Some Help With A Small Task

SAT., JUNE 2, 1990, 1:11 PM
30,000 FT, HEADING EAST

None of My help is needed in your Sunday evening presentation. You will ask for My presence, and you will review the handout sufficiently to do it well. The strings? Well, it’s about time to have them changed. I don’t do those kind of miracles, and I do want you to do well in this introduction.

Your opportunity for Monday afternoon is a small task, and even though you feel ready you could use some help from Me. And here, on a plane, now a not so familiar an experience, you seek Me, and I offer some ideas for Monday.

( 1:20 / 1:38 )

It is important that you describe, briefly, your Human/Spiritual Interacting Wellspring. You have time to draw a diagram that will help with the explanation. Then develop the idea of spirit as an aspect of self that is in some state of development in each person. The facets, again should help to show that spirit can develop in quite a number of ways. The yoga concept might help here also, but be sure and relate it to Christian perspective as well.

Emphasize then the different causes for and types of addiction, even as a full-blown addiction will have some of each cause. Give special attention to the spiritual factor – lack of a positive sense of self and purpose, lack of spiritual relationships with others, lack of appreciation of the environment, and lack of relationship with Me… and some group that nurtures spirit.

The spirit of a person, however undeveloped, seeks such experiences, and when they are not a regular part of life spirit regresses… and seeks the desired feelings in alcohol and drug use. For the addict-to-be, the chemical effect is never quite enough, and so use progresses to abuse. When spirit is not strong usually there is no other aspect of self that is strong enough to overcome the addiction. The sober mind can warn of dangers, but rarely can this overcome the power that the pleasant effects can muster. Other people may try to help, but if integrity, trust, and responsibility are not prominent (for these come from spirit) the helpers become discouraged and fall away.

The physical body may cease to feel as it did early in use, and now it craves the substance just to avoid pain and bodily upset. The positive emotions are aligned with spirit, so when spirit is weak there may well be a dominance by the negative emotions, such as fear, anger, jealousy, and spite. Such a person can be jailed for misconduct, with no effect on the addiction except, perhaps, a forced “drying out.” Counseling and group work are seldom of any permanent benefit, for this is too often focused mainly on reducing or eliminating the negative behaviors, rather than on building a positive base for a drug-free life.

Now some addicts are persons with strong, well-developed spirits. Sometimes this comes from a chemical imbalance or just the continued use of some powerfully addicting substances. Also, as I have told you before, there are some addictions that are not harmful, on balance… some that are even useful and positive. You have some addictions, but they generally do not cause you trouble, for they are “managed” by a strong spirit, a good family, and a satisfying role in life, in total.

It is not necessarily bad to be dependent in certain ways. The completely independent person is rarely as happy and productive as one who has some balance among independence, dependence, and interdependence.

Addicts who emerge successful from some treatment program typically are those with a strong spirit, who can develop a modified lifestyle, without certain previous substances, but maintaining and improving other ways of altering consciousness in satisfying ways. Some become dependent on mutual help groups, such as AA. Some give of themselves to others or to causes and grow spiritually in the process… and one of the side effects is a diminished to disappearing need for alcohol or other drugs.