chapter 4 we agnostics in the preceding
chapters you've learned something of
alcoholism we hope we've made clear the
distinction between the alcoholic and
the non alcoholic if when you honestly
want to you find you cannot quit
entirely or if when drinking you have
little control over the amount you take
you're probably alcoholic if that be the
case you may be suffering from an
illness which only a spiritual
experience will conquer just wanted to
pass this on here here's three books I
read every morning first one is 24 hours
a day
second one is God calling and the third
one is daily reflections
you
taking this book down from our shelf we
turn to the page which contains the 12
steps carefully reading the first five
proposals we ask if we have omitted
anything for we are building an arch
through which we shall walk a free man
at last is our work solid so far or if
the stones properly in place
have we skimped on the cement put into
the foundation have we tried to make
mortar without sand if we can answer to
our satisfaction we then look at step 6
we have emphasized willingness as being
indispensable are we now ready to let
God remove from us all the things which
we have admitted our objectionable can
he now take them all everyone if we
still cling to something we will not let
go we ask God to help us be willing
you
when ready we say something like this my
Creator
I am now willing that you should have
all of me good and bad I pray that you
now remove from me every single defect
of character which stands in the way of
my usefulness to you and my fellows
grant me strength as I go out from here
to do your bidding
amen we have then completed step 7
you
we have a list of all persons we have
harmed and to whom we are willing to
make amends we made it when we took
inventory we subjected ourselves to a
drastic self-appraisal
now we go out to our fellows and repair
the damage done in the past we attempt
to sweep away the debris which has
accumulated out of our effort to live on
self-will and run the show ourselves if
we haven't the will to do this we ask
until it comes remember it was agreed at
the beginning we would go to any lengths
for victory over alcohol
you
when we retire at night we
constructively review our a day where we
resentful selfish dishonest or afraid do
we owe an apology have we kept something
to ourselves which should be discussed
with another person at once were we kind
and loving toward all what could we have
done better were we thinking of
ourselves most of the time or were we
thinking of what we could do for others
of what we could pack into the stream of
life but we must be careful not to drift
into worry remorse or morbid reflection
for that would diminish our usefulness
to others after making our review we ask
God's forgiveness and inquire what
corrective measures should be taken
you
grapevine has a feature where you can
get a daily email from the a a grapevine
website a quote of the day also they
have a they run every once in a while
they run a seven day trial on the
grapevine and what's nice about it is
that they have the audio version of the
grapevine and you can download the files
and listen to the audio version and
basically it's just a seven day trial
but yeah it's a great resource a
grapevine was called and and it's it's
basically a meeting and print
Heys forgotten beginning the Alcoholics
Anonymous beginners classes studying the
steps is not the same as taking the
steps in the beginners classes you take
the steps the big book says here are the
steps we took not here are the steps we
read and talked about the AAA pioneers
prove that action not knowledge produce
the spiritual awakening that resulted in
recovery from alcoholism on page 88 the
authors of the big book wrote it works
it really does
we alcoholics are undisciplined so we
let God discipline us in the simple way
we have just outlined but this is not
all there is action and more action
faith without works is dead
you
let go absolutely after failure on my
part to dry up any drunks dr. silkworth
reminded me of Professor William James's
observation that truly transforming
spiritual experiences are nearly always
founded on calamity and collapse stop
preaching at them dr. silkworth said and
give them the hard medical facts first
this may soften them up a depth so that
they will be willing to do anything to
get well then they may accept those
spiritual ideas of yours and even a
higher power a a comes of age EE pages
thirteen
you
more than Comfort when I am feeling
depressed I repeat to myself statements
such as these pain is the touchstone of
progress fear no evil this too will pass
this experience can be turned to benefit
these fragments of prayer bring far more
than mere comfort they keep me on the
track of right acceptance they break up
my compulsive themes of guilt depression
rebellion and pride and sometimes they
endow me with the courage to change the
things I can and the wisdom to know the
difference
grapevine March 1962
you
selfish I can see why you are disturbed
to hear some AAA speakers say AAA is a
selfish program the word selfish
ordinarily implies that one is
acquisitive demanding and thoughtless of
the welfare of others of course the AAA
way of life does not at all imply such
undesirable traits what do these
speakers mean well any theologian will
tell you that the salvation of his own
soul is the highest vocation that a man
can have without salvation however we
may define this he will have little or
nothing for us if a a there is even more
urgency
if we cannot or will not achieve
sobriety then we become truly lost right
in the here and now we are of no value
to anyone including ourselves until we
find salvation from alcohol therefore
our own recovery and spiritual growth
have to come first a right and necessary
kind of self concern letter 1966
dr. Bob and the good old timers chapter
5 the alcoholic in the Oxford group
addition to the four absolutes the
Oxford groupers had the five seas and
the five procedures the seas were
confidence confession conviction
conversion and continuance while the
procedures were given to God listen to
God's direction check guidance
restitution
and sharing for witness and for
confession there were slogans as well
study men not books when your argument
lose your man give news not views
addition a member recalled how groupers
would go around smiling enthusiastically
and asking each other are you maximum
undisputed leader as well as founder of
the Oxford group movement Frank Buckman
was a Lutheran minister from
Pennsylvania who did not drink or smoke
you
we believe and so suggested a few years
ago that the action of alcohol on these
chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of
an allergy that the phenomenon of
craving is limited to this class and
never occurs in the average temperature
so let's turn that into a question did
you experience it creating for alcohol
when you put alcohol on your body now
notice he says and never occurs in
average tempered Rinker so let's say out
of ten times that I drink I do not
experience craving eight times am I an
alcoholic
according to dr. silkworth
I am you know why because he said it
never
he doesn't say rarely he doesn't say
seldom he says never occurs in the
average tempered Rinker you see what
separates me from the non alcoholic has
nothing to do with how many times I've
been to jail there's nothing to do with
that it has to do with one thing and
only one thing it's called the phenomena
of craving I've had the opportunity of
going out for business dinners with
colleagues who drink and sitting there
and watching them drink and they'll have
one or two by ten they get the second
drink they push it away and they say
something like I better stop I'm
starting to feel it
well let's go then come on let's get it
on
I can now relate to that I've been asked
that question multiple times through the
years by colleagues to see if I
understand it what's that phrase do for
me I don't have to go into this big old
diatribe about you know what I
experienced in the 12 years and so on
and so forth and I found a sponsor who
we had big book sobriety and bla bla bla
bla I have to go into that I don't look
phenomena of craving what do you mean I
put alcohol on my body I crave more
alcohol and I can't stop that's how I
know that I'm an alcoholic
chapter 4 we agnostics in the preceding
chapters you have learned something of
alcoholism we hope we have made clear
the distinction between the alcoholic
and the non alcoholic if when you
honestly want to you find you cannot
quit entirely or if when drinking you
have little control over the amount you
take you are probably alcoholic if that
be the case you may be suffering from an
illness which only a spiritual
experience will conquer don't go into
your mind alone it's not a safe
neighborhood let go and let God live and
let live halt don't get too hungry angry
lonely or tired pass it on
[Music]
Alcoholics Anonymous the story of how
many thousands of men and women have
recovered from alcoholism
you
pick out this new site I found it's
called in the rooms comm you can
register for free and basically there's
online video meetings every two hours
there's different different fellowships
you can join - aw coholic synonymous so
it's pretty cool
online video meetings AAA meetings
online with your webcam and audio you
don't have to show yourself if you don't
want but I thought it was pretty cool so
I wanted to pass it on in the rooms comm
check it out
I go to meetings and I see those 12
promises up on the wall and those
statements give me a lot of hope that do
they give you hope
yeah me too you know I'm going to be
able to handle situations which used to
bath clean and so on and so forth so a
promise is basically any statement that
gives you hope because that's what those
statements are their statements of hope
turn to the cover page of the book the
cover page where the very first thing on
it is Alcoholics Anonymous this is what
it looks like notice what the authors
say on this page Alcoholics Anonymous
the story of how many thousands of men
and women have recovered from alcoholism
does that give you hope that gives me
hope to what I learned as a result of my
sponsor taking me through this list of
instructions in this book as I
discovered that all the steps have
promises with the exception of step one
the promises are not located on page 83
and 84 those are called the nine step
promises and we'll be talking about
those in the third session so anytime
you go through the book and you find a
statement that gives you hope that's a
promise
you
we're going to open our meeting with a
quiet time and follow it with the
set-aside prayer
you
God please help me set aside everything
I think I know about myself the 12 steps
the big book the meetings my disease and
you God so I may have an open mind and a
new experience with all these things
please let me see the truth amen
thank you