Maurice "Mo" Murray, B.A., M.Div., Cht.
In his book, “Just Snap Your Fingers and…Bingo You’re Sober,” author Maurice Murray provides recovering alcoholics with an extensive guide to overcoming alcoholism by tapping into their thought processes and spirituality.
His workbook is arranged in five chapters: Recovery Your Way (how alcohol works on the mind, accepting responsibility, and understanding the meaning of love as it applies to objects, people, and God,) God Fixes Cracked Pots (relationships between the thought process and attitude,) The Chair’s Fixed, Relax and Sit in It (self-realization, self awareness, one’s personal relationship with God,) Swat That Bee on Your Recovery Doorknob (how feelings are connected to our thought processes and behavior, learning to listen, feel, and visualize to achieve a new emotional balance,) and Bingo You’re Sober (self hypnosis as a tool for instilling spiritual and mental recovery skills.)
The book is peppered with spiritual and philosophical anecdotes intended to provide positive reinforcement and hope. Murray draws on a lifetime of experience to present relevant stories in the form of thoughtful and sometimes comical anecdotes meant to inspire recovering alcoholics to stay on the healing path.
The main message of the book is that alcoholism is a disease that can be defeated. Part of recovery entails understanding how your thought processes work, changing them, and recognizing the power spirituality plays in the recovery process. One essential message Murray imparts: Your life isn’t hopeless. It is your negative thoughts that have led you to believe it is hopeless. As Murray states, “Recovery requires conscious and continuous positive actions.”
Written from a heartfelt struggle with alcoholism, Murray candidly shares his wisdom on recovering from the disease. I highly recommend Bingo You’re Sober to those seeking clarity, the resolve to recover, and finding peace during a difficult period of one’s life.
Tracy Roberts, Write Field Services
As a counselor and clinical director of a large outpatient treatment center in the Northeast, Maurice "Mo" Murray collected the faith based recovery principles that he wrote about in God Fixes Cracked Pots!
In the latest revision of his "Recovery Workbook for Alcoholics" entitled Just Snap Your Fingers and ... Bingo You're Sober! Murray builds upon these spiritual elements and adds a chapter on self-hypnosis. In a recent interview, "Mo", a clinical hypnotherapist, acknowledged two of his most basic counseling presuppositions:
I didn't find the insight I needed in psychiatry or psychology so I turned to my favorite... Philosophy! Here are the two knots that I tied in my own "string of life:"
1. "What disturbs people's minds are not events but their judgment on events." Epictetus
2. "The greatest discovery of the 19th century was not in the realm of physical sciences, but the power of the subconscious mind touched by faith." William James
Murray provides a candid analysis of how the subconscious mind functions:
"In Behavior Modification, 'depth of trance' plays a minor role or no roll at all. You don't need a hypnotist! You already have your new found "existing recovery drive state." Without this "recovery drive state" Messier Mesmer with all his bells, whistles, animal magnetism, candles and spiral hypno discs couldn't hypnotize his way out of a paper bag! Without your "existing recovery drive state," the problem in recovery terms would be your denial and in clinical hypnotherapy terms would be your resistance.
By learning acceptance techniques, the power faith plays in recovery, and how to look inwardly and analyze your thought processes, you will be able to strengthen your mind and achieve self-hypnosis success."
Maurice "Mo" Murray, B.A., M.Div., Cht.
( Mo is in recovery)
3
The chair's fixed, relax and sit in it!
The phrase "trust the process" makes even me want to throw up! It has turned into a "thought cliche" that weakens attention and no longer starts thought. Here's what I mean by "process" as it relates to recovery from alcohol abuse:
During World War II, there was a British Training Manual about the wartime building of airplanes. It contained a statement to this effect:
Those who are best at the overall planning and building of airplanes are those who realize that overall planning and building of airplanes by one directorate is quite impossible, and plan for it.
If you scoff that that is typically British, here's the American equivalent. It was heard in rural bus stops throughout the USA for years:
"Last call for the bus to (let's say) Recoveryville! All those wanting to board the bus should already be on the bus!"
Just as it says on the front cover of this workbook: You are in recovery now!
Unfortunately, your "Alcoholic" name tag will always remain. There is an old adage "all labels are liable." I can guarantee you that, very much like Hester in The Scarlet Letter, you will have to live with your "A" label for the rest of your life. Even in the best of spiritual recoveries from substance abuse, here is an example of the type of name difficulty you can expect:
A Scotish jury, comprised primarily of old fogies, was called in to decide the fate of a body that had been found at the bottom of a well. They had to decide if the victim had fallen or had been pushed. After much deliberation, they came back with the verdict that this was "An Act Of God, under Highly Suspicious Circumstances!"
God spelled backwards is... Dog! The meaning is not in the word. It is in what we associate with the word, or in what we bring with us when we see or hear it!
In Aldous Huxley's "Those Barren Leaves," Miss Thriplow was suddenly captivated by the fleeting impulse that she should be more "spiritual." In order to be more receptive she "got into bed, and lying on her back, with all her muscles relaxed, she began to think about God." Her imagination started to work:
"God is a spirit, she said to herself, a spirit, a spirit. She tried to picture something huge and empty, but alive. A huge flat expanse of sand, for example, and over it a huge blank dome of sky; and above the sand everything should be tremulous and shimmering with heat - an emptiness that was yet alive. A spirit, an all-pervading spirit. God is a spirit. Three camels appeared on the horizon of the sandy plain and went lolloping along in an absurd ungainly fashion from left to right. Miss Thriplow made an effort and dismissed them. God is a spirit, she said aloud. But of all animals camels are really almost the queerest; when one thinks of their frightfully supercilious faces, with their protruding under lips like the last Hapsburg kings of Spain... No, no; God is a spirit, all-prevading, everywhere. All the universes are made one in him."
Alcohol is a "false god." To reprise Saint Augustine, your "Ordo del Amoris" that is your, "Order of Loves" is changing!
This is a realization of your heart! Pause for a moment to feel this new reality. Because of this "love thing" going on with God, alcohol is hardly missed... alcohol who? Your mind agrees! The exciting thing about recovery is that it is not only a process, Recovery is Relationship!
