We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to A.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual.

We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to A.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual.

There is something spiritual about A.A. too, and Catholic participation in it almost invariably results in poor Catholics becoming better Catholics."

There is something spiritual about an art museum or a symphony, and the Catholic Church approves of our use of them.

Your husband will see at once that he must redouble his spiritual activities if he expects to survive.

Though the family does not fully agree with dad's spiritual activities, they should let him have his head.

Why, we thought, our Society of Alcoholics Anonymous might prove to be the spearhead of a new spiritual advance!

The committee gives no spiritual advice, judges no one's conduct, issues no orders.

We found it very desirable to take this spiritual step with an understanding person, such as our wife, best friend, or spiritual adviser.

Do we lay the matter before our sponsor or spiritual adviser, earnestly asking God's help and guidance -- meanwhile resolving to do the right thing when it becomes clear, cost what it may?

Then there are those occasions when alone, or in the company of our sponsor or spiritual adviser, we make a careful review of our progress since the last time.

Often it was while working on this Step with our sponsors or spiritual advisers that we first felt truly able to forgive others, no matter how deeply we felt they had wronged us.

It is worth noting that people of very high spiritual development almost always insist on checking with friends or spiritual advisers the guidance they feel they have received from God.

Dad is not so spiritual after all, they say.

Six -- Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim.

6. Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim.

He feels a spiritual and ethical compulsion, because hundreds may be suffering within reach of his help.

Therefore, it seems plain that few of us can quickly or easily become ready to aim at spiritual and moral perfection; we want to settle for only as much perfection as will get us by in life, according, of course, to our various and sundry ideas of what will get us by.

From great numbers of such experiences, we could predict that the doubter who still claimed that he hadn't got the "spiritual angle," and who still considered his well-loved A.A. group the higher power, would presently love God and call Him by name.

"Then they outlined the spiritual answer and program of action which a hundred of them had followed successfully.

If he thinks he can do the job in some other way, or prefers some other spiritual approach, encourage him to follow his own conscience.

Though not a religious person, I have profound respect for the spiritual approach in such cases as yours.

When people presented us with spiritual approaches, how frequently did we all say, "I wish I had what that man has.

Though we work out our solution on the spiritual as well as an altruistic plane, we favor hospitalization for the alcoholic who is very jittery or befogged.

That means we have written a book which we believe to be spiritual as well as moral.

As though lying upon a sunlit beach, let us relax and breathe deeply of the spiritual atmosphere with which the grace of this prayer surrounds us.

Our Twelfth Step also says that as a result of practicing all the Steps, we have each found something called a spiritual awakening.

So, practicing these Steps, we had a spiritual awakening about which finally there was no question.

The terms "spiritual experience" and "spiritual awakening" are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms.

"Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Maybe there are as many definitions of spiritual awakening as there are people who have had them.

When a man or a woman has a spiritual awakening, the most important meaning of it is that he has now become able to do, feel, and believe that which he could not do before on his unaided strength and resources alone.

"What do you mean when you talk about a 'spiritual awakening'?" they ask.

It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.

Beginning with Step Four, we commenced to search out the things in ourselves which had brought us to physical, moral, and spiritual bankruptcy.

As we look over the list of business acquaintances and friends we have hurt, we may feel diffident about going to some of them on a spiritual basis.

Understanding our work, he can do this with an eye to selecting those who are willing and able to recover on a spiritual basis.

To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face.

If your husband is trying to live on a spiritual basis, he will also be doing everything in his power to avoid disagreement or contention.

But after a while we had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life -- or else.

Whether the family goes on a spiritual basis or not, the alcoholic member has to if he would recover.

We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that many spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness and usefulness which we should have sought ourselves.

We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience.

That is the spiritual climate in which A.A. was born, and by God's grace has nevertheless flourished.

Most emphatically we wish to say that any alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light of our experience can recover, provided he does not close his mind to all spiritual concepts.

That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.

What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.

It did not matter too much what our material condition was, but it did matter what our spiritual condition was.

One more suggestion: Whether the family has spiritual convictions or not, they may do well to examine the principles by which the alcoholic member is trying to live.

To define the word "harm" in a practical way, we might call it the result of instincts in collision, which cause physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual damage to people.

You need not remind him of his spiritual deficiency -- he will know of it.

He should concentrate on his own spiritual demonstration.

This, of course, is the process by which instinct and logic always seek to bolster egotism, and so frustrate spiritual development.

Our answer is in still more spiritual development.

Though some of his manifestations are alarming and disagreeable, we think dad will be on a firmer foundation than the man who is placing business or professional success ahead of spiritual development.

It is worth noting that people of very high spiritual development almost always insist on checking with friends or spiritual advisers the guidance they feel they have received from God.

He is going to be more interested in a demonstration of good will than in our talk of spiritual discoveries.

From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick.

Not much spiritual effort is involved in avoiding excesses which will bring us punishment anyway.

Five -- Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose -- that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

5. Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose -- that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

This hope, however, was destroyed by the doctor's telling him that while his religious convictions were very good, in his case they did not spell the necessary vital spiritual experience.

Surprisingly enough, we find such convictions no great obstacle to a spiritual experience.

One night, when confined in a hospital, he was approached by an alcoholic who had known a spiritual experience.

(*) Please be sure to read Appendix II on "Spiritual Experience."

We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience.

Your husband will be the first to say it was your devotion and care which brought him to the point where he could have a spiritual experience.

Assume on the other hand that father has, at the outset, a stirring spiritual experience.

He had begun to have a spiritual experience.

Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience.

We have found nothing incompatible between a powerful spiritual experience and a life of sane and happy usefulness.

The terms "spiritual experience" and "spiritual awakening" are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms.

The two friends spoke of their spiritual experience and told him about the course of action they carried out.

Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day.

A spiritual experience, he conceded, was absolutely necessary, but the price seemed high upon the basis suggested.

Being possessed of a spiritual experience, the alcoholic will find he has much in common with these people, though he may differ with them on many matters.

In the first flush of spiritual experience they forgave each other and drew closer together.

But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave.

Reminding ourselves that we have decided to go to any lengths to find a spiritual experience, we ask that we be given strength and direction to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences may be.

If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer.

Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences.

The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences(*) which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God's universe.

This applies, too, to other spiritual expressions which you find in this book.

Stress the spiritual feature freely.

To some people we need not, and probably should not emphasize the spiritual feature on our first approach.

He had to painfully admit that and mend his spiritual fences.

"Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."

Twelve -- Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

We shall have to separate the spiritual from the material."

But be sure you are on solid spiritual ground before you start and that your motive in going is thoroughly good.

But when we are willing to place spiritual growth first -- then and only then do we have a real chance.

He will perceive that his spiritual growth is lopsided, that for an average man like himself, a spiritual life which does not include his family obligations may not be so perfect after all.

At the start, this was all we needed to commence spiritual growth, to effect our first conscious relation with God as we understood Him.

This self-insurance has resulted in the restoration of physical, mental and spiritual health and self-respect to hundreds of men and women who would be hopelessly down and out without its unique but effective therapy."

We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.

Some of our alcoholic readers may think they can do without spiritual help.

Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.

Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.

Never talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection.

In it alcoholism was described from the alcoholic's point of view, the spiritual ideas of the Society were codified for the first time in the Twelve Steps, and the application of these Steps to the alcoholic's dilemma was made clear.

A.A.'s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.

In the midst of an understanding and sympathetic family, these vagaries of dad's spiritual infancy will quickly disappear.

We have indulged in spiritual intoxication.

Instead of treating the family as he should, he may retreat further into himself and feel he has spiritual justification for so doing.

Yet we had been seeing another kind of flight, a spiritual liberation from this world, people who rose above their problems.

All went well for a time, but he failed to enlarge his spiritual life.

The spiritual life is not a theory.

For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead.

He will perceive that his spiritual growth is lopsided, that for an average man like himself, a spiritual life which does not include his family obligations may not be so perfect after all.

The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines.

Those of us who have spent much time in the world of spiritual make-believe have eventually seen the childishness of it.

When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically.

We should not talk incessantly to them about spiritual matters.

Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions.

But his face falls when we speak of spiritual matters, especially when we mention God, for we have re-opened a subject which our man thought he had neatly evaded or entirely ignored.

Going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous.

There is talk about spiritual matters morning, noon and night.

This physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma but had failed.

The prospective partners need to be solid A.A.'s and long enough acquainted to know that their compatibility at spiritual, mental, and emotional levels is a fact and not wishful thinking.

Nearly every sound human being experiences, at some time in life, a compelling desire to find a mate of the opposite sex with whom the fullest possible union can be made -- spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical.

We are convinced that a spiritual mode of living is a most powerful health restorative.

Well, meditation is like that, too; it helps to envision our spiritual objective before we try to move toward it.

Was A.A. spiritual or was it medical?

I'd no sooner got the word 'spiritual' out of my mouth than he pounced.

We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

We have elsewhere remarked how much better life is when lived on a spiritual plane.

Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers.

When World War II broke out, this spiritual principle had its first major test.

His life actually depends upon obedience to spiritual principles.

His drunkenness and dissolution are not penalties inflicted by people in authority; they result from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles.

The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.

When dealing with such a person, you had better use everyday language to describe spiritual principles.

So we of A.A. do obey spiritual principles, first because we must, and ultimately because we love the kind of life such obedience brings.

The use of spiritual principles in such cases was not so well understood as it is now.

As our husbands began to apply spiritual principles in their lives, we began to see the desirability of doing so too.

Should they accept and practice spiritual principles, there is a much better chance that the head of the family will recover.

Now we try to put spiritual principles to work in every department of our lives.

That was great news to us, for we had assumed we could not make use of spiritual principles unless we accepted many things on faith which seemed difficult to believe.

Unless one's family expresses a desire to live upon spiritual principles we think we ought not to urge them.

"Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems.

They criticize, pointing out how he is falling down on his spiritual program.

Nothing will help the man who is off on a spiritual tangent so much as the wife who adopts a sane spiritual program, making a better practical use of it.

It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels.

Someone who knew what he was talking about once remarked that pain was the touchstone of all spiritual progress.

Both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress.

For us, material well-being always followed spiritual progress; it never preceded.

We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

As we made spiritual progress, we saw through these fallacies.

It is an all-pervading spiritual quality which today keynotes A.A. life everywhere.

We had seen spiritual release, but liked to tell ourselves it wasn't true.

If you think he will be shy of a spiritual remedy, ask him to look at the chapter on alcoholism.

But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth's description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster.

Fred would not believe himself an alcoholic, much less accept a spiritual remedy for his problem.

We never gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing.

"Then, hesitantly, I ventured to talk about the spiritual side of our program.

Twelve -- And finally, we of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance.

12. And finally, we of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance.

An alcoholic who cannot meet them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status.

We found it very desirable to take this spiritual step with an understanding person, such as our wife, best friend, or spiritual adviser.

It has been repeatedly proven among us that upon this simple cornerstone a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be built.(*)

After a bit, he said, "The way you fellows put this spiritual stuff makes sense.

The spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice.

Nothing will help the man who is off on a spiritual tangent so much as the wife who adopts a sane spiritual program, making a better practical use of it.

Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you.

Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things made us bristle with antagonism.

Their common suffering as drinkers, their common interest in A.A. and spiritual things, often enhance such unions.

Never talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection.