Fr. Thomas talks about the history of Centering Prayer and how it evolved over time. When it was first introduced it was thought people needed preliminary practices before moving into a deep meditation practice, but eventually it was discovered that most people were ready for Centering Prayer without the preliminaries. He sees an analogy between Centering Prayer and 12-Step Programs and suggests that those experienced in both Centering Prayer and a 12-Step Program explore the potential evolution of the steps in regard to introducing Centering Prayer sooner than the 11th step. He reminds us that the Spirit guides us the process and will send us back to previous steps according to our individual needs.