Recovery From the Dominant Culture.

We are a fellowship of people wanting to find aliveness, connection and survival in the face of social-political-economic overwhelm. We do this by recognizing and addressing our unspoken submission to historically entrenched, institutions and influences of the dominant culture. We observe cunning, baffling and powerful social ills perpetuated through inequities involving race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age and ability. We explore how these impact our thoughts feelings and personal habits. We hope that as each of us becomes free from acquisition driven, socially divisive, militarized forces, we can catalyze change and establish a new way of living with care for each other and the earth.

We work with a modified version of AA's twelve steps and traditions using practices of: anonymity, vulnerability in truth telling, intuitive inquiry, restorative amends, group service, non-hierarchical decision making and conscious action.

The first Recovery from the Dominant Culture meetings were created and held in west Oakland, Ca through Seminary of the Street. This flyer is a draft proposal for a new meeting in Berkeley. We welcome participation in the process of developing meeting agreements. And most of all we invite you to our upcoming meetings beginning on Saturday March 15th at 10 am

TWELVE STEPS

1. We admitted we were powerless over our thoughts, feelings, desires and actions shaped by the dominant culture and that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to rebuild our lives, seeking truth, love, and discernment through connection with intuitive wisdom, Great Spirit, God, Goddess and/or a Higher Power of our choice.

4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of how we treat ourselves and relate with others.

5. Admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our thinking, feelings and actions based on dominant culture conditioning

6. Were entirely ready to have our Higher Power remove coping habits and addictions not in alignment with our integrity.

7. Humbly asked our Higher Power to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons, living beings and earth sources we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people, living beings and the earth wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when acting under the influence of dominant culture patterns we promptly admitted it and sought more conscious ways of interacting.

11. Sought through study, writing, art, prayer and/or meditation to improve our conscious contact with our Higher Power, and to identify new ways of participating in life affirming culture, holding our well being in balance with the well being of others.

12. Having experienced transformative change with these Steps, we practice these principles in all our affairs, carry this message to those interested, and engage in actions that embody an alternative to the addictive processes of the dominant culture