There is a story of two alcoholics sitting at a bar. The first alcoholic orders a mysterious drink that the second alcoholic has never even heard of, picks up the drink, and downs it in one. Then he raises his head, looks around him vaguely, and falls off his stool onto the floor unconscious. The second alcoholic looks at him for a moment, then turns to the bartender and says, "I'll have what he had."

It's the power of experience, isn't it? We look at what happens to other people, and then decide whether that's what we want for ourselves. If I want what you have, I do what you do. In Program, it's long been recognized as a key to Step 2. What makes us "come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity" is simply looking around us in 12-Step meetings. The people by whom we're surrounded claim that they recovered with the help of this Power. It's their report of their experience, rather than any personal intellectual conviction, that makes us believe we can do the same thing.

When we look at friends in recovery who've started to work the last three Steps with all the energy and sincerity that they worked the first three Steps when they first came to Program, we apply exactly the same thinking. We look at the people they've become. We listen to what they tell us about the peace they've found as they began truly to meditate. We hear what they have to say about the impact of Steps 10, 11 and 12 on every aspect of their day-to-day living. We realize that they have found something more valuable than fame, achievement, or financial success. They seem to have found themselves, for the first time in their recovery. And what draws us to the path they are walking is that old thought, "If it works for them, it'll work for me."