Chapter 3: Batteries Not Included
DISCLAIMER: Cogniventus.com has not been approved of, nor endorsed by, and is not affiliated with, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. or any service entity of A.A.W.S., Inc. This website’s currently Featured Project, “FINISHING WHAT BILL WILSON STARTED,” is not AA Conference-Approved Literature; it is non-fiction commentary submitted here for non-commercial single-use, and gives Fair Use citations, for educational purposes, of limited sections of the 2nd Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, 1955, which has been in Public Domain since 1983. Sponsor’s Note: How do you respond to the perception that you have lost the power of choice (in drink)? —that you are acting a manner contrary to your imagined intentions. In this new walk though the Steps as a progressive, evolving relationship with Power, we will learn to close the gap between knowing what to do and being able to do it. See Three Responses to Lost Power Chapter 3: Batteries not Included (Steps 1-3) Given a perceived absence of Power in Choice, the Stepper simply looks for more Power and, unable to find it in Self-Knowledge or Will-Power, gives up the search and concludes that the only other option is The Big Kahuna, The Lord of Lords, The Creator of the Universe—more disingenuously disguised as a “Higher Power.” The method is the same throughout: More Power. More Power! More Power!! VIDEO HIGHLIGHT: The AA Power Paradigm (Currently Inactive) Chapter 5: Self-Examination without Self-Obsession (Steps 4-9) Chapter 6: Graduation from the Spiritual Kindergarten (Steps 10 & 11) 1: An Experiment in Choice NOTES: Page 1 Chapter 3 BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED “Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power? Well, that’s exactly what this book is about.” Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 45 4.5 Our dilemma was not lack of power. Our problem was the instability of Power (that arises from a source). We go to AA meetings to plug into Power, only to feel the charge dwindling away in just a few days. We turned our wills over to God only to “take them back” in a short time. We struggle to maintain conscious contact with God when the connection is always being broken. In any relationship based on a large imbalance of Power, we will always be playing catch-up, always going back to the well, even after it has long gone dry. …transcription to be continued…MVC
Comparative Table of Contents
2: Tell Me A Story I Can Use
3: Batteries not Included
4: Relapse or Research?
5: Self-Examination without Self-Obsession
6: Graduating from the Spiritual Kindergarten
7: Pass It On—But Make It Better
8: To Alcoholism Professionals
9: The Fellowships Afterward
10: To The Chronically Human
11: The Pioneering Times are Now