Joe and Charlie Big Book Study – “Steps 5, 6, 7, and 8” – Joe W.

About This Speaker Tape

This session of the Joe and Charlie Big Book Comes Alive workshop walks through Steps 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 directly from the text of the Big Book. Charlie opens on page 72, 'Into Action' — not 'into thinking' — and explains why Bill W. used 'wrongs,' 'defects,' and 'shortcomings' interchangeably: Bill told two women who worked with him that his college writing teachers taught him not to repeat the same word. Charlie reads through the Fifth Step passages on pages 72–75, emphasizing that a solitary self-appraisal is insufficient and that we need another human being who has walked the steps according to the book to help us see what rationalization has hidden.

From there Charlie moves into Steps 6 and 7, reading the promises on page 75 ('we can look the world in the eye... we begin to have a spiritual experience') and then the hour of quiet reflection before the Sixth Step review of the arch. He stresses that Higher Power will not do for us what we can do for ourselves — we must practice the opposite of each defect until the old habit dies and a new one takes its place. On Steps 8 and 9 he covers creditors, domestic troubles, sex conduct, and amends that could harm others, telling the story of his friend Dan from Tulsa who took 29 years to pay back every debt from his drinking days.

Charlie closes with the Ninth Step promises on pages 83–84, then re-reads them line by line as the feelings alcohol once gave him before it turned against him — the heart of why he does not drink today. He frames Steps 1–9 as the spiritual awakening itself, not merely preparation for it, and warns that Steps 10–12 are not 'maintenance' because nothing in the universe stays as is: we are either growing or dying.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Opening page 72 u2014 'Into Action,' not into thinking
• 3:30 Why Bill used wrongs, defects, and shortcomings interchangeably
• 9:00 Solitary self-appraisal is insufficient u2014 needing another human being
• 16:00 The alcoholic as double-life actor, page 73
• 24:00 Charlie's Fifth Step with his sponsor Franklin in Olive Branch, Mississippi
• 30:00 Page 75 promises and the hour of quiet reflection, Step 6 review of the arch
• 38:00 Step 7 u2014 Higher Power won't do what we can do; practicing the opposite defect
• 50:00 Step 9 creditors, equal restitution, and Dan from Tulsa paying back 29 years of debts
• 62:00 Amends that could harm others u2014 page 79, 80, domestic and sex conduct
• 74:00 Ninth Step promises reread as what alcohol once did u2014 and why Steps 10-12 aren't maintenance