4. "Consciousness" is a key word in addiction recovery

By Tom O'Connell

"Consciousness" is a key word in addiction recovery

"Consciousness" is a key word in addiction recovery. But what is it to be "conscious"? Webster's New World Dictionary describes it as "aware of oneself as a thinking being; knowing what one is doing and why." The synonym is "aware."

The word "conscious" appears only once in the Twelve Suggested Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, in the Eleventh Step: "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our CONSCIOUS contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out."

Essentially, the Twelve Steps of this spiritual development program are designed to lead people to higher consciousness. After the addicted people have made a commitment to recovery, and done some personal house cleaning, they apply themselves to prayer and meditation in a conscious way. This is an antidote for their previous toxic behavior which increased their unconsciousness instead of heightening their awareness.

This conscious process of relating to the divine helps get people in touch with God's will, and includes the humility to ask God for guidance in both the large and small challenges of life. This journey from playing God to dependence on God is a vital one in the recovery process. And it's a major hurdle to leave the addiction habit, and choose  the spiritual growth habit instead.

For many, this therapeutic process involves a change in one's basic beliefs about God. An approach to this process is found in the writings of Emmet Fox, whose book "The Sermon on the Mount" was given to early AA members back in the 1930s to help them develop the concept of a loving God instead of a tyrannical, punishing Creator.

According to Fox, "all genuine religious experience is a search for conscious union with the One." What AA's  Eleventh Step is all about is "conscious" union. Interpreting Jesus' mission, Fox emphasizes that "the real relationship of God and man is that of parent and child. Here God ceases to be the distant potentate who deals with groveling slaves, and becomes the loving Father of us, His children."

The good news that Emmet Fox suggests is that "if God and man are indeed Father and child, man--not withstanding all his present limitations, and despite all appearance to the contrary--must be essentially Divine too, and susceptible of infinite growth and improvement and development up the rising pathway of divinity."

In other words, man's true nature has a "spiritual character, " and as he "becomes more and more conscious of it, he will expand in spiritual consciousness until he has transcended all bounds of human imagination; onward, and yet onward still."

Stating that as children of the Creator we have no business being resigned to in harmony of any kind, Fox counsels: "We are to pray and meditate, and reorganize our lives in accordance with his teaching, continuously and utiringly until our goal is attained...our victory over every negative condition is not merely possible but is definitely promised to us...'Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.'"

How do we achieve this harmony? Fox says, "There is only one way under the sun by which man can attain harmony, that is to say, health, prosperity, peace of mind--salvation, in the true sense of the word--and that is by bringing about a radical and permanent change for the better in his own consciousness."

One of Fox's most powerful statements follows: "The doctrine that what matters is one's consciousness, because your own concept is what you see, Jesus calls the Way of Life, and he says that all other doctrines are but a broad road to destruction or disappointment."

Obviously, the addictions are the most popular way to destruction and disappointment. But it is not easy to recover. Fox says, "The changing of one's consciousness is really very hard work, calling for constant unceasing vigilance and breaking of mental habits, which is sure to be troublesome for a time."

But the new Way of Life is worth the effort. "The Will of God for us always means greater freedom, greater self-expression, wider and newer and brighter experience; better health, greater prosperity, wider opportunity of service to others--life more abundant."

On the other hand, says Fox, "as long as you are not expressing His Will, it is natural for you to experience in harmony; and it is equally true that when you do express His Will, harmony will come."

Millions of recovering addicts in Twelve Step programs can attest to Emmet Fox's message. They have made the effort, changed their consciousness, and they wouldn't exchange their new awareness for a drink, a drug, or another addictive behavior.

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