The Set Aside Prayer – Sponsorship Workshop – 2024 – Part 16 of 16 – Ali H.

that we can so this seems to be the best all right kuna thank you so much we didn't hear all that anyways that's good um so i just want to uh set the table a little bit for this first session before we go on i i believe for the next few sessions for next however many sessions we're together we're planning around 12. what we're going to do is um is prepare and dine a spiritual meal together and prepare it with a motive that we're gonna feed others with it because in this program my experience has been that um god's flow and love and energy has to flow through me into the lives of others that's how i get nourished that's how i uh experience bliss in in this moment you know um if it if it's any other way if it is any other motive other than pass it on to someone else be of service some reason my ego takes a hold of it and it just uh it's not a fun fun process or a fun time so we're gonna before we do that we're going to dine the spiritual meal together and prepare it together i want to set the table a little bit if it's okay with you guys by the way you guys can hear me okay yeah wave yeah yeah okay good okay i want us at the table um first of all um i want to say this right off the bat. The least favorite and comfortable thing for me to do is to do a workshop. I never do workshops like this ever, right? The reason for that is I don't ever want to come across as I'm teaching anybody or telling anybody what to do. So please, I hope that comes across in my spirit as we're going through this because I'm not here to teach anybody. I'm here to tell you what to do what i'm here to do is just share with you my experience uh so um having having said that that when i approach i believe when we approach it this way everyone's experience becomes valuable no one's better than anyone else right god uses everybody in different ways and and i believe that the people that are on this in this workshop well we all share something we're all seekers and servants right because of the step 12 kind of sponsorship sponsorship workshop so please if i ever say anything that's contrary to your belief systems i don't ask you to believe it at all what i asked you to do is just set what you believe aside for the duration of this process that's all so i guess it's a good time to talk about the set aside prayer so um the i think that see how to get the most out of any new endeavor that any new spiritual process anything new that i try is to set aside everything that i know and everything that I think i know my past experiences because for me all those things seem to be in the way of me having a new experience mark houston god bless his soul he used to say what i think i know my past experiences are noose around my neck they stop me from having a new experience now that doesn't invalidate is that anyone's experience at all your experience is to set it aside all we're saying is that to have a new experience um just please put it put your own experience on the shelf right now and then see what occurs okay this is um it's it's like it's like when i want to drink a fresh cup of coffee right i'm not going to take yesterday's coffee and bring into that freshly brewed pot it doesn't make sense and pour it on top okay what i do is i pour out the coffee wash it out and bring a clean empty cup that's how i always want to approach every spiritual new spiritual endeavor any situation in life that i'm trying grow from bring an empty cup to god let him fill me with whatever he thinks that i need at that time um now you may say my coffee's not old and i don't it still tastes good and that's perfectly fine so let's just look think about it this way okay so you have an amazingly brewed fresh cup of coffee of experience of i'm gonna make something up of brazilian coffee okay but we're we're in a workshop to perhaps try some Colombian coffee, just as freshly brewed as yours, right? In order to try the Colombian Coffee, you're gonna have to pour out the Brazilian coffee just for this work stuff. Maybe if you wanna think about it that way. So set aside prayer, how does set aside prayer came about? It is quickly Don Pritz. I'm sure many people know or heard of Don Pritts. He was a giant and alcoholic synonymous. He had a sponsor by the name of Joe Hawk. Apparently the story goes, and Joe was a learned man. He had many degrees in addiction and he couldn't stay sober for 10 years or something, he was in and out. He asked Don to sponsor him and apparently every time Don Pritz would meet Joe, Joe knew a lot about the psychology and the biology of alcoholism and about the big book and Don said to him in not so many words, "'Joe, I suggest you set aside "'everything you think you know "'because you know enough about alcoholism to kill yourself and many others so if you want to have a new experience set everything aside so joe did that and then he made that into a prayer and that's apparently that's how the prayer has been passed on to many different generations and lineages so uh if you guys don't mind i'm just going to do a version of the set aside prayer uh um by the way the words don't really matter the exact words uh i always want to stay away from rigidity i gotta wear this world like a loose garment and whatever is on your heart as long as we voice the idea so i'll do it today maybe from next week we'll get other people to do it father thank you for bringing us here in brotherhood sisterhood and love under one spirit under your spirit please satisfy from us everything that we know everything that мы think we know on our past experiences so we can have an open mind and a new experience with you with these steps with each other and the process of being a servant. Amen. All right, set aside prayer. Beautiful. So we covered that. I got some notes here. So just quickly how this little bit about, again, I'm still setting the table. We're going to jump right in. Okay, we're going go through with velocity, hopefully, depending, right? So just briefly how this workshop came about and a little bit of my experiences. That's all. Just briefly. So for the past four years of the pandemic, we've just been really blessed at the Fellowship of the Spirit Toronto conference online workshop. We've done a lot of online workshops and conferences and everything. It's just been a blessing. And I want everyone to know that all those workshops, they were strong intuitive thoughts that came from meditation. And for a while, I didn't want to answer it. And then it gets, it gets really loud and you can't answer it. You cannot not answer it, right? So this thing of doing this particular workshop has been knocking on my door for about a few years. I just didn't want to answer it for different reasons, right. And it just got really, really loud. I was talking with my friend all this and I said to her, listen, this idea I have, I think it may be really beneficial, may be able to serve people. What do you think? and then she was she she really liked it and she said you know what I think I would love to come I benefit from it I said okay so then let's so that's how that's How It Started okay so um I uh I truly believe that uh um this step uh sponsoring having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps we try not perfectly not a thousand sponsors I tried trying to pass this message on uh to other alcoholics and practice principles in our affairs so what we're doing is passing this message on to other Alcoholics I believe this this this step the 12th step and this in particular is what gives my life meaning and purpose I have I live a juicy life today because of this stuff there's been a lot of trials and tribulations in my life that I would not have survived if it wasn't for this step but trying to pass this message I was at three months sober when I started to sponsor people in this way and I know that's not everyone's experience and i'm not that doesn't have to be i was in and out for seven years and i think the elders around me my sponsor at that time i think maybe they had a private meeting together and they said this kid better pass something on or else he's gonna die he's sick of the most i think Maybe that's what happened so my sponsor, at the time came to me and said you got to pass this message on and I just and I argued with her because I was scared I was afraid I know maybe there may be some friends on this call right now that may be younger in sobriety and maybe your sponsor has told you it's time to pass this message on i was afraid i found i'm not good enough and i was reminded that i'm not going to be doing anything i have tapped into a power all i got to do is exactly what was done with me so my sponsor at the time at three months sober i love her she stole on my life she's not my sponsor anymore donna native indian lady she had about nine years sober and her experience was that she was taken to the big book from the preface to to page 164 and if you haven't had the bigbook experience that i'm so grateful that you're here buckle up it's something it's powerful it's powerful um so so donna was taken that way and and she's just a man she's a servant she's sponsored so many people and her experience start to she started to experience that she's losing people in this process because taking so long for some right so then she went to different conferences sought out archivists read up on history books did all kinds of stuff and then she sort of prayer meditation contemplation she came up with a method it's still in the big book right where where it's more efficient especially the first couple of steps because the first step covers 50 something pages there's a lot in there right so she passed that on to me and i woke up i was set on fire at three uh when within you know at three months i start to sponsor people so going back to the sponsorship and she asked me to and she ask me to sponsor and start to pass this message on and i argue with her and then and then she pointed out to me that if if bill wilson and dr bob smith had had run some rule written in stone that we have to have one year to start passing these 12 steps on we would all be dead there'll be no alcoholics anonymous maybe you know now and and obviously like i i understand at that time there was no other choice everyone's short in short term is the right young and sobriety right and these days we have so many amazing beautiful long-timers some of whom are on this call who i admire who i want what they have you know i just i admire them so much um but and there is may not be a space as much as it was back then for people younger in sobriety to start to pass this message on in this way right so um i would i was you know reminded of how this thing started that that that it didn't start because bill wilson had an agenda to keep people sober right he tried that for the first six months he failed he stayed sober but the language of love didn't start at about six months sobriety as we all know right he's in a mayflower hotel back and forth pacing the drink calls him and then the spirit turns his gaze to the to the phone directory and then one few phone calls here and there was supposed to be a 15 minute conversation at six months sober turned out to be six hours and the language of love started and the waves of the language i love that traveling what almost 89 years later with us and we're writing it right now in our lives you know in this workshop because that's what we're trying to do they're all young and sobriety so uh the first person that i sponsored uh i i had um this way uh i had at that time three months ramsey had uh 16 months he knew me in and out of the program for seven years and people saw such a transformation in me and he came to me and said ali i've never you talk about going through the big book the steps that's outlined in the big books i've ever had that experience i've had other experiences but whatever you're talking about can you help me with that and i and i reminded him that you're sober almost two years he said i don't care can you help me i said okay so so so i would go to this man's condo i would take the uh subway and bus all the way downtown toronto three days a week scared in the staking sort of you know nervous in the elevator right up and i would pray i would open up the big book and i will just do exactly what was done with me the most beautiful thing what see what i was taught is that i don't have to duplicate the messenger that's a really difficult thing to do all i got to do is duplicate the message so i just follow the black on the white highlight this ask yourself this and then all of a sudden when i saw ramsey's eyes light up when i thought this man transformed i was like holy moly this thing really worked right so so ramsey went out to sponsor a bunch of people and then and then and then i went i i went to a men's shelter a few months down the road and i was set up a meeting over there and i would read three pages from the big book and these men i guess they trusted my shorter time in sobriety not the validity of it the tangibility of it you know when you knew like six months is okay maybe i can get five months four months but 30 years sometimes like what are you talking about right that's like a different universe right so so i would go and back good go every me every every week saying the same thing i'm sober i'm i'm happy most of the time at four or five months of sobriety these men start to trust me they would come to me after the meeting ali can you help us whatever it is you've been doing with this big book you talk about 12 steps sure i can i would make appointments at the cafeteria and the coffee shops go to living right um so through through the years uh we're gonna start soon okay through the year's i've had the blessing of um sponsoring attempting to pass attempting to sponsor the 12 steps in this way many many many men um i could tell you um it's blown my mind the transformations that i'm able to witness um as many of you are as many of you and and through the years the spirit has called me to try many different methods of going through the big book made it from letters i love some of the messages like the big book awakening there's so many so many soldiers already right um and i want everyone to know that this today is a combination spiritual evolution what the spirit has presented to me over the last 12 years of sponsoring people right so i remember my original sponsor donna she had five highlighters and this and that so this is becoming even more efficient there's only two highlighters a lot less notes and we're gonna move through laser like especially through the first few steps okay so if if you guys um if some friends are here thinking that, you know, some workshops like big book workshops, we go there and just people that I just wanna sit at their feet and just listen to them. I just love them. I admire them so much, you know? They break down a paragraph for 15 minutes, 20 minutes and those are all interesting. They're beautiful. They're spiritual food. I love them but this is not what it's gonna be. So the mindset is always I'm taking a new man through the steps Right? So we want to move quickly through it. There's no need to unpack everything to a thousand kilometer depth. You know what I mean? What will happen is that, so I guess we could talk about this last thing before we get on, is we start. So how to get the most from this workshop? This is just some of my thoughts that came on my heart, right? First thing is to set aside everything that I think I know. That's a first. Just bring an open cup to this. see what god right uh wants to fill me with uh second thing is make everything personal to you like uh what i mean is that we're gonna read statements and turn some of them into questions with a question mark do i relate to that did i used to be like that see this this book that's a couple inches thick becomes thousands of kilometers deep when i can pour my experience on or else it's just an intellectual exercise when i have another loving soul see when the gift of desperation met the wind of the grace of god and inside that window sat one of you guys armed with facts about yourself and you poured your heart on the pages of this big book and then i got to lay my experience next to it that's how the big book becomes alive okay so first thing set aside everything you know second thing make everything personal to you third thing if you have the motive that i'm in this workshop not for me to this is the wrong phrase so please forgive me but it's coming to me so i'm going to share it to be entertained not for not for meter right i'm here because i want to pass this message on and maybe i may be able to use this method to to be more effective as a messenger perhaps right so the third thing the motive i'm gonna pass this master job i'm thinking about how would the newcomer receive this how would the newcomer new person received this um and here's the fourth thing it only only only if you choose to only if your move to the deepest way for me to have any experience is for me to try it fully myself which means if you are moved to when we get to the third and fourth and fifth four steps actually doing the inventories yourself actually take retaking revisiting the steps yourself that'll probably be the deepest experience that that anyone can have in any workshop you know one is an observer and the other one is a participant right one is uh what do you call it uh in the stance one's in the stands one's at the gate right so there's two levels and everything in between all right i think i've said a lot i think I covered a lot um thank you for indulging me my my apologies next week I won't have to set the table this much so let's just uh let's get started um if you for those friends that didn't know um i hope you knew because we posted everywhere you need a clean big book either hardcover or large print big book okay um as it was i think it was mentioned earlier if you don't have one today or if you're gonna if you gonna miss some of the session or some of that sessions no problem at all please make some friends here become partners and your friend can take you through what you missed okay so we're going to start on page 20. the first paragraph it says first full paragraph it says you may have already asked yourself okay so, we'll do a little bit and I'll explain a little bit um you need a yellow highlighter which is important statements a pink highlighter which is prayers and meditations and promises now if you have two other color highlighters no problem assign one of them important statements the other one prayers okay no worries and a pen so you may already have asked yourself why is it that all of us became so very ill from drinking question mark after drinking put the if you relate to that put the yeses on the left margin approximately with it where the line is right question why i have a drinking so we're going to read a bit i'm going to come back and talk about it a little bit doubtless you are curious to discover how and why in the face of expert opinion to the contrary if you grab the yellow highlighter now the one for important statements start highlighting we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body and if you grab your pen circle the word recovered at the end of body the sentence put a question mark after that so were you ever curious how how people recover from this illness hopeless condition of mind embody right that's what you got to ask yourself right now just quickly just briefly we circle the word recovered. The word recovered is mentioned, I think, half a dozen times. Somebody said that I count one time or a dozen of times in the first 164 pages. All that means is that I'm brought back to health. We're not going to get into this big controversy here. The big book uses the word recovery. We are going to be brought back. For example, if I have knee surgery, I've had a knee injury, right? There's a period of time that I'm going to recover because my knee hurts. I can barely walk. I got to walk with a cane. I've got to go to physio. I have to do exercises there will come a time where i will recover from the pain of it now i may for the rest of my life need to we'll go to the gym make sure the muscles the quad muscles and the hamstrings are strong so i don't get that knee injury again but i recover from it i live a normal happy life now right that's all that means okay recovered recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body where i couldn't stop drinking when i started drinking i didn't know how much i could drink i made all the promises in the world that that's it no more and i kept on going back to it right question mark yes on the left margin if you're an alcoholic who wants to get over it you may already be asking yourself what do i have to do there's a question mark there have you ever asked yourself what do I have to, do am I gonna get better right any version of that you put a yes on the last remember you're taking a new person through this right by the way so it's going to be a little bit difficult to be as laser-like in a group than it is with one-on-one so please forgive me i'm just the spirit's going to move me i am going to go back and forth to message to the group message to one on one it's going gonna go back and forth a little okay grab the yellow highlighter priest it is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically specifically very important with the pen circle the word specifically please this book has a couple different places i think we agnostic to give it another purpose as well but so to answer all these questions specifically not generally that means there's going to be some clear-cut directions some solution-based stuff right specifically not a philosophical discussion specifically highlight that and circle please we shall tell you what we have done before going into a detailed discussion and maybe well to summarize some points as we see them okay so now this paragraph we're gonna put put a lot of question marks and a lot yeses if you can if you relate to it when you were newer on the left hand side now you ask these questions these statements we're going to turn to questions right you ask yourself has anyone said that about me or even we're going to put the bar really low. Have I even thought that about myself at all, okay? So here we go. And then when we're finished this paragraph, I want to do something. And when we finish this paragraph I'm going to ask you guys to share specifically on any of these questions, okay?So it's going to be not a general sharing, laser-like sharing. This statement, this question, this is what I relate to, okay ?So you're going have your hands up, we're gonna ask i'm sharing so how many times have people said to us i can take it or leave it alone why can't he question mark there's a question mark if you can relate to that put a yes on the left margin why don't you drink like a gentleman quit there's a question right there if you thought that about yourself someone said that about you question mark yes on a left margin that fellow can handle his liquor question mark after liquor why don t you try beer or wine question mark lay off the hard stuff will power his willpower must be weak question mark my father used to say to me he was an addict he still is 77 years old god bless his soul um he used to said be a man you're weak because the way his addiction took him destroyed us right his addiction was just this but he was somehow able to still go to work right opiate addiction so for when so therefore i'm not an addict because i can't so when he saw me that i can'T live my life because of this drinking he was just like be a man what's wrong with you right we he could not stop if you wanted sorry he could stop if he wanted to such a sweet girl i should think he would stop for her sake question mark anybody here thought love would be the answer oh man i have some stories but i'm looking at going to take too long. The doctor told him that if he ever drank again it would kill him, but there he is all lit up again question mark. Okay so if you are moved can we have some hands up and how we're gonna go about this is uh so if he can relate to any of this you're gonna read it He could stop if he wanted to such a sweet girl right this might this is how I relate to it this is the example that i relate to so anybody at all relate to any of this i want to share quickly put up your hands electronically kuna can people put up their hands right now okay perfect there you go all right frank do your thing better samantha come on up please remember laser like not a long share laser like no general show hi friends i'm an alcoholic my name's samantha can you all hear me okay um i totally relate to the doctor told me that if i ever drank again it would kill me um i was in the hospital i had put myself there through drinking i had a i was bleeding out and i left the hospital and i went drinking right to the bar thank you samantha beautiful oliver but we would love for you to share with a video perfect thank you so much hi oliver a great alcoholic addict yeah i was just telling a newcomer this story the other day where um my heart rate i used to take a lot of drugs and alcohol my heart rates basically i thought am i having a panic attack or i'm not and i measured my heart rate it went down to around 40 and uh once it went back to normal it was about an hour before i started using again after praying to god please save me i was using again not long after so yeah thank you oliver is that zivet i'm an alcoholic um i can relate to the question why don't you try beer and wine didn't work none of it worked brown white beer wine none of it worked so i can definitely excuse me i could definitely relate to that question definitely thank you so much for that we're just going to take one more rachel people that have their hands up you can keep your hands up if you want we're going to come to another section again that if you want to share it's up to you rachel please hey guys sorry about that my name is rachel and i'm an alcoholic so um every time i'm going through this and i read this part she is such a sweet girl i would think and i changed that she would stop for her sake i had a little girl that was six years old that ended up getting removed from my custody my daughter um and that always hit me hard and when i'm working with women i tend to point to that in my life thank you so much rachel perfect that's uh um we're gonna we're going to move forward you know what i've never looked at that line rachel that way has always been living like romantic stuff thank you for sharing that thank you so there was a question yes so you put question mark you put the yeses on this page on the left margin somewhere close to it right as you can relate to it so now these are common observations on 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 than ours right just ignorance like don't know it makes sense like to other people it doesn't make sense that you're destroying your life with your drinking you're about to get a divorce and lose custody of your kids just because they are they have the power to do so so these questions from from a place of just not knowing right it makes sense i didn't even get it for years and i'm an alcoholic i thought what's wrong with me right okay so here we go so next three paragraphs pretty important moderate drinkers would you please circle with the pen just the words one circle moderate drinkers so moderate drinkists have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it they can take it leave it alone question mark okay so on the left margin have you are you a do you understand yourself to be a moderate drinker okay we're not asking the question have you ever been one but in the totality of your drinking did you stay a moderate drinker right modern drinkers we all know them they have a glass of wine with dinner it lasts the whole dinner like they drink a beer they nurse it they nurse to the point it gets warm and they leave it they go get another cold one and they nurse that too right once in a while on a special occasion they got drunk right moderate drinkers so for me i have a question mark after the word alone and i have a no to the left margin that's not me here we go then we have a certain type of hard drinker would you please circle a certain type of hard drinkers circle that entire thing with an oval or whatever right with a pen notice that notice that they don't say a hard drink they say this is a certain type of heart treatment okay let's let's talk about it now let's read it he may have a habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally question mark you ask yourself have i ever had the habit badly enough to impair me physically and mental in any way put a put a little yes in the right margin now right or left doesn't matter it may cause him to die a few years before his time if it's sufficiently strong reason ill health question mark falling in love question mark change of environment question mark or the warning of the doctor becomes operative question mark just put a big yes to them and the right margin if any of those things you've experienced from drinking they'll have falling in love what while you were drinking warning of a doctor okay here we go here's a kicker grab the yellow highlighter this man is important to point out this man can also stop or moderate this man can also stop or moderate, put a question mark after moderate. Now you want to answer this for yourself. When I was in my drinking career, did I fall in love? And was that enough for me to stop or moderate? Did I have a doctor telling me I'm going to die or hurt myself? Was that enough? Did I change environments? I moved across the ocean. I went to Dubai. I Went to Iran. I took me with me i destroyed everything we're drinking right so for me yellow highlighter this man can also stop or miter a question mark i have a big no right there although this may this although he may find himself find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention so they're talking about i gotta see if i see myself in this guy right and i do see myself in this guy but not totally this guy what they say this guy or lady mimics the alcoholic behavior and drinking out there when they're active right and they find their ways in the rooms of alcoholics and others beautiful man beautiful there's nothing wrong with that right but here's a thing this man or woman even though they may need to go to treatment center or detox or again suffer a lot of consequences there will come a time where their the universe will present a reason for them powerful enough for them to just whoa are you kidding me enough is enough man they will stop or even moderate i have a lot of examples of friends i'm not going to bore you with them like that so the important thing is you want to ask yourself then you kind of want to ask yourself is that me has that been me right for me there's a big no there's a big no okay so now the next paragraph three important paragraphs in in this book there's few different places they sort of uh categorize drinkers a little bit one is here it's a very powerful one pertinent to what we're doing here what is the doctor's opinion we're going to cover later um and then dr suckwood even says it's beyond the scope of this book but here we'll try right and then one actually really good places in the to the wives with four types of drinkers, and you know that's a really nice place. Anyway so but what about the real alcoholic? Here we go. Please highlight in yellow. Only highlight the real alcoholics in yellow or whatever highlighter you have assigned as for important statements. Circle your highlight just to make it stand out more. The real alcoholic. Okay, he may start off as a moderate drinker. He may or may not become a continuous hard drinker, but at some, okay, but grab the yellow highlighter now please. The yellow highlighter from at some stage to the end of this paragraph in yellow. at some stage of his drinking career, he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption once he starts to drink. Once he starts to drink, that's in yellow. Put a question mark for yourself. If you can relate to that in your drinking career put a yes right now to the right of it, just not in the margin to the write of the question. Okay. so the real alcoholic they're going to introduce us to that right what it may be for the for the newcomer so what they highlighted in this paragraph is the physical allergy once I start to drink I lose control of it right but in the previous paragraph they also alluded to that I've been sober people that are sober seem to have all the reason in the world falling in love changing environment, operated doctor ill health and they can't stay sober okay so we're going to just describe for the newcomer right now just give them a little peek of what it means to be an alcoholic okay and notice this by the way this so we are going to go 20 all the way to just the top of 23 for this section it is such a powerful first session I call it like a pre-qualification if someone is a potentially one of us they are trying to explore they're going to be able to relate to some of this man you know and it just will what i found is that the new man or woman it just captures them they're like what okay they want a normal you know what i mean so that so just so you know i'll mention this throughout the workshop in the step one pages so there's a lot more people with a lot More experience a lot smarter than me they've gone through the big book for years and years and I agree with their analysis that it seems to be from the doctor's opinion to page 43, the end of chapter three more about alcoholism, approximately about 53 pages. There's a lot covered, but the main focus is the first half of the first stack, 53 pages on. We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, physical allergy, mental obsession, physical allergy. Mental obsession, right? So, but what we're going to do is we're gonna really efficiently jump around the first step pages and just to get the meat and potatoes of physical allergy mental obsession. That's where the efficiency of this comes from first and second step. Okay so let's go back to that. So from the real alcoholic, from the real alcoholic that we circled is highlighted at the top of that paragraph, right? Everyone see it? So I'm going to try to describe this. I hope I described it properly. So if you please draw a line from that circle, draw aline to the right margin. Now your right margin is clean. Draw a line to the write margin. Put a little arrow. You're going to turn your big book counter clockwise 90 degrees so now the right margin is facing you okay and you're gonna write across now see this we're gonna right across i'm gonna show it this time but next time you'll understand right so we're going to write across all the way down please write this i'm going to read slowly so real accord right there is no reason strong enough for me to stay stopped i'll keep repeating it. Try to write as small as you can, but big enough that you can read. There is no reason strong enough for me to stay stopped. And then if you run out of room, you come back and you go right below it and start a new line. There's no reason strong enough from me to say I'm not stay stopped and then the next line below it plus like a plus sign a physical allergy to continue drinking once I start okay there is no reason strong enough for me to stay stopped plus a physical allergie to continue drinking once i start plus a physical allergy to continue drinking once I start one last time there's no reason strong enough for me to stay stopped as the previous paragraph plus the physical allergy for me but to continue drinking once they start that's what makes an alcoholic that's it there's two things only in two things not duis not divorces not jails those things may happen to many people that drink abnormally or have other wounds and behave in destructive ways two things and two things when i start i can't tell you how much i'm going to drink when i want to stay stopped i don't have the ability to to to commit to that promise you know to keep that promise right so just introduce us to new companies so now here we go next paragraph we're going to do a lot of question mark and then the yeses are going to be on the left margin because on the right margin we've written something by the way what i have done now is instead of a full yes i put a little y you can put the y right next to the question mark on the left margin okay ready and then we're gonna ask people to share after we go through this next couple of paragraphs okay so just make it personal to you here's the fellow who has been puzzling you especially in his lack of control question mark a why either on the left margin or right next to the question mark if he can relate he or she does inc absurd incredibly tragic things while drinking question mark he's a real dr jekyll and mr hyde question mark do i seem like i have split personalities he's seldom mildly intoxicated he's always more or less insanely drunk question mark was that me his disposition while drinking resembles his normal nature but little question mark people told me that i'm a totally different person when i'm drinking He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. Let him drink for a day and he frequently becomes disgustingly and even dangerously antisocial, question mark after antisoical. Have I experienced my own version of that? he has a positive genius for getting tight drunk uh at exactly the wrong moment particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement kept question mark friends wedding parties um birthdays um interviews promotions the emotions question mark he's often per here she is often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor but in that respect he's incredibly dishonest and selfish question mark so as i'm taking a new person on this like there's a certain velocity but we let i let this we let the spirit guide right and i so the point is not for me to do a whole workshop for the new person i'm not sharing extensively my experiences continuously i'm asking about theirs and if they get stuck i share mine or as the spirit moves me right because it's about them finding themselves but i gotta share a little bit about myself so they know right they can relate did i read this okay selfish okay perfect he often possesses special abilities skills and aptitudes and has a promising career ahead of him he uses his gifts to build up a type the bright outlook for his family and himself and then pulls the structure down on his head by census series of sprees question mark have you ever done that bring everybody's hopes up and then crash the world yeah terry's here's the thumbs up here he's the fellow who who who goes to bed so intoxicated you ought to sleep the clock ground question mark a why to the right to the left or right thanks for the question yet early next yeah early next morning he searches madly for the bottle he misplaced the night before question mark have you ever done that if he can afford it he may he may have liquor concealed all over the house to be certain no one gets his entire supply away from him to throw down the waste pipe question mark now see i get it it's a spirit of it right i may not have put it in the waste bike i don't know what that is right but have i ever done something similar right hate my liquor so no again living alone have i done that you say hell as as matters go worse he begins to use a combination of high power sedatives and liquor to quiet his nerves so he can go so so he can go to work then comes the day where he simply cannot make it and gets drunk all over again question mark did i try different means to stay away from liquor marijuana maintenance program pills whatever i tried eventually went back to liquor perhaps he goes to the doctor who gives them morphine or some sedative with which to taper off then he begins to appear hospitals sanitariums detoxes emergency rooms any version of that have i experienced have you experienced that new person and i share a little bit with them and i asked them and I asked them okay so now for the the last what one yeah one paragraph one long paragraph this was right so for this can we get some hands up again laser-like sharing right very laser like very specific not a general share and short okay pick one or two questions from this that you can relate to so you can share uh nancy come on out please hi i'm nancy and i'm an alcoholic the first uh question that kind of hit me He was seldom mildly intoxicated. He was always more or less insanely drunk. I was a one and a zero. I was either at work, not drinking, or I was not at work and getting drunk as fast and as hard as I could. And that's my laser share. Thank you, Nancy. Michelle, come on up please. Thanks, Sally. Yeah, the one that hit me was a positively genius at getting tied exactly the wrong moment. I had two best friends and I was made of honor in them and I was so drunk I was stumbling down the aisle because I drank so much before I got there and that was kind of my pattern anytime it was anything like that coming up I would get drunk first. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Joel, come on up please, brother. Joel, alcoholic. Yeah, I got elected to a treatment chair recently and we started doing detox meetings out of the big book and I'm just really excited because this is one of our main readings and as you're sharing it, you're hitting note for note kind of what we go through in the detox and what a powerful experience. So I just wanted to share that experience. Thank you Joel, thank you brother. Just two more and then we'll jump back in the book. And if you have your hands up, please keep it up and we'll get you the next film. Maria, come on up please. Maria, I'm an alcoholic. I identified so much with he has a positive genius for getting tight at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement kept. I was an event planner for 20 years and I would work for years for one day, one night for a couple and... Oh, you got muted. Frank, would you unmute her again, please? Sorry about that. So I was an event planner for 20 years and I would work for sometimes years for one day for a couple and show up there at their wedding always hung over and usually drinking as well. So thanks, Ali. This is great. Thank you, Maria. Thank you so much. Lorraine, come on up, please. Hi, Ali, Lorraine Alcoholic. Yeah, the Dr. jekyll and mr hyde when i picked up again after 10 years of sobriety i had a good friend look at me one night and say you're a completely different person when you drink thank you lorraine beautiful tom and everybody else if you want please keep your hand up thank you so much we're going to jump back in the book and we'll get back to you for that for the next round uh so beautiful so like if for the new person right if if they're this is a powerful first session if they're relating if they had a place where they want help man you can't you can help but like be intrigued hold on this you mean they would you know how my experience was when i was ready i was like are you kidding me they wrote a book at that time 70 of them have it like decades ago that describes me to a t today that's intriguing man that's really intriguing so this by no means we're going to continue page 22 this by no means this is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic because our behaviors patterns vary but this description should identify him roughly someone's ready and at that place they'll identify themselves there okay why does he behave like this if hundreds of experiences have shown him that one drink means another debacle with all the attendant suffering and humiliation why why is it he takes that one drank why can't he stay on the water wagon well what has become of the common sense and willpower that he still sometimes displays with respect to other matters by the way you're going to notice as we go through these sessions places where we're not going to try to unpack and say like water wagon we know if someone doesn't know we're Not going to do that usually unless a newcomer asks me because we're laser-like focused we want them to identify to the drinking right now right so there's maybe places where you think wow you could really talk about the reason we're NOT doing it because laser-light focus with a new person 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 are not sure why once a certain point is reached little can be done for him we cannot answer that riddle the riddle we know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink as he may do for months or years he reacts much like other men or women okay if you grab the yellow highlighter now we are or the important statement highlighter that you have we are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system something happens we're still highlighting yellow both in the bodily and mental sense which make it virtually impossible for him to stop stop the highlighting at the word stop Back then, they observed this. Dr. Silkworth observed this and he gave us this gift of something happens to you guys when you take a drink, right? Seems to be an allergy, an abnormal reaction. Apparently today I haven't read the scientific literature. I hear there's scientific literature, they've done research where alcoholics, our bodies, we metabolize alcohol differently. We're missing enzymes that metabolize all the way down to sugar and water or carbon monoxide, whatever it is, right. there's some technical stuff. There's a step missing in which it creates a craving inside an alcoholic. That's why when an alcoholic drinks, the craving intensifies. The word craving in Alcoholics Anonymous and this big book is used not in the normal sense of the word craving. Like, you know, I'm hungry. I don't have the substance inside me. I'm craving pizza. that's not how it's used in this big book the word craving the allergy of the body is i eat the pizza and then i start to crave it more as i'm eating it that's how it suits right the word crazy that's healthy so um the experience of any alcoholic will abundantly confirm this put a question mark after this and you're going to go through your own experience as my experience of when i start i can't stop when i want to has that just put a yes right to the right of the question mark beautiful now the last thing is we'll come back the last thing for this section we got a couple of small sections to cover we're going to come back to page 22 the bottom margin there's some space in the bottom marginal we're gonna do some writing there as always please write small but big enough so you can read it you know you're gonna need maybe two or three lines to write okay maybe depending how small you are okay ready so we've done all this now i want the new man to write a question consideration new man or woman for themselves because the their the depth of their experience comes from their identification with this sacred text not from my intellectual unpacking of anything right so please write can i identify with losing control can I identify with losing control can I identified with losing of how much I drink comma once I start to drink Can I identify with losing control of how much I drink, comma, once I start to drink? Comma. One more comma. More times than not, question mark. Okay, I hope you can fit that. More times that night. Thank you, Kristen. Thank you for... can i identify with losing control of how much i drink comma once i start to drink comma more times than not question mark so i put that more times than there because the person is just new they're just discovering their relationship and analyzing it with alcohol right the brain will start to lie alcoholism was started well what about that time what about that time no you just had a couple beers in it right so let's just set the bar low more times than that let's start that because we're going to have another couple of chapters a few pages later on in the following sessions to discover their relationship with alcohol more okay so after the question mark just put a yes for yourself to the right of that what happens if a person i'm taking someone through the big book first session right um new person and they don't say yes to that question or they don'T seem to relate to a lot of me couple of options as the spirit moves there's no cookie cutter thing i'm always in prayer i'm alway asking god what's my assignment what can i do here it's always it's always the prayers inside of me always right it's become a mantra so the spirit will guide sometimes spirit has guided just keep going through the rest of the first step pages let's see right sometimes it's so clear that either they're not one of us or if they are there's so much denial just a waste of time anyways we don't chase the man that doesn't is not able to work with us anymore so i stay friendly i stay kind okay brother let's just keep going to meetings and what i want you to do is that because this program will be no use to you if you can't relate to the drinking in this way right so what we'll do is we'll keep going meetings together and i want you to just continue to listen to other people's drinking and and see if you can really analyze your own drinking with alcohol relationship with alcohol and see see if she can relate to anything that's what i'll do and then see what comes up they're not one of us and i stay in who would still want to stay right beautiful okay so that's that's good so that's so what i suggest now is to start as we're going through this there will be some pages that are empty in the back of your book, in the back of the big book. In the back there'll be some empty blank pages right? So grab the first blank empty page and as we go along after each session just to put yourself directions or table of contents because we're gonna jump around a lot in the first few sessions and then if you are moved to just sort of use this method to help a newcomer right you're gonna forget where do we go first hold on what page right because it's not straight through so what i would do is just put a title the first empty page right small the title is directions right number one circle the number one and then so i'm going to give you the direction and from now on you can write whatever you want right so i try to use as much point forms as i can shorthands as i can so i understand so for page i always put p or pg right page 20 first is one st first full paragraph as par right that's how i do page 20 first full paragraph in quotation you may have already dot dot dot end of quotation that's the first line the first pair that right so page 20. first full pair paragraph in quotation mark you may have already and the quotation And then to top of page 23. To top of a page 23 and then in brackets after that, I put qualification intro qualification. It's so I know when I'm down the road and I'm taking a newcomer, where do I start? What place paragraph exactly tells me exactly. And so what this how beautiful this is that my experience was, so again, I didn't need to, I needed to remember or copy or duplicate the messenger that was in front of me. I just duplicate the message, right? And then what this does is this highlighting and question marks and then this table of contents, the new person when they are ready at step 12, they have a sort of a way to go about doing it, right. They're not as afraid because they have method they just go back and okay that's what i do i just follow it's like paint by number uh spirituality so simple i go here i go hear i go view and then god speaks whatever he needs to speak through me and through the new person the most incredible thing okay so we're good with that so if you guys don't mind not we're jumping around a little bit right so i have a i have a sort of a agenda of certain things i want to cover each session but we'll see what spirit has right so the next two more things we're going to cover and then hopefully we have room for questions um if you go to the page at the beginning of the book where it says alcoholics anonymous and it says the story of how many thousands uh how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism you can put on speaker view if you want and you can really see where i am i'm putting my book in front of facebook so by the way for friends that don't know in the top right hand corner of this entire thing it says view you can go gallery review speaker view whatever you're comfortable with okay so that page that page where it says alcoholics announced what i'd like you to do first everybody please draw a circle and triangle let me what am i doing i took a picture of this i was a little prepared on this one let me try this one okay there we go everyone can see this so please start off with only the circle and trying okay don't worry about the notes so much So I just wanted to show you like that's approximately the size and the center of the circle and triangle that we're doing. Just draw it, and then write any notes you need recovery service anything you see just start writing and we'll come back and read everything I just want to. to so just uh for those historians and for those that know better than i do please forgive me if i'm making a mistake but i understand the story goes that the circle and triangle apparently was part of our big book like the stamp or whatever the first few editions one or two editions right and i from what i heard from some archivists from some elders is that some we lost the copyrights to it or something like that that's why the circle inch triangle is no longer in the fourth edition and maybe third edition too right so we're going to draw back in there this circle and triangle is a blueprint of this program it's a map so it's so important once i get the newcomer new person those two pages right to identify get intrigued then we go right to the blueprint we write to the map i want to have a map if i don't know where i'm going i'm lost right because we're going to come back to this map sometimes unity recovery service i'm gonna have this up and i'm to talk okay so maybe better this way so so first as you see uh it says the first promise of hope it says over there it says alcoholics anonymous lying under it it says The First Promise of Hope a colon after it the story of pink remember the way I we use pink is pink so important statements is yellow prayers promises meditations all in pink and it's so useful when you when you person opens the big book after i see all the promises and all the prayers right so this is the first promise of this book right please highlight in pink or whatever highlighter you assign prayers and promises to how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism it's a promise first promise for this book bill wilson tells us that first 100 tells us tell us we're going to recover we're gonna bring come back to health from this illness from the depths of despair to the stillness. Circle the word recover. Circle the word recover. So I was told that how I read that is not how many, like how many thousands, like How, as in How To. I mean this big book would meet me exactly where I am, right? God will feed me whatever I need to be fed and how I read that How is How To. how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism. This is the story, this big book, right? So Unity Recovery Service, three-part program. To the left, if you see to the left of outside of the circle, Unity, I put a point, little bullet mark, and meetings, that's an and sign, and home group. Meetings and home groups. If you're unable to read it, meetings and home group. Below that, a little bullet point, service at meetings. Service at meetings below that 12 traditions. So somewhere around there, please fit that. I hope everyone can see it as well if you put the speaker view. So meetings at home group on the Unity side, service at meetings 12 traditions unity is where i bring the body to the meetings are super important the first part of the program unity but i got to go to meetings meetings are important in fact bill wilson talks about in uh in the in the 12 and 12 somewhere the traditions like we believe doc oleg would not survive without a group we do this thing together we we okay the bottom part is the recovery portion of this program right below the circle what i've written is bullet point 12 steps as outlined in the bb means big book remember short form in the big book 12 steps as outlined on the bigbook that's where the recovery is the the the solution is and below it i put in brackets title pg title page to page 164. that's what the solution portion of this book is the rest of stories just like going to open speaker meetings right i can relate to have i felt like that have i had i experienced that can this program work for me too 12 steps has outlined the big book title page to page 164 okay unity recovery so i want to share some with you guys when i woke because i was in and out for seven years right um i was in that for seven years and then when when i was ready and donna took me to the big book i just was on fire right and and there was a period of time where i i guess maybe it's a rite of passage everybody goes through this development stage there's nothing wrong with it it's just what it is right i really thought i knew a lot and i really saw everyone else was doing it wrong and then i thought i wasn't so much about meetings at home group i would hit a meeting here and there i would just uh take people to the Big Book in coffee shops sponsor people like that right and i got really really sick because this disease is cunning baffling and powerful man sick spiritually sick as in separate from you guys full of the full of depression and agitation and anger and this disease starts to talk to me that i'm different than you guys so from my experience um the steps and the fellowship go together so meetings and steps go together the traditions right so at this point in time i'm not unpacking too much about the tradition and everything with a newcomer right just meeting steps and then the third part so here please set aside everything this may be different than what some of the friends here understand service to be doesn't mean it's the only way but just please set it aside right if you notice let's write it first service site we put 12 step 12th step colon and i'm just going to read what i wrote in case you can't read it try to fit it there somewhere with an awakened spirit karma carrying this message to alcoholics and being of service to people in our areas of my life With an awakened spirit, carrying this message to alcoholics and being of service to people in all areas of my life. So 12th step. There was a period of time where I was told that Unity Recovery Service services the AA structure, GSR, intergroup wrap, all that kind of stuff. of stuff right so what was introduced to me by a long timers um some long time is that if if i am narrowing the service side of this beautiful program to a structure i'm cutting myself short okay so that service part we're gonna we put in the unity part service at meeting service at a structure right this service is with an awakened spirit i go through this process and this with a with a motive with the heart to be a servant and god will give me things to do and my service is in the 12th step i tried to pass this message on to other alcoholics but wait practice principles in my affairs that covers everything else in life doesn't it i got to be assertive in my marriage as a father at work right i gotta be a service so that umbrella of service it covers i believe it's a lot more broader and deeper in service and i'm not telling god because i know friends that have shared with me privately decades in sobriety ali i've been dying i'm the gsr under this that i'm their delegate i'm dying man because i gotta keep busy just being serviced busy busy busy no no no i stay in this program i try to pass this message on god how can i serve you today and god gives me things to do to serve his kids i gotta stay open to that so please just keep an open mind that okay so now to the newcomer um i'm not gonna go as depth than that with the newcomers right just this is the map of it right and i want to share with the new comer that at any time in my recovery anytime if i'm for an extended period of time i'm off feeling agitated full of fear right i can come to this roadmap and see what am i missing here what am I missing here are there amends that i could be making that i'm not have i doing prayer meditation can i build that practice have i been going to meetings try to pass this message on do i maybe need to write an inventory in the recovery portion i'm going to meetings on my service lab do i have a home group that i attend do i try to practice right so i can see where i'm missing here at any time it's so beautiful it's an action program it doesn't make me a bad person it doesn t mean i'm lacking in moral character literally action result i'm not getting the result for extended period of time let's go back to the gps gps what do i Have to do where do I have to go there's the GPS right there okay and the last part the note at the bottom at the bottom you'll see please write this i will only get the promises of this three-part program comma if i'm in all three parts I will only get the promises of this three-part program if I'm in all three parts okay I'm gonna stop sharing now if you didn't get the nose please find a partner make sure to find a father okay okay oh it's so much better to see your faces on that page okay everyone good with that right if i'm in three point just like just like you know when you have a like a professional photographer right they have some very expensive cameras wedding pictures and baby pictures right i understand there's a stand called the tripod that they put this expensive heavy camera right so if this tripod this three-part program at any of these legs of this tripod is a little bit wobbly it's not as strong maybe if every and maybe if there's not a cloud in the horizon it'll keep standing the slightest little brush against this tripod is going to break my recovery is the same the slightest level of training in life if i'm not fully engaged i'm not talking about perfectly to the best of my ability you know what i mean in all three parts that's how i get the promise of this program steps without fellowship has never worked for me it didn't work for them either right okay beautiful so it sounds good and the last thing we're going to do and then we're gonna come to some questions and sharing um now if you would please because i want to get this in here if you will please go to the beginning of the big book if there's an empty page at the beginning just grab an empty piece at the end at the beginning of a blank page just grab the blank page please okay just grab a blank page okay at the very top left please so write the word yellow or if you don't have a yellow highlighter whatever color highlighter you have that's for important statement it's right that one okay so I have yellow highlighter I'm assigning as important statements you have the word yellow top left okay put a little arrow to the right and please write strong statements so one line yellow arrow to the right strong statements if you grab your yellow highlighter highlight the word hello that you wrote or if it's orange for you highlight the words orange orange for you right yellow strong statements this is for the benefit of the new person Right? In case if we, okay, yellow, strong statements. Okay, right below that, right below the word yellow, show you what I mean. Okay, can you show me? Okay, here we go. If you put on speaker view, you'll see my page now. See how I've done it, right? Right below the world yellow, write the word pink. Spotlighted, thank you for whoever has spotlighted that. Write the word pink, or if you don't have pink, if you had another highlighter that you've assigned to prayers and promises, get like that. So just stop highlighting now. I'll just thank you so much. I'll read it. So the pink, the word, pink, arrow to the right, please write prayers and promise yellow, important statements, pink highlighted, pink prayers and premises. And we could put meditations in there too. It's such a beautiful experience to open the big book see all the pink prayers and promises okay so when you right below it you're gonna have some room there above uh you have some room there please write the title set aside prayer and then underline it set aside pray right below that set aside care underline i want to give the newcomer a version of that and i'm going to make sure to let them know look whatever version comes from your heart the words don't even matter it's if i'm expressing the idea from my heart right but i'm gonna please forget i'm just going to give you one version here that i have okay if you guys want to write it down if not write your own words or whatever you want to do okay ready so set aside prayer in the center with an underline now we're going to write below okay god please set aside everything that i think i know karma god please satisfy everything that I think I know karma for an open mind and a new experience period for an open mind and a new experience period so god please set aside everything that i think i know karma for an open mind a new experienced period below it right the next line next sentence to set aside everything that I think I know karma thank you chris says also To set aside everything that I think I know, Dina, you're waving. Everything okay? Dina you're waving at me. Everything. Okay with you? I can't see who's waving. Okay, that's okay. That's no problem. Sorry. I was just moved because someone's practically waving okay never mind sorry so to set aside everything that i think i know karma is to let your light in period it's the light you're lighting period okay so i read the whole thing again god please set aside everything that I think I know karma for an open mind and a new experience period to set aside everything that i think i know karma is to let you light it in period everyone can still hear me yeah wait yeah okay perfect thank you so much okay beautiful okay beautiful so we got that okay a version of the satisfied prayer we're almost done for today we're going to come up with questions and some sharing so below that give some space below that there should be some empty space please write the title spiritual contract in the center of the page below it you'd like to title spiritual contract underline it and highlight the title in yellow spiritual contract also highlighting yellow set aside prayer that's like the title it says set aside prayer right just want to make you stand up so spiritual contract we're going to do a Spiritual contract together. Underlined and yellow highlighted. Thank you, Crystal. Spiritual contract. Okay, so now, please write this along with me, but put your name and then we'll talk about it a little bit, okay? So I have the new person write this contract together, we're going to enter into a contract together by this, this is nothing new. This is in the big book a few different times in different ways we'll touch on, okay. So please write this. I, write your own name. I wrote Ali. I, you write your name, comma, I, Ali, comma. I'm willing to go to any length. I'm willing to go to any length for a spiritual experience, comma, for a spiritual experience, in order to recover from the hopelessness of this illness period. In order to recover from the hopelessness of this illness period. I, Ali, i'm willing to go to any length for a spiritual experience karma in order to recover from the hopelessness of this illness period okay thank you kristen again now if you agree with this for the rest of this workshop right mr newcomer mr miss newcomer i know you guys are not new cars essentially, but if you're willing to really give it your all and please sign your name under this. I had the person sign them like what Ali has before I signed it. I was so really glad I was and then and then below your signature, please write the time. The day, the date and the year I put my original time was for me 312 PM Friday, January 27, 2012 okay so now i want the person to be in this so this contract and that circle and triangle we may have to revisit sometimes with a new person right the person has to be willing the big book talks about the desire has to come from within we don't force anybody it doesn't have to come from within right now in the big books there's a few different places the bigbook technicians please forgive me if i missed something but i believe there's three different places two or three different faces where they talk about going to any lengths right first place isn't how it works do you want what we have are you willing to go to any length to get it right that's where this contract comes from the next place is in the step eight paragraph on page 76 step a paragraph remember they remind us remember at the beginning you said you're going to go to any lengths and then the next one is a step nine somewhere pages remember you said you're gonna go to any length so that's where the contract comes from um all right so thank you guys that's that's the first session that's what we had to cover we're going to go to some questions and sharing a little bit uh we have a few more minutes i just this just one thing quickly i forgot to mention so when i said my last drink was so i have 12 years of experience of just sponsoring people in this way right and just evolution of this and just this what has been presented to me has been very profound and powerful doesn't mean that's the case for everybody that's just my experience i'm sharing right so but but my sobriety is over seven years i want you to know that okay it's important that you know that in 2016 i was coming up to five years and i wasn't sharing myself honestly i thought there was an image to uphold and my wife went to have minor surgery she came back home with some percocets and i took a couple of pills and i renewed the the next day so my sobriety is over seven years but in for the sake of this workshop i didn't go anywhere you understand i didn's take a drink when you did i was in this program i've been sponsoring non-stop for 12 years so i'm sharing my experience of 12 years but i'm very clear what my sobrietty is i'm so grateful for that renewal of sobriete because because I became more humble. I began a more humble service, okay? So thank you very much, guys. Amazing, amazing, amazing. So before we close this up, just we got a few hands up, a few minutes. I just want to give a chance to just quick shares or quick any questions please, Tom. Buddy would you come on up, Tom, Clyde? Well, here now, yeah. Hey, Sally, as I say, 25 years ago after five years of sobriety, my sponsor said to me, why don't we do the big book? And he did it just like this line by line. That was over 25 years ago. And when I saw this chance come up, I loved to do it again. And strangely enough, last weekend, a fellow came up to me with 20 years of some sobriete and asked me to be his sponsor because he'd been a while since been through it. So it's all new, so I'm going to work with it. But I'll be away for two weeks, but hopefully I'll be able to catch you from Cuba. Thanks very much. Beautiful. Thank you so much for being here, brother. Thank you. So it's amazing. Hopefully you get a partner that can help you as well. If you can't make it Matthew, come on up with it, please. I just want to say thank you so much for your service. And could you please notify me so I can slide into this 45 year celebration when the next appointment is for all of us here? It's the same time, same place same zoom every saturday god bless you see you at orc oh god bless you buddy thank you so much i'll see you next saturday yes sir see you there he's gonna i love this i mean i've been sober a long time and uh this is like getting excited all over again and it's a little different approach and i completely agree with people who think that doing service at the you know they're in all the organizational things and and there i know some and they're basket cases but they're on this committee and that committee and you know and but 52 years and i'm getting excited all over thank you beautiful beautiful thank you for being here thank you sharing wayne my brother come on up please Hi, good day, Ali. My name is William and I'm an alcoholic. I just want to say that I raise my hand to tell you thank you very much for this workshop. I have already learned so much in just an hour and a few minutes. This new experience is amazing. I've gone through this big book already. Think twice. I'll never take anybody through it because like you, am very scared because i have the power to kill someone but thank you for this opportunity of this new experience thank you very much ali and i like what you said and i liked what you said about and it was said to me that service is begins at the general service level and then i read from the 12th and 12th i would not read it on page 110 what our co-founder said about service i would just like you to read it and you will see where i got my information from 20 years ago thank you ali god bless you and keep you safe on your family thank you very much for this experience thank you so much brother god bless hi um is this the first session of this yes ma'am okay um can you just uh you know the set aside prayer i have god please set aside everything i think i know for an open mind and new experience but then i missed this the second part of that kristen is going to put it for you in the chat thank you so much thank you kristen thank you betsy carol hi carolina hi everyone my name is carolina alcoholic ali thank you so much that was absolutely wonderful and i am doing my big book with my sponsor and then with a lady who's 35 years sober so i'm thinking i've possibly have already highlighted everything no way i have lighted so much more today and your color is green in my being book but what i want to say that writing my sobriety date in a big book and i love that contract i'm going to use it but writing that sobriety date it was crucial for me on the days when i as a newcomer i felt low or you know agitated or i didn't want to do this program my character defect of pride you know kept me in because i'm thinking there's no way i want to cross that date over right a different date so writing that date for me was so monumental in my recovery so thank you so much thank you carolina thank you a few more hands and then we'll close the meeting and we'll stay out as that will stay uh still for hands and questions okay so there's a couple more hands we'll close the meetings now so we can with a couple minutes over time but i'm going to stay any questions and comments please stay louisa come on up please hi everyone alcoholic louisa thanks so much ali you're such a humble servant thank you so much but i wanted to ask um so i have taken um a few through the big books do you always start at page 20. yeah this is the method always i know because i started with the preface and then talking about the four words so louisa yeah that's that was the basically one of the reasons why i wanted to share this because i've had that experience and some people that i lose right so see when someone is viewed with this method we jump around and surgically search out step one stuff yeah and then we go to the step one and two so we go to the rest of the steps after working with others when the person is awake and we come back to the preface and cover all that and then the new person because they have awakened experience said they love the information the prefaces and the history you just like you know what i mean but at the beginning it just it doesn't do anything to move them forward as interesting as it may be that's true yeah my experience doesn't mean doesn't for everybody just my experience you know yeah thank you yes thank you thank you very much okay uh let's see okay marcy come on up please sorry mary come on up please thanks ali um mary um mery alcoholic it was a great presentation i missed a little bit i'm a little i was a little late i was doing something else it was for a but um so we're meeting every saturday and is this going to is this recorded yes ma'am so we meet every saturday approximately 12 weeks we'll see how it goes right um it is going to be recorded i haven't uh so here's the thing i was contemplating and praying a lot about that recently when leaning against not releasing recordings for a couple of different reasons i think it'll be a lot less effective for people if recordings are released because what will happen is that tendency to for some people okay fine i'm gonna catch the recording but the experience is being here that's the experience you know what i mean it's not just so that's why the recordings are not going to be released at a later date after all the 12 sessions after some prayer and consultation with some elders if we find that will be beneficial or release the whole thing but for now no we're encouraging to find partners to find partners and then your partner can tell you what you've missed and all that kind of stuff okay i will do that thank you so much and i'll see you next saturday there until then god bless you please please find a team together so you know come on up please una or you know sorry you're close you're closed it's una and i just that last person just covered my question on recording um and that because i didn't i thought maybe i had done it by accident that's how excuse the stupidness but i just thought i said i'd stay on to say thanks a million it's fantastic and um i love your enthusiasm and it's just great to have such a world of family here on a saturday afternoon yes ma'am god bless you thank you for being here i'm just so grateful for you guys thank you so much for allowing this uh you know just um so event come on up please and we're gonna end that sunny okay i'm sorry i know we're five six minutes over time sorry everybody if you gotta go go is that coming up please hi good morning everyone my name is event i am an alcoholic um ollie thank you so much uh my sobriety date is may 8th 2023 so thank you for this extra little some more tools i can add into my toolbox to demystify not just the why of sponsorship but how to go about doing it so thank you so mucho for that thank you yvette thank you much for being here kids come on up please there we go hi thank you so much for this workshop i'm kitten i'm an alcoholic uh my question is you talked about the spiritual contract um with the sponsee are you suggesting though that we're introducing that contract right in the first session with our sponsees because i'm just wondering we haven't even talked to them yet about the spiritual elements of the program. We haven't read the spiritual experience page. We haven't even read the doctor's opinion talking about that. So do you get resistance on that? Good question. So I'll answer in two parts. One, set aside that experience that have set that aside so that that's the first thing um and the second thing is when a person is from my experience uh when a persona relating and ready and intrigued and in pain they're not nitpicking at this word or that word at all you know they're just if they're really nitpicky and battling me then they're now relating to a lot of it you know so what i do is if the question comes up i encourage it a conversation i just sort of not gloss over in a general way like so i'll tell you this kid so i haven't had any resistance for that reason and for because the first the first like i have i build relationships with people like if they ask me to sponsor them or thing right so in the first conversation or coffee i'm talking about my drinking i'm asking them about their drinking and i'm telling them about the program you know i'm telling them like this is spiritual programs the spiritual solution so that i think that answers your question better i've already done that in my in the first okay third session that i talked to them about it right and at that time maybe i should have mentioned that yeah so or maybe in the first sitting before the big book opens or the first session before we make a big book appointment i talk about that you know the special program like this what works for me um do you want what we have you know do you wanna try it if you have a problem so they've already sort of agreed thank you for that yeah that's a good question yeah yeah that makes sense see as i'm talking it's coming to me oh yeah thank you kid sunny come on up please sunny we can't hear you is your volume up on your mic No, I'm sorry. I don't know if I think it's a volume on your mic. Try again. There you go. Try it again now. I'm sorry the volume on you mic we can't hear you but next week okay next week next week nice to see you thank you for being here Eileen last one thank you Sunny hi thanks ali thanks everybody like i just have a quick question you had the um the yellow highlighter for important statement you had to pink highlighter for prayers and promises then did you have a separate highlighter for the questions or just the question mark that's just a question mark very good okay thanks so much oh you're welcome because you're very sorry go ahead no i'm just going to thank kristin because i sent her a message too in the messages thank you beautiful thank you so much for that question yeah so see what i've my original sponsor took me to the big book in an efficient way as i you know it's become even more efficient than that and she had five six highlighters it's also like we try to make it as little as possible you know as just as clean as possible right so we can literally i mean we all know, we can highlight almost every sentence of this big book. So what we're going to do is we're highlighting things that maybe I will repeat it so many times that are just some things that really pop out. We want to ask them and make sure the newcomer considers and takes a look at it. So that's all. That's all that is. Okay. Thank you so much. Kristin, come on up. Sorry Ali, just one question from the chat and it was, do you put the concept in the circle triangle to start? Yeah, sure. I'm sorry. You could do that. So you could you could put it you could put it I guess where the unity part is. I don't usually at that point with a newcomer, but you can if you want. So the unity home group service at meetings, you could also put concepts and so you could put it there. I put all of that in the unity part all that service stuff all right mickey come on out please