Although I am proud of the efforts and contributions of colleagues in the field of addiction, I am also saddened and frustrated that the majority in this field pays only lip service to the notion of spiritual recovery. Treatment centers based on 12 step recovery always mention spirituality yet rarely provide any adequate spiritual direction, education or guidance. Addicts are encouraged to find or reconnect with their spiritual nature and then find themselves without any guide to help them on their journey. The most crucial tool in relapse prevention, spiritual recovery, is denied the person in treatment. The question to be asked is why is this happening. Who is to blame? What is spiritual recovery? What is spiritual nature? Why is it crucial to recovery?

     Since spiritual nature is limited by language it is most useful to illustrate it by use of analogy or metaphor. It is also easier to describe what it can become rather than what it is.

     Spiritual nature can best be described by the Hispanic term "la chispa". "La Chispa" literally translated means the spark, ember, or tiny diamond. If you imagine a piece of wood half burnt, a burning ember without a flame, that is "la chispa". This burning ember never dies, but waits for the breath that will restore what was lost. It is a process of recovery, reclaiming what was. "La Chispa" fanning back to a flame symbolizes the recovery of our spiritual nature. It is recovery of our life force, spiritus in Latin, pranasakti in Sanskrit.

     "La Chispa" is our spiritual nature that waits and longs for the breath of recovery. Its theme is apparent in a multitude of religious and spiritual traditions. Christians call it the Christ within; Buddhists call it our true nature; Polynesians call it mana; Crow Indians maxpe; buha, (among the Shoshone); while others refer to it as Kundalini energy; the fire in the belly, or the fire in the soul. It really doesn’t matter what we call it, or if we have, or don’t have a specific religion or spiritual tradition. What I refer to as "La Chispa" has always been with us. It is passion for the life experience. That burning passion that makes one’s life worth living. That passion for the experience of today that we had as a small child.

     Many in our society today lack the passion of this life force. Many live empty lives. Many go about clinging to attachments of all kinds in futile attempts to ignite the ember into a flame. We live in an addictive society as Anne Wilson Schaef has so convincingly brought forward in her books and lectures. Many in our society will live and die with their addictions never knowing they were addicts. Workaholics are praised and rewarded by our society at great expense to individuals, families, and the spiritual development of our communities and our world. Chances are this wont change much. Those addicted to substances such as alcohol, heroin, cocaine, speed, pills and others are brought to their knees with the chaos their addictions create. The flame has gone out and one’s spiritual nature is but a burning ember. Like I said before, we never lose our spiritual nature but we must reclaim, recover the flame that has been reduced to a burning ember. We must recover that life force, that passion for the life experience.

     I’m not glad I have an addiction, but I am thankful that I know and accept that I have an addiction. I am grateful that my spiritual malady forced me to look within and recover my spiritual potential. With our drug use we come to the abyss and either have to look within or die. Many die a physical death and others remain in spiritual limbo with their flame reduced to an ember. It is these living dead that I write for now. They may be active in their addiction or they may have been clean for years. Conventional treatment does little to guide the addict back to his spiritual nature. Remaining clean does not guarantee reclaiming the flame. Education and guidance of spiritual recovery must be given the leading role in treatment of the recovering addict.

     Twelve step programs are our best hope for spiritual recovery, yet too often even they fall short of giving clues to reclaiming passion for the life experience. This is not to minimize their contributions or importance to the recovering addict. Twelve step programs are the most enriching gift for the new life of the recovering addict. Many have found by practicing these steps their spiritual flame was recovered, many haven’t. I don’t believe that because something is the best thing we have at this time that we should be satisfied when the majority of addicts don’t make it. Arguments could be made that they don’t make it because they weren’t working their programs. I think we need to go beyond this excuse and develop new methods to keep them in their programs and in their recovery.

     What I’m proposing isn’t new. Reawakening your spiritual nature, as I’ve said before, is talked about in treatment centers and 12 step meetings. In the majority of treatment centers only lip service is paid to it. Why? The founder of A.A., Bill Wilson had a spiritual experience that changed his life. Why do we continue to ignore this avenue or fail to pursue it diligently? There are many possible reasons why we ignore the spiritual aspects in treatment. I will discuss the most obvious.

     To begin with, we live in a society of various religious and spiritual beliefs. This in itself is not a problem. In fact I believe everyone should have their own unique spiritual tradition based upon their own unique experience and journey through life. This however is not the case. In fact in the United States conformity to the norm is respected. People tend to identify with their group or religion and consider those not part of their group as somehow inferior or less than. It is not the religion or group that is necessarily to blame but rather the individual. I have studied all the major religions and their texts and can find no evidence that any of them support superiority, hatred or violence. Yet wars have been fought under their various banners. It is no small wonder that treatment centers tread lightly on the subject of spiritual nature and spiritual recovery and do little to assist the recovering addict in his personal spirituality. For one thing, a treatment center is a business and it’s not good business getting too deep into various pathways for spiritual transformation. This goes back to conforming to the norm. People fear what they’re ignorant of. Novel ideas and beliefs pose an imaginary threat to their own struggling spiritual nature. Treatment centers can lose business being branded "offbeat", "weird", and out of the mainstream.

     Along with this, Insurance companies are not willing to pay for what they regard as nonsense. In-depth education and guidance of spiritual development would not be a good case for getting further treatment for your patient. I can hear the Insurance Case Managers gathering and howling with laughter as they refuse treatment for the patient. The United States still has the mentality of the state motto for Missouri, "The Show Me State", and we are so firmly entrenched in the scientific method that what can’t be tested or validated isn’t of any use. Thus the most potent tool for relapse prevention and a passion for life, spiritual recovery, remains silent in treatment centers. It is time for bold action and courageous administrators to institute new methods and present novel ideas to promote education and guidance on spiritual recovery. This is only for the bold and not the weak. Counselors should take an active role in instituting new programs. It is not easy facing the censure of your colleagues or the loss of your job. Nothing is easy in life when it involves change, but change we must. We owe it to those whose bones we now stand on, those who have gone before and suffered without hope, and those walking ghosts, the living dead, who cry out for help and are not heard. Those of us who have recovered the flame of our spiritual nature have a responsibility to guide others, as we were guided, to experience once again a passion for the life experience that is brought to fruition in spiritual recovery. Nothing less is acceptable.

     "The courage to test uncharted waters, to rebel against convention and accepted thought, potentiates endless new worlds. Never allow herd mentality to stifle your dreams, Columbus didn’t"