Sandy B. on Spirituality 102, Self-Sufficiency, and the Soul School

About This Speaker Tape

1952, New Haven. A junior at Yale in white tie and tails, whistling along on gin, only to wake up in a closet with wet pants while his date—an Anheuser-Busch heiress—dances with someone else. Sandy B. recounts the wreckage of a life spent testing boundaries, from sprinting full-tilt into a mirror at a prom to waking up in the bed of a Naval base officer in Japan with a note calling him a disgrace to the uniform. He describes the alcoholic's paradox: the desperate need to change how the world looks from the outside in, using a power that eventually kills you.

For Sandy B., the shift was a move from "big shot to servant." He views Earth as a "soul school" where adverse circumstances—the nut ward, the DWI—act as spiritual messengers. He argues that while the first half of the program forces a brutal contact with reality, the second half is a liberation from it, allowing one to live life as a "loose garment" where the ego no longer takes the hit.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Sandy B. opens with a reading from the 24-hour day book about nature and sunshine.
• 5:12 Story about the junior prom at Yale and the disastrous date with Mary Alice B.
• 12:45 The Marine Corps experience in Japan and waking up at the Yokosuka Naval base.
• 18:20 Sandy B. describes his entry into AA and the influence of his sponsor, Bill T.
• 21:15 The pivotal moment with Betsy L. and the feeling that 'it's going to be all right'.
• 26:30 Dismantling the difference between religion and spirituality; the 'soul school' theory.
• 33:10 Discussion on the 'fourth dimension of existence' and the paradox of the later steps.
• 38:45 The 'Higher Power hose' metaphor and the importance of moving from 'all get' to 'all give'.
• 42:10 Closing thoughts on the Prayer of St. Francis and the flow of peace.