AA Without God Isn’t AA

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Welcome back to Just Your Average Joel podcast, where we're going to talk about everything your mother said not to talk about in polite company, including politics, religion, religion in our politics, politics in our religion.
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And we're going to talk about 12 steps.
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And yes, we are going to talk about God.
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Joel is an ordinary guy who had a spiritual experience that revolutionized his attitude towards God, his universe, everything about him.
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And he's going to talk about it.
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And it's an experience that's available to all of us.
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And it's not happening.
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And we're trying to get to the bottom of why.
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So, like Jake and Elwood, we're on a mission from God, and I give you Joel.
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Welcome everybody back.
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Uh I I appreciate uh everybody tuning in, watching.
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Uh, we we we're gonna go more into the history.
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We're gonna go into we really getting into what the problem is.
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Why, what, why is the recovery rate so low?
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Why are there certain things?
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You know, it's almost like when you're not calling, you gotta find out what the problem is.
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What's the mouth, what what are the what are the uh the reasonings, what are the uh what with it, and so and a lot of it's what are the tells.
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Um so we're gonna go into that.
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Um I don't want to seem critical, you know.
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Sometimes it's like, oh, you know, uh, it's kind of a like I'm gonna say like a bitch list like, oh, this is bad and that's not going on, but we gotta get, we have to look at it.
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Um uh we gotta make an evaluation.
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We have to know what the problem is, and really the problem is they're sucking God.
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And this is this, listen, this is history.
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There's history of everything that man gets.
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I I put I put it here, uh got God makes it, man takes credit.
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God makes it uh and got uh and man uh thinks he can make it better, and that's exactly what happened in Alcoholics.
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They God gave them a gift, and then immediately they started congratulating themselves, they started tweaking it, they start saying, Hey, well, you know, we can get more people if we do this, we can do this, we can do that, and and this is this is history, this is how it's been.
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Uh I'm gonna show a clip.
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This is in Chosen, but here's a clip when he's talking to the Pharisees.
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Pharisees, hypocrites.
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For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, and you yourselves don't go in, but you don't let anyone else in either.
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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourself.
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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness, for you also outwardly appear righteous to others.
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But within, you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
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You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, if we That's plenty right there, and that's exactly what's happening out called.
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Hey, listen, I I you know what do I say?
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I do I feel frustrated.
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I've been on going on this thing for 30 years.
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Um I hear, I can hear it in there.
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I listen, a lot of people haven't had truly have not had a spiritual awakening.
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That's the truth.
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They haven't had a spiritual awakening, they have they've had uh a transformation to some extent, they have better lives, things are better, but they're it they've not what going into what they talk about in the big book alcohol songs, entered into the fourth dimension of existence.
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They're not transformed.
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Um and you can tell a lot in their conversations.
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One of the big things they'll they thank people, places, and things.
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They're repetitive.
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Uh big book, they'll thank the uh their sponsor.
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It's it's a lot of that that we were just saying to me, it was all about the fellowship.
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Listen, the fellowship is nothing without the power of God.
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Um I'm not a guy that that that can that can have a fellowship.
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It says he will uh create the fellowship you desire.
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So let's can you go to some of the things that you have, Jen, about you know, early history, because this and this is what he's saying to the scribes there.
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That's what he's saying in the pharaohs.
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Listen, you guys, you guys are not, you guys are off track and you're preaching this message.
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This that's a bunch of crap.
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And and it's funny how we got Jesus, you know, people think they're better than God.
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They they want to make things this is this is guy, this is Jesus.
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I mean, obviously it's a movie, but it's uh or or or a film.
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But this is kind of how the guy was.
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He got crucified for a reason.
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They didn't, he wasn't walking around going, well, you know, I don't want to offend anybody.
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Uh let me not offend.
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He was just talking right to their face saying, Listen, the the uh the most top guys around.
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He was talking to them right to their face saying, listen, you guys are hypocrites.
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You're not telling the truth, you're lying.
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Uh, big part of what what you're gonna find out in the history, we started lying to everybody.
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We're we're getting them in, we're getting them in, and then we're gonna deal with it later.
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Get them in, oh, don't worry about this, this, this, and get them in, get them in, and then then we'll deal with the God, the God thing later.
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And Christ wasn't like it.
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Christ was telling right to the face, listen, you guys are liars, you're dirty on the inside, all that kind of stuff.
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So, some of the stuff, what do you have here, Jen?
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Well, it's funny because I saw that clip the other day about Jimmy John, the guy who has all the the uh franchises, and he said, and he was a salesman, and Bill was a salesman, and he said he would sell them all about owning these Jimmy Johns and how much money they were gonna make and how great it was gonna be.
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Well, they started failing.
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And so he realized, you know, he was telling them everything that was good to get them in, and and he said, I'm gonna have to start telling them the truth that this is 24-7, you gotta be here all the time.
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It's hard.
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He said, I was practically trying to talk them out of it, and more people were buying them, but they were successful.
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He started telling them the truth, and that's what happened with AA.
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I'm gonna read where Bill he had a hot flash.
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In fact, they have altered the history so much that when Ebbie came to see Bill, Bill was like, you know, he he saw that something happened to Ebbie.
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Ebby was a drunk, like in fact, he said if he ever got as bad as Ebbie, he would quit.
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Okay?
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And and here here's Ebbie sober.
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And and Ebbie looks at him and he says, I've got religion.
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And and Bill said, I was a guest.
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You know, first he was uh an alcoholic crackpot, now he's a religious crackpot.
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Bill was a self-professed atheist, he went to um, you know, one of these big schools and he really um idolized m man's brain and man's rational mind, intellect.
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And so, but you know, the piece that's always left out is when Eby left, Bill went to the Calvary Chapel Church, where Ebbie had gotten uh this religious experience with the Oxford group with Sam Schumacher.
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So Bill went down and there's a whole account of where Bill gave his life to Christ.
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You're never gonna hear about that in AI.
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So, um, but even that aside, here in in the book Um Not God by Ernie Kurtz, okay, here's Bill.
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He said, in the formal telling of his story, Bill Wilson slid quickly past what happened next.
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He had learned that recounting it injured rather than added to his credibility, and he certain and it certainly hadn't helped getting anyone else to get the program.
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Yet to him it had happened and he knew it.
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And eventually he had to set it down two decades later.
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So for two decades, he never talked about this experience.
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He never talked about, and I'm gonna read two decades later when he writes it out what he said.
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He said, My depression deepened unbearably.
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And finally, it seemed to me as though I were at the bottom of the pit.
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I still gagged badly at the notion of a power greater than myself.
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But finally, just for the moment, the last best vestige of my proud obstinacy was crushed.
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All at once I found myself crying out, if there is a God, let him show himself.
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I'm ready to do anything, anything.
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Suddenly, the room lit up with a great white light.
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I was caught up with the ecstasy, which there was no words to describe.
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It seemed to me, in the mind's eye, that I was on a mountain with a wind, not of air, but of spirit blowing.
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And then it burst upon me.
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I was a free man.
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Slowly the ecstasy subsided.
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I laid on my bed, but for a time I was in another world, a new world of consciousness, all about me and through me.
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There was a wonderful feeling of presence.
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And I thought to myself, so this is the God of the preachers.
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So, you know, Bill had a religious conversion experience, a Christian experience, a a he had gone to Calvary, gave his life to Christ, drank again, ended up in in Towns Hospital, uh, surrendered, gave his life and had this bright light experience.
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And and then you you go over and and he says, but he slid past it, he didn't talk about it because it ruined his credibility.
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You want to talk more about it or no, no, not really, but I yeah, just okay, so and then and then years later, right, okay, he wrote a he wrote an article to Liberty Magazine, right, and he said to Dr.
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Bob, he said, We're growing at an alarming rate, although I have no no longer have fear of large large numbers.
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A free a few weeks ago, he wrote Dr.
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Bob that the press of newcomers and inquiries was so great that we had a swing back to the take it or leave it attitude, which curiously enough produced better results than trying to be all things to all men.
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So, you know, the problem is that they started noticing that Bill was leaving that religious experience out because it ruined his credibility.
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It wasn't gonna, he wanted to to a big tent.
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He wanted, in fact, I was at a meeting this morning, and the guy said, you know, thank God they didn't uh emphasize, you know, God, that they they said God as I understand him.
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And in fact, he had two people that were really influencing him, Hank Parkhurst and Jim Burwell, the atheist and the agnostic.
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Sounds like a beginning of a joke.
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But, you know, the the problem is they kept they were from New York and they wanted it to be more of a psychological book than a religious book.
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Okay, so they were in his ear.
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And uh the guy at the morning, the meeting this morning said, Thank God for Hank and Jim.
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You know, that they said, God is we understand him, and that atheists can now be sober.
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Well, the only problem with that is they both got drunk.
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So it didn't work out very well.
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And in fact, Hank, I have right here where he ended up giving his life to God, and I'll I'll read that too.
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So okay, so here it says you know, this the stories of both Hank and Fitz provided clear testimony that a complete surrender to God, oh, also Fitz Mayo, but that's a whole nother story.
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Uh clear testimony that a complete surrender to God was considered an essential requirement for anyone trying to build a solid foundation for ongoing sobriety.
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Hank's rather awkward awkward and rambling stream of consciousness, big book story, The Unbeliever, details that many agnostic arguments that he formulated while lying in Towns Hospital bed and then offered to Bill Wilson whenever he visited him there.
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But despite all his protestations of disbelief, Hank's story ends abruptly with a dramatic account of his surrender at the side of his bed.
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Brr, this floor is cold on my knees.
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Why are there these tears running like a river down my cheeks?
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God have mercy on my soul.
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So Yeah, exactly.
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You know, the whole thing.
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So it is a con because now there's there he wanted to raise the bottom, he wanted all these people.
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And we were in a meeting yesterday, two meetings, this morning and yesterday, where they said, let's not scare the newcomer, let's not talk about God, let's not.
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So that's kind of what's happened in AA, where they're selling you kind of don't worry about this, you don't have to worry.
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You do have to worry about.
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Well, the reason being is that clip right there.
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They're not, they have not entered into the kingdom of God.
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Yeah, they're not there.
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Yeah.
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I can hear in their voice and their I know because I know who who my brother is.
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I know him by the look in his eye and know how he talks.
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Because I know because God's given me that, right?
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So I know that.
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So I hear a guy sharing a meeting, and somebody said not too long ago, oh he he seemed like he was doing so good.
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And I heard him.
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I said, I didn't think he was doing that great.
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You know, I think he blew his brains out or something.
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He drank or whatever, or or OD'd, he died.
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Um, and I thought he was so you you might be a fool with some of the people, but not from somebody who's had a transformation, who's living in the spirit, who who knows that all things and all uh healing comes from God.
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All.
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Not not a little bit.
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It says there is one who has all power.
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And when they set you up in the meeting, in the beginning of how it works, it says, There's one who has all power.
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May you find him now.
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Uh may you abandon yourself to him utterly.
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All these things that it's saying all along.
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We had to have God's help.
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Then you know the whole book and everything is gearing that way.
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But here in a meeting with Alcoholics Anonymous, and the sales part of it is let's get him in, yeah, right?
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And then we let's not offend them, okay?
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Let's not rip the band-aid off, let's get him in.
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We used to do this in the car business.
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I was in the car business.
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And so, and and in the car business, we have that they had you actually have it where box clothes.
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They they have the finance guy.
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So the guy gets you and he says, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Uh oh, the payment, don't worry about it, don't worry about the color, don't worry, oh, you don't really like uh, you know, and just skip past everything, and then you put them in the box, and then the the finance guy starts spinning paper and he closes them down, which I I didn't sell like that.
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I'm just telling you how I always sold was do you like this?
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And I I checked the I checked it as I went through it.
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So, do you like the color of the car?
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Do you like the way it feels?
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Do you like that?
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And so I would we we call it creating hair on the deal.
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Okay, in sales, there would be hair on the deal.
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When you give it to them, it's all messy on the end.
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Well, it's not messy on the end if it's done how the big book alcohol can I stuck about it.
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After they go through the first four or five steps, it says, We look back.
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Was the mortar in place?
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Was the sand there?
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Was every you know, they have it where they go back and check their work, you know what I'm saying?
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And closing it up as they go in.
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So they're not having this problem down the road where they're not sober, they're they're what they're unhappy, they go back out.
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So that that's that's a big part of what's going on.
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What were you saying?
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Were you said no, yeah, that's good.
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You made you you.
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Well, that well, that's why I was thinking about that.
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It's like it's like we're getting them in, we're selling them, selling them, selling them, just like the soft clothes.
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Let's not offend anybody.
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Let's not it looks, I mean, I don't know, Jesus was kind of like pretty uh, I would say pretty good guy.
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Uh he he didn't seem like he was afraid to offend anybody.
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Do you see that clip, right?
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I mean, that is read when you read that and you go the seven woes that Christ talks about.
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He's like, you he calls some this, you know, there's a word thing going out right now about the synagogue.
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That's where he said about the synagogue of Satan.
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He was talking to the Pharisees.
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He says, the synagogue of Satan.
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He goes, you guys are doing evil stuff here, man, because you're not you're not put putting God out there, you're putting yourself out there.
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You're all about self.
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You're you're you're just you're still you're still uh projecting uh uh uh the it's almost like that tape we watched with that girl, her young self, the uh the girl, the uh skater girl.
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She said she can she's you heard you remember the whole thing with that.
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Like she's she's made herself who she is.
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Now listen, I'm a Christian.
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I can't make myself into anything.
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I have to surrender.
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Just like that guy talked about in that book right there.
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He surrendered.
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He had to surrender to God.
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He had to surrender that power.
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There comes a place in your life that you absolutely have to.
00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:08.240
Where's do you have other readings on that?
00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:10.399
No, that pretty much covered it.
00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:25.759
But, you know, I mean, the book is telling you, you know, who wishes to be rigorous and who wishes to, you know, you can tell them up front, exactly like the Jimmy John guy, this is about giving your life to God, turning it over, the the same man will drink again.
00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:29.279
This isn't what's happened is AA has turned into a religion.
00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:36.399
And what a religion does is it tweaks behavior, it's a lot about conformity, it's a lot about uh hierarchy.
00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:43.039
There's a lot said in AA, I have this much time under my belt, as if that means they know, you know.
00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:46.480
I mean, so it's it's become a lot of what religion is.
00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:49.519
It's it's it's and it's Bruce Lee.
00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:51.679
It's the thing that I think you said last week.
00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:57.840
They they worship the pointer, the sponsor, the big book, the meetings.
00:16:58.320 --> 00:16:59.519
It's the easier, softer way.
00:16:59.600 --> 00:16:59.759
Yeah.
00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:05.200
They it it's it's hard to do to it's hard to come about and say, I'm wrong.
00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:10.160
I need to submit myself, I gotta, I gotta cast away my lifelong perceptions and ideas.
00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:10.880
That's tough.
00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:15.519
And the big thing is in here too, it's Bill hated absolutes.
00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:16.160
Absolutely absolutely.
00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:19.440
So if God's the absolute standard, right?
00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:23.440
It's like we're we now you don't have an absolute standard.
00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:28.000
It's a made-up standard in AA, maybe AA culture, what the P.
00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:35.839
You know, there's a hard line when you have God as the standard when you're doing your inventory and you're comparing yourself to God, you're gonna come.
00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:38.000
It was never meant to be a goal.
00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:39.839
It was meant to be an x-ray.
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.079
The the four absolutes were there to expose you and build it in like the absolute.
00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:46.720
He said alcoholics can't be absolute anything.
00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:52.400
In fact, he took um where it said an honest desire to drink.
00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:56.240
The traditions where it says the only requirement is an honest desire.
00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:01.359
He took honest out because he said alcoholics can't be on so you see the tweaking.
00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:04.559
Yeah, he started tweaking and changing.
00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:12.880
You see, from the original manuscript to what actually got written when he was influenced by people, you see a big change.
00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:18.799
I mean, on 43 or 40, I it's in 46, whatever in the book it talks about seek and then they earnestly seek.
00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:19.759
They double down on it.
00:18:19.839 --> 00:18:24.400
Listen, without an honest, earnest seeking of a God, nothing's gonna happen in your life.
00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:27.599
And if you're if you think you're gonna get, you know, and and this is what they do.
00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:32.319
Just what happened yesterday, the fellowship, they come in a lot of high-bottom drunks, a lot of people.
00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:41.519
I heard five, six, seven, I don't know how many people all talk, and all the people, and I'm not criticizing that they're they're not never have come to a place where I've been in my life.
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.880
Because when you come to a place where I've been in my life, you got minutes left.
00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:53.599
In fact, before my spirits awakened, I had minutes, uh, maybe I don't think I had an hour left on this earth without having to blow my brains out and walk in front of a bus, kill myself.
00:18:53.759 --> 00:19:06.799
The pain that I was in prior to the darkest before the dawn that before I gave myself my life over to God was so excruciating that there was no, well, maybe, you know, maybe I'll I'll do this.
00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:08.079
There was none of that, man.
00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:12.400
All I I was submit to any, just what you read about Bill.
00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:14.400
I'm willing to do anything, anything.
00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:17.839
Now they used to weed them out back in the old days with the old timers.
00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:21.119
They used to say, listen, shut up, sit down, you know, take them.
00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:27.440
They wouldn't let them in a meeting unless they gave their life to Christ, unless they got on their knees and gave their life to Christ, they couldn't come to the meeting.
00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:28.960
Well, that was the Akron Group.
00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:30.559
That's why their success rate was so high.
00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:33.119
New York was, of course, New York is New York.
00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:34.240
We know what that is, right?
00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:39.599
So that's where the office is, that's where the main office is, and it's all uh living sober book, it's all watered down.
00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:45.039
The new planning language, big book, it's all taking God, sucking God, everything.
00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:52.160
Uh in Akron, they were like, listen, you get on your knees and you confess that the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, or you go and keep drinking.
00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:53.440
Okay, that was your option.
00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:55.680
So they were getting sober at a huge rate.
00:19:55.759 --> 00:19:55.839
Yeah.
00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:59.680
They were getting sober because they weren't sitting there, well, you know, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna make up my own.
00:19:59.920 --> 00:20:02.079
I remember guy had John Lennon as his God.
00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:04.480
You know, I'm just saying, I'm gonna make up my own God.
00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:06.400
You know, listen, you're gonna get on our page.
00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:08.319
I guess the girl said it this morning.
00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:11.200
As we understood Jen and I are sober, okay?
00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:13.279
Both of us went through basically the same path.
00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:16.400
Submit ourselves to God, be transformed, right?
00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:17.759
That's what we've gone through.
00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:23.440
That and we're telling you, you're a new guy, so we say, we, as we understood him, not as you understand.
00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:24.880
But it's even more than that.
00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:27.279
She said this morning, which is true, you made the good point.
00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:32.480
You're getting ready to give your whole life over to this organization called Alcoholics Anonymous.
00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:35.839
You don't even care to do the research, where'd it come from?
00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:38.400
What I mean, they were studying the Bible.
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:43.920
It was gonna be called the James Club before it was gonna be called Alcoholics Anonymous.
00:20:44.079 --> 00:21:00.079
So you're gonna turn your life over to the organization, but you don't so when it says God is we understood them, a lot of people I interpreted that as the first hundred people who got sober and wrote the book, and they were having religious conversion, transformational experiences.
00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:01.599
They were being reborn.
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:07.039
So I knew right from the beginning that's what and and it does, but you're right.
00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:17.920
One thing, one point which uh you made, and I'll turn it back to you, is you know, Bill did a lot of this because he loved alcoholics and he didn't want anyone to s to to fall through the cracks.
00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:20.240
He wanted it available to everybody.
00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:28.240
But but remember the other day I I saw this thing and it said, it doesn't take a it takes a miracle to survive a tornado.
00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:31.039
It doesn't take a miracle to survive a rainy day.
00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:33.599
And some people have come in on a rainy day.
00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:41.440
They had a we we were at a meeting and the guy he got one DUI and he and he just made a decision to come and stop drinking.
00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:42.400
That ain't me.
00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:49.920
That that's a yeah, what the big book Alcoholics Anonymous is laying out through the basic text is a complete and total transformation.
00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:55.599
It we're talking about being enlightened, we're talking about a whole different thing than what they're talking about, and it's more insidious than that.
00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:59.759
Most people don't want you to get in there, just so you know, they're sitting outside, just like that that.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:00.480
Clip.
00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:05.599
They're sitting outside the kingdom of God and they're telling you, you don't have to go in there.
00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:06.640
You don't have to go in there.
00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:09.039
I didn't have to go in there, so you don't have to go in there.
00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:10.960
And they and people got to check themselves.
00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:17.119
They're going to have to go home and they have to look at their own selves, how they're living their life, and and ask themselves a serious question.
00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:18.480
Ask yourself a serious question.
00:22:18.559 --> 00:22:20.079
Have you had a spiritual awakening?
00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:21.680
Are you in communication with God?
00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:22.880
Are you speaking to God?
00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:24.000
Is God speaking to you?
00:22:24.160 --> 00:22:26.079
Is this a part of your consciousness?
00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:28.079
Is this what's happening in your daily living?
00:22:28.240 --> 00:22:31.920
Or are you full of shit and you're telling other people that you don't need that either?
00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:35.119
And that's hey, that's fine, but at least be truthful about it.
00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:38.720
You know, because I hear you and I listen to you and I know you're not there.
00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:39.680
Trust me when I tell you.
00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:45.200
Well, and also you can ask yourself the question: Am I seriously alcoholic as they were?
00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:48.079
Is this an experience that I must have?
00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:51.519
Am I the type of alcoholic that Carl Young, Dr.
00:22:51.680 --> 00:23:03.200
Silkworth was talking about that I'm beyond human aid and without this essential psychic change, I'm not gonna going, I'm not going to make it because they differentiate it for a reason.
00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:07.039
So not everybody is going to need that type of experience.
00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:16.799
But we want to lay it out so that you know if you're this type of alcoholic, this is what you know, this is what you're gonna need.
00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:17.839
I mean, it's just a fact.
00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:36.160
But the call young and all them were actually, believe it or not, were more uh they were more of what do you want to say, surrendered to the fact that you needed God than most alcoholics are because they had tried, see, they've been working on alcoholics, they had felt the powerlessness, their own powerlessness, which is step one.
00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:42.640
They've they've they came to recognize their own powerlessness over and over that they couldn't do it over and over.
00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:46.480
Listen, man, you're gonna need God because they watch it, they were the best.
00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:48.000
Remember what he said to Roland Harris, right?
00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:51.920
I have given you the best psych psychology stuff on the planet.
00:23:52.319 --> 00:23:53.519
These were the number one guys.
00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:54.240
Full year.
00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.039
And Roland left and got drunk and he came back.
00:23:57.200 --> 00:23:58.480
Tell me what's wrong with me.
00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:00.240
How could I drink after all that?
00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:00.720
Right.
00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:04.480
And so you and and then here we got what's mostly happening in the big book.
00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:11.200
We're in a big book meeting at one place, and it's like there's this slow roll, this slow roll about the God thing.
00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:15.519
Not only do they excuse it, they say, well, you know, I don't want to two people said it in one meeting.
00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:18.079
I don't want to offend anybody, but I need to talk about God.
00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:19.839
It's like, really, this is where we're at.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:26.160
So, but not only that, they slow roll it so much that it's not even in line with the how the steps roll.
00:24:26.319 --> 00:24:27.920
The steps roll immediately.
00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:30.799
Right after step one, you're the second part.
00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:33.599
Well, we we've agreed today, Jen and I went back and forth.
00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:34.880
There's no second part of the step.
00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:37.519
There's only one part of the step, but it's hyphenated.
00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:40.400
And it says on mat and it says unmanageable.
00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:42.880
Well, that part, well, you know, Joel's an idiot.
00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:46.319
Well, well, and and he can't and he and why can't he control himself?
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:47.119
You know, whatever.
00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:48.400
But I mean, there's that second part.
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:49.279
I'm unmanageable.
00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:50.079
I can't manage.
00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:56.559
Well, they they they really, that part of that step already puts you in a position where you're moving towards God.
00:24:56.720 --> 00:25:00.880
The book of we agnostics, we're in we agnostics, the guy's like, well, this is just we agnostics.
00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:06.880
That means he doesn't listen, the whole book, that whole chapter is to convince you not to be agnostic.
00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:16.640
Uh what you said, Sandy Beach has a whole tape on it where he's like, listen, the whole book, the whole thing is to, because if I'm coming out of that, I'm I'm gonna be making a decision to turn my will and my life for the care of God.
00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:17.839
So I'm where am I coming?
00:25:18.400 --> 00:25:26.400
Well, and and here's the thing the the one of the sayings in AA is the only step that we take 100% is step one.
00:25:26.799 --> 00:25:32.720
But I always want to tell him, but take a hundred percent of the step because what mo most people do, they say I'm powerless over alcohol.
00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:35.119
They don't think their life is unmanageable.
00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:39.680
They are man, they're not looking for a new manager, they're not looking for God.
00:25:39.839 --> 00:25:54.559
They're you know, they're still managing, so that's gonna be a problem down the line, but it's always a they think they have a step three problem, a step four problem, a step nine problem, but it's always a step one problem that they're still trying to manage.
00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:56.960
And I have a step problem one problem in my life today.
00:25:57.119 --> 00:26:10.799
I mean, I it's not that you're you're healed, you enter into a spiritual world, you had a spiritual experience, and now all of a sudden you just got wings flying out your and now all of a sudden, yeah, you still bump into yourself, you still try to exit, try to be, you still try to give yourself credit.
00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:12.880
And self, this is what they do in alcoholics.
00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:14.960
They're giving uh all these selves credit.
00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:16.720
Well, let me just tell you, self is self.
00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:25.359
Whether I take that self and put it over there or put it over here or put it wherever I want to put it, sponsor, book written by self, anything is still self.
00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:26.640
Okay, it's not God.
00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:29.599
And I we that's like the trip every day of my life.
00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:34.400
It's like I constantly want to, I constantly want to give self-congratulate.
00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:39.359
You know, and I might do that by congratulating you, by blowing smoke up your butt, whatever you want to say.
00:26:39.440 --> 00:26:40.799
I'm kind of blowing up my own.
00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:41.519
You know what I'm saying?
00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:44.400
So that is all what has gone in alcoholic science.
00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:50.079
And it's become, it's become not only the norm, that is, you're almost unnormal to say what I'm saying.
00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:53.200
What I'm saying is if people look at me like I'm almost crazy.
00:26:53.279 --> 00:26:57.119
It's like, listen, man, I can show you in the book exactly how this lays out.
00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:03.279
How the 42 stories in the back, how they establish the relationship with God, how that comes about, clear-cut directions.
00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:06.319
You go to a meeting, the none of that's going on.
00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:10.559
You got people in there saying atheists can have uh have the 12 steps out.
00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:13.039
There's no way that an atheist can have that.
00:27:13.359 --> 00:27:14.319
It's an impossibility.
00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:20.079
Bill Bob, one of the founders, he says, if you're atheists or agnostic, I feel sorry for you.
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:25.359
Or some other intellectual whatever stops you from stops you from what?
00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:32.640
Uh we said it today, stops you from uh accepting what uh what what the uh the basically the things that are in this book.
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:38.720
If it stops you from accepting the what the proposals that are in this book, the the atheism, the I feel sorry for you.
00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:42.079
So so what the book is about is all about God.
00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:44.960
Now, you know, that's that and he why would he even say that?
00:27:45.039 --> 00:28:01.279
That he feels sorry for you and uh and and and how Bill on 191, and I say this and I've said it before here, but that he says, I'm so grateful for the Lord curing me of this terrible disease that I can't stop telling other people about it, uh, is is the basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous.
00:28:01.519 --> 00:28:06.880
The reason why I've been transformed, the reason why I'm giving something over isn't because I'm getting anything.
00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:10.079
I should you shouldn't be going to a meeting Alcoholics Anonymous to be getting anything.
00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:11.440
You should be there bringing it.
00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:14.079
Once you've been transformed, you should be like a disciple.
00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:15.119
You should be giving it.
00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:17.440
You should be bringing it, not taking it.
00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:20.640
Because if you're living your life as a taker still, that's not the program.
00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:22.400
That no, there hasn't been a transformation.
00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:25.359
You're you're you're either gonna be you're a predator.
00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:28.960
I was I always say I was a predator, and I went to be an altruistic.
00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:34.079
The reasons why I do things today is because I want to give it to you, not because I'm gonna gain anything from it.
00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:36.480
And that because God, I've already gotten the miracle.
00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:42.000
The miracles already happen in my life, you know, the transform the the power experiencing the power of God.
00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:44.799
That's what the whole the whole program is about.
00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:54.319
But a lot of the people they say if I would have come to the door and you would have told me to get on my knees and give my life to Jesus Christ, I I wouldn't have been able to come into AA.
00:28:54.480 --> 00:28:57.279
So what you know, what what if they're Jewish?
00:28:57.519 --> 00:28:59.279
What if they're Buddhist?
00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:00.720
What if they're not?
00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:02.319
I'm not saying Jesus Christ.
00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:06.960
Uh well, as we're talking about, so okay, so what what are you?
00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:07.920
I'm saying God.
00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:09.200
God knows his name.
00:29:09.440 --> 00:29:15.680
So so it's a heart hit that it's when you get on your knees and say, God, take my life, you'll experience what God is.
00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:21.039
Well, God is revealed to you through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous through four through twelve.
00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:32.960
It's more the relationship, uh, my surrender, me giving up, me, me having character defects I can't do anything about, me saying, Okay, God, please say, and God, got God in certain situations removing these things from me.
00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:46.240
And I watch God work in my life doing this to me, so or doing this for me because I've asked, and because I I take the responsibility, he even the clarity of seeing myself, but all that, does it matter what God now?
00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:47.359
Listen, I'm not Buddhist.
00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:48.480
Why am I not a Buddhist?
00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:52.240
Because Buddhists can they the Dalai Lama himself is an agnostic.
00:29:52.400 --> 00:29:55.440
So the leader of their group is an agnostic, he doesn't believe in God.
00:29:55.599 --> 00:30:03.680
He believes, or however, without power, however you want to say it, he believes he can, through self-discipline, self-sacrifice, and attain enlightenment.
00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:04.720
That's what he believes.
00:30:04.880 --> 00:30:07.920
Um I can't I'm a guy who can't do any of that stuff.
00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:10.240
I'm not that hip slick or cool.
00:30:10.319 --> 00:30:11.759
So I need a savior.
00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:16.160
I need somebody to come in and help me see my I need help from from Jump Street.
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:23.519
So do you think a lot of people in AA that that's what they believe through self-discipline and self-sacrifice that they are getting themselves safe?
00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:24.480
Absolutely.
00:30:24.640 --> 00:30:25.119
Absolutely.
00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:35.680
That is the the the the absolute you'll hear people 12 step, he'll say through self-sac that well, they they hone in on that through self-saccharizing working with others that they grow spiritually.
00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:37.920
And I say you grow spiritually by surrender.
00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:44.640
I I say you grow spiritually more by finding out you can't, and and have to go to God and say, hey, listen, I can't.
00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:47.200
So I need help, and and it's a heart thing.
00:30:47.279 --> 00:30:50.319
It's a way of looking at God, it's a way of going to God.
00:30:50.480 --> 00:30:57.359
You know, it with a and that's why when you get into the seventh step, it says we humbly ask God to remove our shortcuts.
00:30:57.440 --> 00:30:58.160
Why is it humbly?
00:30:58.240 --> 00:30:59.200
Why is it an attitude change?
00:30:59.279 --> 00:31:02.640
Why is it because you realize you can't, you need God's help?
00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:04.400
That's what God wants you to come to Him.
00:31:04.640 --> 00:31:07.839
Almost like what they talk about with tithing and stuff like that, giving money.
00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:10.640
He says, With if you don't give it with a grateful heart, I want you to do it.
00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:15.279
Okay, so if I'm helping an alcoholic, I shouldn't be helping him because I'm gonna get something.
00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:19.680
Because God did a miracle in my life, and I've been transformed.
00:31:19.759 --> 00:31:23.359
And he says, Go out there now and give this gift away that I've given you.
00:31:23.519 --> 00:31:25.440
I the miracle happened to me 30 years ago.
00:31:25.599 --> 00:31:28.799
It's been, you know, I'm not out there looking for a miracle, it already happened.
00:31:28.880 --> 00:31:29.519
I'm sober.
00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:31.119
You know, but and I'm transformed.
00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:33.839
I'm walking around, I'm not sitting there just tripping.
00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:37.440
I used to be sober, and that was the worst thing that ever happened to me, just so you know.
00:31:37.519 --> 00:31:51.440
So sober is not everything, it's a state of consciousness, a transformation in how I see the world, how I relate, how I relate to you, how I relate in my and that is you want to run, you want to, like Bill says, you want to scream from the rooftops.
00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:53.680
I'm so grateful for what God has done for me.
00:31:53.759 --> 00:31:55.279
I want to keep telling people about it.
00:31:55.519 --> 00:31:56.559
Yeah, it's the evidence.
00:31:57.039 --> 00:32:05.519
But what's happening is a lot of I mean, I'm just telling you, like almost everybody in the meeting is congratulating people, places, and things.
00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:08.799
So but they you can't transmit something that you don't have.
00:32:09.039 --> 00:32:10.240
A lot of people are not having.
00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:13.039
Well, we're at we're at step two right now.
00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:20.559
We're at we agnostics, and the temperature of the meeting is kind of like you don't have to have and and they say it.
00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:23.359
They say they don't use I statements, you know.
00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:26.880
It's like in coda, we always say use I statements, not you and we.
00:32:27.519 --> 00:32:34.000
Because it hits different if you said, I didn't need God to get sober, I don't need divine help to get sober, but they don't say that.
00:32:34.079 --> 00:32:37.119
They say, you don't need God at this point.
00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:38.960
We don't need God, we don't have to.
00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:48.480
It's it's very, you know, it's a very telling right now in this particular meeting because we do crosstalk and and people double dip.
00:32:48.640 --> 00:33:06.400
And so you can see almost that there are two camps in AA right here at step two, where people, because we're getting ready for step three, where you think long and hard about turning your will and your life over to the care of God, and a lot of people in the meeting don't even want to think about that at this point.
00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:14.640
It's funny you say that too, because the two camps you'll hear and and our one of our friends in there should she'll talk, and and it's more about surrender.
00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:17.440
She talks more about surrender, I talk more about surrender.
00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:21.200
We talk more about surrender, they talk about more of action, doing.
00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:24.960
They're more doing, they're intellectual, they're making it happen.
00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:27.039
We're we're like saying, Man, we can't make it happen.
00:33:27.279 --> 00:33:28.640
It's like this, it's a different place.
00:33:29.119 --> 00:33:35.839
Talking about an apple and actually eating the apple, talking a lot of people know the lyrics, a few know the melody, and the melody is a lot different.
00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:37.680
It's a language, it's a language of the heart.
00:33:37.920 --> 00:33:38.960
It's that God language.
00:33:39.119 --> 00:33:44.799
I can hear them, and it might not be the words might be perfect and how it's said, but you can see where they're coming from.
00:33:44.880 --> 00:33:46.559
They're it's the language of the heart, it's a lot different.
00:33:46.799 --> 00:33:52.480
But and we talked about Katie, you know, she's gonna be famous on the podcast, but good you could because she's a perfect example.
00:33:52.640 --> 00:34:00.319
I remember sponsoring her, and I'd be talking about spiritual things, and she she she's like, Okay, Jennifer's crying.
00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:02.480
This seems like it's pretty deep and spiritual.
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:05.039
I left but it wasn't getting in.
00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:07.279
She wasn't having the experience.
00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:15.920
She knew it, she saw it, she heard it, but she never experienced it herself, and she ended up relapsing and drinking.
00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:22.559
And so I think a lot of that's happening in AA where they're seeing something, they're hearing something, but they're not experiencing it.
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:24.239
Well, they can do a lot on the outside.
00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:25.199
I couldn't do anything.
00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:28.719
Myself by the time I got to Alcoholics Anonymous was completely gone, shot.
00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:31.519
So I couldn't, you know, I couldn't stay out of jail sober.
00:34:31.679 --> 00:34:37.039
So, you know, for me, I had there had to be some kind of inward transformation for anything to materialize on the outside.
00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:39.280
Most of them are having things happen on the outside.
00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:44.800
You know, there's a thing in Gladier, and he looks at him and he says, the time for honoring yourself will soon come to an end.
00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:46.079
And this that's what's going on.
00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:56.079
Everybody's honoring their own selves, everybody's their own God, everybody's got their own path, which is great, and it's working for a lot of people, but that's not what that's not the intention of the book of Alcoholics Anonymous.
00:34:56.159 --> 00:34:58.239
It wasn't the intention of the guys that started it.
00:34:58.400 --> 00:35:06.079
That you can hear when you listen, if you see with God's eyes and you can see with spiritual and you can hear it, you can hear it where other people can't hear it.
00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:10.880
It's like when in the end where they talk about vision, we it says, We know only a little.
00:35:11.119 --> 00:35:12.239
God will reveal to you.
00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:13.920
It's it the guys that wrote the book.
00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:22.079
That you if you listen to how they talk and how they always coming around as far as God, God, God, we don't have the power.
00:35:22.239 --> 00:35:23.039
We don't have the power.
00:35:23.119 --> 00:35:24.079
You got to go to God.
00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:27.599
You they're always moving you as gently, mostly gently.
00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:30.559
Now they're saying you pretty much you can do this.
00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:32.320
You know, even Hayward, what is it?
00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:35.920
Hayward, uh the seven uh drop the rock, that whole thing with drop the rock.
00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:39.360
It's a six and seven step thing, and it's all about you doing six and seven.
00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:40.719
Yeah, you're doing six and seven.
00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:42.400
Six and seven is about surrender.
00:35:42.480 --> 00:35:44.719
It's about you can't do six and seven.
00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:45.280
You can't.
00:35:45.360 --> 00:35:47.440
The Dow that can be explained, it's not the Dow.
00:35:47.679 --> 00:35:50.079
The steps that can be done without God are just not the steps.
00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:52.000
So it's a chicken without chicken soup.
00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:52.960
You can't have to do that.
00:35:53.199 --> 00:35:56.159
But then even to go back to Katie, you had the same experience.
00:35:56.239 --> 00:35:57.119
You came in young.
00:35:57.440 --> 00:36:01.199
Everybody told you what a miracle you were, but you didn't experience as a miracle.
00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:02.480
I came in young.
00:36:02.639 --> 00:36:11.840
I guess, you know, the overconfidence of youth, I still had a couple tricks in my back pocket, and I got what I thought were the ABCs, the apartment boyfriend and car.
00:36:12.159 --> 00:36:19.760
You know, I was doing things on the outside, but what was wrong with me internally then then rose up and burned it all to the ground.
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:21.760
I didn't have the essential psychic change.
00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:24.400
I didn't have a guy, I didn't have that rearrangement.
00:36:24.559 --> 00:36:30.320
And so even though I got the stuff on the outside, what was wrong with me on the inside burned it all to the ground.
00:36:30.719 --> 00:36:33.039
You lost, like you say, you lost everything but your ego.
00:36:33.280 --> 00:36:33.679
Exactly.
00:36:33.840 --> 00:36:37.039
I was like Monty, Monty, Monty Python and the holy grail.
00:36:37.199 --> 00:36:40.079
The arms are cut off, the legs are just like I'm not dead yet.
00:36:40.159 --> 00:36:40.559
That's me.
00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:46.559
My kids in foster care, I'm on the street smoking, crack, lost everything, but I still think I knew something.
00:36:47.039 --> 00:36:53.039
I mean, the insanity, the alcoholic, it says we're in full flight from reality, outright mental defectives.
00:36:53.440 --> 00:36:55.599
That is the that is the problem.
00:36:55.920 --> 00:36:56.480
Right.
00:36:56.719 --> 00:37:00.480
Yeah, and the solution's got it and it's over and over and over and over.
00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:14.400
I think when you drill down on what they're saying there, a lot of and and when you look at powerlessness and unmanageability to the degree of that you are, I mean, I would say that the step one is you're crazy and you're screwed.
00:37:14.559 --> 00:37:23.679
Okay, because step two says we we step two gets into uh what is it, uh uh came to believe that power grant ourselves could restore us to sanity.
00:37:23.840 --> 00:37:27.440
Well, so we've made the assumption of nuts we've that we're crazy in step one.
00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:28.559
So what is crazy?
00:37:28.639 --> 00:37:29.440
What is that?
00:37:29.599 --> 00:37:32.800
Well, it it it is me relying on me.
00:37:33.039 --> 00:37:40.960
Power that I'm the power that I can do, that I'm the one who has to make the which is completely the antithesis of the program.
00:37:41.119 --> 00:37:45.360
The program is I can't, and he can, that I gotta move towards that.
00:37:45.599 --> 00:37:49.760
There's no way that I'm gonna be able to put my life together without God's help.
00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:54.079
And that's why the gratitude's different for somebody who's had the transformation than somebody who has.
00:37:54.159 --> 00:37:56.960
It's a little bit, it's almost like they suck all the fun out of things.
00:37:57.039 --> 00:38:00.079
It's like I thought God was gonna be the worst thing that ever happened to me.
00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:01.280
I don't know about anybody else.
00:38:01.440 --> 00:38:04.079
Like coming to God was gonna be the least fun.
00:38:04.239 --> 00:38:06.320
That's the juice that I experience.
00:38:06.480 --> 00:38:09.440
That's the excitement that I feel in my life, is the God factor.
00:38:09.599 --> 00:38:11.440
You take the God factor out of there, man.
00:38:11.599 --> 00:38:14.639
I'm not that you put people are not that exciting, right?
00:38:14.719 --> 00:38:15.760
They're not that fun.
00:38:15.920 --> 00:38:17.519
Meetings are kind of boring, you know.
00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:24.559
Think everything's a little bit kind of a kind of uh uh, you know, it's just it's not, it's not, there's not the excitement, there's not the gratitude.
00:38:24.639 --> 00:38:27.039
There's not you can't manufacture this.
00:38:27.440 --> 00:38:28.400
That you can't manufacture.
00:38:28.719 --> 00:38:34.559
Well, it says we had to stop the manufacturing of our own, the deliberate manufacturing of our own misery.
00:38:34.719 --> 00:38:37.119
So we're we're the ones that are making this shit up, right?
00:38:37.199 --> 00:38:41.599
But how do how do I and then in that same place it says, it says God's will.
00:38:41.760 --> 00:38:46.719
We had we believe that God's will was for us to be happy, joyous, and free.
00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:48.400
And that is a state of consciousness.
00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:58.400
They're always talking about state of consciousness, not talking about what you got, how you got this, what we used to be like, what happened, the spiritual experience, and what we are like now.
00:38:58.639 --> 00:39:02.800
State of consciousness, what my consciousness was then, what it what happened, and what it's like now.
00:39:03.199 --> 00:39:08.079
That state of consciousness, that's what brings about through the 12 steps of alcoholic synonymous.
00:39:08.239 --> 00:39:11.679
We're gonna get into step one, step two, step three.
00:39:11.840 --> 00:39:14.480
Um, a lot of people, it's weird, they're holding back.
00:39:14.639 --> 00:39:22.800
It's like by the time you're at step three, you're you should be way further along than what a lot of people that are I hear in a meeting of alcoholic synonymous.
00:39:22.960 --> 00:39:25.760
It's almost like God pops out of your ass at like 12 or something.
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:28.400
Like everything happens, then all of a sudden something happens.
00:39:28.559 --> 00:39:35.360
Or four through nine, they say that in a lot of ways, but the truth of the matter is it happens from jump street, it happens on step one.
00:39:35.599 --> 00:39:43.280
You immediately start moving into step two, three, and and and and you, you, the state of consciousness on page 63 that they talk about.
00:39:43.440 --> 00:39:56.559
So we're gonna get into each step, how it's gonna how that's gonna move into your life, what is what is being taught, and what is actually what I believe is true, and what's been the same for me, it's been the same way for 30 years, just so you know.
00:39:57.199 --> 00:39:58.639
The book's read the same for me.
00:39:58.880 --> 00:40:00.000
This has been the same way.
00:40:00.159 --> 00:40:04.480
It's always said that I'm the problem and God's the solution, over and over and over in a million different ways.
00:40:04.719 --> 00:40:17.440
So next week um we're gonna get into where we're gonna try to move from the physical world, we're gonna try to make this walk from the physical world into the spiritual world, one step at a time.
00:40:17.599 --> 00:40:23.199
And how the each one of these steps is gonna bring you to a kind of a like a little uh spiritual experience.
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:27.760
It should be like a little bit of a lift each time you really digest that step.
00:40:27.920 --> 00:40:34.000
But a lot of people are on step uh half of one and they're carrying the message, so they're missing a lot of steps.
00:40:34.079 --> 00:40:36.800
And if you don't believe in God, you can't miss a lot of steps.
00:40:36.960 --> 00:40:39.039
So uh we're gonna get into that next week.
00:40:39.199 --> 00:40:42.559
Uh so to next week, what are we doing here next week?
00:40:42.880 --> 00:40:45.519
Moving from the physical world into the spiritual world.
00:40:45.840 --> 00:40:48.159
Physical world to spiritual, one step at a time.
00:40:48.320 --> 00:40:52.239
Uh, what do we uh like, share, subscribe?
00:40:53.199 --> 00:40:54.960
Like, share, subscribe.
00:40:55.199 --> 00:40:56.559
Let's go on this journey together.
00:40:57.119 --> 00:41:04.639
We're gonna get into, like I said, what's being said and what is is reality and what's in that book is completely different than what's in a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous.
00:41:04.719 --> 00:41:06.239
Just so you know, completely different.
00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:07.679
So you can check the bullshit.
00:41:07.760 --> 00:41:10.639
You can go home, read your book, and start going, oh yeah, yeah.
00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:12.639
They're not telling the truth in there.
00:41:12.800 --> 00:41:13.519
Anyway.