Big Book Sponsorship – Big Book Is Alive Workshop – Part 7 of 7 – Mike C.

I'm a recovered alcoholic and my name is Mike Chase. Mike Chase, and I'm the recovered alcoholic, and my name is Joe. Our spiritual duty is to put newcomers' hands in God's hands as quickly as possible. We found this to be the most effective by doing our part to make the Big Book come alive. Our spiritual duty is to put newcomer's hands in god's hands quickly as possible. I repeat that because that is our duty as a sponsor slash teacher of Big Book sponsorship. Just as a disclaimer, we're not experts we're just a couple of recovered alcoholics that love the big book however we have made it our utmost spiritual errand to become as familiar with the history and the facts as we can so we may transmit only the pure message of god to the next untreated alcoholic which we get from the big book in other words if you see us reading from the Big Book that means that we're reading from what we believe to be a divine solution to alcoholism if we look up and start to share and talk, it means that we're specifically talking about an opinion, an observation or an experience, something from our past. And we ask you to challenge the history of what we find and if what we're doing up here gets you into a position where you want to investigate and learn on your own, then we're certainly doing what we are supposed to do by bringing this experience to you. Absolutely. I learned this a long time ago. Don't be taking for granted somebody else's knowledge. Use it as an opportunity to start as a base and go out and discover this on your own. I started off with some great information from some old-timers, and there's amazing stuff on the Internet. There's a lot of books that are available. But we're just here to get you excited and started into some big book sponsorship, which includes history. Some helpful information about this format. The way it's going to do is we're going to read from the big book. We're goingto offer some experiences and some information, and occasionally I'll go on a rant here or there and Joe will bring us back to reality in the book. We also, we're starting something new this week. We're also going to be posting on the webpage the pages that we covered. You know, we talk about highlighting, underlining, and boxing a lot. So you're going to actually be able to click on the web page and see the pages as we've outlined them with notes and highlights and underlining. So, you know, if you want to start highlighting along and maybe have a teacher's edition book later on to help somebody through the book, And that's our journey we're going to be starting with this week. And you may hear us reference those notes at any time. We're referring to a definite highlighting pattern in the book that really points out the main points of this experience along the way. Yeah, and just like a college course or any course, everything we've highlighted and underlined are direct results of other teachers bringing information to us. we hear a lot of people say well you know if you find something in the book that makes you feel good it's like we come from the opposite that we've taken information that other teachers have taught us and we're passing that information on our experience strength and hope is what we're trying to pass on here tonight we hope to cover the there's a solution start getting into the solution but before we do this you guys might want to get comfortable because they always start out we're always going to start we have a two minute moment of silence uh matter of fact you might even hear a little chanting in the background tonight we're trying something a little bit new we're going to set a timer for two minutes and that's going to give us an opportunity to let the let the craziness of the day evaporate and once again help us to get a good connection with god so we can have a experience that's focused and really comfortable so joe if you want to get that timer If you guys want to get comfortable, you might want to shake some energy out of your hands and take a deep breath. For meditation, my sponsor said that we should sit up straight. We should not cross our hands but lay our – if you're right-handed, put your right hand on your lap and your left hand on top of it and put your thumbs to make a little diamond and just sort of hold that over your belly button. That's a chakra point I think it's called. I believe that's the correct definition. And then for two minutes, just concentrate on your breathing. In and out, really comfortable. And then we'll come back and we'll get right into the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. But if you'd just join us now for two minuets, and we're going to keep the tape running, so enjoy. See you on the other side. Thank you. Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Thank you. Thank you for watching. and we're going to do it a little different tonight. Ryan, would you like to come over and read the lay aside prayer for us? I just want to join in listening on this prayer. Good evening, I'm Ryan. I'm a recovered alcoholic. Hey, Ryan. God, let me lay aside everything I think I know about the big book, the 12 steps, AA, my disease, and you, God, for an open mind and new experience. Amen. Thank you. We've got the bells chipping in right now. We have this, you know, in the Red Room we have the monk music, the chants playing. Whenever the bells kick in, it's like one of those God moments where we're going to talk about let's pay attention. So it's apropos that we start the big book in the podcast with the God bells as we like to call them. How do you spell Red Room? R-E-A-D. It's where we read or have read the book of Alcoholics Anonymous. so we started five weeks ago that's right we start on the front page of alcoholics anonymous the the first page it says alcoholics synonymous we were assuming that this may be your first time or if it's been here multiple times let's just lay aside everything we think we know for a whole new experience so as my sponsor would say you know the name that's it let's start with a fresh fresh path and then we move to the second page which has the the title page Alcoholics Anonymous. This is the first information how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism. They're offering us a recovered way of life, not a recovering struggling, but a recovered a way of lives so we can get on with our lives and be happy, joyous, and free. In the table of contents, we see how the book is laid out. The first part is the problem. The second part is The Solution, which we're going to actually start getting into tonight. And then the third part is Program of Action. Then we have the stories for the guy who lives out in the middle of nowhere who doesn't have an alcoholic anywhere in his life can go in there and start relating to what it's like to be a sober alcoholic. And the book can act as a 12-step call in that situation to this person across the country? The book was originally signed up, written as a twelve-step call to be mailed to someone out there. For the first edition was Alcoholics Anonymous introduction to the world of what the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is, what the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous was. It was the 15 minutes of fame or 30 second soundbite to get out to the world that AlcoholicsAnonymous is and there's this one favorite sentence. It's actually a long one. We have Alcoholics Анonymous for more than 100 men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. Which is why me and Joe are so adamant about studying the book, getting to know the book because that's where a solution is and that's where our program of action comes from so to be an effective sponsor we believe you have to know the book to bring a message of weight and meaning to the people who are still suffering. Forward to the second edition the 16 year update of the program did we flop or were we successful? Well we're going to find out that after 16 years we were extremely successful. We started with 3 meetings, 3 alcoholics to 6,000 groups to 150,000 recovered alcoholics absolutely when all they were using was the book wanted recovered alcoholic working with an unrecovered alcoholic and stressing the God issue we had success rates of 70 80 percent matter of fact it says here in for the first edition of alcoholics who came to a and really tried 50% got sober at once remained that way 25% sobered up after some relapses and the remainder who stayed on with AA showed improvement that's incredible success rates so much better than the stuff that our contemporary alcoholics synonymous of therapy and process groups and bumper stickers and slogan has got us down to a really low so we're sticking to the book where the solution and the successes are found absolutely essentially that's what we're going for obviously the results are ultimately in god's hands but we want to make sure that we're doing our part to transmit only the pure message given to us in this divine big book so the doctor's opinion joe you want to just give us a quick recap of what we learned in the doctor's opinion? Absolutely. The doctor's opinion gave us two letters from Dr. Silkworth, who is a specialist in alcoholism. He's a guy who worked with 40,000 drunks over the course of his career and he noticed that there was something going on with the alcoholic more than just the obvious devastation of his mental sense. And that was that he definitely had this thing going on in the body. The doctor calls it an allergy which simply means an abnormal reaction to a food, a beverage, or a substance. And when an alcoholic puts liquor into his system, he sets off this phenomenal craving which causes him to drink and not be able to stop. So, in fact, the doctor used that specific phrase. These men were not drinking to escape. They were drinking to overcome a craving beyond their mental control. And that's exactly what it felt like for me. Now, before they even went into that, he laid down the basic guidelines of what Alcoholics Anonymous was going to be. We talked about Bill W. here. In the course of his third treatment, he had acquired certain ideas concerning a possible means of recovery, which he picked up from Abby Thatcher via the Oxford Group. As part of his rehabilitation, he commenced to present his conceptions to other alcoholics and pressing upon them that they must do likewise with still others. That had become the basis of the rapidly growing fellowship that can be found on page XXV of The Doctor's Opinion. right there he's telling us that in order to stay sober we have to follow the solution that was originally set up and guess what guys you're going to be working with other alcoholics if you want to be happy joyful and free interesting note we made reference to a roman numeral page in our fourth edition as we talked about in our previous series the doctor's opinion was actually page one in the first 16 printings of the first edition so there's some differences in how this information was presented originally versus its course of revisions over time so we picked up the information what alcoholism is what the purpose of a recovered alcoholic is going to be and we talked a little bit about the obsession of the mind the spiritual malady but it's not till we get into bill story which we started to cover a couple weeks ago which is uh bill stories what i like to call a classic 12-step call give the information that the person you know start to qualify themselves, start to relate, and then again, leave them with some hope. Leave them with a solution, which is something that we can offer as a recovered alcoholic. Doctors loathe to tell people they're alcoholics because they really have no solution to offer. But as a recovered alcoholic, part of our responsibility on a 12-step call is to make sure that they know there is a solution. Not bumper sticker recovery, not means 90 and 90, but a path and a program that will guarantee you 100% recovery. Absolutely, and we saw this information as playing out in the 1920s, 1930s, but as we look at the progression of Bill's story over the course of the chapter... That guy was a bad alcoholic, wasn't he? He was pretty severe, I'm going to give him that. He started out pretty normal, casual, and then it started to increase, becoming more... losing his control. Absolutely, absolutely. And then he reached that point where he lost everything and he lost complete control of his drinking. And we saw how he kind of had a vigor for life by his value for money and leadership and applause and fame and things like that. But not much spiritualness, not much helpfulness to other people, which is... Not a tremendous amount. So he was definitely suffering from a spiritual malady. Absolutely. And then we discovered that early on he's got this phenomenon of craving and then the mental obsession was always there. This was a man who could convince himself of anything. You know, this guy could get people to buy water in a lake, you know? So you can imagine how that brain worked on him trying to convince him that he doesn't have a problem with drinking. So we're able to see the progression of his disease and finally, you now, he hit rock bottom and luckily, Abby Thatcher pops in out of nowhere, makes a phone call, shows in and offers him a solution, which is spiritual in nature. And Bill is so not interested in the spiritual nature solution. Absolutely. He wants to get a process group or talk about his feelings or go sit down with a good therapist. But he finally saw that Ebby had something that he wanted. Absolutely, absolutely. Hey, it was almost as if what else you got, Ebby? And it came down to either accept life on spiritual terms or continue to drink yourself to death, that supreme sacrifice. like myself he had admitted complete defeat then in effect ebby had been raised from the dead suddenly taken from the scrap heap of a level of life better than he had ever known see we're talking about bill w this is a guy who could do anything he set his mind to this is the man who changed the stock market this is an animal the first few people to figure out how to make a boomerang in the united states this guy did out set out to a lot of things and he complete accomplish these things he could do anything except stay sober or control his drinking once he put it in that's what just baffled everyone about anyone who knew bill w this is the guy who could do everything so when ebby thatcher comes along with a solution it's not like he just got you know got caught drinking at the office and got sent to aa this is a guy who for years was actually serious seriously trying to quit and control and was incapable so when Ebi showed up with a solution. He should have been, like, jumping on a little horse and going for a ride. But he was like, whoa, I'm not sure about this God thing, you know? Luckily, Ebi changed that. Ebi was actually carrying this message of depth and weight at about two months' sobriety. So he had had a spiritual experience sufficient to recover from the obsession of the mind leading him back to the drink. And he's carrying this message to Bill at about two months sobriety, which is evidentially why he's able to continue to breathe and stay sober for the time being. Once again, putting the foundations of the Oxford Group movement, for us, taking the message to the alcoholic who still suffers, that's how he was able to stay and continue. It wasn't until Ebby said, you know, let's face it, Ebby was not selling AA. Ebby Was Selling the Oxford Group, a first-century Christian evangelical movement. You know, very big on the tambourine shaking, turning your life forward to Jesus Christ, a lot of prayer, meditation, some pretty unusual stuff that Bill wasn't really ready to take, but Ebby offered him a message which was... Which was amazing how it all played out, actually, because uh ebby's tasked to carry this definite conception to bill and uh bill's being very hesitant to accept various things as this conversation plays out he was upset about the christian aspect he specifically was and and he's umming and ahhing and and going for what he can conceive of and what he can't and what seems tangible and intellectual and ebony gets so frustrated about the fact that bill needs this message it's frustrated sort of a gentle way to put it we were talking hours i would say so and bill is just arguing everything he comes up with the greatest use these yeah but but but so ebby is frustrated matter of fact he throws his hands up in there and he says well why don't you choose your own conception of god boom a whole new message was brought to the world so this is unconventional for the oxford groups this is something that ebony didn't even foresee in his future the way that this interaction played out caused him to shoot out this um in in frustration which is a diluted form of what was actually going on and bill has this very very powerful realization um in that instant and he realizes that it was only a matter of being willing to believe in a power greater than myself nothing more is being required to make my beginning it changed the message essentially from religious to spiritual, a very key component in our history of Alcoholics Anonymous. Very palatable. You bring that message of spirituality to an alcoholic who's still suffering. They're going to be a lot more open-minded rather than saying you have to feel this and this and that. You don't have to have my concept of God or my religion on top of that. Whatever works for you. So Bill ended up in the hospital. Ebby kept visiting him. He had the Oxford I'm not going to say steps because it wasn't a step he just did the Oxford tenets, he practiced as a matter of fact this is what he was trying we talked about this just last week didn't we? It's from the forward to the second edition but Bill's like trying to figure out, but Bill said this he was convinced of the need for moral inventory confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others and the necessity of belief defend a dependence upon God, the six progressional points of the Oxford group. So Bill had his white line experience. Absolutely. His life changed. And on page 13 we saw a discussion about the remainder of what was to become the 12 steps for Alcoholics Anonymous and we got the sentiment that at the end of Bill's story he took all 12 steps and he had a spiritual experience sufficient to recover from alcoholism. And it's important to remember on page 14 if you look at that If you go back to last week's and look at them, he's basically got the 12 steps. And he hadn't even written how it works yet at this time. It's like God's starting to work through him. And by the way, we're going to start talking a lot about God especially tonight. And that's one thing about this solution. It's Like a Lot of People Say, What is AA's Hang-Up with God? You know, God This and God That. It's not like we woke up one morning and figured, Ooh, let's figure out a way to get people back into church. No, they stumbled onto a solution which is God-based. And that's what we're going to find out when we get into there's a solution. But before we leave Bill's story, he has that white light experience. And I just cannot not read this. The first thing that comes to Bill W.'s mind after he's spiritually connected to God clear, his selfish self-centeredness is dead. A whole new person is right. And I like to say this is God's first message to Bill B. And this is Bill. while i lay in the hospital the thought came that there were thousands of hopeless alcoholics who might be glad to have so it's been so freely given to me perhaps i could help some of them then they in turn might work with others basically god's marching orders to the recovered after you've had this thank you for the gift now go bring it to somebody else who's dying and then it goes into how bill you know says for if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his life through spiritual life and self-sacrifice, i.e., chop wood, carry water, get off your butt, help other people, his life turned around. And he had some upstarts. He had some emotional issues, some chemical imbalances that were tart. But he soon found that when all other measures failed, work with another alcoholic would save the day. Yeah, he commenced to make many fast friends, and a fellowship has grown up among him, which is a wonderful thing to feel a part of. You know, you can go to any meeting in the world and go into a meeting of Alcoholics and honest and feel comfortable or maybe not depends on me you're going to um but what he's talking about there is his sponsee lineage his sponcee families when you bring people through the steps and you're able to bring them a message of weight and mean and your sponsors get this actually get sober and get sponsees and then you start getting grand sponseese that's the family he's talking about absolutely absolutely a shared wonderful solution which we're going to touch on really quickly so we're going to jump right into um there's a solution you know we like to we'd like to talk about the fact that every chapter we like to you know come up with a little of a theme or another term for it so for us there is a solution across the top we write in fatty patty red big letters great news because joe before this what was the solution before the solution came out there was none absolutely not death institutions and misery all of a sudden we have a book in the solutions that once again quotations fatty patty read right great news by the way we also have written in there what the solution is uh god yeah g-o-d capital um and if you have a problem with that you can always just say it's dog spelled backwards that might work for somebody in the beginning so let's start reading let's get into this the solution part so here we go uh chapter two there is a solution we of alcoholics anonymous okay joe seriously when when we see we in the book who who are they talking about the rooms today it's not because we're all doing this together it's specifically referring to those first 67 to 72 uh recovered alcoholics who got the solution and got permanent sobriety from seeking a relationship with God. So I guess what you're saying is that if you want to recover from alcoholism, develop a relationship with God that's going to be sufficient enough to help you have this marvelous continuing life, I think I would do what they're doing. I would. It's a safe bet, especially when we looked at the forwards with 80% success rates. If my life is on the line, I definitely want to jump into this. Absolutely. So we have Alcoholics Anonymous for more than 100 men and women who have recovered, who are just as hopeless as Bill. Green and under, by the way, this is green and underline this next line. And for those of you who have access to a ruler, it's always good penmanship to underline your green highlighting. Green, underline, ready? Nearly all have recovered. They have solved the drink problem. We are average Americans. All sections of this country and many of its occupations are represented as well as many political, economic, social and religious backgrounds. We are people who normally would not mix, but there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue, when shipwreck, when camaraderie, joyousness, and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to the captain's table. Pay attention to this. Unlike the feeling of the ship's passengers, however, our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. Yeah, if you guys remember that movie Titanic, you know, the incredible Molly Brown and the poor little Irish... What was that gal's name? Lardo's girlfriend? They were really good friends and they survived. Rose, yeah, they survived, you know. And they knew some of the poor people and when the boat docked in New York and they're getting off the boat, you now, Molly looks over and sees her limo or her horse, you known, or a big limo, and the poor little Irish girl sees her husband or uncle with a donkey cart and they sort of look at each other and go like, yeah, we're going to see you. But that doesn't happen in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous. We've got doctors with hookers and electricians with plumbers and we've got just an amazing mixture, I guess. Camaraderie. But all these different people from walks of life, that's one of the founding things about the fellowship. However, fellowship isn't going to be enough to keep us sober, which it says right here. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us. But that in itself would never have held us together as we have now joined. You know, let's join some Bible study, let'S say. That's not going to keep me sober. I had to do the program with Alcoholics Anonymous to actually find that in the solution that's found in the book. This next paragraph I actually have boxed because this is something that's really important. I have this in green, as a matter of fact, his first sentence. The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. That's the concept that's so important, the common solution They all agreed, the 67 agreed that this was going to be the program we're going to join in brotherly harmonious action and do the same thing. not what we see going into a lot of contemporary ace rooms today you know people doing all different things like so bob what are you doing well i am writing my powerlessness list oh wow or why is why do you have a watch on your ankle joe uh because my sponsor wants me to prove my willingness you know there's a lot stuff going on today that is just not conducive you know a lot of people doing different stuff so no one can really talk and share too much because a lot different. These guys set up a plan, a program that we can all join in brotherly harmonious action. We have a way out which we can absolutely agree and upon which we could join in brotherly and harmonious action. Green. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism. We like to call it big book sponsorship. Absolutely. Now in our family I can get hit by a bus tomorrow and anyone in our community can pick up exactly where I left off in the book and get that person to the relationship with God so god can sober them up they're not going to say what did yours you know it's like everyone's on the same page you've got to be careful when crossing the street i really should be careful you guys are just tempting me to do that so let's move on to uh page 18 by the way green underlined an illness of this sort and we have come to believe it is an illness it's not behavioral its behavior gets in motion but it's that phenomenon of craving that actually sets us apart involves those about us in a way no other human sickness can if a person has cancer all are sorry for him and no one is angry or hurt but not so with the alcoholic illness for with it there goes annihilation of all things worthwhile in life it engulfs all whose lives touch the sufferers absolutely it brings misunderstanding fierce resentment financial insecurity disgusted friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad wives and parents. Anyone can increase the list. I highlight and underline that last one because this is an opportunity. Remember the book was going out. It was going to the alcoholic, the wife of the alcoholic lawyers and doctors anyone who had anything to do with an alcoholic. And if you've been living with an alcoholic and you just wonder why this wonderful loving person has turned into this person who lies, cheats, steals, manipulates and hurts you're gonna find out that it's not him directly it's a characteristic of the disease and you're not alone absolutely it's part of the disease we hope this volume will inform and comfort those who are who or who may be affected there are many highly competent psychiatrists who have dealt with I find it sometimes impossible to persuade an alcoholic to discuss his situation without reserve strangely enough wives parents and intimate friends you usually find it more unapproachable than do the psychiatrists and the doctor they're sort of explaining why it is that we just don't connect with non-alcoholics you know put two alcoholics in a room and we're just like blah blah blah you know have this great conversation 15 minutes becomes six hours yeah leave us in a room with a doctor or a parent or family it's like all we're saying is like we see you just want to take away my drink you just want to takeaway my solution whereas when we're connecting one-on-one so that's why this next paragraph is boxed and it's also in italics which is a language way of emphasizing importance which is another reason why big book study is so important you know if you're coming to somebody who's just coming off the streets just coming out for run and you start throwing bumper sticker solution to him and he's been in and out he's just going think you're another one of those bumper sticker sponsors with no solution just more meetings absolutely so somebody who can hear read this job i love this paragraph but the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution who is properly armed with facts about himself can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours until such an understanding is reached little or nothing can be accomplished what they're saying is if you don't have a solution and you're not a recovered alcoholic you're not going to get much success as a matter of fact when they were writing this book the original manuscript said who was properly armed about the medical facts about himself and boy did that cause an uproar bill bill was going to stand by that line too until it's proven you know pointed out to him it's like you know bill it's it's an opinion right now we're not sure about the facts this is just an opinion we got here so bill in frustration is okay well great then probably act about myself because you can't can't argue about, which is one of the great things about Alcoholics Anonymous, when we share about our experience and our strength, you can't argue with that. The truth, the conviction, and we're going to hear a little bit more about that as we go on to expand from this. And I've called that box the Share Hope Solution box, you know? Share Hope Solutions. Information, solution, and hope. This is just underlying because it stands out, and once again, this is one of those reoccurring themes, that the man who was making the approach, don't sit in a room and wait for people to come up to you and ask you to help them through the book. First of all, these guys can't even make a decision whether they're going to drink or not drink and contemporary AA's got these people, you know, find a sponsor that you can relate to. I really like your motorcycle. Will you be my sponsor? Seriously, as a recovered alcoholic it's your duty, my responsibility to keep an eye out in a meeting. When I see some guy who's just coming off the street bug-eyed, looks like a fried pie, you don't hit him in the face It's my job to go up to him and offer him a solution. I'm not going to force myself as a sponsor, but I can sit down next to him, talk to him. Get him comfortable in a room and maybe introduce him to somebody who's going to be qualified to bring him through the book. Absolutely. This letting people sit on the sidelines and rot and die while we're waiting for somebody to come and talk to me. No. Get off your little butt and go help somebody. Yeah, try and get an unrecovered guy to call you at 8 o'clock in the morning every day for 30 days to test his willingness while he's dying. Yeah, wait for the miracle to happen. He's in the room. He's two feet from you. That's the miracle. Grab that little buckaroo, right? Absolutely. Take him home and start reading the book with him. Take him out of the parking lot. Take him for a walk. Give him some hope. These guys are not capable of making decisions. That the man who's making the approach has had the same difficulty that he obviously knows what he's talking about, that his whole department shouts at the news prospect that he is a man with a real answer. Underline, that he has a man with a really good answer. A real answer, not 90 and 90, think differently put the plug in the jaw, bend the needle whatever silly, cliche bumper sticker that's going to chase this guy out of the rooms one more time sit down, let him know and hopefully you've studied the book and you do have a solution and some answer for the guy That he has no attitude of holier than thou Nothing, whatever, except the sincere desire to be helpful, that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured. These are the conditions we have found most effective. After such an approach, many take up their bets and walk again. This is a spiritual altruistic movement. None of us makes a sole vocation of this work, nor do we think its effectiveness would be increased if we did. we feel the elimination of our drinking is but a beginning yellow underline a much more important demonstration of our principles lies before us in our respective homes occupations and affairs when you have people know that you're a recovered alcoholic and you're walking with god and you living a life based on the principles matter of fact even based off the oxford you know the four absolutes people are going to take note you'll be respected you'll been upstanding member of society and someone will say you know this guy used to be a drunken bum now he is walking with god and he can help you exactly so this is a another reference that we get to the to the effect that sobriety in itself is all well and good in effect is crucial but it's not nearly enough when we look at the wake of the havoc that an alcoholic's drinking has created and that brings us up between the difference between abstinence and sober that's right there's a big difference all of us spend much of our spare time in this sort of effort which you're going to describe if you are fortunate enough to be so situated they can give nearly all their time to the work you know i keep asking god to you know give me the lotto so i can uh work with sponsees 24 7 he gets a real giggle out of that and i think it's very key that you know the sentence begins all of us spend much of our spare time in this sort of effort which we were going to describe they didn't leave anyone out all of these people that got this solution and had permanent recovery sobriety um all of them were doing this you know clarence's guys up in cleveland when he institute of big book sponsorship he was having such an enormous overwhelming success and people are getting sober and people are coming in he's got guys taking guys to the book before they've even finished you know it says in the 12th step having had a spiritual awakening as a result of the steps somewhere between step four and nine you have that spiritual awakening once that spiritual awakening has kicked in there's no reason why you can't start on page zero the big book of alcoholics anonymous and start reading with somebody of course talk to your sponsor your teacher find out and continue to work with him if we keep on the way we are going there is little doubt that much good will result but the surface of the problem would hardly be scratched those of us who live in large cities are overcome by the reflection that close by hundreds are dropping into oblivion every day oblivion yellow underline many could recover if they had the opportunity we have enjoyed how then shall we represent which has been so freely given us you know they're getting sober in Akron they're They're getting sober in Cleveland. They're going to meetings in New York and stuff like that, you know? They needed to get this in, as somebody once said, Dr. Bob wanted to keep it in retail and Bill W. wanted to put it in wholesale. Let's get this up. So they figured what's the best way to do this because what was happening, people were getting sober in those communities and then moving back to their towns trying to mimic or do the same thing that Dr. Rob did, you know, and the success rates were starting to fall off. It's like there was no written recipe. there was no so the book itself was the directions book so let's get this program working she was there success rates were falling victim to um chinese whispers essentially or drive-through recovery that's right let's just do that um so they had the book which was when success rates really started to pick back up again we have concluded to publish well look what it talks about we have included the amazing we've concluded to published an anonymous volume setting forth the problem as we see it. Underline, we shall bring to task our combined experience and knowledge. Our combined experience in knowledge. So if you're sitting in a meeting and you think of this guy's giving out too much information, you may not be in the right meeting for your problem because that's our job is to share knowledge so these guys have a message of weight and meaning. This should also suggest a useful program with any concerned with the drinking problem. It's a bit difficult to argue with combined experience and knowledge. I mean, if it was just one or two people, yeah, fair enough. That's what I like about the big one. Hopeless people who are now... Yeah, compared to the books that came on later on, the other essay-type books, the book of Alcoholics Anonymous was the combined experience of the 42, 67, 72, you know, that whole God working through a bunch of people. And then they sent out to 300 other people for even more evaluation instead of just, you know, one guy, a reporter and a secretary coming up with another book, which is an essay. The book itself, the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, is that book. Of necessity, there will have to be discussion of matters medical, psychiatric, social, and religious. Now we're aware these facts are from their very nature controversial. Nothing would please us much more as to write a book which would contain no basis for contention and argument. So I said they mailed out the manuscripts to 300 people besides the alcoholic, you know, who threw in information. And we were able to come up with a book which really hit it out of the ballpark. And it's important to note that as far as the big book's ideal and what it aims to achieve goes, it wants to leave out the realms of controversy, whereas we do find in the rooms today people make it almost their errand to bring controversy to the table. But as far As The Book Goes, controversy is out of question. So their purpose was, we shall do our utmost to achieve no ideas. I hear the bells ringing in the background, so this is obviously an important thing to pay attention to. Highlight in yellow, most of us sense the real tolerance of other people's shortcomings and viewpoints and respect for their opinions or attitudes which make us more useful to others. We don't want to be argumentative. My sponsor likes to say, when you have somebody come up to you with resistance, reply with no resistance. Oh, you say that? Well, that's nice. not to be argumentative people have different opinions I share my experience, strength and hope and it ruffles some feathers sometimes my job is not to argue it's to bring my information if somebody wants it they can have it now this next sentence green underlined our very lives our very existence our ability to be as ex-problem drinkers depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs Yeah, I heard somebody came up to me the other night after the last podcast and said, well, you know, somebody said that back in those guys, those guys were really fanatics and they really didn't have much balance in their life and stuff like that. And I just looked at them and just, oh, what a poor little guy, you now. It's like they've discovered a solution for a malady of fatality. So we're just supposed to sit on the sidelines and let another one die and let an other one die? Absolutely not. If you're walking by somebody's house and you see the house on fire, right? And you see three people, help, help. And you're like, ooh, sorry, I've got to go down to the store and pick up some milk because my wife wants me to get milk. No, you're going to do everything you can to help them. So if you're sitting in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous watching people suffer, shame on you. Shame on AlcoholicsAnonymous for not dumping up and making sure that was not a priority. That's when we had success rates and people gave a jolly hoot. You may already have asked yourself why it is that all of us became so very ill from drinking. Doubtless you're curious to discover the how and why in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, right? Green underlined, we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body. It's sort of a fair question. It's like Bill's story and the doctor's opinion led us to believe that you're dead. You're going to die in an insane asylum or in a gutter. and here you guys are running around happy, joyful, and free with a fog light shining through, connected to God with purposeful, enjoyable lives. It's like, wow! How does the writing continue after Bill's story if it was really that insane? But also, note the language. The language was written around a time when people knew that alcoholics were doomed to a life of either permanent insanity or death. Remember today that we've had 1980s, 1990s, In 2010 we've had the recovered, you know, society where it's like the fatality has been taken away and it's just, you know, oh, just go to process groups. Let's have therapy. You know, the ability to bring God into the solution was sort of dampened and taken out of the way. So we're jaded, the contemporary people are jaded and really have lost the belief in Alcoholics Anonymous. big book sponsorship, big book recovery brings back the fact that you can be recovered and this is what we're offering here. If you're an alcoholic who wants to get over it you may already be asking yourself I love this question what do they say Joe? What do I have to do? 90-90 put the plug in the jug tell you what if you're having a rough day double up on your meetings. No. If you don't drink you won't get drunk. Oh I love that you don'T have to drink even if you DON'T want to do that one was just used to drive me crazy green underline It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically. So, i.e., you are a real alcoholic. You want to get sober. Where do we find the solution? We should tell you what we have done. Before going into a detailed discussion, it may be well to summarize some points as we see them. Once again, we're going to start doing a general idea of where the solution is. Mind you, this is not the quote-unquote solution. This is where we're feeding us up with information So when we finally get into how it works in Chapter 5, three, two chapters away, we're going to be full knowledge of what to expect. We're on a course to recovery. How many times have people said to us... Oh, I love this part. This is the fun part. This is how normal people react. You know, this is what Joe's mom would look at Joe and my mom would Look at Me. And, well, you know, this is... And just, it's like they look at us like we're Martians. So have fun with this one. Absolutely. These are reactions from non-alcoholics. I can take it or leave it alone, why can't he? Why don't you drink like a gentleman Or just quit That fellow can't handle his liquor Why don'T you try beer and wine 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 lit up again Now of course we're going to have a little bit more in the book But this is the bell ringer issue here we've got these problem heavy drinkers that look like us act like us you know when they go to rehab and get some of those there's a little therapy and some life coaching and nutritional information you know and they can go on with their lives without having to go to aa meetings or work with sponsees you know they're talking about people who are not alcoholic who do not suffer from the phenomenon of craving not real alcoholics so they're looking at us with a lot of now knowledge absolutely ignorance absolutely matter of fact it says here now these are commonplace observations on drinkers, which we see all the time. Back of them is a world of ignorance. We see that these are expressions, refer to people whose reactions are quite different from ours. Now, speaking of real alcoholics, heavy drinkers hard drinkers. We got the opportunity, this last few ten minutes we have here, we're going to start showing the difference between the different types of drinkers and they did an eloquent job of doing this. Let's start off with the first type. Monodrinkers, don't you just love these guys? They have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have a good reason for it. They can take it or leave it alone. These are the kind of people that you hate being stuck at with a table when you're out drinking. They sit at the table and they play with the wine or they peel the label or they play with the water. Something like swirling the glass. Swirling the glass and stuff. My mom, she's like, oh no, I'm not drinking tonight because I'm on a diet. Oh, wow. Really? I would just stop eating food. It's still great. But these moderate drinkers, these are the people who can take it and leave it alone. These are usually the people that ended up being the drivers. T-totalers, designated drivers. Designated drivers. I used to be the designated driver sometimes. I just went to another bar and drank. I wasn't very honest with them. So that's the first kind, moderate drinker. Underlying yellow highlight moderate drink. Now we're going to talk about the guys that make us look like total buffoons. Right. Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. Certain type of HARD DRINKER. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. GREEN. If a sufficiently strong reason, ill health, Comma. Falling in love, Comma, Change of environment, or the warning of a doctor becomes operative, Now mind you there's a dash there which means it's a pause in a whole new phrase, becomes operative. This man can stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention. You're going to see that a great number of people in rehabs today are problem heavy drinkers. They look like us, they act like us and they make us look like you're not ready or you're just not willing. These are the kind of people that come into Alcoholics Anonymous who can stay sober on the put the plug on the jug, who can say don't drink between means matter of fact if you feel like calling give if you feel like drinking give me a call i'm not going to call you unless i'm going to try to get some money out of you to borrow this is not the alcoholic we have going this is just unusual and it's a fair observation that these people do wind up in our treatment centers and in the rooms of alcoholics anonymous but when you look at what they're really doing to stay sober they can do it on a non-spiritual basis in other words they don't have that obsession and allergy that we have And as a matter of fact, the one thing that the moderate drinker and the certain kind of hard drinker have is they do not and will never ever suffer from the phenomenon of craving. They just drink a lot. Somebody once said you can go down to, we live in Fort Lauderdale, you can get on the docks at the Bahia Bar and you got all those fishing boats out there and you've had people doves drinking hard all day long and 90% of them, they're going to be able to go home and just feel drunk and go to sleep. A certain percent, 10%, maybe 8% of the population, we're going to go home and we're going to keep drinking throughout the night because a phenomenon of cravings kicked in and we can't stop. Now, we're gonna jump in or start talking about the real alcoholic. We're gonna be able to go next couple sessions on just what it is to be a real alcoholic Matter of fact, let's just wrap up now and we'll jump in next week. Well, let'S read this one paragraph and then we'll tee off there. Absolutely. So when you talked about the moderate drinker, the ones you never want to get stuck at a bar with when you're drinking, the heavy drinkers, which we would take them hostage. Yeah, absolutely. I had many friends that when they were hanging out with Mike Chase, it's like, I'd kidnap him for a weekend, you know? And they're getting all kinds of trouble. You know, their girlfriends or their wives are saying, you ever hang out with him again? We're getting a divorce, you Know? So guess what? Mike Chase. I can't hang out With you anymore. Oh, you've been blacklisted too. Been blacklisted a lot, you Now? Absolutely. And these people are just normal people. and we get confused. Believe it or not, Joe, you can get a DWI by just peer pressure making a drink and I know guys who have been to frat parties and the peer pressure got to them and they drank a little too much, right? Yep. And they drove home and they get pulled over and they go to the judge and the judge looks at them and says, oh wow, alcoholic. Dude, you gotta... Matter of fact, part of your sentence is going to be you gotta do 90 meetings in 90 days. I hear that really works for your kind. They didn't even qualify and they just assume any alcohol-related incident you're immediately an alcoholic and that guy's going to show up in the meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, you know. Having been told that he's an alcoholic. And he's going to be able to stay sober on a non-spiritual basis and here's the scary part, he may sponsor a real alcoholic someday and when that alcoholic is told to, you know, I want you to have a coffee commitment, that worked for me and I want you to show Burley and set up the desks and, you know, we'll get to the steps eventually but, you know, you're, we want you take it easy for us and when that little real alcoholic starts to relapse and this non-alcoholic looks at him and goes like, dude, you know, I think I'm going to have to fire you because you don't seem willing. You just don't drink between meetings, dude. That's the problem. Now, is that the case or could it possibly be the case that this real alcoholic is getting the treatment for a non-alkoholic condition when he actually should be getting the treatment in the book for alcoholism? Absolutely. Same thing with the heavy drinker. And something that we who've had the gift of being recovered alcoholics should have a certain sense of awareness towards is the extent at which people are being labeled alcoholics and being sort of thrown into AA has become rampant. And so are we really doing what we're supposed to do responsibility-wise by qualifying the person when we're working with them to see if this solution is appropriate for that case? You start pointing this out in some rooms and meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, and you start getting called names. Here we are trying to qualify alcoholics, and you could become an outcast. We're doing exactly what the book tells us we're supposed to do. So we'd like to thank you guys for sticking around and coming to visit us here too tonight. It was fun to have you here. We're going to shut this down now. We're gonna take a moment or two of quiet meditation. Did you want to wrap up anything? Do you have anything else to say concerning where we're at right now? I just think that we're in a very exciting part of the book, and the information that we've covered has been really, really amazing and fantastic. And we're about to jump into some really good stuff looking forward. So the next session, we're just going to do a recap of The Solution. We're going to kick right into what it is to be a real alcoholic. I remember when I announced myself as a real alcoholic once. I was going to this middle-of-the-road meeting, and they just looked at me like I just threw rocks at them all. So it's like, why do you have to separate yourself? It's like well, unfortunately I'm a real alcoholic. Fortunately I'm an alcoholic. So we're going to close our books ready. Let's close the book. I'd like to thank everybody for joining us here tonight. If we could just take a moment of silence and take us out on the fog light prayer. This is a prayer that a family has. And if you guys want to repeat after me. God, let your love shine through me like a fog light for those who are lost, sick, and dying can find your love through me. Amen.