners Licence to perform methods of healing without drugs and surgery.
He set up a practice in Chicago which he was to maintain for sixty years and also started teaching at the new Eclectic School for Doctors. He was a lifelong student, eventually adding certifications in a wide range of topics including massage
Massage
Massage is the manipulation of superficial and deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue to enhance function, aid in the healing process, and promote relaxation and well-being. The word comes from the French massage "friction of kneading", or from Arabic massa meaning "to touch, feel or handle"...
and midwifery
Midwifery
Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth, and during the postpartum period. They also help care for the newborn and assist the mother with breastfeeding....
. In the late 1920s he married and changed his name to Randolph Stone but separated from his wife: they divorced without children.
Dr. Stone in later life
Stone developed a reputation for his willingness to work with "hopeless cases" who often responded to his increasingly unconventional approaches which incorporated techniques from around the world. He roamed widely often in search of medical insights from other cultures under his motto, "Whatever works, works!"In 1945 the book Mysticism the Spiritual Path, by Lekh Raj Puri, affected him greatly with its discussion of energy, spirituality and pathology. He accepted initiation in the surat shabd yoga (Spiritual Sound Current) meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
system in Beas
Beas, Punjab
Beas is a small town in the Amritsar District of Punjab state of India, located between the cities of Amritsar and Jalandhar along the banks of the Beas River on National Highway 1....
, Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. His dedication to this yogic path continued uninterruptedly for almost 40 years, during which time he made frequent visits to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Three years later Dr Stone published his first book on polarity therapy, The New Energy Concept of the Healing Art, "a science which blends the old concept of energies in the constitution of man...with scientific research in space", advancing his concept that the polarized
Polarizability
Polarizability is the measure of the change in a molecule's electron distribution in response to an applied electric field, which can also be induced by electric interactions with solvents or ionic reagents. It is a property of matter...
field of attraction and repulsion found in the atomic structure or in magnetic relationships was the underlying reality which determined all physical phenomena including health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
. A series of books and pamphlets followed, all expounding the basic theme with numerous specific applications.
In the mid 1950s he tried to attract interest in his ideas from the medical community. He offered free lectures, wrote articles for magazines, and repeatedly attempted to engage his colleagues in dialogue. These efforts were largely unsuccessful. But in the 1960s, already in his mid 70s, he found popularity for the first time through his books. In seminars in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
he preached his message of holistic health
Holistic health
Holistic health is a concept in medical practice upholding that all aspects of people's needs, psychological, physical and social should be taken into account and seen as a whole. As defined above, the holistic view on treatment is widely accepted in medicine...
, and the seed of Polarity therapy
Polarity therapy
Polarity therapy is an alternative energy medicine system developed in the 1940s by Doctor Randolph Stone. It proposes that health benefits can be achieved through manipulation of complementary forces, a form of energy currently unknown to science...
finally found soil fertile enough to survive.
Dr. Stone retired in 1974, at the age of 84, and appointed his student Pierre Pannetier the task of continuing Polarity Therapy in America. He then moved to Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
, where he lived in his meditation community, Radha Soami Satsang Beas
Radha Soami Satsang Beas
Radha Soami Satsang Beas is a spiritual society founded by Jaimal Singh in 1891 at a site called Dera Baba Jaimal Singh on the West bank of the Beas River, Punjab, India....
, offering a free public clinic. He gradually withdrew from public life, eventually passing on peacefully in December 1981 at the age of 91.