Alcohol Session IV
Alcohol Session IV
To an individual who has had a drinking problem, alcohol is poison. It's poison in two ways. First of all it's poison because it breaks down the very will power, the very ego, the very faith in oneself that the individual is able to build up. And so it is a psychological poison because having once conquered the alcohol problem, if you ever allow it to get back into you again then you begin thinking about yourself all the thoughts that you thought about yourself before, namely, well I really am no good anyway, I really didn't lick it and so on. So it's a psychological poison. Now in addition to that for anyone who has ever had an alcoholic problem, it's a physical poison. It actually poisons your system. Because you're allergic to alcohol just like other people are allergic to other things. And so if you're allergic to something, even penicillin, it's poison to you and you must never take it. The same is true with alcohol. If you're allergic to it, you're through with it. Now you've been allergic to alcohol. Alcohol is a poison to you. What's even more fascinating is that usually the reason why one is drawn to alcohol is not for most of the reasons that most people reiterate, namely that it makes me feel good, I like the taste of it, all these things. On the contrary, almost every person who has an alcoholic problem will tell you just the opposite. I don't like it. It's ruining my life. It's terrible. And if that's true, then why are they drawn to it? For precisely that reason. Because it is a poison and because they in their subconscious mind need to commit suicide, and so they do it the slow tortuous way. And so that's way it's so important that the underlying cause of the problem be completely removed so that you don't need to punish yourself again with alcohol. And that's why we have removed them. That's why you don't need to punish yourself anymore. Because you realize you're not guilty to begin with. And if you're not guilty you don't have to punish yourself. That's God s domain and you have no right to take it over. He does the judging and the punishing according to His laws and His ideas. And since you're through punishing yourself, you're through poisoning yourself. One particular patient of mine took his first drink when he stole some whiskey from his father. When a word association test was given him under hypnosis, one of the most fascinating associations, which was very revealing, was when asked why he associated glass and drink he said, "Every time I assassinate glass and drink, I mean associate glass and drink they just seem to go together." I t was pointed out that he had used the word assassinate instead of associate, a Freudian slip that told what he really did with the alcohol and what he really subconsciously intended to do, namely poison himself, he said then, "Well, I guess you're right. I suppose I am assassinating myself with booze." And so alcohol is a poison. It's important that you realize that it's a poison and you are leaving poisons alone. Because you don't need poison any more. You don't need to poison yourself. You don't need to punish yourself. You're through with all that. You're going to appreciate yourself. That's what you're going to do, appreciate yourself for the talents that you have, for the fact that you're God's creation, for the fact that you've got a good life, for all the good that you can do in that life for yourself and others. In talking about alcohol we frequently say "He certainly got stiff" but we use that same term to describe a corpse. We say gee, he's dead drunk. Interesting how dead and drunk go together. You're through with alcohol. You don't even smell it. You're just beginning to appreciate yourself, to value yourself, your mind and your body and to make them really work for you. You're going to make yourself happy and you're going to make others happy by staying sober, by avoiding completely like the plague any compound which you are allergic to and alcohol especially for you're most allergic to that. You have obtained a great victory in forever placing alcohol behind you for you have now placed a beautiful future before you. For no matter what may befall you, good, bad, indifferent, it's still better and easier and happier to face the future sober rather than drunk. Indeed, you're going to have twice the fun sober than you ever had drunk because drunk you never had any fun. You were only using alcohol to assassinate yourself, to poison yourself, to get rid of yourself, to stiffen yourself, and to become dead drunk. And you almost succeeded in that. But you removed all those thoughts from your mind. You're through punishing yourself. You're through beating yourself down. You're now going to build yourself up. You're through assassinating and you're going to appreciate and as you start appreciating instead of assassinating you're going to build yourself up more and more and more with every breath you take as you go deeper and deeper relaxed, deeper and deeper and deeper. And all these suggestions are going to be reinforced in your mind every single day of your life. Now sleep.
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