All Addictions
12-Step Study
Workshop
12-Step Study
Workshop
5/5/2016 0 Comments Notes For May 5 and 12, 2016(week 227 & 228) 5 and 12 May 2016 12 Step Study Workshop Big Book All Addictions (to cover the two weeks Stephanie is away). Please note ‘Week 227 & 228’ are the correct week numbers. Alas the numbering been out by 100 since the start of 2016 (apologies to the group – Angela). If you would like to join the members list and be sent the soul work or if you would like a buddy, contact: [email protected] 8am EST Tuesdays workshop on ’Pass It On’ Bill W’s biography callback: 641 715 3900 pin 298913# Donations are urgently needed towards the cost of the website. Please send to: Stephanie Whiting P O Box 531 North Pembroke MA 02358 Big Book Pages 569-570 The Spiritual Experience callback: 641 715 3900 pin no. 95666# [Stephanie’s recording covers the two weeks while she in Rome]. Q1. If you do feel like you have had spiritual experience(s) I would like you to write them down. Look up: spiritual, experience, awakening. Q2a) Do you think the term ‘spiritual experience’ is different than ‘a spiritual awakening’? b) If so write on why you think they are different and give an example. c) If you do not think they are different, please give your definitions of spiritual experience and spiritual awakening. …upon careful reading shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms. Q3a) Would you say you have had a personality change? b) Is that personality change sufficient to bring about sobriety from your addiction? c) Is that personality change sufficient to bring about recovery: physical sobriety, emotional sobriety and spiritual connection with a God that you know? look up: manifested, forms. [If you don’t look up these words, these questions are not gong to mean much to you as these are not words e.g. ‘manifested’ you normally use]. Manifested itself among us in many different forms. Q4a) Have you had a personalty change sufficient to bring about recovery from your addiction that has manifested itself in many different ways? b) Are you different? c) Does God and Quiet Time mean that much to you? d) Do you even care whether you have a personality change sufficient enough to bring about recovery from alcoholism as it manifests itself in many different forms? e) Or are you rigidly expecting I have got to have a white light experience like Bill Wilson or I have got to hear God like Stephanie did? Yet it is true that our first printing gave many readers the impression that these personality changes or religious experiences, must be in the nature of sudden and spectacular upheavals. Happily for everyone this conclusion is erroneous. Q5. Did you have that impression when you read this or when you read the Big Book that you had to have a huge upheaval to have a personality change or to call it a religious experience? Look up: erroneous. In the first few chapters a number of sudden revolutionary changes are described. Q6a) Can you remember in the first few chapters, people having sudden revolutionary changes? b) If you say no, go back and look them up. c|) If you say yes, write them down. Though it was not our intention to create such an impression, many alcoholics have nevertheless concluded that in order to recover they must acquire an immediate and overwhelming “God-consciousness” followed at once by a vast change in feeling and outlook. Q6a) Are you in a God-conscious state now? b) If you are, describe any type of change in your feelings and outlook. c) Would you label this a vast change? Among our rapidly growing membership of thousands of alcoholics such transformations, though frequent, are by no means the rule. Q7a) Have you seen transformations like that, a personality change sufficient to bring about recovery? b) Have you seen feelings and outlook on life change in people? c) Have you seen many people with a God consciousness? d) Do you look for them? Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James calls the “educational variety” because they develop slowly over a period of time. Q8a) What does your definition of educational variety of ‘a spiritual experience or a spiritual awakening’ mean? b) Is this what you have had? Quite often friends of the newcomer are aware of the difference long before he is himself. Q9. Have you had a friend say to you, you are not the same person any more? To own this for yourself, change the pronoun ‘he’ to ‘we’: He/We finally realizes that he/we has undergone… He/We finally realizes that he/we has undergone a profound alteration in his/our reaction to life; that such a change could hardly have been brought about by himself alone. What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self discipline. With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner recourse which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves. look up: transformations, profound, alteration Q10. Ask yourself have you undergone a profound alteration to your reaction to life?S End of Part One: Stephanie says: “I have given you a ton of questions. You don’t have to do them all in one week. I do ask you to do some so when you come to the live meeting the second week (May 12) you will have done some questions and be able to look at this differently.” PART TWO “…that such a could hardly have been brought about by ourselves alone. What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self discipline. With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resourced which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power great than themselves. Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of a spiritual experience. Our more religious members call it “God-consciousness.” Q11a) Do you think that awareness of the Power is the essence of a spiritual experience or do you know it? b) Do you know it because of your own experience or because you have seen other people? look up: essence, emphatically. Put a box around ‘any’ in first sentence below. Most emphatically we wish to say that any alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light of our experience can recover, provided he does not close his mind to all spiritual concepts. He can only be defeated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent denial. Promise promise promise. In Stephanie’s opinion: the biggest promise in the Big Book: Most emphatically we wish to say that any alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light of our experience can recover. Looking for God, seeking God you can recover. You can. Provided you/we do not close our mind to all spiritual concepts. Q12a) Are you honestly facing your problems squarely? b) Are you willing to look at the recovered people in your group, in our Big Book, in your life? c) Are you willing to look at our experience strength and hope and know that you can recover if you will at least try our suggestions? d) Are you willing to not close your mind to all spiritual concepts? He/You can only be defeated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent denial. Look up: intolerance, belligerent. Q13a) Do you see an attitude of intolerance in any area of your life? b) Do you see an attitude of belligerency? Q14. Are you living in 100% honesty and if not what areas of denial do you still have where you are not 100% honest? We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Q15. Do you believe that? look up: willingness, honesty, open mindedness, essential, indispensable Willingness, honesty, and open mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable. Q16a) Do you believe that willingness, honesty and open mindedness are the essentials of recovery? b) Do you feel one is more important than the other. If so, which one? c) Are you lacking any willingness or open mindedness in any area? d) Do you agree they are indispensable or do you think it is just William James’ and Bill Wilson’s opinion? “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” Herbert Spencer. Q17. Google Herbert Spencer. Find out who he is. Look up: ignorance, contempt, prior, investigation, principle, bar, There is a principle which is a bar against all information… Q18. Do you believe that? Q19. Having done this now for two weeks, write on what this quote means to you and your spiritual life? I will be with you on May 19th. God bless you all. I hope this has been really helpful to you because it has been to me. God bless. Goodbye.
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Our live phone meetings are every Tuesday at 8:00 AM EST. The phone number for these live meetings is (712) 775-7031, and the meeting ID number is 714744988#.
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P O Box 531 North Pembroke MA 02358 |
You can listen to our recorded meetings at (641) 715-3900, pin 95666# for our Tuesday Big Book Step Study workshop. You can also hear our Thursday Big Book Study recordings at (641) 715-3900, pin 298913#. These meetings can be accessed at any time.
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