I.  The Value of Having the Twelve Step Model as Background

      The value, to me at least, of having this Twelve Step model in the background is to underline
                        the addictive and destructive nature of the modern worldview
               (with its focus on the separate self and its love of the "control-over" notion of power)

     and the addictive and destructive nature of this paradigm
        when it becomes part of the institutional structures and their meaning/value components.
           (in the various institution's self-understanding,  we see reduplicated and modified
             the same focus on the separate self and the same "control-over" notion of power)

 Think of the self-understandings of the Big Four plus one:
                   1)  governmental bodies,
                    2) business corporations,
                    3) educational institutions (including media) and
                    4) religious institutions

                   plus the family as a mini-institution.

Think of the sefl-understandings of interpersonal relationships.

Here I adapt the 12 step program using a variant of the three phases of initiation: (a)  Leaving the Old Ways, (b) Initiatory or Transformative Work -- here Penance seen in the medieval structure of confression, contrition, and satisfaciton -- see Dante's Purgatorio on the three steps leading to the door to Purgatory proper -- the white step of confession, the black step of contrition and the red step of satisfaction (satis-facere = to make it enough = making amends).  For more on these steps,
go back to my homepage, scroll down to courses, click on Dante's Jouney and go to Enrichment Page for this course.

Chapter One: Recovery: The Art of Paradigm Shifts

1. We admitted we were powerless            POWERLESS              1.  Face the pain; face What is Happening
   over alcohol -- that our lives                    OURSELVES                      wrapped in
      had become unmanageable.                                                                personal/ system/ paradigm views

 Chapter Two: Pain and the Power of Shifting Assumptions

2. Came to believe that                               INVOKE A                     2.  Invoke Horatio chant & Wholeness Principle
    a Power greater                                     GREATER                             At planetary, settle for nothing less than
     than ourselves                                         POWER                                 the "ALL" -- the great mystery unfolding
     could restore us                                                                       -- reigning paradigm is only one way of looking at it.
     to sanity.                                                            In systems, invoke power of WP by reclaiming deep purpose/goals;
                                                                              In interpersonal, invoke WP as observing self, central large-minded self

Chapter Three: Power in Shifting the Context.  (Whole-Minded Shifts)

3.     Made a decision to                           SURRENDER                   3. Accept invitation to go beyond (hence
     turn our will and our lives                     TO THE GREAT                   see clearly) the existing BIG PARADIGM
     over to the care of God,                        MYSTERY                           as forming SYSTEMS that we've in turn
     as we understood Him                                                                              embodied,
                                                                                                                   Trust in Wholeness Principle
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Chapter Four  Self-Knowledge: Knowing our Paradigm Filters

4.    Made a                                            MORAL INVENTORY             4.  Be aware of how our collective paradigm
         searching and fearless .                     OF OURSELVES                            acts as a filter and how it effects
         moral inventory of ourselves                                                                       systems and personal behavior patterns
            (our conversations and actions)

Chapter Five -- Self-disclosure: Breaking through Paradigm Defense

5.    Admitted                                    "CONFESS OUR WRONG"             5.  Disclose our paradigm and its limits
     to God, to ourselves                               TO ULTIMATE,                           as it effects systems and personal
     and to another human being                          TO SELF &                                behavior -- how it causes needless
     the exact nature of our wrongs                 TO NEIGHBOR                             suffering and constricted possibilities

Chapter Six -- Self-Acceptance: Building Systems on Who We Are

6.    Were ready                                         COMMIT TO DEEP                    6.  "New Self" acceptance  -- readiness
         to have God remove                               ALL-DOMAIN                             to allow our true (interbeing) nature
         all these defects of character.              DIALOGIC CHANGE                      to be the touchstone for reshaping
         paradigm/system/personal behavior

Chapter Seven -- Dialoguing Our Way to Social Order

7.    Humbly ask Him                                 REQUEST NEW FORMS                7.  Set new rules to dialogue about
      to remove our shortcomings                OF  DIALOGIC CHANGE                     paradigms, systems,  personal actions

Chapter Eight -- Dialoguing with Our Connectedness

8.   Made a list of all the persons                     PREPARE TO                              8.  Keep whatever paradigm we
    we had harmed, and be willing                           MAKE                                            are considering in context of
     to make amends to them all                            AMENDS                                             deep interconnection.

Chapter Nine -- Connected Action

9.   Made direct amends to such                             MAKE                                     9. Act from consciousness of
          people whenever possible,                          AMENDS                                    interconnection. Learn what it
         except when to do so                                                                                       mean to act responsibly or irresponsibly
         would injure them or others.                                                                              in an "interbeing" universe.
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Chapter Ten:  Conspiring Ongoing Paradigm Evolution

10.  Continued to take personal inventory         PRACTICE ONGOING                 10.  Participate in the ongoing evolution
         and when we were wrong                             INVENTORY;                               of culturally shared paradigms
         promptly admitted it.                              ADMIT WHEN WRONG                   Monitor their effects -- harms/helps

Chapter Eleven: Walking or Sleepwalking: Philosophy or Trance?

11.  Sought through prayer & meditation                    INSTITUTE                              11.  Collectively, live more in tune with
      to improve our conscious contact                        ONGOING                                      "what reality requires." Notice how
     with God, as we understood Him,                         SPIRITUAL                                        trance bypasses the critical
     praying only for the knowledge                              PRACTICES                                     faculty,  makes us selective in
     of His will for us and the power to                                                                                  thinking, highly suggestible,
             carry that out                                                                                                          unaware of the trance.
                                                                                                                                            Continue to awaken from trance..

Chapter Twelve: Changing the Consciousness Grid

12.  Having had a spiritual awakening                        BE OF SERVICE                      12.  Be of service to the transformation
         as the result of these steps,                                    TO OTHERS;                               that will serve the planet and
         we tried to carry this message to                        WALK THE TALK                           all our kin.
         alcoholics, and to practice these                             OURSELVES
         principles in all our affairs.

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a) Face the PAIN of our paradigms (in all domains) and the actions they spawn and support

b) Reconnect with soul level, find dialogic ways to change our planetary - institutional - interpersonal lives,
   align with others in service wholeness principle, find collective ways out of the box.

c) Invoke collective creativity to keep the new ways going.

1&2.  Separate substance view is part of the problem;
             relationships [view of red relational fields that enfold golden participants] is part of the solution.

3.   Scarcity is part of the problem; abundance thinking is part of the solution.

4.   Seen only thinking is part of the problem;  attunement to seen and unseen is part of the solution.

5.  Short term thinking is part of the problem; longer term, intergenerational thinking is part of the solution.

6.  Superiority over is part of the problem; synergy with is part of the solution.
     Power over is part of the problem; partnership with is part of the solution.
    Control over is part of the problem;  collaboration with is part of the solution.

    In a sense, the last few steps can be seen as encouraging a view similar to that of Carse:

                    FINITE GAMES                                 INFINITE GAMES

                     The purpose is to win                                  The purpose is to improve the game
                     Improves through fittest surviving                 Improves through game evolving
                     Winners exclude losers                               Winners teach losers better plays
                     Winner-takes-all                                         Winning widely shared
                     Aims are identical                                        Aims are diverse
                     Relative simplicity                                        Relative complexity
                     Rules fixed in advance                                  Rules changed by agreement  [and more]

Adapted from James P. Carse.  See Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars, Mastering the Infinite Game
 

 NOTE:  One need not be a Christian or even a believer to benefit from AA.  They speak of "God as we understand Him."  One could say the highest power of nature or human aspiration.  What does seem valid is that, when immersed in and controlled by a paradigm or system, one does not have the capacity to deeply change that paradigm or system from within.  Only when we get "outside the box" can we begin to transcend the limits of the existing framework. Only when we get "outside the box" can we imagine an alternative way of thinking and begin to form an alternative paradigm.  Einstein's oft quoted remark that "we cannot solve problems from the same mode of consciousness that caused them" is in place here. Indeed, the old paradigm of modernity itself generated many of the issues that we are grappling with today.  See additional material by returning to ethics enrichment page.