From Addiction to Awakening: The Transformative Journey of Baba John Jackson

In a powerful episode of The Black Trauma Podcast, host Reverend Dr. Philippe Shock Matthews welcomed Baba John Jackson, whose life story embodies resilience, transformation, and profound spiritual awakening. Born in 1954 into poverty in Oakland, California, Jackson’s journey through decades of addiction, religious conversion, and eventual spiritual liberation offers powerful lessons about the human capacity for growth and change.

Early Life and the Path to Addiction

Jackson describes his early years in West Oakland’s “lower bottom,” where poverty was a constant companion. “I can remember rats coming through the shelves, no electricity. I even recall a time where all we had to eat was oatmeal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” he recounts. Without a positive male role model at home and limited guidance beyond his mother’s simple directive to “don’t lie and don’t steal,” Jackson was left to navigate life largely on his own.

At 17, despite witnessing the devastating effects of drug addiction in his community, Jackson had his first encounter with substances that would eventually take control of his life. What began as smoking marijuana and drinking to impress others quickly escalated to experimenting with cocaine, mescaline, acid, and other substances.

The pivotal moment came in 1979 when, at 25, Jackson was introduced to freebasing cocaine. “I’ll never forget walking back and forth in front of the patio after I took that first hit,” he recalls. “I said, what? I like this. If they come up with something better than this, I won’t mess with it. I know I’ll get hooked. But little did I know that I was hooked that day.”

By 1984, his addiction had cost him his job at Federal Express after eight years of employment, followed by the loss of his home and the end of his 16-year marriage.

The Cycle of Rehabilitation and Relapse

Over the next two decades, Jackson cycled through an astonishing 21 rehabilitation programs. His pattern became familiar: enter a program, make progress, relapse, and start over again. “Some of the programs I’d finish, but still went back to drugs,” he acknowledges.

In 1987, at 33, Jackson turned to Christianity in search of salvation. “Maybe I need to get this Jesus thing a try,” he remembers thinking. He entered a Christian rehabilitation program with intense religious immersion: “Three Bible studies a day, six days a week, Sunday church… There was intercessory prayer like six o’clock in the morning.”

Though he embraced Christianity fully—even becoming a praise and worship leader who preached on the streets of San Francisco—the cycle of addiction continued. It wasn’t until 2006, when he entered his 21st rehabilitation program, that something fundamentally changed.

Finding Love as the Key

The turning point came when Jackson encountered 1 Corinthians 13, often called the “love chapter” in the Bible. Reading that “love never fails,” he realized: “The reason you keep destroying yourself is because you don’t know how to love yourself.”

This insight led him to approach rehabilitation differently. Rather than simply following the program, he developed his own agenda focused on understanding and practicing love. “I need to learn how to love. So I was in that program just reading everything in the Bible pertaining to love,” he explains. “I memorized chapters. I memorized that old 13th love chapter, and I would recite that thing every day.”

This focus on love became Jackson’s mantra: “I wanted to be patient with myself and others, not be easily angered, not hold on to grudges. Just always have faith and trust and believe in protecting my loved ones.”

While this new approach helped Jackson remain clean for 17 years, he eventually faced another form of awakening that would challenge the religious framework he had adopted.

From Religious Addiction to Spiritual Awakening

Around 2018, Jackson began questioning his Christian beliefs after encountering videos by Dr. Ray Hagins discussing “The Dangers of Religion.” Initially resistant, Jackson eventually allowed himself to explore alternative perspectives, discovering scholars like Tony Browder, John Henrik Clarke, Asa Hilliard, and Carter G. Woodson.

“It just immediately made sense to me,” Jackson reflects. He began to critically examine biblical passages he had previously accepted, questioning inconsistencies and logical gaps. “I began to question things like the story of Job… Who was there to witness this conversation that you could write it down in the book, if this happened in Heaven?”

This awakening led to anger upon realizing how much of his life had been spent in what he now viewed as misguided beliefs. “I was angry that I had been like in the Malcolm X movie. I was hoodwinked, I was tricked, I was sidetracked, I was led astray, bamboozled.”

Jackson’s perspective shifted dramatically. Walking down the street with his new awareness, he noticed economic disparities in his community: “I’m like, we don’t own shit. I’m looking at all this stuff and we don’t own none of this. What do we have?”

This awakening prompted Jackson to turn his experiences into poetry and eventually a book, “Thoughts of a Newly Awakened Mind,” expressing his frustration and his hope for others to question their beliefs and find their authentic selves.

The Power of Breaking Free from Mental Captivity

Jackson’s story illustrates how addiction can manifest in multiple forms—substances, poverty, and even religious dogma. As Dr. Matthews noted during the interview, “Black people, because of our high melanin content… melanin is a conductor. The more melanin you have, the more propensity or proclivities you might have for an addiction.” This perspective suggests that Jackson’s struggle with substance addiction was eventually replaced by what Matthews calls “religious addiction” until his final awakening.

What makes Jackson’s journey so powerful is his willingness to question deeply held beliefs and begin again, even in his sixties. His transformation wasn’t simply about overcoming substance addiction but about “unlearning, deprogramming, and rediscovering” his true self.

As Jackson powerfully expresses in his poem “The Jungle”:

“Hush. Listen, can you hear that? There’s something lurking out there in the darkness of the jungle, so-called Western civilization, draping, crawling, stalking, and waiting to devour. Anyone caught stumbling through life with no clue of their own inner power and might with no foresight or insight to reverse their plight with only a distorted view of wrong and right as so lost and isolated off the island of you with no clue what to do. You stumbled deeper and deeper into the darkness of the jungles of Western civilization.”

Lessons for Personal Transformation

Jackson’s journey offers several valuable insights for anyone seeking transformation:

Question everything – True growth often begins when we’re willing to examine beliefs we’ve taken for granted.

Find your own path – Even within established frameworks, Jackson found his way forward by focusing on what resonated most deeply (love) rather than following every aspect of doctrine.

It’s never too late – At 71, Jackson continues setting new goals, writing books, and planning his future—proof that reinvention is possible at any age.

Share your story – By converting his experiences into poetry and sharing them with others, Jackson transforms his struggles into wisdom that can help others.

Understand the nature of addiction – Jackson’s experience suggests that addressing one addiction without understanding its root causes may simply lead to replacing it with another form of dependency.

A Continuing Journey

Today, Baba John Jackson is retired and helps others find freedom through mental and spiritual change. His book, “Thoughts of a Newly Awakened Mind,” expresses his journey through powerful poetry that challenges readers to examine their own beliefs and assumptions.

As he works on his next project—including potentially turning his life story into a novel that could become a film—Jackson demonstrates that awakening is not a destination but an ongoing process. His story reminds us that true liberation comes from breaking free of physical chains and questioning the mental constructs that limit our understanding of ourselves and our potential.

In Jackson’s words, “My story isn’t about overcoming addiction, it’s about unlearning, deprogramming and rediscovering who we truly are. I hope my journey aspires others to question, seek truth and never stop growing.”

For those still struggling with their own forms of addiction or mental captivity, Jackson’s journey offers both inspiration and a roadmap—showing that even after decades of struggle, transformation is possible when we’re willing to question, learn, and ultimately awaken to new possibilities.

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“I just completed a brief session with ChatGPT-Black Trauma. Wow! The responses I got were soooooo helpfu!.” — John Jackson (Patreon Member)

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