Welcome to another zoom meeting and podcast of ‘Here’s Tom with the Weather’...where we investigate the plethora of Higher powers that populate the vast universe of 12 step Recovery - particularly where the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous encourage us to find some kind of higher power – as long as it’s not us...
We speak to people with all manner of higher powers - from those who are atheists, sufis, agnostics, Christians, Buddhists, Followers of Islam, Hermetics, Paganists, and those into NON-DUALITY...we leave no stone unturned... it's our aim to promote understanding and open-mindedness so that alcoholics and addicts can find a higher power of their own - to stay sober and carry the message.
We promote tolerance and empathy for folks who have different spiritual practices than us. Its all about Live and Let Live.
Please remember that this is not an AA meeting... it's just some people’s version of the truth – whatever that may be.
Sometimes we talk to seekers, to gurus, and to people not necessarily in recovery ... and today we’re going to step out and look at the co-founder of AA himself…Bill Wilson…what was his higher power?… what lengths did he go to find a higher power…how it progressed…and what was the outcome.
...and maybe to see him not as the legendary, saintly figure that many try to portray him as, but as an alcoholic: a flawed human being just like the rest of us, but one who changed the course of human history for the better - who saved the lives of millions – who started this wonderful program of Alcoholics Anonymous - Yes, he had drive, he had determination but he also had defects of character.
And finally, Before I introduce our guest please be aware that there will QUITE POSSIBLY be subject matter mentioned in this podcast that will challenge many people in recovery, and could upset some, - so to be clear – particularly to anyone new to sobriety, the subject matter you will hear – is not an excuse to go off and try easier softer ways to sobriety and spiritual enlightenment. We always promote that the attendance of meetings, working the 12 steps, sponsorship and service as the route to long-term sobriety.
Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox...today's guest is Don Lattin.
Don Lattin is a sober, award-winning journalist and the author of six books.
His journalistic work has appeared in dozens of U.S. magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the San Francisco Chronicle, where Don worked as a staff writer for nearly two decades.
He has taught as an adjunct faculty member at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, where he holds a degree in sociology. He is a contributing writer for the Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions and the Encyclopedia of Religion in America.
And the subject matter of tonight's discussion – largely revolves around his Peer-reviewed book - DISTILLED SPIRITS -- Getting High, then Sober, with a Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher, and a Hopeless Drunk. It’s a memoir/group biography that looks at how Bill W , Aldous Huxley, and philosopher Gerald Heard, opened new doors in Western religious thought.
Distilled Spirits won several awards including the “Religion Book of the Year" and the California Book Award.
