# The 13th Step > The 13th Step redefines transformation as becoming a person who never had a pattern rather than someone who no longer does it, based on Bashar's parallel realities model where every shift changes the entire history and identity. - Canonical: https://sassani.app/topic/the-13th-step # The 13th Step Borrowed from the language of 12-step recovery, Bashar's 13th step is the recognition that a true change of identity is not the 12th-step achievement of a person who no longer does an old thing — it is the shift to a person who never had it. The reasoning rests on Bashar's broader frame of parallel realities: every possible configuration of every universe already exists statically, and what you experience as change is the shifting of consciousness from one frame to another, billions of times per second. Because each frame is a total reality with its own history, redefining who you are now is also a redefinition of the past that belongs to that now. The chapter traces the mechanism, the practical orientation it generates, and the boundaries Bashar preserves. ## The mechanism: every change is a total change Bashar's foundational premise is that every possible configuration of every universe already exists in static form, and what you experience as change is consciousness shifting from one to another — like changing channels on a television. "What you perceive as motion represents going through a multitude of infinite universes … you literally are a different person when you make any shift at all. Literally a different person … that reality is a total reality with its own sense of history, its own sense of its own future, and it bears no relationship whatsoever to the other universe you were in unless you have defined in that universe that it contains a similar component." The same mechanism, faster: "If you truly understand that you are shifting through parallel realities, billions of parallel realities every second, then what that also tells you is that billions of times per second, you are actually expressing your consciousness through the eyes of literally a different version of you, which is literally a different person." ## The present creates the past The 13th step follows directly from this. If every change is a total change to a frame with its own history, then defining who you are now also determines the past that belongs to that person. "All things exist now … what you call the past and what you call the future and all of its variations in both directions also all exist at the same time. Look at it as probabilities … when you redesign and redefine yourself as a completely different person in the present, that means that in order to actually have become that person, you had to have a different past. So the present actually changes the past." This is why Bashar describes the moment of definition as ground zero: at every moment you are at ground zero, and whatever past and future you want is what you get with the person you are being right now. ## Not "no longer," but "never had" The practical crux of the 13th step is this shift in grammar. When you truly redefine who you are, "it is not that you no longer do an old thing — you never did, because that was a different person." Applied to addiction, this is where the 13th step diverges from the 12-step frame: "if you actually use the 13th step when dealing with the concept of addiction, you will actually get to a place where you will be a person who doesn't even have the concept of having to worry about whether they will get the urge again … because the point is, if you're truly another person, you never had the pattern, you never had the addiction." And applied to any habit or pattern at all: "When you make a change, you are no longer the you you used to be. You are literally a different person — it is not the same you with a different idea. When you can really lock into that and live as if you know that, the person you become will automatically not experience the things that the other person did because it is not the same person and has never had the same history." ## The 13th as a transformational space In the Association-business session Bashar gives the image of the 13th as a located space — "the transformational space of unlimited possibilities and of choosing paths, roads, directions. It is the door into your deepest self." His guidance for traveling through it is surrender, and his named companion is the unknown: "your best friend is the unknown — and thus you become the very essence of paradox. Absolute strength is equivalent to complete vulnerability." ## Physical analogues: total identity, total body To make the "literally different person" claim less abstract, Bashar points to documented cases of multiple personality disorder in which one personality carries a tumor or allergy and another does not. He reads these as physical evidence that identity is not a continuous object moving through time; you are "literally different people from moment to moment, at ground zero each time." And in the every-change session, the 13th step is given as the vibratory level of self-definition itself: "Any change is a total change. If you understand that any change is a complete change, then you understand that you are a completely different person. If you know that, you have a different history, and anything that has gone before does not exist for you because it never did." ## Practical implications Change the grammar. Move from "I no longer do X" (the 12th-step frame, a person resisting an old pattern) to "I am a person who never had X" (the 13th-step frame, a person whose history never contained it). The first keeps the pattern as a present opponent; the second leaves no opponent in the frame. Define yourself now, at ground zero. Treat each present moment as the point where the past and future of the person you are being are set, rather than as a result of what came before. Live as if. Lock into the knowing that the new person is literally a different person with a different history; act from that knowing rather than from a comparison with who you were. Befriend the unknown in the 13th. When exploring the transformational space of the 13th, let surrender and the unknown — not control — be the guides. These orientations are framed by Bashar as a metaphysical account of identity and change. They do not constitute medical, psychiatric, or substance-use treatment guidance, and they explicitly do not override established recovery, clinical, or health frameworks. Bashar addresses the inner stance a learner takes toward identity; nothing here suggests abandoning medication, therapy, or any prescribed recovery program — the s-Lab answer that introduces the 13th step, in fact, opens with a questioner who has stopped medication and is directed toward meditation and natural balance without endorsing that choice. ## Representative passages Every single possible configuration of every possible universe already exists in a static form. What you experience as a change is your consciousness shifting from one to the other … you literally are a different person when you make any shift at all … if you're truly another person, you never had the pattern, you never had the addiction.— Bashar, s Lab (s-lab#qa-5) All things exist now … when you redesign and redefine yourself as a completely different person in the present, that means that in order to actually have become that person, you had to have a different past. So the present actually changes the past.— Bashar, The Present Is Not A Result Past Future Not A Result Of The Present (the-present-is-not-a-result-past-future-not-a-result-of-the-present#qa-1) When you make a change, you are no longer the you you used to be. You are literally a different person — it is not the same you with a different idea. When you can really lock into that and live as if you know that, the person you become will automatically not experience the things that the other person did because it is not the same person and has never had the same history.— Bashar, The Acceleration Of (the-acceleration-of#qa-11) That is what 13 is for. It is the transformational space of unlimited possibilities and of choosing paths, roads, directions. It is the door into your deepest self … The best guide when traveling through the 13th door on the 13th floor is surrender, and your best friend is the unknown.— Bashar, Association Business1 (association-business1#qa-8) Any change is a total change. If you understand that any change is a complete change, then you understand that you are a completely different person. If you know that, you have a different history, and anything that has gone before does not exist for you because it never did.— Bashar, Every Change You Are A Totally Different Person (every-change-you-are-a-totally-different-person#qa-1) ## Related - [Parallel Realities](https://sassani.app/topic/parallel-realities) - [Presence](https://sassani.app/topic/presence) - [Definitions & Beliefs](https://sassani.app/topic/definitions-and-beliefs) - [Time](https://sassani.app/topic/time) - [Habits & Addiction](https://sassani.app/topic/habits-and-addiction) Markdown twin of https://sassani.app/topic/the-13th-step. The HTML page is the source of truth.