By Steve K.

The ‘program’ of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is often described as ‘spiritual, not religious’ in nature. For many, this is true, as AA’s liberal approach to faith allows its members to relate to the 12 Steps in a way that is meaningful and helpful to the individual. AA philosophy draws from the pragmatism of the American psychologist, William James, in this respect. In 21^st century AA, it’s expressed within the saying ‘whatever works for you’.

The result of this inclusive pragmatism is a fellowship of diverse beliefs when it comes to the concept of a ‘Higher Power’.  In my own search for a faith that works for me, I’ve come to believe in a ‘spirit of life’ that animates my being and is immanent in nature. I have developed a natural sense of spirituality that affirms humanity and has a deep respect and reverence for the divine cosmos – of which we are both ‘part and particle,’ to paraphrase the 19th-century Transcendentalist philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

It’s suggested, in AA, that an open and willing mind is all that’s needed to unlock the door to a faith that works for you. I’ve found this to be the case for me, and I increasingly sense a spirit of life within that connects me to all existence. Bill Wilson (AA co-founder) was liberal enough to include everyone animated by and willing to seek the spirit of life.

In the Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous), Wilson uses terms that align with this spirit of life, such as ‘Creative Intelligence’ and ‘a Spirit of the Universe underlying the totality of things’ (p.46), which he suggests can be found ‘deep down within us’ (p.55). In ‘We Agnostics‘, Wilson uses these terms to describe an archetypal panentheistic ‘Higher Power’.

The following passages express this intuitive sense of spirituality and the spirit of life that animates and connects me to the web of all existence. My ‘Higher Power’ is within me and throughout nature and is a pantheistic sense of God, as suggested by the 16^th century Dutch philosopher, Baruch Spinoza. However, I remain humble, willing, and open to the possibility of a God both within and beyond the self and nature – a panentheistic sense of a greater, creative, and eternal reality in which we exist. What follows embraces both ideas.

The Over-Soul (1841)

“We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE. 

And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are the shining parts, is the soul.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What the Earth Seemed to Say

“The earth spoke to me in a language I knew in my bones, 

a song of life interwoven, each part of the whole, 

where the divine is not above or apart, 

but breathes within every leaf, every heart.”

Unknown Author

A Non-Believer’s Higher Power

“The origin of the word spirit is Greek. It means “breath.” That which stirs within, slows or quickens, goes deep or dies out – I am speaking of the force that is ourselves. The experience of living in this world, bound by a body, space, and time, woven into the fabric of human history, human connection, and human life. This is the force that feels and thinks and gives us consciousness at all; it is our awareness of presence in the world. It is the deepest, most elemental, most integral part of who we are; it is who we are.

So, when I speak of spirit, I’m speaking of something that frustratingly defies articulation, because we have few words for spiritual beyond those that refer back to a God. But not believing in a God is not opposed to a belief in an aspect of the self that can be called spiritual. The latter is experienced, and defined, very personally, and is different for each individual.

I’m speaking of something that is urgently important in ourselves, the very thing that’s sent us searching, the thing that feels the longing, the thing that comes knocking on the door of our emotionally and intellectually closed lives and asks to be let in.

When we let it in, and only when we do, we begin to be integrated people. We begin to find integrity in who we are. We are not just a body, not just a mind, not just a mass of emotions, not just people dragging around the dusty bag of our pasts. We have depth and wholeness, not shattered bits of self that never seem to hold together properly. And we begin to walk a spiritual path.”

Waiting – A Nonbeliever’s Higher Power. By Marya Hornbacher.

Spiritual Resources

“Lots of us confuse spirituality and religion. The words are often used interchangeably, and we must realize that they shouldn’t be, for they have different meanings. To call religion spiritual is true, but religion is only one source of spiritual power. There are many, many others.

The word spirit comes from a Latin word that means breath, life, vigor. We call something spiritual when it represents life or when it enhances life.

There are people who center their spirituality on religious practices and principles. There are others who find spiritual connections with things totally outside of any religious framework. As far as spirituality is concerned, to believe in a God or not to believe in a God doesn’t matter. What matters is to have faith in our spiritual self – in other words, to have faith in the energy that gives us life.”

The Alternative 12 Steps, A Secular Guide to Recovery. By Martha Cleveland, Ph.D. and Arlys G.

The Spirit of Life

In the book ‘Everyday Spiritual Practice’, Scott Alexander defines spirituality as “our relationship with the Spirit of Life, whatever we understand the Spirit of Life to be. Our spirituality is our deep, reflective, and expressed response to the awe, wonder, joy, pain, and grief of being alive.”

Glossary of Terms

Pantheism:

The belief that God and the universe are identical—everything that exists is divine, and there is no distinction between God and the cosmos.

“All is God.”

Panentheism:

The divine is both immanent (within everything) and transcendent (beyond everything).

“All is in God, but God is more than all.”

Over-Soul:

“The Over-Soul” (1841) is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson that explores the idea of a spiritual unity that transcends individual existence. Emerson suggests that there is a divine presence within each person, which he calls the “Over-Soul,” that connects all living beings to one another and to the universe as a whole.

Emerson’s essay is a powerful meditation on the nature of consciousness, and on the potential of human beings to connect with something greater than themselves.