Randolph Stone

Randolph Stone (26 Feb 1890–1981), the founder of Polarity therapy, 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 with his father and one sister. The family settled in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin, with relatives living in Wisconsin and Minnesota 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 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., D.C. and N.D 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 and midwifery. 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 system in Beas, Punjab, India. His dedication to this yogic path continued uninterruptedly for almost 40 years, during which time he made frequent visits to India.

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 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. 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 he preached his message of holistic health, and the seed of Polarity therapy 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, where he lived in his meditation community, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, offering a free public clinic. He gradually withdrew from public life, eventually passing on peacefully in December 1981 at the age of 91.