From: weiss872@snake.cs.uidaho.edu (Phil Weiss)
Subject: Concepts of a higher power (was: i do it for myself)
Organization: none
Reply-To: weiss@leopard.cs.uidaho.edu
Keywords: AA alcoholism
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 19:46:40 GMT
X-Posted-From: snake.cs.uidaho.edu
X-Posted-Through: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In Alt.recovery-

scp8340@ocvaxa.cc.oberlin.edu wrote:
|> And i wasn't real keen on the idea of a higher power, especially not when I saw
|> >some ACoA literature & it said 'God' and 'He' and all that crap of the
|> >Christian God that I hated & that some family had tried to shove down my 
|> >throat...I liked reading 'Higher Power' much better...lots of time I think of 
|> >my higher power as the little seed inside me that really wants to be healthy,
|> >that little part of me that is good & healthy & actually does have a clue of
|> >how to lead a healthy and happy life
|> 

vva@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Claire Pedretti) responded:
|> 
|> Thanks for this reminder.  I have on several occasions heard
|> 'reinterpretations' of 'higher' as 'inner.'  It is , however, easy to
|> forget what is not named.  Maybe those of us whose reality is this 
|> could start using the phrase Inner Power; or Inner Strength?  It would
|> help me remember. 
|> 
|> Even within the Christian traditions, there are variations of emphasis
|> of God as other and God as inner. And within that, I once heard this
|> comment on the image from John of the vine and the branches:  where
|> does the vine end and the branch end. So, I remain comfortable,
|> claiming an inner strength.
|> 

	[discussion about how it's proper to interpret the steps deleted]


This is pretty interesting actually.  My following comments are directed
at those working the Twelve Steps in AA.  I know nothing about recovery
from anything else, this may not apply.

The Big Book states in several places that the concept of a higher power
really isn't an external thing.

"With few exceptions our member find that they have tapped an unsuspected
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 then ourselves is
the essence of spiritual experience.  Our more religious member call it
'God-conciousness.'"
	-Appendix II - Spiritual Experience (pgs 570-571)

"Actually we were fooling ourselves, for deep down in every man, woman, and
child, is the fundamental idea of God.  It may be obscured by calamity, by
pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there.
For faith in a Power greatre than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations
of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself.

We finally saw that faith in some kind of God was a part of our make-up, just
as much as the feeling we have for a friend.  Sometimes we had to search
fearlessly, but He was there.  He was as much a fact as we were.  We found
the Great Reality deep down within us.  IN THE LAST ANALYSIS IT IS ONLY
THERE THAT HE MAY BE FOUND.  It was so with us."
	-Chapter 4 - We Agnostics (pg 55) (Emphasis mine)

I could not go looking anywhere byt myself to find God.  Not in people,
churches, nature, or whatever.  Those things may help me improve
my contact with God, or they be evidence to help convince me, but
I had to look inside to find God.

The ramifications of this are staggering (I always wanted to say that line)
to me.  I could not believe in a doorknob, or the group, or whatever
to be my higher power.  Why not?  Because I cannot trust them.  My alcoholism
is part of me.  No matter where I go, mentally, physically, or spiritually,
I MUST have a defense against alcohol.  The only thing I can carry with me
anywhere is something within me.

(I started in the program believing in the group as my HP, and that kept
me sober for a time.  I am not saying belief in those is wrong.  My concept
of a higher power had to become more robust though.)

Phil.

But where and how were we to find this Power?
Well, that's exactly what this book is about.