The Chapter to the Agnostic That Acts as the Ultimate Sales Page – Deb H.

About This Speaker Tape

2024 Chapters to Recovery - 2024

A fifteen-year-old girl walking into the rooms of AA in 1987 didn't believe she was a 'real' alcoholic but she found herself face-down in mud puddles and trapped by a self-reliance that had failed her. Deb H. recounts the influence of the old-timers in the Akron area—the whip-cracking Mac S. and the formidable Jane who was carried into meetings in a high-back wooden chair. Through their grit and the 'We Agnostics' chapter she moved from a blank slate of faith to a relationship with a Higher Power that she describes as renovating a house: starting with good bones and slowly adding textures and colors. She explores the spectrum of spirituality from the rigid structures of Amish recovery to a man who used a rock in his pocket as his Higher Power ultimately arguing that the realm of the spirit is broad roomy and all-inclusive.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:45 Deb H. discusses her early denial and the daunting prospect of never drinking again at age 15.
• 4:12 Discussion on the 'old ideas' of self-reliance and the influence of her hillbilly upbringing near Akron.
• 8:30 Description of the old-timers Mac S. and Jane, and the ritual of carrying Jane into the basement in a wooden chair.
• 11:40 Jane's 'atheist' approach to sponsorship and her definition of Higher Power as 'good orderly direction'.
• 14:20 The 'five dollar' challenge from Mac S. and the subsequent final blackout.
• 18:50 Analysis of the 'We Agnostics' chapter and the 'feel-felt-found' sales technique used by Bill W.
• 23:15 The story of Ethel M., the first woman in AA, and her finding Higher Power in the dirt of her garden.
• 27:40 Extended metaphor comparing the development of a spiritual life to buying and renovating a house.
• 32:10 The 'Thursday night fights' in Amish country between Danny S. and Jeremiah over a rock as a Higher Power.
• 36:00 Closing thoughts on the 'broad, roomy, and all-inclusive' nature of the realm of the spirit.