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Whether you join us in the morning or at night, there's nothing better than a sober sunrise. We hope that you enjoy today's speaker >> and in this chapter there is a solution. We're going to talk about two powers.

We're going to talk about the power of the fellowship and we're going to talk about the power of the vital spiritual experience. And if we who are powerless could get both of these powers in our lives, then maybe we could overcome alcoholism also. On page 17, for those who are powerless, he writes the prescription.

Here he talks about the two powers. Ebie presented Bill with a solution. And now Bill's going to present us with a solution in the same way.

He said there is a solution. And as a friend of mine back home says there's many different types solutions as there are people in AA. And I say if you look at the chapter heading on page 17, it'll tell you how many solutions there are.

There is a solution one. He said we and there's that big word again. We of Alcoholics Anonymous know thousands of men and women who were just as hopeless as Bill.

Nearly all have recovered. They have solved the drink problem. Said we are average Americans.

Today we can say that we're average citizens of the world because of my last count there was a a in 154 countries around the world. So all sections of this country and occupations are represented as well as many political, economic, social and religious backgrounds. We are people who normally would not mix.

And I think that we're probably the most mixed up group of alcoholics in the world here this morning here in Laughlin, Nevada. You know, if we didn't have alcoholics to talk alcoholics anonymous to talk about or drinking and recovery there from, I wonder what we would drink about talk about. There's hardly anything.

Told you had a good memory. It's just short. We wouldn't we wouldn't have anything to talk about.

But we are, it says that we are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship and a friendliness which is indescribably wonderful. And I hear that this morning and before the meeting, all the talk and the laughter and the going on.

That's the fellowship of alcohol is anonymous. The spirit of alcohol is anonymous. And I got sober on the spirit of alcohol is anonymous.

That was the only thing keeping me here. So it's a powerful thing. The fellowship of alcohol is anonymous kept me sober for quite some time.

Now he's going to describe this fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous by talking about something he already assumes that we know about it or he know thinks we already know about it. And all great teachers have always done this when they want to teach you something new. They would talk to you first about something you already know and use that as an example to teach you something new.

You know, we had a great teacher that lived 2,000 years ago and he was really good at this. When he wanted to teach something to the shepherd, he told he would tell him a story about sheep. But if he wanted to teach the same thing to the fisherman, he would change his story.

This time it would be about fish. Then when he went to the farmer, he talked about cattle and grains. All good teachers do this.

Bill is going to use the example of the great passenger ship. He said, "We are like the passengers of a great liner. the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness, and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to captain's table.

You know, Bill is referring to a time in the 30s when your mode of transportation from one continent to another was by the great ocean liners. And on those great ocean liners, they had what they call the steerage section. And people who were immigrants that didn't have very much money, they usually booked passage in the steering section way down in the bowels of the ship, very little fresh air, dormatory style living.

I called it the cheese sandwich section. Not very good down there. Now, if you had a little more money though and you wanted better accommodations, you could pay for fourth class and come up a deck or two.

Then you could go third class and come up another deck or two. Then you could go second class and come up another deck or two and each time the accommodations and the food were better. If you had enough money, you could go in what they call first class.

In first class they had big fine stateooms. They had great dining rooms. They had good food, fine waiters, access to fresh air all the time.

But that still wasn't the most elite place on the ship. If you had the right kind of money, >> old old money, >> old money, if you had the right religion, the right ethnic background, the right everything, you might be invited to dine at the captain's table. Just a few select people could do that.

And at the captain's table, you had the best of everything, the best service, the best food, the best everything. Now, it's a long, long ways from the captain's table to the steering section. And in the journey across the ocean, those two people should never have met each other.

In fact, most of those ocean liners even had separate stairwells. So the first class people never even had to see those who rode in the stage section. They had nothing whatsoever in common.

Then I think about the Titanic and the night it hit the iceberg and these two guys are standing there at the rail of the ship and one of them got his tuxedo on, his shiny shoes and his little bow tie and everything that goes with it. Standing next to him is the guy from the steering section. Got his old work overalls on, his old broans, never wore a tie in his life.

These guys had nothing whatsoever in common with each other until they jumped overboard. And when they jumped overboard and their butts hit that cold water, they had something in common. How in the hell do we save ourselves?

And they grabbed on to each other and held on to each other. And I doubt very seriously if the man from the captain's table asked for a financial statement from the man from the stere section. And when these two guys were rescued and got back on another ship or back on land, there was a feeling amongst them which was in describably wonderful.

This has always been true. When people escape from a common peril, there is a feeling that ties them together and it's one of the greatest feelings in the world. And that's what we got in the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.

We don't care who you are. We don't care where you came from. We don't care how much money you got.

We don't care what your education is. We don't care what your ethnic background is, what your religion is, or anything else. All we want to know is, are you an alcoholic?

And if you are, there is a feeling amongst us which is indescribably wonderful. Even though we are so different from each other, we are still bound together. Now watch him.

He's going to give us a warning. Unlike the feeling of the ship's passengers, however, our joy and escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. These two guys when they finally got back on shore they looked at each other they said we really don't belong together and they separated probably never to be again but we will always be alcoholic and this feeling we have for each other never goes away and we find it again in city after city after city and country after country.

One of the greatest things I've been able to experience in my lifetime is to go to an AA meeting in a foreign country and feel just exactly as good as I did at home. Even though I don't know those people, we are bound together because we're alcoholics. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element of the powerful semen which binds us.

But that in itself would never have held us together as we are now joined. In other words, this feeling we have for each other in the fellowship of alcoholics anonymous is one of the things that bind us together. But then he said that itself is not enough.

The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism.

Not the news of the fellowship but the news of the common solution. And later on we're going to see where the common solution is the spiritual experience brought about through the program of action. Now if we could get the power of the fellowship which supports us and helps us and if we could get the power of the spiritual experience which changes us and add the two together then that will be enough power to overcome our powerlessness over alcohol and we can recover from that condition.

I think one of the greatest tragedies that I see in the world today, and there's lots of tragedies going on in the world today, one of the greatest that I see is we people who are in the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous are spending literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, hundreds and hundreds and thousands of men and women work hours trying to attract other alcoholics to the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous when we've got thousands and thousands who are already members of Alcoholics Anonymous who are sitting around dying from untreated alcoholism because they're doing nothing about the common solution. And the reason they're doing nothing about the common solution is nobody's telling them about it. Nobody's talking about it.

Nobody's saying, "Look, here's the program of action." Nobody's saying, "Let me take you by the hand and walk with you so you can have a spiritual experience." And they're fellowship only. And after a while, they go back to drinking. and they said, "Well, AA don't work for us." No, they didn't work for AA.

They didn't do the program. And again, it's not their fault. It's our fault because we're not insisting that new people work the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

And we're letting them die around as thousands of us are dying every day who already members of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. I think it's our responsibility to see that every newcomer knows about page 17 and knows there's two panelers. the power of the fellowship and the power of the spiritual experience.

And we're not going to recover without both of them. Now, we might stay sober for a while, but we're not going to recover from alcoholism without both of them. No more preaching today.

Guarantee you that. Preached a little last night, preached just a little bit this morning. We'll try not to preach anymore.

A good textbook never tells you anything, but what it does, back it up and prove it. The first half of this chapter is designed to show you and I why fellowship alone is not sufficient. The last half of this chapter is used to show us the solution to alcoholism, the vital spiritual experience.

Let's look for just a few minutes at why fellowship alone is not sufficient and then we'll take a break. >> Let's go to page 20. He said, 'You may already have asked yourself why it is so all of us became so very ill from drinking.

Doubtless you are curious to discover how and why in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body. Now, if you're an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may already be asking, well, what do I have to do? It's the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically.

Remember last night we talked about precisely spec specifically with clear-cut directions. Well, here's one of those words. We shall tell you what we've done before going into detailed discussion.

May be wells to summarize some points as we see them. Now, how many times people have said to us, "I can take it or leave them alone. Why can't he?" Why don't you drink like a gentleman and quit?

That fella can't handle his liquor. Why don't you try a beer and wine and lay off the hard stuff? His willpower must be weak.

He could stop if he wanted to. She's such a sweet girl. I should think he'd stop for her sake.

The doctor told him that if he ever drank again, it would kill him. But there he is all it up again. Now these are commonplace observational drinkers which we hear all the time.

Back of them is a world of ignorance and misunderstanding. We see that these expressions refer to people whose reactions are very different from ours. >> Now we're going to look at two kinds of drinkers that these expressions that Joe just read would refer to them.

>> So modern drinkers have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it. They can take it or leave it alone. Remember we talked about them last night.

They have a couple of drinks. They get a slightly tipsy out of control beginnings of a nauseious feeling. Alcohol is no big deal for them.

If they have any problems with it, they simply leave it alone. Those expressions that Joe read would certainly refer to the moderate drinker. Then we have a certain type of hard drinker.

He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally and it may even cause him to die a few years before his time. Now, if a sufficiently strong reason, ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warnings of doctor becomes operative, if they do, this man can stop all or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need a little medical attention. >> Now, we call this guy the heavy or the hard drinker.

They drink like we alcoholics drink, but they are not alcoholic. If a good enough reason presents itself to them, they'll do one of two things. They may learn to moderate their drinking.

They do not have the physical allergy. They may quit drinking entirely and stay quit. They do not have the obsession of the mind.

They drink like us, but they're not alcoholic. And you and I see them all the time. They're the guy that said, "When I was in a service, I was an alcoholic also.

But when I got out of the service, I got married, went to church, quit drinking. Don't see why in the hell you can't." No, they're not alcoholic. The expressions that Joe read in the beginning would refer to the heavy drinker.

But what about the real alcoholic? Now, he may start off as a moderate drinker, which many of us did. He may or may not become a continuous hard drinker.

Some of us stayed periodic, but at some stage of his drinking career, begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption once he starts to drink. Now, then we're going to describe the real alcoholic. And when you see a description in there that fits you, would you please raise your hand?

We'd like to see if we're in a room full of real alcoholics. >> He said, "But at some stage of his drinking career, he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption once he starts to drink." >> Charlie talked last night about He talked last night about crossing over that line. He talked last night about crossing over that line, but I don't know what line he was talking about, but I know one thing, I was drunk when I went over it.

Okay, now here's the fell who's been puzzling you, especially in his lack of control. He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking is a real Dr. Jackal and Mr.

Hyde. He's seldom mildly intoxicated. He's always bore less insanely drunk.

Anybody like that in here? >> Yeah, beta. >> His disposition while drinking resembles his normal nature, but little.

Always get good-looking and out of debt as soon as I start drinking like that. >> He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. You let him drink for a day and he frequently becomes disgustingly and even dangerously antisocial.

We got any of those people in here? >> He has a positive genius for getting tied at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement. >> Anybody like that in here?

Always getting drunk at the wrong time. Now, everybody holds their hand up on this one. He's often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor.

But in that respect, he's incredibly dishonest and selfish. He often spe possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes and has a promising career ahead of him. Anybody like that in here?

I've never heard anybody but an alcoholic say that though. I've never heard an Alanon say it yet. He uses gifts to build up a bright outlook for his family and himself.

Then he pulls the structure down on his head by a sensely serious breeze. >> Anybody like that in here? >> He's he's a fellow who goes to bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep the clock around.

Yet early the next morning, he searches madly for the bottle he misplaced the night before. >> Any bottle hiders in here? >> If he can afford it, he may have liquor concealed all over his house to be certain no one gets his entire supply away from him to throw down the waste pipe.

Anybody spread them around wherever you might be. >> Phyllis and I used to buy a lug of whiskey, which is three fists, and one to share and one to hide from each other. As matters grow worse, he begins to use a combination of high-powered sedative and liquor to quiet his nerves so he can go to work.

Anybody ever have to have a little something in the morning? Then comes a day when he simply cannot make it and gets drunk all over again. Perhaps he goes to a doctor who gives him morphine or some sedentity to which to taper off.

Then he begins to appear at hospitals and treatments or excuse me, sanitariums. >> Yeah, never did taper off. I always tapered on for some reason.

I don't >> This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic as her behavior patterns buried, but this description should identify him roughly. Now, if our government has ever done anything right in the field of alcoholism, it's an education of the public as to what alcoholism is and what it isn't. Because of that, a lot of the stigma has been removed from alcoholism.

Many, many people are getting to us today before they have to do everything here that describes the real alcoholic. But I'll guarantee you if you real alcoholic, you found yourself in there somewhere. At least one of them are going to fit you.

In my case, practically every one of them. One in particular. 7 years after I got sober, I sold a 40 acre, 45,000 broiler chicken operation.

for years after that. Every once in a while I would run into the guy that bought it and sometimes he would wave and smile and say, "Hey, Charlie, we have found another one." And he's referring to partially empty vodka bottles. Yeah.

Behind corner posts, under rocks, hollow trees, fallen out of feed bins. Hell, he found them for years in there. Now, here's the question.

Why does he behave like this? If hundreds of experiences shown him that one drink means another debacle with all his attendant suffering and humiliation, why is it that he takes that one drink? Why can't he stay on the water wagon, the moderate drinker can, the heavy drinker can?

Why can't the alcoholic? What has become of the common sense and willpower that he still sometimes displays with respect to other matters? Perhaps there never will be a full answer to these questions.

Opinions vary considerably as to why the alcoholic reacts differently from normal people. We're not sure why once a certain point is reached, little can be done for him. We cannot answer the riddle.

We know that what the alcoholic keeps away from drink as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men. We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol, whatever into his system, something happens both in the bodily and mental sense which makes it virtually impossible for him to stop. The experience of any alcoholic will abundantly confirm this.

Now, these observations would be academic and pointless if our friend never took the first drink, thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion. Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind rather than in his body. >> Would you read that again, please?

>> Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind rather than his body. Now we must remember that always just before we take the first drink we are stone cold sober >> or stark raving sober >> or stark raving sober one of the two. And the real problem sin is in our mind telling us we can drink while sober rather than in the body that ensures that we can't drink.

Chances are you'll never go put your hand on a hot stove again to see if it'll burn you the second time. You know, I remember as a kid growing up back in the depression years, and there's there's a few of you in here old enough to remember that, too. And back in the 1930s, we didn't have very much.

We didn't have hot and cold running water. We didn't have forced air heat. Joe said his family was not so poor they had to live in a tent, but he said, "By God, if we'd had the money, we'd have lived in a tent." That's about how bad it was.

But I remember in those days, even though you didn't have anything, you were very poor people. Cleanliness was still next to godliness. And every Saturday night, everybody in the family had to take a bath.

Now, whether you needed a bath or not, it's beside the point. You still had to take one. And one night in the middle of the winter, mother had heated the bath water on the old heating stove in the living room.

Put it in a number three zinc wash tub sitting behind that stove. Now, every kid in the family takes a bath in the same water. I'm the baby of the family.

By the time it got to me, the crud would be about an inch thick on it. Mother said, "Get in there and get yourself clean." I thought to myself, "How in the hell did I get clean there?" But I didn't dare say that to her. Didn't talk to your parents that way in the 1930s.

I scraped the crud back. I got in the tub, began to wash myself. Heating stove standing here red hot.

Somehow, I managed to lean over and stick my rear against that hot stove. burned a blister on my rear end about as big as my hand. Hurt me worse than anything had ever hurt me before.

And do you know I've never had an obsession of mind to stick my ass on a hot stove since. I have never jerked my britches down backed up to a stove and said, "Burn me again." Now, alcohol has burned me over and over and over and over and over just as bad as that stove ever burned be. And for some strange reason, my mind cannot remember that left on my own resources.

I start thinking about drinking. And after a while, I think about only what it's going to do for me. That great sense of ease and comfort, that great exciting in control feeling that comes from the first couple of drinks.

And my mind keys in on that. I forget about the jail house, the hospitals, and the divorce courts. And I don't see a thing in the world wrong with taking a drink.

And I take a drink, and I trigger the allergy, and I end up drunk over and over and over again. Last paragraph, page 24. So, now when this sort of thinking is fully established, an individual with alcoholic tendencies, he has probably placed himself beyond human aid, and unless May go permanently insane.

we've placed oursel beyond human aid, then the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous will not bring about recovery because the Fellowship is made up of a group of human beings who are just as powerless over alcohol as I am. So, there's got to be a solution to that condition that we've just talked about. And page 25 gives it to us.

There is a solution. Let's go to page 25. Let's begin to look at the solution.

And we could see that the uh fellowship gave us enough power to support us for a while. But we were told that fellowship alone is not sufficient. And then it explained why fellowship alone is not sufficient.

So now on page 25, we'll start looking at the real solution to alcoholism. He said there is a solution and almost none of us like the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the convention of shortcomings which the process requires for a successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others and had to come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life if we've been living it.

When therefore we were approached by whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up a simple kit of spiritual tools laid on our feet. And we have found much of heaven have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of of existence of which we had not even dreamed. The great fact is just this and nothing less that we've had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life toward our fellows and toward God's universe.

The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our creator has entered our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves. And you notice up there it says the great fact is just this and nothing less.

That we've had deep and effective spiritual experiences. And there's a little asterisk there referring us down at the bottom of the page. It said fully explained on appendix 2.

And later on we'll refer to it on page 27. It says for further amplication see appendix 2. And on page 47 referring to the asterisk it says please see appendix two.

They want to make yeah must be important. >> Very important. They repeat it three times.

and they're talking about spiritual experiences and spiritual awakenings. And in the first printing of the book, they didn't have this little asterisk in the there and they didn't have the reference to the spiritual experience in the back of the book. And a lot of people would write into that little office to Bill and say, "Bill, what do you mean by spiritual experiences and spiritual awakenings?

We're not we're doing the same things that you're doing, but we're not having the same experiences that you have. What do you mean by that?" And you know, and it was very important for me looking back at it now that I know this because I had this spiritual experience mixed up with a bunch of things that I learned when I was seven or eight years old. Cuz when I was seven or eight years old, I told myself, I said, "Self.

If I ever get big enough, they can't catch me, I'm not going anymore to church, that is." And I got big enough they couldn't catch me. And I didn't go. So when I ride with Alcoholics Anonymous, I had the spiritual knowledge of a seven or eight year old boy, which was practically none.

And that that I did have was all mistaken and mis and mixed up and lots of emotionalism, things I didn't understand. The times that they would catch me take me to that revival. They had a revival there quite often in my area in the Southern Baptist, Southern Baptist, really southern.

And uh when I would get there and and they would be preaching all day and singing songs and having dinner on the ground and prayer meetings all day long and church way into the night, bored the heck out of me. But one night my aunt Mut and she's a big woman, Aunt Much. That's the reason they called her that.

But Aunt Much kind of got in the spirit of this thing that night and she began to jump up and down and she began to talk in a strange language that I never heard of before. Squealing and hollering, rolling around in the sawdust. Scared the heck out of me.

So when this book began to talk about spiritual experiences and spiritual awakenings, I thought that was what I was going to have to have. And I was dreading it. I'll tell you I was.

But thank God for people like me who didn't know any better. They put this information in the back of the book talking about spiritual experiences and spiritual awakenings. And this is these is used all throughout this book.

And they want to make real sure that I understand what they mean by that. So let's go back to page 569 and see what they mean by the term spiritual awakening. and spiritual experiences.

So on page 569, the term spiritual experience and spiritual awakening are used many times in this book which upon careful reading and we all know that alcoholics don't do careful reading shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms. Okay, the first paragraph we see something. We see that the term may be spiritual experience or it may be spiritual awakening.

And in either case, it's going to be a personality change sufficient to bring about recovery. Dr. Silkworth referred to this as a psychic change, a change in the way we think and the way we feel and our attitude.

So we could see several terms spiritual experience, spiritual awakening, personality change or psychic change all meaning the same thing. >> Spiritual experience happens suddenly like it did with Bill and some of the people in the back of the stories in the first book and then we have a spiritual awakening which developed slowly over a period of a long time. said, "Yet it is true that our first printing gave many readers the impressions that these personality changes or religious experiences must be in the nature of sudden and spectacular upheavalss.

Well, happily for everyone, this conclusion is erroneous." In the first few chapters, a number of sudden revolutionary changes are described, though it was not our intention to create such an impression. Many alcoholics have nevertheless concluded that in order to recover they must acquire an immediate and overwhelming God-consciousness followed at once by a vast change in feeling and outlook. Among our rapidly growing membership of thousands of alcoholics, such transformations, though frequent, are by no means the rule.

Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James calls the educational variety because they will develop slowly over a period of time. Now, Bill's was a sudden spectacular change. Some of the others in the stories in the back of the book were sudden spectacular changes.

But what he's saying here is that most of us it won't happen that way. Most of us will have the educational variety and we will change as we learn and as we apply slowly over a period of time. Sooner or later though, we awaken to the fact that we have changed also and then we'll call it a spiritual awakening.

So it really doesn't make any difference whether it's sudden and spectacular or whether it's a slow thing that involves over a period of time. In either case, it's going to be a personality change sufficient to bring about recovery. Now I can begin to think with this.

I can live with this kind of idea. But when you start talking about what Aunt Mut had in the Baptist church, I couldn't live with that idea at all because I was raised in the Southern Baptist church too. And my idea of a spiritual experience was an entirely different thing.

Thank God for this appendix that let me know what it really is. A change in my personality. My personality is made up by the way I think, by the way, my attitude and outlook upon life, people, places, and things in general.

That's what determines my personality. I come here restless, irritable, and discontented, filled with shame, fear, guilt, and remorse. If I can change from that to peace of mind, serenity, and happiness, I've undergone one hell of a change in my personality.

>> This educational variety of the type that we're having this weekend, right? We won't be the same after this weekend. None of us will.

>> None of us will. >> No. See, quite often, friends of the newcomer aware of the difference long before he is himself.

He finally realizes that he has undergone a profound alteration in his reaction to life. That such a change could hardly have been brought about by himself alone. What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self self-discipline.

With few exceptions, our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a power greater than themselves. Most of us think this awareness of a power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience. Our more religious members call it God consciousness.

But most emphatically, we wish to say that any alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light of our experience can recover provided he does not close his mind to all spiritual concepts. He can only be defeated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent denial. We find that no one needy with the spirituality of the program.

Willingness, honesty, and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery, but they are indispensable. There is a principle which is bar against all information which is proof against all argument and which cannot fail to keep a man everlasting ignorance and that principle is contempt prior to investigation. See I knew so many things that were not true when I arrived now call it synonymous lifelong theories that were not true.

I live my life based upon those things and they didn't work and they were so true in my mind that I was almost impossible me to learn something that was true. So, I've had to lay a li lay aside a bunch of old ideas to be able to accept new. And I needed an open mind.

In fact, I need an open mind more today than I've ever needed an open mind because there's so much more to learn throughout life. Okay. Now, we pointed out the fact while ago that Bill loves to teach by using examples of something we already know about to teach us something new.

That's what he did when he used the great ocean liner. Another trend that Bill has and I think it's very important for us to realize it is like most writers he did repeat himself quite often. But every time he repeated himself he would normally find a different word that means the same thing.

And if you see what he's doing, you can understand him. If you don't though, you'll think he's talking about something different. There seems to be one key word in this whole thing dealing with spiritual experience and that is the word change.

Let's see how many times he said change on p on page 569 and how many different ways he had a say on it. In the first paragraph he talked about a personality change sufficient to bring about recovery. In the second paragraph he again mentioned personality changes.

But then he said in the nature of sudden and spectacular upheavalss an upheaval is to change something entirely. In the third paragraph first sentence he said sudden revolutionary changes. To revolutionize something is to change it entirely.

Third paragraph last sentence he said immediate and overwhelming God consciousness. To overwhelm something is to change it entirely. Third paragraph, last sentence.

He said, "Vast change in feeling and outlook." Fourth paragraph, first sentence, he said, "Such transformations. To transform is to change." Fourth paragraph, about the middle of it, he said, "Profound alteration. To alter is to change." So the key thing here is to change from what we were when we came here to something entirely different up here in our minds.

To go from restless, irritable, discontented, selfish, self-centered human beings. To go from that to one who has peace of mind, serenity, and happiness and the willingness to help others is an entire change in the way we think. That's a spiritual experience.

That's a spiritual awakening. That's a personality change sufficient to recover from alcoholism. That's a psychic change.

Now, I can buy into that. To go from what we were to something entirely different in the way we think. Religion has nothing to do with us at all.

We make the change through spirituality. It seems that's the only real way that people change is through spirituality. >> They talked about change.

And I told you when I got here, I had become everything I detested in a human being. and I didn't like who I what I had become and who I was. So they talked about change and I thought they meant for me to become something that I'm not.

So I looked around the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and I finally be some heroes, some people that I wanted to be like and we need those heroes in the beginning. I still need my heroes. Charlie was one of my heroes.

So I set about to be exactly like Charlie. I didn't like me. So I want to be like Charlie and I almost made it.

Thank God I didn't. We don't need one, Charlie. But I tried to emulate and be exactly like him because I didn't like me.

And that's good. That's good. I needed that.

So the type of change I I think they're talking about today is to change from what I had become to that which God intended for me to be. Just me. Just me.

And that's a marvelous experience in Alcoholics Anonymous and in life. Just to become who you are and what God intended for you to be only. And there's only one of those.

Thank God. >> Now, let's go back to page 25. They said, "If you're as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there's no middle of the road solution.

We were in a position where life was becoming impossible. And we had passed into the region which there's no return through human aid. We had but two alternatives.

One was to go into the bitter end, blotting out the conscious of our intolerable situation as best we could." That's step one, remaining powerless. >> And the other to accept spiritual help. >> That's step two, to accept the need for the power greater than we are.

>> So this we did because we were honestly wanted to and we're willing to make the effort. >> Now, we saw where step one, the physical allergy, the obsession of the mind. We saw where that came from from Dr.

Silkworth in New York City. Now, you would think that the idea of the spiritual experience would have come to us through religious people. Let's look on page 26 and let's see where this idea really did come from.

Now, we're talking here about a certain American businessman. This is this fellow named Roland Hazard. He was the one that stepped in between Ebie and the judge.

Said a certain American businessman had ability, good sense, and high character. For years he had floundered from one sanitarium to another. He had consulted the best known American psychiatrist.

Then he had gone to Europe placing himself in the care of a celebrated physician, the psychiatrist Dr. Jung, who prescribed for him. Though experience had made him skeptical, he finished his treatment with unusual confidence.

He didn't go there for a 28-day treatment program. He was with Dr. Jung for a full year.

Dr. Jung psychoanalyzed him one day a week for 52 weeks. His physical and mental condition were unusually good.

Above all, he believed he had acquired such a profound knowledge of the inner workings of his mind and its hidden springs that relapse was unthinkable. Nevertheless, he was drunk in a short time. More baffling still, he could give himself no satisfactory explanation for his fall.

So he returned to this doctor whom he admired. ask him point blank why he could not recover. He wished above all things to regain self-control.

He seemed quite rational and well balanced with respect to other problems. Yet he had no control whatever over alcohol. Why was this?

He begged the doctor to tell him the whole truth and he got it. In the doctor's judgment, he was utterly hopeless. He could never regain his position in society and he would have to place himself under lock and key or hire a bodyguard if he expected to live long.

That was a great physician's opinion. But this man still lives and is a free man. He does not need a bodyguard, nor is he confined.

He can go anywhere on this earth whether other free men may go without disaster, provided he remains willing to maintain a certain simple attitude. Now, some of our alcoholic readers may think they can do without spiritual help. Let us tell you the rest of our conversation our friend had with his doctor.

The doctor said, "You have the mind of a chronic alcoholic." I've never seen one single case recover where that state of mind existed to the extent that it does on you. Our friend felt as though the gates of hell had closed on him with a clang. He said to the doctor, "Is there no exception?" "Yes," replied the doctor.

There is. Exceptions to cases such as yours have been occurring since early times. Here and there once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences.

To me, these occurrences are phenomenal. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. >> Change.

>> Ideas, emotions, and attitudes were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side. >> Change. >> And a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them.

>> Change. In fact, I've been trying to produce some such emotional rearrangement within you. >> Change with many individuals.

The methods which are employed are successful, but I've never been successful with an alcoholic of your description. Asterric bottom of the page for amplification, see appendix 2. Can you imagine this?

This is the world's third most well-known psychiatrist at that time. It was Dr. Freud, Dr.

Adler, and Dr. Jung. Roland goes to Dr.

Yung and is treated for a year. Goes out and gets drunk and comes back, begs the doctor to tell him the whole truth. And this doctor had enough humility to say, "Roland, I've done all I can do for you.

With my knowledge of the mind and my skills, I just can't help you anymore. You're probably going to die from alcoholism." You know, he could have said, "Roland, I think you're suffering from a bad volume deficiency. Let me write you a prescription.

You come back for another year." He was a good enough man not to do that. And Roland said, "Are there no exceptions to this?" And this guy was great enough to go out of his field and say, 'Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Once in a while, I've seen people like you have a vital spiritual experience.

He said, "I don't understand it. It's phenomenal to me, but I have seen it happen." Now, they tell us that Roland tried to get to Freud first, and Freud wasn't taking any more patience. He tried to get to Adler and Adler was too busy.

Jung was the third choice. Now Adler and Jung were both students of Freud and Jung had fallen out with Adler and Yung on one thing only. Adler and Yung thought all answers would lie within the mind.

I mean Adler and Freud. Jung thought some people might be able to be helped through spirituality. Now, thank God that Roland didn't get to Freud or Adler.

We'd be sitting around today psychoanalyzing ourselves rather than depending upon spirituality. And unfortunately, that's what we're doing in a lot of our AA meetings, trying to psychoanalyze rather than depend upon spirituality. And what blows my mind to think is this.

We alcoholics who are so proud of our 12 steps and rightfully we should be. I think we need to stop once in a while and remember where they came from. Step one came from a non-alcoholic neurologist in New York City named Dr.

Silkworth. Step two came from a non-alcoholic psychiatrist on the other side of the world named Dr. Jung.

The last 10 steps came from a group of people called the Oxford groupers who were non-alcoholic practicing first century Christianity to the best of their ability. Everything that you and I used for recovery came to us from non-alcoholics. I think we need to remember that.

It might be good for our humility to do so. Joe, >> is that odd or is that God? >> You know, I think I think about Dr.

Silkworth. He he knew what the problem was. He observed that through working with 50,000 of us alcoholics and it became his opinion.

But he didn't have a solution for it. Dr. Jung had a solution for alcoholism, the vital spiritual experience, but he didn't know what the problem was.

The Oxford group had a some tenants that we could work. They had the plan, program of action, so to speak, but they weren't impro involved in the problem or the solution. Either one.

>> Begs the doctor to tell him the whole truth. And this doctor had enough humility to say, "Roland, I've done all I can do for you. With my knowledge of the mind and my skills, I just can't help you anymore.

You're probably going to die from alcoholism." You know, he could have said, "Roland, I think you're suffering from a bad volume deficiency. Let me write you a prescription. You come back for another year." He was a good enough man not to do that.

And Roland said, "Are there no exceptions to this?" And this guy was great enough to go out of his field and say, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Once in a while, I've seen people like you have a vital spiritual experience." He said, "I don't understand it. It's phenomenal to me, but I have seen it happen." Now, they tell us that Roland tried to get to Freud first, and Freud wasn't taking any more patience.

He tried to get to Adler and Adler was too busy. Jung was the third choice. Now Adler and Jung were both students of Freud and Jung had fallen out with Adler and Yung on one thing only.

Adler and Yung thought all answers would lie within the mind. I mean Adler and Freud. Jung thought some people might be able to be helped through spirituality.

You know, thank God that Roland didn't get to Freud or Adler. We'd be sitting around today psychoanalyzing ourselves rather than depending upon spirituality. And unfortunately, that's what we're doing in a lot of our AA meetings, trying to psychoanalyze rather than depend upon spirituality.

And what blows my mind to think is this. We alcoholics who are so proud of our 12 steps and rightfully we should be. I think we need to stop once in a while and remember where they came from.

Step one came from a non-alcoholic neurologist in New York City named Dr. Silkworth. Step two came from a non-alcoholic psychiatrist on the other side of the world named Dr.

Jung. The last 10 steps came from a group of people called the Oxford groupers who were non-alcoholic practicing first century Christianity to the best of their ability. Everything that you and I used for recovery came to us from non-alcoholics.

I think we need to remember that. It might be good for our humility to do so. Joe, >> is that odd or is that God?

>> You know, I think I think about Dr. Silkworth. He he knew what the problem was.

He observed that through working with 50,000 of us alcoholics and it became his opinion but he didn't have a solution for it. Dr. Jung had a solution for alcoholism the vital spiritual experience but he didn't know what the problem was.

The Oxford group had a some tenants that we could work. They had the plan, program of action, so to speak, but they weren't impro involved in the problem or the solution, either one. And here's a wholesale miracle has happened from that moment until this, if you will.

He said, but you know, prior to this, he said, the exceptions to your case has been occurring since early time. Here and there, just once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me, these are phenomenon.

He went back and joined the Oxford group plan and took the plan program of action of the tenants of the Oxford group and he recovered and he was able to help Ebie and Hebie brought this to Bill and Bill was over there getting all this other information jailed in the mind of Bill Wilson, one person. But the miracle is this. Back in those days, it was just here and there once in a great while.

Today we can look around these rooms at each other and say to each other here and now every time an alcoholic will apply these things to their life they too can recover and they call it alcoholics anonymous. A wholesale miracle has happened. I am not the miracle.

The miracle is Alcoholics Anonymous and I get to participate in it. I can almost see Bill now as he finishes up with chapter 2, probably sitting down and reviewing what he's told us up to this point, saying to himself that in the doctor's opinion and my story, I was able to show them the problem. In chapter two, I was able to show them the solution.

Now, let's look at a little picture for just a moment illustrating the solution before we go any further. Joe, where is it? Oh, it's up there.

It's up there. And that little picture we have up here on the screen, we've talking about what is the solution. And on the left hand side of the picture we see the fellowship which supports us where the older members through the sharing of their experience strength and hope with a newcomer provides enough support for the newcomer to be able to stay sober for a period of time.

And by the way it's a two-way street. As we older members support the new member then we draw strength from that too. Great strength in the fellowship.

It'd be almost impossible to be an AA today for very long and not begin to believe there's some power greater than human power working within this thing when you hear countless hundreds of people saying it's only by the grace of God or because of God as I understand it or because of the power greater than I am. I haven't found it necessary to take a drink in x number of days, weeks, months, years or whatever. You can hardly hear that over and over and over and not begin to believe there's some power working within this thing.

The instant the newcomer begins to believe that that opens the mind and they become willing to investigate and upon investigation we find that simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet. The 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. As we work and apply those steps in our lives, we undergo a personality change sufficient to recover from alcoholism and we find the power greater than human power.

When that happens to us, we then have become older members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Now we can go back to the left hand side of the sheet and we can help support the next newcomer. help them work their program so they can have a spiritual experience.

Also, the book plainly states, you cannot give something away that you haven't got. Now, somewhere down the line, when they quit working the program out of the book, then in self-defense, they started measuring success by how long have you been sober rather than by the quality of that sobriety. In the beginning, everybody was expected to work the program, have a spiritual experience.

If they didn't want to do that, they were told, "You might as well leave here because we can't help you if you don't do that." So, older membership was based on quality of sobriety rather than quantity of sobriety. Now, today, you see all kinds of people in AA. You see somebody that's been in here maybe six months.

They got a good sponsor. They got immediately into the program. They've worked the steps.

They've had a spiritual awakening. They're always laughing, cutting up, having fun, always helping AA and doing what they can for other alcoholics. They are a delight to behold.

And you just love to be around them. Only been sober six months. You've got others that's been in here 6, 8, 10 years.

Treated it like a cafeteria. took some but left what they didn't want. Now they're better than they used to be, but you never know what kind of shape they're going to be in when you run into them.

One day they're up, the next day they're down. They're kind of like a yo-yo going back and forth. Then you see some people that's been in here 15, 16, 18, 20 years, never worked a step.

Damn proud of it. And they're the ones that say, "By God, if you want what we've got and you're willing to go to any damn lengths to get it." Know some of those guys feel so bad you'd like to buy them a drink. You know, they would feel better with a drink.

See? So, we're not talking about quantity of sobriety here. We're talking about quality of sobriety.

And only those that have had the spiritual experience can help another have a spiritual experience. You simply can't give away something you don't have. I see Bill running this all through his mind.

And he probably says to himself, "They're not going to like this idea of a spiritual experience any more than I did." You remember he had an aversion to these things. He and Ebie argued about this for a long time. And I think Bill says, "I need to tell them just exactly what's going to happen to them if they don't have this spiritual experience." And he writes another chapter and he called it more about alcoholism.

And in this chapter he talks about one thing and one thing only. He talks about the insanity of alcoholism. >> Thank you for listening to Sober Sunrise.

If you enjoyed today's episode, please give it a thumbs up as it will help share the message. Until next time, have a great day.