Fr. Bill and Dr. James Ryan, PhD author of a new book titled Recovery Writing finish up their discussion of how writing can be an aid in finding and building a deeper relationship with the Divine. Show Notes: ∙ Recovery Writing: Discovery and Healing in the Twelve Steps by James Ryan ∙ Step Study website: www.StepStudy.org
Fr. Bill continues his interviews with James Ryan, PhD author of a new book titled Recovery Writing. The series explores effective writing techniques used in 12 Step and other recovery modalities. James is in long term recovery with a strong interest in spirituality and in the Pioneer program of Alcoholics Anonymous. His website www.StepStudy.org provides links to books and articles helpful for those ready to go deeper into AA history and recovery spiritually. James worked for several years in t...
Fr. Bill continues his interviews with James Ryan, PhD author of a new book titled Recovery Writing. The series explores writing techniques that have proved effective in 12 Step and other recovery modalities. James is in long term recovery with a strong interest in spirituality and in the Pioneer program of Alcoholics Anonymous. His website titled www.StepStudy.org provides links to books and articles helpful for many wanting to go deeper into AA history and recovery spiritually. James worked fo...
Fr. Bill interviews James Ryan, PhD author of a new book titled Recovery Writing. The series explores writing techniques that have proved effective in 12 Step and other recovery modalities. James is in long term recovery with a strong interest in spirituality and in drawing insights from the Pioneer program of Alcoholics Anonymous. His website titled www.StepStudy.org provides links to books and articles helpful for many wanting to delve deeper into AA history and recovery spiritually. Clinicall...
Fr. Bill begins a new series on the benefits of writing in recovery. His guest is James Ryan, PhD author of a new book titled Recovery Writing. The series will explore several writing techniques that have proved effective in 12 Step and other recovery modalities. James is in long term recovery himself with a strong interest in spirituality and in the Pioneer program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Over the years, he’s grown a website titled www.StepStudy.org providing links to books and articles helpfu...
Jean Brown, a life-long member of the Oxford Group (now known as Initiatives of Change) sheds more light on the program and principles that gave birth to Alcoholics Anonymous. In this episode, Jean describes the original Quiet Time and Two Way Prayer practices of the Oxford Group that underlie the 11th Step. Jean is the author of “A Serious Guide to Remaking the World.” A free copy of this informative pamphlet is available in the Show Notes. Show Notes: · A Serious Guide to Remaking the World , ...
Jean Brown from Adelaide, Australia traces her life-long connection to the Oxford Group back for three generations. The Group later became known as Moral Rearmament and still operates as Initiatives of Change. In this two-part interview, Jean shares her personal story of change while shedding light on the original principles and practices that gave birth to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Jean is the author of “A Serious Guide to Remaking the World.” A free copy of this informative pamphlet...
Psychologist Dr. Bruce P. from Los Angeles, California leads Fr. Bill and listeners through a series of brief meditations focused on the teachings of Eckhart Tolle. Several one-minute exercises bring the teachings alive in ways you won’t want to miss. A guide to the exercises is included in the Show Notes. Show Notes: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle - Purchase or find an online pdf version available free. Contact Dr. Bruce at: powerofnowtherapist@gmail.com Power of Now Lab Notes from Dr. Bruce...
Psychologist Dr. Bruce P. from Los Angeles, California helps relate the works of Eckhart Tolle with the world of 12-Step recovery. Negative emotions are problems for many people but perhaps especially for addicts. AA co-founder Bill Wilson struggled with depression for many years after getting sober. His letter sharing his experience on the subject is in the Show Notes. Dr. Bruce explores the troubling world of emotions offering us a solution to our pain through accessing the Power of Now. Show ...
Psychologist Dr. Bruce P. from Los Angeles, California helps blend the works of Eckhart Tolle with the world of 12-Step recovery. Addicts aren’t alone in struggling with relationships. Often, we search for and marry a prince or a princess thinking they’ll save us only to see them before long turn into a frog – and sometimes even worse. Dr. Bruce explores the world of relationships offering us a way out through the Power of Now. Show Notes Eckhart Tolle Relationship Quotes: Unless and until you a...
Psychologist Dr. Bruce P. from Los Angeles, California helps blend the works of Eckhart Tolle with the world of 12-Step recovery. Many addicts struggle to find a concept of a Higher Power that can work successfully for them. Step Two becomes easier when an elusive search for “a Power greater than ourselves” shifts to “accessing the Power of Now.” In this episode Dr. Bruce describes how the terms God and Now may be synonymous and how a simple shift in consciousness into the “fourth dimension of e...
Psychologist Dr. Bruce P. from Los Angeles, California helps blend the works of Eckhart Tolle with the world of 12-Step recovery. The Big Book tells us our “problem is in the Mind.” This episode takes a deep dive into the source of our compulsive thinking, first as it relates directly to physical addiction, but then as it traps us in a fearful state of separateness from God, from others, and from our True Selves. The Good News is escape is possible. Listen and start to find out HOW! 3 Quotes Rel...
Psychologist Dr. Bruce P. from Los Angeles, California helps blend the works of Eckhart Tolle with the world of 12 Step recovery. Like the Big Book, The Power of Now has helped millions access the transforming Power for change that is already present in each of us only waiting to be unleashed. Come join us on the journey! Show Notes: The Power of No w by Eckhart Tolle / The llink will take you to Amazon but note there are pdf versions available online free. Questions for Dr. Bruce P.? powerofnow...
After practicing Two Way Prayer for nearly a year, Donna began a still deeper journey to depths of her Inner World. Her loving Higher Power encouraged her to invite DonDon, her inner child, to come sit with them at their morning table of prayer. So began a long series of inner dialogues that helped knit together the shattered life of a little girl who lost her father at the age of eight if not long before. These moving dialogues lift Donna’s prayer life into the healing sunlight of the Spirit. Y...
Donna came to recovery when her son entered treatment for gambling and drug addiction. She had done all she could do for him and knew she needed to “let go.” But how? The Voice Donna heard in Two Way Prayer helped guide her on the path that led to her own recovery. She recognized the loving Voice as HaShem – Hebrew for “The Name.” Few Two Way Prayer listeners hear the Voice as clearly and as beautifully as Donna records it daily in her journal. You won’t want to miss hearing these shares of gent...
The Ego is usually reluctant (if not outright defiant) in humbly aligning itself with the Great Reality Within. Commenting on the necessary realignment and why we put it off for so long, Franciscan monk Richard Rohr is fond of saying, “There are only two things powerful enough to change a person: pain and prayer.” Then he adds wryly, “most of us choose pain!” Father Bill takes a pause in interviewing men and women embarked on their Inner Journeys to share why the journey is necessary and how Two...
Faithfully practicing Two Way Prayer for some time, Susanne built a powerful connection with God. In time, she was ready to venture still deeper into her Inner World starting an amazing dialogue with her lost inner child through a process C.G. Jung called “active imagination.” In this episode Susanne shares how she established contact with her “Kid” and reads some healing writings between her adult self and her inner child. She soon discovered the hole in the soul was being filled from within. S...
Father Bill begins interviewing people who’ve begun their Inner Journey with Two Way Prayer. Susanne was active in 12-Step recovery in the U.K. taking her work most seriously; but when she discovered Two Way Prayer it brought her recovery to a wholly new level. In this episode, Susanne describes the deepened relationship she found with her “Dad” as she calls her Higher Power and shares three samples of Guidance received during her morning Quiet Time. You’ll find Susanne’s writings filled with lo...
Father Mike Falls helps us explore the Inner World of consciousness. Mike was a professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys when he heard and followed a call from his soul telling him it was time to make a change – a really big change. Mike listened and took the plunge; he discovered a whole new world awaited him. At the heart of that world, Mike discovered his soul in the form of his internally lost “Kid.” A gifted teacher and storyteller, Fr. Mike’s experience can guide us as we go in ...
Matt D., Executive Director All Addicts Anonymous (AAA) discusses the original AA Pioneer Program focusing on its evolution from the Oxford Group’s Four Absolutes of Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love into the 12 Steps as we know them today. This episode centers on the Ten Points distilled from Chapter Five of the Big Book. It takes us to the real depths of the transformation process. Show Notes: Link to the AAA Ten Points article. Link to the Invitation to a Great Experiment article. Gres...
Matt D., Executive Director All Addicts Anonymous (AAA) discusses the original AA pioneer program focusing on its evolution from the Oxford Group’s Four Absolutes of Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love into the 12 Steps as we know them today. The discussion centers on a 1973 article by Tom Powers, Jr. titled: The Twelve Step Ladder to God Consciousness . It’s available in the Show Notes. Show Notes: The Twelve Step Ladder to God Consciousness by Tom Powers, Jr. Gresham’s Law and Alcoholics ...
Matt D., Executive Director All Addicts Anonymous (AAA) discusses the original AA pioneer program focusing on the Four Absolutes of Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love . In this episode Matt and Father Bill explore the deeper meaning of Love. Each chooses a reading that may help addicts in recovery uncover new meaning in this the most challenging and perhaps most rewarding of the Four Absolutes. Readings are available in the Show Notes notes below. Show Notes: No Greater Love – Matt’s readi...
Matt D., Executive Director All Addicts Anonymous (AAA) discusses the original AA pioneer program focusing on the Four Absolutes of Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love . In this episode Matt and Father Bill explore the deeper meaning of UNSELFISHNESS. It appears we have two selves, two centers of consciousness – one at the level of BODY and another at the level of SOUL. Freeing ourselves from bondage to the one brings us to the freedom of the other. The episode builds on an article from the...
Matt D., Executive Director All Addicts Anonymous (AAA) discusses the original AA program focusing on the Four Absolutes of Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love . In this episode Matt and Father Bill explore the deeper meanings of PURITY. Of the Four Absolutes, it’s probably the least understood and the most feared and often discounted. It’s also the one that may prove the dangers of “half-measures.” The episode builds on an article from the AAA archives titled Frank Buchman’s Cure. It’s a s...
Matt D., Executive Director All Addicts Anonymous (AAA) discusses the key building blocks of the original AA program. In this episode Matt and Father Bill begin an in-depth exploration of the Four Absolutes starting with HONESTY. The episode builds on Tom Power’s classic book Invitation to a Great Experiment along with Tom’s AA talk on “ Sanity – the Heart of the Program.” It’s available in the Show Notes both in written and audio format. This is a Pioneer classic - not to be missed. Show Notes:...
Matt D. from All Addicts Anonymous (AAA) leads listeners in this series exploring the early history of the AA program. In this episode Dr. Bob’s influence is discussed along with an introduction to the Four Absolutes that Bob and many of the Pioneers saw as the heart of the program and continued using in conjunction with the 12 Steps. (Fr. Bill had some audio issues in the first half of the recording, and we’ve attempted to edit these out where possible. Matt’s sound is crystal clear and his mes...
Jungian analyst and clinical psychologist Dr. Ian McCabe concludes his journey through the 12 Steps from a Jungian perspective. This final episode focuses on the “Last Three Steps;” but rather than seeing these as “maintenance Steps” both Jungians and AA Pioneers might describe them as a formula for living life where the EGO aligns itself in service to the Self and follows its DIRECTIONS. It proves to be the “easier, softer Way.” Show Notes: Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous by Ian McCabe Ego a...
Jungian analyst and clinical psychologist Dr. Ian McCabe continues leading listeners on a journey through the 12 Steps "from a Jungian perspective." Fully half of the 12 Steps are about “cleaning up” our relationships with ourselves, with others, and with the “Greater Personality” or as the Big Book calls it: the “Great Reality” within. Father Bill refers to these six Steps as the “CORRECTION PHASE” of the program and the discussion centers on facing and assimilating the Shadow part of ourselves...
Jungian analyst, clinical psychologist and student of AA history Dr. Ian McCabe and Father Bill W. take a deep dive into the insights a Jungian approach to Steps 2 and 3 might convey. Show Notes: Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous by Ian McCabe For information on Bill Wilson’s experimentation with LDS see: Distilled Spirits -- Getting High, Then Sober, With a Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher, and a Hopeless Drunk by Don Lattin. Here’s a brief outline: Distilled Spirits blends a religion re...
In this episode Fr. Bill and his guest Dr. Ian McCabe explore Step One of Alcoholics Anonymous. Discussion centers on the physical, mental, and spiritual dynamics at play in addiction. Show Notes: Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous by Ian McCabe Dr. Ian McCabe, contact info: ian@pips.ie Ego and Archetype by Edward Edinger Eric Erickson’s Eight Stages of Development C.J. Jung’s Answer to Job , free pdf. version...
