A Step Two Wrap

In wrapping up Step Two we leave with this case example of the Minsters Son, a  man plagued by depression, alcoholism, PTSD, Suicide, Financial Loss, Atheism and who leaves the hospital a free man.

This book and all of its narratives use case examples like Fred, Jim, The Man of Thirty, The Ministers Son, Bill W, Bob, Bill D - to 'advance' the Twelve Step program of action giving readers numerous examples of how the 12 Steps results in a spiritual awakening and the removal of the desire to drink.

The account of The Minsters Son, in his hospital room, presents an example of someone having his spiritual awakening while at the Step Three phase of the program.

This is not an uncommon experience and is witnessed often while in the field, working with others, using this precise method in this book.

 The man making the approach is actually a 'patient' there himself (not Bill W.) - nine days off his relapse and already carrying the message - and although the details are not specifically delineated, the Ministers Son is clearly in the of the throes of the first three steps, at the least - and is having a spiritual awakening on his first day of ‘step taking’.

Steps One through Step Three takes only about an hour or so to complete when the directions in the book are followed. 

Many people have a Step Three spiritual experience such as the Ministers Son when Steps One, Two and Three are done as depicted in this book. This is further confirmed when we get to Step Three, on page 63, when the co-authors tell us “an effect, sometimes a very great one, was felt at once.”  -- not every single time, but sometimes.* The Ministers Son is clearly one of those times.

This Step Three awaking example comes at the end of the chapter on Step Two (“We Agnostics”) and is a fine segue into the co-authors Step Three presentation which we will begin here in this group in two days.

 Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

http://stepelevencomesalive.blogspot.com/

* Most of the time the spiritual awakening occurs somewhere in between steps 5-7. But earlier, as here, is good too.

 

A Healing Miracle

Page: 57

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Depression, PTSD, Suicide, Financial Loss, Atheism, Conscious Contact, Miracles, Healing

• To what extent did the thought of drinking return to him?

Save for a few brief moments of temptation the thought of drink has never returned;

• How did he react to those brief moments?

and at such times a great revulsion has risen up in him.

• Had he now joined the First 100 as being a recovered alcoholic?

Seemingly he could not drink even if he would.

• Had the hope of Step Two become a reality in his life?

God had restored his sanity.

•  What do we call this type of event?

What is this but a miracle of healing?

Miracle – an act or happening in the material or physical sphere that apparently departs from the laws of nature or goes beyond what is known concerning these laws; a supernatural occurrence. ~

The Winston Simplified Dictionary – 1938

• Are its elements complex?

Yet its elements are simple.

           

Tomorrow

• What made it possible for him to come to believe?
• What did he do?
• Then he what?
• For how many had God repeated this miracle?

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

 http://stepelevencomesalive.blogspot.com/

Contact!

Page: 56

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Depression, PTSD, Suicide, Financial Loss, Atheism, Conscious Contact

Good morning. The Ministers Son is coming to believe and having a spiritual awakening his problem removed from him, right in his hospital room.

• ·        Had he gotten off the Bridge of Reason to the Shore of faith?

He had stepped from bridge to shore.

Note: Do you remember Reasoning vs. Faith, from just three pages ago? (p 53)

• ·        Of what was he now conscious?

For the first time, he lived in conscious companionship with his Creator.

CONTACT!

• ·        Was he now on solid ground?

Thus was our friend's cornerstone fixed in place.

The cornerstone from page 47. The beginning of a "spiritual structure".

·        Had any drastic changes in his life altered his faith?

No later vicissitude has shaken it.

Vicissitude - a turn; a complete change of circumstances - a regular change or succession , as of night and day. 

~ The Winston Simplified Dictionary – 1938

• ·        What happened to his drinking problem?

His alcoholic problem was taken away. 

He did not get rid of his problems. It was REMOVED from him.

• ·         Was his alcohol problem waiting for him somewhere? (In the parking lot, doing push-ups?)

That very night, years ago, it disappeared

Imagine that? Gone! No inventory sheets. No meetings. No readings. No life coaching. No Twelve & Twelve. No Emmet Fox. Not even a Big Book. Just one alcoholic, the recipient of the most powerful message on earth––through talking with another alcoholic, now alone in a room connecting with his Creator.

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

http://stepelevencomesalive.blogspot.com/

"Sponsoring"-- AA Style

Page: 56

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Depression, PTSD, Suicide, Financial Loss, Atheism

Read Time: 3 mins

Good morning. Let's see how this self-proclaimed atheist, the Ministers Son, reacts after a newly awakened alcoholic makes a classsic12 step approach with him.  

Let us also see why we hardly ever hear about this 12 step case in the fellowship.
 

Remember, the man making the approach has come alone, to his room. He was not paired with another alcoholic - and he spends some time with him and has left. The Minister's Son is now alone in his room

• What did he do?

This man recounts that he tumbled out of bed to his knees.

To a fly on the wall that must have looked a quite a  bit like a Third Step event.

• What happened almost immediately?

In a few seconds, he was overwhelmed by a conviction of the Presence of God.

That sounds like a spiritual awakening experience. the kind so many AA's frequently experience.

• How did it feel to him?

It poured over and through him with the certainty and majesty of a great tide at flood.

Please recall that back on page 50, the co-authors tell of finding that “a new power, peace, happiness and sense of direction flow into them." Also consider how Bill W, back in Brooklyn looked inward and found no power of God whatsoever inside - then he believed and it filled him.

Here is the same thing happening to the Misters Son. Empty one minute––then suddenly filled with faith and God presence the next. That is a common description of a classic AA style, “Spiritual Awakening."

• What happened to his sense of reason?

The barriers he had built through the years were swept away.

Bill described a similar experience back on page 12 when he describes, "At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view."

• Where did he find himself?

He stood in the Presence of Infinite Power and Love.

This drastic spiritual awakening happened the same day that he was first visited in his hospital, prior to ever writing long inventories, a breakneck fifth step session, formal meetings, (there weren't any yet) or becoming joined to the hip of a sponsor, even before even making amends. 

This is why the Ministers Son is not a favored example out of the Big Book. It dis-empowers "accountability" style of sponsorship, a revisionist form of "working with others," bearing only little resemblance to the effective program––as it worked back in the 30's

Did you know that some alcoholics have spiritual awakenings BEFORE ever going through a formal 12-step process?

In this case this is because "the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours." 

This is exactly what was done for our Minister's Son.

The Fellowship is full of active, useful, recovered members who're now armed with power, recovery, and grace, who have had experiences just like this. Lot of them!

TOMORROW

·         Had he stepped into the “World of the Spirit?”

·         Of what was he now conscious?

·         Was he now on solid ground?

·         Had any drastic changes in his life altered his faith?

·         What happened to his drinking problem?

·         Did his Higher Power solve his problem?

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

 http://stepelevencomesalive.blogspot.com/

A Humble Question Asked

Page: 56

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Depression, PTSD, Suicide, Financial Loss, Atheism

Good morning. We are reading the Big Book co-authors tell of one of the most forgotten entrants into the Big Book presentation of the solution. The "Ministers Son"  sometimes seems shunned - perhaps for reason we will learn later on this week which you may find surprising. For now let’s just read on.

• Who came to visit him?

One night, when confined in a hospital, he was approached by an alcoholic who had known a spiritual experience.

• How did the visit affect him?

Our friend's gorge rose as he bitterly cried out: "If there is a God, He certainly hasn't done anything for me!"

• But later, what did he ask?

But later, alone in his room, he asked himself this question: "Is it possible that all the religious people I have known are wrong?"         

•  How did he feel when he began to think maybe he had been wrong?  Three sentences

 While pondering the answer he felt as though he lived in hell. Then, like a thunderbolt, a great thought came. It crowded out all else:

•  What thought overwhelmed him?

"Who are you to say there is no God?"

 No voices. No automatic writing. No sermons, Ouija boards or crystal balls - just one humbling idea in answer to a humble question.

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

Free, Non-Religious, Twelve Step Friendly Meditation

Spiritual Disease Runs In Families

Page: 55

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Depression, PTSD, Suicide, Financial Loss, Atheism

Good morning. Today we are learning about the minister’s son and the kind of life he had. You will find it to be very close to what many alcoholics commonly experience today. 

• How had he come to feel about religious matters?

He attended church school, where he became rebellious at what he thought an overdose of religious education.

• Was his life one of happiness and peace of mind?

For years thereafter he was dogged by trouble and frustration.

                                 

• What things did he experience?

Business failure, insanity, fatal illness, suicide

• How did they affect him?

these calamities in his immediate family embittered and depressed him.

It has been said that alcoholism runs in families. While pathologically identifiable diseases can certainly run in families, alcoholism is not a disease. Nor is it depicted as one in the Big Book. (Surprised?) Instead the AA description of alcoholism characterizes its (mental/physical) condition as symptom of the real disease. 

What really "runs" in families is spiritual disease -- contagious emotional states (anger) passed on from parent to child which sends family members away from God to seek solutions to the pain cause by their own bitterness. Depressions is common. Food and sex are frequently the solutions and that includes alcohol.

Depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, overeating/obesity, sexual/relational addictions are ALL are symptoms of spiritual disease (anger-induced agnosticism)

• But that was not all. What else?

Post-war disillusionment, ever more serious alcoholism, impending mental and physical collapse,

Post-war disillusionment - what we call PTSD today - is a spiritual corruption a condition condition brought on by suppressed anger. 

It causes many people, including soldiers to turn to drugs like antidepressants, opioids and even foods like alcohol and sugar. 

Although it is not discussed publicly too much, these sufferers also develop severe sexual addictions and suffer from the inability to have healthy relationships. It is not pretty. It also is not new. Unfortunately it is not rare either.

• Did his religious upbringing equip him with the grace to properly manage his problematic life? 

brought him to the point of self-destruction.

Today this is referred to as Suicidal Ideation which can mean thinking about suicide without actually making plans or also having the intent to commit suicide—including planning how to carry it out. 

It is a symptom of major depression and bipolar depression and there is hardly a single real alcoholic who has not experienced it at some time. 

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

http://stepelevencomesalive.blogspot.com/

The Son of a Preacher Man

Page: 55

Step we are on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Depression, PTSD, Suicide, Financial Loss, Atheism

Good morning. Now the co-authors tell us of a very interesting individual--who experienced many of the difficulties that many of us alcoholics are also familer.Financial loss, sickness and suicide in his family brought him to depression, PTSD, failing health and suicidal ideation. How many of us are familiar with some or all of these? Many.

None of these are ‘modern’ problems, they just have modern names. He found a solution to these problems, common to alcoholics, through the spiritual recovery offered - even though he thought he could fancy himself a non-believer. 

• If you can believe our stories, you will be able to do what?

If our testimony helps sweep away prejudice, enables you to think honestly, encourages you to search diligently within yourself, then, if you wish, you can join us on the Broad Highway.

That's where the newcomers are! Once the alcoholic recovers he can join us there in our prospecting efforts - not until then.

•  What comes with this attitude?  (Two sentences)

With this attitude you cannot fail. The consciousness of your belief is sure to come to you.

Is there a story of an atheist in this Book?

In this book you will read the experience of a man who thought he was an atheist.

"Thought" he was an atheist. Most atheists only "think" they are -- as we just learned on page 55 that, "deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God."

Even atheists have that fundamental God idea, although they may hate to admit it. Ironically, anyone affirming themselves, "Atheist," are declaring membership in a certain belief system.

• Why is it being mentioned at this point?

His story is so interesting that some of it should be told now.

• Could it be that he had a spiritual experience as the result of trying this Program?

His change of heart was dramatic, convincing, and moving.

The Big Book is full of "dramatic" spiritual conversions like these. They were common occurrences amongst those who were pursuing the spiritual program of action delineated in this book. 

QUESTION: Are these kinds dramatic spiritual occurrences as frequent today in the fellowship?

Page 56

• What kind of a childhood did this man have?

Our friend was a minister's son.

Which means he was no stranger to the "God idea"

TOMORROW

·        How had he come to feel about religious matters?

·        Was his life one of happiness and peace of mind?

·        What things did he experience?

·        How did they affect him?

·        But that was not all.  What else?

·        Where did he wind up?

Also: Why The Minister's  Son is not very popular in AA.

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

 http://stepelevencomesalive.blogspot.com/