"Dumb Guy Approach to the 12 Steps" in San Diego, CA

We gotta do some thinking, but we gotta come up with 2 and 2 to make 4. 4. We gotta do some thinking. You wanna know the nicest part about the 3rd column? Multiple choice.

Multiple choice. They give you 6 or 7 things to pick from. Now now I know this doesn't make sense to you. You've got a disease that's killing you. People have never told you this.

In all those years, you've been in and out. Your whole life is down a shithole. And you're saying to yourself, what does this got to do with my alcoholism? Probably not much. What has this got to do with your relationship with God?

Probably everything. You with me? It's like making a pineapple upside down cake. Can you do that? What are you gonna have?

Just directions. That's all. If you got the directions, you got a cake. You ready? Yeah.

Alright. But wait a minute. If it's a pineapple upside down cake, then the top is on the bottom. If the bottom is on top, then it can't be cake. It's gotta be pie.

I don't know what's done. Just follow the directions. Are you ready? Yeah. Alright.

But wait a minute. If it's upside down, then it no. No. No. No.

No. We're not asking you to understand the results. We're just asking you to understand the directions. And I solemnly assure you, if you follow the directions of any cookbook for pineapple upside down cake, what do you think you're gonna get? Pineapple.

Yes. And what are we gonna do with it? Eat it. No. We're gonna give it away.

That's not 12 steps. Come on. What are we doing here? What's our deal in step 3? What are we doing?

That was a trick question. Yeah. I'll walk you into that. Okay. Here's my dad.

Here's what my dad did to me. My dad said I was so stupid to get out of the garage. I was 4 and a half years old. I'm on other things. Did that affect my sex relations?

No. Self esteem? Yes. Well, this ain't even hard, is it? Security?

Yeah. Fear? Yeah. Pride? Yeah.

Ambitions? Yeah. Wanna know what? It's my inventory. It doesn't matter if it makes sense to you.

What's important is is it makes sense to me. You got that? So you cannot come up with a wrong answer. Ain't that strange? No one grades your paper.

Ain't that strange? This is between you and between god. The pencil and paper. It's your answer. Can you come up with more than one thing to that act?

Absolutely. Absolutely. But what's important is that you are going to decide. You are going to think what their effect upon you has been. It's your call.

There is no wrong answer. Don't dance with it. Don't be afraid of it, and don't be confused by it. So if I have 29 things that my dad did to me, I'm going to tag every one of those things with the tag. 1 of these in this last column.

Not even tough now, is it? Any questions? Whose definition of security is it? Yours. It's yours.

Right. Do you feel secure when your old lady leaves you? No. You might very well feel angry, but do you feel secure too? Then put them both down.

And you gotta look inside yourself to see this. I can't do this for you. Maybe my definition of security for you is not your definition of security for you or something like that. The camel that broke the straw's back. You understand that?

I'm not being rude, but you must know that it's your inventory. It's your decision. It is always up to you, and it's your definition. 3rd column. Done.

Any questions on the 3rd column? All you're doing is taking a multiple multiple choice, tagging tagging your tagging your their actions. You're tagging your response to their actions. Does that make sense? Yes.

That's all that is. You cannot come up with a wrong answer. You cannot you can't you just can't. You cannot put too many tags down. But what you are gonna do is be thorough and honest.

Remember that, thorough and honest. That's your job. Thorough and honest. No questions. Let's go to the next page, 66.

Here's what it says. It says this, to conclude that others were wrong was as far as we ever got. See, so what we've done so far is to conclude that others were wrong. We've done this many times. They did this to me.

They did that to me. And this is what they did to me. And here's why I'm at because resentment is nothing more than manifestation of selfishness and self centeredness. Does that make sense to you? Yeah.

Yeah. It does. Yeah. Absolutely. Everything we're dealing with here is us playing god.

If we stop playing God, we start to live the way this book says, and resentment will disappear, will melt, will go away, or will have a solution for it. I don't know. Everybody's different. But if we follow these directions, we will get results. It says, to the precise extent that we permit these, this futility and happiness, this resentment, this selfishness and self centeredness, do we squander the hours it might be worthwhile?

But with the alcoholic whose hope is the maintenance and of a growth of a spiritual experience, and that's our goal, The maintenance and growth of the spiritual experience, this resentment is infinitely grave, and here's why it says that. It is fatal, and here's why it says that. When you harbor such feelings, this resentment, we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the spirit. And for an alcoholic not to have the sunlight of the spirit, the insanity of alcohol returns. And when we drink, we die.

We die. Now I mean this sincerely. If it takes you 2 years to work these steps in that 2 year period your resentment is shutting off the sunlight of the spirit and the chances of you getting 2 years are very slim. Very slim. How many times have you been in and out though, Juju?

Quite a few. Quite a few. You wanna know why? Because you absolutely wanted to get drunk more than you wanted to sober. Do you believe that shit?

No directions. You've been told that? No directions. You're gonna be presented with directions now. You no longer have to let these things shut you off from God.

You can be free. You can watch through the archway of freedom, and that's what we read, ain't it? Get ready, boys and girls. No more pain, and I ain't talking about value. If we're to live, we have to be free.

Routing to brainstorm is not for us. So we turn back to the list. Bottom of the page, 66. We turn back to the list. We've got lists, right?

We turn back to the list. For held the key to the future. That's where we're going now. Key to the future. We're prepared to look at it from a different entirely different angle.

Look at what? The list. What we've got written down, we're prepared to look at it from entirely or any different angle. We began to see that the world's people really dominated us in that state, a power of wrongdoings of others, keyword here, fancied or real, because a lot of the things they did to me, I made that shit up. Fancied or real had the power to actually kill.

Why does it have the power to kill? Because we get resentful. We get resentful. We shut off the sunlight of the spirit. We shut off the sunlight of the spirit.

We drink. We're asked to drink his too. That's why does it make sense now. Yeah. And I believe that if you take a drink now, you're not gonna die, but you're gonna get deader.

You're gonna get deader. What, honey? Oh, I thought you said debtor instead of debtor. Oh, no. Debtor.

Debtor. This was our course, because we're going to master these resentments. This was our course. We realized that the people who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick. Here is what we want you to do.

We want you to look at the people who, if you have on this column, these 25 names on 25 pieces of paper, and realize that they are spiritually sick. You got that? That's all we want you to do is realize that perhaps these people are spiritually sick. It's not hard to see in some cases. In some cases, it is.

Maybe it isn't. Though we don't like their symptoms, and that's true. We don't like what they did to us. Yes? And the way they disturbed us.

Yes? Key phrase here in your thinking, these people are just as sick as I am. Woah. Woah. Puts a whole new slant on the list now, ain't it?

They like ourselves are sick too. Now this is the 4th column, it doesn't call for a list, It's the only thing I add to the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, and it's this, just a check work to indicate that you have prayed the prayer that we are about to read. Okay? If you do not want to put the check mark because the big book don't call for it, don't put it there. That's all.

Simple. Here's the prayer. The prayer is this. This is our prayer expressing a change of thinking, looking at these people as sick people. This is our prayer.

We ask God to help us show them, these sick people that hurt us, that we don't like their symptoms, that are sick just like us. We're gonna ask God to help us show these people patience, tolerance, and pity. The same patience we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. When a person offended, hurts my feelings, makes me mad, we say to ourselves, this is our part, this is a sick man. And then we say, how can I be helpful to him?

Instead of, How can I be helpful to the people who hurt me? What a unique set what a unique way of thinking in it. And then it says, God save me from being angry, thy will be done. I have 25 names on this piece of paper. I'm gonna look at my dad as a sick individual, as a spiritually sick person, and I am going to pray a prayer.

And who am I praying for? Really? Here's the prayer. God help us. God help us.

We're praying a prayer for us to treat these people different. We're not praying a prayer for, God, stop them from hurting me. I don't know how many times he ever heard. You mad at that guy guy pray for him? You heard that?

Yes. Now what this says, does it? It says what? Pray for others. And what are we praying for?

Patience, tolerance, pity, praying that we could be useful, praying that we can help the people who hurt us, praying that God saves us from being angry. It's a whole new ballgame, boys and girls, ain't it? And if you're gonna pray for them, make sure it's 2 prayers. God help them to get well, and help me be part of the medicine. Make sure it's 2 prayers because if we continue to pray to them, to to God, to have these people stop hurting us, we are being just as selfish and just as losing the whole idea that god is here for me for me.

And my job is to help them, whoever them is. Any questions? Any yeah. No. No.

If anybody tells you to pray for the people who hurt you, make sure you pray 2 prayers. 1 for them that they get well, and this prayer for us. Got it? Any questions? A whole different ballgame now, ain't it?

That we're gonna be able to look at the people who hurt us and try to be useful to them. Any questions? None at all. Pretty simple. Easy?

Easy. Oh, no. Oh, no. No. No.

Does it work? Yes. Oh, yes. You want results? No.

Absolutely. Then let's follow the directions that's in this book. Now we have responsibility. We're mixing faith with facts. You understand that?

Faith with facts. I have a responsibility that couples with my change of thinking. I am going to avoid argument and retaliation. What the hell is that about? Well, what's our deal in step 3?

I'm gonna quit pushing you around. I'm gonna quit being God. I'm gonna quit trying to manipulate you. Yes. No.

And we avoid argument retaliation because we can't win. Right? No. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. If we do, we destroy our chance of being helpful.

That's our 3rd step, ain't it? That's our purpose in life now, ain't it? You take away my difficulties, I will be a living testimony to your power, to the people that I help. Yes? No?

We ain't making a distinction between who we help. We're going to help them all because we're all God's little kids. If we do, we destroy our chance of being helpful. We don't treat sick people that way. Does that make sense to you?

Are you sure? Yeah. Oh, you want the dumb guy approach? Mitchie ism. Mitchie ism.

Here's the Mitchie ism. Mitchie's old lady's having a baby. She's on the bed, she's in the stirrups, she got her feet in, and she's in pain, and she's screaming. Oh, you motherfucker. I hate you.

I hate you. I'll kill you for what you've done to me. Anybody ever been there? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

What does Mitchy do? It's okay, baby. It's okay, baby. Count to 3. Deep breathe.

Count to 3. What can I do for you, baby? Why? Because she's in the bed. She's in the bed.

You got that? Take her out of the bed. Put her in the kitchen 3 weeks later, and she's screaming at Mitchie. You mother hate me for what you've done to me. I'm gonna tell you.

What does Mitchie do? Woah. Wait a minute. Very same girl, very same pain, very same words, and very same action, but she ain't in the bed. Is she just as sick in the kitchen as she is in the bed?

And that's our change of thinking. Does that under play explain it to you now? Choice is yours. If you have done a third step and wanna serve the power of god so that he can remove your difficulties, then you will look at these people as sick people, and you will avoid argument and retaliation simply because you don't treat sick people that way. Any questions?

And the reason we don't treat sick people that way is destroy our chance of being helpful. That's exactly right. And that's what we're here to do now is to be helpful. That's the deal we made. See how we keep going back to step 3?

That's the deal we made in step 3. Any questions? If we do, we destroy our chances of being helpful. We can't be helpful to all people. Everybody knows that.

You can't help everybody. But it says this, at least God will show us how to take a kind and tolerant view of everyone. Our action, facts, and faith being combined here. Got it? Got it.

Pretty simple. Our actions, facts, and faith now coming together. We're using our brains and our beliefs are starting to increase. Okay. Here's what it says.

It says it says, referring to our list again, another column. You with me? Here's our dad, Here's cause. Here's effects. Check.

Glad you guys are with me. Glad you guys are with me. You don't wanna put the check mark? Don't do it. Don't do it.

That's nothing more than an indication that you have prayed this prayer for every person concerning every person on the list. Once again, who's the prayer for? Us. Us. That we start looking at the people who hurt us as sick people.

We start trying to grant these people who hurt us patience, tolerance, and pity. We ask God to save us from being angry, and we try to be useful to the people who hurt us. There's the key to freedom coming on now, ain't it? It's coming on strong now. You don't own me.

You don't own me, and if you don't own me, you cannot make me mad. I am not shed off from the sunlight of the spirit. If I am not shed off from the sunlight of the spirit, I will not drink. If it will not drink, it will not die that god awful painful alcoholic death. Any questions?

Referring to our list again, putting out putting out of our minds the wrongs others have done. We resoundly look for our own mistakes. This is us now. The next column, our mistakes. Okay.

Okay. Are mistakes. What did you do to the people on the list? And remember this boys and girls, we have discovered earlier that we placed ourselves in this position for them to do these things to us, almost invariably. You with me?

Okay. Here's my dad. Here's my dad. My dad, when I was 4a half years old, said I was too stupid to get out of the garage. It affected my self esteem.

What did I do to my dad? What did I do to my dad? Punched him. Punched him. Stop it.

These guys are too far ahead of me. What did I do to my dad? Disobeyed him. Disobeyed him. What did I do to my dad?

Now you Took his what? Took his what? Took his tools? Through the flight. My mother.

My mother. Yeah. What? Put my mother around too. Watch this.

Watch this. Watch this. Putting out of our minds the wrongs others have done. We look for our own mistakes. I'm not trying to figure out what I made, what I did to make my dad do what he did.

It's not a tit for tat thing. I am just going to write down the things that I did to my dad, the mistakes that I made just like his mistakes. I make mistakes too. We're all human beings. What did I do to my dad?

That's all. I I stole his car, stole his truck, Stole his truck. I stole the liquor. Truck. Stole his truck.

No. Who said 4a half? We're not doing 4a half. We're putting out of our minds what they did to us completely. Just what did I do to him ever?

Ever. What did I do to my dad ever? Stole this truck. I stole this truck. I, I left a it's okay.

I was disobedient to my dad. I was, I stole his money. Broke his heart. What? What did you do?

We're gonna go there. Trust me. We're gonna go there. What else did I do to my dad? I was cruel to his pet.

Shot the neighbor's cat with a baby god. Hey. What else did I do? Shame them. Shame them.

Shame them. There's a parent. Shame them. What else? Hurt his wife.

Blew his house up. Rap. Who said that? Ran away. Ran away.

Oh, well, you don't do that here, do you? You throw them out. Light. Woah. Woah.

Light about him. K? You got it? Yeah. That's all I'm doing is writing down my mistakes.

All I'm doing is writing down what I did to him. Not tit for tat, not 4 and a half. There is no sequence of events here. Just what I did to him, period, period. And then I'm gonna tag that.

It wants to know whether I've been selfish, dishonest, self seeking, or frightened. When I when I stole my dad's truck, was I selfish, dishonest, self seeking, or frightened? Very selfish. Now only I know this, only I know this, only I know that I had 4 brothers and sisters, and that when I took my dad's truck, he missed a day's work. And in the fifties, missing a day's work with 4 or 5 kids, everybody suffered.

You don't know that, do you? Only I know that I did this, don't I? And only I know that I never gave them a thought. You know what I thought? I wanna drive.

I wanna drive. Yes. I was selfish. You know what I realized with this very first column, with this very I mean, with this very first list, this very first section, Jesus, I was not a good deal as a kid. And I never I never I never got that.

I thought he was the bad guy. I thought that's a that mug, that dirt, that he it's all you know, if he he if I would have had Ozzie from Ozzie and Harriet as a father, I would have been a great kid. I'm finding out truths and facts here. My relationship with him is this, I was selfish, I was dishonest, I was self centered, I was, I was self seeking, and I certainly was frightened because I wrote that down over here, ain't it? I found all of these things out right here, and I ain't even but I ain't even but into my inventory on resentment yet.

Yeah. You gotta come up with that answer for yourself. There's a lot of times I will give you money. Money. That's not selfish.

Right? Yes. What am I giving you money for? Self seeking. Self seeking.

All we're doing is what's on this list. He's just screwing a lot of people over that he ain't mad at. Who said that? 8th and 9th. You're gonna get them.

We're gonna get them. We're gonna get them. Any questions so far? Now that now we're I see you're starting to look a little puzzled. You're starting to look a little quizzical.

Don't do that. Ask some questions. Somebody asked the questions in the back over there, now they shut up. Bring the question out. What did I do to my dad?

I'm angry at my dad. What did I do to him? Now we're getting to that question. I was pretty much innocent. I did nothing.

Is that the question? Yeah? What what about I did nothing after the fact that they did something to me? What about after the fact that they did something to me? It doesn't matter about the fact we're just looking at what we did to them.

Does that make sense? If we're gonna rationalize it, we'll come up with some real rationale. Hell, he stepped out of my shoes, your honor. I did this. I don't look up.

He said, why could you be the guy that bad? I said, he stepped out my shoes. What if he stepped out of your shoes on purpose? What's the point? What I did to him.

We're leaving this out completely. It's what I did to him that we're dealing with. Okay. This is a good one. What, dad?

Watch this. Okay. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it.

Let's think about this. Let's think about this. Because this is legitimate. This is a 100% legitimate. Women in particular.

Women in particular. A man of my dad, what did he do? What did I do to my dad? Now if you let go of the molestation, the question is what did I do to my dad? If your answer is still nothing, I've never lied to him, I've never hurt him, I've never stole this stuff, I've never done nothing, What do we know for sure about your dad?

The 5th column, do I owe him amends? No. If he has molested me, and I stole his car and stole his truck and stole his wallet and and did all of those things, do I owe him amends? Yeah. The molestation doesn't even interfere with it.

No matter if they step on my shoes, smash my truck, it's what I do to them I have to make the amends for. Got it? I know this is difficult and no one's saying it's not, and it's gonna tell you that when you get to the 9th step. But all you're doing at this point is this, We placed them before us in black and white. We're willing to admit our wrongs honestly, and we're willing to set the matter straight.

At this point, we're only willing to set the matter straight. Any questions? Any questions to answer your question? Does that answer your question? Not everyone who has hurt us have we done something to, but everyone who has hurt us, we can look at as spiritually sick.

Want freedom? This is it. Wanna know what's strange? It does not ask us to pray for love. It does not ask us to pray for forgiveness.

All it asks us to pray for is patience, tolerance, pity, service to the person who harms us, and save us from being angry, I'm almost forced to believe that love and forgiveness will come with service to those who hurt me. Go ahead. Okay? One no secret? We're done with our 4th step on resentment.

Taking that bite, taking that apple one bite at a time, it's not such a big deal, is it? No. No. The hard part is honesty, the hard part is thoroughness, The hard part is us looking at them as sick people. Any questions?

Any questions? We're done with resentment. Go ahead. One bite is a column. Each bite is a column.

That's exactly right. When we do this because if we do it across, this is my experience. This is my experience. I'm trying to do an inventory. I'm mad at my dad, and here's what he did to me.

And you wanna know I never got past that point? Because every time I started to think about what he did to me, I'm telling you I got in a furious rage. I kill that mouth. And when I do it this way, when I do it this way, I gotta run and start. And every time I write something down, my faith increases.

I trust god and these steps more. Any questions? Yeah. On the cone, that won't fall. No.

Those are tags. We're gonna tag our actions. We're gonna write down our own mistakes and then tag those so that we see our relationship with them. We've already got their relationship with us, ain't it? In that third column.

Now here's our relationship with them, and these are the things, by the way, we're going to ask God to remove in that 7th step. These are the things we're gonna make the amends for in that 9th step. These are the things we're finding out honestly. This is what I am, and this is what I wanna stop being. That's our 3rd step.

This is identifying the the the the symptoms of selfishness and self centeredness. The results of selfishness and self centeredness in our lives. Any questions? Fear. Fear.

45 more minutes. Fear. We can get through this 4 step in 45 minutes. I'll have set a record. But you know what?

We spent so much time on 3, and I've never done that. But I see that I wasn't reaching nobody. I mean, it was like no. I'd like to say it's California. Well, I I I would love to agree with that, of course, but I find out that that's not true.

I have the same problem with my guys down at Goose Town. They missed it completely. Jeez Louise. Fear. Notice that the word fear notice fear.

Fear is an evil and corroding thread. The fabric of our existence is shot through and through with it. Fear, bracket alongside difficult. Notice that the word fear, evil and corroding thread, sets into motion. Now listen to this.

Once again, remember what I said. These three things things that we're doing shut off the sunlight of the spirit, fear, sexual conduct, and resentment. These things set us in a position to be hurt, and a position to continue to hurt other people. These three things, these three areas of our lives. Notice that the word fear, it sets into motion trains of circumstances which brought us misfortune we felt we don't deserve.

Remember that. These people are hurting me, and I ain't done nothing. Were you frightened? Well, yeah. But then we ourselves set the ball rolling.

Sometimes we think fear ought to be classified with stealing. And that, my friends, means that stealing is not good. It seems to cause a lot of trouble. Okay. Here's directions.

Here's directions for fear. We have taken all our resentments, these columns, these pieces of paper. We have put them over here. We're done with that for now, okay? We're not throwing it away.

We're just moving it aside. We're gonna need it later. There's a guy in Cleveland, his sponsor told him to burn to burn his inventory. It's a true story, honest to God. He said, and as the smoke goes up to heaven, offer all of these things to God.

God, that shit sounds great. Don't it? I mean, really, doesn't it sound great? So he got the inventory, went to the Metro Park system, started a little fire. The smoke was going up.

The wind come and blew the papers into the grass. The grass caught on fire. He started putting the grass out. He caught on fire. They had airlift to send this guy to the metro burn unit.

And if it's said in this book if it's said in this book to set all of this resentment on fire, I would tell you to set it on fire, but wear asbestos. But it doesn't say that. It doesn't say that. Yeah. You know, you wanna know what the problem was with this with this story I just told you?

He didn't have directions. Right. He trusted a human being instead of this book in god. He trusted a human being instead of this book in god. And I swear to you, when we get done here tomorrow, no one can blow smoke up your ass.

You might let them, but you can't say I didn't know. You can't use that anymore. I didn't know. Here's fear. Here's the directions for fear.

We have our we have our inventory put aside. Here's fear. This is our this is a heading on our piece of paper. Fear. Got it?

Here's the directions. Here's for fear. Before we get into directions, let me clarify a couple real fast things on here. One school, say page 69, to middle of the paragraph. One school allows no man no flavor for his fare, the other would have us all on a straight pepper diet.

It says this, I want to stay out of Morgan's sexual conduct. I will not be the arbitrator of anyone's sexual conduct. Whatever Morgan has gotta do, or gotta do, or gotta get done, or whatever it is, it's not my job. I wanna stay out of this controversy as to how you should do it. Here's what it says in this book, we want God alone to be the judge of our sex situations.

That's his job and God's job. Sometimes talking with others is a good idea, but I'm and that's what it says in the book, but we avoid hysterical thinking and advice. First thing, I'm not gonna tell you what to do. Not ever if I can help it. Directions now.

Any questions on that? What does that mean? What is it let's dumb guy it. Let's dumb guy it. It.

No sex for the 1st year in Alcoholics Anonymous. Anybody ever hear that? We want to stay out of this controversy. We don't wanna be the arbitrators of anyone's sexual conduct. Let god alone judge our sexual situations.

Does that answer that question? Does that dumb guy it for you? Okay. Let's go to page 68. You got me?

We review our fears thoroughly. How you got me to sex? I'll never know. How it must have been that blouse falling off her shoulder, and it just that's it. That's all it took.

We review our fears thoroughly. Oh. Oh. I'm not a human being? Sure I am.

We review our fears thoroughly, the directions for fear. The directions for fear. We review our fears thoroughly. We put them down on paper. What do we know for sure now?

We have to have paper. We have to have paper. We have to have pencil. And we're no longer we're no longer doing? No.

What are we doing? Just reviewing them. That's all we're doing. No more columns. No more none of that other stuff that we've already done.

That's a done deal. We're just gonna review our fears, put them down on paper. Any questions? Pieces of cake now, ain't it? Hell, yeah.

We you are there. We'll review our fears and put them down on oh. Oh, okay. But we did our resentment, and we already got fears written down, don't we? In our 3rd column and in our 5th column, we got fears written down.

Part of the multiple choice, part of the things that we tag, and what our actions was to them. Okay. We review our fears thoroughly. Put them down on paper, even though we had no resentment in connection with them. So we got fears that we've got written down in resentment.

Now we're gonna put our fears that we have written down whether there's no resentment with them or not. Right? Yes? No? Yes.

Yes. Yes. What do you what? Okay. What are you afraid of?

Snakes. Snakes. Relapse. Overbear you don't like women at all? Overbearing women.

I know. Pigs. Scared of pigs? Yes. They got gas.

Pigs. Ties. What? Controlling men. What are you scared of?

You scared of? Car wreck. Car wrecks. Car wrecks. What is it?

Car. But did you have resentment with the IRS? No. We've already got that, ain't it? What else?

Death. Death. Oh, a good one. Death. Hardly anybody ever mentions that.

Death. The dark. The dark. Boogeyman. Hey.

It's your inventory. Is it already taken care of in the damaged heat dumpers? We've already got it written down. We've already got it written down. You got that?

We already got it written down. You don't wanna write it down again? Write it down again. I don't give a shit. Write it down again.

Okay. Now does that give you an example of fears? Jason? Yeah. I'm sorry.

Okay. Any other questions on fear? All we're doing is reviewing our fears and writing them down on paper. Any questions? Simple.

Simple. What? What, baby? What? Here's what it says.

It says, we asked ourselves why we had them. Why do you have this fear of snakes? Got bit by 1. Got bit by 1. Why do you have this fear of, cops?

They're gonna get arrested. Arrested by them? Why do you have this fear of the dark? Because I was in it wait. Woah.

Woah. Woah. Woah. What the hell? We alright?

Oh, okay. Here's what it says. It says now listen to this. Listen to this. It says we asked ourselves why we had them, and then it gives us the answer.

Because all it is, you can question at any given time. Maybe that's true, maybe that ain't true, maybe I don't know why I'm afraid of the dark. I'm absolutely no lie I'm afraid of the dark. Caroline, it's not natural. It's not natural.

It's irrational, isn't it? But we still have that fear, don't we? Here's what it says. It says this. It says we ask ourselves why we have these fears, and it wasn't because self reliance failed us.

Now just think about that for a split second. I have every fear that I have because I've been trusting myself to get rid of it, and I'm powerful enough to do that. Oh, yeah. Was you ever afraid of riding a 2 wheel bike? No.

Did you get over that fear? No. Would you write down 2 wheel bike? No. Why?

Because you got over it. Who did you turn to to get rid of the fear? Simple as that, isn't it? I don't need God to get rid of that fear because I got rid of it myself. So every fear that you have is simply because you're not strong enough to get rid of it.

Here's what it says. This is what it says. Self reliance, which is what we talked about the bike ride, was as good as far as it went, but it didn't go far enough. Some of us had once had self great self confidence. That's me.

That's me. Damn near cocky. But when it fully didn't solve the fear problem or any other, when it made it cocky, it made it worse. That's me. That's me.

Does this make sense to you? The reason you have every fear is because you're not powerful enough to get rid of it. That makes sense. Watch this. It says this, we are now on a different basis.

The basis of trusting and rely upon God. Where do we get on that basis? 3rd step. We trust infinite God rather than finite selves. Well, again, 3rd step.

We are in the world to play the role that he assigns. He's gonna be the director, we're gonna be the actor. If he's gonna be the father, we're gonna be the children. We're reinforcing that third step, the archway to freedom. Once again, just to the extent that we think he would have us and humble and rely upon him, does he enable us, you and I, to match calamity with serenity.

So when you and I come up against calamity and serenity, if we match that calamity with serenity, we're trusting god. If we match calamity with this insane response of violence that was always mine, Violence. I'm not trusting God at all. I'm trying to get rid of the fear myself, ain't it? We can laugh at those who think spirituality is a way of weakness paradoxically is a way of strength.

The verdict of the there's no directions. There's no directions. Paradoxically, it is a way of strength. The verdict of the ages means that faith that the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage.

They trust their god. And remember what I told you, every time you write something down on this inventory, your faith increases. You trust god more. And what we just read is this, if your faith encourage increases, what do you become? Courageous.

Your courage increases. That's what we just read. Here's directions now. Ready? We have this this this fear, all of these fears written down, and we realize once again, to the intelligence and the faith.

We're going to the facts and the end of faith. The intelligence is this, we write down our fear. The intelligence is this, we realize that we have these fears because we're not strong enough to get rid of them. The faith is this, we and instead, we let him demonstrate to us what he can do. We ask God to remove all of these fears that we got, direct our attention to what he would have us be.

You wanna know what happens when that happens? When we do this, at once, we commence to outgrow fear. Any questions? That's the end of the fear inventory. Ain't that just so simple it's unbelievable?

I write down I write down the fears that I have. I realize that the reason I have these fears is because I'm not strong enough to get rid of it, powerful enough to get rid of it. If I have done a 3rd step, I'm now in the business of trusting God instead of me, then I will just go ahead and ask God to remove the fears. And at once, I'll commence to outgrow them. Does that mean the fear is gonna go away?

Does it mean it's gonna get smaller? It means I'm gonna get stronger. I will outgrow these fears. Just as I outgrew them little US kids when I was 5, they didn't get any smaller, did they? No.

What happened? I outgrew them. It's as simple as that, and it's the same way with fears. Any questions? Any questions?

This is so dumb, ain't it? And it's just like that little dumb guy approaching you. You see where that come from? Does that make sense to you? You're damn right.

Any questions? What? Any questions? No questions. Okay.

Here's the secret. You ready for a secret? We're done with fear. Take this, what we have written down, and put it on the side over here where we resent it. We're done with it.

Any questions? Nothing? Anything. Something. Nothing.

It's almost self explanatory. It's not even a mystery anymore, is it? I mean, hell, who couldn't do an inventory? Is there anybody in here who could not now sit down and write this shit down with the information that you got? No.

It would be imposs where did my little juju go? Did I scare her out? She ran away. That's her. She's on her fear list.

Okay. What's next? You bet. Now about sex, and that means this. That means this.

Got it? That means we got another piece of paper, another tablet of paper, whatever you got of paper, and we're gonna put sex as the next heading. The 3rd area of our life that shuts out the sunlight of the spirit. The 3rd area of our life that allows us to continue hurting people. The 3rd area of our life that allows other people to continue to hurt us.

We place ourselves in that position. It says, many of us needed an overhauling here. No directions. But above all, we tried to be sensible about the question. No directions, except to be sensible.

That's the only thing they're asking you to do. I already pointed out, in advance, that we that you and I are gonna be stay out of the controversy. We're not gonna be the arbitrators of anyone else's sex life. That's our business. That's what it tells us to do.

Our business is not your business is not my business. My business is to take you through these steps if you need help. Here's directions, page 69, page 69. 2nd paragraph down. 2nd paragraph down.