Extracts from the first two chapters of the newly released book ‘True and False Magic’’.
It’s a very exciting possibility to consider that God reveals himself to us in the way we respond to the realities of our pain, uncertainty and hard work (the PUH’s) … realities many of us have used our addictions to flee, fight and freeze from as we resist and distort these realities. And further how the ‘with God’ process of the Twelve Steps of dealing with these realities can lead us to rebirth in the unique creative expressions of His will for us (BB p.63).
Phil Stutz is a well known psychiatrist who lives and practices in Soutbern California. You can watch a documentary about him on Netflix entitled ‘ Stutz’. He has been living and working with Parkinson’s Disease for over 50 years. He introduced the idea of the ‘reversal of desire’ in his book ‘The Tools’. The essence of the ‘reversal of desire’ is captured in the simple cartoons below. Most of us seek to stay in our comfort zone , but the growth of new possibilities and potentialities lies in what Phil calls the PUH … the pain, the uncertainty, and the hard work … these realities move us out of our comfort zones to cross the difficult PUH waters and discover new possibilities and potentials. I see this as also a beautiful metaphor for the ‘limitless expansion’ (BB p.275) of our journey in recovery.
Many have found Phil’s response and reflection to the recent 2025 devastating wild fires in Southern California very powerful and inspiring. You can see how this rebirth and expansion he’s outlining in this article can apply even (or especially) in incredibly painful realities of loss and destruction. You can find that article here.
You may also find his reflections on the spiritual battle we face to overcome our negativity quite helpful by clicking here.
I believe the article below may be very helpful in this ‘broad highway’(BB p.55,75) of finding a ‘God of our understanding’(Step 3) that can address the dilemma of ‘lack of power’(BB p.45) that bring us together … to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.
I also love how we see willingness(12&12 p.34) to face these realities as so essential to this experience. These two articles linked below from Stephen Hayes are powerful ways to understand and ignite this willingness.
– Bruce M.
God reveals himself in three domains. Each domain contains some aspect of God, and each domain has its own demand. You can’t have access to the powers that God wants everyone to have, and you cannot really experience reality, until you contend with the three domains, the three big unavoidable realities of life.
The first domain is Pain, the second is Uncertainty, and the third is the Need for Constant Work. While I’ve had to write this as a linear process—one domain following the next—you cannot unlock this power until you learn to work these domains simultaneously. They are mutually arising.
The three domains, in combination, unlock real magic, not fake power. Once you learn to move through pain, you will gain the ability to expand; once you develop faith, freely chosen, to contend with uncertainty, you will gain the ability to decide and create; and once you embrace constant work, you will gain the ability to access the infinite. The height of this power is the ability to turn nothing into something. That’s the function of God. That’s the definition of creativity. That’s real magic.
God made us so that we can endure the undeniable realities of the three domains, but it’s difficult—Part X is always there, whispering in our ears that it’s bullshit. That it’s impossible.
Humans are built to do this, but we’re not allowed to do what we are meant to do at 100 percent, because it must be done with complete free will and without prior knowledge of exactly what’s going to work. If there were no uncertainty, if we were given a complete set of instructions and assurance of the result, there would be no willpower in it, and no freedom.
…Creativity is the adversary of evil. In some ways, this is the only thing you need to understand. Our ability to approach the changes in our world relies on how we deal with evil.
There’s a force in the universe, which I call Part X, that does not want us to know who we are or what we are capable of. Part X is a devious force that weakens us and makes it impossible to develop our potential. This force wants to take the free part of the human being—the part that’s resourceful, and can recover well, and has a broader consciousness—for its own uses. Part X doesn’t want to kill that part of you; it wants to appropriate it. In the old days, they would call it eating someone’s soul.
There is a war going on right now. You might think you can ignore it or that it doesn’t affect you, but it will work its way out until, sooner or later, everyone is involved. It’s a battle for the nature of the human soul. The tools allow anybody and everybody to participate in this battle in a productive way by putting them in touch with higher forces. It might sound stupid to use the model of war, but it’s a good model to describe the monumental and powerful effects it will have on all of us. Every metaphorical bullet counts.
I’m training people not just for their own personal satisfaction or even their own survival. We are preparing soldiers to do battle for the earth’s survival. This is a collective action. You can’t do anything that has any meaning all by yourself. It’s impossible. Everything that a person accomplishes that is real, that’s not just superficial, requires higher forces. Evolution must be a co-creation with these higher forces.
In my experience, the way to activate them is to use the tools on the problems that present themselves in your life. Those problems, however mundane and basic they may seem, are the bridge to get you to use the tools to touch and direct higher forces. These problems become the training ground for you to learn how to work with the universe.
Most people are unable to get what they need out of life because they’re either too lazy or too frightened. We will explore these tendencies much more deeply but most of us aren’t functioning up to our potential as humans. It’s so obvious it’s almost a ridiculous thing to say. The reason is also obvious: Everyone wants a free pass. No one likes discomfort. We live in a delusional culture where we’re mostly damaging ourselves in our avoidance of the reality of life.
Avoidance, or resistance, will never stop reality—but it can stop you from experiencing life. The universe is constructed in a very specific way, with a very specific purpose. The purpose of the universe is to force humans to evolve. God, or whatever you want to call him, doesn’t care about anything else. If the universe were not constructed in this way, the universe would have no meaning at all. Each of the three domains represents one fact, or one quality of the universe: I think of them as the three faces of God.
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