Let’s talk about alcoholism

Seb Grynko
16 min readSep 9, 2020

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Excerpt from Joseph Murphy’s book — Miracles of the Mind

The Subconscious Mind and Alcoholism

The Alcoholic is mentally ill, and he needs a mental overhauling. The problem drinker, the compulsive drinker, or the habitual drinker does not drink normally. The problem drinker is a chronic alcoholic; he drinks for days, weeks, and even months at a time. The alcoholic says that a passion seizes him periodically to drink. He is a victim of a habit because the acts leading to intoxication have been repeated so often, he has established a subjective pattern in his subconscious mind.

Because the alcoholic has already yielded to his craving, he fears that he will yield once more; this contributes to his repeated falls due to the suggestions given to his subconscious mind. It is his imagination that causes the alcoholic to return to drinking intermittently. The images which have been impressed on his subconscious mind begin to bear fruit. He imagines a drinking bout in which glasses are filled and drained; then he imagines the following sense of ease and enjoyment, a feeling of relaxation. If he lets his imagination run wild, he will go to the bar or buy a bottle.

The drinker uses effort and will power to overcome the habit, or “cause,” as he calls it. The more effort or will power he uses, the more hopelessly engulfed does he become in the quicksand.

The effort is invariably self-defeated, eventuating always in the opposite of what is desired. The reason for this is obvious: The suggestion of powerlessness to overcome the habit dominates his mind; the subconscious mind is always controlled by the dominant idea. The subconscious mind will accept the strongest of two contradictory propositions. The effortless way is the best.

The first drink starts the alcoholic off. This is due to a subconscious tendency or urges established through habit.

There is a Law of Reversed Effort which was explained by the French school of therapeutics in 1910. It means this: When your desire and your imagination are in conflict, the imagination invariably gains the day. For example, you will hear an alcoholic say, “I took a lot of pains, I tried so hard, I forced myself, I used all the will power I had,” etc. He has to be made to realize that herein lies his error; then he begins to conquer the habit.

If, for example, you were asked to walk a plank on the floor, you would do so without question. Now suppose the same plank were placed twenty feet up in the air between two walls, would you walk it? Your desire to walk it would be counteracted by your imagination — your fear of falling. The dominant idea would conquer. Your desire, will, or effort to walk would be reversed, and the dominant idea of failure would be reinforced.

If a man says, “I want to give up alcohol, but I cannot” he may wish to give it up, but the harder he tries, the less he is able. Never try to compel the subconscious mind to accept your idea by exercising will power. Such attempts are doomed to failure. The subconscious mind accepts the dominant of two contradictory statements. It is like the man who is poverty-stricken saying, “I am wealthy.” In most instances, his statement makes him poorer. The simple reason for this is that his belief in poverty is much greater than his belief in abundance, so he is suggesting more lack to himself each time he makes the statement. This illustrates the Law of Reversed Effort. In other words, the opposite result from that which was intended follows.

In using the subconscious to heal alcoholism you must engage its cooperation. The subconscious mind will accept your feeling, your belief, or your conviction. The alcoholic avoids the conflict which arises in his mind by using the sleeping technique.

By entering into a sleepy, drowsy state, the effort is reduced to a minimum. The conscious mind is submerged to a great extent when in a sleepy state. The best time to impregnate the subconscious mind, as the French school pointed out in 1910, is prior to sleep. The reason for this is that the highest degree of an outcropping of the subconscious occurs just prior to sleep and just after we awaken. In this state the negative thoughts which tend to neutralize your desire and so prevent acceptance by the subconscious no longer present themselves.

Here is a simple method a chronic alcoholic for forty years used. I wrote this out for him:

Assume a comfortable posture, relax your body, and be still. Get into a sleepy state and in that sleepy state say quietly, over and over again like a lullaby, “I am completely free from this habit; sobriety and peace of mind reign supreme.” Repeat the above slowly, quietly, and lovingly for five or ten minute’s night and morning. At the end of three weeks, he lost all desire to drink. Each time he repeated the above statement its emotional value became greater. When the urge came, he repeated the above formula out loud to himself. By this means, he induced the subconscious to accept his idea and healing followed.

I remember treating an alcoholic in Rochester, New York, some years ago. He said to me, “I had not had a drop in six months, and I was congratulating myself. All my friends were patting me on the back telling me what wonderful will power I had.”

“Then,” he added, “an uncontrollable urge seized me, and I have been drunk for two weeks.”

This had happened time and again with this man. The effort of his will suppressed his desire temporarily, but his continued effort to suppress made matters worse. His repeated failures convinced him that he was hopeless and powerless in controlling his urge or obsession. This idea of being powerless operated, of course, as a powerful suggestion to his subconscious, increased his impotence and made his life a wreck.

I taught him how to harmonize the function of the conscious and subconscious mind.

When the two cooperate, the idea or desire is realized. His reasoning mind admitted that if he had been conditioned negatively he could be conditioned positively. His mind entertained the idea that he could succeed. He ceased thinking of the fact that he was powerless to overcome the habit. Moreover, he understood clearly that there was no obstacle to his healing other than his own thought. Therefore, there is no occasion for great mental effort or mental coercion. To use force is to pre-suppose that there is opposition. When the mind is concentrated on the means to overcome a problem, it is no longer concerned with the obstacle.

This man made a practice of relaxing his body, getting into a sleepy, drowsy, meditative state; then filling his mind with the picture of the desired end, knowing the subconscious would bring it about in the easiest way. He imagined his daughter congratulating him on his freedom, saying to him, “Daddy, it’s wonderful to have you home.”

He had lost his family through a drink. He was not allowed to visit them; his wife would not speak to him.

Regularly, systematically, he used to sit down and meditate in the way outlined. When his attention wandered, he brought it back to the picture of his daughter with her smile, tonal qualities, and the scene of his own home.

All this was a reconditioning of his mind. It was a gradual process. He kept it up; he persevered knowing that sooner or later he would succeed in impregnating his subconscious with the mental picture. I told him the conscious mind was the camera, and his subconscious was the sensitive plate on which he registered and impressed the picture. This made a profound impression on him; his whole aim was to impress the picture and develop it in his mind. Your film is developed in the dark; likewise, your mental picture is developed in the dark house of the subconscious mind.

Realizing his conscious mind was the camera, he used no effort; there was no mental struggle. He quietly adjusted his thought and focused all his attention on the scene before him. He became absorbed in its reality, somewhat like a sponge absorbing water.

It’s a sort of mental absorption whereby you are completely identified with the picture. Sometimes you are so engrossed or absorbed in reading a newspaper article, you can’t hear a loved one speak to you.

He got into this mental atmosphere, repeated it frequently, and knew healing would follow. When the temptation to drink came, he knew it was his imagination taking him back to the drinking bout, so he would switch off that scene, cut the film, so to speak, and see his daughter, feel her embrace, and hear her voice. The secret of his success was that he confidently expected to experience the picture he was developing in his mind.

You are a ship, and thought is your helm. Change the direction of the helm (your thought); as a result, you change the direction of your ship.

Get acquainted now with that infinite reservoir of strength and healing power within you which is the subconscious mind. If you are an alcoholic, admit it; do not dodge the issue. Many people remain, alcoholics because they refuse to admit it.

Your disease is an instability, an inner fear. You are refusing to face life, and so you try to escape your responsibilities through the bottle. The interesting thing about an alcoholic is that he has no free will; he thinks he has; he boasts about his will power. The habitual drunkard says bravely, “I will not touch it anymore,” but he has no power to back it up because he does not know where to locate it.

The alcoholic is living in a psychological prison of his own making and is bound by his beliefs, opinions, training, and environmental influences. He is like most people; i.e., he is a creature of habit. He is conditioned to react the way he does.

The alcoholic must build the idea of freedom and peace into his mentality so that it reaches his subconscious mind. The latter being all-powerful will free him from all desire for alcohol; then the alcoholic who has a new understanding of how his mind works can truly back up his statements, and prove it to himself.

Your subconscious mind is conditioned by your beliefs and habits. If the alcoholic has a keen desire to free himself from the habit, he is fifty-one percent healed already. When he has a greater desire to give it up than to continue it, he will not experience too much difficulty in gaining complete freedom.

The alcoholic must recondition his mind. There are ways and means of doing this. When you think good, good follow; when you think evil, evil follows; these are simple examples of laws of mind. If a man dwells and broods on sorrow, he meets sorrow and gloom in his outer experience. If he dwells on peace and good fortune in his business, it will prosper. To know the possibilities of such laws of mind is to be seized with new inspiration and a new faith.

The alcoholic learns that whatever thought he anchors his mind upon, the latter magnifies. If the alcoholic engages his mind on the concept of freedom (freedom from the habit) and peace of mind, and if he keeps focused on this new direction of his attention, he generates feelings and emotions which gradually emotionalize the concept of freedom and peace. Whatever idea is emotionalized is accepted by the subconscious mind, and brought to pass.

The alcoholic must realize that something good can come out of his suffering; he has not suffered in vain. However what good is it to continue to suffer?

To continue as an alcoholic is only to bring about mental and physical deterioration and decay. Begin to say, “No!” to the urge now. Realize that the power in your subconscious mind is backing you up. Even though you may be seized with melancholia and the shakes, begin to imagine the joy and freedom that is in store for you; this is the law of substitution. Your imagination took and peace of mind. You will suffer a little bit, you to the bottle; let it take you now to freedom but it is for a constructive purpose; you will bear it like the mother in the pangs of childbirth, and you will, likewise, bring forth a child of the mind. Your subconscious mind will give birth to sobriety.

Your thinking controls you, whether you know it or not. You are now fully aware of the fact that your subconscious mind accepts without question the thoughts you impress upon it. You can now begin to control your life. To discipline your mind means to think constructively and harmoniously.

One time I read an article about Goethe. He was wont to hold imaginary, mental conversations with friends. For example, he would get still and quiet and imagine one of his friends answering him in the way he wanted, with characteristic gestures and tone of voice. He solved many of his problems that way. So can you.

Many have asked me about their reason or cause for drinking to excess. There are, of course, many reasons. It may be that a man is resenting his wife, or his job, or his employer. Maybe he is jealous, or he has an inferiority or rejection complex. I have discovered in treating alcoholics that there is nearly always a deep sense of guilt.

I am now thinking of a married man, with four children, supporting and secretly living with another woman during his business trips. He was ill, nervous, irritable, cantankerous, and could not sleep without drugs. He had pains in numerous organs of his body which doctors could not diagnose. He was a confirmed alcoholic when I saw him. The reason for his periodic sprees was a deep unconscious sense of guilt. He had violated the ancient code and this troubled him. The religious creed he was brought up on was deeply lodged in his subconscious mind; he drank excessively to heal the wound of guilt.

Some take morphine and codeine for severe pains, he was taking alcohol for the pain or wound of the mind. It is the old story of adding fuel to the fire.

He listened to the explanation of how his mind worked, he faced his problem, looked at it, and gave up his dual role. He knew that his drinking was an unconscious attempt to escape. The hidden cause lodged in the subconscious had to be eradicated; then the healing followed.

When he began to look at his problem in the light of reason, it was dissipated. He began to use this treatment three or four times a day. “My mind is full of peace, poise, balance, and equilibrium. The Infinite Power lies stretched in smiling repose within me. I am not afraid of anything in the past, the present, or the future. Infinite Intelligence leads, guides, and directs me in all ways. I now meet every situation with faith, poise, calmness, and confidence. I am now completely free from the habit; my mind is full of inner peace, freedom, and joy. I forgive myself; then I am forgiven. Peace, Sobriety, and Confidence reign Supreme in my mind.”

He repeated this frequently knowing what he was doing, and why he was doing it. Knowing what he was doing gave him the necessary faith and confidence. I explained to him that as he said these statements out loud, slowly, lovingly, and meaningfully, they would gradually sink down into his subconscious; like seeds they would grow after their kind.

I explained to him that his subconscious mind was like a garden; by planting lovely seeds he would reap a wonderful harvest. It is the nature of an apple seed to bring forth an apple tree. These truths which he concentrated on went in through his eyes; his ears heard the sound; the healing vibration of these words reached his subconscious mind, and obliterated all the negative mental patterns which caused all the trouble. Light dispels darkness; the positive thought destroys the negative. He became a transformed man within a month.

Of course, as you know, people will give you all manner of excuses or alibis as to why they drink. They may blame their drinking on some tragedy in the home, some crisis in their life, lack of money, or education. The real reason is negative thinking which has brought about emotional maladjustment. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The word heart is an ancient word meaning the subconscious mind. In simple language, it is saying, “As you think and feel, so are you in all departments of your life.”

Emerson said, “A man is what he thinks all day long.” This is the answer and the whole story. The cause is in yourself, in your habitual thinking, your mental attitude, and reaction to life. The alcoholic addict is really seeking to escape some sense of bondage or some subconscious restriction. In other words, the alcoholic lacks confidence and poise.

I told a woman one time not to give any more money to her son as he spent it all on drink. I said, “You are only contributing to his delinquency.”

“Oh,” she said, “he kneels down, kisses the Bible, and swears he will never touch another drop. I believe him; then I give him the money. He seems so penitent, remorseful, and so full of condemnation of himself for the way he acted, that I think he means it.”

I explained to her that these were idle statements on the part of her son and really meant nothing; under no circumstances should she give him any more money. I spent some time with her explaining that the boy had no free will, but was just boasting about his will power to give up drinking. His statements and oaths that he would never touch it anymore were meaningless, as he had no power to back them up. In other words, he did not know where the power was, nor how to locate it.

She brought him to see me. He came rather reluctantly making the usual statement that he was not an alcoholic. I told him to stop this nonsense; admit it openly, and not dodge it. That is the first step in healing. Many remain alcoholics because they refuse to admit they are.

This boy was condemning himself saying, “I suppose I’m no good.” Alcohol took him into a world of temporary illusion were in his morbid imagination he was king for a day. This gave him a false sense of confidence and a temporary sense of self- sufficiency. He admitted that if he took one drink, he lost all control, and drank until he fell unconscious. The reason for this is obvious: His mental control was rendered null and void due to a subconscious pattern engraved on his mind over a long period of time. It is like a track on which the train moves. He had established a mental track in his mind on which ran images of drinking bouts, of glasses, filled, images associated with the feeling of enjoyment and success.

The minute this confirmed drunkard took a drink that was a suggestion for another and another until he fell unconscious. He had subjectified a belief in the necessity of alcohol; the law of the subconscious being that of compulsion, the moment he took one he was compelled to take another. This young man said what all alcoholics say, “If I don’t take the first drink I’m all right, but the minute I take the first, I lose control.”

The reason is that the one drink brings on an outcropping of the subconscious mind which, in the case of the alcoholic, due to long habit and conditioning says to him, “Have another! Have another!” His subconscious belief and fear are his governor and controls his conduct and actions.

Man is bound by his beliefs, opinions, training, and environmental influences. He is conditioned to react the way he does. Life is forever seeking to express itself through man. The desire for true place, peace of mind, abundance, and security are cosmic urges within all men. There is a law of mind which, when understood, enables man to realize his cherished desires. The cause of all confusion, strife, and problems in the world is man’s failure to realize his heart’s desires. Show man the powers of his own subconscious mind; tell him that if he will imagine the end; feel it subjectively, and remain faithful to his ideal, the subconscious will bring it to pass. People who try and stifle desire have really an unconscious impulse toward self-destruction or self- oblivion. When a man begins to believe in a Power greater than himself lodged in his own unconscious depths, he is on the way to health, happiness, and peace of mind.

There is nothing new about the following technique. It is as old as man. The most ancient wisdom available said, “As a man imagines and feels, so is he.”

The first step: Get still; quiet the wheels of the mind. Enter into a sleepy, drowsy state. In this relaxed, peaceful, receptive state you are preparing for the second step.

The second step: Take a brief-phrase which can readily be graven on the memory, and repeat it over and over again like a lullaby. (Nancy School technique). Use the phrase, “Sobriety and peace of mind are mine now, and I give thanks.” To prevent the mind from wandering repeat it aloud or sketch its pronunciation with lips and tongue as you say it mentally. This helps its entry into the subconscious mind. Do this for five minutes or more. You will find a deep emotional response from the subconscious. It is wonderful.

The third step: Just before going to sleep, practice what Goethe used to do. Imagine a friend, a loved one in front of you. Your eyes are closed; you are relaxed and at peace. The loved one is subjectively present and is saying to you, “Congratulations!” You see the smile; you hear the voice. You touch the hand and the face; it’s all so real and vivid.

End of the excerpt

Alcoholism is a treat to humankind and the human mind. Talks about alcoholism and addiction to intoxicants need to have a bigger platform.

I am not only talking about the junkies and the hardcore addicts. Intoxicants serve as an escape and a buffer to so many people.

You see it every day in every walk of life. You might think they look normal, act normal but their default mode is being intoxicated from the moment they wake up till the end of the day when they fall asleep.

I, myself quit drinking many years ago. I spent 3 months in a meditation center and after that, I was done.

It’s hard to remember because it was such a long time ago but I just did not feel like drinking anymore. And I used to love drinking so much.

It was just so much fun but I think deep down I just could not accept that I needed this to actually be a person that enjoys life.

Those intoxicants give you blind spots to the world you don’t want to face but the problem is you can’t stay too long without having to face the consequences on your body, on your health, on your relationships, on your work, etc..

Sooner or later, there will be a price to pay. I see women needing to drink in order to have sex. I see young men destroying their lives for they have no hope.

Apathy is the lowest vibration you can find. It’s lower than fear. It’s lower than depression. At this level, there is little, to no energy. You have given up.

You have just settled for what you think is and what is, is made better through intoxicants.

I want to give you hope. One day soon, you will be able to fill your cup with love, not with alcohol. Give yourself time. Give yourself patience. And above all give yourself the unconditional love you need and deserve.

The journey will take a bit of time but remember that every time you try you can get a little better. if you relapse, don’t feel bad, tomorrow is another day.

Don’t worry about relapsing, you will have tomorrow, if you don’t have tomorrow you’ll have the next life.

There needs to be a silent intention you give yourself to strengthen your determination and your perseverance.

My definition of perseverance is patiently and kindly moving in the direction of becoming your ideal self for you and others.

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Seb Grynko
Seb Grynko

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