Stopping Addiction at Its Root

Substance addiction, as AA’s founders understood, has two components: the physical and the mental/emotional. The physical part manifests as a craving that occurs whenever the addictive substance is introduced into the body.

Once this has been established, there’s no cure for it. But as we’ll see, that doesn’t matter.

The second part of addiction, the mental compulsion to use, is the actual driving force of addiction. What Tolle’s work has shown us is that this takes place within another addiction--to thinking.

In order to become an addict, you must first become a compulsive thinker. You must believe, without contemplation, that you are your thoughts. Unfortunately, this is exactly what most of us have long believed.

To relieve the substance addiction, you must correct the thinking addiction. Once you’ve done so, the substance addiction will wither and disappear on its own.

To immunize a child or non-addict from addiction is to prevent them from becoming a compulsive thinker in the first place. That means educating them to the truth that they are not their thinking or thoughts, but instead infinitely more--a conscious being, one with and inseparable from God.