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ABSTRACT
This article traces the roots of evolutionary spirituality through the Program and Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), mining AA's wisdom while translating it through an AQAL integral and evolutionary lens. With sobriety as the first priority (Upper-Right quadrant), 12 Steps promote recovery and ego-transcendence for the individual (Upper-Left quadrant), 12 Traditions support the integrity of the collective We space (Lower-Left quadrant) for the recovery group, and 12 Concepts provide a world service structure and container for evolutionary culture (Lower-Right quadrant). AA's "servant-led" gift economy exemplifies organizational sustainability and unity of purpose amid exponential growth. In facing the challenges and crises of the 21st century, how might the example of AA's program and fellowship that leads the hopeless alcoholic out of despair, inform the enactment of integral/evolutionary perspectives to transform individuals and the culture and structures of the larger world?
KEY WORDS Alcoholics Anonymous; evolutionary; addiction; integral; recovery
The application of Integral Theory to the area of addiction recovery began with the quiet efforts of solo practitioners to apply recovery, psychotherapy, and Integral Life Practices to assist their clients (White, 2002).1 The first formal model of an integral recovery program (Dupuy & Morelli, 2007; Dupuy & Gorman, 2010) was introduced in 2007, and presentation of other integrally informed approaches followed (Shealy, 2009b; du Plessis, 2010; & Calleja, 2011). The recent application of Integral Methodological Pluralism to the problem of addiction (du Plessis, 2012a) and preliminary identification of addiction recovery stages (du Plessis, 2012b) marks a maturation of the field. This article examines commonalities and contrasts between the grassroots program and fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and newer evolutionary spiritual teachings and practices, exploring the potential for extending the recovery path into transpersonal or postpersonal levels, catalyzing individual and collective awakening, and laying groundwork for a model of Integral Evolutionary Recovery.
Mining the Kosmocentric Roots of Alcoholics Anonymous
A Kosmocentric evolutionary perspective recognizes both the timeless ever-present ground of being and the deep-time dimension of human becoming (Cohen, 2011, p. 39). Focus is on care for the evolution of human consciousness for the sake of the whole (Hamilton, 2009d). Individual and collective practices that promote self-transcendence are designed to awaken participants to embodied creative emergence as part of a "new We" (Hamilton, 2004; Gunnlaugson...