Physio God is Dead

Alright sports fans, here we are with the blog that will finally get me burned at the stake as a heretic.

And I am guilty of that crime, no doubt, so lucky I was born when I was and not a few hundred years ago..

Not in the sense that I am practicing heresy, burning effigies of religious idols or desecrating religious icons. But, in the more general sense of the word, my opinions do go against that of the foundational assumptions of most of the human world.

What the fuck am I talking about and how does that have anything to do with physio?

Well, there are about another 1000 words before I hit you with relevance. Like a good murder mystery, you will have to wait for the ending.

Identifying with labels is not my bag. I have always thought of myself as special, obviously. But for the purposes of this exercise, I am an atheist.

It’s not that I aggressively deny the existence of God, or actively try to disavow people of their religion. It’s more that I reject the notion of belief based on nothing but tradition in the presence of increasing scientific evidence.

I reject the systems of control that come with organised religion and the self righteousness and false morality that hides behind faith.

But this is not to deny the effect of religion on society. Humans have always had gods and idols to explain the ways of the universe. But organised religion seemed to spread faster than Avian flus when taken to different parts of the globe.

I am completely aware that I live in a Christian society.

I am, in every way apart from my heretical mind, heart and soul (which doesn’t exist), Christian.

My mum put me in a dress and had an old dude rub water on my heart in the ritualised indoctrination process they call baptism. Much to the disgust of my atheist father, I was named as one of God’s children.

As much as I have rejected the notion that there is a better place waiting for me when I am dead, I am not deluded enough to dent the influence of Christianity everywhere where I live..

Christmas, Easter, Sunday off work. The basic moral tenets that get jammed down your throat as a kid. We get married in churches (I didn't) and let God into schools, funerals and everywhere else.

So, no problem, things are very Christian and I don’t have to do anything about it.

But what no one talks about (because good Christian people don’t talk about such things) is the down side of God being lots of people’s plus one to these events.

My mum still has a relationship with God, I think. She used to take me to church, where I saw the worst of human behaviour wrapped up in “just say sorry and you can do what you want” moral self righteousness. That lasted til around 10 or so, when it just seemed like bullshit.

But when we say “God”, we are not actually speaking about the word of God. Even then we are going off a book written by 12 old dudes based on what they thought God said to them. Or what some potentially crazy Jewish bloke said his Dad, who lives in the sky, told him to do. There are so many literal contradictions in the Bible that anyone reading it just exerts the basest form of confirmation biases and picks their favourite. So what we are really, honestly talking about, is one person's view of what another person should do - and how those with power use this to control those without. This is the whole problem.

A single person having some spirituality and a relationship with what they call God is actually quite healthy. It creates a feeling of belonging, purpose and connection to the physical world. The problem is when groups of people get together and start swinging their Gods around, saying that theirs is better than the others and everyone has to do what they say their God said and fuck everyone else.

This is what we call religion.

So my beef isn’t with God, it’s with the people who use organised religion to wield power and control over other people, or as a get out of jail free card while they act like complete ass hats.

There is also the pervasive existential threat of afterlife based punishment, and its influence on behaviour right now. The underlying theme here is you should be happy with what you have, how things are and don’t make any noise to challenge this. Organised religion is the stick that forces those without power, or would see things change, to comply and serve.

Those in power or those who benefit from the status quo need a way to keep the rest of you from trying to change things. Coopting God’s vengeance has been a pretty useful tool.

So while religious convention, good and bad, permeates all societies, at least it is better now than it used to be. The Enlightenment and the subsequent increase of science as a way to explain and determine action led Nietzsche to determine “God is dead”.

Prior to that there was faith based medicine, witch hunts and the inquisition.

After that we have gotten so much better.

Now we just have holy wars, large scale genocide, race based oppression under the banner of holiness and top positions of office in most countries off limits to those who would question the existence, or the influence, of God.

Ah wait…… Shit.

There is no doubt religion has less influence than it used to. Despite the fact that fucked up things on a modern scale still happen in the name of God. I reckon he (or she, or they) would be pretty pissed off with all of this shit if you asked s/he/them. 

But not everything is bad. I enjoy many of the Christian traditions that happen in my part of the world. As I said, I'm in a Christian society and that won’t change.

So why the big heretical prelude and what the fuck am I actually talking about.

Well. My profession, and many others in health, like to make idols out of its more well known exponents, creating mini-religions centred around their physio (and like their holy namesake is depicted, they are usually normally old, white, male) God.

So, in response to that, I am going to steal a certain German’s phrase here….

Physio God is Dead

  

The improvement in Evidence Based Practice, research and critiquing the historical and traditional models we have inherited has meant that while a lot of what we do remains beneficial and effective, there are so many variables that go into recovery and success that believing in the divine ability of one specific guru and their “method” makes no sense.

This is not blaming the guru or saying their work was useless. It was what we knew at the time, much like our ancestors looking at lightning and explaining it with an angry God.

I grew up in the age of physio Gods, and the downside for us mere mortals was, as we were not divine, the implicit meaning was we were shit. So we upskilled and did courses and tried to climb Mt Olympus, but we chased the wrong thing. We were sold “how to be a guru” courses, instead of working on the skills that actually help people in recovery. While a lot of the methods, techniques, etc continue in one way or another, the theories and beliefs that formed them have been debunked. So instead of believing accurately in our knowledge and ability (and its limits), we have worshipped false idols and are now left with being acolytes of physioligions that are slowly moving into the past.

This can be existentially threatening, and many will falsely accuse me of disrespecting the past. This is not true. I have huge respect for people that have done huge work for the profession in moving it forward. Just that it came with a downside that many like me were subjected to. And things keep moving forward, as they should. So rather than being heretical, I am merely suggesting we put down our banners and sigils and embrace the uncertain future from outside the cloak of various methods, gurus, acronyms and other cult-like bullshit we have created.

There is a huge upside here.

You can still use all the magical techniques and skills you learned under said guru, but guess what? You are just as good, and potentially better for the person you are helping, than the guru. You are the guru. You are God (ok let’s calm down a bit).

You have options. All the possibilities in the world of how to help the person in front of you.

Given we know more about how all these things work, you don’t have to achieve Level 64 mastery in every magical technique. Just be confident in how you deliver what you deliver.

Then the biggest upside of all.

The things that make you more successful as a clinician are the things that you have been practising since you were a kid. Having conversations, listening, collaborating and planning. Our schooling tries to minimise these and replace them with specific guru type skills.

These specific things are important for our profession, but while ever you are working with humans, the human you are working with will decide how effective you are, and how they FEEL about your interaction is all there is to go on.

So stand in front of your physio god, and their followers and say “thanks for the info, i’ll see how that works for me”. Experts need critiquing most of all and it is YOUR JOB to make sure you are doing the best for the person who asks you for help. Don’t outsource your responsibility to the method you ascribe to, like those who are sitting at church outsource their morality to their God.

Physio God is Dead. It’s up to you now.