Chapter five how it works rarely have we seen a person fail who was thoroughly followed our
path those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves
to this simple program usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest
with themselves there are such unfortunates they are not at fault they seem to have been
born that way they are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which
demands rigorous honesty their chances are less than average there are those too who suffer from
grave emotional and mental disorders but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to
be honest our stories disclosed in a general way what we used to be like what happened and what we
are like now if you have decided you want what we have that are willing to go to any lengths
to get it then you are ready to take certain steps and some of these we booked we thought
we could find an easier softer way but we could not with all the earnestness at our command we
beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start some of us have tried to hold on to
our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely remember that we deal with
alcohol cunning baffling powerful without help it is too much for us but there is one who has
all power that one is God may you find him now half-measures availed us nothing we stood at
the turning point we asked his protection and care with complete abandon here are the steps
we took which are suggested as a program of recovery 1 we admitted we were powerless over
alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable two came to believe that a Power greater than
ourselves could restore us to sanity three made a decision to turn our will and our lives over
to the care of God as we understood him four made a searching and fearless moral inventory
of ourselves five admitted to God to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of
our wrongs six were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character seven humbly
asked him to remove our shortcomings eight made a list of all persons we had harmed and became
willing to make amends to them all nine made direct amends to such people wherever possible
except when to do so would injure them or others 10 continued to take personal inventory and when
we were wrong promptly admitted it eleven sought through prayer and meditation to improve our
conscious contact with God as we understood him praying only for knowledge of his will for us
and the power to carry that out 12 having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps
we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs
you
here's another one I've been sober a long time my life's manageable now I can drink
now that's called mental obsession so if I'm truly if I truly have no power over a
mental session I truly have no power over the phenomena of craving once I put the
alcohol my body how can I possibly have a manageable life so see basically step one
tells me this I have no power and I need a new manager that's basically what it's saying okay
page 36
page 36 two lines from the bottom of the page page 36 two lines from the bottom he had much
knowledge about himself as an alcoholic yet all reasons for not drinking were easily pushed aside
in favor of the foolish idea that he could take whiskey if only he mixed it with milk
page 39 page 39 paragraph one line five page 39 paragraph one line five but the actual or
potential alcoholic with hardly an exception will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on
the basis of self knowledge so stop and ask yourself can I stop drinking on the basis of
self knowledge maybe that's the key yeah that's it information knowledge I need knowledge after
all we are in an era of information that's it I need info input input give me more input
yeah that's the ticket yeah that'll keep me sober okay now what we're gonna do is we're
gonna find out who's an alcoholic if you truly believe that you have no power over a mental
session over the phenomena of craving and that your life is unmanageable let's turn to page 30
page 30 paragraph 2 page 30 paragraph 2 we learned that we had to fully concede to our
innermost selves that we were alcoholics this is the first step in recovery the delusion that we
are like other people or presently maybe has to be smashed you notice that the author's aren't saying
that we have to fully concede to our sponsor or the group you will have an opportunity to
examine that in a moment in addition to that this is what I would encourage you to do this is the
same thing my sponsor had me do go home and sit with me myself and my soul and ask myself this
question am I willing to concede to my ear myself that I have no power and that I need a new manager
basically if I say if I say yes this is what I'm saying I'm saying yes I had an abnormal reaction
yes I did experience the phenomena of credit no sufficient reason was enough to keep me sober I
lost all control once I started to drink and I have lost the power to choose whether I will or
will not drink so you see what's most important is conceding to myself as long as I'm clinging to the
idea that I have some power some knowledge some information some memory that's going to keep me
sober there's no room for step 2 look what it says in step 2 came to believe in what a Power greater
than myself so you see if I'm still clinging to the idea inside of me I had some power there's
no room for that is there and that has been my experience that's what happened to me in that 12
years I was bouncing in and out of these rooms I was never willing to concede to my innermost
self that I have no power I was convinced that I had the answer that I was smarter than everyone
else that I could still choose to not drink that self-knowledge was the key I was convinced of
it my behavior my experiences illustrates that if I truly believe that I don't have the power
what am i doing testing it I'm going to drink no matter what see I'm faced with that every single
morning that I wake up well gonna drink today today is the day I'm gonna drink why because
I'm gonna drink no matter what that's why I've learned to resort to the spiritual principles
the spiritual practices like prayer meditation evening review working with others telling other
people what's going on with me so everybody that is here to take the steps please stand
we are going to consider the questions that I've just reviewed and we'll go
around the room one at a time after you answer please be seated and
I'll begin am I willing to concede to my innermost self that I'm an alcoholic yes
gratulations my hope for you is that you had a first step experience or what i mean by that is
this i was taking this guy through the steps and we went through this we've spent a great
deal of time on these 43 pages and we got to the end and I said so how's it feel knowing
that there's absolutely nothing you do to keep yourself so reason oh it feels pretty good I want
what we we overlook something here okay it's not supposed to feel good if you're feeling good you
probably did not have a first step experience it consider it if you are a real alcoholic how
promising doesn't sound that there's nothing you can do to keep you sober is that gonna make me
feel good of course not I'm supposed to have that experience now I'm in a position to seek power so
I'm not going to leave you hanging there I'd like to give you a little bit of hope before
you leave okay let's turn to page 46 page 46 paragraph two line five page 46 paragraph two
line five this is part of the second set this is what we have to look forward to as soon as
we admitted the possible existence of a creative intelligence a spirit of the universe underlying
the totality of things we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction provided
we took other simple steps check out the keyword new doesn't say sense of what you're not going to
get sense of power I'm gonna receive news since the park knew that means unlike anything I've
ever experienced before Wow new direction not Direction new direction I'm going to receive
power like I've never experienced it before and I'm going to have a direction to go that
I've never had before does that sound wonderful how many people in here want that yeah me too
that's what we have to look forward to in preparation for next week I would recommend
that you read pages 44 to 71 to prepare us for steps two three and four so we're four
so this week we're going to read pages 44 to 71 until we meet next week I want to welcome all of
you to the Fellowship of the Spirit and those of you that are on your way to being rocketed
into the fourth dimension congratulations for what you've done today and thank you
you