Big Book Study Workshop on Steps 9-12 and the Fourth Dimension — Joe & Charlie – Joe W.

About This Speaker Tape

In this Big Book Study workshop recording, Joe and Charlie dismantle the common misconception that Step 10 is a nighttime inventory. Charlie explains that the nighttime portion actually belongs to Step 11, and that Step 10 is a "daytime walking around step" — a real-time application of Steps 4 through 9 whenever selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, or fear crop up during the day. Charlie shares how he trained himself to stop wasting entire days in anger by getting off in a corner, running through his mental inventory sheet, asking his Higher Power for removal, discussing it with his sponsor, and making amends quickly — all within ten or fifteen minutes. The promises on page 84 follow: sanity returns, the obsession to drink is removed without effort, and the alcoholic is placed in a position of neutrality.

Moving into Step 11, Joe and Charlie walk through the Big Book's specific instructions for evening review and morning meditation. Charlie offers the memorable analogy that we spend all morning feeding the body, fixing our hair, checking the car's fuel and tires, but never once check the fuel level in our minds before heading out the door. Five minutes in the morning asking a Higher Power for direction, five minutes at night reviewing the day — and you still have twenty-three hours and fifty minutes to mess it up. They explain the "busy person's meditation" from page 86: when facing indecision, stop struggling, get your mind on something else, and wait for intuitive thought to arrive.

The workshop concludes with Step 12, where Joe and Charlie break it into three responsibilities: having had a spiritual awakening (the personality change sufficient to recover), carrying THIS specific message to other alcoholics (not playing marital advisor or economic counselor), and practicing these principles in ALL affairs — at home with a spouse, with children, with co-workers. Charlie's sponsor told him "you can be just as happy as you want to be," and Charlie admits he thought the old man was crazy until he found himself saying the same words years later. Joe closes with the story of Legions from scripture as a recovery parable and reads the final passage from page 164, reminding the room that you cannot transmit something you haven't got.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction — Why the last three steps move us into a fourth dimension of existence
• 2:30 Step 10 is NOT a nighttime step — it belongs during the day when you're disturbed
• 5:00 Charlie's real-time inventory method — off in a corner, 10-15 minutes, day is saved
• 8:00 The changing step — if you stay fouled up, it's because you want to be
• 10:00 Page 84 promises — sanity returns, placed in a position of neutrality toward alcohol
• 13:00 Step 11 nighttime review — sitting down with the personality characteristics sheet
• 16:00 Morning meditation — did you check the fuel in your mind before leaving the house?
• 19:00 Busy person's meditation — facing indecision, relax, let the sixth sense work
• 21:00 How to pray — stop using a Higher Power like an errand boy
• 24:00 Joe and Phyllis praying together — 21 years without a divorce
• 27:00 Step 12 — carrying THIS message, not playing marital advisor
• 30:00 The Legions parable — cut loose from resentment, fear, guilt, and set free
• 33:00 Page 164 — you cannot transmit something you haven't got