Get To "The Point" of Recovery!

Declaration of Unity ~

2005-11-01T20:42:00.001-05:00

This we owe to A.A.'s future:

To place our common welfare first;

To keep our fellowship united.

For on A.A. unity depend our lives
And the lives of those to come.

The Solution

2005-10-23T01:37:00.002-05:00

AA Big Book

We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving islimited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely usealcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.

There is a solution. Almost none of us liked the self-searching,the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it. When,therefore, we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for usbut to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet. We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed. If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help. This we did because we honestly wanted to, and were willing to make the effort.

12 Steppers(OIAA)

2005-10-19T15:24:00.002-05:00

Do you want to stop drinking, and find you cannot, or only for a short time?

When drinking, do you have little or no control over the amount you take?

We Understand.

Click On The Button~Send us a message.

"Whenever anyone,anywhere,reaches out for help,
I want the hand of A.A.always to be there...
And for that: I Am Responsible. "

Bill W.co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (at the 1965 International Convention in Toronto, Canada)

THANK YOU A.A.!

2005-09-30T16:17:00.000-05:00

Timeline of Events Related to AA

August 8, 1879
Robert Holbrook Smith born in St. Johnsbury Vermont
Nov. 26, 1895

William (Bill) Griffith Wilson was born in a small room behind a bar in East Dorsett, VT., to Gilman and Emily Wilson.
1901

Professor William James lectures at University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Lectures published as The Varieties of Religious Experience in 1902.

Bill's father, Gilman, deserts the family. Bill's mother, Emily, moves to Boston and becomes an Osteopathic Physician. Bill and sister Dorothy live with maternal grandparents, Fayette and Ella Griffith. Bill's first "success" making a boomerang - "a fitting irony".
1907

About age 12 Bill "leaves the Church" over a required temperance pledge.
1908

Oxford Group begun as A First Century Christian Fellowship. Frank Buchman, Founder. They espoused the Four Absolutes: Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love. They practiced the principles of self-survey confession; restitution; and service to others.
1909

Bill begins secondary education at Burr & Burton Academy.
1911

Ebby Thatcher and Bill first meet.
1

912

Bill's "first love", Bertha Bamford, dies after surgery in New York. Bill began a three year depression.
1914-1918

World War I
1914

Bill enters Norwich University - a military college with strict discipline. Bill meets Lois Burnham, daughter of New York physician, Dr. Clark Burnham.
April 6, 1917

U.S. enters World War I.
Summer 1917

A Second Lieutenant in the coast artillery at Ft. Rodman, Mass., Bill takes first remembered drink - Bronx Cocktail - feels a miracle - relaxed and free. A profound experience he recalled vividly more than 50 years later.
Jan. 24, 1918

Bill marries Lois Burnham.
Summer 1918

On way to France, Bill visits Winchester Cathedral and is stirred by a "tremendous sense of presence." Reads epitaph on headstone of a Hampshire Grenadier.
Nov. 11, 1918

Armistice signed, World War I ends.
Jan. 16, 1919

36 states ratified constitutional amendment for prohibition
May 1919

Bill returns home.
1920

Bill enters Brooklyn Law School.
1921

An investigator for U.S. F & G and also works around Wall Street.
Christmas 1923

Bill vows to stay sober one year - Lasted only 2 months.
1925-26

Bought motorcycle and became (First?) "Market Analyst." Disease progressing.
1926

On Wall Street full time. Disease progressing.
Late 1928 - Early 1929

Bill crosses "invisible line" in his drinking.
Oct. 1929

Stock Market collapse.
Nov. 1929

Bill goes to Canada for a job with Dick Johnson.
1930 - 31

Back in Brooklyn and Wall Street. Living with Lois's family - unemployed. Disease progressing.
1930-34

Bill in "An Alcoholic Hell".
1931

Rowland Hazzard sees Dr. Carl Jung in Zurich, Switzerland. Told no medical or psychological hope for an alcoholic of his type; told the only hope was a spiritual or religious experience or conversion. This considered "the first in the chain of events that led to the founding of A.A."
Spring 1932

Bill's business deal in New Jersey - drank Apple Jack and drunk three days. Contract cancelled.
1933-34

Bill in Towns Hospital four times.At Towns Hospital, Bill meets Dr. William Silkworth on second admission. "The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks."Bill resumes drinking after each admission. Disease progressing.
Dec. 5, 1933

Prohibition ended.
Summer 1934

Dr. Silkworth pronounces Bill a "Hopeless Drunk."Rowland Hazzard returns to America and becomes involved in Oxford Group.
1934

Emmett Fox publishes The Sermon On The Mount.
Aug. 1934

Rowland Hazzard and Cebra persuade court to parole Ebby Thatcher in their custody. Ebby sobers up at Oxford Group at Calvary Episcopal Mission, Sam Shoemaker.
Nov. 1934

Ebby T. carries message to Bill at home. Tells his story. "One Alcoholic Talking To Another."Bill starts attending Oxford Group at Calvary Church, Bowery Mission.Bill drinks again - Back to Towns Hospital.
Dec. 1934

Bill has "Hot Flash" spiritual experience at Towns Hospital.Dr. Silkworth assured Bill he was not crazy; rather a "psychic experience upheaval" or "conversion."BILL NEVER DRANK AGAIN.The next day Ebby brought Bill a copy of William James' Varieties of Religious Experience.Bill reads Varieties of ReligiousExperience, an explanation of need for Pain, Suffering, Calamityand "Deflation in Depth" and the "Simultaneous Transmission of Hope." The two "Halves" are joined into a "Whole."

Bill returns to Oxford Group and works with other alcoholics, also at Sam Shoemaker's Calvary Mission and at Towns Hospital, emphasizing his "Hot Flash" spiritual experience. He noted they "seemed to do better" talking of their common problems, but no success in sobering up others.Bill develops belief that alcoholics are resistant to the "Four Absolutes" of the Oxford Group.
1935

Bill, still sober, but no success yet in helping others. Still frequents Wall Street. Went to Akron Ohio for proxy fight. Lost proxy fight. Bill at Mayflower Hotel.
Very discouraged and afraid he might drink.
May 11, 1935

Bill reached realization of: I need another alcoholic. "He starts making telephone calls. This is the final founding moment of A.A.Rev. Walter Tunks Referred to Norman Sheppard. Then referred to Henrietta Seiberling, an Oxford Group adherent. She arranged a meeting the next afternoon at the Seiberling Estate with Dr. Bob Smith.

Robert Holbrook (Bob) Smith: Born in St. Johnsbury, VT., Aug. 8, 1879. Dartmouth College, Pre-Med at University of Michigan. M.D. at Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL. Internat City Hospital, Akron, OH. Proctologist. His wife, Anne was a friend of Henrietta Seiberling. They brought Dr. Bob to Oxford Group meetings for 2-1/2 yrs. He continued to get drunk regularly.
May 12, 19355:00 P.M.

Bill meets Dr. Bob. Bob still drinking. Bill tells Bob of his experiences with alcohol; of the hopes, promises, and failures; the obsession, compulsion, and physical allergy; of Ebby's visit and simple message, "show me your faith and by my works I will show you mine."Dr. Bob understood with sudden clarity - the difference withthe Oxford Group. "The spiritual approach was as useless as any other if you soaked it up like a sponge and kept it to yourself." The purpose of life was not to "get" , it was to "give."
Bill had presented Dr. Bob four aspects of one core idea:
(1) Utter Hopelessness (2) Totally Deflated
(3) Requiring Conversion (4) Needing Others
June 10, 1935

Dr. Bob has last drink.ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS FOUNDED
June 11, 1935

Dr. Bob suggests they both start working with other alcoholics.
June 28, 1935

Bill and Dr. Bob confront Bill Dotson, first "Man on the Bed." Bill D. was a prominent attorney in Akron. The 3rd A.A. Note: Bill D. had a spiritual experience without familiarity with Oxford Group principals.
Summer 1935

Bill stayed in in Akron. He and Dr. Bob worked with alcoholics and attended weekly Oxford Group meetings and received spiritual nourishment.Henrietta Seiberling supplied them with "Infusion of Spirituality" mainly through Paul to Corinthians on "Love" and James on "Works" if faith is to have meaning.
Winter 1935

Back in New York on Clinton St., Hank P. and Fitz M. got sober.
Mid 1936

A small but solid group developing at Clinton St. in New York.Bill's efforts with alcoholics receiving criticism from Oxford Group.Charles Towns offers Bill a job at Towns Hospital. Bill wanted it. The question was presented to the Group and rejected because what they had, the "thing" that bound them together and those feelings could not be bought and paid for. The only authority was the Group Conscience and all decisions were to be made by the Group.
1937

Beginning of the split from the Oxford Group.Residents at Clinton St.Ebby T.Oscar V.Russell R.Bill C.Florence R.
Nov. 1937

Bill and Dr. Bob meet in Akron and compare notes. Forty cases sober and staying sober. More than twenty sober for more than one year. All had been diagnosed as HOPELESS.A meeting of the Akron Group to consider Bill's ideas for a book, pamphlets and how to expand the movement. Presented but only narrowly passed by a majority of 2.
Feb. 1938

Rockefeller gives $5,000 and saves A.A. from professionalism.
May 1938

The Alcoholic Foundation established as a trusteeship for A.A.
May 1938

Beginning of the writing of the book Alcoholics Anonymous.
Dec. 1938

Twelve Steps written.
1939

Membership reaches 100.
April 1939

The book Alcoholics Anonymous published.
Summer 1939

Withdrawal from association with Oxford Group complete. Oxford Group renamed
"Moral Re-Armament."
1940

Bill meets Father Ed Dowling who becomes his "spiritual advisor."
Feb. 1940

First World Service Office for A.A.
March 1941

Jack Alexander's Saturday Evening Post article published and membership jumped to 2000. Jan. 1944

Dr. Harry Tiebout's first paper on the subject of "alcoholics anonymous."
June 1944

The A.A. Grapevine established.
1946

The Twelve Traditions of A.A. formulated and published.
June 1, 1949

Anne Ripley Smith died.
July 1950

First international convention of A.A. at Cleveland, Ohio. Twelve Traditions adopted.
Nov. 16, 1950

Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous died.
June 1953

The book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions published.
Oct. 1954

The "Alcoholic Foundation" becomes the "General Service Board of A.A."
July 1955

20th Anniversary Convention at St. Louis, MO. Second edition of Alcoholics Anonymous published. The three legacies of Recovery, Unity and Service turned over to the movement by its oldtimers.
1957

Creation of first overseas General Service Board of A.A. in Great Britain and Ireland. A.A. Comes of Age published in October. Membership reaches over 200,000 in 7,000 groups in 70 countries and U.S. possessions.
1959

A.A. Publishing, Inc. became A.A. World Services, Inc.
July 1960

25th Anniversary Convention at Long Beach, CA
1962

Publication of Twelve Concepts for World Service written by Bill W.
July 1965

30th Anniversary Convention at Toronto, Canada. Keynote adopted, "I Am Responsible."
1966

Change in ratio of trustees of the General Service Board; now two-thirds majority of alcoholic members; the A.A. fellowship accepts top responsibility for all it's future affairs.
1967

Publication of the book The A.A. Way of Life now titled As Bill Sees It.
Oct. 9-11, 1969

First World Service meeting held in New York with delegates from 14 countries.
1970

35th Anniversary International Convention at Miami Beach, Florida. Keynote: "This we owe to AA's of the future. To place our common welfare first; To keep our fellowship united. For on A.A. Unity depend our lives, and the lives of those to come." Bill's last public appearance.
Jan. 24, 1971

William Griffith Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, dies at Miami Beach, FL.
Oct. 5-7, 1972

Second World Service meeting held in New York.
1973

Publication of Came to Believe.
April 1973

Distribution of the book Alcoholics Anonymous reached one million mark.
1975

Publication of Living Sober.
1976

Publication of 3rd Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Oct. 5, 1988

Lois Burnam Wilson died.
November 2001
Publication of Alcoholics Anonymous 4th Edition
Feb. 9, 2002
Death of Sue Smith Windows, Dr.Bob's daughter

Sources:
Cybriety.org

Bill W. by Robert Thompsen
Not God. A History of Alcoholics Anonymous by Ernest Kurtz
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, A.A. World Services, Inc.
Pass It On - Bill Wilson and the A.A. Message, A.A. World Services
The Language of the Heart, The A.A. Grapevine
Dr. Bob and the Good Old-Timers, A.A. World Services, Inc.
On The Tail of a Comet, The Life of Frank Buchman by Garth Lean The Washingtonian Movement, by Milton A. Maxwell, Ph.D.A.A. The Way It Began, by Bill Pittman

A Correspondence of Gratitude....

2005-09-30T03:55:00.000-05:00

Bill W.'s letter to Dr. Jung Swiss psychologist & psychiatrist
Jan 23, 1961
(Mentioned on pages 26 & 27 of the Big Book)

My dear Dr. Jung:

This letter of great appreciation has been very long overdue.
May I first introduce myself as Bill W., a co-founder of the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous. Though you have surely heard of us, I doubt if you are aware that a certain conversation you once had with one of your patients, a Mr. Rowland H., back in the early 1930's, did play a critical role in the founding of our Fellowship. Though Rowland H. has long since passed away, the recollections of his remarkable experience while under treatment by you has definitely become part of AA history. Our remembrance of Rowland H.'s statements about his experience with you is as follows:

Having exhausted other means of recovery from his alcoholism, it was about 1931 that he became your patient. I believe he remained under your care for perhaps a year. His admiration for you was boundless, and he left you with a feeling of much confidence. To his great consternation, he soon relapsed into intoxication. Certain that you were his "court of last resort," he again returned to your care. Then followed the conversation between you that was to become the first link in the chain of events that led to the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.

My recollection of his account of that conversation is this:

First of all, you frankly told him of his hopelessness, so far as any further medical or psychiatric treatment might be concerned. This candid and humble statement of yours was beyond doubt the first foundation stone upon which our Society has since been built. Coming from you, one he so trusted and admired, the impact upon him was immense. When he then asked you if there was any other hope, you told him that there might be, provided he could become the subject of a spiritual or religious experience - in short, a genuine conversion. You pointed out how such an experience, if brought about, might remotivate him when nothing else could. But you did caution, though, that while such experiences had sometimes brought recovery to alcoholics, they were, nevertheless, comparatively rare. You recommended that he place himself in a religious atmosphere and hope for the best. This I believe was the substance of your advice. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Rowland H. joined the Oxford Groups, an evangelical movement then at the height of its success in Europe, and one with which you are doubtless familiar. You will remember their large emphasis upon the principles of self-survey, confession, restitution, and the giving of oneself in service to others. They strongly stressed meditation and prayer. In these surroundings, Rowland H. did find a conversion experience that released him for the time being from his compulsion to drink. Returning to New York, he became very active with the "O.G." here, then led by an Episcopal clergyman, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. Dr. Shoemaker had been one of the founders of that movement, and his was a powerful personality that carried immense sincerity and conviction.

At this time (1932-34) the Oxford Groups had already sobered a number of alcoholics, and Rowland, feeling that he could especially identify with these sufferers, addressed himself to the help of still others. One of these chanced to be an old schoolmate of mine, Edwin T. ("Ebby"). He had been threatened with commitment to an institution, but Mr. H. and another ex-alcoholic "O.G." member procured his parole and helped to bring about his sobriety. Meanwhile, I had run the course of alcoholism and was threatened with commitment myself. Fortunately I had fallen under the care of a physician - a Dr. William D. Silkworth - who was wonderfully capable of understanding alcoholics. But just as you had given up on Rowland, so had he given me up. It was his theory that alcoholism had two components - an obsession that compelled the sufferer to drink against his will and interest, and some sort of metabolism difficulty which he then called an allergy. The alcoholic's compulsion guaranteed that the alcoholic's drinking would go on, and the allergy made sure that the sufferer would finally deteriorate, go insane, or die. Though I had been one of the few he had thought it possible to help, he was finally obliged to tell me of my hopelessness; I, too, would have to be locked up. To me, this was a shattering blow. Just as Rowland had been made ready for his conversion experience by you, so had my wonderful friend, Dr. Silkworth, prepared me.

Hearing of my plight, my friend Edwin T. came to see me at my home where I was drinking.
By then, it was November 1934. I had long marked my friend Edwin for a hopeless case. Yet there he was in a very evident state of "release" which could by no means accounted for by his mere association for a very short time with the Oxford Groups. Yet this obvious state of release, as distinguished from the usual depression, was tremendously convincing. Because he was a kindred sufferer, he could unquestionably communicate with me at great depth. I knew at once I must find an experience like his, or die. Again I returned to Dr. Silkworth's care where I could be once more sobered and so gain a clearer view of my friend's experience of release, and of Rowland H.'s approach to him.

Clear once more of alcohol, I found myself terribly depressed. This seemed to be caused by my inability to gain the slightest faith. Edwin T. again visited me and repeated the simple Oxford Groups' formulas. Soon after he left me I became even more depressed. In utter despair I cried out, "If there be a God, will He show Himself." There immediately came to me an illumination of enormous impact and dimension, something which I have since tried to describe in the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" and in "AA Comes of Age", basic texts which I am sending you.
My release from the alcohol obsession was immediate. At once I knew I was a free man.

Shortly following my experience, my friend Edwin came to the hospital, bringing me a copy of William James' "Varieties of Religious Experience". This book gave me the realization that most conversion experiences, whatever their variety, do have a common denominator of ego collapse at depth. The individual faces an impossible dilemma. In my case the dilemma had been created by my compulsive drinking and the deep feeling of hopelessness had been vastly deepened by my doctor. It was deepened still more by my alcoholic friend when he acquainted me with your verdict of hopelessness respecting Rowland H.. In the wake of my spiritual experience there came a vision of a society of alcoholics, each identifying with and transmitting his experience to the next - chain style. If each sufferer were to carry the news of the scientific hopelessness of alcoholism to each new prospect, he might be able to lay every newcomer wide open to a transforming spiritual experience. This concept proved to be the foundation of such success as Alcoholics Anonymous has since achieved. This has made conversion experiences - nearly every variety reported by James - available on an almost wholesale basis.

Our sustained recoveries over the last quarter century number about 300,000. In America and through the world, there are today 8,000 AA groups. So to you, to Dr. Shoemaker of the Oxford Groups, to William James, and to my own physician, Dr. Silkworth, we of AA owe this tremendous benefaction. As you will now clearly see, this astonishing chain of events actually started long ago in your consulting room, and it was directly founded upon your own humility and deep perception. Very many thoughtful AAs are students of your writings. Because of your conviction that man is something more than intellect, emotion, and two dollars worth of chemicals, you have especially endeared yourself to us.

How our Society grew, developed its Traditions for unity, and structured its functioning, will be seen in the texts and pamphlet material that I am sending you. You will also be interested to learn that in addition to the "spiritual experience, " many AAs report a great variety of psychic phenomena, the cumulative weight of which is very considerable. Other members have - following their recovery in AA - been much helped by your practitioners. A few have been intrigued by the "I Ching" and your remarkable introduction to that work. Please be certain that your place in the affection, and in the history of the Fellowship, is like no other.

Gratefully yours,
William G. W.
Co-founder Alcoholics Anonymous

Reply by Dr. Jung to Bill W. Jan. 30, 1961
Mr. William G. Wilson
Alcoholics Anonymous
Box 459 Grand Central Station
New York, 17, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Wilson,

Your letter has been very welcome indeed. I had no news from Roland H. anymore and often wondered what has been his fate. Our conversation which he has adequately reported to you had an aspect of which he did not know. The reason that I could not tell him everything was that those days I had to be exceedingly careful of what I said. I had found out that I misunderstood in every possible way. Thus I was very careful when I talked to Roland H.. But what I really thought about, was the result of many experiences with men of his kind. His craving for alcohol was the equivalent on a low level of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, 1) expressed in mediaeval language -
the union with God.

How could one formulate such an insight in a language that is not misunderstood in our days? The only right and legitimate way to such an experience is, that it happens to you in reality and it can only happen to you when you walk on a path, which leads you to higher understanding. You might be led to that goal by an act of grace or through a personal and honest contact with friends, or thought a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism. I see from your letter that Roland H. has chosen the second way, which was, under the circumstances, obviously the best one. I am strongly convinced that the evil principle prevailing in this world, lends the unrecognized spiritual need into perdition, if it is not counteracted either by a real religious insight or by the protective wall of human community.

An ordinary man, not protected by an action from above and isolated in society cannot resist the power or evil, which is called very aptly the Devil. But the use of such words arouse so many mistakes that one can only keep aloof from them as much as possible. These are the reasons why I could not give a full and sufficient explanation to Roland H. but I am risking it with you because I conclude from your very decent and honest letter, that you have acquired a point of view above the misleading platitudes, one usually hears about alcoholism.

You see, Alcohol in Latin is "spiritus" and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is:
spiritus contra spiritum.

Thanking you again for your kind letter

I remain
yours sincerely

1)"As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." ( Psalm 42,1)

Copyright... http://serenityfound.org/history/jung.html

Liberty Magazine© - 1940

2005-09-30T02:43:00.000-05:00

CHARMING IS THE WORD FOR ALCOHOLICS
BY FULTON OUSLER Liberty Magazine© - 1940

Down at the very bottom of the social scale of AA society are the pariahs, the untouchables, and the outcasts, all known by one excoriating epithet-relatives. I am a relative. I know my place. I am not complaining. But I hope no one minds if I venture the plaintive confession that there are times, oh, many, many, times when I wish I had been an alcoholic. By that I mean that I wish I were an AA. The reason is that I consider the AA people the most charming in the world. Such is my considered opinion. As a journalist it has been my fortune to meet many of the people who are considered charming. I number among my friends stars, and lesser lights of stage and cinema; writers are my daily diet. I know the ladies and gentleman of both political parties; I have been entertained in the White House. I have broken bread with kings and ministers and ambassadors and I say after that catalog, which could be extended, that I would prefer an evening with my AA friends to any person or group of persons I have indicated. I ask myself why I consider so charming these alcoholic caterpillars who have found their butterfly wings in Alcoholics Anonymous. There are more reasons than one, but I can name a few. They are imaginative, and that helps to make them alcoholics. Some of them drank to flog their ambition on to greater efforts. Others guzzled only to black out unendurable demons that rose in their imagination. But when they have found their restoration, their imagination is responsive to new incantations, and their talk abounds with color and light, and that makes them charming companions too. The AA people are what they are, and they were what they were, because they are sensitive, imaginative, possessed of a sense of humor and awareness of universal truth. They are sensitive, which means they are hurt easily, and that helped them to become alcoholics. But when they have found their restoration, they are still as sensitive as ever; responsive to beauty and to truth and eager about the intangible glories of this life. That makes them charming companions. They are possessed with a sense of humor. Even in their cups they have been known to say damnable funny things. Often it was being forced to take seriously the little and mean things of life that make them seek escape in a bottle. But when they have found restoration, their sense of humor finds a blessed freedom, and they are able to reach a godlike state where they can laugh at themselves, the very height of self conquest. Go to the meetings and listen to the laughter. At what are they laughing? At ghoulish memories over which weaker souls would cringe in useless remorse. And that makes them wonderful people to be with by candlelight. And they are possessed of a sense of universal truth. That is often a new thing in their hearts. The fact that this at-one-meant with God's universe had never been awakened in them is sometimes the reason why they drank. The fact that it was at last awakened is almost always the reason why they were restored to the good and simple ways of life. Stand with them when the meeting is over, and listen while they say the "Our Father." They have found a power greater than themselves which they diligently serve. And that gives them a charm that never was elsewhere on land or sea. It makes you know that God, Himself, is really charming, because the AA people reflect His mercy and His forgiveness.

Copyright © Serenity Found 2002-2004All Rights Reserved

Clarence Snyder

2005-09-29T12:50:00.000-05:00

Clarence Snyder

One A.A. archivist called him "abrasive." Other AAs called him "controversial." Still others knew he had no love for the Twelve Traditions.

And yet... Those who know A.A. history freely concede that the principles of "sponsorship" and "rotating leadership" can be attributed to Clarence Snyder. Bill Wilson several times commented on the astonishing growth of early A.A. in Cleveland from one group to thirty groups in a year's time.

Moreover, a ninety-five percent success rate was claimed for Cleveland AAs of those days. Clarence sponsored the first woman in AA. And many Roman Catholics believe there would be no membership in A.A. today for people of their religious persuasion if Clarence had not insisted on a separate type of meeting in Cleveland "for alcoholics only." Finally, though some may dispute it, there is a good case that the name of the A.A. Fellowship "Alcoholics Anonymous" came from the first meeting under that name which Clarence held in Cleveland on May 11, 1939.

Dr. Bob Smith sponsored Clarence Snyder. Clarence met Dr. Bob in Akron City Hospital February 11, 1938, the date Clarence celebrated as his sobriety date for the next forty-six years. Clarence was among the first 40 members of AA and his story is included in the first three versions of ‘the Big Book’ as AA #11, "The Home Brewmeister". He was part of the counseling team that wrote the Big Book

Clarence passed on to his widow Grace, to his many sponsees and grand-sponsees who are alive today, and through his retreats the specific Bible, Oxford Group, and devotional ideas that enabled early AAs to succeed so well. Moreover, Clarence, like Dr. Bob, felt there was no need to stay sick. People could recover; and alcoholics who took the Steps, trusted God, and abided by the Four Absolutes (Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness and Love) did recover and stayed recovered. Bob took people through the six steps in an afternoon. Clarence took thousands through the Twelve Steps in two days.
There is a lot to be learned from Clarence Snyder and early A.A..

Dr. Silkworth

2005-09-28T22:51:00.000-05:00

The Doctor's Opinion

From the Big Book of A.A.

To Whom It May Concern:

I have specialized in the treatment of alcoholism for many years.
In late 1934 I attended a patient who, though he had been a competent businessman of good earning capacity, was an alcoholic of a type I had come to regard as hopeless.
In the course of his third treatment he acquired certain ideas concerning a possible means of recovery.

As part of his rehabilitation he commenced to present his conceptions to other alcoholics, impressing upon them that they must do likewise with still others. This has become the basis of a rapidly growing fellowship of these men and their families. This man and over one hundred others appear to have recovered.
I personally know scores of cases who were of the type with whom other methods had failed completely.
These facts appear to be of extreme medical importance; because of the extraordinary possibilities of rapid growth inherent in this group they may mark a new epoch in the annals of alcoholism. These men may well have a remedy for thousands of such situations.
You may rely absolutely on anything they say about themselves.

Very truly yours,
William D. Silkworth, M.D.

We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they connot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.

Frothy emotional appeal seldom suffices. The message which can interest and hold these alcoholic people must have depth and weight. In nearly all cases, their ideals must be grounded in a power greater than themselves, if they are to re-create their lives.

If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement. We feel, after many years of experience, that we have found nothing which has contributed more to the rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement now growing up among them.

Men and women drink essentially because they like the affect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks-drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many people do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.

On the other hand- and strange as this may seem to those who do not understand-once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving them, suddenly finds himself easily able to control his desire for alcohol, the only effort necessary being that required to follow a few simple rules.

When I need a mental uplift, I often think of another case brought in by a physician prominent in New York. The patient had made his own diagnosis, and deciding his situation hopeless. has hidden in a deserted barn determined to die. He was rescued by a searching party, and. in desperate condition, brought to me. Following his physical rehabilitation, he had a talk with me in which he frankly stated he thought the treatment a waste of effort, unless I could assure him, which no one ever had, that in the future he would have the "will power" to resist the impulse to drink.

His alcoholic problem was so complex, and his depression so great, that we felt his only hope would be through what we then called "moral psychology," and we doubted if even that would have any effect.

However, he did become "sold" on the ideas contained in this book. He has not had a drink for a great many years. I see him now and then and he is as fine a specimen of manhood as one could wish to meet.

I earnestly advise every alcoholic to read this book through, and though perhaps he came to scoff, he may remain to pray.

William D. Silkworth, M.D.

About The Oxford Group...

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Frank N.D. Buchman

Dr. Bob

Bill W.

In the autumn of 1922, the Lutheran Minister, Rev. Frank N.D.Buchman, and a few of his friends, formed what they called,"A First Century Christian Fellowship." Frank Buchman had resigned his connection with the Hartford Theological Seminary around 1921 and had begun his evangelical work of carrying a message of life-changing by "getting right with God." Around 1927, Buchman began working in England. Several of his followers were connected with Oxford University; and when they began to tour South Africa, the press called the evangelical team "The Oxford Group." This because most of the team was from Oxford University, but Frank Buchman was never officially connected in any way with Oxford University. This name stuck. By 1932, A.J. Russell's book For Sinners Only was published, and made frequent reference to The Oxford Group.In 1937, the group was officially incorporated in Great Britain as a not-for-profit entity, known as The Oxford Group. The fellowship held small group meetings, prayer meetings and what were called "house parties," at which its adherents spent "Quiet Time" in meditation seeking "Guidance" from God. Part of these meetings involved "witnessing," or giving testimony regarding prior sins, and what God had done in their lives to remove these sins, or defects in character (or shortcomings).

Frank Buchman and his followers held certain theological beliefs,including the following:

1) Sovereignty and Power of God.
2) The reality of sin.
3) The need for complete surrender to the will of God.
4) Christ's atoning sacrifice and transforming power.
5) The sustenance of prayer.
6) The duty to witness to others.
*Garth Lean, ON THE TAIL OF A COMET - p. 73

Its beliefs included other elements added as the movement grew and became more popular. Examples are as the belief that an experience of Christ would transform a believer, IF he truly believed - beyond anything he had dreamed possible. The belief that an adherent could and should make prompt restitution for personal wrongs revealed to him by his life-changing experience. And the belief that adherents should be part of a sort of "chain-reaction" of life changing experiences by sharing the experience of what Christ had done for them with others.

The Oxford Group believed one must surrender to God, not only to be "converted" from sin, but to have his entire life controlled by God. They believed in "Quiet Time," or meditation, during which a believer would get guidance of what to do or in as to the direction he should take. They believed in open confession of sin, one-to-another, following James 5:16 in the scriptures. They believed in the healing of the soul and in carrying the message of personal and world-wide redemption through the sharing of members' testimony by witnessing.

Frank Buchman, and his followers believed that people hadsick souls, most of which was caused by "self-centeredness."

Oxford Group members believed that people were powerless over this human condition, this defect of the soul. To recover one had to admit he was separated from God and his fellow man, and that God could manage their lives. Then they made a decision to turn their lives over to the care and direction of God. They had to make an inventory of their lives and of their sins, and to make full restitution to others, those they had hurt by their sins, or shortcomings. They also had to witness to others as to their own conversion from sin and be available to convert others from sin.

Oxford group members believed and were taught that the only way you could keep what you had been given by God, was to give it away to another. They did not try to force anyone into their path. They were to live their lives as an example, which would inspire others to want to follow. The Oxford Group called its conversion process "soul-surgery."Its so-called surgical procedure broiled down to five concepts:

CONFIDENCE, CONFESSION,CONVICTION, CONVERSION CONSERVATION.

Oxford Group people also believed that their followers should have a formula for checking their motives in following this path.Part of the checking procedure involved the Four Absolutes:

HONESTY, UNSELFISHNESS, PURITY and LOVE

Oxford Group people believed these were the four absolute standards of Jesus. A.A. members knew that no one could ever hope to attain the perfection of absolute anything. They instead were told to strive for perfection, as their guide for progress, knowing that they would never fully attain it.

Bill Wilson was visited by Ebby T., an Oxford Group follower (who never really attained sobriety, and died destitute). Bill was told by Ebby, "I got religion." Bill went to Calvary Mission in New York City with Ebby and late surrendered to Christ, making open confession of his alcoholism at the mission which was run by Calvary Episcopal Church. Bill soon had his "white light" spiritual experience at Towns Hospital and after this surrender, never drank alcohol again. Ebby "had two years and seven months of continuous sobriety in the beginning,a long period of about seven years' sobriety in Texas in the 1950's, and about 2 1/2 years' sobriety just before he died"in 1966.

Bill knew when he was going to have a binge. Prior to his spiritual experience, Bill had been a patient at Towns Hospital and knew that he had to make reservations at Towns Hospital. He would call up two weeks in advance of binge and tell Towns when he was going to be there. His binges were planned. After his spiritual experience, he never found the need to call for reservations again.

Dr. Bob too, had had experience with the Oxford Group. After Frank Buchman's series of Oxford Group meetings at the Mayflower Hotel in Akron in January 1933, Henrietta Seiberling and Dr. Bob's wife, Anne Smith, convinced Dr. Bob to attend the meetings which were, by now, being held at the home of T. Henry and Clarace Williams. Dr. Bob, though he had confessed his drinking and had been a devotee of the Oxford Group and of its writings and teachings,had not been able to stop drinking. It was not until he had met with Bill Wilson, another Oxford Group member, and was relating, one-drunk-to-another, that he eventually surrendered.

Dr. Bob met Bill on Mother's Day in May of 1935, and later drank while going to and attending a medical convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey in June 1935. Bill Wilson gave Bob his last drink of beer just prior to performing surgery on June 10th , 1935. This was to be Dr. Bob's last "slip."

Bill Wilson was once quoted as saying that even though he did not want the connection to the Oxford Group and its religious teachings associated with Alcoholics Anonymous, he had incorporated most of their ideals and precepts in the Steps and in the writing of what to become the A. A. Recovery Program.

Six Steps of Oxford Group:

1. We admitted that we were licked, that we were powerless over alcohol.

2. We made a moral inventory of our defects or sins.

3. We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence.

4. We made restitution to all those we had harmed by our drinking.

5. We tried to help other alcoholics, with no thought of reward in money or prestige.

6. We prayed to whatever God we thought there was for power to practice these precepts.

Although those steps had helped in the recovery of New York and Akron alcoholics, Bill felt the program was still not definitive. "Maybe our six chunks of truth should be broken up into smaller pieces," he said. "Thus we could better get the distant reader over the barrel, and at the same time we might be able to broaden and deepen the spiritual implications of our whole presentation." Pass It On, p.197

**If you go back to the Oxford Group beginnings, you start primarily with the title by Howard Arnold Walter, Literary Secretary, National Council Young Men's Christian Association of India and Ceylon. Walter wrote this title in conjunction with Professor Henry B. Wright and Reverend Frank N.D. Buchman. It bore the name Soul-Surgery: Some Thoughts on Incisive Personal Work, and was published in 1919. Its major topic dealt with what later became called the 5 C's–Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, Conservation [also called "Continuance"]. These five principles, in turn, became the heart of the ideas behind A.A. Steps Three through Twelve, as Bill Wilson himself was later to write in The Language of the Heart.

The Second Touch

Mark 8:25

(To F.N.D.B.)

The blind man, sunk in sordid helplessness
A sound of footsteps caught.
'The Healer come, ' they cried, and through the press
The hapless wretch they brought.
With wild hope, born of uttermost distress,
The healing touch he sought,
A hand reached forth in potent tenderness--
The miracle was wrought.

Strangely he stares. 'What doest thou see?' they cry.
'I see men walk as trees.'
Again the cool hand strokes each aching eye;
The last dim shadow flees;
Not moving shapes but live men drawing nigh,
And tells to each how God's own Son came by
And healed his dire disease.

Dungeoned by self, we too besought His hand,
Our shuttered eyes to free.
His touch bestowed, vast stricken crowds we scanned,
And guessed their misery.
Lord Christ, Thy second touch our hearts demand,
Each separate soul to see,
His wounds to salve, his wants to understand,
And lead him home to Thee.

H.A.W.

Originally published by Oxford University Press

Rowland Hazard, who came to the aid of Ebby T. in August 1934, had a thorough indoctrination in Oxford Group teachings and he passed many of these along to Ebby and Bill W. Soon after his release from Towns Hospital at the end of 1934, Bill and the rest of the alcoholic contingent of the Oxford Group began gathering at Stewart's Cafeteria in New York following their regular meeting. Shep Cornell, then a member of the Oxford Group business team that included Rowland, Sam Shoemaker, and Hanford Twitchell, was also a recovering alkie. Lois Wilson talked of regular attendance at the Oxford Group meetings with Bill, Shep, and Ebby. James Houck, a nonalcoholic Oxford Group member in Frederick, Maryland, stated that Bill W. went to many Oxford Group meetings at the Francis Scott Key Hotel in Frederick and always centered on alcohol.

Jim Newton went to Ft. Myers, Florida in 1926, at age 21, to visit his father,and they bought a 35 acre tract of land across the road from the Thomas Edison estate. Jim Newton often acted as host at Edison's famous birthday parties which were attended by Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and many world renowned business leaders and public figures.
Harvey Firestone, Sr., offered Jim a job as secretary to the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in 1926, and moved him to Akron, Ohio in residence across from the Firestone Estate. Jim worked for Firestone eleven years and was being groomed as president of the company when he resigned and went full time with the Oxford Groups.

Jim had been in New York for the Jack Dempsey vs Gene Tunney fight. While there he confessed to Frank Buchman that his life was in turmoil and he was about to take a "geographical cure". Buchman sent him to meet Sam Shoemaker at the Calvary Church.

He made an Oxford Group confession to Sam and was led to join one of the Oxford Group business teams. These were groups of important men who made attempts to convert others to the Oxford Group method of spirituality. Jim frequently met with Shep Cornell and Rowland Hazard. He met T. Henry and Clarace Williams, husband and wife Oxford Group members from Akron and members of Walter Tunks' church, clerygyman for Firestone. The business team put on house parties in various cities at the finest hotels and clubs.

In January of 1933, Frank Buchman, leading a team of thirty men and women, descended on Akron for the first time to give testimonials at the Mayflower Hotel and in Akron churches, and initiate the townspeople in the experiences of the Oxford Group. Clearly, Jim Newton's association with Firestone and Tunks' Episcopal Church group influenced the choice of Akron as the site of this endeavor, rather than some other city. Had Jim not already been a business team member and in place in Akron, it is very unlikely that Buchman would ever have chosen this small, rather unknown city as a place to pursue his evangelistic efforts. Jim was the spokesman who introduced Buchman at all the affairs that week in Akron.

When Jim first arrived in Akron, he had been welcomed into the Firestone family, and had become fast friends with a son, Russell (Bud) Firestone. Bud had a very bad drinking problem and had already been sent to several hospitals to no avail. Jim went with Bud to still another drying-out place, on the Hudson River in New York, and stayed through the entire 30 day program. Then he took Bud to an Episcopal Conference in Denver to which the Oxford Group people had been invited. On the train East again after the party, he was able to introduce Bud to his old Oxford Group minister, Sam Shoemaker. Alone with Sam, Bud surrendered his life to God. His life changed, and his family situation and marriage were saved. Jim Newton had helped bring to the city the Oxford Group message of his alcoholic friend, Bud Firestone. The message and recovery were broadcast to an interested community by a grateful father, Harvey Firestone, Sr.

In Akron, T. Henry and Clarace Williams and Henrietta Seiberling were attending Oxford Group meetings at the Mayflower Hotel and elsewhere. Dr. Bob Smith also attended with his wife, Anne. He shied away from talking about his problem publicly, and continued drinking. In her concern for Bob, Henrietta suggested to T. Henry that if they could set up a smaller, more private meeting perhaps Bob might feel more at ease and be able to make a confession in the Oxford Group fashion, and a commitment to sobriety. T. Henry's home was chosen for this special meeting and these meetings started on a Wednesday in April of 1935--just one month before Bill Wilson came to Akron. These meetings were usually led by T. Henry, Henrietta, or Florence Main, and at one of these Dr. Bob was able to confess that he was a secret drinker and needed help as he could not stop.

Then, there was Bill. Bill Wison, the "rum hound" from New York, had come to Akron on a business venture that went sour. Having recovered from his disease, he was determined to stay sober by seeking out and helping another drunk, after being tempted by the bar at the Mayflower Hotel. Instead of drinking, having been sober five months in the Oxford Group, he said a prayer. He received guidance to look at a ministers' directory board and a strange thing happened. He put his finger on one name--Tunks. The Rev. Walter Tunks was Harvey Firestone's minister, and Firestone had brought Buchman and thirty Oxford Group members to Akron for ten days in gratitude for their help for his son, Russell, a drunkard.

Bill W. made the desperate and fateful phone call. Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson came together at a meeting in Henrietta Seiberling's home in the Gate House of the Firestone Estate, and thus, Alcoholics Anonymous was born.

Dr. Harry Tiebout

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Dr. Harry M. Tiebout, a psychiatrist, was an early pioneer in coupling the principles and philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous with psychiatric knowledge of alcoholism. A strong supporter of A.A. throughout his life, he consistently worked for acceptance of his views concerning alcoholism the medical and psychiatric professions. He served on the Board of Trustees for A.A. from 1957 to 1966, and was chairman of the National Council on Alcoholism in 1950.
Reprinted from
1953 QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF STUDIES ON ALCOHOL
Vol. 14, pp. 58-68
New Brunswick, N.J. 08903
Printed in the United States of America
The Tiebout Collection consists of four papers written during the 1950s, drawing from 'personal stories and the author's vast experience.First published by Hazelden Foundation 1990, who offer a variety of information on chemical dependency and related areas. This publication does not necessarily represent Hazelden or its programs, nor do they officially speak for any Twelve Step Program. Minor editing has been done to this booklet in accordance with the publishers (Hazelden's) editorial style and grammatical usage.Tiebout CollectionBy Harry M. Tiebout, M.D.Dr. Tiebout was an outstanding psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of addictions.The four papers described below present several of his significant concepts,
The Act of Surrender in the Therapeutic Process
Direct Treatment of a Symptom
The Ego Factors in Surrender in Alcoholism
Surrender Versus Compliance in Therapy

Letter from Dr. Tiebout on The 12 Steps as Ego Deflating Devices

From: The JayWalker a>

The Serenity Prayer

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The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful worldas it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things rightif I surrender to His Will;That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with HimForever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr - 1926

The Lords Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy Name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who

trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen

"The Promises" From the Book ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Chapter 6 - "INTO ACTION" (Page 86)

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.....If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.

1. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness,

2. We will not regret the past, nor wish to shut the door on it,

3. We will comprehend the word serenity,

4. And we will know peace.

5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.

6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.

7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain insight into our fellows.

8. Self-seeking will slip away.

9. Our whole attitude and outlook will change.

10. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.

11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.

12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us--sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.....

How It Works

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Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.

Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it, then you are ready to take certain steps.

At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.

Remember that we deal with alcohol--cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power--that One is God. May you find Him now!

Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. we asked His protection and care with complete abandon.

Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventure before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:

(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
(c) That God could and would if He were sought.

AA's Co-founders

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Dr. Bob and Bill W.

A seemingly unplanned meeting in Akron, Ohio in 1935 between two men, both of whom were termed "hopeless" alcoholics, began a program of recovery that has helped millions find sobriety and serenity.Bill W. was one of those men. In fighting his own battle against drinking, he had already learned that helping other alcoholics was the key to maintaining his own sobriety, the principle that would later become step twelve in the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
A stock broker from New York, Bill W. had traveled to Arkron, Ohio on May 12, 1935 for a shareholders' meeting and proxy fight, which did not turn out his way. Fighting desperately to maintain his sobriety, his immediate reaction was, "I've got to find another alcoholic."
A few inquiries lead him to a meeting with an Akron surgeon, forever to be remembered simply as "Dr. Bob," who had struggled for years with his own drinking problem.

The effect the meeting had on Dr. Bob was immediate, as he tells it in his own words and soon he too put down the bottle (June 10, 1935), never to pick it up again. The bond formed between the two men would grow into a movement that would literally affect the lives of millions.
Starting in an upstairs room at Dr. Bob's home at 855 Ardmore Avenue, in Akron, the two men began helping alcoholics one person at a time.

In took four years to get the first 100 alcoholics sober in the first three groups that formed in Akron, New York, and Cleveland. But after the publication in 1939 of the group's "text book" Alcoholics Anonymous, and the publication of a series of articles about the group in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the development of A.A. was rapid. Membership in the Cleveland group soon grew to 500.
Response was so overwhelming, the group found itself sending out members, who had only a short time in the program themselves, to work with other new members. This was a key point in the development of A.A. For the first time, the founders learned that recovery was something that could be "mass produced" and was not limited to the ground that they themselves could cover.

After a dinner in New York in 1940, given by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to publicize the group, membership soon grew to 2,000. An article in the Saturday Evening Post in 1941 resulted in another growth period and membership in the United States and Canada rose to 6,000.
By 1951, Alcoholics Anonymous had helped more than 100,000 people recover from alcoholism and by 1973 more than one million copies of The Big Book had been distributed. Since that time the fellowship has continued to grow and has become worldwide. A number for Alcoholics Anonymous can be found in the white pages of virtually every local telephone directory.

Dr. Bob died Nov. 16, 1950 and Bill W. passed on Jan. 24, 1971, but the legacy they left behind continues to touch the lives of millions. From About...

AA Big Book

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An Alcoholic's Pathway To Freedom......

From p 25.....

There is a solution. Almost none of us liked the self-searching,the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it. When,therefore, we were approached by those in whom theproblem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet. We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed.
http://www.recovery.org/aa/bigbook/ww/

To Those Who Still Suffer....

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Dear Friend,
.
Thank you for your interest in Alcoholics Anonymous. Below are links to A.A. pamphlets that explain our recovery program and give a general idea of how A.A. works. You will see that the first and most important step in our program is admission by the alcoholic that he or she is powerless over alcohol, and that life has become unmanageable. It is often helpful for the alcoholic to talk with an A.A. member, because it may make it easier to understand the nature of the illness, and to accept A.A. help.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a program of a new way of life without alcohol, a program that is working successfully for millions of men and women throughout the world, and in all walks of life. The experience of A.A. members is that alcoholism is a progressive illness that cannot be cured, but which, like some other illnesses, can be arrested—by staying away from the first drink, one day at a time.
We would encourage you to get in touch with the nearest A.A. Central Office or Intergroup to get further information on Alcoholics Anonymous, speak to an A.A. member or find local A.A. meetings. Many of these offices have web sites and email.
A.A. members, as volunteers, are happy to offer help by sharing their experience, strength and hope in staying sober. One of the ways members stay sober is by helping other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.
.
Best wishes,
General Service Office

Alcoholics Anonymous and AA are registered trademarks of AA World Services, Inc.
© Copyright 2005 Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

About World Services AA

2005-09-27T00:08:00.001-05:00

This Blog is in no way endorsed, or affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous.

Alcoholics Anonymous and AA are registered trademarks of AA World Services, Inc.

Alcoholics Anonymous®, A.A.®, and The Big Book® are registered trademarks of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. The Grapevine® and AA Grapevine® are registered trademarks of The AA Grapevine, Inc.

A.A. Preamble

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ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS® is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.

The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.
A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes.
Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.
Copyright © by The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.; reprinted with permission.

Old Preamble 1940 AA

AA Old Preamble - 1940

We are gathered here because we are faced with the fact that we are powerless over alcohol and unable to do anything about it without the help of a Power greater than ourselves. We feel that each person's religious views, if any, are his own affair. The simple purpose of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is to show what may be done to enlist the aid of a Power greater than ourselves regardless of what our individual conception of that Power may be. In order to form a habit of depending upon and referring all we do to that Power, we must at first apply ourselves with some diligence. By often repeating these acts, they become habitual and the help rendered becomes natural to us. We have all come to know that as alcoholics we are suffering from a serious illness for which medicine has no cure. Our condition may be the result of an allergy which make sus different from other people. It has never been by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently cured. The only relief we have to offer is absolute abstinence, the second meaning of A.A. There are no dues or fees. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Each member squares his debt by helping others to recover. An Alcoholics Anonymous is an alcoholic who through application and adherence to the A.A. program has forsworn the use of any and all alcoholic beverage in any form. The moment he takes so much as one drop of beer, wine,spirits or any other alcoholic beverage he automatically loses all status as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. A.A. is not interested in sobering up drunks who are not sincere in their desire to remain sober for all time. Not being reformers, we offer our experience only to those who want it. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree and on which we can join in harmonious action. Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our program. Those who do not recover are people who will not or simply cannot give themselves to this simple program. Now you may like this program or you may not, but the fact remains, it works. It is our only chance to recover. There is a vast amount of fun in the A.A. fellowship. Some people might be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity but just underneath there lies a deadly earnestness and a full realization that we must put first things first and with each of us the first thing is our alcoholic problem. To drink is to die. Faith must work twenty-four hours a day in and through us or we perish. In order to set our tone for this meeting I ask that we bow our heads in a few moments of silent prayer and meditation. I wish to remind you that whatever is said at this meeting expresses our own individual opinion as of today and as of up to this moment. We do not speak for A.A. as a whole and you are free to agree or disagree as you see fit, in fact, it is suggested that you pay no attention to anything which might not be reconciled with what is in the A.A. Big Book. If you don't have a Big Book, it's time you bought you one. Read it, study it, live with it, loan it, scatter it, and then learn from it what it means to be an A.A.
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