The Difference Between a Religion and a Spiritual Program – Sandy B.

About This Speaker Tape

Sioux Empire Roundup - 2006

Sandy B. traces his path from a childhood shaped by a frightening Catholic crucifix to a career as a Marine Corps fighter pilot. He describes the 'technicolor' world of alcohol that masked his deep insecurity leading to a series of chaotic escapes—from waking up in a guard shack in Japan to forging counter-checks in San Francisco to get home to Connecticut. After a near-fatal collapse involving grand mal seizures and a straitjacket in a military hospital Sandy found a lifeline in AA. He dismantles the idea of AA as a mere support system arguing that relying on the 'system' is a trap of the ego. Instead he makes the case for a rigorous personal reliance on a Higher Power using the analogy of a light socket to explain how spiritual action precedes understanding.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Sandy B. opens by acknowledging the committee and his long-term sponsor, Bill T.
• 4:15 Describes the 'technicolor' feeling of early drinking and the mask it provided for his insecurity.
• 10:20 The story of waking up in the guard shack at Yokosuka, Japan, after a blackout.
• 15:40 Recounts the chaos of traveling from San Francisco to New York with no money and forged checks.
• 18:10 Hitting bottom: grand mal seizures, malnutrition, and being locked in a straitjacket.
• 21:30 The 'Marine Corps' realization: the disease of alcoholism makes a person 'unrecoverable' by human power.
• 26:10 Explains the difference between religion and spirituality using the 'lost tribe' and electricity analogy.
• 31:40 Discussion of the 'Chapter to the Agnostic' and the necessity of a spiritual solution.
• 36:20 Analysis of the 'spinmeister' ego and how we manufacture our own problems.
• 42:10 Critique of modern AA support systems versus the raw prayer of the early days.
• 46:00 Closing reading from the Big Book on the 'fourth dimension of existence'.