A Look at Self-Will and the Ego via Step 10 with Sandy B.

About This Speaker Tape

Problems Of Our Own Making - 2006

Sandy B. dismantles the illusion of the 'story' we tell ourselves arguing that our problems are not events but the judgments we impose upon them. He traces the shift from the desperation of early sobriety to the seductive trap of 'middle of the road' success where the ego convinces us we no longer need a Higher Power as much as we once did. Using a series of vivid surreal analogies—from the 'hatching' of an alcoholic egg to the struggle of a fighter pilot breaking Earth's gravity—Sandy B. maps out the internal war between the comfort of the ego's shell and the terrifying freedom of spiritual awakening. He challenges the listener to move beyond 'progress not perfection' as a limiting excuse and instead strive for a total separation from the old self treating the recovery process as a literal death of the ego to make room for a life of genuine peace.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Opening with the Serenity Prayer and AA preamble.
• 4:15 Discussion on the evolution of AA meetings from one per week to the modern abundance of specialized meetings.
• 8:30 Sandy B. explains the 'spiritualese' of feeling self-sufficient after several years of sobriety.
• 13:45 Analysis of Big Book page 62 and the concept of 'self-will run riot'.
• 18:20 The 'two parts' of a story: what happened versus what we think happened.
• 25:10 The analogy of the 'alcoholic egg' and the process of hatching through the 12 Steps.
• 32:40 Discussion on Step 6 and the struggle to remove character defects that aren't 'killing us' like alcohol did.
• 38:15 The story of the boy with the toothache and the difference between 'two aspirin' and 'perfect help'.
• 43:50 Laughter: The hypothetical conversation with a Higher Power and the Sopranos finale.
• 48:10 Closing thoughts on St. Peter's denial and forgiving oneself for the struggle of recovery.