This article is about a concept used in twelve-step programs. For the album by Big Audio Dynamite see Higher Power (album). For the seaQuest DSV episode, see "Higher Power (seaQuest DSV episode)".

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Higher Power is a term coined in the 1930s in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and used in other twelve-step programs. It is also sometimes referred to as a power greater than ourselves and is frequently abbreviated to HP.

Contents 1 History 2 Correlates of belief 3 Definition and usage 3.1 Alcoholics Anonymous 3.2 Popular culture 4 Criticism 4.1 Christian 4.2 Gender bias 4.3 Violation of the US Establishment Clause 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading

[edit] History

Sources that may have contributed to the adoption of the term in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the first twelve-step group, include spiritualism, New Thought and the work of William James.^[1] James, who wrote "The only cure for dipsomania is religiomania" in The Varieties of Religious Experience, is cited in the 'Spiritual Experience' appendix of Alcoholics Anonymous (also known as the "Big Book").^[2]

[edit] Correlates of belief

Sociologist Darren Sherkat researched the belief of Americans in a Higher Power. He based his research on data from 8,000 adults polled by the Chicago-based National Opinion Research Center between 1988 and 2000. Amongst his findings were that 8% stated "I don't believe in a personal god, but I do believe in a higher power of some kind." This is the same figure as found by the 1999 Gallup national poll of Americans. Sherkat also found that 16% of the Jewish people surveyed agreed with the statement about a 'higher power', whilst 13.2% of liberal Protestants and 10.6% of Episcopalians also agreed with it.^[3]

An empirically based recovery framework likened faith in a Higher Power to motivation for personal growth as described by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.^[4]

[edit] Definition and usage

In current twelve-step program usage a Higher Power can be anything at all that the member believes is adequate. Reported examples include Nature, consciousness, existential freedom, their twelve-step group, God, science, Buddha. It is frequently stipulated that as long as a Higher Power is "greater" than the individual, then the only condition is that it should also be loving and caring.^[5]

[edit] Alcoholics Anonymous

The terms 'Higher Power' and 'power greater than ourselves' appear in the "Big Book", on three occasions:

• Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.^[6]
• The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power.^[7]
• Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your present circumstances!^[8]

[edit] Popular culture

• The children's novel The Higher Power of Lucky received the Newbery Medal in 2007, is a story of a child who follows the direction of her Higher Power, a concept she learned from a twelve-step group.
• President of the United States George W. Bush's opening remarks at a conference in June, 2008 included the remark: "There has to be a higher power."^[9]

[edit] Criticism

[edit] Christian

Celebrate Recovery was founded by a group of Christians who criticized the Higher Power concept as being too vague. In the twelve-step derived group, Jesus is the only Higher Power allowed.^[10][11]

[edit] Gender bias

The concept of a Higher Power represents a masculine perception of spiritual recovery, such as the hero's journeys of Moses, Gautama Buddha, Jesus, Odysseus, Icarus and Percival. The archetypal feminine heroic journey is a chthonic underworld journey, lower and deeper; like those of Persephone, Psyche, Eurydice and Inanna. The Higher Power spirituality may not necessarily be relevant to women in recovery.^[12]

[edit] Violation of the US Establishment Clause

The American Psychology Association comments "A number of courts have ruled that state-funded programs can't compel participation in Alcoholics Anonymous because of its religious nature." It reports in its Judicial Notebook of July/August 2004 that although former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating asserted that a Higher Power could be "a dead ancestor, a tall tree or the group itself", courts disagreed with his analysis, and ruled such compulsion a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.^[13]

[edit] See also

• Addiction recovery groups
• List of twelve-step groups
• Self-help groups for mental health

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Alateen Talks back on Higher Power. Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters. 1994. ISBN 0910034923. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tD6rGwAACAAJ&dq=Alateen+talks+back+on+Higher+Power&lr=. 
• Green, L. L., Fullilove, M. T., & Fullilove, R. E. (Jul-August 1998). "Stories of spiritual awakening: The nature of spirituality in recovery". Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 15 (4): 325–331. doi:10.1016/S0740-5472(97)00211-0. PMID 9650141.