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Source: Unidentified Historical Recording – Fellowship Review Recording 879 – Date Unknown.mp3 File: sam-h-ca-workshop-carrying-the-steps-and-spiritual-growth-ca-date-unknown-archive-879.mp3 Duration: 00:57:35
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Alright, good morning everybody. My name is Sam H. and I am a recovered member of Cocaine Anonymous. Welcome, welcome. This is truly an honor to get up here and do this this morning. I want to thank Georgetown CA for hosting this and I want to thank my friend Sarah for asking me, giving me the privilege to come out here and do this. This is indeed an honor. I want to thank all the way she so lovingly puts it, all the elves for the hard work that they put out there.
I'm going to try to indulge in a little bit of all of that back there. Anyway, what we're going to do here today is I'm going to give you the Reader's Digest version of how I carry people through the steps. Due to time constraints, I can't do it exactly word for word. I'll hit the highlights of what I have highlighted. I'll cover the notes that I have in my book and that sort of thing. To get things started though, there's a few things that we have to get out of the way.
My disclaimer, and I make this to the men or the people that I work with, is this. If I say anything here today that you cannot reconcile with the big book, the book is right and I'm wrong every single time. I will try to share with you my experience, strength, and hope. I will try to pull you with a vision, which is all that my job or anybody else who sponsors, that's all our job is to do, is to pull you to a vision that will get you a relationship with your Creator.
I work with a couple of guidelines. I work with spiritual consent. Whether you know it or not, you've given me spiritual consent by showing up here this morning. Something else that I would like to point out is that when you got up this morning, you may have thought that you made a decision to come here this evening or this morning. What I understand is that God has directed us all here today. Much like the book says that by nature it's going to be controversial, I'm here to disturb you today.
Just bear that in mind. Just know that we're all gathered here for a new experience. Just be mindful of that. I understand that God moves me today. I work with the spiritual law of caring when I work with people. The spiritual law of caring is very simple. It states that if through a course of action you show me that you don't care, I can't care and I won't. There are too many people out there that do want to hear this message and do want to do the work.
The big book tells me that I don't chase after the man who doesn't want the real answer. There are a couple of different reasons. A. I'm burning up God's time. I have to be a good steward of God's time. B. I may spoil a later opportunity. The flip side of that is that if through a course of action you show me that you do care, I have to care and I will. We will get through this work together and we will both have an experience with it.
What's been my experience is, like it points out in the book, that the new man will help me more than I will help the new man. Because invariably I have found, and I am anticipating it here today, that I will say something that I need to hear. A moment of truth for me. A moment of clarity for me. So, what I want to do, the whole idea that our fellowship has been built upon is directing us back to our Creator.
And from the very first meeting that you ever walk into it or not, or whether you know it or not, takes us to that direction. What's the first thing that we do? The first thing we do is a moment of silence. We did it here this morning. That's meditation. The second thing we do, we say the serenity prayer. What's the first word in the serenity prayer? Hello.
[00:05:00]
So, don't let that be a barrier. I'll get into that a little bit later here today when we start getting into re-agnostics and that kind of stuff and we start doing the second step type stuff. So, what we're going to do here today is we're going to try to strengthen. I'm giving you tools so that when you get, and this is one of my favorite sayings when I'm working with one of the people I sponsor, is that this whole idea is to get you on this side of the table.
So, I'm going to show you some of the tools that I use, and later on we'll go through the four step and I'll show you how I write inventory today. So, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to do two minutes of silent meditation followed by the set-aside prayer. I have it written in the front of my book, and I will read it to you, and I would encourage you to write it in the front of your book if you don't have it there already so that when you're working with the person, you have it readily available for a couple of different reasons.
A, you can just read it as you pray it, right? And B, you're showing this person that you're not asking them to do anything that you're not willing to do yourself. Okay? So, let's do two minutes of silent meditation. Okay. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Okay, I'm going to read the set-aside prayer, and you can jot it down, the version that we're going to use here this morning, and then we will pray it, okay?
It goes like this. God, thank you for setting aside everything I think I know about myself, the 12 steps, this book, the meetings, my disease, and you, God. God, thank you for setting aside everything I think I know about myself, the 12 steps, this book, the meetings, my disease, and you, God. God, thank you for setting aside everything I think I know about myself, the 12 steps, this book, the meetings, and you, God.
So I may have an open mind and new experience with all these things.
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Silence. Everybody ready? A new experience. Silence. Everybody ready? Set-aside prayer. God, thank you for setting aside everything I think I know about myself, the 12 steps, this book, the meetings, my disease, and you, God. I may have an open mind and a new experience with all these things. Thank you for allowing me to see the truth. Amen. Alright. It's very important that we work with the set-aside prayer, because as I was taught, everything that I think I know stands in the way of me having a new experience.
So I would ask that everything that you think you know about these things, you leave in the parking lot today. Let's have a new experience. Let's walk out of here new human beings. Okay? Something else that I was taught is that my prayers in all spiritual matters that I embark upon should evolve as my spiritual journey is unfolded. So my prayers today resemble very little the prayers that I said when I got here.
And I'll give you an example. The set-aside prayer that I work with today goes something like this. 2012 set-aside prayer. Creator, thank you for setting aside everything I think I know about myself, my spiritual journey, the books I read, my family, my business, spiritually advising, interconnectedness, all other spiritual matters, and you, God. So I may have an open mind and new experience in each moment of every day with all these things.
Thank you for allowing me to appreciate my truth in all matters. Okay, I kind of struggled this morning. I was thinking about using that here today, but I thought that maybe we'd just keep it kind of simple here today. But I wanted to share that with you because this is about the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience. And if my prayers are not evolving, where's the growth? We start out on the title page.
And I may be going back and forth here this morning as things come to me because I have been deluged by a lot of thoughts over the last couple of days. And I want to try to get as much information out there. And I want to run the show. And what I've got to remember is that God's in control of this right here. And the message that He would have delivered will be delivered today. So we go to the title page which says Alcoholics Anonymous on it, right?
That's all it says. And the reason why I was taught that we go back to this is because we're talking about coming at life completely different than you ever have before. And it starts out with something as simple as how we read a book. Because until I came into this fellowship and in this manner of living, I had never read a book like this. Matter of fact, I didn't do much reading at all. I read technical manuals that had to do with my work and a few other magazines which I really only just looked at the pictures.
Okay? So it was important for me to do this. So we go back to page one, right? Now, today, every book I read, I read in this fashion. Okay? And I'm grateful for the men who carried the message to me because there's a lot of great information in the first part of the book that may or may not be covered out there. So we read Alcox Anonymous, right? And then we turn to the next page. It says other books.
And this is where the list… Later on, we'll talk about the general service approved literature, right? Well, this is the list that is approved is approved by the World Service Office, both in Cocaine Anonymous and our Father Fellowship A&A. So, it's the 12 Steps of 12 Traditions, Alcoholics Anonymous comes of age as Bill sees it, Dr.
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Bob and the good old timers pass it on, daily reflections, experience, strength and hope, booklets, came to believe, living sober, AA in prison, inmate to inmate. So when we're talking in meetings, these are the only literature that we should be referring to. Alright? Because we need to be respectful of the tradition. The traditions are in place to hold my ego in check because as I come into meetings and I want to share whatever it is I want to share about, right, that's not appropriate.
And my sponsor did a very good job of teaching me what was appropriate to say in meetings and what was not appropriate to say in meetings. And so if I'm not sharing from one of these approved literatures here, then I'm being inappropriate and I'm breaking traditions. Because, you know, that's kind of old behavior for me, right? Doing whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it and don't give a dang about anybody else.
So, I come in, I'm respectful. If I'm in an AA meeting, I don't talk about my drug use. That's why I go to CA meetings. I'm only supposed to be sharing in a general way anyway. So, be mindful of that when you go into meetings. Alcoholics Anonymous, first promise in the book. Here we are, we're only the second page into it and already promises come into light. The story of how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism, right?
Recovered, past tense, right? We're not recovering, right? And in a few pages here, we're going to get into what it is that I have recovered from, okay? But for right now, just focus on the past, that it's in the past tense and this is the first promise of the book. It's the fourth edition. When I first got sober, there used to be a circle triangle on this page right here. And so, this is the opportunity I take to share that information with the people that I work with as it was shared with me.
I draw a circle triangle in my book today and on the bottom, I put recovery. As I'm looking at my page, on the left side of the triangle is unity and on the right side of the triangle is service, right? These are the three sides. You've got mind, body, and soul as one human being. That's what the circle triangle represents. It's an ancient spiritual symbol, okay? And without all three sides of the triangle, you are not a whole human being and in lies the suffering that we experience drunk or not drunk.
So, recovery. The reason why it's on the bottom is that this is our foundation, right? It's recovery. It's recovery of the mind. It is accomplished by doing the work as outlined in the book and covering the 12 steps. It is governed by those principles that lie behind those steps. Recovery, unity. The unity side of the triangle, that covers our body, right? That is governed by the principles behind the 12 traditions.
And, you know, this is going to be interactive, okay? We're going to talk, you know, I'm going to throw some stuff out there, so, you know, it's going to be real free form, alright? But I asked the people I work with questions, so if I'm going to do that here today, then I need to ask some questions. And we're going to be, you know, the people who wrote this book spent a lot of time in step one for a reason, okay?
So we may spend a lot of time the first couple of hours here in step one, but we're going to, you know, I think it's important that we do that. Unity, yeah, you know, this is the second side of the triangle. This is meetings, right? It's recovery of the body, right? First one is recovery of the mind, this is recovery of the body. We go to meetings. Why do we go to meetings? Not all at once. Not all at once.
Right, okay? You're all right, but let me stretch your vision here, okay? The reason why I was told we go to meetings is to place myself in a position for God to use me. And when I do that, everything that you just said, that all of you just answered, gets added unto me. Right? But I go there first to demonstrate the power of God in my life. I get in front of, I put myself, I get there early, I stay late, and I put myself in front of people saying, how are you doing today?
And I find the person who is having a worse day than I am, and I share a message of hope out of the book, which is why we carry our book to meetings, right?
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I share a message of hope out of the book to see what I can do to make their day get better, and as a result, my day gets better. Because I promise you, there's no way that you can take a person that is having a bad day and get them to smile and not be smiling when you walk away. I just don't think it's possible. It's not been my experience. So, that's why we go to meetings. We go to meetings to get hooked up to the power, to get that power transfer going through us, right?
And then as a result, the fellowshipping and all that kind of stuff gets added unto me. Third side of the triangle is service. This is recovery of the soul, right? Now, there's some service in working with others, right? But what my understanding and what's been my experience is that's 12-step work. When I'm sponsoring people, spiritually advising people, taking people through the work, meeting my sponsees or my proteges is what I like to call them, that's what the book calls them, at meetings, that sort of stuff, that's 12-step work.
What was introduced to me as service work is I chair meetings. I make coffee. I pick up the coffee cups, right? I'm the greeter at the door, right? And I greet everyone. I don't just hug the pretty girls, right? But, you know, that's service work, okay? Getting involved in your home group, holding a position in your home group, that's service work, okay? That's the service work that I consider the third side of the triangle because it's me getting an opportunity to experience random acts of anonymous kindness, humility, right?
I remember earlier in my sobriety, my sponsor told me, he said, Sam, I want you to, this was back when you could smoke in meetings. He said, I want you to pick up the ashtrays and clean up the cigarette butts. I said, but I don't smoke. He said, I didn't ask you that. It's about getting out of yourself. It's about becoming of service, right? Becoming useful once again, right? Because that, if you look up the word recovered, one of the definitions is to be brought back to a useful condition, you know?
I don't know about y'all, but when I walked into these rooms, I was of no real help or no real use to anyone, including myself. I think my favorite definition, and they're all good, but one of my favorite ones is, this is recovered, right? Having been returned to good health or normal condition. Yeah, yeah, normal. As normal as I think I've ever been. But anyway, so that's the circle triangle, right?
And it's imperative to live a productive, successful life as a recovered alcoholic dope addict that we have all three sides working in our lives. And yes, I read the book to the men I work with, and I encourage you to do the same. The book was read to me, and I told the guy, hey, I know how to read, and he said, just sit there and be quiet, right? And I did, and I'll be forever grateful that he did.
And when I say it, the idea is to get you on this side of the table. The greater understanding that I have gained about this book has always been when I'm on this side of the table. I've had some great growth, don't get me wrong, and some great understandings as I have done the work for myself, but it's when I am pulling the other man with the vision is when I have learned more about this book. And you can ask the people that I work with.
If they come to me and they start telling me, well, Sam, where do you find that in the book, right? My simple disclaimer answer is, you're not working with enough people. Because if you're working with enough people, you'll know where to find that stuff in the book. And there's an answer to every question we face in life in this book. You just got to know where to find it. The next page, it talks about, this is where the label, it says, this is AA general service conference approved literature.
That's what we're looking for. We're looking for that. Because this is a cocaine anonymous function here, I called the World Service office and I checked,
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and those little red books that you see, those are conference approved literature for CA. So don't freak out if you walk into the meeting and you see them reading that book. That's why I called World Service, because I freaked out. I was like, hey, it's approved. So, table of contents, chapter, preface, forward to the first edition, forward to the second edition, forward to the third edition, forward to the fourth edition, the doctor's opinion, Bill's story, there is a solution, more about alcoholism, we agnostics, how it works, into action, working with others, to wives, the family afterward, to employers, and a vision for you.
That will encompass the first 164 pages. Actually, it encompasses the first 174 pages, which we refer to as the recovery text. And if you look at my book, you can see pretty much where I stay. I don't get back off into the stories too much. I mean, I have my own story, and I don't remember most of it. So, you know, I'm not going to remember most of theirs. I do spend time, because my lineage goes back to Dr. Bob, That didn't sound right.
But I do. There's some great information, and we'll make reference to it here today. Dr. Bob's Nightmare, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, the birth of our society dates from the first day of permanent sobriety. Dr. Bob's Nightmare, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, the birth of our society dates from the first day of permanent sobriety. The first day of permanent sobriety. I'm so glad that they talk about that so early in the book.
Permanent sobriety. Relapse is not part of recovery. Okay? What do you think the leading cause of relapse is? Not doing the work. Not getting tapped in. But it's really simple. It's sobriety. You've got to be sober to relapse, right? But, so, seriously though. Permanent sobriety. I came in October 11, 1999. I got busy in this realm, and I have no relapses, right? I did the work, and I sat down. They told me, sit down, shut up.
I'm going to read the book to you. I sat down, I shut up, and I let him read the book to me. I followed the instructions. He said, go left. I went left. Right? He said, you've got to finish your amends. I finished my amends. Okay? So, permanent sobriety. It can be achieved, right? You don't have to go, I'm here to promise you today, if nobody has ever promised you before, you do not have to go in and out, in and out, in and out.
Promise you. Normally, I would read each one of these stories just to show the new person that I'm not asking him to do something I'm not willing to do myself, but because of the confines of time, I'm going to move forward on that. I do have a couple of stories that are highlighted in there, which are people from my lineage whose stories are in the book. This is the preface, okay? I'm going to go over the preface a little bit.
It says, this is the fourth edition. Those of you who are not carrying a fourth edition need to get a fourth edition. Why, Sam? Because what are the people coming out of these recovery and treatment centers carrying? They're carrying a fourth edition, right? So, when I'm reading the book to them, and they're following along, right, and I get to the page right here, and my preface starts out different because I'm still in the third edition holding on to this old experience.
That's my study manual. It's got all my notes. Well, why don't you have a new experience and get a new study manual? So, we need to get up to speed, right? And I did that, and I had an experience. I held on to my third edition. I held on to my study manual, right? And I'm reading, and I'm on different pages because in the first part of the book, it doesn't all jive, right? And what I noticed is the guy sitting across the table was not paying attention to what I was Sharing with him instead. He's flipping back and forth trying to find the numbers and the page and and so I Saw where me holding on to an old experience was shortchanging the newcomer
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Because my pride my ego to hold on to my stuff so I replaced it with a fourth edition. I pretty much get a new book every year and go through it and have a new experience with it every year. Because this book has become the basic text, oh and let me point this out right here, don't ever let anybody read your book for you and when I work with guys and I read to them, one of the assignments I always give is to have them read ahead, right?
You need to be reading ahead as we get together over the next several weeks to accomplish this because I want them going through that book and asking themselves what it means to them, right? So I always have them read ahead because I don't know about any of you all but for me this book reads different almost daily and it should, right? We're emotional creatures, right? And I'm not feeling the same emotions to the same intensity day in and day out.
So because this book has become the basic text for our society and has helped such large number of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists strong sentiment against any radical changes being made in it. So don't take the liberty to make any changes in it, all right? Just read the black words, okay? Therefore the first portion of this volume describing the AA recovery program has left largely untouched in the course of revisions made for the second, third and fourth editions.
The doctor's opinion has been kept intact just as it was originally written in 1939 by the Dr. William D. Silkworth, our society's great medical benefactor and I'll be forever grateful that they left it that way because it explained a lot to me and we'll get into that here in a little bit. We're going to jump forward to the first edition. We have alcoholics, this is where it talks about what we recover from, right?
We have alcoholics anonymous are more than 100 men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body, all right? There it is again, it's past tense, recovered, right? And then it tells us what we recover from, a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. It only seems hopeless, right? Why? Later on in the book it tells us because of those worldly clamors, mostly those within myself, right?
I live in delusion and I can't see past the end of my nose, right? And I think, man, this is it. But I promise you there's no situation in life that is not able to be overcome. So it only seems hopeless and it's a hopeless state of mind and body, right? So I am not hopeless today, so therefore I have recovered, right? And I start becoming driven by different things today, instead of being driven by fear I'm driven by two alternatives every single day, right?
And we'll get into that here in a little bit, right? I also, I get responsibilities heaped upon me when I start introducing myself as recovered, either in a one-on-one situation or in meetings, right? It talks about never avoid these responsibilities, right? We'll get into it later in working with others. And it gives us a whole list of these responsibilities that we must abide by. Many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person and besides we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all.
I do not avoid spiritual confrontation with anyone. All the way down to the men that I work with at work, I should say the people I work with at work, right? They know I'm trying to grow in a spiritual fashion and so therefore I try to be a great representative of our fellowship and of this book and of most importantly my God. So when I'm at work there are some days I have to be able to find my God in that work, right?
If you're in a recovery center, treatment center, you need to be able to find the God in being there, okay? It's there. I got a little note over here that says, don't seek acceptance from others, right?
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I don't need your approval to grow spiritually, okay? Whether you're in these rooms or you're not, this goes back to the people that I work with or other people that may or may not be guided by spiritual principles, right? I don't need their acceptance to live this manner of living. I did for years, I needed their acceptance for years and when I didn't get it, it continued to turmoil. And besides our way of living has its advantages for all.
You may be the only big book anyone ever sees, you know? This is about attraction, not promotion. Are your actions attracting people to what you have? Maybe not so much the fellowship, right? We're attracting people to our fellowship as well. But just everybody you come into contact with, are you an example of spiritual living? If that's what they perceive you as, they go, wow, man, if that's spiritual living, I don't want nothing to do with it, right, if I'm nuts all the time.
So be mindful of that. Down here, this is the reason why I introduced myself the way I introduced myself. When writing or speaking publicly about alcoholism, drug addiction, we urge our fellowship to omit his personal name, designating himself instead as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, right? Well, we're Cocaine Anonymous, so I introduced myself as a member of Cocaine Anonymous, right? Dr. Bob even felt that it was a breach of our traditions to remain anonymous in these rooms, right?
So therefore, I introduced myself first and last name. I don't have to be anonymous in here. It tells me later on that I need to be anonymous at the level of press, radio, TV, and films, right? So when I go on the Dr. Phil show, well, wait a minute, I haven't been invited yet, but you know, then is when I, you know, and I have had the opportunity through my spiritual journey, I have been interviewed for newspaper articles and that sort of thing, named Recovery in the Holidays.
I just happened to get sober in October. I faced the holidays straight away, which was just an excuse for me and my drinking and using career that I could drink openly, like Bill talks about, right? I could get plastered. I had that, well, you know, it is Christmas and blah, blah, blah, right? But I really never needed an excuse to drink or get high. So yeah, I had that opportunity and I did not share my name.
I told her I was a member of Cocaine Anonymous. I do not speak for Cocaine Anonymous. I am simply a member here to share my experience, strength, and hope with this and I will not give you my name. And she continued to ask me for my name and when I wouldn't give it, she finally pulled the plug on the interview. So I am okay with that, okay? Because I did my part, right? I kept my side of the street clean for once, okay?
Okay, so turning the page, the only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking. I wish when they wrote the traditions, they would have left the word honest in there, okay? Because what I have found, and in the chapter, How It Works, they talk about that, that those who do not recover are those who are unable to get honest with themselves. So when you come into these rooms and you start embarking upon a body of work such as we're doing here today, you have got to have an honest desire within yourself to have a new experience with life.
That's what we're talking about here today. No matter where you're at in your journey, whether you're brand new, you've been at it for a while, wherever you're at, it's to have a new experience, right? An honest desire to allow God to take you to a greater place. We're not allied with any particular faith, sect, or denomination, nor do we oppose anyone, right? I had to do some inventory work to get to the other side of that, okay?
You may also have to do some inventory work. But in the meantime, just take what you can use and discard the rest, okay? Get you some hope working in your life.
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The next paragraph, we shall be interested to hear from those who are getting results from this book, particularly from those who have commenced work with other alcoholics. I told you all earlier, I was telling some people earlier that I went to the anniversary, I believe it was the 67th anniversary of AA in Austin, Thursday night. And they were talking, they did a little bit of history on how it got started here.
And a newspaper guy, I believe is what they were saying, a newspaper guy showed up in Austin with a book, right? The big book, because alcoholics are anonymous, let me clarify that, okay? He showed up here with the big book, right? There were no meetings. He created the fellowship he craved by doing the work that's outlined in the book. So that's why it talks about, if you notice, it doesn't say we are interested to hear from those who are getting results from going to meetings.
It says we are interested from hearing results from this book. That's why I say my disclaimer, if I ever say anything you can't reconcile with the big book, the book is right and I'm wrong. Forward to the second edition, I'm going to skip down to the middle of the page, it says 150,000, alcoholics anonymous has mustered into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000 recovered alcoholics, there's that word again.
You think they're trying to send a message home? I think so. Groups are to be found in each of the United States, all the providences of Canada, AANCA has flourishing communities in the British Isles, Scandinavia countries, South Africa, South America, Mexico, Alaska, Australia, and Hawaii. All told, promising beginnings have been made in some 50 foreign countries and U.S. possessions. Some are just now taking shape in Asia.
Many of our friends encourage us by saying this is but a beginning, only the augury of a much larger future ahead. Your best days are out ahead of you. Y'all are the new leaders, the people who came before us, my spiritual mentors, they're passing on, they're moving on to the next round. It's our responsibility to further this thing, to continue to make it grow. CA is worldwide, by the way. I have had the opportunity to serve all the way up to the world level and back down again.
While I was serving at the world level, I met people from all around the world. That's why it's called an international organization, a world convention. I'm sorry. If I remember, wasn't last year's just over in Europe somewhere, the world convention? Or was it this year? It was in London. This year or last year? Last year. You see, last year we were over there with the Lions, bless their hearts. By the way, we're in Texas, so in Texas, you can say whatever you want, so long as you put a bless their heart or a God bless you on the end of it.
Yeah, so 150,000 recovered alcoholics, only in Augury. The word Augury means an indication, a sign. This is just an indication. Look around you. Look at this room. Look at how many people are here this morning. It's an indication that this thing is real and it's growing and you can be part of it. Okay. Very important stuff right here. I'm going to go over this. I'm probably going to read a page and a half here and then I'll come back and we'll talk a little bit about it.
All right. Very important stuff. The spark that was to flare into the first AA group was struck in Akron, Ohio in June 1935 during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician. Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford groups of that day.
He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical saint by AA members and whose story of the early days of our society appears in the next pages. From this, doctor, the broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God.
Prior to his journey to Akron, that broker had worked hard with many alcoholics.
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theory that only an alcoholic could help an alcoholic, but he had succeeded only in keeping sober himself. The broker had gone to Akron on a business venture which had collapsed, leaving him greatly in fear that he might start drinking again. He suddenly realized that in order to save himself, he must carry his message to another alcoholic. That alcoholic turned out to be the Akron physician. This physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma, but had failed.
But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth's description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster. He sobered, never to drink again, up to the moment of his death in 1950. This seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no non-alcoholic could. It also indicated that strenuous work, one alcoholic with another, was vital to permanent recovery.
I'll stop there for right now and I'm going to go over some stuff here. If you turn back to the title pages of the second edition, the very last line in it says, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, right? If you notice, there was nothing that he did. He was relieved of it, okay? And the reason why I point that out is because it's not what I do in recovery, it's why I do it, you know?
Don't worship the things that we do in the spiritual pathway. Worship that which brings you to those things, right? Don't worship prayer and meditation, working with others, going to meetings, inventory, nightly reviews, right? Why do we do those things? We do those things to grow closer to our Creator. So worship your Creator. He's the one who has relieved me of my obsession. On October 11th, somewhere about 11 o'clock when I'm on the back loading dock of the facility that I was working at and I looked up, and I don't know why I looked up, I just looked up and said, I cannot live like this anymore.
If you notice, I didn't say I cannot drink like this anymore. I cannot use like this anymore because those were always my solution. The book tells me those are symbols, right? It's the way I was coming at life that had to change, okay? So be mindful of that. It's not what we do. We've been relieved of this, right? And if you reference Dr. Bob's nightmare, it says, I used to get, this is Dr. Bob, I used to get terribly upset when I saw my friend's drink and I knew I could not, but I schooled myself to believe that though I had once the same privilege, I had abused it so frightfully that it was withdrawn, right?
It was withdrawn, it had been withdrawn from him. God makes that possible, right? The broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism. This is a progressively fatal disease and it kills and it kills every single time it goes untreated. We have been given a gift, those of us in recovery, to pull the man and the woman who still suffers out of the gates of death, to set them on a path and we need to follow through with that.
He talks about, though he could not accept all the tenants of the Oxford groups. The word tenants means principles, beliefs, doctrines, okay? From my understanding, I had the opportunity to talk to some of our archivists in early sobriety and from what my understanding is, is that the Oxford groups were trying to address everything, right? And they were wanting Bill to quit smoking and to quit drinking coffee and he wasn't willing to do that, okay?
So, yeah, so that's the tenants that he couldn't get with.
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But he was convinced of the need of moral inventory, right? Kind of what I was talking about earlier, about not wanting to do everything I want to do. Confession of personality defects, there's some inventory work, right? Get free of the person that came in here. Restitution of those harmed, right? Amends, the amends process. Helpfulness to others, working with others, and if you notice, it says helpfulness to others, that means in and out of the rooms, right?
You know, there's a reason why that gal at the grocery store wears a name badge. Try calling her by name next time. The necessity of belief and the dependence upon God. Necessity, right? Dependence. I got to get this going on, I got to get this, right? The mottos, back in the, later on in the book, we probably won't get to that here today, so I'm going to share it with you now. I was reading in Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers, approved literature, if you ask Dr.
Bob what he meant by first things first, he would always tell you, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all else shall be added unto you. And so has been my experience. See, when I get this going on right here, and if you notice, I'm not doing this, okay? Because my thinker's broken. When I get this going on, all this is added to me. All this, remember, that's why we go to meetings. I go to meetings, I place myself in a position to get used by God, and all of a sudden now I get the fellowship with all you beautiful people.
The broker had worked hard with many alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic could help another alcoholic. He had succeeded only in keeping sober himself. You know, for years, just about the last year or so, I always thought that that said keeping himself sober. But it doesn't. It says keeping sober himself, right? It's about the power transfer, and for me, that's how the mental obsession is lifted.
The mind being the greater aspect of my disease, therefore I have to have the psychic change. How does that occur? It's by placing myself in a position for God to use me so that the power transfer can happen. Because when I'm trying to help you to a better understanding of your creator, I can't be obsessing on how I'm going to get my hands on booze and dope. Just impossible. So that's how I keep sober myself.
Working with others. It's very important that we work with others. We're going to talk about that here in a minute. He suddenly realized, right, and most of the time when I have found these moments of clarity, that in order to save himself, he must carry his message to another alcoholic. I get a little note over to the side of that line that says the psychic change, right? It already started to occur in him and he wasn't even aware of it.
The physician, now he's shared it with Dr. Bob, he had tried spiritual means to resolve the alcoholic dema, but had failed, right? So he's a nominal churchman probably, he's going to church and then he's going home and he's cracking open a beer and he's getting loaded and he can't figure out why. Because he's not aware of the physical side of it. But once Bill introduces him to what Silky talks about in here, the mental obsession, the physical craving, that sort of stuff, well now Bob's armed with the information that he needed to know in order to pursue the spiritual remedy.
And hopefully we can kind of encourage you that the willingness to go after this with the vigor that you'd never been able to muster before. He's sobered never to drink again up to the moment of his death, right? It's proved that one alcoholic could affect another alcoholic as no non-alcoholic could, right? You're a gift. You're going to be able to make a difference in someone else's life. It is also indicated that strenuous work one alcoholic with another is vital to permanent recovery.
So you must get on this side of the table. You've got to be the mentor. You can't always be the protege. Right? It's strenuous work. For me what that tells me what strenuous work is for me is not going to meet, not picking up my protege and going to a meeting with my protege.
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That's not strenuous work. And strenuous work one-on-one, doing the work as outlined in the book, will always supersede a meeting. So I tell the people I work with, don't ever have an appointment with me and call me up saying, I've got to get to a meeting, okay? Because that's not going to fly with me. Remember spiritual consent? What that spiritual consent looks like is you gave me permission to hold you to a higher level of accountability than you're willing to hold yourself to.
And don't worry about me because I've got those men in place as well, okay? And they do a very good job of it, okay? Hence, the two men set out to work almost frantically upon an alcoholic's arrival at the ward of Akron City Hospital. Frantically, desperate or wild with excitement and passion. So what you've got to do is you've got to ask yourself, am I trying to freely give what was so freely given to me frantically, with a wild passion, right?
Or am I just trying to, you know, work with the person who approaches me, right? We'll get into that later on on page 25. So I have asked and I've been through this book a couple of times and I've yet to see where it says anything about waiting a year before I can sponsor somebody, right? Or waiting any period of time. When we first got the CA fellowship going here in the Austin area, it was here and then it went away for a while and then we had this new resurgence.
You know, we had cats that were 30 days sober sponsoring other cats, you know? Because we were the only ones, right? So as a matter of fact, Bill and Bob, they finished up the work, the body of work that they had going on and they frantically sought out AA number three, the very first case, a desperate one, recovered immediately and became AA number three. He never had another drink. You think there might be something to this?
Right? Let's get into action. Place yourself in a position. That's, you know, you've got to get that power transfer working. Break time? Let's take a break then. Okay. Cool. Thank you. Ten minutes.