aa Spoken Here Community Group
Fellowship Where you can share your thoughts, feelings, stories and get support to gain and continue sobriety.
We are going to know a new freedom
and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past
nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity
and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone,
we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity
will disappear.
Self-seeking will slip away.
Fear of people and of economic insecurity
will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle
situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us
what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises?
We think not.
They are being fulfilled among us --
sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
They will always materialize if we work for them.
c. 1976, 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 83-4
and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past
nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity
and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone,
we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity
will disappear.
Self-seeking will slip away.
Fear of people and of economic insecurity
will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle
situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us
what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises?
We think not.
They are being fulfilled among us --
sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
They will always materialize if we work for them.
c. 1976, 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 83-4
"Then they outlined the spiritual answer and program of action which a hundred of them had followed successfully. Though I had been only a nominal churchman, their proposals were not, intellectually, hard to swallow. But the program of action, though entirely sensible, was pretty drastic. It meant I would have to throw several lifelong conceptions out of the window. That was not easy. But the moment I made up my mind to go through with the process, I had the curious feeling that my alcoholic condition was relieved, as in fact it proved to be. Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems.â
2nd Step Promises (Page 50)
Here are thousands of men and women, worldly indeed. They flatly declare that since they have come to believe in a Power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward that Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking. In the face of collapse and despair, in the face of the total failure of their human resources, they found that a new power, peace, happiness, and sense of direction flowed into them. This happened soon after they wholeheartedly met a few simple requirements.
3rd Step Promises (Page 63)
When we sincerely took such a position, all sorts of remarkable things followed. We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well. Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs. More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life. As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn.
4th Step Promises (Page 70)
If we have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. We have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies, for we look on them as sick people. We have listed the people we have hurt by our conduct, and are willing to straighten out the past if we can.
5th Step Promises (Page 75)
We pocket our pride and go to it, illuminating every twist of character, every dark cranny of the past. Once we have taken this step, withholding nothing, we are delighted. We can look the world in the eye. We can be alone at perfect peace and ease. Our fears fall from us. We begin to feel the nearness of our Creator. We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience. The feeling that the drink problem has disappeared will often come strongly. We feel we are on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe.
10th Step Promises (Page 84-85)
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality - safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.
11th Step Promises (Page 86-87)
On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives. In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don't struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while. What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind.
12th Step Promises (Page 89)
Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Remember they are very ill. Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends - this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.
n
1. the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence; guess
2. the inference or conclusion so formed
3. (Spirituality, New Age, Astrology & Self-help / Alternative Belief Systems) Obsolete interpretation of occult signs
vb
to infer or arrive at (an opinion, conclusion, etc.) from incomplete evidence
[from Latin conjectūra an assembling of facts, from conjicere to throw together, from jacere to throw]
conjecturable adj
conjecturably adv
conjecturer n
Collins English Dictionary â Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition 2003. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun 1. conjecture - a hypothesis that has been formed by speculating or conjecturing (usually with little hard evidence); "speculations about the outcome of the election"; "he dismissed it as mere conjecture"
speculation
hypothesis, theory, possibility - a tentative insight into the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena; "a scientific hypothesis that survives experimental testing becomes a scientific theory"; "he proposed a fresh theory of alkalis that later was accepted in chemical practices"
2. conjectureconjecture - a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence
speculation, supposition, surmisal, surmise, guess, hypothesis
opinion, view - a message expressing a belief about something; the expression of a belief that is held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof; "his opinions appeared frequently on the editorial page"
divination - successful conjecture by unusual insight or good luck
3. conjecture - reasoning that involves the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence
abstract thought, logical thinking, reasoning - thinking that is coherent and logical
theorisation, theorization - the production or use of theories
supposal, supposition - the cognitive process of supposing
Verb 1. conjecture - to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds; "Scientists supposed that large dinosaurs lived in swamps"
hypothesise, hypothesize, speculate, theorise, theorize, hypothecate, suppose
reconstruct, retrace, construct - reassemble mentally; "reconstruct the events of 20 years ago"
anticipate, expect - regard something as probable or likely; "The meteorologists are expecting rain for tomorrow"
formulate, explicate, develop - elaborate, as of theories and hypotheses; "Could you develop the ideas in your thesis"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.or is it written that those pages are actual promise Just written words No labels of these as promises Only Mans conception
"First-hand" (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
adverb (also firsthand) pronunciation symbol/ËfÉËstâ-/ adv
If you experience something first-hand, you experience it yourself
i.e. Most of the older reporters have experienced war first-hand.
Billy
If you do not believe there are over 200 promises in the Big Book it is because you have not experienced them "first hand". That is why the 12th step states:
"Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics..."
The promises 'will always materialise if we work for them' - I love that 'we' word :)
Strangely enough, these Step 9 promises started to come true as I went around making my amends (before we are half way through...) so they certainly do come true but within context - we have to do the work and turn our will and lives to the care of God /HP on a daily basis.
Other than that I don't get what the issue is here. These are promises and I have yet to see them not fulfilled in someone who has completed the 12 step process and tries to live by spiritual principles. They have come true for me in a way which I am still amazed and gobsmacked by, humbled by, made joyful by, live by.
Why is that dangerous???