Archive for May 2013

THE DEFEATED ADDICT: In step one we learned the principle of honesty.

Fraser Trevor

Link Author

Title: THE DEFEATED ADDICT: In step one we learned the principle of honesty.
Author: Fraser Trevor
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

In step one we admitted our powerlessness and came to understand that powerlessness meant absolutely without power. We came to ...

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<tr><td>In step one we admitted our powerlessness and came to understand that powerlessness meant absolutely without power. We came to understand what unmanageable meant and admitted our lives were indeed unmanageable. We learned the principle of honesty.<br />
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In step two we came to believe that it would take a power greater than ourselves, who were powerless, to restore us to sanity. And we came to believe that this could actually happen. We learned hope and open-mindedness<br />
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In step three we decided to try to turn our will and our lives, our thoughts and our actions, over to this same Higher Power. We put our lives under the care and direction of that Power. We learned that since a decision without action is valueless, we would go on and validate that decision by working the rest of the program, starting with step four. We learned faith and willingness.<br />
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In step four we took a moral inventory. We saw that the emphasis was on identifying our character defects that caused us to compulsively overeat and how this affected not only ourselves, but others. We learned courage.<br />
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In step five we admitted to God, to ourselves and another person the exact nature of our defects. We discussed these with another person. For me these defects are Self Centered Fear and Self Critical/judgmental thinking born of unreasonable demands for perfectionism, born of fear that I would not be loved or good enough. This in the face of much evidence to the contrary, but still buried deep inside and running the show! We learned integrity.<br />
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In step 6 we saw that these character defects were spiritual in nature and that we could not remove them on our unaided strength alone. I had a lifetime of proof! We then became willing to let God remove them. We learned willingness.<br />
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In step 7 we asked God to remove those character defects that were in the way of our usefulness to Him and others and actually got out of His way. This we did with the humility of knowing who and what we really were followed by a sincere attempt to become what we could be. We saw that self-centeredly asking for the defects to be removed solely for our comfort would not work and was selfish. We learned that asking God to remover our character defects in their entirety would not work....those that stood in the way of our usefulness could be removed. We learned humility.<br />
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In step 8 we looked at our inventory and saw those we had not only resented, but those we had harmed. We made a list and became willing to make amends. We learned that forgiveness could be a tool in becoming willing to make amends. We learned self discipline.<br />
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In step 9 we talked about the process of making amends and learned once again that it was designed to get us out of ourselves. We stopped looking at the harms done to us by others and saw how our character defects had done harm to others and we were given the direction to make those amends. We began to understand that the first nine steps were a beginning that would be fulfilled in step 10. We saw that we did not have to do the first nine steps perfectly because they were merely the beginning of a lifetime practice. We learned love.<br />
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In step 10 we again saw how the process is focused on how our character defects affect others on a daily basis...and on making daily amends where needed. We saw that when, not if, our character defects pop up we ask God to remove them and then resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. We need to get out of ourselves! We learned perseverance.<br />
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In step 11 we learned about asking and listening as forms of prayer and meditation. On page 86/87 in the BB "ask" and its variations are used 9 times! We began to see that the ultimate goal is not simply living in steps 10, 11 and 12, but to be of maximum usefulness to God and the people about us. We learned spiritual awareness.<br />
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It was suggested that you read the chapter in the Big Book, Working With Others, the 12th step in the AA 12 and 12 and in the OA 12 and 12.<br />
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If you look you will see that there are a number of pages and paragraphs devoted to steps 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. There is an entire chapter detailing exactly how to work with others, two chapters on working with family, one chapter detailing how to work with an employee, and a chapter accenting the need to work with others and the benefits/results of doing so. That gives us a hint as to the relative importance of this step. There are 88 pages discussing the first eleven Steps and five chapters discussing the 12th step. Even in the AA 12 and 12, the chapter devoted to Step 12 is twice the size of the other chapters.<br />
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The first two paragraphs on p 89 in the BB are presented a little more clearly in the Multi-lith on p.41<br />
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"Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure your own immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other spiritual activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help them when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Remember they are fatally ill.<br />
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The kick you will get is tremendous. To watch people come back to life, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends - this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives."<br />
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You will notice it says nothing will so much insure "your own" immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics it works when other "spiritual activities" fail. Equating ‘working with others" as a "spiritual activity" puts things in a very different light.<br />
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For instance, in the BB on p 14/15<br />
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"For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die."<br />
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The two ways to perfect and enlarge our spiritual life are; through work and self sacrifice for others. Bill Wilson did not always redefine terms each time he used them. He probably assumed the reader had read the prior definitions on p 14/15.<br />
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BB p 89<br />
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"Perhaps you are not acquainted with any drinkers who want to recover. You can easily find some by asking a few doctors, ministers, priests or hospitals."<br />
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Step 12 says we tried to "carry" this message. It does not say we sit back and wait for people to come to us. After you have found a prospect it tell us on p 90, "If he does not want to stop drinking, don’t waste time trying to persuade him." However, further down it says, "If he says yes, then his attention should be drawn to you as a person who has recovered." If we find someone who is interested their attention should be drawn to us as a person who has recovered.<br />
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It continues, "You should be described to him as one of a fellowship who, as part of their own recovery, try to help others and who will be glad to talk to him if he cares to see you."</td></tr>
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THE DEFEATED ADDICT: In step one we learned the principle of honesty.

In step one we admitted our powerlessness and came to understand that powerlessness meant absolutely without power. We came to ...

The story of the 5 M’s. It’s the story of what happens to spiritual institutions– any spiritual institution – over time. As soon as I heard it, I understood the program, and the church and my own recovery differently. I hope you may as well.

Fraser Trevor

Link Author

Title: The story of the 5 M’s. It’s the story of what happens to spiritual institutions– any spiritual institution – over time. As soon as I heard it, I understood the program, and the church and my own recovery differently. I hope you may as well.
Author: Fraser Trevor
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

Ten years ago I met a man from West Texas who told me a story that changed my life. Good stories have the power to do that you know – and...

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<span style="font-size: large;">Ten years ago I met a man from West Texas who told me a story that changed my life. Good stories have the power to do that you know – and this was a good one. With Christmas almost upon us, and it being the season for exchanging gifts, consider his story my little gift to you. What prompted the telling was my complaint that the 12-Step Program I belong to didn’t seem nearly as strong nor as spiritually grounded as when I first joined it back in 1972. My West Texas friend responded with the story of the 5 M’s. It’s the story of what happens to spiritual institutions– any spiritual institution – over time. As soon as I heard it, I understood the program, and the church and my own recovery differently. I hope you may as well.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The guy said every spiritual institution starts with a man. That man could be Jesus or Buddha or Frank Buchman or Bill Wilson. (Now that man could just as easily be a woman but the “W” in “woman” instead of the “M” in “man” really screws up the story!) Anyway, that man (the first M) has a spiritual experience. It might be Jesus being baptized at the River Jordan, Buddha finding enlightenment under the banyan tree, Frank Buchman experiencing the power of the cross in a little church in England, or Wilson’s white-light experience while detoxing at Towns Hospital. Each man has a direct encounter with the Divine. His consciousness is awakened to what the Big Book calls “the fourth dimension” of reality. It’s the spiritual experience, which is the goal of the 12 Steps. And what happens to each man, as a result of his encounter, is he comes back “changed.” Each has a wholly new perspective on his life, on his relationship with God, and on his life work.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />And so each “changed man” then tries to carry the message (the second M) to those around him. He really has no choice but to do so as the message exerts such a powerful hold on him that he wouldn’t be complete if he didn’t share the good news. And it’s important to understand that the message he carries isn’t that the man who received it is so very special and unique – but only that he’s awakened to a reality that’s readily available to all who’ll remove their blinders and come to see and experience it for themselves. Jesus called it the kingdom or the rein of God, Buddha termed it enlightenment or Nirvana, Buchman called it being “maximal” or “fully surrendered,” 12-Steppers call it serenity or recovery. If they’re ready for it, the message they carry resonates deep inside those who hear it and they too are attracted to it. Often they know almost immediately that it is a message directed to them and their future path is clear. They must follow the same path as the man who carried the message to them.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />And with this is born the third M: the movement. Now we have Jesus with an ever-growing number of disciples, Buddha with his band of monks, Buchman with his dedicated Oxford Group followers and Wilson with the First One Hundred sober alcoholics. This is the glorious heyday of the movement as it tries to pass on the life-changing message of its founder’s experience to an awaiting world. It’s a critical time where the group is often viewed initially as a cult and a threat to the established order of things, but then finds greater respectability with increased numbers and leaders able to carry on the work of transformation even after the death of its founder.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Before long, however, as the young movement grows, both in membership and in complexity, it is presented with an increasing number of issues that call for clarification and group conformity. The message must now be organized and codified so false prophets and false doctrines don’t arise to lead the group astray. The message must also be written down and protected for future generations. Enter the attorneys, the secretaries, and the theologians. They comprise the fourth M: the machine. The job of the machine is to create traditions, and formulas, and rituals that capture the spirit of the founder. And so we have bishops and bibles and creeds in the church, abbots and monasteries among the Buddhists, foundations and a castle in Switzerland set up for the Oxford Group and the Big Book and the New York Central office for A.A. Now the machine is absolutely necessary for the continuation of the movement, but over time, what invariably happens through machines is the machinery replaces the message – the law replaces the spirit. People go through the motions, but the power and the mystery are diminished as the machine waters down the message.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I knew the machine was at work in a 12 Step meeting I attended in Tennessee. A woman was playing solitaire at the table where the 5:00PM meeting was about to start. When the time for the meeting arrived she opened the meeting with the Serenity Prayer while she continued to deal her cards. The machine had arrived! She would go through the motions but there would be no real “meeting.” I was also reminded of it when I visited Bill Wilson’s birthplace in Vermont several years ago. Someone, I’m sure with good intentions, had placed a lamp over the spot where Bill had been born. Now we have a “perpetual light” shining there that will never go out. Good work, machine! No doubt in a few hundred years the sacred coffee pot from the first AA group in Akron will be on display and maybe even the cigarette ashes from the first hundred alcoholics will be rubbed on our foreheads of chronic relapsers in search of a miracle cure! Rather than encouraging new members to go through the same transforming experience as the founder, the machine simply takes us through the motions.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Left unchecked, the machine will grind on, spewing out new laws and literature, producing mindless but obedient adherents who follow the form but miss the message. This, of course, leads invariably to the Fifth M: the Mausoleum. The power of the movement is dead. It no longer has the spiritual energy to inspire and transform lives. When this happens – and it will, as it is the nature of institutions – then other men (back to the First M) come along willing to challenge the lost vision of the group and willing to lead it through the 5 M’s all over again. And when they do, they generally go back to the experience of the founder and ask the question, “Who was that man and what really was his message?”<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />This may be a wonderful season for each of us to ask that of Jesus and Buddha and Buchman and Bill. Have I experienced what they experienced and has it transformed me and carried me toward that fourth dimension, or have I just put those guys on a pedestal, read a quote or two from them now and then, and continued to deal the cards in a lonely game of solitaire? It’s your deal!<br /></span>Related articles<br />
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The story of the 5 M’s. It’s the story of what happens to spiritual institutions– any spiritual institution – over time. As soon as I heard it, I understood the program, and the church and my own recovery differently. I hope you may as well.

Ten years ago I met a man from West Texas who told me a story that changed my life. Good stories have the power to do that you know – and...

The man who sponsored Bill Wilson

Fraser Trevor

Link Author

Title: The man who sponsored Bill Wilson
Author: Fraser Trevor
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

He’ll always be remembered as “the man who sponsored Bill Wilson.” But just as Wilson’s story gives hope for recovery to millions of alcoho...

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He’ll always be remembered as “the man who sponsored Bill Wilson.” But just as Wilson’s story gives hope for recovery to millions of alcoholics and addicts, Ebby Thatcher’s story warns of the cunning, baffling, and powerful nature of the illness that often leads to relapse.<br />
<br />
Edwin Throckmorton Thatcher was born in Albany, New York on April 29, 1896. Three members of his prominent family had served as mayor of that city and his brother came very close to being elected Governor of the state of New York. Ebby first met Wilson in Manchester, Vermont where he always spent the summer with his family. He attended Albany Academy (AA?) but dropped out of school before graduation. He took his first drink at age 19 and had problems with alcohol right from the beginning.<br />
<br />
One famous drinking story that included Bill Wilson occurred in 1929 when Ebby and Wilson got drunk in Albany and talked a pilot friend into having a few drinks and then flying with them to a new airport set to open in Manchester. Half the town turned out to meet the inaugural flight and welcome them, only to see Bill and Ebby fall flat on their faces when they stumbled out of the plane! Another occurred several years later when Ebby was living at the family’s summer home. He was trying to paint the house when some friends who had joined the Oxford Group paid him an unexpected visit. Initially, he wasn’t too interested in their attempts to bring God into his life and take alcohol out. But shortly thereafter, he found himself in trouble with the law for shooting at several pigeons intent on adding a few unwanted touches to his fresh paint job. Told by the judge to stay sober over the weekend before returning to court for sentencing, Ebby was going to his basement to get some beer as one voice in his head was leading him to drink and another Voice called him away from it. Ebby listened to the other Voice and gave all his beer away to a neighbor. When he did appear back in front of the judge sober, three Oxford Group members came and asked that he be turned over to the custody of Roland Hazard who was sober nearly three years at that time. In Roland’s care, Ebby began to learn the Oxford Group practices of surrender, restitution, service and listening daily for God’s guidance.<br />
<br />
Two months later that guidance led him to make his providential telephone call to Bill Wilson to see if he was still having problems with alcohol and if, perhaps, he could be of help. While Wilson soon found sobriety through the Oxford Group that lasted a lifetime, Ebby’s lasted only two years. He began to suffer frequent, periodic relapses, a pattern that plagued him for most of his life. Wilson was forever grateful for the messenger who brought him into recovery and he never gave up hope that Ebby would someday regain sobriety. Bill and several AA friends helped Ebby throughout the years often finding him jobs and giving him places to live - only to see his former sponsor relapse again and again. Ebby always believed the right woman and the right job would keep him sober but he never seemed to find them. He rarely attended meetings and was hospitalized several times before Wilson thought a geographic cure might help his old friend.<br />
<br />
In 1953 the legendary AA old-timer Searcy W. from Dallas brought Ebby down to Texas where he received treatment at the clinic he then operated. This began for Ebby a period of sobriety that continued uninterrupted for nearly eight years. He spoke at AA meetings around the state and held down several jobs. But Ebby also held on to resentments for the man he sponsored, believing that Bill and Dr. Bob never fully recognized the contribution he made to the founding of AA. We all know where resentments usually lead.<br />
<br />
Ebby also had a troubled relationship with a woman named Chloe who many of his friends thought to be more interested in what she could get from him than what she might give. Chloe died suddenly in 1961 and Ebby got drunk the very next day. Continually drunk and depressed his Texas friends had done all they could do for Ebby, so he returned to New York and knocked once again on Bill Wilson’s door. This time he had little hope to share with his old friend.<br />
<br />
Wilson took Ebby in again as he had many times and eventually found a place for his sponsor at McPike’s Farm, a small treatment center not far from Albany, New York. There Ebby stayed for two years supported by Social Security and a $200 monthly check from AA that Wilson had convinced the trustees to fund for him. His health slowly deteriorated and finally death came on March 21, 1966. Ebby was sober two and a half years when he died. We’re always carrying a message if not always the message. If it’s been a while since you went to a meeting, Ebby’s story might still be one God sent him to tell you!<br />
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The man who sponsored Bill Wilson

He’ll always be remembered as “the man who sponsored Bill Wilson.” But just as Wilson’s story gives hope for recovery to millions of alcoho...

what members of A.A. would call “spiritual experiences”: personal, subjective, emotionally profound encounters with what the subject of the case views as the “spiritual.”

Fraser Trevor

Link Author

Title: what members of A.A. would call “spiritual experiences”: personal, subjective, emotionally profound encounters with what the subject of the case views as the “spiritual.”
Author: Fraser Trevor
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

What is striking about Varietys of Religious Experience - and what must have grabbed Bill Wilson’s attention immediately - is that VRE cont...

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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, '“DejaVu Sans”', sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">What is striking about Varietys of Religious Experience - and what must have grabbed Bill Wilson’s attention immediately - is that VRE contains case histories of spiritual experiences like Bill’s. Some are even more dramatic and powerful than his, drawn from the religious and secular literature. .  It is worth noting here that these experiences, called religious experiences by James, are what members of A.A. would call “spiritual experiences”: personal, subjective, emotionally profound encounters with what the subject of the case views as the “spiritual.”  It is also worth noting that most members of A.A. do not have the type of dramatic experience described by Bill </span><br />
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what members of A.A. would call “spiritual experiences”: personal, subjective, emotionally profound encounters with what the subject of the case views as the “spiritual.”

What is striking about Varietys of Religious Experience - and what must have grabbed Bill Wilson’s attention immediately - is that VRE cont...

William James is for me the most inclusive mind I can listen to, the most concrete and the least hampered by trifles.

Fraser Trevor

Link Author

Title: William James is for me the most inclusive mind I can listen to, the most concrete and the least hampered by trifles.
Author: Fraser Trevor
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

For the reader unfamiliar with William James these two paragraphs from one of the many recent biographies of James (Richardson, 2006) may...

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For the reader unfamiliar with William James these two paragraphs from one of the many recent biographies of James (Richardson, 2006) may be helpful in appreciating James’ significance: “Alfred North Whitehead said, ‘In Western Literature there are four great thinkers, whose services to civilized thought rest largely on their achievements in philosophical assemblage; though each of them made important contributions to the structure of philosophical system.  These men are Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz, and William James.’  John McDermott says, ‘William James is to classic American philosophy as Plato was to Greek and Roman philosophy, an originating and inspirational fountainhead.’  James is famous for pragmatism (which he sometimes felt he should have called humanism), though he should be remembered for his radical empiricism (which could be called phenomenology); that is, his belief that reality is confined to what we experience, with the crucial proviso that nothing we experience can be excluded.<br />
<br />
His book The Will to Believe was about the right to believe, and his Varieties of Religious Experience made religion possible for many educated moderns who are uncomfortable with the authority of churches and dogmas.  The book is also a cornerstone of the modern field of comparative religion.  Though it is nearly a hundred years since James died, his thought is still very much alive.  ‘I find him visibly and testably right,’ says Jacques Barzun.  ‘He is for me the most inclusive mind I can listen to, the most concrete and the least hampered by trifles. (2006, p. xiv)”<br />
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William James is for me the most inclusive mind I can listen to, the most concrete and the least hampered by trifles.

For the reader unfamiliar with William James these two paragraphs from one of the many recent biographies of James (Richardson, 2006) may...

The essential lesson that infuses A.A.: it is the power of one alcoholic talking to another alcoholic about the consequences, but particularly the feelings, engendered by this hopeless illness that can lead to lifelong sobriety.

Fraser Trevor

Link Author

Title: The essential lesson that infuses A.A.: it is the power of one alcoholic talking to another alcoholic about the consequences, but particularly the feelings, engendered by this hopeless illness that can lead to lifelong sobriety.
Author: Fraser Trevor
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

Cover of Ebby: The Man Who Sponsored Bill W. The essential lesson that infuses A.A.: it is the power of one alcoholic talking to anothe...

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<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 191px;">Cover of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ebby-Man-Who-Sponsored-Bill/dp/156838162X%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Ddreawarreco-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D156838162X" target="_blank">Ebby: The Man Who Sponsored Bill W.</a></td></tr>
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The essential lesson that infuses A.A.: it is the power of one alcoholic talking to another alcoholic about the consequences, but particularly the feelings, engendered by this hopeless illness that can lead to lifelong sobriety. <br /><br />From that day forward, several facts about alcoholism became manifest.  Alcoholism was an illness.  Alcoholism crushed its victims by making them feel hopeless. There was no “cure” but there was a “spiritual solution,” centered on alcoholics helping each other to refrain from drinking.  These positive experiences led to the publication in 1939 of Alcoholics Anonymous, containing A.A.’s program of recovery, the Twelve Steps, a version of Ebby’s “neat little formula,” and the shared experiences described in the stories of recovering alcoholics that make up the majority of the book.<br />
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-only-requirement-for-membership-is.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/171863654_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-only-requirement-for-membership-is.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking</a></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/bill-wilson-didn-see-b-3-as-cure-for.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/160863344_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/bill-wilson-didn-see-b-3-as-cure-for.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bill Wilson didn't see B-3 as a cure for alcoholism, just a powerful aid in recovery...including his own.</a></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/one-of-cornerstones-of-alcoholism.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_115_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/one-of-cornerstones-of-alcoholism.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">One of the cornerstones of alcoholism recovery is a concept called emotional sobriety.</a></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/are-you-beyond-human-aid.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/170291699_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/are-you-beyond-human-aid.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Are YOU beyond human aid?</a></li>
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The essential lesson that infuses A.A.: it is the power of one alcoholic talking to another alcoholic about the consequences, but particularly the feelings, engendered by this hopeless illness that can lead to lifelong sobriety.

Cover of Ebby: The Man Who Sponsored Bill W. The essential lesson that infuses A.A.: it is the power of one alcoholic talking to anothe...

www.dreamwarriorrecovery.com

THE DEFEATED ADDICT: In step one we learned the principle of honesty.

The story of the 5 M’s. It’s the story of what happens to spiritual institutions– any spiritual institution – over time. As soon as I heard it, I understood the program, and the church and my own recovery differently. I hope you may as well.

The man who sponsored Bill Wilson

what members of A.A. would call “spiritual experiences”: personal, subjective, emotionally profound encounters with what the subject of the case views as the “spiritual.”

William James is for me the most inclusive mind I can listen to, the most concrete and the least hampered by trifles.

The essential lesson that infuses A.A.: it is the power of one alcoholic talking to another alcoholic about the consequences, but particularly the feelings, engendered by this hopeless illness that can lead to lifelong sobriety.

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