The Twelve Step Meditation Dilemma

Are you are a recovered alcoholic? Are you are a devoted practitioner of the spiritually inspired Twelve Step design for living? Me too. Then perhaps you have encountered the same dilemma faced by millions of others like you and me, who are as ardent as we are about our kind of life.

Simply stated: As recovered alcoholics, our program – as detailed in “Step Eleven” of the original text of “Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism” -- entreats us to meditate. Then, as if some by some purposeful laxity on the part of the co-authors, the same book does not tell us how to do it.

Being the highest ranked "Recovered Alcoholic" on Google's earth has had some practical advantages. It has blessed me with exposure to so many other alkies all over the world. Having spoken with so many others, literally on every continent except for Antarctica, it has become clear that there is a wide consensuses of agreement among us recovered types -- that this is quite a daunting dilemma. Like me these men and women have been perplexed by this ironic glitch of omission and been left with no choice but to search outside of the Twelve Step fellowship in hopes of finding a suitable meditation technique – one that does not conflict with the Twelve Step Principles.

The vast majority of what is readily available stems from religious organization and self-help, PBS, guru-types, virtually all of which bundle their special flavor of spiritual principles into their 'meditation-bait’. Many of these principles are so seriously divergent to the base Principles of the Twelve Step proposals that it is not possible to reconcile the two sets without creating grave conflicts of conscience and generating a spiritual crisis.

Without mentioning specific techniques or religions there is a simple test. Just ask this question of any meditation movement that has caught your interest, “Does the background ‘story’ to this practice support the idea that we human beings are not God – or does it propose that we accept a new idea -- that in some mysteriously cosmic way, we ARE God?”

This is not to disparage anyone's decision to practice any particular belief. Hell, go become a fraakin' cannibal if that's what floats your boat. But please don't come back from your pilgrimage to Borneo sporting a Big Book under your arm and your sponsor's earlobe dangling from your mouth. What I do wish to disabuse you of are that some ideas can b combined successfully -- two or several - each containing conflicting spiritual philosophies that are so diametrically opposed to each other that they cannot coexist and in fact, cancel each other out. It can't be pulled off. You will self destruct trying. Many have.

All pantheistic spiritual movements and religions, such as those we Twelve Steppers typically encounter in our shopping quest for improving conscious contact with God, that provide their believers with something they call ‘meditation”, tend to propose the latter. They convey the idea that we have not separated from God – that our pains and our troubles a not due to such severance from Him -- but that instead our troubles stem from our failure to realize that we are Him.

In this way, although very appealing to the ego,Pantheism proposes the opposite of the Twelve Step principles. The Step principles are based on the idea that God dwells inside us – we only have to find Him there – NOT that we ARE Him. (The landlord or owner of the house isn’t himself the house. ) The two ideas are not reconcilable.

This is no harmless semantic point. It is a major clash of opposing spiritual ideas that comes with dire consequences as it flies hard into the faces of us unsuspecting and frankly, oftentimes gullible seekers.

The resulting friction that comes with attempting to square what is inherently irreconcilable results in a spiritual backsliding, oftentimes a secret abandonment of Principles (sometimes not so secret) and with that the return of un-manageability. There is a resurgence of absurd behaviors and attitudes that are familiar to most alcoholics and families of alcoholics. They know them as a sort of "Page 52 Syndrome" and the return of RID. (If you are not a Big Book Thumper, then just say, “I feel like shit”) Depression and anxiety driven multiple fourth steps are common among folks who find themselves accepting such anti-Judeo-Christian religious teachings. AA's 12 steps is a Judeo/Christian based set of spiritual principles - like it or not. That is just the way it developed.

The likelihood of relapse into drinking becomes a horrifying reality. We may be sober and living a spiritual life, but our growth flat-lines and problems that are astonishingly difficult to solve begin to reemerge.

We slowly begin to re-root ourselves into the stream-of-life with reconstituted sets of selfish, self-centered behaviors, even at times suppressing our irritability so as to retain our AA "spiritual guy" facade. This will eventually fail as we begin to feel as miserable as we ever had– perhaps even worse than we had felt before we had stopped drinking.

This is not a minor problem.

I implore you: Seek to adopt an effective Twelve Step “friendly” meditation. I have discovered a technique unlike any you have ever encountered that will not clash with the fundamental spiritual Principles laid into the foundation of your Twelve Step recovery. I make it available through internet download, stream or CD to anyone. There is no charge and no obligation. Through it you can access a very special spiritual skill, unlike any you have ever seen before, that will enliven your experience while still practicing the Principles you so cherish; thereby resolving your Step Eleven dilemma.

Perhaps you have already adopted one of these meditations, the kind of which I write. If it works as well as what I propose, no problem. Keep up the good work (please stop calling it 'Twelve Step' though') and I hope you have a wonderful life, you undoubtedly will.

But is that the case? Are you getting upset a little too easily? Are you still reliant upon nicotine use or concerned about health issues like self induced diabetes or arthritis?

Does it make sense to you that someone on a spiritual path as long as you should still be plagued with failed or failing romantic and marital relationships? Drug addictions like nicotine and caffeine? Has your original "sex ideals" exercise fallen by the wayside? Are you still blaming ‘circumstances’ for such troubles and writing other difficulties off as “life on life’s terms”? Or perhaps even blaming God. The “Sometimes he says no” excuse for unanswered prayers is probably one of your favorites then.

Do secret angers gestate inside and find yourself suppressing a million little irritations in the morning while you put on your happy FOB face for the night? Still have a porn problem gentlemen? Does the fact that you seem to need to masturbate like you are still seventeen seem a little odd to you at your age – or have you convinced yourself that your ‘horniness’ represents some virtuous sign of virility?

Ladies, are you still impatient with your kids? How about you womanizing, control freak, "Thirteenth stepping" men out there, given therapeutic back massages to vulnerable newcomers with one hand, turning the pages of your Big Book with the other? (It's due to your God-given "instincts", right?)

I don’t mean to be abrasive or vulgar. I am merely trying to make a point. I also realize how sharp that point is. With the exception of Thirteenth Stepping there is nothing in this paragraph with which I have zero experience or exposure. If any of these issues plague you or are of concern, then just how effective are the principles and meditations you have experimenting with?

Maybe after enough time on the spiritual path there come a time when these flaws ought to be leaving. No?

Now, just so there is no misunderstanding I need to come a little clean here. This article is intended to convince you to try this mediation and I make it available for free.

(There will be a free, no catch, link to a download on this site soon - Early 2011)

I am also a professional writer by trade and I can reach others through my work. For pay. Accordingly, I have written book on this subject. And to those readers of my published works I also make it available free.

To make the case as firmly as possible, I have written a book that takes a logical and practical course of presentation. It clearly illustrates the sequence of events in the life of every single alcoholic that sets the stage for the mental, physical and spiritual dysfunction and the subsequent progression of the terminal malady we call chronic alcoholism. It introduces a revolutionary, ‘cradle to grave’ delineation of events that virtually every real alcoholic reader will instantly recognize as the story of his own life.

It removes much of the mystery behind their own recovery by revealing the human/spiritual dynamics of spontaneous spiritual awakening. These are presented in clear terms that anyone can easily follow.

Once this is done, the vital need for a meditation of this kind - one which does not implant any religious philosophies so antagonistic to those in the Big Book as many alien 'meditations' do, becomes quite clear to the reader. He is compelled to try it, abandoning any other form of meditation he may be practicing or considering.

But you won’t ever have to buy that book if you have found this article, identified with me and would like to try the meditation exercise specifically for alcoholics. The book is intended for those who do not yet see the need to ardently practice Step Eleven in this fashion. Yet.

There will be more works coming too, books and articles addressing each of the other ‘problems’ that I have overcome through this meditation. These include smoking, substance abuse, major depression, anxiety, diabetes, colitis, diverticulitis and clinically diagnosed ADD. I have obtained files containing my comprehensive medical/mental history to document my progress and the subsequent recoveries over the last decade.

This medical history over the last ten years is right now being assembled for public access from my website to substantiate everything I have ever said or written about the physical manifestations that this kind of meditation has on the body and mind. I can’t tell you how great it is to have the doctors scratch their heads in wonderment as they UN-prescribed Lipitor, Adderal, Tricor, and antidepressants like Effexor, Wellbutrin and Lexipro.

I give regular public talks on alcoholism and recovery and have conducted Twelve Step workshops at recovery conferences in major cities like Boston and, New York - and abroad (Denmark) - as well as at Dartmouth College (UMASS). I am comfortable presenting the materials and subjects I write about in a public forum and plan to utilize this affinity in promoting my work, So if you ever see me out there, (Hopefully I will be cheerfully and gratefully signing books at Barnes & Noble’s in your city. Uuh! From my keyboard to God's ears! ) please stop by to say hello.

Peace & Love

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

http://recoveredalcoholic.blogspot.com