One of the Keys to opening the door to 12 Step Programs.. What is a Higher Power.?
So much about the God thing....so here is my take on it ...
Your higher power is your higher power. Any power greater than yourself................
.Yesterday, I attended an EA meeting, Emotions Anonymous..powerless over our emotions...at that meeting the following idea is presented in a reading...(not exact words)
Your higher power can be anything greater than yourself: the goodness in people, peace, faith, God, strength of the group, kindness, love, or any entity a member chooses as a power greater than themselves......
Let us get this clear....in 12 step programs... there is no higher power police ....no one defines a higher power for you..You define a power greater than you....Here is how it really works for me...................
I am walking thru the foodstore.....for some reason I have worked my way over to the liquor- beer department...So I start to think, gee that might be nice to have a cool beer, or a nice shot of chocolate liquor....(I like chocolate) ..so I think about what kind of advice the AA meeting might give at that point..
...This is what I get in my head.
....................well........that is not a good idea..why don't you go over and buy something you need..for your refridgerator...like some bread or milk...that idea really doesn't do you well.....you know what will probably happen......
...so I listen to that advice....and...that is it..Higher Power has talked to me, and given advice...which..I can listen to or not listen to....
That is it..so I listen.. It ain't rocket science.........If it was rocket science..., I wouldn't understand it..
..................................Stuart G
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Last edited Thu Mar 21, 2013, 04:59 AM - Edit history (3)
And all of the alternative concepts of higher power, when plugged into some of the steps, particularly step 3 or 7 or 11, don't make any sense to me. Or, for me, they just seem to lack the power I need when dealing with a hard situation, like alcoholism.
(On edit, I got rid of the original first paragraph about using one's thinking as one's higher power as being dangerous. On reflection, when one hears good advice it only makes sense to at least think about it and consider it).
It seems there are regional differences in A.A. and Al-Anon. Just like the "no higher power police" thing, but we've discussed that one before. http://www.democraticunderground.com/1144174#post4
Some atheists I know, myself included, have been advised to "lie" and "fake it until you make it" -- very strange advice in a program based on rigorous honesty. I've certainly been told, and I know other atheists have, that having the group as a higher power was a good start, but only a start, and not enough to stay sober long-term.
I haven't been to a meeting in a long long time (although I keep putting the darn things on my calendar) because, well, about 80% of what I hear is stuff about a deity helping alcoholics and family members of alcoholics find a parking spot or getting into the left turn lane in time, or giving oomph to their car batteries, and I just think of people starving to death in the third world, or dying of a malnutrition-related disease, once every 3 seconds on average. I wonder why God is letting people starve and die from agonizing diseases (no morphine drips in a lot of places), while taking care of the cars of wealthy Americans and helping them drive (most of us are wealthy by the standards of about 80% of the world). Just not my idea of spirituality.
And all I hear is God this and God that and God God God, and from what they say, the vast majority are using that word in the context of a deity, and not some alternative concept like Group Of Drunks, Good Orderly Direction, or Gift Of Desperation. I'm sorry, but I just can't relate to it. I try hard to focus on the other 20%, but, well, I haven't been able to get enough out of the 20% to make up for the 80%.
If it was just a matter of adopting the concept of a higher power, it would be easy, I already have -- the help and wisdom of others. But when its little different than a church service for some generic non-denominational God, but a deity God nevertheless, then I feel more and more that I'm in the wrong place.
I guess why I write this is that you make it sound like all one has to do is get the higher power thing, and once one picks some higher power concept, there is no other reason to be hung up about the program / meetings. Well, I've got higher powers, but I'm still hung up and wish I wasn't, but I am.
Anyway, I hope all is well with you 
and Dawg forbid they quote "the other Big Book" when I'm around. I feed it to them. Hard. With both barrels.
My first higher power was a 6 foot tall invisible white rabbit I named BOB (Big Omnipotent Being) and that HP (and meetings and fellowship and fear and a high sugar diet) kept me sober for months.
I use "The Universe" now. and it seemed once I was willing to believe, 'The Universe' (for lack of a better term) came in to support me in concrete ways. Parking spots. Overheard conversations with answers I needed at the time. A feeling of belonging to something.
While AA is definitively written as a spiritual program, it's program of action is suitable for anyone of any persuasion. That's my humble opinion and experience, YMMV
[font color = blue]NMDemDist>>4. I don't let people off easy when they start spouting God this and that in a meeting
and Dawg forbid they quote "the other Big Book" when I'm around. I feed it to them. Hard. With both barrels. <<[/font] (emphasis added)
This only confirms my impression that there are enormous regional differences between meetings. In Minneapolis, if you objected to someone sharing about "God this and that" in a meeting, virtually everybody would be giving it to you. Hard.
After all, the Steps are full of God this and that, as is Tradition 2. Kind of hard, when the topic is Step 3, 6, 7, or 11, to avoid talking about God this and God that.
Or in groups that read "How It Works", as many do, up through the Three Pertinent Ideas (BB p. 58-60). In that 2 1/2 page reading, the word "God" appears 6 times, and reference to him (namely Him and His) appear 3 times, not counting those that appear in the same sentence as "God" or each other.
Or in Big Book meetings - the word "God" appears in the first 11 chapters 136 times. That doesn't include Him, His, He, Maker, Creator, Employer, Principal, Father, or various descriptions of Him like assigner or our roles, giver of our sex powers, provider of our needs, something other than our well-loved A.A. group, no human power, nor any other human being, accomplisher of the humanly impossible, divine, Providence, has all knowledge and power ... for that list, with all documented quotes, please see http://www.democraticunderground.com/1144174#post32
Also at that link is all the ways the Big Book pushes a clear deity version of God, and repeatedly makes clear that it's not something human. And hurls insult after insult at agnostics (kind of strange in a program that is supposedly non-religious, to bash non-believers in deities and the supernatural, don't you think?).
[font color = blue]NMDemDist>>'The Universe' (for lack of a better term) came in to support me in concrete ways. Parking spots. Overheard conversations with answers I needed at the time. A feeling of belonging to something. <<[/font]
I'm sure glad it works for you. I've long and closely considered Universe, and Nature (both are suggested as a possible "God" in "The Helpful Concepts of the EA Program"
. But neither in my mind have intelligence or awareness of me or a kindly (or unkindly) disposition to me, or anyone else, or anything that's going to give oomph to a dead car battery. If they did, that would be another form of deity and supernaturalism (frankly religion), which I don't believe in. I also can't help but think of hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes (they are indeed higher powers, but definitely not anything that will aid my recovery. I'm definitely not going to turn my will and life over to a tornado if I can help it). But if "the universe" works for you for 21 years, by all means stick with it!
[font color = blue]NMDemDist>>While AA is definitively written as a spiritual program, it's program of action is suitable for anyone of any persuasion. <<[/font]
I don't have any problem with "spiritual". I am very spiritual. It's that it is also religious that bothers me more and more. (And all 4 federal appeals courts and both state supreme courts that have heard these cases agree). As a church-state separatist activist, I have less and less tolerance for religious proselytization in a program that claims to be not religious. All that is in http://www.democraticunderground.com/1144174#post32 as well as having to listen to all those awful shares about how God (and they clearly are referring to a deity version, not anything human, often they are explicit about that) is helping them with car batteries, and burning down troublesome rental properties (resulting in a great insurance settlement).
Particularly all the ways this deity "God" is helping their cars and their driving -- I keep thinking of when I lived in Lagos, Nigeria, and I didn't see any wheel chairs, but rather people with very long distended less-than-useless legs (polio?) got around by "walking" on blocks strapped to their forearms. Why was some deity God helping wealthy American alcoholics with their cars while these poor people with their forearm blocks are begging and dying in the dirty sidewalks and streets? Sounds like a Republican version of God to me. (The Big Book makes clear there is One God, and an all-powerful God with "Infinite Power and Love" -- again see post #32)
Given that 74% of newcomers leave A.A. within a year ( http://www.democraticunderground.com/1144293#post27 ), and given all the A.A. haters out there (which I'm not, but try Googling "AA Sucks" or "AA Cult" or "13th stepping" or "without aa" , I have big doubts that it is suitable for everyone. Besides all the deception about its religiosity, is the experience in many (not all) groups where what was a soft-pedal lovefest approach in the beginning turns into something akin to boot camp a few weeks later as the sponsor and the group apply more and more pressure.
Oh, I got a lot out of it in the early months and years of sobriety -- something sober to do, usually interesting, accountability to the group, group support (as long as I kept my mouth shut about certain issues) -- and similarly other 12-step groups. And a lot of cognitive tools (e.g. some of the slogans and sayings). I'd strongly urge any atheist and non-atheists to try it out -- try several different groups before making a decision. But unfortunately, I've been getting less and less out of it as the years go on. Too much reading of "Church and State", the magazine of the Americans United For Separation of Church and State (http://www.au.org).
No HP,
but there is recovery....
......in these rooms..for all.....me too......
I am a prescription drug user and abuser...have been especially to certain antianxiety meds..for many many years...
..used more,, and more...and more.........
Originally, AA wouldn't let in the atheists...so they letem in...(temporary atheists then...) ..now all.......
..Then they had to decide on the people who gave birth to the .."children".....so they letem in
..Then there were those of a different color............................so they letem in
..Then there were those of a different sexual persuasion .........so they letem in
..Then there those that were "young" not really gone yet..........so they letem in
..Last...there were the so called duely and doubly addicted ..............there was a big argument about those.....
........back and forth.......some were only "drug addicts"............they do not belong either......................
........back and forth..................arguments, "you do not belong"...............over and over......................
....................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................so they letem in too..
............................helped to save my sick ass........for that I am grateful ..my sick ass is ok too........
.....
