Originally Posted by
newby1961 
With this method what I am taking from it is you do have control over your beast and that your not powerless over your disease & there is no need for a Higher Power to control your life cause your are OK on your own?
For the purposes of AVRT, one's belief in the divine or lack thereof is of no relevance. Whether by creation or evolution, we all have the innate ability to resist bodily desire. In AVRT, we call the perverse desire for alcohol or drugs the Beast, and the Addictive Voice (AV) is the expression of that desire. AVRT is a means to recognize and identify the Addictive Voice, objectify the desire for alcohol or drugs (the Beast) as ego-alien (not us), and to separate from it. In doing so, the Beast loses its power and we regain control.
Originally Posted by
newby1961 Even though my best thinking got me into this whole mess I am still expected to trust what is in my head and then follow it?
Quite the contrary, and I personally tend to believe that my worst thinking got me into this mess. With AVRT, you are expected to identify the Addictive Voice, and to
not trust it at all. You effectively stand as a sentinel in your mind's eye, and if the AV appears, your task is to objectify it and to
not follow what it says.
Originally Posted by
newby1961 Please don't take offense I am trying to understand all of this as it is very foreign to me.
It is apparent from your post, as well as your profile, that you are a member of AA, so AVRT would indeed seem foreign to you, since AVRT offers a very different paradigm. If you are interested in understanding AVRT, I recommend that you purchase the book
"Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction" by Jack Trimpey and that you read it. You may also want to check out the free crash course on AVRT at the Rational Recovery web site, which you can find by using Google.