Counter AA 12-Step Program
by Gary DeVaney
Erban: Is Alcoholics Anonymous just another denomination of the Christian
sect? They believe in a higher power / God.
Let's look at the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Step program:
1. We admit that we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become
unmanageable.
Gary: Let's presume that our God is no more than our Ego. Our Ego would
quit alcohol if our thoughts directed it to and our feelings truly wanted to. Repetitive thoughts and directed feelings
may be necessary to re-program our Ego.
2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore
us to sanity.
G: Only our Ego can do that. God can demand anything but your ego
must obey. The ego's choices are emotional: do wants / don't wants. We become addicted not to alcohol but to a feeling
that craves alcohol. Other thoughts must organize other feelings to over-ride the feeling we are addicted to. When
the feeling we are addicted to weakens, through re-thinking and re-programming, the addiction disappears.
3. We make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of
God, as we understand Him.
G: No. Just order your Ego to make the necessary changes. Your
Ego is your autopilot commander of your feelings. Only re-programmed thoughts can change your Ego, which in turn,
changes your programmed feelings. If you truly want to change, your Ego will change. Your Ego will eventually
conform to what you truly decide.
4. Make a search and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
G: Just order your Ego to re-program to what you truly want. Your Ego
will then change to want what you truly want.
5. Admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature
of our wrongs.
G: No. Not necessary. Ego, like God, operates as if it can't be wrong. Tell
your Ego that it was wrong and correct it. Your Ego is your autopilot boss of what you decide, program or order it to be.
6. We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
G: The right decision is becoming one with your Ego. Only your Ego,
no assumed authority called God, will succeed in changing your character. Your Ego filter always picks and chooses what
assumed God authority it will obey or disobey. Outside of renewed thinking, your programmed Ego always has the final
say. Without your EGO, GOD cannot esist to you.
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
G: Sure. Treat yourself well and with respect. Your committed decision becomes
the boss. Your Ego will obey you if it is sincerely ordered to.
8. Make a list of all persons we have harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
G: Better yet - command your Ego not to harm anyone else - especially yourself.
Acknowledge and admit your mistakes to yourself. Your Ego does what your specific thoughts decide on.
9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
G: If you owe someone - make it your Ego's idea to pay them off. You
can't be angry if it is your idea.
10. Continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly
admit it.
G: Infantile ego, like a cat, normally can not be wrong and
it feels no guilt. It blames everything but itself. Be proud that your Ego is to become the mature exception. Then, correct
it.
11. We seek, through prayer and meditation, to improve our conscious contact
with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
G: Understand, accept and talk directly to your Ego. It and only it operates
as your God.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried
to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
G: Thought is spiritual. Think, communicate and direct your Ego and
it will take care of you.
( http://WWW.AA-Louisiana.org/steps.htm )
Those who attend the twelve-step program are expected to renounce any personal
responsibility for, or control over, their problem.
G: Erban, that's their phony program. Instead, if one should establish and
maintain self-responsibility, his or her Ego will shape up. God and Ego are synonymous.
This blatant renunciation of the concept of free-will is also a characteristic
of every single other cult I can think of - the individual counts for nothing.
G: Without your Ego, nothing is real, substantial or can relate to you.
Every sense you experience goes through your Ego-filter. Your Ego either accepts a god, or any other assumed authority, or
it rejects it. Your Ego is all you've got. Acknowledge your Ego and accept it. Correct your Ego and with kindness
maintain it. Intelligence is categorical. Your Ego is your closest and best friend, or if not corrected, your
ego becomes your worst enemy. And, outside your Ego, there is no God in reality.
The Bible promotes wine and strong drink!
