The Difference Between Recovering and Recovered – Bob S.

Hello, my name is Bob S. and I'm a member of the Fourth Dimension Group. We are a group of AAs who love to put on big book step seminars and provoke or at least provoke people into starting new big book stop study meetings however they want to do it. So we'd like to share with you some of the things we do along the lines of Steps 10, 11, and 12 on this particular tape. So, okay. I hope you have your pen ready now and your yellow marker. And we're ready to start off here and launch out toward this step 10 where we begin to change in such a way that it will be sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism. And after all, isn't that why you came here? Of course. And so this is the important thing. This is what we've been waiting for. We've been preparing for this all the way to this point since the very beginning. Let's go to page 83 and let's talk about where we are now. Remember, we've not recovered yet. We have not reached that point of being recovered. This is just recovery. If you're just here now, you're at that point, like they say, it's a treatment center we're recovering and that's all you're doing now you're recovering you have not recovered and you can't do those wonderful things it says to do on page 101, 102 yet but you will be able to if you sit and do what we say here well we say Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson and those first 60 or 100 or whatever there were people who helped write this book remember these are words out of experience so these are not something somebody made up or some theory that's the reason this thing works so well because i've tried all these things so don't get the idea you're recovered now because you're doing step nine you are not probably you are still recovering and you have to you're still on the critical list and you still need to go to meetings every day and you Still need to do all the things you've ever done until you get the problem removed and we found out what that was way back in step one didn't we but not yet now at the bottom of page 83 and here you are if we are where you are now if we're painstaking about this phase of our development we will be amazed before we're halfway through mark the word painstaken this is not just like we just just glaze over we are here we come we're going to know a new freedom and a new happiness we will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it we will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace no matter how far down the scale we have gone we will see how our experience will benefit others that feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear we will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows self-seeking will slip away our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us we will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us we will suddenly realize that god is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves okay we see we have god helping us now isn't that good because it doesn't say you recovered It doesn't say that your sanity has returned yet. It doesn'T say your problem's been removed yet. It doesn' t say you've recovered at all. It just simply means you've had this personality change. And I doubt if any of these personality changes are the reason you came to Alcoholics Anonymous. You came to alcoholics anonymous for the same reasons most of us came. You came here to have your alcoholic problem removed. It doesn''t say it here at all, not at all! It just says you have a personality change. Actually, you're having a personality change insufficient to recover from alcoholism. Make sure you understand that. Where you are now is a personality change insufficient. Some people get these changes and think, whoops, boy, I got her now! Page 100 for me. I'm going to those whoopee parties tonight. No, it doesn't mean that at all. Not yet. It says, are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them. Mark quickly. What's that sound like? That's like a spiritual experience. Remember that was quick, sudden, sometimes slowly. That sounds like a spiritual awakening, doesn't it? Well, that's it. But remember it is insufficient at this point. Insufficient. Okay. Let's get ready for step ten. This thought brings us to step 10, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and set right any new mistakes as we go along. Mark the word new. What does new mean to you? Does that mean that candy bar you're going to steal on the way to work today? No. it could it would mean that of course it would mean that but it means much more than it might mean your attitude about going to steal that candy bar thinking about stealing a candy bar thinking about lying to the boss while you're late to work today it may include that resentment you woke up with this morning and here you are angry with something that might have happened 10-20 years ago and you're still mad about it and you did step 4 and it didn't go away and you still got it That is a new mistake, my friend. All these things that come out of our past are haunt us. Remember in step four, we only did our gross or handicaps. And in step five, we might have told all our life story and we asked God to take these character defects we found out about us away. But it don't mean that they're all gone by now. They're going to keep coming back. If you're like the rest of us, they'll come back over and over and they're a new mistakes. So you've got to watch for those all the time. and so you've got why do i watch for me it says right here to set them right so you don't have them anymore you want to get rid of here remember we're faced we were here to face and be rid of the things in ourselves which have been blocking us that's what it said way back there so they're going to continue to come and they're gonna continue to block us unless we get rid of them okay get rid OF THEM and that's WHAT WE'RE GOING TO LEARN HOW TO DO IN STEP 10 AND 11 AND 12 these three steps all work together and you will see that when we're through next sentence we vigorously commence this way of living as we cleaned up the past mark the word as somebody says do I have to finish step 9 before I can go to 10, 11 and 12 the maintenance steps well the answer is right here in this sentence let's re-read this remembering that in step 9 what we do is clean up the past here we go we vigorously commence this way of living as we did step nine. So you can see, the big book tells you that as soon as you've done four, five, six, seven, eight was already done. Remember we did it back and forth. And start making these amends, you're ready for ten, eleven, twelve now. It took me ten years to get all the things on my list. Amends made to all those people. So consequently, the very next sentence helps us out a lot. It says, we have entered the world of the Spirit. Aha! So now we have God to help us here. God to make these amends so we do them right and we don't mess them all up and hurt a bunch of people and do things like that. So thank God we have all this going on in our lives. We have God with us. We have a good frame of mind, I suppose. We have all those promises we just heard this personality change promises to help us. It says up there, we will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Well, certainly if we're in that frame of mind, we want to get rid of these character defects as they come up so we can be of what? On page 77, remember, maximum service. We want to be of maximum service, not just some little bit of service, a little bit teeny-weeny in the air. we want to be as much service as God has been to us. He's saving us from getting what we deserve which is a life of drunken alcoholism. That's what we set ourselves up for and here God's going to help us so we want it to be of maximum service to God and we can't be that if we're full of selfishness dishonesty resentment and fear can we? So we've entered this world of the Spirit and where it's changed and we want to be of maximum service and so we want to get these amends made and God's going to help us do them right. Next sentence. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. So that's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it? Then you're going to do 10, 11, 12, and that's it. You don't go through the steps and that' s it. I don't even like the expression going through the step because you don't. this is you learn how to begin living the steps in your life and as we get to 10 11 12 that's all you got left in your light because you're going to find out something right here that this includes all the rest of them why do you say well hang on and we'll show you we'll tell you if you just hang on it does it includes and here we start right here the first lesson in that is right here take your fine line pen they hopefully have and put a one right by the word continue this next word here because this is the first part of step two which says continue to watch for selfishness dishonesty resentment and fear well where did we hear about that well of course if you did the fourth step with us you You have that written on the bottom of page 71. And in that, you can see that we learned how to search for selfish dishonesty, resentment, and fear way back in step four. So let's go out to the left-hand margin. and at the top up there, above where this line is, right up above that, leave yourself a lot of room, we learned how to do this in step what? Step four. So put a four there, just like at the left-hand edge you'll see the two words for selfishness. Draw an arrow out and write a four. turn your tape off and do that and turn it back on and join me for the second part ok, back again the next word we come to is the word when put a 2 up there that's our second direction when these crop up we ask God at once to remove them that's the second direction for step 10 where did we learn to do that? what steps was that in? Well, it doesn't take you long to say six and seven, does it? You can see that's when you learn how to do it. So turn your tape off and go over and write six and seven out in the left-hand margin, and turn it on when you're finished. Okay, you're back again. We're ready for the third direction. The third direction says we discuss it with someone immediately. Of course, we learned how to do that the first time in our lives with great sincerity in step five, didn't we? So put a step five up to the side. And turn your tape off and then come back again for the fourth direction. The next step direction is a fourth one. Put a four where it says, and make admins quickly if we've harmed anyone. Of course, we learned how to do that in eight and nine. Very elementary, my dear Watson, of course. Very, very elementary. And so we can see that so far in the first four directions of step 10 that we have learned how to do this by doing steps 4, 6 and 7, 5, 8 and 9. They're a little bit off kilter there aren't they? Well there's a good reason for that. And we're going to get to that in a few minutes. But there'sa reason, keep in your mind there'sar reason for them being off kilta not 4, 5 ,6, 7, 8, 9. six and seven because before five in this particular way of doing things the last part comes up to tell us it says that after it says we make them as quickly who harm anyone then it says let me resume turn our thoughts to someone we can help love and tolerance of others in our code that's a fifth direction well can you not see that when we did four five six seven eight and nine remember our second dimension of sobriety that mental dimension we talked about four five six seven uh those things there we clear ourselves out inside and then the next dimension eight nine we've cleared things outside and the reason we did that so we could be of maximum service to god and the people about us like i said on page 77 and if we're going to be a maximum service out there uh then and only then can we jump out and resolutely turn our thoughts to people we can help because we can't help people too much if we're all full of anger and fear and resentment stuff and and being dishonest no we want to get rid of all that so so that's that's the whole idea that we're preparing ourselves to get out of it me me me mi mi mi me me i'm the one inside me I'm the one, I am king of the mountain I'm his majesty the baby as Bill Wilson said get out of that self into the godscape which is on the other side of your nose in the real world, in the godscapes and do your part to make the world a better place today and you can do that if you do step 10 in your life and somebody said well I do step 10 before I go to bed at night well gosh if I did it before I go to bed, I'd have to take a mattress with me all day long and lay down maybe 15, 20 times a day. Especially when you're a cab driver out in Los Angeles like I was. You have things happen to you all the time. Fear and resentment stuff and you've got to get rid of them. Now let's notice the pattern in which we get rid of it. Let's suppose the old guy gets in my cab and he ain't going to pay me. He's a drunk and he isn't paying me for nothing. And I'm out $10 or $15 and I'm mad and I'll have to get the police or whatever it says search for self-disgust honest resentment and fear uh-oh i can see i got a little bit of resentment a little bit of fear what am i going to do about it am i gonna call go go to step five right away or call somebody up no it says when these crop up we ask god it wants to remove them and if i'm fit with my higher power probably i can get in connection with god enough that i'll get my nerves get myself calmed down so i'm not real angry and i'm nicht real fearful and i'll handle this situation in a very adult manner. And I'll be able to handle it without me, me, me taking over and His Majesty the baby running the show. Once again, I'll be ableto handle the situation ina way that I won't want to drink when it's over with or I won' end up with a resentment when I go to bed at night. And then it says we discuss itwith someone immediately. That's if God didn't take it away. If God takes it away you don't have to discuss it with anybody. You might want to later on, but you don't have to call up somebody every time something happens like that. That's the reason they're written in this order. See, first you check yourself, and then you go to God. Whoops! God gets rid of it. Gone. That's a way it goes sometimes, and you don'T have to worry about it. But in case it doesn't, then it says you call somebody immediately. But let's say the guy didn't pay me. I got beat out of $15, and the guy took off running or whatever, got away, and so here I am. I'm mad. I'M BURNED UP, MAN. I TELL YOU THE WORLD They're not treating me right. So I might just park the cab and call up my sponsor or a friend or somebody and tell them what just happened, and that will help me calm down, it says. And then it says, we just, it say, it said, then after that, that if you've harmed anybody, we make amends quickly. Well, maybe because of what happened, I was spiteful with my next customer, and I could catch myself being that way, And so I'll make amends right away because of what happened. I realize that's what I'm supposed to do. And I start getting back in a fit spiritual condition, which maybe I hadn't been a few seconds or a few minutes before. But this is something to work quickly. This is an over and over andover thing all day long, all of your life. That's why I can never understand these people who say AA is not my whole life. Well, did we not in step three make a decision to turn our will and our life over to care of God as we understood Him? And what in the world is this doing but turning your will and your life over all day long? No wonder so many of those people get drunk. They say, well, hey, I just use a little bit about the dee-dee-bee, beep-beep-beep, all that stuff. You heard it wrong. And no wonder they get drunk because they haven't really done it. And they probably aren't doing step ten if they say something like that. They are not doing it, and no wonder he gets drunk. And I hope it ain't going to be you to be the next one, because this is very, very important. People who don't do this usually don't stay in a fit, spiritual, joyous, happy condition in life. And they're a lot of times irritable, restless, and discontent simply because they don't take care of these new mistakes, remember? The new mistakes. We've got to face them, get rid of them right away, right here. not later, not before we go to bed at night, not when our sponsor tells us to, right now. That's our responsibility and nobody else's. Okay, maybe it's a little hard to get the information down just from a tape, but if you have it marked correctly, you'll have one, two, three, four, five different directions written in the text. And off to the left of the text, You're going to have step 4, step 6 and 7, step 5, steps 8 and 9. And up above that you will have written, we learned how to do this in steps, which of course below you'll have 4, 5, 6, 4, 4-4, 6-7, 5-8 and 9 So I hope that's clear. If it's not, call me up and we'll go over it in this office because this is very important that you know how to do this. There's a little flyer we send along with this tape that has this information, too. You can just simply copy a lot of it from that so you'll be sure and get it. Remember, I guess the main thing is, because you're going to hear the opposite over and over and over about you do it once a day or whatever that's about. But I don't know anything about that. But just remember, you wake up in the morning, you're mad, you're in a bad mood, dog sitting there, you kick that nose, poor doggy and you say oh my gosh what did I do search for selfishness and resentment selfishness is fair then you see you did it then what do you do next you go to God and ask him God take his hatefulness out of my heart please so he does maybe maybe he doesn't right away then what you do then you call up somebody right away you say you know I took that poor dog I don't know why in the world I did that you start to feel a little bit better then the next thing you do it says make a man's quickly you go get a little glass of milk and then a bone give a nice doggy nice dog okay see and now you're feeling good again at nine o'clock you kick the dog and four minutes or five minutes after nine you've completed all the directions that step 10 has to tell you to do and you're doing good again you've got your day happy joyous otherwise you'd probably carry that same feeling you had throughout the day God has a way of working with you to bring you right back to where you ought to be in a fit spiritual condition and this is so important to be in a good spiritual condition and the rewards are fantastic we heard some rewards we just got through reading them a while back here in 83 and 84 now we're here for another whole set of rewards I'm glad we don't get what we deserve but we're going to get what God's grace is giving us And let's see what that is. This is going to be what it's like to be rocketed into the fourth dimension of sobriety of which we've not even dreamed. Have you ever dreamed of life this wonderful? Let's go to the next paragraph. For a real alcoholic, this is fantastic. For ordinary people, this wouldn't sound like much at all. But for us, especially if you drank the way I did, you'd be thrilled to death over something like this. I know I am. It says, If we have ceased biting anything or anyone, even alcohol, by this time, for by this time, sanity will have returned. Sanity will have returned. What do we mean by sanity? Well, you remember how simple that was way back in step two. In step one we found out that insanity is an inability to differentiate the truth the false and drink and of course the sanity mentioned in step two simply means to be able to see and act on the truth in the matter of drink and that's a matter of life and death to you and i if you're a real alcoholic like i am you can see how important that is isn't that wonderful who ever thought we'd be ableto do that here we are we're people we could always speak the truth blurt it out talk all about it just go get drunk again didn't do us any good but we we speak the truth and act on a lie but now because of thanks to step four and step 10 we are beginning to live in the truth and the truth can see a lie when we were living in a lie we couldn't see a line like the night can't see the night the day can see the light truth can seat a lie wonderful promise that sanity will return we'll be able to see an act on the truth of great each and every time well Well, a lot of people say, well, I don't know. You know, I wasn't that bad or something like that. Maybe you weren't, you know, and so it wouldn't mean much to you, but it sure means something to a real alcoholic like me, and I hope it does to you. Next sentence. We will seldom be interested in liquor and tend to really recoil from it as from a hot flame. Boy, that's wonderful. We react sanely and normally, and we will see this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part it just comes that's the miracle of it we are not fighting it neither are we avoiding temptation we feel as though we have been placed in a position of neutrality safe and protected we've not even sworn off here it comes uh-oh this is the main reason matter of fact this next sentence get ready to mark this here get ready to mark this uh this is the main reason and maybe the only reason i ever came to alcoholics anonymous and i didn't believe it could happen it says this this is what it said instead the problem has been removed it does not exist for us now that is beyond belief for a real alcoholic for somebody who thought about nothing but drinking for year in and year out that drinking was a main part of his life, like me. And I'd look for it, crave it, take of it all. When I started craving and I drank and I craved and I couldn't quit. And, and I have this obsession all week long waiting for Saturday night, waiting for Friday night to start over again. That was the main part of life, I thought. And it doesn't exist for me anymore. It's been gone over 16 years now. Whoosh! Gone. And God has done this, see? Because I have done this step 10 over and over and over. And this is beginning to work in my life. It will work in yours. The problem will be removed, and you will become a recovered alcoholic. There is no doubt in my mind, and certainly shouldn't be in yours, that you are now recovered. You are not recovering at this point. The oldest guy in Alcoholics Anonymous is 53 years sober now, and he told one of our fourth dimension well not a fourth dimension yeah it was a fourth dimension member out in california i can't think of his name right now but he told him that you owe it to the newcomer to tell him how that you have recovered from alcoholism recovering is for people in treatment centers or detoxes or where you are before you do 10 11 and 12 but if you do 10 11 12 long enough you will become recovered and you'll know when that problem has been removed you'll no nobody can tell you Nobody has to. You'll know. And if you're where you are right now, it probably ain't been removed. It's probably sitting right there saying, I ain't up there. I ain'T up there! As the Eucharist says, I'm not there, but it's there. And if your honest with yourself, you'll know that it is. But if you do these steps 10, 11, 12 long enough, you will become also a recovered alcoholic like thousands of us are today. We're recovered. And these promises we just read are true for us. They're probably not true for you yet. Don't get cocky and think, oh boy, I've got it now. you don't because it takes months and sometimes years of doing this for some of us to get it but once you get it you got it big book says a few months I don't know I think mostly there's a few month and then we learned that in step two if you recall but we're not recovering we are recovered the problem has been removed it does not exist for us isn't that wonderful it says we are neither cocky nor we afraid this is our experience this is how we react so long as we keep in a fit spiritual condition uh-oh mark's fit spiritual conditions uh-huh yeah other words is a trick isn't it there's a trick to all this i've written off to the side over here recovered is a conditional state it's just like if i had pneumonia last year because i left the window open and snow came in. It gave me pneumonia, but I went to hospital. I got over pneumonia, and by spring, I was feeling wonderful, and here I've gotten through this whole winter now, and still, I have no pneumonia. I've recovered from it, completely recovered, but if you let me leave that window open as soon as it snows again, let the wind blow in, I'll catch pneumonia again. I won't be completely recovered. So, recovery is a conditional state. We are not ex-alcoholics. Alcoholism is something, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. We're never going to get completely cured of alcoholism. It's going to be a part of our personality. It's gonna be laying in wait out there for us the rest of our lives. We're not like the non-alcoolic. The non-alkoholic doesn't have a little drunken monkey waiting to get him. But we will always have a drunken monkey out there waiting to get us. It's never going to go away completely, but it's not going to be right on top of us. That's what we're talking about. Before that drunken monkeys, right after the first chance it got to get in a irritable restless discontented, it would do it. It was working on us all the time. It got us mad at everybody in AA. We didn't like this. We didn' t like that. We didn''t like those old traditions. We didn ''t like this old conch. We didn'T like that, and so we got drunk again a lot of times because we were irritable restless and discontent. it well now that we're recovered we don't have a drunken monkey sitting on top of us because we're in a fit spiritual condition and drunken monkeys can't live where the spirit of the lord lives it is impossible for it to live there so it's got a bay of moose it's gotta move out and it's gotten way off in its cage out there off to the left or right of you it's waiting for you and for you it probably on top even right now but but for but for somebody's recovering it's off there just waiting to come back as soon as it gets a chance i can't come back while that spiritual condition exists it's like a great big layer of firmament if you will that it can't get through and it's out there trying to get through it but it just can't getting through it because it can live where darkness can't live where there's light uh lie lies cannot live where there's truth so once you're living in the truth and it can't get in there anymore you see how see how simple that is it's out there and if you stay in a fit spiritual condition you're going to be recovered because you're gonna recoil us from a hot flame and you're to be sane it says you got sanity see all right so that's what we mean by recovered uh a lot of places don't like that word a lot of places with and uh matter of fact let's go back to page 20 somebody just okay are you back on page 20 uh let's uh turn uh your tape off and uh and read the first full paragraph that starts with the word you and uh okay you're back again uh what we read in that it said you may already have asked yourself why all of us have become so very ill from drinking. Doubtless you are curious to discover how and why in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body. Okay, I'm sure that you've heard a lot of people discussing recovered and recovering and you don't, you do, you do, and I'm sure you've heard all that, but And I'm sure you've heard a lot of expert opinion around experts say you can't today just like they did in the old days. They said, no, you canít. But Bill and Bob and the Program of Action wrote the only book that can prove that it works in the world of alcoholism. You can count the people to prove it. It says that you do. It explains exactly what we mean by recovered. We really hope you understand what this means. If you were with us before, we explained this to you before way back there in Step 1. But maybe you've forgotten some of that or maybe we need to go over it again because we want to make sure you understand that you don't get recovered and stay recovered. Just because you get to be a recovered alcoholic does not mean you're going to just be recovered for the rest of your life. I'm a recovered alcoholic right now, but just because I am doesn't mean I won't be drunk some other time in my life. But what the book tells me, if I stay in a fit spiritual condition, I will never be drunk any time the rest of my life and doesn't means I won' t think about alcohol either. Remember Dr. Bob was a recovered alcoholic and he always said he was a covered alcoholic But nonetheless, he thought of drinking every once in a while. But when he would think of it, we'll go back to the word sanity, he thought about it and he said that he didn't act on it. He could see the truth and act on the truth. And that's all we mean by being recovered, to be able to see the proof and act upon the truth, okay? Recovering, you can see the truths and speak the truths and act online and go get drunk again. But not when you're recovered. That's the difference between recovered and recovering for you. okay it's going to emphasize what we just said again it is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest in our laurels we're headed for trouble if we do for alcohol is a subtle foe we are not cured of alcoholism mark this one what we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition once again recovered as a conditional state every day is a day when we must carry the vision of god's will into all our activities how can i best serve thee thy will not mine be done these are thoughts which must go with us constantly we can exercise our willpower along this line all we wish it's a proper use of the will much has already been said about receiving strength and direction from him who has all knowledge and power but if we have carefully followed suggestions we have begun to sense oh that didn't say suggestions at all did it if wehave carefully followed directions marked direction we havebegun to sense the flow of the spirit into us to some extent we have become god conscious we have began to develop this vital sixth sense mark six cents but we must go further and that means more action when other words is telling us here what we just read we're going to get our willpower back it says we can exercise our will power along this line all we wish so if we can that means we gave our will up way back on page 63 if you remember and something happened between page 63 and 85 where we go where that we have changed something's happened between 63 and 85 and what was it that changed? Well, as Joe and Charlie point out in their wonderful tape on page 84 we got our sanity back. Because we got our sanity back then we get our will back. Not the other way around. The way we like to have it. We get our Will back and then our sanity later on. No, but we get our sanity before God gives us our Will back. So we get ourselves back on 84 before we get our willpower back but we do have it if our will is the same as God's will then we're safe and we're protected because we are in a fit spiritual condition and so our will is to do God's work and in step 10 we found that there is a way indeed to be in a fit spiritual condition so that we can do God's work and really be of service to God and to others. So at this point, we are just about finished with all the information that we have gleaned out of Step 10, and I'm sure there's a lot more here for you to find. So don't think that we've told you everything there is to know because there's a lot more uh and and but it's still a rather simple easy way to be close to god and that means to be closed to joy in your life the rewards are tremendous for this wonderful little simple five-part formula so i hope you avail yourself to it we have so many people go through the steps with us and oh yes they've got all the information they know it all and uh then the next thing they do is go march right out and get drunk within the next uh two or three months and upon inquiry when they come back we always find they have not done step that they have not done step 10. So see the gravity and see the importance of this and don't just glean over it and think well I know that and what's next. but the next thing is now that you've asked we're at step 11 uh-oh i just remembered something let's make sure you got everything marked here on page 84 and 85 on page 94 mark the word sanity page 85 marked instead the problem has been removed it does not exist for us also fit spiritual condition and then what we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition and if you want to write out the side this is what it's like to be recovered Page 84 and 85 shows what it's like to be recovered. Those are the main promises. The ones they read at the meetings, so far as I'm concerned, and most of us in the fourth dimension group are not the main promise. They're the ones for recovering people. This one here is a main promise on page 84 and 84. This group of promises are the main ones because they're the ones who tell what a recovered alcoholic is like. And it's much, I mean, that's why we come here, to get recovered, not to be recovering. And so we want to get on top of this thing. And this is how we do it. Those other promises are good, but they're not good enough. Bill Wilson always said the good is often the enemy of the best. And we need the best or we're going to get drunk. And that's Why, and it's just that simple. Okay, let's go to step 11. bottom of page 85 step 11 suggest prayer and meditation we shouldn't be shy on the matter of prayer better men than we are using it constantly it works if we have the proper attitude and work at it. It would be easy to be vague about this matter, yet we believe we can make some definite and valuable suggestions. This set of directions is going to tell us when to pray at night and in the morning and all day long. So the first thing it tells us when we go to bed at night, so right night out to the side of the first full paragraph, and uh then when we retire at night mark night uh we should constructively review our day were we resentful selfish dishonest or afraid mark those four words separately and let's ponder where did we hear them first of course it was in step four we first heard those in step 4 and the next time we heard him was in Step 10 a few minutes ago and so here we see him again and step 11 do you not think that this mistake that's been made around aa from coast to coast from country to country about going doing step 10 before going to bed at night words quakers meditate in words eastern meditation is not thoughts not words it is a i don't know but this is a type of meditation and probably more what bill means when he talks about prayer and meditation after making our review we ask god's forgiveness and require what corrective measures should be taken well this is our nightly prayer this is Our Every Nightly Prayer on page 86 there so don't forget that mark that after making a review as God's forgiveness that's real important because how could I forgive myself if I forgive my self who's going to forgive the me that did the forgiving. That's me too. And so it doesn't make any sense. But it does make sense for God to forgive. I think God can forgive us and if I am at peace within myself and I've forgotten emotionally all the guilt and remorse and shame of the past, that is forgiveness. To forget, to be able to forget emotionally is what forgiveness amounts to anyway. So that's it. But God does the business. We don't. we are not in charge we are not in chart it's God who is to forgive us not us we're not that much of a big shot yet even though we are getting recovered we're not we don't take God's place our will may be close to God's will sometimes but we are not God okay and inquire what corrective measures should be taken the last part of that sentence always bill most bills prayers are two parts that's that's very interesting so that's what we do before we go to bed at night let's see what we do in the morning right morning off to the side of the next full paragraph upon awakening mark awakening let us think about the 24 hours ahead we consider our plans for the day before we begin we ask god to direct our thinking especially that we be it be divorced from self-pity dishonest or self-seeking motives under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance for after all, God gave us brains to use. Mark, God gave us brain to use now that we're recovered we're one of God's servants and we're thinking along the right lines God gave brains to us we might use our sponsor's brains once in a while but if we're recovering, we got our will back and we got sanity back we've got brains to uses our thought life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives in thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration and intuitive thought or decision. We relax and take it easy. We don't struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers will come after we've tried this for a while. Hey, isn't that beautiful? Mark that. We relax and take an easy. Boy, we never took anything easy in our life. If we're alcoholics type of personality, God, we're going 1,000 miles an hour at all times. oh god i've never seen a real lazy alcoholic before in my life at least our mind's gone their body might be lazy okay top of page 87 what used to be the occasional or occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind we are still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with god it is not probable we're going to be inspired at all times We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely on it. Mark that plane of aspiration. I like that. Yeah. We begin to give up our old mind, our old will, and get this new one. And when we start reaching for God's will, it's a plane of inspiration takes over and our will becomes His. Exciting. We usually conclude this period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be. That we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We especially ask for freedom of self-will and careful not to make no requests for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves however if others will be helped mark that sentence we are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that it doesn't work and you can easily see why so in other words it's okay to pray for a nice car if you need it to do 12 step work and get to work and take your family out for a ride on Sunday afternoon that's fine to have that or ask for a good job because others are going to be helped by that to stay sober gosh we all affect a lot of people in our drunkenness adversely and so they're going to be helpful it's good to ask for these things and is not selfish to do that this is a program of unselfishness and self-forgetfulness regardless of what you hear around the tables there's nowhere in this book that encourages us to be selfish if circumstances warrant we ask our wives and or friends to join us in morning meditation. If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that also. If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles which we have been discussing. There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be obtained from one's priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people write and make use of what they offer. Now, I notice here all these things to do. It didn't say anything about a doorknob or a light bulb. I hear that around the tables, but I don't see that in the book anywhere. Made a decision to turn our will and our life into the care of a lightbulb. I don' t know. But there are things to d o. Okay, the next thing we're going to find out, how do we pray throughout the day? And so mark day out here to the side. as we go through the day we pause when agitated or doubtful and ask the right course or action we constantly remind ourselves that we are no longer running the show humbly saying to ourselves many times each day thy will be done mark that, thy will been done we are then in much less danger of fear of excitement fear worry self-pity or foolish decisions we become much more efficient and we do not tire so easily for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves it works it really does we alcoholics are undisciplined so we let god discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined but this is not all there's action and more action faith without works is dead the next chapter is entirely devoted to step 12 mark faith without words was dead i think that comes from james in the bible i have had over the years last i suppose 13 years a lucky happenstance that there's a place to meditate near where i live And in earlier sobriety, I would go there two and three times a week. And I discovered something very wonderful that I could use to find the God self within, the great reality within, Bill called it, the plane of inspiration we talked about. It helped me very much to realize something in quiet times and listening for God to talk and come to me and through that frenemy we seem to have built up I realize that my head is not who I am at all, although it says that my head ist who I am not and I can go down a deep part of me when the decision making apparatus is living, where God is living in my life, the thing that makes the major decisions of my life like how to metabolize food, how to breathe when I don't even think about it. Something's running my whole body in there and running the whole machinery that I'm in and that part down deep, that's who I really am. That's whoI really am My head is not who I am. That'swho I am And so I learn, I have learned sometimes to reach and get a hold of that deep reality within myself and allow that to begin to guide my life. And lo and behold, I began to get urges and things to do things I normally would not want to do. But I do them like visit people in the hospital that I don't want to go to and I do this, do that, do the other, pay back bills. It's almost like my conscience is working on me and I begin to become more toward God's will and much less toward my old will. And this is progress, not perfection. Don't forget. we can do all the spirit if we want but we don't necessarily become saints a matter of fact it says we don t we just get closer with this people getting better big book says no one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles and anything like kind of means to me like we don' t even come close but we go a direction and so long as we go direction we stay in this flow we are able to become recovered alcoholics we're ready to talk about step 12 next and in step 12 and as we know we is working with other people so I'd like to make a speculation or share experience I guess with my own experience is that 10 11 and 12 are not three separate things to do they are separate steps as far as that goes but they go together and they flow together and in step 10 I learned a clean house and step 11 I'm learning how how to trust God and become closer to God, improve my conscious contact with God. And in step 12, as we know, we work with other people. And I found this to be a movement and a flow. It is not step 10 or step 11 or step 12 as it comes up. It seems to me all three flow together. And if I could explain it in this way, that in step 10 i can clean house because god's not going to come into my house if it's all full of resentment and fear and selfishness dishonesty god can't live in that environment so it's up to me to ask god to get rid of it and so he can come in so so i clean house so god can be in there and i'm going to trust and be closer to god in step 11 and step 12 i express this this this this newfound freedom I have in ability to help and work with other people and do God's work with others. And so it's a movement, don't you see? It's like from myself to God to others. Clean house so I can be close to God so I could help others. So I had to clean house so I couldn't be close too God so I coudn't help others' movement. Can you see that movement going in a circle? Can you se it going in the spiral? Self to God, to others, self to God and self to others this is not a selfish we we program it is it i mean me me me program i mean it's a we we program actually we go to other people we go got into other people and this this wonderful spiral through the years seems to escalate and escalate it never stops and gets more and more exciting as each year goes so long as i do and i do the work of 10 11 and 12 my life changes there is no way that I can do steps 10, 11, and 12 and be the same person next year as I am this year. And the happy note about all that is that my life is going to include more joy, more spiritual joy that will radiate through even the grief, even the sadness of life. but joy will prevail and strangely enough and believe it or not I have personally experienced great joy coming out of the leaves out of trees, out of sky out of earth at the same time grief and sadness were within myself and I learned to experience the outer as well as the inner and this is one of the great paradoxical promises that happened by growing this brand new spiritual way there's hardly anything more exciting that I have found in my life I hope you try it I really do now on to step 12 chapter 7 working with others step 12 a very long chapter as a matter of fact it's interesting that it goes from 89 to 103 and got 14 pages and they devote that 14 pages into that one step they must thought it was really important because here between page uh let's say 72 and 88 which would be 16 pages only there we find steps 5 6 7 8 9 10 and 11 and just the 16 pages and then you're voting 14 pages just to one step step 12 and i think that's because in the history of aa you find that's what the people did back in those days they worked with other alcoholics all the time uh they spent hours and hours sobering people up taking them in their homes and doing all these things that we really don't get much chance to do today and i think we might be missing a lot we're missing a Lot of inconvenience but i think We're Missing A Lot Of Spiritual Growth And As It Says Immunity From Drinking Because Of It And That Might Be One Of The Reasons That But in AA, we're not sobering up people with the wonderful percentages that they used to have, the 50% to 60% they talk about in a big book. I don't see that, and I'm sure you don't either. And I think it's because we don't work with others. We dump them off at the detox or something and then maybe never see them again. I know that's happened to me many times. I think that Step 12, to me, is like Step 1 and Step 2. I put a comma between Step 1 and 2 and 12. I know one time I was taking this fellow to the sort of mental place we have in Richmond because he'd been handcuffed to the bed, and he was coming off of a drunk, and he Was seeing people coming in through the ceiling, and bullets were all over the floor, and He was completely crazy. And I could see myself in him. That poor guy was powerless. He went out and got drunk again after that. He was powerless, but he had no power over alcoholism, Step 1. and somehow due to the grace of god only i found some power great enough to keep me from drinking and having to do the same thing and so i can see steps one and two by working with other people in actual experience which is a lot different than just reading about it and so uh... i encourage you if you can possibly work with new people work with drunk people work for people that want to get well and watch this happen and your life will change faster steps 10 and 11 will prepare you to do this something you couldn't do before but now you'll have something to give away somebody said when should you work with new people and the answer was Chuck Chamberlain said this out in California he said I believe that one should start working with new alcoholics as soon as he gets sober of course you can't carry the message to the new alcoholic because you ain't got the message but you can carry the new alcoholic to the message and so that's what we all can do we can all do quotation mark 12 step work the best 12 step work I know is to teach people how that we found relief from drinking through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and that is an exciting exciting thing there are people with 10 11 and 12 years of sobriety that have been helped i had some small part in early days in my sobriery and they're still sober and that's thrilling once you grow go to meetings and find these same things i'm talking about with you and all these can be yours but let's see what the big book says about this it says page 89 practical experience shows that nothing will so much ensure immunity from drinking mark that as intensive work with other alcoholics it works when other activities fail this is our 12th suggestion carry this message to alcoholics you can help when no one else can you can secure their confidence when others fail remember they are very ill life will take on a new meaning to watch people recover and see them help others. Watch Loneliness Advantage to see a fellowship grow up about you. Mark that. To have a host of friends. This is an experience you will not want to miss. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives. Boy, that's so true for me. To watch a fellowship grow up above you. You start carrying this message to new alcoholics and they get sober and they start calling you on the phone and coming over and then they bring a year or two later their new people they've been working with over and so on and you watch a fellowship grow about you and you no longer have to go join up with a fellowship you are part of one, you are in the middle of it it isn't like you're outside looking in, you're right in the middle of a fellowship and that's something I've never been in my life, any place I really felt as though I was right in The Middle of It All, I was always on the outside looking in. If it was a bar room or the high school dance I was always outside looking in, and now I'm in the middle of it. And it's so good to feel a part of life once again. Drinkers who want to recover. Now remember, this is 1939, and there's somebody out there who's got this book at Dubuque, Iowa. he's the first person with a big book of Alcoholics Anonymous in town there are no AA meetings to go to you see this is written in context for this guy but we can use it today just as well you can easily find some by asking a few doctors ministers priests or hospitals they will be only too glad to assist you don't start out as an evangelist or reformer unfortunately a lot of prejudice exists you will be handicapped if you arouse it ministers and doctors are competent and you can learn much from them if you wish, but it happens that because of your own drinking experience you can be uniquely useful to other alcoholics. Mark that because of Your Own Drinking Experience. So cooperate. Never criticize. To be helpful is our only aim. And I always think about when I go to treatment centers or other facilities we have different ideas, different views and sometimes they do. Don't bring those up to a great degree. Donít arouse a lot of problems you'll need to talk about things like recovered and uh but try to do it in a manner without arousing a lot excitement about it but yet don't let that go by the wayside either when you discover a prospect for alcoholics anonymous find out all you can about him if he does not want to stop drinking don't waste time trying to persuade him say mark that you may spoil a later opportunity this advice is given to his family also i think this is where we make a lot of mistakes uh we got things like this is supposed to be a program of attraction and not a promotion and we try to sell the people on this and promote them into it and say oh yeah you can be this or that anything you don't have to do nothing just come in take what you want leave the rest and all this promotion stuff it's all suggested as another promotion technique people use and you don't have to do nothing just come in and set and that's true i mean to a degree but don't don't give the person the idea he's going to get recovered through osmosis either and uh but don t don't try try to persuade somebody they really don't want it john baldycorn will bring him back he might die out there and it happens but we're talking about a larger percentage of alcoholics that we could we're trying to save as many as we can and we destroy people's by their bringing them in when they're not ready for it the miracle might not happen on their second time like it will the first so i believe that i believe what the book says my practice it everybody seems to do these things differently but i i like what the book says now let's go to the bottom of that page 90 if he does not want to see you never force yourself upon him mark that neither should the family hysterically plead with you him to do anything nor should they tell him much about you they should wait for the end of his next drinking bout you might place this book where he can see it at interval here no specific rule can be given the family must decide these things but urge them not to be over anxious for that might spoil matters another good suggestion is down here in the middle of page 91 turn your tape off and turn it back on if you want to and the bottom of the second full paragraph, it says call on him while he is still jittery he may be more receptive when depressed so mark that, that's something real good too there's a lot of good things in here I'm not going to go through all of them there won't be time on this tape to do so it says something else too here on page 92 first full paragraph if you are satisfied he's a real alcoholic mark that begin to dwell in the hopeless feature of the malady show him from your own experience how the queer mental condition surrounding the first drink prevents normal functioning of the willpower and it says don't at this stage refer to the book unless he's seen it and wishes to discuss it. Be careful not to brand him as an alcoholic. Let him draw his own conclusions. If he sticks to the idea that he can still control his drinking, tell him he possibly can. If he's not too alcoholic but insists of severely afflicted, there may be little chance he can recover by himself. See, the door's open. A guy can come. Let him drink some more. Let him try this, that, the other. But don't sell it. They keep pushing you. Don't sell what you're doing. Don't buy it. Don't sale it. Let them find it on their own. You just simply be somebody who has recovered and they want what you have. uh 93 uh the fourth line down it says if the man is agnostic or atheist make an emphatic he does not have to agree with your conception of god mark that and also down toward the bottom mark the words willing to believe that that's a great thing the main thing is that he be willing to believe in a power greater than himself and they live by spiritual principles and when you get to that part with a new guy or girl that that's a great big uh loophole there just be willing to believe you don't have to really believe just be willin to believe and that means willing to do the steps well we found we well we talked about that back in step two didn't we step two okay let's go down to page 95 first full paragraph unless your friend wants to talk further about himself do not wear out your welcome give him a chance to think it over if you do not stay if you if you do stay let him steer the conversation in any direction he likes sometimes a new man is anxious to proceed at once and you may be tempted to let him do so this is sometimes a mistake if he has trouble later he is liable to say you rushed him you will be most successful with alcoholics if you do not exhibit any passion for crusade or reform and I think sometimes we have to allow a person's mind to clear a little bit before that he's ready to make a third step decision and right that fourth step, I don't think you can do that with a real foggy mind but yet the big book does tell us that when spiritual maladies overcome we begin to straighten out mentally and physically so the spiritual does come first but i think there's some uh a bit of decision making there about whether man's or woman's mind is clear or not and that that must be the alcohol gets out of it takes sometimes a few days and 30 days sometimes it's over each person's different of course and down at page 95 once again we don't know everything you know bill tells us this in the book all the way through that we don'T have the only way to recover from alcoholism carl jung told us back on page 27 says here and there once in a while people have had these vital spiritual experiences in other ways and that's before he ever got started now here we got bill once again uh states uh a way of viewing all that that uh we we see this work with us so well we get enthusiasm you got to do what we did i don't think we need we should really do that here's what it says if he thinks he can do the job some other way or prefers some other spiritual approach encourage him to follow his own conscience we have no monopoly on god we merely had approach at work with us but point out that we alcoholics have much in common and that you would like in any case to be friendly let it go at that so once again don't try to push people and uh so about doing work with other people when it comes to the pocketbook and all that this is important i think on page 96 it says that he may be a broke and homeless if he is you might try to help him about getting a job give him a little financial assistance but you should not deprive your family or creditors of money they should have perhaps you should want to take the man into your home for a few days but use your discretion be certain that he will be welcomed by your family and that he's not trying to impose on you for money connections or shelter permit that and you only harm him you will be making it possible for him to be insincere you may be aiding in his destruction rather than his recovery if you mark that please but tells us never to avoid these responsibilities but be sure you're doing the right thing if you assume them helping others is a foundation stone of recovery a kindly act once in a while isn't is not enough you have to act the good samaritan every day if need be it may mean the loss of many nights sleep great interference with your pleasures interruptions to your business it may mean sharing your money in your home counseling frantic wives and relatives innumerable trips to police courts sanitariums hospitals jails and asylums your telephone may jangle at any time of the day or night your wife may say that she is neglected a drunk may space say smash the furniture in your home or burn a mattress you may have to fight with him if he is violent sometimes you will have to call a doctor and a minister said he's under his direction another time you may have to send for the police or an ambulance occasionally you'll have to meet such conditions we seldom allow an alcoholic to live in our homes for long at a time it's not good for him and it sometimes creates serious complications in the family bill even had one fellow stayed at his house who turned on the gas and killed himself in his house but bill kept right on working with other ones and uh so we we don't get that much chance to work with people these days like that in that way and uh somebody there's it comes with a lot of warnings i mean we we are here to be of maximum service to god the people about us and of course the people without us are our families too and they have to be considered and bill even considers creditors in there too we pay our creditors before we do all that too so there's a lot in that to consider and uh talks he he talked bill talks a lot about how that uh we can't allow that alcoholic to rely on us let's go to page 98 first full paragraph it is not the matter of giving that is in question but when and how to give that often makes a difference between failure and success the minute we put our work on a service plane the alcoholic commences to rely on our assistance rather upon god mark that he clamors for this or that claiming he cannot master alcohol until his material needs are cared for nonsense some of us have tried very hard have had very hard knocks to learn this truth job or no job wife or no wife we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence on other people ahead of dependence on god burn an idea burn into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone. And let's go down to the bottom of page 99. It says, Let no alcoholic say he cannot recover unless he has his family back. Mark that. It just isn't so. And the top of page 100. Well, let's say the bottom of page 99 i'll just continue reading in some cases the wife will never come back for one reason or another we mind the prospect that his recovery is not dependent upon people it is dependent upon his relationship with god and so that's that part so that that bill goes on he's about that's about all he has to say about working with other people if we practice these principles in all our affairs like step 12 says it says having had a spiritual awakening the result of these steps we try to carry this message to alcoholic members just tried to and practice these principles in all her affairs now at the bottom of page 100 it tells us if that obviously if we are practicing these principles 10 11 and 12 in our life we're going to be spiritually fit and if we're spiritual fit we can do all sorts of things that alcoholics are not supposed to do People have said we must not go where liquor is served. We must not have it in our homes. We must shun friends who drink. We must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes. We must nicht gehen ins Baren. Unsere Freunde müssen ihre Blasen verstecken, wenn wir in ihren Häusern gehen. Wir müssen nicht denken oder sich über Alkohol überhaupt erinnern. Unsere Erfahrung zeigt, dass dies nicht unbedingt so ist. Wenn wir diese Bedingungen jeden Tag treffen, ein Alkhoher, der sie nicht treffen kann, hat immer noch einen alkoholischen Geist. Mark das. Sie sehen, das ist jemand, der sich zurückzieht. there's a recovering alcoholic again not recovered there's something the matter with his spiritual status see even a recovering alcohol he's on step nine say francis so he got those promises on 83 and 84 we read all that uh about and so even there remember that it was a personality change that was insufficient to recover from alcoholism that means he still has an alcoholic mind we're not talking about him doing all these things we're talking about somebody who has recovered and that's that promise is on bottom of page 84 and top of 85 when we're doing 10 11 and 12 after a while there are something about spiritual status his only chance for sobriety be someplace like the greenland ice cap and even there an esco might turn up with a bottle of scotch ruin everything ask any woman who has sent her husband to distant places on the theory to escape the alcohol problem uh on down here at the bottom of the page uh the last the second paragraph from the bottom of it 101 so our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking if we have legitimate reason for being there now remember this is for this is at that step 12 this is for recovered alcoholics this is not for you right now you probably are not a recovered alcoholic if you're just reading about this now you are recovering that doesn't mean you what he's talking he said that includes bars nightclubs dances receptions weddings and even plain ordinary whoopee parties see when there's a whoopea party you are supposed to stay home right now you're supposed to go to the AA meeting instead until you get recovered then you go to a person who's had experience with an alcoholic this may seem like tempting providence but it isn't you will note that we have made an important qualification therefore ask yourself on each occasion have I any good social business or personal reason for going into this place or am I expecting to steal a little vicarious pleasure from the atmosphere of such places if you answer these questions satisfactorily you need to have no apprehension go or stay away whichever seems best but be sure you're on solid spiritual ground before you start and that your motive is for going is thoroughly good now here we are about the unselfish part of again do not think of what you will get out of the occasion think ofwhat you can bring to it but if you're a shaky you'd better work with another alcoholic instead so even a recovered alcoholic happens to be shaky he's supposed to not go either see especially not you uh because you ain't ready yet why sit with a long face where there is drinking and sighing about the good old days if there's happy occasion try to increase the pleasure of those there if a business occasion go and attend your business enthusiastically if you are a person who wants to eat in a bar by all means with a person once eaten a bar by all needs go on let your friends know they're not change their habits on your account see let's go down uh next full paragraph your job is to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others so never hesitate to go anywhere where you can be helpful mark the word maximum once again page 77 our real purpose is what yeah that's right to be of maximum service to god and the people about us you should not hesitate to grow the most sword spot on earth on such an errand keep on the firing line of life with these devotees and god will keep you in harm Many of us keep liquor in our homes. We often need it to carry green recruits through severe hangover. Some of us still serve it to our friends, provided they're not alcoholic. But some of us think we should not serve liquor to anyone. We never argue this question. We feel as though each family, in light of their own circumstances, ought to decide for themselves. We are careful never to show intolerance or hatred of drinking as an institution. A friend of mine says, I'd like to see a guy go get drunk and have a good time. You know, that's fine. As long as he's not an alcoholic going to hurt himself or so on like that wreck his car anything sure we're not we don't have any as aa as a whole we don'T HAVE ANY ATTITUDES ABOUT THAT ONE WAY OR ANOTHER INDIVIDUALS MAY HAVE BUT WE DON'T IT SAYS WE DONT EXPRESS THOSE IF WE DO HAVE EXPERIENCE SHOWS THAT SUCH AN ATTATUDE IS NOT HELPFUL TO ANYONE EVERY NEW ALCOHOLIC LOOKS FOR THE SPIRIT AMONG US AND IS IMMENSELY RELIEVED TO FIND WE ARE NOT WITCH BURNERS A SPIRITY OF INTOLERANCE WHICH MIGHT REPAIL ALCOHOLE WHOSE LIVES MIGHT HAVE BEEN SAVED HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR SUCH STUPIDITY WE WOULD NOT MARK THAT We would not even do the cause of temperate drinking any good, for not one drinker in a thousand likes to be told anything about alcohol by one who hates it. Someday we hope that Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to a better realization of the gravity of the alcoholic problem. But we shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or hostility. Drinkers will not stand for it. After all, our problems were of our own making. Bottles were only assembled. Besides we've stopped fighting anything or anyone, anybody or anything. We have to. So there's some good ideas on step 12. Some good general basis. You'll have your own observations and there's so much variations of ways to handle that. But at least some good suggestions and some real good directions are there for you. so 10 11 and 12 allow us to rocket into that fourth dimension of sobriety that fourth dimensional existence of which we've not even dreamed and this is more and more exciting as each year goes by i hope you try it i hopeyou can stay sober and keep in contact with the fourth dimension group where we have four meetings and going to be five on the west coast now We've got one in Syracuse, New York. And we have three here in Richmond, Indiana. So the fourth dimension is with you. And we hope you will be with us. God bless.