Addiction & Transforming Consciousness

Consciousness can be transformed from any context. We get real when we face our unconscious toxic content. It is the only way we have to regain our power. The addict can alter his path to self-destruction by facing what he fears most. That is the only way he will regain his power. While the secret of what he must do is simple, entering the Elimination Zone is often a formidable undertaking. In the beginning of the journey, moving toward our fear intensifies that fear. Addiction is an attempt to tranquilize the beasts of fear and pain.

 Courage

The antidote to fear is courage. In the context of personal evolution, courage means that we have decided to move forward and are willing to feel uncomfortable in order to escape where we have been. That’s what Barbara and Frank both did. Courage means we are willing to take a risk in order to be free of an untenable situation. In the case of the addict, courage means that he is willing to sacrifice the habitual and the destructive, the negative comfort zone that he is used to, for a chance at health and redemption.

For the addict, the road home to his real self and his true nature is not a mystery. Its requirements are few. He has to want to do it. Then he has to choose to do it. Then he has to do it. What the addict has to do to right his boat, we have to do to right ours. The addict’s situation is only more desperate, urgent, and extreme than is our own. The difference between an addict and a normal person is but a matter of degree. We may be in different boats, but we still have to sail on the same sea of consciousness.

At some point in life everyone confronts the same question. Are we going to face ourselves and go forward, or are we going to avoid that confrontation, resist our growth, and run in place for the rest of our lives?