“an intangible supposedly superior being would be a cop out for me”

You, I, all of us are surrounded by powers greater than ourselves all the time. Every time I looked in my rear view mirror, and saw those blue lights flashing, I knew that a power greater than myself was going to be tapping on my driver’s side window soon enough.

The bottle was a power greater than myself, and I got a feeling it’s a power greater than yourself as well. If you could quit on your own, you would have done so by now, and there would be no need to post your question. You are staring a power greater than yourself in the face right now.

So for the sake of argument, lets accept the fact that there are powers greater than ourselves out there. The question that faces you is can you find one that can relieve you of the obsession to drink.

You may be suffering from a disease that only a spiritual experience will conquer. As a good friend once said to me, if the word God runs you off, I ain’t worried, liquor will run you back.

If you think you can beat this game on your own, without a power greater than yourself, I wish you luck. But if you find that that just ain’t happening, may I offer you a quote I’m rather fond of…

“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.”

One more thought on this question.

It’s not the idea that there are powers greater than ourselves all around us all the time that stumped me when I first showed up as a wet drunk, it was the idea that reliance was based on blind faith. I came in as an agnostic. How can I possibly know if there is really anything out there? How can anyone? Those guys that believe in this higher power thing either learned it as a kid in Sunday school, or they are just afraid of dying. And if they just believe real hard (whistle past the graveyard) they won’t be so afraid.

You, on the other hand, have more in common with the Theist than I did. As a atheist, you have made a set of assumptions based on nothing more than faith. The idea that we are lone consciousnesses that spun up out of dust, live our lives as differentiated pools of awareness and when we die, the lights simply go out. Maybe.

I have always been a big fan of the scientific method. Don’t give me a bunch of mumbo-jumbo and except me to buy it. I want proof. Scientific proof. One scientist will concoct a formula, mix a given amount of “A” with a given amount of “B” and he always gets “C”. Take that same experiment anywhere in the world, follow the mixing instructions carefully and I’ll always get the same result, “C”. That’s the kind of proof I like.

The proposition that was put forward to me by the men in the rooms when I first showed up was the same. They told me that I couldn’t say that a simple set of spiritual principles as outlined in the program would not work on my problems if I didn’t conduct the experiment. It was suggested that I follow the mixing instructions exactly, and if I didn’t like the result at the end of the process, I could have my old stuff back, no questions asked. They used my own words to box me in.

What did I have to lose? I was blessed with a lack of good alternative ideas. Falteringly, fearfully, apprehensively I began to mix “A” & “B”.
This program (AA) does not work for a lot of people, every other program I know anything about doesn’t work for a bunch of folks. But I tell you this, what really didn’t work worth a %#@&#! was trying to fix me all by my self in secret. That my friend was a fools errand.

I made a very hard going of life near the end of my personal goat path. The old relationships with my favorite substances was to be no more. Those old happy days were over. Over any measurable length of time this stuff only gets worse, it never gets better. That bitter news sounded like a death sentence to me. But I was wrong. It was the truth, and the truth will set me free. Knowing the truth about myself is a very powerful medicine. It is the beginning of all progress.

If the idea of wearing this world, warts and all, as a loose fitting garment is at all appealing to you, try what I tried, You really have very little to lose. Maybe a few hours spent with people who laugh and have that old sparkle in their eyes, But compared to the hours that I squandered in self induced oblivion, there really is no comparison.

As always, a man will decide for himself what he will and what he will not do, but don’t let false pride, fear or contempt prior to investigation keep you from looking at this for what it is. This power greater than ourselves wants you to be happy and free, but this power isn’t a labor saving device, action is required.

There is an old Chinese proverb that goes something like this, “Trust in God, but row away from the rocks.”

Shadowalker164