There is a Solution (Continued)
J: (p. 569, par. 4) 'Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James call. the "educational variety"... ' Most people in A. A. today have a spiritual experience of the educational variety. In the educational variety we can see that you will change as you learn, educational. As you learn and apply there will be a gradual change.
In the educational variety of spiritual experience, it says: (p. 569, par. 4) '... they develop slowly over a period of time. Quite often friends of the newcomer are aware of the difference long before he is himself .' Bill said in his early days in his talk with Dr. Tiebout that about ten percent of the first one hundred people had sudden spiritual experiences. The rest of them had a gradual change. It took place over a period of time.
I think even yet today--and I work with alcoholics every day, have been for the last fifteen years. I work with about three hundred people a year, and I know about five people that have had sudden spiritual experiences. It is something to see. But it's very, very rare. I've seen many, many people recover, through the educational variety. They
start and by working the program, they gradually--you can see personality changes that even they can't see.
I can see them doing better, but they don't think they're doing
better. As they work the program, they change gradually over a period of time. When he finally realizes... the person who is going through the educational variety: (p. 569, par. 4) 'He finally realizes that he has undergone a profound alteration in his reaction to life that such a change could hardly have been brought about by himself alone.'
In the educational variety, we've worked the program, we've worked the steps, and we do what we're told. Finally we realize that something has happened in our life. That is a spiritual awakening. The sudden kind is a spiritual experience. In the educational variety, we become aware of change--is a spiritual awakening. Both are just as effective. Both will occur-either one will occur as the results of the Steps. And both will produce personality change sufficient to recover from alcoholism. (p. 569, par. 4) 'With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped... '
In the spiritual awakening: (p. 569, par. 4 p. 570, par. 1-2) 'they have tapped an unsuspected (top of p. 570) inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves . 'Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience. '
When we have awareness that we have changed, it's the same thing that happens in a spiritual experience. (p. 570, par. 2-4) 'Our more religious members call it "God-consciousness."
'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.
'We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Willingness, honesty and open mindedness are the essentials of recovery But these are indispensable. ' It doesn't make any difference, whether it's a spiritual experience, or a spiritual awakening that will take (place) slowly over a period of months. One is sudden, one is along, they both produce the same thing, a personality change sufficient to recover from alcoholism. And either--every time anybody has ever worked the steps, the Twelve Steps, he is
guaranteed--this is what the Twelve Steps guarantee, the only thing the Twelve Steps produce is a spiritual awakening or a spiritual experience. Either one will (be produced) as a result of these Steps.
C: They added this other statement some time latter, which said: (p. 570, par. 5) '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.'
You see, not understanding what they meant by spiritual experience, I held this term in absolute contempt, based upon what I had seen happen years ago when I was a small child. When we hold it in contempt, then nothing's going to take place. But now that they've explained to me their meaning of the word spiritual experience, then I have an entirely different attitude toward it. This isn't such a bad deal at all.
