The One-Legged Spiritual Stool of Alcoholism – Sandy B.

About This Speaker Tape

Sandy B. dismantles the idea that alcoholism is a balanced three-legged stool of mental physical and spiritual issues arguing instead that it is a one-legged stool: purely spiritual. He maps out the disease as a 'longing for Higher Power' disguised as life's wreckage—money troubles bad marriages or childhood trauma.

Through a series of historical vignettes involving Roland H. Carl J. and Ebby T.

Sandy B. traces the lineage of the spiritual awakening required for sobriety. He warns against the 'almost' approach to recovery comparing a partial surrender to whistling through the air without a parachute.

He frames the 12 Steps not as a checklist of chores but as 'Higher Power steps' designed to move the alcoholic from the noise of the intellect to the clarity of intuition using the metaphor of an IFR flight landing on a radio beam through thick clouds.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Sandy B. introduces himself and his home group in Tampa, Florida.
• 4:15 Laughter: Story about Franklin W. and the beginning of a great friendship.
• 8:30 Discussion on the 'one-legged stool' and the spiritual nature of the disease.
• 12:45 Reading from the Big Book regarding the 'Chapter to the Agnostic' and lack of power.
• 18:20 The 'candy bar' analogy and the difference between physical needs and spiritual condition.
• 25:10 Laughter: The 'old timer's nightmare' about St. Peter and Rational Recovery.
• 34:40 The story of Roland H. and his time with Carl J. in Switzerland.
• 42:15 The account of Ebby T.'s drunken painting episode and his introduction to the Oxford Group.
• 50:10 Analysis of the 'longing for Higher Power' as the root of the alcoholic's emptiness.
• 56:30 Discussion on the ego as the primary enemy and the necessity of 100% surrender.
• 62:15 Metaphor of the IFR flight and the radio beam as a model for intuitive guidance.
• 66:00 Closing thoughts on turning the will over and the transition to a break.