A Frightened Child Facing the Spiritual Malady – Earl

About This Speaker Tape

A deep undercurrent of fear drove Earl from childhood sleepwalking and a traumatic boarding school experience into a sixteen-year descent into drugs and alcohol. He recounts the wreckage of a plane crash in Mexico that killed his family and left him broken and enraged followed by years of isolation and violence. He describes the 'beast' of mental obsession and the grueling process of detoxing in a room of forty-two kicking addicts.

Earl makes his case for the 12 Steps as the only way to quiet the noise and move from a state of total isolation to 'marvelling in the ordinary,' eventually finding a spiritual buzz in the simple act of watering his front lawn.

Topics

Timestamps

• 2:15 Earl discusses childhood sleepwalking and the early lesson that taking something can fix symptoms.
• 7:40 The 'first tool for living': attacking when frightened after a confrontation with Tiny.
• 12:10 Earl describes the 'buzz' of his first drink and the immediate lifting of his constant concern.
• 18:20 Discussion on the 'barrel of emotions' and drinking specifically to kill the fear at the bottom.
• 26:45 The trauma of the plane crash in Mexico and the loss of his family.
• 34:10 The 'Dante's Inferno' experience of detoxing in a room with 42 other addicts.
• 41:15 Laughter: Earl's first interaction with 'Vegas' and the cliché of 'keep coming back.'
• 48:30 Detailed breakdown of the 12 Steps as a mechanism to relieve the obsession to drink.
• 55:10 Earl describes the 'spiritual buzz' of watering his lawn and marvelling in the ordinary.