Number six, we're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. So you know how I feel about God. Listen, if you're religious, fine. If you're not religious, that means you can't ever be healed because you don't believe in God. And if you are a Scientologist you can't be healed because you don't believe in God. So that's complete bullshit. Your defects of character, your defective, you're a defective toy, you're a broken toy, you're a broken character, your character has defect. You're not fucking defective, you're just doing something stupid and you've been doing it long enough that it becomes a habit whether that be smoking cigarettes, drinking too much alcohol or doing some other kind of narcotic. You are not inherently a bad person, you're not inherently defective. You're just doing something fucking stupid and you can stop. So I think that one is bullshit as well.
Okay, number seven, we're going through this in real-time. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. So again, religious things, I think it's bullshit. Already that's weakening you, to remove your shortcomings. But let's take God out of the equation. You're asking somebody else to remove your shortcomings because you're so weak, you're so defective, you're so broken, you're so on your knees that you don't have the power to fix yourself. Let's take a sidestep for a moment. I'm a change worker; I'm a hypnotist; I work with people but I do not fix people. I do not see people who are broke, I see people that do some stupid fucking behaviors and we all do, including myself, that needs someone to point them in the right way and give them some tools to fix themselves.
I'm not fixing people, I'm giving them the tools to fix themselves because they've put their hand up and said, "I need some new technology because what I'm doing right now isn't working." I'm not fixing anyone. God's not fixing anyone. I'm giving them the tools to fix themselves because they're doing something stupid. So again, another thing to keep somebody weak and at the mercy of God, if God chooses to fix you or hear you. That's another bullshit that keeps you at effect of your problem. And by the way folks, if you stay at effect of your problem, you are always going to have the problem and you are always going to be weak and you are always going to think you are broken. My whole job and any great change workers job is to take you at cause to show you how you're creating this problem in your life. And if you're creating it, the presupposition is you can stop creating it and create something better in its place.
Number eight, made a list of persons who we have harmed and become willing to make amends to them all. All right. So that one isn't too terrible. Here's my take upon it. There may be people that have passed away that perhaps you cannot speak to or make amends to in the real world if such a thing exists. I think our problem with people whether they're around or not is never with them. It's always with that interpretation, that internal representation, in NLP as we call it, the IR of them that we carry inside whether they are alive or dead, in our life or not, we carry a part of them, and I think you can make amends with that part inside and forgive that part inside we've been carrying on.
And also, understand, forgiveness does not even make it right if somebody has wronged you, you're essentially saying, "I just don't want to carry this around anymore." So if you don't like forgiveness, you can use the term "simply letting go." I'm okay with letting go. I'm okay with you healing that part of that person that you feel you need to make amends to inside. And if you want to do it in the real world, if you feel that you need to do that, you can do that as well but I don't think it is necessary. So that one's kind of okay with.
Number nine, made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or ourselves. I kind of answered that in the last one. I don't necessarily feel that you need to make direct amends with them. You can do that because it's never them that you have the problem with, it's the filter that you see them through which is your filter and that part of them that you carry around inside. So I don't think you have to do it with them. You can do it at the park. But if you feel that empowers you and you need that closure, then you can do that. I kind of answered that one though.
Number 10, continue to take personal inventory and when we're wrong promptly admitted it. Okay, continue to take personal inventory and when we're wrong promptly admitting it. Okay. All right. I mean, you can do that. I guess that's kind of like keeping score. I don't know. That one is kind of like presupposing that that problem could come back when it's gone and having to keep an eye consciously on that door to make sure it doesn't rear its ugly head in. And I think you have to be very careful of that because you can invite that back into your life. It's very much like don't think of a blue tree. What do you have to do to process that sentence? You have to think of a blue tree. You have to be really careful with that and the suggestion that presupposes.
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. Oh, God, where do we even begin? Listen, if you wanna pray, pray. If you wanna meditate, meditate. But you've got to pray that God understands you, praying only for knowledge of His will because He's the only one that can fix you and has the power to carry that out. Oh, God, so much wrong with that. Again, it's putting you at effect of your problem asking for a higher power to fix you because only a higher power could fix you because nobody gets fixed by themselves in life. Oh, we're gonna go on to the stats of people that do fix themselves in life through being "addicted" in next week's podcast.
Oh, God, where do I even begin with? Listen, if you wanna pray, pray. If you wanna meditate, meditate. Don't think that this imaginary man or woman called God is going to fix you. No one is going to fix you, including me. You are going to fix yourself because you are all powerful and you can carry that out. Yes, you may need some direction. Yes, you may need some guidance. Yes, you may need some more tools. I understand that but I ain't fixing ya, God ain't fixing you, and neither is AA. That's why I think that's bullshit.
And number 12, having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we try to carry this message to alcoholics and practice these principles in all our affairs. Listen, you don't have to have a spiritual awakening. If you do, more power to you. Good for you. You don't have to have a spiritual awakening in order to...doing something that's stupid. You just stop it and then you do something else that's more empowering to you. That you've tried to carry on this message to alcoholics. Again, you're not an alcoholic, you're not addicted to drugs, you are just doing something stupid that hurts you and the very term alcoholic or drug addict...I'm using the term here because I understand that's the vernacular that people use out there and if people are searching for me on Google, these are the words that they use.
But I don't believe that people are addicted to these things. I believe, and I'm gonna give you the research next week, remember, send those hate mails to mail@lukenosis.com. But you need to practice these principles in your own affairs. So let's look at this, we've gotta practice being powerless in every other affair into our life and spreading this message onto other people in their life to be powerless that they have no control in stopping this addiction. There's a reason I say it that way because you have no power. So you know, we're gonna indoctrinate this onto other people to say you know, they need to go to these 12 step programs and stay stuck.
This podcast is called "Unstuck." The purpose is to help people become unstuck. Scientifically, studies state, and again we'll come back to this next week, that people that go into rehab, their chances of being...of successfully overcoming this addiction, drop or drastically versus somebody who just stops cold turkey. Yeah, the stats are right. We're gonna go into that a little bit more in our next podcast. But that's why the 12 steps are shit. Those are why I disagree fundamentally with those 12 steps. And yes, I am borrowing some inspiration from Melissa Tiers and her little spiel on the 12 steps but that's my spiel on the 12 steps and why I think that most of them are fundamentally bullshit and keep you stuck.
This podcast is about making you unstuck, all of my work is about empowering you so you don't need me, you don't need any other support group that keeps you stuck with other people that have the same beliefs that are just waiting to fall off the wagon because once an addict, they're always an addict. I think it's bullshit. I think it's a nonsense dogma that keeps you stuck on the cycle of going through rehab over and over and over again and this is why the success rates are quite frankly abysmal. That's why I think the 12 steps are bullshit. Stay tuned for next month's or next week's podcast, I say, same Luke time, same HypnoPunk channel, same HypnoPunk station where I'm gonna go through new research in addictions and why indeed they are fundamentally habits and ways to help to remove those from your life.
Always Believe,
Luke Michael Howard CHT
Toronto and Ottawa Clinical Hypnotist
