Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life (2023 10th anniversary printing)
Beyond Belief is the first secular addiction/recovery 24-hour-a-day book now in the 3rd Printing 10th anniversary revision: New Preface, updated census data, links and note. There is no substantial change to the 365 daily reflections but we do offer a hardcover version.
Not a best-seller: Beyond Belief is considered a niche-market solution, yet it is now found on over 27,000 bed-side tables, reading nooks, e-Readers and mobile devices and yes, maybe "bathroom reading" for some.
Many who like it, like it a lot. (5 star: 81%, 4 star: 11%, 3 star 5%, 2 star 1%, 1 star 2%)
Available in hardcover, paperback or eBook (ePub, Kindle, PDF).
Enjoyed for quiet reflection by atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and everyone, really. Clergy like it, too.
Used for Zoom and in face-to-face meetings as a recovery meeting discussion-starter.
An Index offers readers searches by topics: Steps, early sobriety, acceptance to Zen (100 subjects)
Some use the 12 Step musings as a humanist/Godless guide to work/practice the 12 Step process.
Discount available for indecision; order the paperback + your choice of eBook.
Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life is written by Joe C, host of Rebellion Dogs Radio, researcher, journalist (published topics: finance and the economy, music (and other art), demographics, billiards, songs, addiction/recovery), musician and broadcaster. In recovery since the disco era, Joe C writes and sometimes speaks to professionals, at recovery workshops or to the public. Joe has presented primary research to the Association of Addiction Professionals (NAADAC member), Canadian Centre for Substance Use and Addiction, AA History Symposium, The Recovery Capital Conference, Canadian Music Week, Indie Week and Halifax Pop Explosion. Otherwise, he's reporting on music, blogging or sequestered to his writing room.
So, what's different about Beyond Belief?
Beyond Belief, is so this-century… you've read other popular ye olde daily devotions. So Beyond Belief is not that; so not that.
The eBook selection contains 1,000 hyperlinks, footnotes and an interactive index. Many readers kick it old-school: the 6 x 9 paperback is very popular. Can't decide? Get both and save from Rebellion Dogs Publishing. This daily reflection book reads like a present-day addiction/recovery daily reflection book. Nothing is sacred, nothing is forbidden, the contents are both emotive and rational approach to overcoming addiction and navigating a recovery lifestyle from substance and process disorders.
Ernie Kurtz, author of Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous, The Spirituality of Imperfection and other great books, says:
"The book is aimed at a general 12-Step readership, but it is mindful that there heretofore exist no such aids for unbelievers, freethinkers, and the unconventionally spiritual.
Given that the latest Pew survey found that twenty percent of the American people list their religious affiliation as ‘None,’ it is certainly time that the Recovery world took into consideration this population's needs. Beyond Belief addresses that need in a confident, non-aggressive way."
I doubt that any believer will find anything objectionable in its pages. This believer, for one, finds much that is spiritually helpful."
(Some of) you asked for it! We got it - Rebellion Dogs merch (T's and hoodies coming but more of you asked for mugs so… well, “Rebellion dogs our every sip at first," as Bill W said in Step Seven. CLICK the PICs (or RIGHT HERE) to order your very own. Visit our new MERCH and GIFT page
Celebrating over 29,000 copies of Beyond Belief, how about our "This is crazy" offer: Feed your indecision: Instead of $22.50 paperback + $12.99 eBook ($33.49) have them both. You pay $28 US + shipping for each set of two. Why? We know it is better having both.
Click your eBook preference in "other" above: ePub, Kindle, PDF. Choose your preferred
Celebrating over 29,000 copies of Beyond Belief, how about our "This is crazy" offer:
Feed your indecision: Instead of $22.50 paperback + $12.99 eBook ($33.49) have them both. You pay $28 US + shipping for each set of two. Why? We know it is better having both.
Click your eBook preference in "other" above: ePub, Kindle, PDF. Choose your preferred eBook format. Next, add to your cart. Credit card or PayPal to pay; we will email your eBook & ship your paperback of Beyond Belief.
1 paperback 978-0-9881157-0-5 + 1 eBook 978-0-9881157-1-2
Many who have read their Beyond Belief every day for year are judging a book by it's cover and a hardcover has been asked for. It is available now, in many markets, $29.90 US. This printing features an all new PREFACE looking back at a decade of secular AA and questions about our future. Updated links, census data and footnotes are included.
Get or sample BEYOND BELIEF: AGNOSTIC MUSINGS FOR 12 STEP LIFE
You can find offers for our book in paperback, eBook or both + Beyond Belief and others from our Addiction/Recovery favorites by clicking HERE on our BOOKSTORE PAGE. Order Beyond Belief from your favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore or your favorite online retailer below.
CLICK BAIT (Video about the book and links to get this book from your favorite retailer)
You can sample 100 pages for free on our website if you like. Or, join our community on Facebook, Twitter or our email list. Everyone is welcome.
See the short book trailer (less than one minute)
Welcome to The 6ix - see a longer, more detailed book trailer video (less than six minutes)
With or without a prayer-answering, sobriety-granting Higher Power, AA and other 12-Step Recovery programs work:
Many see recovery as a "spiritual" journey and others stick to an attitude adjustment, an educational or a secular path to recovery.
Twenty-four Hours A Day has sold 10 million copies since it was published in 1954. AA's' own Daily Reflections continues to sell 150,000 copies a year. Melody Beattie's The Language of Letting Go outsells them all on Amazon every day and every year. While Rebellion Dogs hasn't set the 800,000-per-year daily devotional market on it's head, Beyond Belief satisfies a previously unmet desire for a daily reflection book for members of the recovery community who don't subscribe to a God of our understanding. We "unbelievers" or freethinkers are a niche category, we believe that there is a growing demand from today's newcomer for a secular alternative to the daily reflection offerings.
This 24-hour-a-day book does not hype or dismiss any worldview. Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life is about the struggles and wonder of recovery from process and substance abuse. Are you or someone you're thinking about a freethinker in recovery? If so, Beyond Belief might be just the ticket.
The paperback's suggested retail is $US 22.50, hardcover is $US 29.90, and the eBook version (available in Kindle/ePub or PDF) is $9.99.
We never expected to be a best-seller but as an indie-publisher we are delighted. From the ardent atheist to the "spiritual but not religious," Beyond Belief is being enjoyed by 22,000 readers, so far. Thank-you. To celebrate, visit our bookstore page . You can now get the eBook + Paperback for $US 20.00. Sample pages (see 100 pages) Other books we recommend
Click here to visit Joe C's author page on Amazon.Com:
Clean and sober since 1976, author Joe C is a songwriter, broadcaster and as a day-job, he professionally offers financial advice. Joe writes a lot. He has written music, billiards, economic and addiction/recovery lifestyle magazines articles. IndieCan Radio (http://www.indiecan.com), produced and hosted by Joe C, is devoted to under-the-radar independent music, heard on Sirius XM Radio and podcasted to music fans in 126 countries. A more recent broadcast, Rebellion Dogs Radio, is a magazine style commentary on addiction/recovery, history, research and discussions with other authors and experts from the addiction/mental health world. Beyond Belief's Foreword is penned by Ernest Kurtz PhD. Click on his name for more on the works by Ernie Kurtz.
Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life, by Joe C., 2013 Paperback: 410 pages, 6 x 9 x 0.8 (ISBN: 978-0-9881157-0-5) The eBook is available as ePub, PDF or for Kindles (ISBN: 978-0-9881157-1-2).
"This is the most stimulating book of daily meditations (or 'musings', as the author describes them) that I have seen. Leaving aside the question of just how stimulating a daily meditation should be (some people like a gentle approach), any book that contains quotes (there's one per day) from Mother Theresa, Leonard Cohen, the Dalai Lama, Woody Allan and Nietzsche is going to keep me turning the pages.
Almost everything about the book looks ground breaking and thought provoking, from its interactive format ( on the Kindle version you can for example, browse through a hundred or so linked topics such as 'Brain Chemistry', 'Gratitude' or 'Zen'), to its edgy literary style: 'to err is human, to expect perfection would be a wee bit nuts' or 'life sucks and then you die', which seems in marked contrast to the resonant prose of the founding fathers. Even the publishers (Rebellion Dogs Publishing) sound like they're on a mission to change the world.
It is therefore quite comforting when you start reading, to realize that the book's tone is remarkably open, liberal and un-dogmatic; starting from the premise that 'there is nothing sacred about the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, they were written by our Founders in the language of the day', the author takes us through a 365 day recovery journey from an agnostic point of view.
'Addiction doesn't discriminate', he says 'and recovery language shouldn't discriminate either. ..... Believers get clean and sober, non-believers do too.....everyone's experience matters'.
The book addresses in a very welcome manner the question that is often discussed in recovery circles - how, if at all, should the message of the Founding Fathers be adapted to the needs of the twenty first century? In his preface, the author talks of the attitude changes that have happened over the eighty odd years since the message was first heard, focusing on belief and spirituality.
He makes clear that while he sees as outdated the rather black or white views on God that feature in for example, the Big Book, he recognises as indeed did Bill W, that these are merely recommendations and not dogma. The author seeks to adapt these, in a non confrontational way, into a holistic view of spirituality that covers philosophy, agnosticism and humanism on a 'pick and mix' basis. In my view he is successful and the result is a hugely rewarding and at times challenging book that will appeal to anyone regardless of origin, background or belief because it is in that sense, beyond belief." Christopher Burn, writer, psychotherapist, blogger, United Kingdom
"This delightful book of daily reflections was written for those seeking a sober life but are unbelievers, free thinkers and EVERYONE.
The author garners quotes from a wide range of writers and thinkers i.e. Socrates, Bertrand Russell, Scott Peck, Oprah Winfrey and Bill W. The author is clearly widely read, an autodidact and scholar of life, who asks probing and challenging questions as to what the reader is doing, thinking or practicing in their life. I have recommended Beyond Belief to clients who are attempting to lead a sober life as well as those who face the challenges of 'life'." Wray Pascoe, Ph.D., Family Therapist Clinical Fellow AAMFT, Gimli Manitoba
"Thanks so much for Beyond Belief! I am using it daily as part of my recovery support system and am appreciating the diversity of quotations and the comments on those quotations. I especially like the questions at the end which take me further into the material and inform my quiet times. Thanks for making the huge effort to put all that together. I really appreciate it. Kind regards." Pat H. UK,
Melissa D., Clinical Psychologist, California says, "I have never seen a daily devotional book written for agnostics. I found the readings to be extremely thought provoking. I wonder sometimes since there is such talk about God at meetings, what kind of turn-off that must be for agnostics. I think this book will be very helpful to both the newcomer and the mature 12 Step member."
Bob K, contributor to AAagnositca.org says, "I expected his book to be good. It's WAY, WAY better than good. The book is outstanding. Two decades of not being a 'daily reflections' kind of guy, are over. Now I have reflections worth reflecting over! Buy this book or you will suffer a horrible and painful death! Well, maybe not, but you'll be missing out on something very good."
Michel D. says, "AA can, and must, adapt to changing circumstances and Bill Wilson was the first one to admit it. Unfortunately, members who have come after him are more zealous than our first members. We have seen this dogmatism in history before of course, especially in religion. This is a very slippery slope. I really like the fact that these reflections are for anyone who has an open mind. It does not cater to a specific group to the exclusion of others. "
Denis K. says, "Many thanks for this great book; my Monday night group and I are having some great discussions related to the daily musings both at the group and often during the week over coffee. All of us were quickly losing interest in the local meetings; Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life gave all of us a much needed spark that has renewed our interest in the fellowship."
In 140 characters or less, we heard from United Church Minister, author and atheist Gretta Vosper from her Twitter Feed, @grettavosper:
"Phenomenal book you wrote. I have shared it often. Thank you for being so generous with your wisdom."
"This delightful book of daily reflections was written for those seeking a sober life but are unbelievers, free thinkers and EVERYONE.