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A Skeptic's Guide to the 12 Steps
How many of us have felt like Phillip Z? He has a staunch belief in the Twelve Steps, yet struggles with the concept of a Higher Power. In A Skeptic's Guide to the 12 Steps, the author investigates each of the Twelve Steps to gain a deeper understanding of a higher power. He examines what may seem like "unsettling" concepts to us including surrendering one's will and life to God, and he encourages us to understand the spiritual journey of recovery despite our skepticism.
252 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 24, 2008
This book provides a great service. A lot of people have had negative experiences with organized religion, or just find its precepts impossible to accept, and find that a barrier blocking their ability to recover from addictive problems through the 12-Step programs. The author was in that position, but found himself so desperate he felt he had no choice but to try to overcome the obstacle.
This book is the narrative of his experience. He found that he was able to reconcile his disbelief with a form of spirituality that enabled him to recover, without compromising his intellectual or spiritual integrity. I have given this book to many people who felt stymied by the same problem.
This book is the narrative of his experience. He found that he was able to reconcile his disbelief with a form of spirituality that enabled him to recover, without compromising his intellectual or spiritual integrity. I have given this book to many people who felt stymied by the same problem.
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May 7, 2026R E V I E W
Pragmatic understanding of Step One. He gets to "causes and conditions" rather than symptoms. Nice approach to Step Two: start with understanding of insanity then look for our inner power. More science but not an uncommon conclusion: insanity - alcohol as life solution, and Appendix II as understanding of higher power.
N O T E S
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE "ADMITTING POWERLESSNESS"
Starts with his OA "lead." His eating behavior. His discomfort at his first meeting, resistant to the God talk. Distrustful of 7th Tradition, wary of something-for-nothing practice. Still, he identified with the speaker's story. A sense of hope: people with a shared problem no longer living with shame and defeat. Connection. Surrendered: "I could no longer maintain the delusion..."
Early program: daily meetings, food sponsor, food plan. Weight loss. Got active. "Pink cloud abstinence." Slow fading. Guilt and shame return. Outreach - guided to Big Book. Resistant, for all the usual reasons. Suggestion: read slowly, substitute food for alcohol. Step Sponsor. Rather than focusing on food and eating they would work through the Twelve Steps.
Step 1, regardless of the program, is "the admission of powerlessness over the urge to use some substance or repeat some behavior that reason suggests is harmful… that a person has lost the power of choice." ** The critical question: "why is it that people who are addicted [or otherwise compulsive] cannot control their behavior with regard to the particular substance or activity? And why, with all the evidence that suggests they cannot control their use or behavior, do they continue to believe they can?"
What drives us is the desire for relief; unless the level of tension and distress is reduced (by a "profound psychic change"), we will return to the temporary source of relief we know. Abstinence is necessary, not just because of the allergy, but because we have to learn how to live without resorting to the quick fix. This is why the solution must involve spiritual work, "the essence of which is the willingness to face, rather than avoid, pain and suffering." ** A pragmatic approach to spirituality.**
Addicts are not just overdoing it. They use the substance/behavior to relieve the dis-ease or dis-comfort. They have no other tools.
** Life is unmanageable not because of drinking/eating. It is because we can not tolerate the normal frustrations and discomforts of life. It is not a physical, but a mental/psychological phenomenon. Dis-ease and dis-comfort. "The habit is formed." Not the habit of drinking or overeating but the habit of turning to a quick fix for the discomfort.
** Hitting bottom: "… the collapse of our faith in the ego alone to solve our problem… the collapse of all hope, the experience of total despair… open to the suggestion that I might find help beyond the familiar human resources of self-will and rational thought."
CHAPTER TWO "RESTORING SANITY"
Popular interpretation of the Second Step revolves around the nature of the higher power at work: "the good father who gives sobriety/abstinence to his faithful servants. Absent that belief, we are stalled at the "gate of on [our] spiritual journey." The standard way around this: choose your own understanding. "….all we really need is the open-mindedness and willingness to investigate…'
Phillip, instead, starts with the second part of the Step, being "restored to sanity." The insanity is not the obsession with eating or drinking, not "the crazy thoughts and behaviors regarding food." **It is neither the craving or the obsessing.
** The three pertinent ideas do not imply that a "superhuman force can prevent the alcoholic from taking a drink." They promise "that some power greater than human... could relieve a person of the condition called alcoholism." He proposes an understanding of alcoholism based in a perceived solution to the "sense of alienation" common to all humans, the "addictive" substance or behavior.
"Alcoholic insanity" is the deeply rooted beliefs and attitudes that obscure the possibility of healthier solutions. Restored to sanity: a transformation in perception. Examine the ways I respond to stress and adversity. Restored to sanity: a transformation in perception.
** The Twelve Steps are a suggested path that alters those attitudes, opening us up to spiritual forces rather than staying stuck in the quick fix solution. ** "Alcoholism has a physical component, but the drive to return to drinking arises out of the deep unconscious attitudes and beliefs held by the individual.
Having dealt with the idea of insanity, Phillip turns to the understanding of the power at work. One can reject any particular understanding of higher power without rejecting the Twelve Step approach. Appendix II - two varieties of spiritual experience/awakening: sudden and educational resulting in a
"profound alteration in our reaction to life."
** At the heart of working Step Two is our belief that we can develop contact with a Power within that is greater than our ego/mid. Greater does not mean separate; it means larger and more inclusive than our restricted self-identity… we begin to sense, ever so tentatively a first, the presence within us of a transformative Power."
Working the Step. Start with examination of insanity. Then form an understanding of God. Religious practices went to a reality unknown to the physical senses in ultimately incomprehensible to human thought and reason.. quote on page 45.
Caught on page 46. It’s a heart of working step two is our belief that we can develop contact with a power within that is greater than our ego/mind.. greater means larger and more inclusive, not separate. We begin to sense a presence within us of a transformative power..
My thoughts: related to step 10 in the big book..
Pragmatic understanding of Step One. He gets to "causes and conditions" rather than symptoms. Nice approach to Step Two: start with understanding of insanity then look for our inner power. More science but not an uncommon conclusion: insanity - alcohol as life solution, and Appendix II as understanding of higher power.
N O T E S
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE "ADMITTING POWERLESSNESS"
Starts with his OA "lead." His eating behavior. His discomfort at his first meeting, resistant to the God talk. Distrustful of 7th Tradition, wary of something-for-nothing practice. Still, he identified with the speaker's story. A sense of hope: people with a shared problem no longer living with shame and defeat. Connection. Surrendered: "I could no longer maintain the delusion..."
Early program: daily meetings, food sponsor, food plan. Weight loss. Got active. "Pink cloud abstinence." Slow fading. Guilt and shame return. Outreach - guided to Big Book. Resistant, for all the usual reasons. Suggestion: read slowly, substitute food for alcohol. Step Sponsor. Rather than focusing on food and eating they would work through the Twelve Steps.
Step 1, regardless of the program, is "the admission of powerlessness over the urge to use some substance or repeat some behavior that reason suggests is harmful… that a person has lost the power of choice." ** The critical question: "why is it that people who are addicted [or otherwise compulsive] cannot control their behavior with regard to the particular substance or activity? And why, with all the evidence that suggests they cannot control their use or behavior, do they continue to believe they can?"
What drives us is the desire for relief; unless the level of tension and distress is reduced (by a "profound psychic change"), we will return to the temporary source of relief we know. Abstinence is necessary, not just because of the allergy, but because we have to learn how to live without resorting to the quick fix. This is why the solution must involve spiritual work, "the essence of which is the willingness to face, rather than avoid, pain and suffering." ** A pragmatic approach to spirituality.**
Addicts are not just overdoing it. They use the substance/behavior to relieve the dis-ease or dis-comfort. They have no other tools.
** Life is unmanageable not because of drinking/eating. It is because we can not tolerate the normal frustrations and discomforts of life. It is not a physical, but a mental/psychological phenomenon. Dis-ease and dis-comfort. "The habit is formed." Not the habit of drinking or overeating but the habit of turning to a quick fix for the discomfort.
** Hitting bottom: "… the collapse of our faith in the ego alone to solve our problem… the collapse of all hope, the experience of total despair… open to the suggestion that I might find help beyond the familiar human resources of self-will and rational thought."
CHAPTER TWO "RESTORING SANITY"
Popular interpretation of the Second Step revolves around the nature of the higher power at work: "the good father who gives sobriety/abstinence to his faithful servants. Absent that belief, we are stalled at the "gate of on [our] spiritual journey." The standard way around this: choose your own understanding. "….all we really need is the open-mindedness and willingness to investigate…'
Phillip, instead, starts with the second part of the Step, being "restored to sanity." The insanity is not the obsession with eating or drinking, not "the crazy thoughts and behaviors regarding food." **It is neither the craving or the obsessing.
** The three pertinent ideas do not imply that a "superhuman force can prevent the alcoholic from taking a drink." They promise "that some power greater than human... could relieve a person of the condition called alcoholism." He proposes an understanding of alcoholism based in a perceived solution to the "sense of alienation" common to all humans, the "addictive" substance or behavior.
"Alcoholic insanity" is the deeply rooted beliefs and attitudes that obscure the possibility of healthier solutions. Restored to sanity: a transformation in perception. Examine the ways I respond to stress and adversity. Restored to sanity: a transformation in perception.
** The Twelve Steps are a suggested path that alters those attitudes, opening us up to spiritual forces rather than staying stuck in the quick fix solution. ** "Alcoholism has a physical component, but the drive to return to drinking arises out of the deep unconscious attitudes and beliefs held by the individual.
Having dealt with the idea of insanity, Phillip turns to the understanding of the power at work. One can reject any particular understanding of higher power without rejecting the Twelve Step approach. Appendix II - two varieties of spiritual experience/awakening: sudden and educational resulting in a
"profound alteration in our reaction to life."
** At the heart of working Step Two is our belief that we can develop contact with a Power within that is greater than our ego/mid. Greater does not mean separate; it means larger and more inclusive than our restricted self-identity… we begin to sense, ever so tentatively a first, the presence within us of a transformative Power."
Working the Step. Start with examination of insanity. Then form an understanding of God. Religious practices went to a reality unknown to the physical senses in ultimately incomprehensible to human thought and reason.. quote on page 45.
Caught on page 46. It’s a heart of working step two is our belief that we can develop contact with a power within that is greater than our ego/mind.. greater means larger and more inclusive, not separate. We begin to sense a presence within us of a transformative power..
My thoughts: related to step 10 in the big book..
December 10, 2016
Nothing skeptical about mindlessly accepting religious concepts.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews