Step 8 Is the Automatic Result of Step 4 – Ted H.

About This Speaker Tape

A large dull crayon and an economy-sized roll of toilet paper. That is the toolkit Ted H. describes for the wreckage of a fourth step. He doesn't deal in "many ways to work the program"; he speaks with the rigidity of a pilot or a general contractor. To him, the Big Book is a formula of aerodynamics and concrete—deviate from the mix, and the building falls.

Ted H. strips away the "convoluted" additions of modern treatment centers, treating the steps as a single operational unit. He describes "mousetrapping" the angry and the resistant, moving them from total deflation to the brink of amends in a single afternoon. He warns against "poison people" and the "novel writers" who mistake a moral inventory for an autobiography. For the dead or the unreachable, he suggests a letter written in the first person, read aloud in the dark, and burned. The goal is concrete: kill the guilt, shame, and remorse so one can finally stand on a girder without fear.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Laughter: The dull crayon and toilet paper story about his sponsor.
• 4:15 Ted H. explains the three-part division of the 12 Steps.
• 8:30 Discussion on the psychiatric definition of sanity as honesty.
• 13:45 Sponsorship: The requirement of a pencil, paper, and Big Book.
• 20:10 Analogy of flight school and ground school in recovery.
• 28:40 The 'mousetrap' method of moving a sponsee from Step 1 to Step 9 quickly.
• 36:15 Dealing with 'poison people' and the prayer from page 552.
• 41:20 The symbolic process of writing and burning letters to the deceased.
• 52:10 The 'Lizard Mind' diagram: Social, Security, and Sex instincts.
• 58:45 The 'whiteout' experience: Recounting hitting Ken F. seven years prior.
• 1:04:10 Dealing with intrusive thoughts of drinking by thanking the brain for sharing.