Ego Shells and Spiritualese: Sandy B. on Old Ideas

About This Speaker Tape

Welcome to Silkworth.net - 2006

Sandy B. dismantles the notion of 'problems' by arguing that life consists of neutral events which the ego then spins into crises. He maps out the danger of 'middle-of-the-road sobriety,' where a person relies on the support system of meetings and tapes rather than the desperate prayer and spiritual surrender required for true change. Using a series of surreal analogies—from the 'hatching' of an alcoholic egg to the 'shell' of the ego that resists perfection—Sandy B. argues that the goal of recovery is not just to stop drinking but to kill the ego and open the channel to a Higher Power. He warns that the ego is seductive often masquerading as 'progress not perfection' to keep the individual safely tucked inside a familiar albeit miserable shell of self-centeredness.

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.
• 11:20 Sandy B. references Big Book page 62 regarding 'self-will run riot' and problems of our own making.
• 16:40 The 'two parts' of a story: what happened versus what the speaker thinks happened.
• 22:10 Analysis of the 10th Step axiom: if something disturbs us, something is wrong with us.
• 31:50 The 'Alcoholic Egg' analogy: the process of hatching through the 12 Steps.
• 42:10 Discussion on Step 6 and the resistance to having character defects removed.
• 51:00 The 'two aspirin' story illustrating the resistance to perfect health/sobriety.
• 56:30 Defining a 'problem' as a neutral event combined with ego-driven judgment.
• 62:15 The 'Higher Power Calling' story and the struggle to open the door to a Higher Power.