Why Step 5 Ends the Anxious Apartness – Sandy B.

About This Speaker Tape

East Coast Convention - 2019

Sandy B. maps out the spiritual mechanics of the 12 Steps arguing that sobriety without happiness is a miserable sacrifice that rarely lasts. He dismantles the idea of the steps as an intellectual puzzle framing them instead as a spiritual game plan designed to remove problems rather than solve them. Sandy B. focuses heavily on Step Five describing the act of sharing a moral inventory with another human as the only way to break the 'anxious apartness' and isolation that plagues the alcoholic. He uses the image of a 3D movie or aerial photo overlap to explain how a fourth-step list remains flat and two-dimensional until it is bounced off another person finally granting the speaker a true perspective of their own wreckage and the path toward humility.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Welcome and advice to newcomers to ignore their better judgment and stay.
• 2:45 Discussion on the difference between just not drinking and achieving a 'happy sobriety'.
• 6:12 The 'problem removing' vs 'problem solving' distinction.
• 10:30 Step 1: The definition of powerlessness and the obsession that occurs when zero blood alcohol is present.
• 15:45 The 'oxygen hose' analogy for spiritual blockages and character defects.
• 19:20 Step 4: The 'fearless and searching moral inventory' and the role of rationalization.
• 22:15 Step 5: The difficulty of admitting wrongs to another human being and the danger of secrets.
• 26:40 The '3D movie' and aerial photo overlap metaphor for the necessity of sharing the fifth step.
• 30:10 Reading from the Big Book and 12 and 12 regarding the rewards of Step 5.
• 32:45 Closing with the Lord's Prayer.