The breakthrough program to end relapse, end suffering, and achieve total recovery from all dependencies.
Passages, in Malibu, California, is the world's most successful addiction cure center. The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure contains the three-step holistic program to total recovery that is the basis of the miraculous success of Passages. In this revolutionary book, you will learn:
The three steps to permanent sobriety!
How to create a personalized, holistic treatment program to completely cure your dependency
The four causes of dependency
How your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs are key factors in your recovery
How to stimulate your body's self-healing potential to be forever free of dependency
"Freedom from dependency starts with understanding that alcohol, drugs, and addictive behaviors are not the real problems," says Chris Prentiss, cofounder of Passages Addiction Cure Center. "Alcohol, street drugs, nicotine, prescription medications, food bingeing, gambling, and the like are merely the substances or behaviors you or your loved ones are using to cope with the real problems—anything from deep emotional pain, ill health, or depression to hypoglycemia, a sluggish thyroid, or brain-wave pattern imbalances. Once the underlying problems are discovered and cured, the need for drugs, alcohol, or addictive behavior will disappear—along with the craving."
Prentiss should know. His son Pax was addicted to heroin, cocaine, and alcohol for ten years. They sought help everywhere, but Pax relapsed again and again. In desperation, they finally created their own holistic, hand-tailored program that was a complete break from all other programs and that combined several effective therapies. It saved Pax's life. Together, father and son founded Passages to help others find their own freedom.
For decades, we've been hearing that alcoholism and addiction are incurable diseases, but The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure proves that this is a dangerous myth and that the label of "alcoholic" or "addict" destroys the promise of full recovery. Today, thousands are being freed from the old, limiting paradigms by using the groundbreaking approach spelled out in this book. A visionary and an innovator, Chris Prentiss brings new hope to people everywhere who are dependent on drugs, alcohol, or addictive behaviors.
The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure will show you how to end relapse, end your craving, end addictive behavior, and end your suffering.
Chris Prentiss is cofounder and codirector, along with his son Pax, of the world-famous Passages Addiction Cure Center in Malibu, California. He is also the author of a dozen books on personal growth. Prentiss has also led personal empowerment workshops in Southern California and has written, produced, and directed a feature film. He resides with his wife in Malibu, California.
Critical Acclaim:
"An excellent resource for anyone dealing with addictions or trying to understand their life. It will help you to define yourself and your problem in a way that will empower you and end any victim mentality. It is written in a style that is easy to understand and learn from because it is written by natives: people who have lived the message....This book contains the information that can start you on the road to recovery." —Bernie Siegel, M.D., #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Medicine & Miracles
"A critically important and thoroughly 'reader friendly' instructional guide to recovery from alcoholism or addictions to other drugs or substances....The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure is a core addition to personal, professional, substance abuse treatment center, and community library health and medicine reference collections and reading lists." — Midwest Book Review
"This thought-provoking book causes any reader to closely examine their life. One of its premises is that it isn't the alcohol or drugs that are the problem; rather, it is usually a person's physical, mental or emotional imbalance that the substances seem to alleviate. If a person can identify the imbalance and heal it, then the drugs and alcohol are no longer lusted after….I highly suggest this book for anyone who wants to be cured or assist a loved one in finding their own cure!" —Natural Beauty & Health
"The years of fine-tuning the [Passages] program with cutting-edge holistic healing therapies has resulted in this excellent book. I heartily recommend it to all, especially to those who have friends who have addictions." —ReverseSpins.com
"It was the cure rate that got my attention, and triggered my skepticism…along with a tiny sliver of hope since I knew how many times friends and members of my own family had fallen off the wagon….I read the entire book and called the PR representative back and booked Chris for the entire show. I think what hooked me was Chris's comment about observing an AA meeting where people were 'white knuckling their way through sobriety.' Controversial statement. And true for too many. The book was specific about the path: Find the underlying cause(s). Work on that. The true story of his son's journey was engaging and encouraging. For weeks and months after the show, I received emails and phone calls from listeners: 'What was the name of that guy again? What's the name of his book?' Of all the shows and topics I have covered in 17 years on air, I have never received such a response." —Laurie S. Reilly,Former Clear Channel Radio Talk Show Host and Producer
"You can't argue with their success rate. It is the program on which all future treatment centers should be patterned." —Dr. Alan Blanc, psychiatrist
"An excellent guide and resource book for anyone dealing with addiction, either for themselves or their families/friends….The program offers fresh hope to many for whom conventional treatments have not worked.” —Yoga & Health (Great Britain)
"An excellent guide and resource book for anyone dealing with addiction, either for themselves or their families/friends….The program offers fresh hope to many for whom conventional treatments have not worked.” —Yoga & Health (Great Britain)
EXCERPT:
CHAPTER ONE
MY PLEDGE TO YOU
cure n. 1) Restoring to a sound or healthy condition. 2) A healing.
Within the covers of this book, I will show you how you can cure your alcoholism or addiction. Here, at the outset, I want you to notice that I do not mince words. I do not say “however,” “maybe,” “although,” “perhaps,” or use other qualifying terms or conditions. By reading this book, you will learn how to cure your alcoholism or addiction.
That statement is based on the results we achieve at Passages Addiction Cure Center in Malibu, California, the world’s most effective center for the treatment of substance abuse. At Passages, we assist people every day to cure themselves. We don’t cure them—we assist them to cure themselves. By learning how to activate your mental and physical resources, and by getting qualified help, you too can cure yourself or help bring about a cure for your loved one.
Although you and I have never met face-to-face and gotten to know each other, I consider you my friend. If we meet, you’ll find that we share similar experiences, particularly with regard to dependency. You or your loved one are treading the same ground that I trod with my son Pax, who was dependent on heroin, cocaine, and alcohol for ten years.
You and I have felt the same despair, suffered the same hardships, experienced the same losses, seen the same rending of friendships and family, watched ourselves or our loved ones relentlessly spiral downward, and had our hearts broken and our spirits dashed. The difference between us, if there is a difference, is that Pax has come out the other side whole, healed, and cured, while you or your loved one is still caught in the grip of the powerful, soul-sucking vortex of dependency on addictive drugs, alcohol, or addictive behavior.
Pax began using marijuana when he was fifteen, along with an occasional beer. I did what I could to deter him from that behavior, but he continued. At the time, I was unknowledgeable about how that seemingly harmless behavior could escalate into hard drug use. When Pax was eighteen, he came home from school one day and began crying. He told me he was hooked on heroin.
For the next six years, I battled heroin for Pax’s life. Pax wanted to quit but he couldn’t. He didn’t know how. He went to thirty-day programs, sixty-day programs, and ninety-day programs. Nothing worked. He was clean forty times or more. Each time he relapsed, I would ask “Why?” Each time, he did not know the answer beyond saying it was the incredible high. It was as if he was powerless to resist the temptation. I never knew from one day to the next if I was ever going to see him again, and I was constantly afraid I would lose him. Several times I almost did lose him. We went to drug therapists, alcohol therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, addiction specialists, and counselors of every sort. As I look back on those sessions, I remember asking myself why none of them were seeking to discover why Pax was using heroin and other drugs. They all had suggestions for rehab, meetings, twelve-step programs, and more counseling, but not one of them initiated any investigation into what might be a probable cause of his substance abuse. In nearly every case, their suggestions were directed to creating an environment where he would be less apt to use heroin, and they advised me to punish him for his bad behavior. I learned firsthand, however, that punishment doesn’t work as a means to correct substance abuse, even when someone is facing death.
At one point during Pax’s odyssey, a gang of drug dealers drove him into the desert to kill him because he had stolen drugs from them. They forced him to dig his own grave. Somehow, he talked them out of doing that by convincing them that he could get the money. The day after that harrowing experience, his jaws were broken in two places and wired shut from being kicked in the face by another drug dealer who wanted money from him. He came home from the hospital, his teeth pointing in all directions, barely able to speak. And through his teeth he was sifting food—and smoking heroin and using cocaine. At one point, determined to break the cycle of drug use, I took him away with me to an isolated cabin in the Big Sur mountains on the coast of California. I kept him absolutely clean for nine months. The first week we left Big Sur, he used heroin, cocaine, and alcohol.
I believed that Pax was turning to heroin for a reason. I did not know what the reason was, but I believed there was one. In his drug-free days before he became dependent, he was athletic, outgoing, happy, and a good student, even achieving a student-of- the-month award. He wanted to stop using heroin and cocaine and return to a normal life, but he was unable to stop. The day Pax discovered the “why” behind his dependency wasthe last day he ever used drugs or alcohol. In that moment, he was able to free himself of his addiction.
Today, Pax is whole in every way—healthy, happy, prosperous, clear-minded, completely cured, and helping others to achieve the same freedom that he has achieved. It was Pax’s idea to open Passages Addiction Cure Center. He said, “Look, we know how to do it, let’s do it.” Together, Pax and I founded and are now codirectors of Passages, where we work side by side every day. I see him, and I’m proud of him and of what he has accomplished and is accomplishing. He has been reclaimed from the land of the dying, from an addiction to alcohol and addictive drugs that was so powerful that at times it seemed impossible to save him. Yet save him we did. All credit to him and to the generous and loving Universe of which we are all a part.
So, I feel close to you, even though we haven’t met. I have no axe to grind here, no hidden agenda. I want to help you. I can help you, if you will let me. But to do so, you must come to see me as a friend who has your best interests at heart—a friend who has traveled the same road that you or your loved one is now traveling and who has reached the best destination possible: a completely reclaimed life.
Giving Back During our journey to hell and back, Pax and I learned many things about the world of alcoholism and addiction. We researched everything we could find about treatment programs, alcoholism, and addiction, and we learned by experience what did and did not create lasting recovery, both in Pax’s life and in the lives of others in treatment. When nothing else worked, we created a holistic, hand-tailored program that saved Pax’s life. At Passages Addiction Cure Center, he and I use what we learned curing him to help others discover the roots of their addiction or alcoholism and break free.
I’ve written this book to give you hope and to share with you what works. By following the guidelines on these pages—the same guidelines we use at Passages—you will look at alcoholism and addiction in a revolutionary new way, and you will be able put together your own personalized, holistic treatment program with the support of health professionals where you live.
I want you to know that I am intimately involved in the lives of people who come to Passages for help, with those who, like you, have become dependent on drugs, alcohol, and other addictions. During their time of healing at Passages, I learn what life is like for them. I talk with them about their lost dreams and their shattered lives, and I talk with them about a return to good times. I assure them that they will achieve a complete cure. I ask them how they’re feeling, whether they’re sleeping well, and whether they have any concerns. We become friends. I also talk every day with members of our team of therapists. I ask them about each client’s progress, about who needs more work, about who has concerns that need to be met, and about who’s making the leap into the hyperspace of believing that they’re cured. Every Thursday, I participate in the weekly treatment team meeting where we discuss each client’s progress and decide what his or her most important next steps are during the following seven days. We decide short-term and long-term goals. We plan carefully, knowing that our clients’ lives are at risk. All the therapists come to know each client intimately, and we all seek the same goal: to discover the cause of their dependency so we can help them to heal themselves.
We’re involved in the deepest parts of our clients’ psyches. We learn their hidden fears, their pain, their hopes, their heartaches, their losses, their deepest sorrows, their embarrassments, their traumas, the times they were raped, beaten, humiliated, forced to do unnatural acts, lied to, betrayed, and all the thousand-and-one heartaches and sorrows that come to us all. We learn of what they’ve done to others, and of the guilt, remorse, and pain they are carrying. We offer them safe passage through to the other side of guilt and remorse where healing occurs. That’s where our name, Passages, came from.
I also return the phone calls from people who want to come to our program or who have a loved one they want to send to Passages for healing. I tell them about our program. They relate the stories of their lives or the lives of their loved ones. I ask them what their world was like before the crushing effects of addictive drugs and alcohol devastated their lives. That’s when I hear about the good times, the times before they or their loved one became dependent on addictive drugs or alcohol. If I’m talking to the person who has become dependent, I hear of their yearning for a return to how they used to be before they became substance abusers. If I’m talking to someone whose loved one has become dependent, I hear of their yearning to get that loved one back. That’s what everyone wants: to get back the loved one who is lost to dependency or, if the caller is the one who is addicted, to get back to a state of normalcy.
One mother whose son went through the Passages program about three years ago said that during the twelve years of his drunkenness, all she ever hoped for was to get him back. She said that was what we did for her: we gave her back her son. At graduation ceremonies at Passages, when the parents and friends of those graduating speak, the most common comment is “Thank you for giving me back the person I love.” At Passages Addiction Cure Center, that’s what we do best. It’s what we’re known for—returning people to the condition they were in before they began using addictive drugs or alcohol, but freed from the underlying conditions that caused them to use those substances in the first place. In most cases, their condition is better than it ever was before.
Emerging from a Long, Dark Journey Because many people have learned that life is tough, that dreams can’t be fulfilled, and that tragedy strikes, because they may have been told the lie repeatedly that alcoholism and addiction are incurable diseases, and because they have experienced relapse many times, they don’t believe that a complete cure is possible. In their first few days at Passages, I see them cautiously moving forward toward that belief as though they are inching out onto a frozen pond where the ice may not support their weight. They’re hesitant, almost afraid to believe they will be well again.
As the treatment progresses, they gain confidence from the therapists and from the other clients who have been in the program a little longer than they have. Within a week, they’re fully into the program, and the change is becoming apparent. They talk to me because they trust me and know that I want to help them. I hold a vision in my mind of what they were like in their best moments before addictive drugs and alcohol took over. I hold that vision strongly, and they sense that vision and begin to believe in a return to that condition.
From the moment they walk through the door, I hold the intention clearly in my mind that they will return to a state of perfect balance, perfect health, and renewed zest for life. I see them being transformed as they work with our team of therapists, each one of whom holds the same vision of a complete cure. I see the miraculous, nearly unbelievable change as they emerge from their long, dark sojourn through the land of dependency.
I lead a metaphysics group every Tuesday morning where we talk about spirituality and personal growth. I tell them about our Universe, about how it works, and about their place in it. I tell them about Universal law and how it affects them. They learn how their thoughts and emotions not only affect their bodies but actually create their bodies, their health, and their very lives. They learn that they actually are the Universe, a part of it, and that, as the Universe is eternal, so too are they. In a relaxed state of mind, they are introduced to their perfect self-images. They begin to see themselves differently. They lose that horrible image of themselves as incurably diseased alcoholics and addicts and they replace it with one that is pure, bright, virtuous, whole, healthy, and forever free of addictive drugs and alcohol.
I see their smiles come as their confidence begins to grow, as they come to understand a new way of life, and as they begin to transcend all that was holding them back from a life of sobriety, happiness, and the fulfillment of their dreams. I see the relief wash over them as they learn to see all the hurts from the past in a new light, as rape, incest, betrayal, physical and mental trauma, and all the other indignities to which they’ve been subjected take on a new meaning. They begin to place those events where they belong—in the past, where, though painful and even disastrous, they were an essential part of their lives from which they can learn and grow. I see the hurts from those personal injuries, the anger, the rage, the sadness, and the humiliation, dissolve in the light of a new way of seeing.
I provide one-on-one consultations with those who want them or who I believe need them. As the weeks progress, I see them begin to nod in agreement as I describe how they relate to the Universe and how what has happened to them was part of a natural unfolding that will ultimately come to benefit them. I talk to them after they’ve had a particularly good session with one of our therapists, and I see their awakening taking hold, their smiles reappearing, their heads lifting, their shoulders squaring, and their determination returning. I also talk to our clients when they are ready to graduate, after their healing has been accomplished. I watch them as they emerge into the clean air and bright sunshine of freedom, as they return to complete sobriety without fear of relapse. I hear the profound gratitude and wonderment in their voices as they prepare to depart. I talk with the counselors who talk with them after they’ve left Passages and returned home. Sometimes I call them after they’ve gone home, or they write to me, send me e-mail messages, or call me on the telephone, and I hear in their voices the pride they feel in their new life. I hear them affirm, “It’s just the way you and the team said it would be.”
I received this note from a husband whose wife went through the Passages program: “Words cannot express the gratitude I feel for you and your staff at Passages. You have given me back my wife who was lost in drunkenness all those miserable years. I still find it hard to believe. When I checked her in, I felt hopeless, even after your great assurances that all would be well. She’s only been home six months, but it’s as if she’s been reborn—I’m more grateful than I can say.”
Another family member of a graduate wrote this note to Pax and I from England: “I am writing to tell you that Clarence is doing wonderfully well. I wish we had a Passages in England, but we don’t. I believe there is no place like Passages anywhere else in the world. I’m thanking you for our entire family. He was lost to us for so many dreary years. It’s a miracle. From the dead to the living. He’s jolly, happy, and a love to be with. His drunken binges are a thing of the past. I don’t know how you did it, but you did. I love you both for what you have done for my dear husband at Passages. It’s been a year now since he’s returned, and we have confidence that his past will remain in his past and will not return to haunt our future. Please give my love to all your wonderful therapists.”
I’ve written about my involvement with the clients at Passages Addiction Cure Center because I want you to know that I am on the frontline, in the trenches with our therapists. It is essential, vitally essential, that you believe what I am going to write about the curing of your dependency because it is the major factor in achieving your cure. As you believe, so it will be for you. Your thoughts, your emotions, and what you believe will be the key factors in returning you to permanent sobriety and the fulfillment of your lifelong dreams. It is not just the curing of your dependency that I want you to accomplish, but the fulfillment of your most cherished desires and the satisfactory completion of your soul journey.
I suggest you read all of this book before you put into use the three-step program that will cure you of your dependency. Open your mind and your heart to the following pages, for on them are printed the words that will guide you or your loved one to a life completely free of dependency on alcohol and/or addictive drugs.Trust the words, for they have guided thousands of people just like you and Pax to a complete cure.
