The International Group of Stockholm's "12-Step Workshop Weekend" in Stockholm, Sweden

Hey,

going on here. OK,

we're good. I got it. You need me to be talking to Mike. OK, Good morning.

Morning. My name is Theresa, an alcoholic. Theresa how y'all doing

like big book study?

Always start off big book study like that stretch. Get ready,

here we go. Can we start out with the Serenity Prayer? God

grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Thank you. We're going to go through the steps. I'm going to utilize the big book and I Mary also referred to the 12:00 and 12:00. We'll be looking up words in the dictionary

and if you we're going to have questions

and we'll be taking a couple of breaks. It's good to stretch out and let your brain decompress for a minute.

And also if I'm going to ask from time to time when I'm looking up words in the dictionary, if you need it translated in Swedish. No, it's not called Swedish. Swedish, yeah.

Because I also feel, see, Spanish is my first language

and there's certain things that when you translate it in English, I don't feel it the same the way I understand it in Spanish or there's certain words in Spanish that you can't really explain it in English. So if that's a that's available to you, I want you to be able to take it in. What I learned about the 12 and 12 and the Big Book, that it was personal and that it wasn't as technical, that it's something that I needed to experience through my heart

and that as I read it and studied it, that I studied it for me.

So someone always said don't let anybody else read the Big Book for you.

And so even though I attended meetings, we have 12 and 12 meetings, Big book studies are listening to someone else read it. I need to read it for myself. And so we'll take our time. I'm not in a rush because we all, I hope, plan on being sober for a while,

and this is a process of uncovering, discovering and discarding. So I understand that how I understand the work today will change tomorrow, right?

Because our consciousness changes, my understanding, my experience changes. So I don't take everything so literal in that sense. This is the way it is and there's no, I got to keep an open mind. And so each person is free to explore and understand it the way they need to for right now. So it really doesn't matter how much time you have if you're old, if you're new in the middle, just hopefully as I'm going through it and sharing it based on my experience, that again, you're able to identify with similarities. Not

that is the greatest thing that has helped me in Alcoholics Anonymous, not get caught up in the literal story, but the feelings I identify with. For example, I haven't been to jail. Jail is a yet for me, and I used to hear the word yet means you're eligible too.

So even though I haven't been to jail, that does not mean that that is not something that will never happen. Perhaps one day it will. So because of that, when someone is sharing about jail, I listen to the similarities of the feelings

to be able to identify what they're talking about. I've been in bondage. I've been in a place that I couldn't get out and I wanted to, and that's when I'm listening for. I may not have had iron bars, but I know what that is. To be somewhere and you want to get out and you can't. I know what it is to be somewhere where you feel restricted

and the freedom is taken away and how uncomfortable that is, or someone else dictating what I should do with my life and I don't have the power to make choices. And that's the similarity. And I know what that feels like. So therefore, now I do the nod with the other alcoholic who's been in jail because I get it,

which then helps me in what way it helps me Because I don't want to go to jail now because I know what it feels like.

I don't need to go to jail to find out what you were talking about because you did it for me.

So I go, cool. I don't want to go there. So I think I'm gonna keep coming back.

So I hope that you're able to apply that as we go through the book and the steps, because it's a workshop. I'm just going to kind of braise over them. I guess like a little summary to give an idea

because certainly it's a, it's broken down in the book so intense that we'll be here like for days if we really went through each step, just kind of like dug our teeth into it. So I'm nervous as usual. Again, I don't really like talking to people in front of people, but here we are and I get to stay sober as a result of it. I always like to begin going into the book by the very first page. I like to take everybody there, which is the cover page.

I don't know, here, everybody I can go here. They'll cover

ready at the cover.

You need a book?

Anybody need a book? Do we have some books to share with anybody? At least temporary. You can't write in it, but you can follow. Are there any books else over there?

Okay, just can't write in it or anything unless you want to purchase it.

She needs one. Do you want one? She over here Nicole. Oh, you want to share? OK,

anybody else? Book

today was highlighted.

Did we find a a book in Swedish? A big book? Okay. Anyone have one? No, okay,

aye,

I'm like, everybody needs to have a big book. That's scary

on my sponsee's poor thing. As soon as I start talking and I'm like OK on page so and so they scrambling around looking for their book. Like you don't know what your big book is. It's not a coaster. What you doing?

I had one sponsor she couldn't find and I was just reading and reading and talking. So she went online. So you always can find the big book online. So that was funny. As I was talking, it was in Hawaii. She was like, OK, I'm with you.

So the cover page, everybody there

right here always start, I always start outgoing into book here they told me open it up to the very first page. Cover page is blank, correct?

That means you don't know nothing.

They told me to read that. They said read that. I said it's blank. They said exactly, you don't know nothing.

So we look at that for a few minutes. I tell people, let's read that, shall we? So that you look at the blank page, not close your eyes. I'm not asking you to go into a meditative state. I'm asking you to look at the blank page

so you can let go everything you think you know, everything you think you believe, that you can set aside so that you can have an open mind

to a new experience. It doesn't matter how many times I go in this book, I go in with a new experience as though I never read it before.

It doesn't matter what happened before you got here. It doesn't matter what's going to happen when you leave here. Only right now, this moment. Leave your resume and your IQ at the door. We're not interested.

I don't care

how brilliant you are, you're not that brilliant because you're in a A.

Couldn't work that one out, could you? So.

So let's just take a few minutes to read our blank page.

And let's take a deep breath in

and out.

Alrighty,

let's see what we get started. I want to first start. You know what I have? You guys have the 4th edition, right? So you help me out. I got my third but forward to the 1st edition

tells me exactly what this book is for originally. What's funny, originally the book used to have they don't have it anymore because I think we learned we lost the trademark. But in the very beginning of the book where it says Alcoholics Anonymous,

it says the story of how thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism,

The story of how not just the story, but how many thousands of men and women have recovered, Ed, from alcoholism. And I want us to look up, look up recovered For me, Wendy recovered.

And they used to have the circle. We have the circle in the 3rd edition and the circle of the circle and the triangle. And it says Unity service and recovery, but they've taken it out in the 4th edition. I think we lost the trademark,

but I like that circle.

Recover,

regain possession, use control, return to a healthy consciousness or to a normal state or position. Obtain of secure by a legal process. So what's the return to the consciousness? Return to health consciousness or to normal state or position?

Return to health and a conscious. So that means that these thousands of men and women have returned to health. They don't stay sick.

I need to say that

because we get that a little twisted. We walk around here still sick and if you're still sick then we're missing something.

I'm an alcoholic, but it says alcoholism. Just kinda interesting. That is a we've recovered from drinking

alcoholism,

which is spiritual, physical and mental state. That's why you have unity, recovery and service. The three legacies of our program. We regained and restored to health thousands of men and women and how, and I don't know about you, but they gave me hope. The very beginning of this book gave me hope. This is how they did it

and I don't know about you, but I wanted to be restored. Somebody restore me. Do something is what I'm doing and working.

That's the very beginning of this book

and this is how they did it. Now they pretty much say I don't know what you're going to do, but this is what we've done and this is our experience in which I love it. It's not their opinion, it's their experience. How thousands. And it's real funny. They'll say actually when Bill did this, he put in thousands because it sound better, but it was really hundreds, but it sounded juicier. Thousands

of men and women have recovered from alcoholism

then also says Alcoholics Anonymous World Service Inc, New York City. I got 1976, what you got 2001, 2001, I got the 3rd edition.

Also, I'd like to point out the beginning of the book before I get into it. They have other books. They have these other books listed. I learned in the big book everything was important. The entire book. The pages didn't type on it just to have them there, just to kind of fill in the blanks. So these are the books I have listed as the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions.

Alcoholics Anonymous comes of age as Bill sees it, Doctor Bob and the good old timers pass it on booklets Came to believe and Living Sober. What else you have

daily reflections, experience, strength and hope. A A and prison inmate to inmate came to believe. So that means these are other books I need to get.

Like any textbook, when we read a textbook in school, they give us reference books and it's important that I get those books. They have them listed there for a reason. You want to find out more about who you are and what you are and what you're doing. We got it in other books. Just thought I'd make a little FYI of that. So if you don't have that in your library, I think there's a table over there. I hope you have some of them. You might want to get them that's available to you. OK, I just want to go over real quick. Forward to the 1st edition.

I got XI. I I what you.

This is the forward as it appeared in the first printing of the 1st edition in 1939.

We have Alcoholics Anonymous a more than 100 men and women who have recovered Edie from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body Seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. What seemingly.

I like looking up words. Webster keeps me humble.

I think I know what it means.

I have seemingly apparent but perhaps not real,

a parent, but perhaps not real. So I may feel like I have a hopeless state of mind and body, but really I don't.

Isn't that cool?

I think I'm all jacked up, but really, I'm not

a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. There is hope.

Well, once I come from, I thought there was no hope, but they're telling me there is hope. It appears as though you're hopeless, but you're not. Your experience may tell you that maybe you're hopeless because you've tried everything possible and it hasn't worked out. But perhaps there's a better way, a way in which now you have hope.

Mind and body, My mind and my body. It says to show other Alcoholics, and it's an italic. Anything that's an italic is very important.

That's why they put it in italic,

to show other Alcoholics precisely how we have recovered. Precisely what's that

accurately expressed? Definite. Exact.

This is exactly the way they have recovered how they have recovered. Meaning they didn't write this book about something that sounded good, but they did something else,

which is important to me.

That's why I'm particular about how people tell me how they have recovery. Have thousands of men and women recovered the way you did?

I don't have room for chances.

I don't have that kind of spare room. I don't have room for oops, Oh my God, that didn't work.

Uh oh. I don't have the luxury of that.

So this is refreshing for me

when it says precisely how we have, this is exactly how they did it.

How about you? But that's important to me,

yes, the italics and the Swedish translation are not there really. So it's just typed regular.

Oh, I guess they thought that that wouldn't, like, really capture you OK.

Oh you don't do italics?

Oh do they have it like that? Quotations? No. But if your for instance referring to book title in text then you have times. Oh, I see.

Really. How exciting.

Oh, so underline it,

but underline it then if you don't have it, if you don't have it in in that book, underline it. Yeah. Because that's an very important piece. Precisely, like exactly how they did it. You know, that's not something that I can just brush through. Oh, this is how they did it. That's nice.

It's like this is exactly how we did it.

Maybe they weren't quite sober when they were translating.

She's serious. Look at her face. She was like, that ain't funny. I'm serious.

It it says. Is that

the main purpose of this book? Is why they have an italic? The main purpose of this book is to tell you how exactly how they did it is the main purpose of this book. So if you want to know exactly how they did it, that is the purpose of this book.

There was a time that they saw they had was this book.

All you had was the big book. When Bill and Doctor Bob in the first hundred, they would send this big book out to people in a village, in a town, in a country that had no a a meetings,

had nobody. All they got was this book.

It talks about envision for you

so that in this book you're able to go through this

exactly the way they did it and recover just with the book. Have it in the jails today. There are places today that's all they got is the book. And then from the book they gather together and begin helping other people and found one another. And that's why now we're in 90 countries and you have thousands and thousands of meetings all over the world. But it started out just with this book.

Now, that doesn't mean that today we just take the book and I don't need to go to meetings. I don't need to talk to nobody,

let me just make that clear. People like Teresa's there. We just need the book

because it's about 1 drunk talking to another and that's how it mushroom. But it started with just a book. But this is the main purpose of the book. I'm reading this so that we understand why are we going through the steps in this book? Because it's in the book because this is how they did it. The steps are outlined in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill did the 12 and 12 after he was 15 years sober.

The purpose of the 12 and 12 was to give everyone, including the general public, an idea of what the 12 steps were. Cause a lot of people didn't know what are the 12 steps? What does this program do? And he came up with the 12 and 12 and he had 15 years of sobriety by that time. And when he did it, if you read the 12:00 and 12:00, it's just the same thing that's in the big book. He just elaborates a little bit more. It's about it. It wasn't like 15 years later he found out a whole new idea of the steps.

The same exact thing

for them. We hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further love that word was that word often certification. How you say that authentic

authentication will be necessary, so convincing was convincing.

Firmly persuade, firmly persuade and no further. You got all sorts indication also authentication

proof, proof

undisputed origins, genuine reliable or trustworthy, reliable or trustworthy undisputed bull origin, right?

Thanks,

these pages will prove so convincing. That means that I don't need to change nothing.

It's so convincing what I need to change.

It won't be necessary. Doesn't need to be altered. I don't need to add to it. That's important for me. I don't need to change it. I got the kind of mind that I could read this and go that don't sound right.

I don't think so. You know what? I'm not going to do that part. I think I'm going to do this other part. My cousin explained, She's a tell me this story. She says she you love her cake. It's called the sunshine cake. That's her name. Sunshine Trace is beautiful sunshine cake. And you come to her house and you have a Peach. You got love this cake.

Can I have the recipe? She writes out the recipe for you. You go home and you look at it and you go, hmm, eggs. I don't really like eggs. I think I'm going to put something else instead. Milk. I'm lactose intolerant. Milk makes my stomach turn. That's very uncomfortable. I don't like the taste of milk. I'm going to add water

flower. Whoo that's messy. Messes up the kitchen.

You start changing her recipe when you're done. You don't have sunshine cake,

you got some other cake.

The same thing with the program. I follow the recipe because this is precisely how they did it. I don't need to change it.

You can change it, but I don't know if you're gonna get the same results and I want their results.

We think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic, will help everyone to better understand that includes the non alcoholic, the family members, the wives, the employers, coworkers, neighbors, friends. To better understand the alcoholic, including the alcoholic.

To better understand myself because I'm confused about what's wrong with me.

Many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person,

including me.

I have a disease that tells me I don't have it.

I won't dare say that I'm sick. Oh no.

Later on in chapter to the wives. It's funny how the wife says we always said our husbands were sick. We didn't realize how close to the truth we were.

We thought it was a different kind of sick,

it says. Many do not comprehend, Many do not understand that the alcoholic is sick.

If I understand that I'm very sick, then perhaps I'm not trying to figure out how to make myself OK.

It's like having this horrible disease. If I don't want to accept that I have this disease, I can't go get treatment.

If I don't want to accept the fact that I have diabetes, why would I go get insulin? Why I don't have diabetes? I can eat apple pie all day long.

It's until I accept the fact that I have diabetes. I go to the doctor and I follow the doctor's prescription. I don't, it doesn't say any hear anything in here that I have to like being sick. It just says to understand that I'm sick is a little different.

And besides, we are sure that our way of life has its advantages to all their way of life.

They say their way of life has its advantages to all. That's important that I start out with that so that we understand what we're doing. Then we go into these steps. It's not just some cute little thing for us to do. And it also emphasizes the importance of the steps because this is how they did it. This is how they recovered. And I don't know about you, but I want to recover. I didn't want to hang around here going. I'm so sick.

My life is just miserable. I can't drink anymore. That's such a the wives call it a killjoy.

The worst thing to do is to be around an untreated alcoholic. Scary. Or I want to go take it to the bar and buy you a drink. So bad,

scary and untreated alcoholic. You're welcome though. We can't throw you out of AA. But my goodness, we'll be praying for you.

We practice a lot of patience and tolerance around here with untreated alcoholic. We, like, keep coming back,

poor thing.

Lori wants you to be happy one day.

I have an opening up for questions. Any questions of what I just covered

questions. Yes,

in the beginning,

the alcoholic didn't have anyone like you break down the book for me. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, like we have right here. How did they manage?

How did they, how did they see this? You know,

how did they see it coming?

They had you and Charlie.

They have me and Charlie

later on they did a lot of people would send for Bill and Bill did a lot of traveling, especially on the 12 traditions later on when they came out to help the groups people because it's it made them available. What they said earlier on also in the book was that I hope that you can send this letters as about about your experience. So they wrote a lot to Bill in the first 100 people

asking a lot of questions. So they did a lot of correspondence. They also the Grapevine came out later, which people had an opportunity to learn from one another through the Grapevine

and people begin starting groups among themselves. But it tells me earlier on in the forward that this is what actually end up happening

later on. I'm just going to read it to you, but it says a, a group grew by leaps and bounds. I'm on the end of the forward of X for this. For this there were two principal reasons,

the large numbers of recovery and the reunited homes. These made their impressions everywhere. Now this is the numbers they gave me of Alcoholics who came to AA and really tried. 50% got sober at once, 50%

and remain that way.

25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with a A showed improvement. Other thousands came to a few AA meetings and at first decided they didn't want the program, but great numbers. Of these, about two out of three began to return as time passed

and they started to have meetings. So the beauty of this program is that it's a daily living and a practice. So when someone took the book, they began to do what was written and their experience and they began practicing it. I think that for them, the dedication and the commitment to doing that because of their desperation and honest desire to want to stop drinking,

allow them to focus more on what was written as opposed to today. We can get lost kind in the meetings.

So I see it as a different time and a different place where this is all I got. And so I'm going, you know, I mean, I'm just like eating this like air. And so immediately after they've done all this and they get to 12, they're running out looking for another drunk like in hospitals and bars and just kind of like I help you people 'cause it says here, you know, that I got to help you as well as I'm excited because something's happened to me. That's what happened to Bill. And then eventually the numbers grew and some people will probably went to the

and drank again and that was OK too. It's funny, in the chapter working with others, it says that you should loan your book to somebody. How many people have done that? We don't want to give up our book is this was alone our book. Loan it to this new friend and let him read it. We scared we might not get it back.

So I hope that answers your question that people, I think there was a sense of desperation where they immediately was like, I'm a do whatever this is and see what happens. And I'm sure some didn't make it

and that was OK and some did.

Are you out in any treatment centers giving this? Do I do treatment centers? No. I do a big book study every Sunday morning at 11:00 AM. And treatment centers come to the big book study. Yeah. Because if, if the treatment center is, I think many treatment centers would just, you know, go to hell.

If, if people knew how, how much health you could get from this book. Really.

There are some treatment centers in in the Los Angeles area and they're still going to hell.

There's a place

I'll tell you they paid $30,000 for a big book

alcoholism. As I begin reading the book, alcoholism is an insidious disease,

It's it's amazing to me, even equipped with this information, we still get loaded. There's some treatment facilities that aren't 12 step models

and today there are treatment facilities that have at least planted the sea

and, and I believe in planting the seed

that later on in the step 12 and working with others, it tells me I am not on a crusade nor am I a reformer and we're not looking to reform people and people don't become charity projects where I need you to recover. I just need to focus on what I'm doing. And I was in a treatment facility. I went to the 12 step mini house. There was twenty women and they told me out of the 20 women, only one of you are going to stay sober. And do you know what? I'm the only one

now. I don't think I wanted it more than any of the women that were there.

I don't Remember Me having a worse situation than them or even more dedicated. I don't know why that was the case, but I'm the only one. Some have returned, just like the numbers, some have died. I sponsored one of the women I was in a recovery home with

and it's all good, so I hope that helps.

It's all good.

Any more questions before we get in? We're going to jump right into step one, yes,

and written for other people as well. It was for us to understand the steps further and more in depth, as well As for other people to understand more. What do we do? People ask a lot of questions. What is a exactly and what are these 12 steps and 12 traditions?

And so Bill wrote them out in more detail, especially the 12 traditions which has saved us. The 12 traditions has saved Alcoholics Anonymous. That's my opinion and what I've heard because the Washingtonians and you have the Oxford Group, you had a lot of other groups that were doing similar thing and what

the area in which they failed was the the structure that the 12 traditions have given us. You imagine a bunch of drunks trying to run stuff,

how scary that would be. I love the 12 traditions and the 12 traditions has helped me also to apply those to my life in my work and my family.

I love the 12 traditions. It helped me to keep coming back to a A. Why would it came in here? Without the traditions, this would have been so dysfunctional. This would have been a mess. I can have that in my house.

I like we all trusted servants. You know, you can't run nothing. Nobody's in charge. No dues or fees. Like this has amazed people how much an organization like this has grown all over the world. Different races, denomination, religious practices. It's amazing that doesn't happen.

That's the miracle. Miracle is something that's unexplainable. This is unexplainable. We're a group that don't normally mix. What are we doing in here with each other?

We talking to one, and you know what I'm saying? That's crazy. It's because of the troll traditions.

That's nice.