The Twelve Steps to Enlightenment
By David R. Hawkins, MD, PhD

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over the ego—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step 2: We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Step 4: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 5: We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step 6: We were entirely ready to have God remove all of these defects of character.

Step 7: We humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings.

Step 8: We made a list of all the persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 9: We made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 10: We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

Step 11: We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our consciousness contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.


From Dr. Hawkins’ August 2003 Lecture 4, “Enlightenment”; adapted from AA’s 12 Step program. Printed with permission of Veritas Publishing.