Cultural Addiction : The Greenspirit Guide to Recovery

"There is only one problem: everything! We like to talk about the ecological problem, the nuclear problem, the drug problem, the family problem, the violence problem, the alcohol problem, the species extinction problem, and so on as though each of these were separate and distinct pathologies, each unrelated to the other. There's really only one problem. It's the way we live. We suffer from a deep, cultural pathology."

These opening lines from the Introduction of Dr. Albert LaChance's book, Cultural Addiction: The Greenspirit Guide to Recovery, truthfully acknowledge the subtle, or perhaps, obvious problem that churns in the back of our minds: we are living a degraded life. With each day that passes, we witness the slow poisoning and destruction of our planet. We are pained at the ever growing list of endangered or extinct species, made so by "industry" plowing through their habitats. We leave once lush areas of earth dead and barren, stripped raw to provide for our insatiable need for more and more.

Alongside the senseless plundering of our natural resources, we notice a second phenomenon: the breakdown of the family, the locus of our culture, as well as the slow degradation of morality, leading to a rise in addiction and violence. We see our present day youth struggling to find a foundation upon which to build their lives, searching hopelessly in a culture devoid of meaning, separated from its roots. For many of us, these realizations lead us to a feeling of hopelessness and despair.

However, we are not too far gone. There is hope, and there is a solution, but it must begin with the recognition that we cannot do this alone. Stemming from the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. LaChance proposes a new system, one that can elevate our culture out of its downward spiral, and move us forward towards healing ourselves, our communities, and ultimately our planet.

In order to do so, we must return to the beginning and develop an understanding of where we come from so that we may decipher where we are to go from here. Dr. LaChance builds upon The New Story , a story of who we are originally conceived by his mentor, Fr. Thomas Berry of the Riverdale Center for Religious Research in New York.. Through familiarizing ourselves with this story, we become aware that we are the product of an unfolding universe, the ultimate dream of our Creator, referred to in this book as the Originating Mystery . We travel through the birth of the universe, the solar systems, the galaxies, and the Planet Earth. We marvel at the emergence of life in its multiform splendor, growing and adapting, becoming more complex, until we arrive at creation's most marvelous moment: a moment when life can suddenly reflect back on itself in human form.

From this point, we look at how the human struggled to make sense of the beauty and terror of this strange planet. Not unlike ourselves, these early ancestors studied themselves, the peculiar animal that can not only think, but know that it thinks. They stared in awe at the night sky, and shuddered in fear when the it opened up above them or the earth shook beneath them. They asked themselves the same questions that we ponder today, the questions that beckon us to explore ourselves and our world: Who are we? Where did all this come from? What is the purpose of my being here?

From these questions grew religions, ways to make sense of existence. Dr. LaChance seamlessly unites the major traditions of the human through their common search for answers to those deep and profound questions. Even the reader with no experience of other religious traditions can easily follow these brief histories and outlines of basic beliefs.

However, many of us, especially those of us in Western cultures, have lost our ties to these religious traditions that helped to provide our lives with meaning and purpose. Like a Father, these traditions ground us and teach us how to live among one another and among the other living and nonliving beings that share our space. Without a true connection to our spiritual roots, we lose our way and forget how to build families and communities. Simultaneously, we lose our relationship to the Earth, our Mother who nurtures us and feeds us. In the end, Dr. LaChance illustrates that the problems listed at the beginning of this essay are related. They stem from the one great problem we all share: we are orphans, separated from our Father and Mother. Living lost and alone, we are searching for something to fill this emptiness. Striving for fulfillment, we buy and buy, throw away, and buy some more. As a culture, we are suffering from consumerism , a sickness Dr. LaChance describes as a symptom of the underlying problem of orphanism , the loss of our great Father and our great Mother.

So where do we go from here? How do we regain our relationship with our Parents? How do we fill this need so that we can live healthier and more balanced lives? How can we begin to repair the damage that we have all done to our Mother, the Earth? How can we once again unite ourselves with our spiritual roots, our Father that teaches and guides us? Using a powerful Twelve Steps model , Dr. LaChance provides a true way forward. By surrendering our wills to the Originating Mystery, however we may understand it/he/she to be, we begin the work necessary to rediscovering our true and original natures and find our way home to the waiting arms of our Mother and Father. While it may begin on an individual level, the Greenspirit Guide to Recovery proposes healing on a much larger scale, building from the work of one to create change among many.

Dr. LaChance draws from over fifteen years of experience as an addiction specialist, counselor, spiritual director, lecturer and teacher in this exceptional book. Cultural Addiction is the first of a two book approach that aims its attention at cultural disintegration and a method to promote cultural re-integration with the life systems. The beauty and strength of this book lie in its broad and poignant picture of what it means to be human as well as its truly hopeful vision for the future of the planet. Cultural Addiction is a vital tool for any discipline from biology to psychology that wishes to further human consciousness and work towards a healthy culture and a healthy creation.