Counter AA 12-Step Program
By Gary DeVaney
The Gary DeVaney Version of the Alcoholic 12-Step Program.
This is Gary DeVaney’s 1-12-step counter to AAs 1-12 step program as a result of this question. Is Alcoholics Anonymous just another denomination of the Christian sect? They believe in a higher power / God.
AA Version First. Gary DeVaney’s Version Second
1. We admit that we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
1. I now know that I am addicted to a feeling. I now admit that I have the power to identify and control my genetic feeling(s) that craves alcohol.
2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
2. I now know that my taking control of my genetic feeling(s) can control my sanity.
3. We make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understand Him.
3. I have no evidence of any supernatural God. I now have decided to take charge, identify, isolate and control my damaging, genetic feelings. I now know that as long as I won’t - I can’t.
Talk To Your Feeling-Influenced Ego
4. We make a search and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
4. I now will identify, isolate, control, re-program and shut-down my genetic feeling(s) that crave alcohol.
Reprogram Your Feelings!
5. We will admit to God, to ourselves and to another Human Being the exact nature of our wrongs.
5. I now accept my responsibility to identify and isolate my addicted, genetic feelings. Through my habit of drinking, I have reinforced those feelings and they have loyaly obeyed my will and my actions. I now will learn and change my will and to change my behavior. I will now command my errant, genetic feeling(s) to stand down.
6. We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
6. I now will consciously order my feelings to re-program my ever-evolving genes to shut-down the addicted feeling(s).
Talk To Your Feelings
7. We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
7. I now will consciously re-program and supervise my genes to shut-down and control my addicted feeling(s). As long as I will change, I can change.
8. We will make a list of all persons we have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
8. I now will no longer allow my genetic feeling(s) to damage myself or another. I now will use my “free-will” to avoid bad consequences that I do not want.
9. We will make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
9. I now will take stock of my addicted genetic feelings and I will shut-down any feelings that damage myself or others. I now control my feelings. My destructive, genetic feelings will no longer control me.
10. We will continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admit it.
10. When the destructive, (bad) feeling(s) are triggered, I now will identify, isolate, control, re-program and shut them down. Those feelings are not the boss of me. I now will control my damaging feelings. As the tail does not wag the dog, my damaging feelings will not control me.
Want “Spiritual”? Talk To Your Genes
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.
11. I now am the master of my life. My free-will, my behavior and my feelings are my responsibility. I now own them. I now have learned to be aware. I now constantly take steps to process and take control over any of my own genetic feelings that tend to damage myself or others.
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.
12. As the master of my life, I now can and will learn to control my damaging feelings. I now am now aware of the source and of the cure of my genetic feeling(s) and I now will share the “addiction” message to those who need to control their damaging, genetic feelings. If I seek assistance in this matter, it will be in the form of meditation and therapy - not prayer. To be long-term effective, I now must depend on myself - no god and no coach.
My therapy is my desire to change me to better suit me.
Learning to succeed at controlling that specific “problem child / feeling” that controls me is my break-through therapy. Controlling my problem feeling(s) is the only way that I can or will beat my unwanted addiction.
Unwanted? Yes.
Example: Sex, for me, is not an unwanted addiction. Pass the Viagra, please.
“Attitude”: Outer signs of inner feelings.
I am now aware of the source and of the cure to my genetic feeling(s) and I will share the “addiction” message to those who need to control their damaging, genetic feelings. If I seek assistance in this matter, it will be in the form of meditation and therapy, not prayer.
Let’s, again, 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 us presume that our “Personal God” is no more than our own genetically created Ego. Our Ego would quit alcohol if our own thoughts directed it to and our own feelings truly wanted to. Repetitive, directed thoughts and feelings may be necessary to command and re-program our Ego.
Your Genetically Created Ego Is Your Personal God
2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
G: Only our Ego can do that. Any “God” / Authority can demand anything but our 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. Logic and reason must order your teachable Ego to make the necessary changes. Your Ego then is your autopilot commander of your feelings. Only re-programmed thoughts can change your teachable 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 cannot be wrong. Command your Ego that it was wrong and correct it. Your Ego becomes 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, no God can exist to you.
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
G: Treat yourself well and with respect. Your committed decision becomes the boss. Your Ego will obey you if it is sincerely ordered to.
Decide / Command Your Ego
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 - especially yourself. Acknowledge and admit your mistakes to yourself. Your Ego does what your specific thoughts decide on. Do not believe. Know what you are doing and why you are doing it.
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 become angry if it is your idea.
Pay For Your Mistakes
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. Acknowledge 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.
Confidence Is Knowing What You Are Doing & Why You Are Doing It
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. Your thoughts and Feelings amount to the authoritative gods that direct your receptive Ego. If you think well thought-out thoughts, which direct your Ego, your Ego will command your feelings to perform safe and beneficial actions.
(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: If one should establish and maintain self-responsibility, his or her Ego will succeed. Your “One-God” and your “One-Ego” are synonymous. When you impose your God on others - you are imposing your Ego on them.
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 & Strong Drink?
Genesis 27:28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.
Deuteronomy 14:25-26 …then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses, and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves…
Proverbs 31:6-7 Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
Ecclesiastes 9:7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
Isaiah 25:6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine….
Isaiah 55:1 Come, buy wine and milk….
Jeremiah 13:12 Thus saith the God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine… every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money come buy and eat!
Jeremiah 25:27 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will sens among you.
“Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy.” Frank Sinatra
Joel 2:19 Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith.
Amos 9:14 I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel… and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof….
1 Timothy 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
Last, but not least:
Matthew 11:19 Jesus came eating and drinking. They said: Look, He (Jesus Christ) is a glutton and a drunkard…
Jesus hereby has a documented and published Biblical Chapter and Verse reputation of being a “drunkard“.
Alcohol Anonymous members ought to love that.
Jesus Christ Was A Glutton & A Drunkard?
Obviously, Jesus did not believe Ephesians 5:18 Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit…
Questions? Corrections? Comments?