Secular AA Global Speaker Tour - We Agnostics, Santa Barbara - June 7, 2026

June 2026: Secular AA's monthly world-tour of speaker meetings is hosted by the We Agnostics of Santa Barbara, California. Our speakers this month are:

• Geoff
• Ralph
• and BriJet

..with Sherman as emcee.

Following these talks is sharing from around our agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA world. This is an open and welcoming meeting inviting others to share their thoughts about the speakers' shares and should be interesting for anyone, newcomer and long-timer alike (or just curious).

Next month's Secular AA Global Speaker Tour will be featuring the "Rule 62 AA Group" on Sunday, July 5th with simultaneous translation to Español at:

• 2 pm EST
• 1 pm CST
• 12 pm AZ
• 11 am PST
• 7 pm UK
• 6 am AEDT (Monday)

Everyone is welcome to join our monthly open/public secular AA meeting.

ZOOM ID 864 4074 0033
Passcode 121212
(CON TRADUCCIÓN SIMULTÁNEA INGLÉS<>ESPAÑOL)

For more info on secular AA including Zoom meetings, in-person meetings, and virtual gatherings, check out:
- https://aasecular.org
- secularAA@gmail.com

Secular AA is AA sobriety that is neither religious nor irreligious, focusing on the practical, humanist tools of Alcoholics Anonymous and borrowed from the wider recovery community. Secular AA is a growing subculture within AA, offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org 

Transcript

SPEAKER_09 0:00

My name's Joe. Someone like me really shouldn't drink. I'm a proud and happy member of Beyond Belief Agnostics and Free Thinkers AA group in Toronto and currently working on the Committee for Outreach for the International Conference of Secular AA. And whoever thought we would be here when we got this started, but every Sunday we've been meeting, introducing a new secular AA group from somewhere around the world to share their experience, strength and hope. If you've never been here, it's a speaker discussion. So we've got some panelists that are going to share their experience. We're going to turn it over to the room by show of hands and anybody who wants to can share. So before we turn it over to Santa Barbara, we agnostics, a couple of things. One, some thanks for everybody working behind the scenes at this meeting, including our interpreters and the people who are going to edit this audio and post that. We will be putting in the chat, we will be spamming the chat with ways you can contribute with where to find the entire collection of recordings from meetings like this and International Conference of Secular AA panels. The meeting is available in Spanish and English, and I'll give you instructions and how to make sure, no matter what language, the person who's sharing is talking in, that you can hear it in your own chosen language. Let's see. We got some other things to post in the chat. Probably I'll do a Seventh Tradition commercial sometime before we go to show of hands. So we can get that done later. Let's see, but I will say right from the start, let me just find my little uh shares thing here. Um here we go. Hi, Bruce. Good to see you. So our registration is uh open. The International Conference of Secular AA. Uh we have an in-person event every two years. So it started in Santa Monica, it went to Austin, it went to Toronto, it's been virtual through COVID. We were in Orlando last year, back at it. We had to cancel our Washington event. And this year we are in Phoenix, Arizona, November 13th to 15th. So these QR codes you can see, you can use your phone to get the registration link to register for the conference. It's 150 US, or to book a hotel room, which is 154 plus tax, which is uh it's a suite. So you can put up to four people in a single room. Um, there's a lot of uh facilities available there. Um the host committee found what I think will be our funnest, most childlike, wonderful experience that we've had so far. And there's also a QR code for more information. So I'm just gonna uh learn where they put the stop sharing button now since the new edition that they just uh uploaded. Okay, so we found that. So there will be more for me. And if you have come with questions about the International Conference of Secular AA or secularAA.org or anything else, that you can certainly do with a show of hands once we get through the speakers.

SPEAKER_08 3:49

But ladies and gentlemen, Santa Barbara Hello and welcome to the Wednesday night group of AA Weagnostics. My name is Sherman, and I'm an alcoholic. Are there any other alcoholics present? Please wave. Normally there is no screen sharing or recording of any kind to protect our anonymity. And we have some instituted some protocols to protect the meeting from trolling. And I'll do the preamble since I make it official. Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problems and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership. We are self-supporting through our own contribution. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution, does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics recover from alcoholism. Finally, our commitment to free expression does not extend to hate speech. Please show respect to everyone here tonight and do what you can to let everyone feel safe. Okay, at this point I would ask if anyone's in their first 29 days at the Andway, it's not usually Okay. The We Agnostics Group has a tradition of free expression. Here you may feel free to express any doubts or disbeliefs you may have, and to share your own personal form of spiritual experience, your search for it, or even your rejection of it. We do not endorse atheism nor oppose it. We do not endorse or oppose any form of religion or atheism. Our only wish is to assure suffering alcoholics that they could find sobriety in AA without having to accept anyone else's beliefs or having to deny their own. One way we agnostics is different from other AA meetings is that we neither open nor close the meeting with a prayer. At the end of the meeting, we repeat the AA declaration of responsibility and read the quote from Bill W. from nineteen sixty-five. Copied from uh One Big Tenet. Newcomers are approaching AA at the rate of thousands yearly. They represent almost every belief and attitude imaginable. We have atheists and agnostics, we have people of nearly every re race, culture, and religion. In AA, we are supposed to be bound together in a kinship of common suffering. Consequently, the full individual liberty to practice any creed or principle or therapy, whatever, should be a first consideration for us all. Let us not therefore pressure anyone with our own individual or even our collective views. Let us instead accord each other the respect and love that is due to every human being as he or she tries to make their way toward the light. Let us always try to be inclusive rather than exclusive. Let us remember that each alcoholic among us is a member of AA so long as he or she so declares. Okay, I'm going to I discovered this meeting. I never went to the original one which was in Santa Barbara. I discovered I believe it was in March of 2020 when the pandemic closed down live meetings. And I went to the LACOAA list the listing of AA meetings in Los Angeles. And I found this one and uh I attended and one of the things that I felt very welcome there. I really enjoyed the style of the meeting because, you know, and one of the things I really appreciated about it is I recognize somebody I had met previously at one of the live meetings I attend. I believe it was in late 2019. I was attending a step study meeting, and I remember the guest speaker was somebody who was an atheist for over 20 years, and he was a guest speaker on step three. And finding him at the Santa Barbara meeting blew me away. I was impressed and committed. And at this point, I'm going to let Ralph explain his experience with this meeting. Thank you.

SPEAKER_17 9:58

Thank you very much for that. But I think we had agreed that uh our friend Jeff uh is gonna start off by uh giving a story on the inception of this meeting. I think Jeff was in Santa Barbara before I got there. We met on the one-year anniversary of the meeting, and Jeff had already been in touch with Alonzo Chico. So I'll I'll turn it over to you, Jeff. I'll speak later on.

SPEAKER_05 10:21

Thank you.

SPEAKER_12 10:28

Jeff, you're muted. Yeah. Hello everyone. Uh my name's Jeff. I'm an alcoholic. Uh grateful to AA for being sober today. Uh, thank you, Ralph. That was very kind of you. Um I want to just preface that uh um I have not been going to the Santa Barbara meeting for probably like two years now, um, and for various reasons. Um I've also moved um most of the time I'm in Camarillo, California, but uh I am in Santa Barbara a couple days a week. But having said that, what I'm gonna do is uh read something that was that I submitted to um the Santa Barbara Messenger, which is like the print uh AA in Santa Barbara in 2019. And uh I didn't even think that they would they would print it, but but uh they were they did. And so this will give a little bit of of history and about my story and and then uh and then um um uh you know I'll share a little bit and then turn it over back to Ralph. So this is what I wrote. One big tent. Uh in his 27th year of sobriety. This member is more active in AA than he's ever been before, by Jeff of Santa Barbara. In my first years in AA, I all but ruined this undertaking with a sort of unconscious arrogance. God, as I understood him, had to be for everybody. Sometimes my aggression was subtle and sometimes it was crude, but either way, it was damaging, perhaps fatally, to numbers of non-believers. Of course, this sort of thing isn't confined to 12-step work, it's likely to leak out in relationships with everybody. And that was from Bill Wilson, The Dilemma of No Faith, April 1961. Even now, I catch myself chanting the same old barrier building refrain, do as I do, believe as I do, or else. I only read these words by Bill Wilson in my 27th year of sobriety, and then my higher power changed to the healing power of Alcoholics Anonymous. Some refer it to G-O-D, the acronym group of drunks. Fortunately, I'm not the only one who has grown. Our fellowship as a whole has taken big steps forward in welcoming members regarding their beliefs. For example, in 2014, the AA pamphlet Many Parts to Spirituality was published, which includes an atheist on the back page. Also, in 2014, I attended the first Weagnostic Atheist Freethinker International AA convention in Santa Monica. And the keynote speaker was Phyllis H, who was the GSO manager at that time. During the meeting, she explained how AA has always been evolving. It's always been a state of becoming. She further opined that hopefully AA will never become rigid or dogmatic, but always be imbued with love, tolerance, so as to ensure everyone is included. Another example of this inclusive spirit is the uh the Grapevine recently published book, One Big Tent. Atheists and Agnostics, AA members share the experience, strength, and hope. This book represents a milestone for AA. It came after 42 years following the suggestions made by two trustees that our fellowship create literature focusing on those who are able to recover and stay sober despite their uncertainty or outright belief in a traditional God. So this was written in uh in 2019. For the last year, I've been attending the Santa Barbara We Agnostics meeting on Wednesdays at 6:30 at the Unitarian Church. This meeting was started by Chico, who drove 101 miles each way from Los Angeles. Uh, it's an open meeting and all are welcome. We had 13 people on the 11th of uh excuse me on the 11th on the 6th of November 2019. Our motto is Love and Tolerance of Other People is Our Code. In the past five years from 2014 to 2019, I've been more active in AAA than I was the previous 27 years with sponsorship, commitment, and more meetings. And I will always remember that the most spiritual thing I'll ever do is not take the first drink. So that's the reading. And uh yeah, um it's you know, it's a bit of sweet because uh, you know, I used to um have lunch with uh an uh an early dinner with with uh with uh uh Chico every week for for quite for years, and I got to know him really well. And uh unfortunately I've lost contact with him uh for various reasons. But um I want to want to just uh uh so you know when when when he started this meeting, we had sometimes it was just me and him, and then it was four people, and then it was seven people, and then it was back to four people. And you know, the last the last meeting, uh one of the last meetings before the COVID came, we had 13 people in a small room um at the Unitarian Church. So I'm just gonna I'm just gonna give one story and then I'm gonna return, I'm gonna, I'm gonna uh um turn it back to to to Ralph. It's ironic because I used to go to that meeting in person way more times than Ralph has, but he's been going to it on Zoom way more times than I have. So uh one day we had the meeting, and there was uh probably um, let me think, maybe eight or nine guys sitting in the room, and this young woman came into the room. She had a backpack and she looked uh pretty bad. And uh um she said, Is this an AA meeting? And we said yes, and she came in and sat down, and uh um she she said she went, you know, we went around the room. We I believe we you know we told our our uh our name, our our our sobriety date, and she said that she had three days and that she'd come from Baltimore to Santa Barbara to get sober. And I found out she knew virtually nothing about AA. So the meeting went on, and then at the end of the meeting, and the meeting was from 6:30 to 7.30. At the end of the meeting, she came up to me and she said, uh, and she kind of like had a pained look on her face, and she said, You know, Jeff, I am a believer. And I said, Well, you just need to go to another meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. And there's one at the Alano Club at 8 o'clock. Would you like me to take you? And she said, Yes. So we got in my car, and while we drive, driving, she asks me these questions. She goes, Um, will there be any drinking at the meeting? I said, No, no, no, no, we don't drink at AA meetings. And then she asked me, Do you think there'll be any women there? I said, Oh, absolutely, there'll be lots of women there. And we got there, and there was somebody there, you know, who was pretty much in charge of the meeting who I knew, and uh, and I just uh told told this this lady, you know, here's this woman, she's three three days sober. Um, you know, please make her feel welcome and everything. And and she did, and she she got the uh the the woman, the the young woman, who by the way was 25 at the time, she mentioned, and my daughter was 25, so you know, I had that connection, and so she ended up reading how it works. And um, the meeting was a great meeting, and afterwards she came up to me and she gave me a hug that I never got from my parents. It was the most genuine loving hug from somebody from another human being she felt at home. So, you know, um, you know, if I've done one thing right in my life, I took somebody to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous who wasn't a believer. And uh um yeah, so uh and now it's now I'm gonna turn it over to to to uh uh Ralph to to share his experience, strength, and hope. But thanks for letting me share.

SPEAKER_17 19:18

Thank you very much, Jeff. You're a gem. Uh when when I showed up at that meeting, I told uh I told my friend Sheiko before going there, you know, it it uh my first in-person attendance of that meeting was uh on a uh, I think it was a Wednesday night, 6 30 p.m. I drove from uh my job, from my work. Oh, my name is Ralph, and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic. Let's get that out of the way. And I had my last drunk on uh Tuesday, August 3rd of 1999, and I have been sober ever since. It's 9,805 consecutive days without uh mind-altering alcohol or other substances. And for that I'm grateful and I have all of you to thank it. I I first let me talk about meeting the Chico. We we met at the MCC Church, at the Metropolitan Community Church in East Hollywood. And the reason I went there is because I was looking for an AA meeting for atheists and agnostics. And I was told by this uh fellow, Bob R., who used to be a pillar of uh atheist alcoholics in the Los Angeles area. Uh, he told me that uh Charlie Palachek back in 1978 uh had founded this meeting out. I see Joe Nodding, uh who had started this meeting uh in uh Kaiser uh Permanente Hospital uh in Hollywood, East Hollywood. And apparently the meeting moved from there to the MCC Church on Franklin and Vermont in Hollywood. I went there and among the other people who met at that church was the uh a group called the uh Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. It was one of the funniest groups you could ever meet, of really exotic and eclectic folks, you know, transvestites and uh transgender people, just absolutely wonderful human beings, you know. They come in all kinds of costumes. I walked into their meeting by mistake one time looking for the AA meeting, and I was quickly uh turned over to AA. And uh Bob R. uh gave me the uh directions to the meeting at the uh because I contacted him because I was going uh after I got sober in 1999. Uh I confided uh into a man that was just an incredible nice fellow who had at that time he had 50 years of sobriety in in uh 1999. The son of a gun got sober really early. Uh uh, but he was older once. I asked him, I told him, uh I'm an atheist and this God, God, God, God, God stuff, and he can't stay so. But unless you find Jesus or our Lord or God or whatever, you know, I tell him it doesn't ring right with me. You know, I've said, I don't have a desire to drink anymore. It left me in the backseat of a patrol car way back on August 3rd of 99. I surrendered. I I I'm tired. I couldn't drink anymore. I drank for 10 or 15 years, uh, the last part of my drinking, without wanting to drink, every single day. They don't want to drink and drank. So uh I don't need a friggin' God to help me stop drinking. I don't want to drink. My uh survival instinct already took over that part. And uh people tell me, ah, that's the grace of God that touched you. I said, fine, you can call it anything you want, but it's it's still the same thing. But anyway, so Al gave me the phone number of a Jesuit priest, a fellow who had been sober a very long time, who apparently wrote his PhD thesis on Alcoholics Anonymous out in Boston. He's a wonderful man. He passed away a few years ago. So he told me, call this guy. He's a priest, and don't let that stop you. And tell him to put you in touch with his atheist buddy Bob. So I called this fellow and he was expecting my call. Uh, and uh he says, Yeah, he said, uh, Al told me you're gonna call. Here is uh Bob's phone number. Give him a call. He told me he's in Pasadena, although his phone number was a 213 area code in uh downtown LA. I called him and uh he was one of those really fantastic guys who was built like a defensive tackle and uh about six foot four or something. And and I uh he told me about this uh a meeting, and that's when I began to uh to go there. And uh within a few months I made lots of friends there, and I got to meet a lot of fantastic men and women who come to that meeting regularly and who got involved, some of whom were involved in the uh starting of the international conference of uh uh free thinker alcoholics, and in the uh uh the first meeting out in Santa Monica, which I attended, you know, uh the wonderful men and women who got involved in that. And uh, I've been going there uh ever since. That meeting is back in person again. The MCC church or the building was uh was sold and they moved to a different location, still in East Hollywood, just a few blocks away, and they still have a meeting in the Buddha, no, the Gandhi, the Gandhi room uh in uh in in that church. And uh it's uh on uh I think it's still on on Wednesday night. I think I forgot, but it's listed anyway as one of the AA meetings. And it's mostly atheists and and and agnostics, but there are lots of uh believers who show up there, uh lots of folks who Buddhists or whatever, but but a lot of but the bottom line is AA, and it's uh a matter of staying sober one day at a time without the God component. And uh they they but by the experience, that the experiences that are shared there, but each and every one of us, uh, we come to realize that uh it is possible, even though Bill W. in writing the big book initially in the 12 and 12, and he later recounted and realized uh uh uh his wrong way about insisting on a higher power, or or stating that the sole purpose of this book, or the main purpose of this book, is to find a God or a higher power, in which uh of your own conception, blah blah blah, in which you believe. Uh he did realize that in his writings and uh uh in the various uh publications that came out after during his latter part of his life, uh, shows that he he uh they say we may have wasted lots of human lives by insisting on that that it's really possible uh to stay sober without having a belief in uh ghosts or in uh spirits or in uh metaphysical creatures or uh stuff like that, you know, that you can be scientifically inclined and rational and uh uh have uh uh just uh have empathy and compassion for other human beings and be involved in helping people. And that's really what AA is all about, anyway. That's the bottom line. And it's not about uh about what we believe in, it's uh what we do for each other and for humanity at large, you know, that really matters in the final analysis, you know. And uh I've I've uh I've attended that first international conference, then again I attended the one in uh Toronto, and that was just an incredible revelation. One of the friends that I made at uh at the uh uh We agnostics meeting in Los Vidas, uh that's what we called it, by the way, the Las Velas meeting, even though it's in really East Hollywood. Uh, we uh uh she she happened to be uh back uh in Canadian of birth as she was out there doing her PhD uh in uh whatever the heck she was following. And she actually finished her PhD sober in New York. Well, she was doing her master's and she got her PhD. She says uh that's some incredible people, and for that I I have uh nothing but uh gratitude to uh the men and women who who kept this thing going, you know, not just Charlie Palachek, but from uh find out later, there are other people before him uh back in the 60s who actually and and you know, speaking of Jimmy, uh uh the guy who moved to San Diego, uh he was sober for an awful long time and he died sober in 75 and and was a devout atheist all his life, you know, and uh uh never gave uh the idea, you know, he didn't have to prostitute his own convictions and his own you know beliefs in order to uh to uh accommodate uh a uh divine or a or a uh a theistic approach to sobriety. And for that I'm grateful that uh all I can say is that I'm doing it. Uh I'm going through a tough time right now. Uh my daughter, uh 39 years old, Leila, died uh of uh of a massive heart attack uh in uh Rome, Italy, where she was pursuing a uh postdoctoral uh certificate in international law. And uh she's a practicing attorney in California for five years, and she went there to do something to get uh more education. Unfortunately, she died, and I'm right now working on uh on celebrating her uh passing. And uh I've had nothing but great support from my friends in Alcoholics Anonymous. Some told me that uh think that God needed another angel in heaven. Okay, uh, I uh say fine. I go to uh uh I have some agnostic friends who go to grief therapy, and uh they have been incredibly, incredibly uh helpful in uh helping me grieve and cry when I need to cry and offering a shoulder on which to cry when uh when I feel bad. But everything is okay. I didn't never thought about picking up a drink to deal with the emotions and the uh the pain and the the hole that uh my daughter's disappearance, my daughter's death has created in my life. And uh for that, really I have uh my friends in AA to thank and the program altogether. Thank you all for being here. And uh, after that, I don't know who who picks up after that, and I spoke all I had to say. Thank you again.

SPEAKER_08 29:34

Thank you, Ralph. Um I'm gonna invite Bridget to share.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Thank you, Sunny. Hi, I'm Bridget. I'm a person in recovery. Welcome everybody to the Global Speaker Tour. Um, it's a great event. Santa Barbara is a really awesome meeting. I found out about it from Mark C from Tusnua back in 2021 uh when I was doing doing a lot of meeting hopping with with people. Um he told me about that meeting, and it was kind of his meeting that he didn't really tell a lot of people about because it's it's just very special. And the format was a little different back then. It was a 10-minute uh speaker lead and um then open discussion, and now it's more of like a topic meeting um where someone does still share at the beginning um a topic. But anyway, it was run by Alonzo, who we've mentioned, or Chico, um, and he just did a great job of it, just you know, tireless in his efforts to keep that meeting going. And I just remember being on that meeting, and then it would close out, and he would just leave, he'd be like, I'm gonna go do something else, but I'll leave the Zoom room open so you all can sort of fellowship. And um, so that was kind of cool. That's that was how I kind of got to know people a little more, is just being on Zoom after the meeting was over. Um it's a it's a great group, and it's a it's a smaller meeting now, but there's still some of the key people that I always remember uh who attended that meeting. Plus, we get some newcomers. We get a good handful of newcomers every week, which is kind of cool. Um, you know, so it's kind of a nice small meeting. Um I was really attracted to California meetings because I really like the format, and I like there was something very like bright and optimistic about California meetings. Um the format is pretty cool, usually, and they celebrate birthdays, also known as anniversaries, every every meeting, which is kind of cool, and yeah, there's just like different customs. Um but yeah, that this is how I've gotten to know Sonny and um and Ralph and Jeff and I uh Sherman, aka Sunny, uh keeps pretty much keeps the doors open on this meeting. And um, you know, I did I did my I served my uh my time doing some service on that meeting when I was able, and that was kind of cool. Um we've had you know kind of a rotating cast of people um running that meeting. Um so yeah, it's just been a really great group, and it's kind of one of my regular meetings that I attend every week, pretty much. I try to get to it every week. And you know, I've told I've told other friends about it, and it's just kind of a nice midweek meeting, smaller, pretty freeform, and it's just kind of a safe space to share what's going on. Um and yeah, I've just always admired the people who have done service on the meeting who show up, and um, I haven't seen Jeff in a while, but I always associate him with this meeting, and um his story is just extraordinary. We've had him recorded over at Tesnua. I think all I think all three of these guys have been recorded for Tesnua. Um and yeah, it's just kind of cool how how uh close-knit our community is, because I found out about the meeting from another from a fellow from another meeting, and we kind of all know each other. I mean, and if you're new, you're gonna get to know all these people, you know. I don't want it to seem you know closed off or clicky, because it's just like the possibilities are endless, like we can really become very close and connected to people on Zoom all over the world, and this meeting is just one of those really important meetings that has kept me like connected to service, connected to people, um connected to California, and I don't live in California, I live in New Jersey, so so I can California dream on Wednesday nights. Um anyway, I think that's all I really have to say about the meeting. Um I got sober right before the pandemic in 2019, and I did do in-person meetings at the beginning of my sobriety, but Zoom really was pretty much the foundation. I got laid off from my job during COVID, and I just did Zoom meetings as my job, and that really um has been the bulk of my recovery journey, and that's how I've met a lot of my really close friends, and yeah, I just feel really connected, and I'm just happy that we have this space for the different groups to share their history, the experiences of the members and all that. It's really important to preserve this. So thank you for letting me share. Thanks for letting me be a part of the Santa Barbara group. And yeah, I think that's all I got. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_08 35:33

Thank you, Bridget. Um I'm just gonna continue with the hosting here. Um at this point, there are several people who would like Do we have anyone who wants to volunteer to share?

SPEAKER_03 36:03

Okay, please on the Okay, sorry, I didn't have to zoom. I uh didn't know how to do that at first. Um hi, my name is Sydney. Um I um just found out about this meeting because I was in a um a secular meeting this morning around like uh 10 a.m. I believe, and they recommended me to come to this one to hear other people talk who've um been sober. Um I'm just starting my journey. Um, I'm still struggling right now with drinking, so I haven't really uh been so like sober as long as you guys. Y'all guys have way more experience and knowledge than I do in this, so I'm just trying to soak everything in.

SPEAKER_08 36:54

Thank you. Actually, let me I have to properly introduce myself. Chairman, grateful alcoholic and drug addict. John, please.

SPEAKER_11 37:07

John, alcoholic. Hi, um this is this has been great. This has been like a uh my life is being flashed before me here with all of this talk of of California. Uh I drank my brains out in in the 70s in in Los Angeles, uh went to San Francisco and got sober in 1982, and then came back to Los Angeles in 1985, where I met uh Charlie Polichek, and for the next many years uh went to a lot of meetings, and and I'm just amazed when you sort of run through all this, all the the eclectic uh rich uh environment that fortunately I ended up in from Charlie Polichek's atheist meeting to uh Father Terry, uh the Catholic priest, had a meeting on Mondays, and um uh you know, meetings all the way up to the Palisades and Ventura. I never got up to Santa Barbara, but Ventura, the Palisades, uh Santa Monica and Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, incredible, uh diverse, rich environment of uh ideas. We had a group called uh Architects of Adversity, and uh we had the log cabin, which is a little uh little funky little meeting place in West Hollywood, and uh and then you know there was uh the North Hollywood Musicians meeting where all the famous jazz musicians that were sober went. Incredible chairs, and then there was the Chinatown meeting, which was all the punk rocker kids that were sober, and um it was just and then Hollywood and West Hollywood, so my whole sobriety was was between traditional meetings and um you know atheist meetings. And I I mean today I try to bring the two together, I really don't see much difference. My only point is the steps of the program. I really feel the steps of the program, which I did uh on a couple of occasions because I refuse to read the big book to begin with, and um, but uh eventually um read it just to translate what it's talking about so I can explain it to I you to to to believers, so to speak, but yet I can put an atheist slant on anything that's said in the big book, and um so uh it's just been an amazing time of uh of traditional AA and atheist AA. And I find out today that uh uh things are a little more liberal today than they were back in the 70s when I kept walking out of meetings angry. Um, that if you understand the big book and you understand your own concept of a power greater than yourself, that's the key right there, is your own concept of a power greater than yourself, and explain that in terms of what the big book is saying, the the the traditional believers don't have a problem with that. I mean, the big I was just reading yesterday on something you never saw before. In in We Agnostics, it actually says right in the middle there, faith in a power greater than yourself. Now, I do realize that the overwhelming use of the word God can throw us back, even if we intellectually can understand the metaphor of it all. I mean, I went to, you know, Catholic school in the 50s, and um, you know, it still has a reaction. You know, I was I would say I was abused, you know, intellectually abused back in the 50s uh in Catholic school. But anyway, I think that's enough for me. So this is a great meeting. Thanks.

SPEAKER_08 41:06

Thank you, John? Please unmute.

SPEAKER_15 41:15

Hello, good afternoon. Uh I am Rachel, I'm an alcoholic. I haven't drank today. I'm fine. I'm from the Basque country. I speak Spanish. It's a great pleasure to be able to speak in a gather with so much freedom of expression. And I wanted to say that I need I have been suffering for years, suffering a lot because I don't know how to live without knowing anything about my daughter. Every day I think about her and my heartache. I have a broken heart. Uh, life has destroyed my heart. Um my life has been destroyed. I'm still fighting to have a dignified life, a reason to live with love, living from the heart with joy. That's what I want, and that's what I'm trying to do. For me, it's very important. Uh sobriety feminism was very important. Besides alcoholism, feminism has helped me a lot. The fraternity, I believe you, collective hiding and also ecology. I also think that it's really important uh an anti-immunity because I was in jail, because uh predicted because of my alcoholism and my bones ended up in jail. Because I did being alcoholic, alcoholic and addicted in recovery since 20 years ago, a month or so. I don't shout out from alcoholic parents who have never been in recovery. And my daughter is also my daughter from my dysfunctional family. Uh since I was pregnant, I have been in recovery. I never expected uh family rejection. Since I was young, uh I lived through this. This is um abuse, mistreatment. It is difficult, it is difficult to be rejected, especially now from my own daughter. Because emotionally it's been affecting me. It affects me a lot. And I think that emotions are part of that mental that mental pain that things that tools of the program writing and sharing and and everything else and I have been uh supporting myself on there and it's great to support the more tools we have for resources for support it's the better to live every day something better than other and well I'm only drawn I wanted to say that I work the program like we can actually we like to I have few speaking if I have that for them I have free I think all the many technology to share meanings we can learn you know religion morality and and and they have technically they're not able to talk about it or share naturally and I think I did have a place where I can work this as well in general what what I have learned is to look at my part my part my responsibility and also the responsibility of my father my family would also have a share of responsibility because they have been billion as well as the institutions like yeah to like an agreed for use against need to use billions that have damaged me I have seen my responsibility but it's not all my responsibility like I used to see before in different meanings in the terms everybody some appears made me feel like everything was my own fault. But talking to other people with more people with diverse ideas is enriching much more I am a yoga teacher I'm an athlete I have a lot of mastering and discipline I'm loving joyful and and I'm willing to help if I can as much as I can and I'm glad to be able to share today with all of you and I'm still in the meeting listening thank you so much for my twenty-four hour thank you thank you very much Mark I remember you you know you in the early days you used to show up pretty often and uh you actually introduced us to Tesnuah would you like to share please uh thank you Sonny um Ralph and Jeff and Bridget of course it was a great listening to everyone yeah this um meeting on Wednesday means a lot to me still um I couldn't sleep and it was one of the first ones when back when there was like 70 meetings a week now there's like fucking 200 a day so but um just a collection of people that's on that group be it the names I just mentioned or Chico or Alonzo Janice the the list is endless and how much the people in that meeting mean to me and um yeah Sonny thank you for uh throwing me under the bus there I recommend Joe C or Troy get those two handsome fuckers with long hair I'm not the only one um but yeah or or go with no hair sexy Tony Tony F in case there's another Tony.

SPEAKER_09 48:10

Thank you handsome fucker sexy man uh I'm Joe and um uh still happy to be here great job uh we agnostics um uh we've posted a link to our audio or podcast page and the feel free to share these meetings also feel free to invite people uh to our in-person meeting it's an open meeting so if you know anyone you know your counselor from treatment or uh your family doctor or anyone you think would like to know a little bit more about uh secular AA everybody is welcome here and uh uh feel free free to give that some thought uh or um just uh uh speaking from my hat of being on the committee for the outreach chair we're working on you know eliminating the problem of secular AA being the best kept secret in the recovery community and uh so we're writing to magazines that would be interested and places that would be interested and if you uh have someone or something you think would like to hear from us just let us know at secular gmail.com and we'll uh add them to our list. We'd be more than happy to I mean now we're not on a membership drive but um we do have a responsibility whenever wherever uh you know people reach out we want at least people to know that there is the option of secular AA um and uh so that's why we do what we do. Let's just see while I have the floor I'll also mention once again um that uh this is uh an AA meeting free to everybody of course we do accept uh contributions from uh members only and uh you can go to aasecular.org.com for seventh tradition information or you can use your um camera to click either our uh PayPal or uh Venmo codes which are on the screen now and uh if we haven't already we'll probably repost these uh one of the things I just have been thinking about is how you know people sort of sharing just like John I it was quite nostalgic uh I mean I've been going to a lot more in-person meetings and it's great to be here again and just seeing people that I remember from you know we'll be talking to people who got sober after COVID and not know what the fuck we're talking about about person meetings and all that or care right then and there's no need they need no need for them to care but uh it for those of us who were in it from the very beginning um we all understood the need for connection and I've talked before about how you know interesting it is about AA about the autonomy of AA about each of us from our own meeting said well we could start a meeting you know many of us use Zoom and we just did it like there was a hundred meetings in the first week of the pandemic and the next week there was a thousand meetings uh and imagine if we had to ask some central office for what the meeting format should be and what can be and cannot be said or done but that's not how AA works and it's one of the cool things about secular AA and the other thing is about connection which I heard in the the talks today and connection isn't merely being invited I need to be able to feel that I can be authentic that I will be accepted here no matter what I say that I can be a hundred percent honest and still be included that's vital and I if I can't be authentic how am I going to get this thing right it's you know it can still be done I suppose if I have to read the room and only say what I think will be acceptable but for me in my experience the what the ch the thing that's made AA work for me is the ability to just talk out loud say what I'm going through and be accepted and supported and heard and I feel that at this meeting the first Sunday of every month and uh thanks hey Jeff I was gonna invite Kurt who is one of our recent regulars perhaps he can share what uh drew him to the meeting and has him coming back yeah I've I've been introducing myself various ways because I have I object to having to always say I'm an alcoholic and uh and then sometimes in Vegas you know people say who are you what are you if you forget and I and I hate that.

SPEAKER_16 53:47

So I've been le recently I've been saying I'm a life breathing soil creature which I've been told is a uh literal translation of the Hebrew for Adam when when God is creating Adam life breathing soil creature um in recovery but uh um well thanks for thanks for calling on me sonny yeah I've only been doing that meeting a few weeks uh uh two or three four weeks uh I like it because it's small I like small meetings so if I if I want to talk I can you know I don't know I like you know the the huge meetings of all e in person and on zoom have always never been great for me because I I don't know man it seems it seems like a clearinghouse of something it seems too busy and yeah so I like intimate meetings and so far that's small and maybe you don't like being small but I I like it that it's small and everybody gets to share everybody you you you do a round robin thing every you just call on everybody in order kind of and everybody gets to share everybody kind of has to share you know well they don't have to but everybody is invited to share and that's nice I like that and uh so yeah I've been enjoying it and uh I what I I just wanted I've been thinking about something since that got said earlier and something you know this this tradition of of secular of of a has always been you know what there's not a problem and they'll say you know what every meeting is secular it's only a suggestion and all you have to do is when we say God put whatever you want in there and I've always I've always thought that was kind of bullshit because why am I why am I speaking in your terms I I'm I you know even early in recovery it was like fuck it why don't you use my language you know why don't we speak in my terms you say it's all a suggestion I do not take your suggestion sir so we're gonna call it we're gonna call it the devil or Satan I don't know you know what I mean I to be serious yeah I don't the whole thing of of of like saying we're gonna use this language we're gonna use this book it's everything is gonna be in these terms you're welcome to join us but speak the way we speak there's just something violent about that there's just something utterly bullshit about that I've always felt from the very beginning and so I'm I'm I love and and yeah I I've only been sober sober 12 years but I and I didn't go to secular meetings until I was like six or seven years in recovery here in Vegas and so you know I I I know the difference and I do know that there are a lot of traditional meetings out there that really do walk the walk and very are accepting and don't have a problem with me and uh they they have always existed even in Utah and uh and so I know they're I know they're there I know they know how to do it right and that's that's that's awesome but on the other hand having these secular meetings as a as a having this secular movement as as you know exist has been really great as a way to bring us together those of us who want less dogma less restrictions and want to be a little freer it's working really well I think it's it's bringing us together because we hear it we hear it and we meet each other.

SPEAKER_06 57:22

And anyway I I have to give the credit to to Bridget for introducing me to this Santa Barbara meetings because they're they're the ones who they're the ones who brought me who who invited me the first time so thank you Bridget and thank you guys and yeah I'm gonna be going to that every week that's it's on my calendar thank you Mikey uh please unmute Mikey alcoholic I got sober in the 1980s in-person meetings way before zoom um and uh I didn't on on the topic of our meetings we are one of the best kept secrets for years I didn't know that there was such a thing as uh secular meetings atheist meetings agnostic meetings um I discovered them about 10 years ago doing an internet search I live in Santa Barbara County um the other end of the county from Joff and I discovered just before the pandemic a meeting in San Luis Obispo which is the county north of me and I discovered it the week before the pandemic so I went to one in-person meeting there um I found them later on during the pandemic I also found these meetings these meetings here on Zoom um worldwide secularmeeting risk dot com um yes uh for the longest period of time I've been driving up to San Luis Obispo for meeting for for a um our meeting there is agnostics and others and just this last month just this last month we started um a bunch of us from um the Los Alamos uh meeting that I have been attending for many many years I found some secular friendly people there and they encouraged me to start a meeting there and with their help I got a meeting started just last month so anybody else that lives in Santa Barbara County our meeting is on uh Tuesday night at 630 and it's in the senior center you almost can't miss it because Los Alamos is like four or five blocks long and it's right off the one of the off ramps. So um you know there's a meeting there. Yeah I hope to see many of you people in person in Phoenix in November. Yeah so um yeah our meeting uh our meeting uh I think I think it was mentioned by somebody earlier on the California style meeting I I don't know if there's a California style meeting but the meetings in um San Luis Obispo and the new meeting in Los Alamos follows pretty much the same format as what um was followed there at this meeting here online just a couple of days ago so um you know I don't know I think we all copy from each other because it's like uh you know when the first meeting in Los Angeles they said well how does it you know how how do we do a meeting somebody said read how it works you know out of the big book well I don't know I get to uh the mainstream meetings that I go to that are um you know read out of the big book I almost hate hearing the big book read at the meetings because some some of the things are just kind of offensive to me. Anyway that's just been my uh my observation over the last couple of years maybe my intolerance towards uh having to put up with that for so many years anyway uh it's good to see you guys and uh boy I hope to see many of you uh you know on these screens and uh in person um you know in November okay bye thank you Jeff uh oh well actually Judy please unmute well thank you thank you um hi my name is Judy I'm a recovering alcoholic hey hi Joe long time uh excuse me uh I live in Palm Springs California but I got sober in 1980 in what was called the South Bay of Los Angeles it's still there uh and I'm really um doing great uh for the most part uh excuse me I've got this and some other things and I'm also caretaking Bernadette Poland how great to see you it's unbelievable the kind of connections we make with people it's really really nice and I really appreciated Raquel speaking in Spanish I remember I was in Quito and there was the only meeting that existed was a Spanish speaking meeting and I'm not so hot in Spanish but uh I went it was a dicey neighborhood so my Henry went with me and uh we didn't understand most of what's going on but like someone said we kind of knew when the format was happening and when they were talking the 12 steps or talking some uh difficulties um it's the same all around the world it's it's just wonderful i i am so blessed um i got on here late i will see you guys in november i can't wait i'm really looking forward to that one excuse me i know you'll think it's hard to believe but i'm also doing caretaking for my husband this is an ongoing thing anyway i was on the phone before getting on with you um probably canceling a flight we were gonna make to have a very nice summer in New York City but Henry had um sort of a spell incident yesterday if you meet him you'll think he looks great and is great but um stuff's going on you know and I'm in denial myself because everything is so good most of the time and then there's these things and I thank you Joe for saying just people say what's going on you know whatever it is and uh I I'm usually really happy and up and encouraging but uh I'm facing facing that uh I don't know how many more years we have together and uh you know how bad it is when it's bad and uh I I am amazed that I haven't uh drank or overeaten or run out with wild and crazy guys or any of those things which were my usual options uh I'm just plodding along and uh doing what other folks have to do and I you know everybody in the world goes through these kind of things they don't all complain as much as I do I don't think and I'm sure happy I have this kind of whatever your book we can call it this sounding board to say when I don't wanna I don't I refuse I refuse I nobody asked me you know too bad you think it with the program now you know my dad was an army officer so it was always you know he'd be telling me often I'd go yeah but yeah but yeah but yeah but he'd say oh you want to have the last word do you he said well I get the last word when I go in to see the general and that is yes sir and uh that's all he wanted to hear from me was yes sir and uh

SPEAKER_04 1:06:00

Not saying that's the good way to handle things. I was just talking with someone this morning and I realized that people listen here, they listen very closely. I always listened closely to people. People say, You remember? What of course? Of course. Were we connected? Were we talking? Did we have a moment? How could I forget it? It's my life, you know? So um of course I remember. Because I pay attention. I really do. I'll tell you my little story about the Buddhist monk who um well anyway, it was this New York lati da literati party, and uh the guys in the brown robe, you know, with the rope belt, and this woman comes over and says, Oh my, I wanted to hear about Buddhism. Tell me about Buddhism. So he says, Well, you want the short version or the long version? He said, Oh, it's a party, the short version. So he said, Well, the short version is pay attention. Well, that's not enough. Give me the long version. So he said, the long version is pay attention, pay attention, pay attention. And um a lot of what I'm finding lately is, you know, I don't call it my higher power, it's my still small voice within, but I have to pay a lot more attention to what's going on with me, my own self-care, um health care. My sponsor says the final stage of recovery is self-care. And uh so you know, I this morning I wanted to run to read all of the little, you know, um, because I was nervous, and I wanted to read all the the booklets, the books, you know. I have them from all the different programs. I'm in four programs. Anyway, so I wanted to and and other things, but anyway, I wanted to do that. And one of the programs said, listen to your inner voice. And uh that's what I had to take care of. Anyway, uh oh god, uh it's interesting about saying what's really going on, you know, and I'm sure I'm kind of jumping around and avoiding it right now, but um there's just not much to say. I mean, when you're really in things and they're really going on, you just get busy, do what you gotta do, and breathe into things. And uh my god, this sounds so adult. Hello, is Judy here? Um you know, I'm uh yeah, I got sober in LA too, and you know, in those in those days, those were a long time ago, but in those days, if you called your sponsor, the first thing she would say was, you know, you had a problem. She'd say, Well, did you write? Well, no, I was important. I was required constantly to invest in my own recovery. And it wasn't always go work with a newcomer. Yeah. But maybe there's some other exploration I need to take on, and I found people that I respected who would ex you know, give me direction. And I didn't take direction well, but I listened, I pay attention. So uh I'm here and I'm great and I'm having a great time, I really am, but I just have to readjust some things that are going on right now, and I help you change, you know. You better anyway, so I don't know what the heck I'm saying. Thank you all so much.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:25

Thank you, Judy. Thanks, Joe. And an emotion please unmute.

SPEAKER_10 1:10:33

Yes. Hello, hello. Thank you. Good morning. I'm um I'm impaired, so I believe that you will be hearing me. I'm going to be very brief. I'm very happy to join you today. It is quite interesting. I'd like to understand more about the agnostics, about authors that I've heard about, and I haven't had the chance to go deeper with these authors and what they've written in terms of being agnostic. And I I know that we have the responsibility prayer where I know that whenever I am asked for help, I need to help others, and also the serenity prayer. It is not about a God. I am asking to get this grant of serenity. It is not from a God. I don't know if I'm an atheist or a believer, I don't know what I am, but I do want to learn. I want to learn. I want to learn about your movement. And with my mentor, she and I'm learning the vocabulary of the program. I'm here in Mexico, and right now I'm kind of nervous to talk to you. But dynamics and the format is very good, and I do wanna acquire acknowledge. And I believe that truth is always behind things, and it is always about grabbing whatever is useful for me. I believe in nature, I believe in animals who would give us maturity lessons, and the mother lionesses, when they are defending their turf, they would be protecting but in the right measure. But what I've seen is that humans would be over-protective. On the other hand, this is the opposite, opposite. Animals would not be committing the same mistakes, but the human being is crying and suffering. With lions, they would be quite alert, they would be using their five senses to get a prey. But knowledge is what we have as humans be as humans to improve our lives. That's why I enjoy learning and knowing. I am a free thinker, probably, as I've heard here, but respectfully I need to be free, to be a free thinker and getting adapted. I've also learned about my inner voice, my intuition, and I call it intuition, that would be how the collective consciousness would be also defined. And many people would have different definitions, that radar, that intuition, the contact that would tell us what to do. And uh I am learning many things with you. Thanks for everything you've said, and for what I've learned so far with your format and with Claudia, our partner, who has organized the group with a format where we can talk about happiness, where we talk about spirituality, something that is very spiritual is our inventory. As an alcoholic, I believe it is very spiritual, so I can get to know myself. There is a book, a book called The Art of War, where you need to get to know yourself. And if you don't know yourself and your enemy, then you won't know what to do. In Alcoholics, in double A, I can get to know me with the fourth step, my shortcomings, and also my virtues with balance, and uh that's what I've been proposing myself to do. Freedom is our best uh quality. I'm learning, and thanks for giving me the chance to talk. Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 1:15:45

Okay, Mario, please unmute.

SPEAKER_10 1:15:49

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. My name is Mario. I'm an alcoholic. I'm in Montreal, in Quebec, here in Canada, you know, and I've been benefited in a great deal for pertaining to AA. I'd like to salute everyone, and I know how important participation is for getting identification and bridging with someone else connecting. And I've been in AA in the traditional format, and I kept myself during uh 10 years in person, attending to meetings, participating with services as well in the in my area in different situations, and from my beginning, I've always been with double A, falling in love.

SPEAKER_15 1:17:01

I didn't leave the rejection, I did leave it a little bit afterwards, but I am aware that we are treated differently. But well, that's just something I wanted to mention. There is a new group in in Spanish called Beyond Belief, and there are members in Colombia, and now we have an international group. Uh, greetings to the my colleague, my peer who has a group in person in Colombia. I'm very glad that there are some of us that uh couldn't keep sober and support each other mutually. And I would also congratulations for one of my peers who was the one who motivated and helped uh this group come true the agnostics because we had a controversy in Toronto area. For me, the controversy is to bring out the positive, and that's what we have now. We are everywhere an agnostic free thinkers group. We need more people to join. Uh this is a way to be in contact and keep the fraternity together. And I also want to mention that Dr. Bob are the icons of double-A to a certain degree, but we always forget about the agnostics. Jim Burwell as well and Pastor they represented the wing, the radical wing in the group, and they were the ones who opposed the the word related to God in the 12 steps. Uh and this is the starting point for AA to become totally inclusive. And for this reason, we should uh remember and maybe celebrate the sobriety Jim Burwell. His starting date according to the historical parts that I have consulted is June 15th this year. And I'd like to, I wanted to mention that because I think it is important. These things uh help us stay together and also congratulate all our peers or uh brothers who have started this. And we we should we wanna stay here, we wanna, they know I I wanted to know that they're very important because this is a mutual support, mutual help that we bring to one another that we all need, and we need to remember our alcoholism constantly to a certain degree. It's in tattooed in our memory, and we cannot forget about it. Thank you very much. Uh agnostics from Santa Barbara, uh greetings from Montreal. I'm also a member of the group in Jim Burwell, uh Freethinkers Agnostics AA. Greetings to everybody and happy 24 hours.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:47

Thank you, Mario. Jeff, you had your hand up before.

SPEAKER_12 1:20:52

Yes, uh uh, thank thank you. Uh yeah, I just want to say that uh without Schumann, the the Santa Barbara meeting would have ended uh years ago. Uh he has constantly uh uh you know been the the person to to open the door every day. And uh I also remember fondly uh uh alternating being the secretary for a year with Bridget. And uh um I'm not in the room, but uh you know I did get to meet Ralph once. He came up to speak at the meeting, and we went out for coffee afterwards. And uh I knew then this was uh about six years ago, and I knew then that he was he's a special person, and I've gotten to know him. Uh, we've spoken on the phone a few times, and uh he he's probably the most self-actualized man that I've ever known, and and a wonderful example of a sober person in Alcoholics Anonymous. Uh the the two other things I just wanted to say. There was uh a couple one thing about the Santa Barbara meeting, which is great, I believe, for a lot of um we agnostic atheist free thinker meetings, is that we're so inclusive. And uh um, you know, there there was there there was this this couple who came into the meeting, uh, and they may still could come every week, I'm not sure if they do, but uh Paul and Araya, and Paul would would identify himself as a pillhead wannabe alcoholic. And Araya said something which I which reminded me every frickin' week. She said, My name's Area, I'm an alcoholic and a human being, and uh, and that was really good. Uh the the the last thing I just wanted to share is uh is uh you know uh I I I I was scarred, I was really scarred by by um traditional AA, and I totally reject the A, B, and C in how it works. That's just my opinion, nobody else's. And I'm just gonna end off with a little poem that I wrote, if nobody minds, and uh um and uh I want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart because I have six days of sobriety and 39 years. So this little poem that I wrote goes like this, and it's just my my opinion, it's nobody else's, and uh um it goes like this. Falling apart, it's called torn pages, falling apart with underlying torn pages. My book, my big book has traveled from Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks, Santa Barbara, and Arizona, but now it's unraveled. I don't believe in a higher power or loving or cruel God anymore. Oh why? Oh why did it take seven years and a score? There is wisdom in this book. Love and tolerance is our code. Uh love and tolerance of others is our code, but in secular AA, I'm loving myself, living and giving back in a new mode. G-O-D for me is gift of dialogue, as Bill and Bob started AA. What works for you, please work it one day at a time, is all I can say. This book still has value for me as it sits on my shelf, but I'm free from the words and I've found my true self. Thanks so much for the meeting.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:32

Thank you. Looks like everybody who's wanted to share has shared. So I'll do the formal closing. Is there anyone who has something who wants to say something more?

SPEAKER_05 1:24:50

Something more.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:52

Something more Okay. If you came with a problem, don't leave with a problem. Stick around. Oh Sydney, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:03

Oh, I just have one question. How do how did you someone find a sponsor if they're interested in getting one?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:14

Usually helps to go to a few meetings, especially women's meetings if you identify as a woman, and listen to people sharing. And if there's a person who has what you like and you'd like to emulate their recovery, then privately chat them and ask them for their number or contact information. And some meetings do have lists of people willing to be sponsors.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:36

Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:40

We have somebody else, uh Renzo.

SPEAKER_14 1:25:46

Hola, ¿cómo están? Yo soy Renzo. Me gustaría un poco practicar my English, no sé si lo voy a hacer bien. Hello, hello everyone. My name is Renzo. I am from Peru. I would like to start by striking a glove for you for these 21 hours. For continuing to your church, your experience, strengths, and hope. It's a pleasure a pleasure to participate in this meeting. I would like I would also like to express my gratitude to the service team for the dedication. I have been clean for a little over a year, and I am making progress in my overcoming the depression. That I have been experiencing. Recovery has been an important journal for me. And I am grateful for the support and called any maintenance. I recycled. Thank you very much and happy 20 24 hours. Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:07

Please unmute.

SPEAKER_15 1:27:16

Hello everybody. Hello everyone. It is a pleasure to greet you all. It's a big honor, huge honor to be able to share today, this afternoon. I'm communicating from Medellin, Colombia. I'm part of the group Beyond Believe that was mentioned a little bit earlier in Medellin. Our experience with AA Secular AA is very recent. Our group has been working since a little bit more, a little bit over two years. We're transitioning the third year of experience in AA Secular AA, and we have defined ourselves as a group fundamentally inclusive. Where the human free thinking, agnosticism, and atheism are exactly the route to continue thinking the way we want to live without consuming alcohol or any other drugs. We have reached this uh and we're joining you in this extraordinary session with several members of our group. Our group is beyond belief. And we are starting our contact with the secular world of double A, and we are filled with uh deep joy being able to share with you all. In terms of my experience, I have been 22 years. Thank you, Joe. Nice to meet you. And tagminus, the in terms of my experience, I have been uh sober for 22 years thanks to the double A members. Uh and seven months since 2024, I contacted AA again. I had an abstention period. I hadn't understood what's the essence of sobriety and sharing without and enjoying life without drinking. But since that moment when I included myself, I allowed myself to insert myself and open my mind and open up to the possibilities and the proposal of AA. I started feeling had a sensation that I had several years, something didn't quite fit for me. There was something that was like a breakdown. And it this has to do with all my life. I have been a rational man, extremely rational since I studied in the university. I studied philosophy, I work in philosophy, research in philosophy and matters, pneumonics, transcendental myths, like the uh the condition of being able to recover without that. Didn't make sense to me. My postulations, my questions, sometimes my positions. Somebody mentioned that before, that was very upset with the big blue book, the basic AA book, because some expressions are grotesque, are very strong for some people who were not able to fit under that perspective. And sometimes I responded to those uh proposals. I asked questions, and people got upset with my questions, and I was rejected in certain groups of AA, traditional, conventional, and in certain occasions they yelled, out, out, out, because I questioned deeply if my problem was a health issue, as a condition of the human condition, or does it have to be a deity or I had to become good or reconfigure my existence in virtue of some principles, some moral principles from institutions with uh religious character were gonna give the answer to me. And I found my answer like you are all manifesting in the human condition, and with all that has to do with the human trials, human. I and then I find myself with others like yourselves who have not drank every day, and this is where I found the center of the question. This was the quiz of the matter, not having to look above myself in a horizontal position, calm and uh evaluation of myself and what I live as daily life in order not to have a drink, not come close to the first dosage. I not only have uh alcoholism problem, but I also have been consuming narcotics, and I found that in that human contact is where I definitely had the answer I was needing. We started looking, uh myself and another peer, Danny Allercan, his hand is his camera is on, and he's greeting you all. And we between him and I and other two, the possibility we looked into the possibility, we did research through internet, and we found this in immense world of agnostic secular AA. It was an extraordinary response for us. Today, we have a group with a very open format. We invite you all, maybe because through Claudia. Claudia, big hug for you. Um with to the help with this transition. We want to uh send our message, weekly messages. Uh uh we do it over meet, and we meet. Thank you, Joe. We gather to continue living this experience of keeping ourselves sober, not drinking every day, analyzing everyday life among humans. Some of our members are believers, we are inclusive. So anyone who wants to remain stop drinking and remain sober, they have to be open. We have to be open. But in terms of deities and transcendentalism, are not a priority in our space. The priorities, the phenomena of everyday life, and we talk about it from human to human, and together we are trying to uh overcome the experience with an intention, with an objective, primary objective, which is not going back to drinking or consuming any substance that might affect our perception of reality. This is how we have joined together, and this is how we continue to do so. Our geography amplifies our possibilities. We are sharing with you from Medellin, the old America, and we're continuing with this exercise, and we believe that this deep relationship between humans is what uh makes it possible for someone like me, myself, who was a slave uh from alcoholism. Thank you very, very much. And we can we expect to you to join us in Beyond Belief. This has been an extraordinary experience. Seeing and meeting you all. See you soon, my friends.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:22

My name is Alonzo. I also go by the name of Chico. And uh I just want to thank everybody for participating in a very beautiful meeting. I'd like to thank the uh different cultures that have joined. And uh I'm sure that a lot of people don't remember me or know me. That's okay because that doesn't matter. I'd like to thank Richard for inviting me in. Um I remember you, Johnny. When you had green months. Anyways, uh I'd like to thank everybody for that. Hello, I'm good.

SPEAKER_08 1:36:11

It's great that you're here. And anyway, one last question. Who is responsible?

SPEAKER_09 1:36:20

I am responsible when anyone anywhere anywhere we should grab.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:31

Always there.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:34

And for Wizzley there's responsible. Responsible.