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Fourth Dimension of Existence
Nobody got rocketed anywhere in the physical world until the 1960s. So, the writer in the 1930s who wrote “we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence” wasn’t referring to transportation, he was referring to transformation. It is easy for us who have seen men walk on the moon to miss that. We are not alone in missing the spiritual dimension.
Jesus of Nazareth spoke of “The Kingdom of God” which is within. That dimension is also written about in the Torah, the Dhammapada, and the Tao Te Ching. Others have been missing it for a lot longer than we have been missing it in the Big Book. The people who have not missed it are called masters and mystics. We are living in that dimension whether we are aware of it or not. The fourth dimension is real, it exist, everywhere, all the time.
Egos cannot enter the fourth dimension because egos are that part of our mind that think we are separate and in the fourth dimension we are in unity . On page 25 and many other pages of the Big Book, the writer (a salesman first and foremost) is touting the benefits of recovery to give the reader a reason to continue reading. “Recovery” is getting your ego aside and shrinking your ego so that the “real you” can enter the fourth dimension and know it. Who/what is the “real you”? It is the spiritual being that is having your human experience. The Big Book is written to low bottom drunks not to metaphysical scholars. That is why the higher meanings are easy to miss but they are certainly there.
Our message in recovery programs is: “This is what we did to recover. If you want to recover, do what we did.” What we did and what you do, in the physical world, causes things to happen in the spiritual realm (the fourth dimension). At some point you will become awake to what happens in the spiritual realm - “Spiritual Awakening”.
So to the newcomer who does not understand anything that is happening at meetings, know that there is a lot happening in the fourth dimension that you are very much a part of but can’t yet see. For the religious person accustomed to being told what he/she should/should not do and being judged by doing/not doing, know that there is no judgment in the fourth dimension and that we are human beings not human doings. If someone gives you advice, they have judged that you need it – that is to say that they have more of something than you do.
Whether the judgment is correct or not makes no difference. Ego cannot enter the spiritual dimension, it is an ego making the judgment, and therefore judgment is not part of the spiritual dimension and does not cause recovery to happen. It isn’t religion that we don’t want in AA it is the judgment that we don’t want in AA because we don’t need it where recovery really happens.
What about the poor souls who are not addicted to alcohol, drugs, food, gambling, sex…? Are they subjecting themselves to judgment, obeying rules and performing rituals to be rocketed into the fourth dimension when that isn’t the way into the fourth dimension? The seminar “Evolve” is based upon the book How It Works and is subtitled “12 Steps for Social Drinkers”.
"Do you have experience as a teacher or facilitator?" is a question asked recently. Here is my answer:
You know that we chose our parents according to our purpose in the coming life. The good news is that my father is one of a group of the most effective teachers in the world. The bad news is that group of teachers is known as Marine Drill Instructors. However, that makes one of my true purposes in life fairly clear. I served for several years as a member of the pastoral leadership team of Our Lady's Prayer Group, a covenant community of about 300 families at that time, in Toledo (early '80s) part of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. I lead and facilitated a dozen or so Life In The Spirit Seminars and gave teachings regularly. I was asked by the Provincial of the Society of Mary at Bergamo Center (University of Dayton - my degree is in Business but I studied Theology) to lead a Life In The Spirit Seminar there. That was the beginning of a large prayer group that still exists, I think.
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