The 12th step of the 12 Steps

[Jhanananda]

The 12th step of the 12-step program is all about the religious experience. Everyone talks about the religious experience but no one seems to know what it is.

[Jhanananda]

While in recovery it is good to keep in mind all 12 steps

Twelve Steps

The following are the original twelve steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:[10]

1]    We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2]    Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3]    Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4]    Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5]    Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6]    Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7]    Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8]    Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9]    Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10]    Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11]    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.
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.

[Alexander]

Only a total transformation can overcome addictive behavior. Otherwise, we are just substituting one dysfunction for another. Remember to "transform totally" is to awaken spiritually: that means to become self-aware, to enter within ourselves, to repent for our past actions, and to open the spiritual heart.

Recall the story of the Harrowing of Hell: how Christ forces open the gates of hell in the days before the Resurrection. So, too, it is possible for us to overcome the hell we are trapped in here. But, only if we are violent about it, and serious.

[Jhanananda]

Only a total transformation can overcome addictive behavior. Otherwise, we are just substituting one dysfunction for another.

Yes, I agree, but my point is that cultivating the 8 stages of the religious experience is transformative in itself.  And, the record shows that AA has no better record of recovery than any other method; and most recovery programs have been shown to be next to useless.  My explanation for this is, while the 11th and 12th steps of AA clearly state meditation, and the religious experience are essential components of recovery; nonetheless, none of the recovery programs understand what meditation, and the religious experience are.