Preface
Session 2

SESSION 1

Listen to Joe Hawk's first tape.

Starting the first tape. Starting the first step. Starting the first half of the first step - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol."

JOE HAWK | SALVATION ARMY | WEEK 1

Some things talked about in the first tape:

  • Why do I need to do this? Joe Hawk gives his reasons, I might want to write down my own reasons.
  • What is AA?
  • What is the Big Book?
  • What is my problem?
  • Am I powerless over alcohol?

What is the first assignment?

To begin to identify with the premise that I am an alcoholic and what that means.
It means that putting the chemical, alcohol, in my body sets off the physical manifestation of the allergy, which is the craving for more alcohol.

How do I do this? How do I begin to identify my alcoholism?

By opening the Big Book to The Doctors Opinion, starting on page xxv.
Change every sentence about alcoholism into a question and answer the question for myself. For example, the first sentence of the letter in page xxvii is:
The subject presented in this book seems to me to be of paramount importance to those afflicted with alcoholic addiction.
Change this sentence to a question:
Is the subject presented in this book of paramount importance to me?
Now write this question down in your notebook.
Now write down your answer.
Hopefully the answer will be yes - BUT - if it is NO, explain why and continue on. The next two sentences are about the doctor’s personal experience and can't be turned into a question about me. So I skip to the next sentence and find that I can change that one into two questions:
I write down these questions:

  1. Have I realized, or even suspected, that some form of moral psychology (spiritual experience) is of urgent importance to me?
  2. Do I know how to have a spiritual experience?
And answer them.
Then continue on.
Hint - Mark any sentence you are not sure about. We can discuss it as a group or, you can talk about it privately. The important thing is to not pass it by.

What are we doing?

  1. We're learning how to ask questions about ourselves.
  2. We're learning how to answer the questions we ask.
  3. We're learning how to write. That is, we're learning how to focus on a single thought and put that thought down on paper.
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