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The Twelve Step Program - Big Book Guide

The Promises... Find more in the first 164 pages of the Big Book

Can’t see the Trees because of all the leaves? This article can be found on the web at the following link. http://www.cleanandsobernotdead.com/Pages/promises.html The Promises, that are read in many A.A. Meetings can be found on page 83-84 in the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. THE A.A. PROMISES • If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. 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. There are many promises throughout the Big Book. Here are some more. Big Book page #25 [PROMISES OF STEP TWO]

1. • There is a solution. Almost none of us likes 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 us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet.
2. •  2) We have found much of heaven and
3. •  3) we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed.
4. • 4) The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God's universe.
5. • 5) The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous.
6. • 6) He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.
7. Big Book page #27:• 7) Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me these occurrences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements.
8. • 8) Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side,
9. • 9) and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them.
10. Big Book page #28:• 10) We, in our turn, sought the same escape with all the desperation of drowning men. What seemed at first a flimsy reed, has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God.
11. • 11) A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, "a design for living" that really works.
12. Big Book page #46:Much to our relief, we discovered we did not need to consider another's conception of God.• 12) Our own conception, however inadequate, was sufficient to make the approach
13. • 13) and to effect a contact with Him.
14. • 14) As soon as we admitted the possible existence of a Creative Intelligence, a Spirit of the Universe underlying the totality of things, we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction, provided we took other simple steps.
15. • 15) We found that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him.
16. • 16) To us, the Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek.
17. • 17) It is open, we believe, to all men.
18. Big Book page #47:• 18) Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you. At the start, this was all we needed to commence spiritual growth, to effect our first conscious relation with God as we understood Him.
19. • 19) Afterward, we found ourselves accepting many things which then seemed entirely out of reach.
20. • 20) That was growth, but if we wished to grow we had to begin somewhere. So we used our own conception, however limited it was. We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. "Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?" As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way.
21. • 21) It has been repeatedly proven among us that upon this simple cornerstone a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be built.
22. Big Book page #48:• 22) Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect alcohol was a great persuader.
23. • 23) It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a tedious process; we hope no one else will be prejudiced for as long as some of us were.
24. Big Book page #50:• 24) Here are thousands of men and women, worldly indeed. They flatly declare that since they have come to believe in a Power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward the Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking.
25. • 25) In the face of collapse and despair, in the face of the total failure of their human resources, they found that a new power, peace, happiness, and sense of direction flowed into them.
26. • 26) This happened soon after they whole-heartedly met a few simple requirements. Once confused and baffled by the seeming futility of existence, they show the underlying reasons why they were making heavy going of life. Leaving aside the drink question, they tell why living was so unsatisfactory. They show how the change came over them. When many hundreds of people are able to say that the consciousness of the Presence of God is today the most important fact of their lives, they present a powerful reason why one should have faith.
27. Big Book page #55:• 27) We finally saw that faith in some kind of God was a part of our make-up, just as much as the feeling we have for a friend. Sometimes we had to search fearlessly, but He was there. He was as much a fact as we were. We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found. It was so with us.
28. Big Book page #57:• 28) Even so has God restored us all to our right minds. To this man, the revelation was sudden. Some of us grow into it more slowly.
29. • 29) But He has come to all who have honestly sought Him.
30. • 30) When we drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us! [contributed by Joe Mc.]
31. Big Book page #63. [contributed by Kay G. and Jon T.][PROMISES OF STEP THREE] • 31) When we sincerely took such a position, all sort of remarkable things followed.
32. • 32) We had a new Employer.
33. • 33) He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well.
34. • 34) Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs.
35. • 35) More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life.
36. • 36) As we felt new power flow in,
37. • 37) as we enjoyed peace of mind,
38. • 38) as we discovered we could face life successfully,
39. • 39) as we became conscious of His presence,• • • 
40. • 40) we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter.
41. • 41) We were reborn.
42. • 42) an effect, sometimes a very great one, was felt at once.
43. Big Book page #68.[contributed by Kay G.]• 43) At once, we commence to outgrow fear. Big Book page #70. [contributed by Tom T. of Omaha.]• 43a) We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies, for we look on the them as sick people.
44. Big Book page #75:[PROMISES OF STEP FIVE] Once we have taken this step, withholding nothing,• 44) we are delighted.
45. • 45) We can look the world in the eye.
46. • 46) We can be alone at perfect peace and ease.
47. • 47) Our fears fall from us.
48. • 48) We begin to feel the nearness of our Creator.
49. • 49) We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience.
50. • 50) The feeling that the drink problem has disappeared will often come strongly.
51. • 51) We feel we are on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe.
52. Big Book page #78:[PROMISES OF STEP EIGHT] • 52) If our manner is calm, frank, and open, we will be gratified with the result.
53. • 53) In nine cases out of ten the unexpected happens. Sometimes the man we are calling upon admits his own faults,
54. • 54) so feuds of years' standing melt away in an hour.
55. • 55) Rarely do we fail to make satisfactory progress.
56. • 56) Our former enemies sometimes praise what we are doing and wish us well.
57. • 57) Occasionally, they will offer assistance.
58. Big Book page #83: [PROMISES OF STEP NINE] If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, • 58) we will be amazed before we are half way through.
59. • 59) We are going to know a new freedom
60. • 60) and a new happiness.
61. • 61) We will not regret the past
62. • 62) nor wish to shut the door on it.
63. • 63) We will comprehend the word serenity and
64. • 64) we will know peace.
65. • 65) No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
66. • 66) That feeling of uselessness (will disappear)
67. • 67) and self-pity will disappear.
68. • 68) We will lose interest in selfish things and
69. • 69) (We will) gain interest in our fellows.
70. • 70) Self-seeking will slip away.
71. • 71) Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
72. • 72) Fear of people (will leave us) and
73. • 73) (fear) of economic insecurity will leave us.
74. • 74) We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
75. • 75) We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
76. • 76) Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickl, sometimes slowly.
77. • 77) They will always materialize if we work for them.
78. Big Book page #84 : [PROMISES OF STEP TEN] • 64) And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone —even alcohol.
79. • 79) For by this time sanity will have returned.
80. • 80) We will seldom be interested in liquor.
81. • 81) If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame.
82. • 82) We react sanely and normally, and
83. • 83) we will find that this has happened automatically.
84. • 84) We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it.
85. • 84) We are not fighting it,
86. • 86) neither are we avoiding temptation.

• 73) We feel as though we had been places in a position of neutrality—safe and protected. • 74) We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. • 75) We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. • 76) That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition. Big Book page #86: [PROMISES OF STEP ELEVEN] On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions • 77) we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. • 78) Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives. • 79) In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don't struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while. Big Book page #87: • 80) What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. • 81) Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. • 82) We come to rely upon it. • 83) We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn't work. You can easily see why. As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day "Thy will be done." • 84) We are then in much less danger of excitement, • 85) fear, • 86) anger, • 87) worry, • 88) self-pity, • 89) or foolish decisions. • 90) We become much more efficient. • 91 We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves. • 92) It works—it really does. Big Book page #97: • 93) PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. • 94) You can help when no one else can. • 95) You can secure their confidence when others fail. • 96) Life will take on new meaning. • 97) To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends—this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives. Big Book page #100: [PROMISES OF STEP TWELVE] • 98) Both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress. If you persist, remarkable things will happen. [contributed by Kate O.] • 99) When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands were better than anything we could have planned. [contributed by Kate O.] • 100) Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your present circumstances! [contributed by Beth] • 101) Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to. [contributed by Kate O.] Big Book page #102: • 102) Your job now is to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others, so never hesitate to go anywhere if you can be helpful. You should not hesitate to visit the most sordid spot on earth on such an errand. Keep on the firing line of life with these motives and God will keep you unharmed. [contributed by Beth] • 103) The power of God goes deep! [contributed by Kate O.] Big Book page #114: • 104) But sometimes you must start life anew. We know women who have done it. If such women adopt a spiritual way of life their road will be smoother. [contributed by Kate O.] Big Book page #116: • 105) how much better life is when lived on a spiritual plane. Big Book page #117: • 106) These work-outs should be regarded as part of your education, for thus you will be learning to live. • 107) You will make mistakes, but if you are in earnest they will not drag you down. • 108) Instead, you will capitalize them. [contributed by Kate O.] • 109) A better way of life will emerge when they are overcome.

Alcoholics Anonymous® is a fellowship of men and women

Here is an A.A. Pamphlet.
http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-17_AATraditions.pdf

How shall we A.A.’s best preserve our unity? That is the subject of this booklet.
When an alcoholic applies the Twelve Steps of our recovery program to his personal life, his dis- integration stops and his unification begins. The Power which now holds him together in one piece overcomes those forces which had rent him apart.

Exactly the same principle applies to each A.A. group and to Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole. So long as the ties which bind us together prove far stronger than those forces which would divide us if they could, all will be well. We shall be secure as a movement; our essential unity will remain a certainty.

___________

*Originally published in The A.A. Grapevine. 



There are many more to read, enjoy and share.

http://www.aadallas.org/non_cms/shop/pamppics/pamppic.php

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ANONYYMITY...
http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-47_understandinganonymity.pdf

“Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.”

What is the purpose of anonymity in Alcoholics Anonymous?

Why is it often referred to as the greatest single protection the Fellowship has to assure its continued existence and growth?
If we look at the history of A.A., from its beginning in 1935 until now, it is clear that anonymity serves two different yet equally vital functions:

Recovered or, Recovering?

Recovered or, Recovering?

By:

Cliff  B.  (214-350-1190

e-mail: CBBB164@aol.com  

All too frequently, a rather senseless argument is heard within our Fellowship as to whether a person is a recovered or a recovering alcoholic.  Ironically, that argument is usually initiated by a person who is neither.

If you will look carefully at the “Dust Jacket” of our Basic Textbook “Alcoholics Anonymous” you will notice in the lower right-hand corner the following words, “This is the Third Edition of The Big Book, the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous”.  If your copy of the Big Book lacks a “Dust Jacket”, turn to page xi, 2nd paragraph and read, “Because this book has become the basic text for our Society,.....”  So, if it is “The Basic Text” for the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, the answer to the recovered/recovering question must lie between pages xi and 164.

First of all, let’s go to page xiii and read how Bill W. introduced the book “Alcoholics Anonymous” to the world.  He wrote:

“We of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.  To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book.”

Hmmm, recovered alcoholics authored the Basic Text for the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.

What do they mean by recovered?  Well, Dr. Silkworth said he believed that we had an allergy of the body that produced a craving once we took the first few drinks, the result of which is that we always drink more than we wanted to, passing through the well known stages of a spree emerging remorseful with a firm resolution to never drink again. (AA, pg xxvii).  There is no known solution for that problem.  We are not cured of alcoholism.  (AA, pg 85)  So that problem is solved only by entire abstinence.  (AA, pg xxviii).   If we don’t drink, we can’t get drunk.  What an insultingly simple truth.

So what’s the problem?  “Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body.”  (AA, pg 23) And the  problem is:

“The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink.  Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent.  We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago.  We are without defense against the first drink.”  (AA, pg 24)

How does that problem of the mind manifest itself in the chronic alcoholic?

“The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker.”  (AA, pg 30)

 “He had much knowledge about himself as an alcoholic.  Yet all reasons for not drinking were easily pushed aside in favor of the foolish idea that he could take whiskey if only he mixed it with milk!”.  (AA, pg 37)

“Whatever the precise definition of the word may be, we call this plain insanity.”  (AA, pg 37)

How should “insanity” be defined for our situation?

Insanity - State of being insane; unsoundness of mind or without recognition of one’s illness - (Webster)

We cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false - (Dr. Silkworth, AA, pg xxvi)

The real problem of the chronic alcoholic, then is the insane thinking when it comes to alcohol, i.e. cold sober, and having lost many things and created numerous problems because of our drinking, we go into a liquor store and buy a bottle of the stuff that has robbed us of everything decent in life and start drinking again because we love the sense of ease and comfort that comes at once by taking a few drinks.  But then the craving for the next drink kicks in and every drink convinces us that we need another drink.  Then the spree.  Then the guilt and remorse.  Then the pledge, the vow, the promise, etc.  Then restless, irritable and discontented.  Then the drink.  Then the drunk.  Then the spree.  Then the humiliation.  Then the pledge, the vow, the promise.  Then restless, irritable and discontented.  Then the drink.  Then the drunk.  Then the spree.......  It is all repeated over and over and over.

The insanity of our disease if the source of the unmanageability of our lives.  If we could manage that decision, pledge, vow, promise, etc. to never drink again, we would not need the Power of the Program of A.A.  There may be other areas of our lives with lacking degrees of unmanageability but the killer is that relating to our inability to stay stopped.  Drinking is not the problem.  Alcoholics have no problem drinking.  Stopping is not the problem.  Alcoholics have a variety of ways to stop drinking.  Staying stopped is the problem.  If we had the will power to stop starting, we would have no problem with alcohol.   Lack of will power, that was our dilemma.  We must find a Higher Power!!!

Now we have identified the real problem of the hopeless alcoholic.

“However intelligent we may have been in other respects, where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.  Strong language--but isn’t it true?” (AA, pg 38)

We are real fruit cakes because we lack the power to manage a decision to not take the first drink.  We must therefore find a Higher Power if our power is insufficient to act sanely where alcohol is concerned.

So, if we carefully follow the clear-cut directions (AA, pg 29) up to and including pages 84 & 85, we will receive one of the many promises of our Program (The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous), “For by this time sanity will have returned.” (AA, pg 84)  Now, we have recovered.  Read the Tenth Step promises from the bottom of page 84 to the bottom of page 85.  If that leaves any doubt in your mind, carefully read pages xiii (2X), xv, xvii, xxiii, 17, 20, 29, 91, 97, 113, 132 & 133.   You will find recovered on each page.   

It seems to me that the most powerful statement of those referred to is this one on page 132. “We have recovered and have been given the Power to help others.”  What a miraculous deal!!!   Don’t miss it!!!!

We have clearly identified who the recovered alcoholics is.  What about the recovering alcoholic?  The recovering alcoholic is one who is somewhere between Steps Three and Eleven.  They are in the process of coming to believe but have yet to have a spiritual awakening/experience.  Bill W. was a recovering alcoholic for 2 - 3 days in Townes Hospital.  Most of the alcoholics who participated in the writing of the Big Book took the Steps during the first 7 - 10 days after their last drink.  Many had recovered before they ever attended a meeting.

If a person coming to Alcoholics Anonymous for help because they have been unable to find a way to stop starting to drink and are not taking or have not taken the Steps, they are neither recovering nor are they recovered.  They have a case of untreated alcoholism and if they have developed an alcoholic mind, they will drink again.  They are the ones who choose to declare that there is no such thing as a recovered alcoholic.  How would they know?

No where in Alcoholics Anonymous literature does it suggest that if an alcoholic goes to enough meetings, they will recover.  No, the recovered  alcoholics who authored our Basic Text Book said they recovered as the result of taking the Steps, not going to meetings.

We paid a hell of a price to get here.  Let’s pay the price to stay here by having a spiritual awakening as the result of taking the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

By:

Cliff B. 214-350-1190

e-mail: CBBB164@aol.com

The "spiritual malady" as manifested by my EGO is real.

The Missing Piece: The Spiritual Malady

By: Mike L. "Carry THIS Message" Group, West Orange, NJ

From "The Doctor's Opinion" to the end of "More About Alcoholism" the Big Book discusses the first part of Step 1, which states, "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol"

We've discussed, studied, and internalized material from the "Doctor's Opinion" to page 23 to see how we're powerless over alcohol bodily. We've used pages 23 - 43 to help us experience how we've been powerless mentally. Now I'd like to talk about a part of our "disease" which is seldom discussed in meetings nowadays: the "spiritual malady."

We often hear people say something like, "I have a three-fold disease: body, mind, and spirit."

When you ask them to describe what they mean by that statement, they seem to have a firm grasp on the fact that we alcoholics suffer from "an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind" -- that once I put any alcohol in my system whatsoever it sets off a craving for more alcohol. And when I'm stone cold sober, at my very best, the thought will occur to me to take a drink -- or sometimes I think very little about it or not at all, and I come to out of a blackout after having experienced what page 42 refers to as a "strange mental blank spot." And of course this vicious cycle of my mind continuously taking me back to a drink and my body dooming me to not drink like "normal" people puts me in a senseless series of sprees and it makes it virtually impossible to stop.

It is agreed that the "mental obsession" is the part of our "disease" which leads to the first drink; and it's the first drink that triggers the "phenomenon of craving." But, what about the part of my "disease" that triggers the mental obsession in the first place? Why is it that people who have remained abstinent from drinking in Alcoholics Anonymous for 1 year... 2 years... 5 years... 10 years... and in some cases even 20 years or more, go back to drinking?

We know the physical craving does not cause these people to drink because it's been medically proven that after a few days of not drinking the alcohol is processed out of the body. And, if you've been in the AA Fellowship for a while, for most people, the mental obsession dissipates. So why is it that after a long period of sobriety many people in our fellowship return to drinking -- EVEN WHEN THEY DON'T WANT TO? What is the third fold of our illness that triggers the mental obsession -- WHEN NOT DRINKING -- HAVING BEEN SEPARATED FROM ALCOHOL FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME?

Through closely examining our Big Book, along with much experience and practice with our Twelve Steps, as well as vigorous work with other alcoholics, the "missing piece" of Step 1 appears to be what is referred to on page 64 as the "spiritual malady."

Now, let me attempt to discuss the second half of Step 1:

" -- that our lives had become unmanageable."

For a long time I thought my life was unmanageable because of all the crazy insane things I did while drinking -- like the car accidents, hurting people when I didn't mean to, failed relationships, loss of jobs, family dysfunction, jails, asylums, etc. Finally, someone explained to me that those things are not the insanity that the Big Book talks about; nor are those things why the alcoholic's life becomes unmanageable.

Of course those things can be classified as "unmanageability" -- but they are external unmanageability. The unmanageability that the 1st Step is pointing to is the INWARD unmanageability of our lives -- the restlessness, irritability, and discontentment that most alcoholics have even BEFORE they ever picked up their first drink. 

There are many names for this "inward unmanageability". 
Some refer to it as "untreated alcoholism." 
Others use the term "bedevilments", which comes from page 52 of the Big Book (which I'll be discussing in a moment). Page 64 simply refers to this "inward unmanageability" as "the spiritual malady."

Our book promises us that "When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically." The mental and physical factors of alcoholism are put into remission AFTER the "spiritual malady" is overcome -- which means I'm still in danger of drinking until I have a spiritual awakening -- whether I think so or not.

Two key points I'd like to focus on from this point forward:

1. What really is this "spiritual malady" and how, if left untreated, can it drive an alcoholic back to drinking?

1. What is the remedy for it? (By the way, our Big Book answers both of those questions in masterly detail in Chapters 4 - 11.) What is this "spiritual malady" we alcoholics suffer from and how can "untreated alcoholism" cause an alcoholic to return to drinking -- EVEN WHEN HE/SHE DOESN'T WANT TO?

Imagine three layers.

- The first layer is our bodily reaction to alcohol when we ingest it -- the physical craving.

- Under that is the second layer: the insanity of the mind just before the first drink -- the mental obsession.

- Under that is the third layer: the inward condition that triggers the second layer, which in turn triggers the first -- the "spiritual malady." 

Symptoms of this "third layer" as described in the Big Book include:

1. being restless, irritable, and discontented (page xxvi),
2. having trouble with personal relationships,
3. not being able to control our emotional natures,
4. being a prey to (or suffering from) misery and depression,
5. not being able to make a living (or a happy and successful life),
6. having feelings of uselessness,
7. being full of fear,
8. unhappiness,
9. inability to be of real help to other people (page 52),
10. being like "the actor who wants to run the whole show" (pages 60-61),
11. being "driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity" (page 62),
12. self-will run riot (page 62),
13. leading a double life (page 73),
14. living like a tornado running through the lives of others (page 82), and
15. exhibiting selfish and inconsiderate habits.

These name just a few of the symptoms of the "spiritual malady" that's described throughout our text. But still in all, these are just symptoms of the "spiritual malady."

What is it really? What is the driving force of the symptoms described above?

On page 62 the text explains that "Selfishness-self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles." This "SELFISHNESS-self-centeredness" (or the "ego", as some people refer to it) drives us to respond to life situations with the above "symptoms" as well as disorders and addictions other than alcoholism.

If this selfishness-self-centeredness continues to manifest in an alcoholic's life -- EVEN IN SOMEONE WHO IS NOT DRINKING AND CONTINUES TO ATTEND MEETINGS -- and the ego is not smashed and re-smashed by continuous application of all twelve steps, the sober (or "just not drinking") alcoholic is sure to drink again eventually... or even worse, continue to live miserably being "undrunk" (better known as a "dry drunk"). This is why we see people with 10 years in AA wind up in mental institutions -- AND THEY HAVEN'T HAD A DROP TO DRINK!

You see, if I continue to act out with selfish -- self-centered - ego-driven behaviors I will continue to experience the symptoms of the "spiritual malady." If I continue to experience this inward unmanageability, eventually my mind will seek out the "sense of ease and comfort" it thinks it can receive from taking a drink. 
Or, my ego can deceive me into thinking I'm doing perfectly fine. (i.e.: Fred's story in Chapter 3... Fred drank when there wasn't "a cloud on the horizon".)

Typically, we'll tell ourselves and others, "Well, at least I'm not drinking." All of a sudden, I can experience a "strange mental blank-spot" 

-- otherwise known as a "sober blackout" -- 

and before it even hits me I'm pounding on the bar asking myself "How'd this happened?"

So, ask yourself if you're suffering from the "spiritual malady" -- particularly if you haven't had a drink for a while. What condition is your "inner life" in, currently? Are you experiencing any of the symptoms listed previously?

• Has it been a while since you've taken another alcoholic through the Steps?
• Has it been a while since you have gone through the steps?
• Have you ever taken all of AA's Twelve Steps?
• Have you done more than one 4th Step inventory?
• Have you completed all your 9th Step amends wherever possible?
• Is there something wrong in your life that you will not face and make right?
• Is there a habit or indulgence you will not give up?
• Is there a person you will not forgive?
• Is there a wrong relationship in your life you will not give up?
• Is there a restitution you will not make?
• Is there something God has already told you to do that you will not obey?
• Are you working with the disciplines and practices of steps Ten and Eleven (self-examination, meditation and prayer)... consistently... EVERY DAY?

Page 62 says, "Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness ("the ego"). We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self (ego) without [God's] aid."

Page 25 tells us, "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 us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at out 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."

This "fourth dimension", which we find out in the 10th Step is the "world of the Spirit", takes us beyond the physical, mental, and emotional dimensions of life -- and eliminates the selfishness (ego) of the "spiritual malady." The term "spiritual malady" does not mean that our "spirit" is sick. It simply means we are spiritually blocked off from the Power of God, which enables us to remain sober, happy, joyous, and free.

To conclude, it's not my body -- my allergic reaction to alcohol -- that's going to take me back to drinking. 

It's really not my mind -- the mental obsession -- that is the underlying root of what will take me back to drinking. 

It's the "spiritual malady", as manifested by my EGO (selfishness-self-centeredness), that can eventually lead me back to drinking or sometimes even suicide.

On pages 14 and 15 Bill W. writes, "For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that."

Thankfully, the "spiritual malady" is no longer a "missing piece" of Step One for me. It is a reality of my powerlessness and unmanageability and enables me to see why I so desperately need to seek a Power Greater than myself. And unless this malady is recognized, and a course of action (the Twelve Steps) is taken to enable God to remove it, the root of our alcoholic illness can lie dormant and burn us when we least expect it.

The Missing Piece: The Spiritual Malady
By: Mike L. "Carry THIS Message" Group, West Orange, NJ

This is from an online web page

http://bigbooksponsorship.org/articles-alcoholism-addiction-12-step-program-recovery/big-book-sponsorship/missing-piece-spiritual-malady/

... on this august occasion. It's about time... This gowned gaggle behind me is your faculty.

Barefoot's home Page
http://www.barefootsworld.net/commencement.html

Commencement Address (Texas A&M)

This is long but well worth reading

This Texas lawyer, himself recipient of an Honorary Degree, is obviously opinionated, but to say what he does, in a commencement address a couple of weeks ago (January, 2008), in front of a class of Texas A & M graduates, and especially the faculty, is amazing. I would have loved to have been there just to see the faculty reaction.

This should be considered must-reading for every adult in North America . It is extremely rare that anyone speaks the truth like this at any College or High School Commencement Address.

Neal Boortz is a Texan, a lawyer, a Texas AGGIE (Texas A&M), and now a nationally syndicated talk show host from Atlanta . His commencement address to the graduates of this year's A&M class is far different from what either the students or the faculty expected. His views are thought provoking.

"I am honored by the invitation to address you on this august occasion. It's about time. Be warned, however, that I am not here to impress you; you'll have enough smoke blown up your bloomers today. And you can bet your tassels I'm not here to impress the faculty and administration. You may not like much of what I have to say, and that's fine. You will remember it though. Especially after about 10 years out there in the real world. This, it goes without saying, does not apply to those of you who will seek your careers and your fortunes as government employees.

This gowned gaggle behind me is your faculty. You've heard the old saying that those who can - do. Those who can't - teach. That sounds deliciously insensitive. But there is often raw truth in insensitivity, just as you often find feel-good falsehoods and lies in compassion. Say good-bye to your faculty because now you are getting ready to go out there and do. These folks behind me are going to stay right here and teach.

By the way, just because you are leaving this place with a diploma doesn't mean the learning is over. When an FAA flight examiner handed me my private pilot's license many years ago, he said, 'Here, this is your ticket to learn.' The same can be said for your diploma. Believe me, the learning has just begun.

Now, I realize that most of you consider yourselves Liberals. In fact, you are probably very proud of your liberal views. You care so much. You feel so much. You want to help so much. After all you're a compassionate and caring person, aren't you now? Well, isn't that just so extraordinarily special. Now, at this age, is as good a time as any to be a liberal; as good a time as any to know absolutely everything. You have plenty of time, starting tomorrow, for the truth to set in.

Over the next few years, as you begin to feel the cold breath of reality down your neck, things are going to start changing pretty fast... including your own assessment of just how much you really know.

So here are the first assignments for your initial class in reality: Pay attention to the news, read newspapers, and listen to the words and phrases that proud Liberals use to promote their causes. Then, compare the words of the left to the words and phrases you hear from those evil, heartless, greedy conservatives. From the Left you will hear "I feel." From the Right you will hear "I think." From the Liberals you will hear references to groups -- The Blacks, the Poor, The Rich, The Disadvantaged, The Less Fortunate. From the Right you will hear references to individuals. On the Left you hear talk of group rights; on the Right, individual rights.

That about sums it up, really: Liberals feel. Liberals care. They are pack animals whose identity is tied up in group dynamics. Conservatives and Libertarians think -- and, setting aside the theocracy crowd, their identity is centered on the individual.

Liberals feel that their favored groups have enforceable rights to the property and services of productive individuals. Conservatives and Libertarians, I among them I might add, think that individuals have the right to protect their lives and their property from the plunder of the masses.

In college you developed a group mentality, but if you look closely at your diplomas you will see that they have your individual names on them. Not the name of your school mascot, or of your fraternity or sorority, but your name. Your group identity is going away. Your recognition and appreciation of your individual identity starts now.

If, by the time you reach the age of 30, you do not consider yourself to be a libertarian or a conservative, rush right back here as quickly as you can and apply for a faculty position. These people will welcome you with open arms. They will welcome you, that is, so long as you haven't developed an individual identity. Once again you will have to be willing to sign on to the group mentality you embraced during the past four years.

Something is going to happen soon that is going to really open your eyes. You're going to actually get a full time job!

You're also going to get a lifelong work partner. This partner isn't going to help you do your job. This partner is just going to sit back and wait for payday. This partner doesn't want to share in your effort, but in your earnings.

Your new lifelong partner is actually an agent; an agent representing a strange and diverse group of people; an agent for every teenager with an illegitimate child; an agent for a research scientist who wanted to make some cash answering the age-old question of why monkeys grind their teeth. An agent for some poor demented hippie who considers herself to be a meaningful and talented artist, but who just can't manage to sell any of her artwork on the open market.

Your new partner is an agent for every person with limited, if any, job skills, but who wanted a job at City Hall. An agent for tin-horn dictators in fancy military uniforms grasping for American foreign aid. An agent for multi-million-dollar companies who want someone else to pay for their overseas advertising. An agent for everybody who wants to use the unimaginable power of this agent's for their personal enrichment and benefit.

That agent is our wonderful, caring, compassionate, oppressive government. Believe me, you will be awed by the unimaginable power this agent has. Power that you do not have. A power that no individual has, or will have. This agent has the legal power to use force, deadly force to accomplish its goals.

You have no choice here. Your new friend is just going to walk up to you, introduce itself rather gruffly, hand you a few forms to fill out, and move right on in. Say hello to your own personal one ton gorilla. It will sleep anywhere it wants to.

Now, let me tell you, this agent is not cheap. As you become successful it will seize about 40% of everything you earn. And no, I'm sorry, there just isn't any way you can fire this agent of plunder, and you can't decrease its share of your income. That power rests with him, not you.

So, here I am saying negative things to you about government. Well, be clear on this: It is not wrong to distrust government. It is not wrong to fear government. In certain cases it is not even wrong to despise government for government is inherently evil. Yes ... a necessary evil, but dangerous nonetheless ... somewhat like a drug. Just as a drug that in the proper dosage can save your life, an overdose of government can be fatal.

Now let's address a few things that have been crammed into your minds at this university. There are some ideas you need to expunge as soon as possible. These ideas may work well in academic environment, but they fail miserably out there in the real world.

First is that favorite buzz word of the media, government and academia: Diversity! You have been taught that the real value of any group of people - be it a social group, an employee group, a management group, whatever - is based on diversity. This is a favored liberal ideal because diversity is based not on an individual's abilities or character, but on a person's identity and status as a member of a group. Yes, it's that liberal group identity thing again.

Within the great diversity movement group identification - be it racial, gender based, or some other minority status - means more than the individual's integrity, character or other qualifications.

Brace yourself. You are about to move from this academic atmosphere where diversity rules, to a workplace and a culture where individual achievement and excellence actually count. No matter what your professors have taught you over the last four years, you are about to learn that diversity is absolutely no replacement for excellence, ability, and individual hard work. From this day on every single time you hear the word "diversity" you can rest assured that there is someone close by who is determined to rob you of every vestige of individuality you possess.

We also need to address this thing you seem to have about "rights." We have witnessed an obscene explosion of so-called "rights" in the last few decades, usually emanating from college campuses.

You know the mantra: You have the right to a job. The right to a place to live. The right to a living wage. The right to health care. The right to an education. You probably even have your own pet right - the right to a Beemer for instance, or the right to have someone else provide for that child you plan on downloading in a year or so.

Forget it. Forget those rights! I'll tell you what your rights are! You have a right to live free, and to the results of 60% -75% of your labor. I'll also tell you have no right to any portion of the life or labor of another.

You may, for instance, think that you have a right to health care. After all, Hillary said so, didn't she? But you cannot receive healthcare unless some doctor or health practitioner surrenders some of his time - his life - to you. He may be willing to do this for compensation, but that's his choice. You have no "right" to his time or property. You have no right to his or any other person's life or to any portion thereof.

You may also think you have some "right" to a job; a job with a living wage, whatever that is. Do you mean to tell me that you have a right to force your services on another person, and then the right to demand that this person compensate you with their money? Sorry, forget it. I am sure you would scream if some urban outdoorsmen (that would be "homeless person" for those of you who don't want to give these less fortunate people a romantic and adventurous title) came to you and demanded his job and your money.

The people who have been telling you about all the rights you have are simply exercising one of theirs - the right to be imbeciles. Their being imbeciles didn't cost anyone else either property or time. It's their right, and they exercise it brilliantly.

By the way, did you catch my use of the phrase "less fortunate" a bit ago when I was talking about the urban outdoorsmen? That phrase is a favorite of the Left. Think about it, and you'll understand why.

To imply that one person is homeless, destitute, dirty, drunk, spaced out on drugs, unemployable, and generally miserable because he is "less fortunate" is to imply that a successful person - one with a job, a home and a future - is in that position because he or she was "fortunate." The dictionary says that fortunate means "having derived good from an unexpected place." There is nothing unexpected about deriving good from hard work. There is also nothing unexpected about deriving misery from choosing drugs, alcohol, and the street.

If the Liberal Left can create the common perception that success and failure are simple matters of "fortune" or "luck," then it is easy to promote and justify their various income redistribution schemes. After all, we are just evening out the odds a little bit. This "success equals luck" idea the liberals like to push is seen everywhere. Former Democratic presidential candidate Richard Gephardt refers to high-achievers as "people who have won life's lottery." He wants you to believe they are making the big bucks because they are lucky. It's not luck, my friends. It's choice. One of the greatest lessons I ever learned was in a book by Og Mandino, entitled "The Greatest Secret in the World." The lesson? Very simple: "Use wisely your power of choice."

That bum sitting on a heating grate, smelling like a wharf rat? He's there by choice. He is there because of the sum total of the choices he has made in his life. This truism is absolutely the hardest thing for some people to accept, especially those who consider themselves to be victims of something or other - victims of discrimination, bad luck, the system, capitalism, whatever. After all, nobody really wants to accept the blame for his or her position in life. Not when it is so much easier to point and say, "Look! He did this to me!" than it is to look into a mirror and say, "You S. O. B.! You did this to me!"

The key to accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact that your choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to either success or failure, however you define those terms.

Some of the choices are obvious: Whether or not to stay in school Whether or not to get pregnant. Whether or not to hit the bottle. Whether or not to keep this job you hate until you get another better-paying job. Whether or not to save some of your money, or saddle yourself with huge payments for that new car.

Some of the choices are seemingly insignificant: Whom to go to the movies with. Whose car to ride home in. Whether to watch the tube tonight, or read a book on investing. But, and you can be sure of this, each choice counts. Each choice is a building block - some large, some small. But each one is a part of the structure of your life. If you make the right choices, or if you make more right choices than wrong ones, something absolutely terrible may happen to you. Something unthinkable. You, my friend, could become one of the hated, the evil, the ugly, the feared, the filthy, the successful, the rich.

The rich basically serve two purposes in this country. First, they provide the investments, the investment capital, and the brains for the formation of new businesses. Businesses that hire people. Businesses that send millions of paychecks home each week to the un-rich.

Second, the rich are a wonderful object of ridicule, distrust, and hatred. Few things are more valuable to a politician than the envy most Americans feel for the evil rich.

Envy is a powerful emotion. Even more powerful than the emotional minefield that surrounded Bill Clinton when he reviewed his last batch of White House interns. Politicians use envy to get votes and power. And they keep that power by promising the envious that the envied will be punished: "The rich will pay their fair share of taxes if I have anything to do with it. The truth is that the top 10% of income earners in this country pays almost 50% of all income taxes collected. I shudder to think what these job producers would be paying if our tax system were any more "fair."

You have heard, no doubt, that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Interestingly enough, our government's own numbers show that many of the poor actually get richer, and that quite a few of the rich actually get poorer. But for the rich who do actually get richer, and the poor who remain poor ... there's an explanation -- a reason. The rich, you see, keep doing the things that make them rich; while the poor keep doing the things that make them poor.

Speaking of the poor, during your adult life you are going to hear an endless string of politicians bemoaning the plight of the poor So, you need to know that under our government's definition of "poor" you can have a $5 million net worth, a $300,000 home and a new $90,000 Mercedes, all completely paid for. You can also have a maid, cook, and valet, and $ million in your checking account, and you can still be officially defined by our government as "living in poverty." Now there's something you haven't seen on the evening news.

How does the government pull this one off? Very simple, really. To determine whether or not some poor soul is "living in poverty," the government measures one thing -- just one thing. Income. It doesn't matter one bit how much you have, how much you own, how many cars you drive or how big they are, whether or not your pool is heated, whether you winter in Aspen and spend the summers in the Bahamas , or how much is in your savings account. It only matters how much income you claim in that particular year. This means that if you take a one-year leave of absence from your high-paying job and decide to live off the money in your savings and checking accounts while you write the next great American novel, the government says you are 'living in poverty."

This isn't exactly what you had in mind when you heard these gloomy statistics, is it? Do you need more convincing? Try this. The government's own statistics show that people who are said to be "living in poverty" spend more than $1.50 for each dollar of income they claim. Something is a bit fishy here. Just remember all this the next time Charles Gibson tells you about some hideous new poverty statistics.

Why has the government concocted this phony poverty scam? Because the government needs an excuse to grow and to expand its social welfare programs, which translates into an expansion of its power. If the government can convince you, in all your compassion, that the number of "poor" is increasing, it will have all the excuse it needs to sway an electorate suffering from the advanced stages of Obsessive-Compulsive Compassion Disorder.

I'm about to be stoned by the faculty here. They've already changed their minds about that honorary degree I was going to get. That's OK, though. I still have my PhD. in Insensitivity from the Neal Boortz Institute for Insensitivity Training. I learned that, in short, sensitivity sucks. It's a trap. Think about it - the truth knows no sensitivity. Life can be insensitive. Wallow too much in sensitivity and you'll be unable to deal with life, or the truth So, get over it.

Now, before the dean has me shackled and hauled off, I have a few random thoughts.

• You need to register to vote, unless you are on welfare. If you are living off the efforts of others, please do us the favor of sitting down and shutting up until you are on your own again.


• When you do vote, your votes for the House and the Senate are more important than your vote for president. The House controls the purse strings, so concentrate your awareness there.


• Liars cannot be trusted, even when the liar is the president of the country. If someone can't deal honestly with you, send them packing.


• Don't bow to the temptation to use the government as an instrument of plunder. If it is wrong for you to take money from someone else who earned it -- to take their money by force for your own needs -- then it is certainly just as wrong for you to demand that the government step forward and do this dirty work for you.


• Don't look in other people's pockets. You have no business there. What they earn is theirs. What you earn is yours. Keep it that way. Nobody owes you anything, except to respect your privacy and your rights, and leave you the hell alone.


• Speaking of earning, the revered 40-hour workweek is for losers Forty hours should be considered the minimum, not the maximum. You don't see highly successful people clocking out of the office every afternoon at five. The losers are the ones caught up in that afternoon rush hour. The winners drive home in the dark.


• Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by definition, needs no protection.


• Finally (and aren't you glad to hear that word), as Og Mandino wrote,


1. Proclaim your rarity. Each of you is a rare and unique human being.


2. Use wisely your power of choice.


3. Go the extra mile .. drive home in the dark.
Oh, and put off buying a television set as long as you can.

Now, if you have any idea at all what's good for you, you will get the hell out of here and never come back.

Class dismissed.

Reproduction of all or any parts of the above text may be used for general information.
This HTML presentation is copyright by Barefoot, August 2008

Mirroring is not Netiquette without the Express Permission of Barefoot

The Term “God of Our Understanding,” Occurrences of the Word “God” and Related Words in the Big Book, and a Big Myth By Ken B.

The Term “God of Our Understanding,”
Occurrences of the Word “God” and Related Words in the Big Book, and a Big Myth
By Ken B.

© 2012, 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved
This article will address three topics: (1) the use of the phrase “God of our understanding” in Alcoholics Anonymous and some historical background relating to it; (2) the number of occurrences of the word “God,” capitalized pronouns referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and biblical and non-biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (2001)--often called “the Big Book;” and (3) a harmful myth that has been floating around A.A. about the definition of the term “basic text” as it relates to the Big Book.



1. The term "God of our understanding" does not occur on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (2001).1


A.A. cofounder Bill W. decided to write what he described as “the new version of the program, now the ‘Twelve Steps.’”2 A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob's sponsee Clarence S. founded the third A.A. group in the world in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 11, 1939. Clarence's biographer, Mitchell K., states:
Two years after the publication of the [Big] book [in April 1939], Clarence made a survey of all of the members in Cleveland. He concluded that, by keeping most of the ‘old program,’ including the Four Absolutes and the Bible, ninety-three percent of those surveyed had maintained uninterrupted sobriety.3 [bolding added].

Frank Amos's summary of the seven-point “old program”--which he prepared for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in February 1938 (the month and year in which Clarence S. got sober in Akron under Dr. Bob)--is quoted on page 131 of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers.4 Interestingly, there is no mention in those seven points of “God as we understood Him,” “a Higher Power,” or “a Power greater than ourselves.” Rather, item #2 states:
He must surrender himself absolutely to God, realizing that in himself there is no hope.
Dr. Bob--whom A.A. cofounder Bill W. called “the prince of all twelfth-steppers” because he, accompanied by Sister Ignacia, helped 5,000 alcoholics recover between 1940 and 1950--stated:
I didn't write the Twelve Steps. I had nothing to do with the writing of them.5
“The Term ‘God of Our Understanding,’ [rev 11/6/13] In speaking of a very significant “battle over the book,” Bill W. stated in the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age:

All this time I had refused to budge on these steps. I would not change a word of the original draft, in which, you will remember, I had consistently used the word “God,”
. . . We [i.e., Bill W., Hank P., John Henry Fitzhugh M. (“Fitz”), and Ruth Hock] finally began to talk about the possibility of compromise. Who first suggested the actual compromise words I do not know, . . . In Step Two we decided to describe God as a “Power greater than ourselves.” In Steps Three and Eleven we inserted the words “God as we understood Him.” . . . Such were the final concessions to those of little or no faith; this was the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics. . . . God was still there in our Steps, but He was now expressed in terms that anybody--anybody at all-- could accept and try.6 [italics in original, bolding added]
Bill W. states in the Big Book:
My friend [i.e., Ebby T.] suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, “Why don't
you choose your own conception of God?”7
The paragraph in which the suggestion above occurs was part of a four-paragraph, handwritten section of text that was inserted in the “printer's manuscript” of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous at the last minute as the Big Book was going to print. The four handwritten paragraphs were not present in the so-called “Multilith Edition” or “Original Manuscript” of which Bill W. states “four hundred mimeograph copies . . . were made and sent to everyone we could think of . . .”8,9 As can be seen in the printer’s manuscript of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, the four handwritten paragraphs containing that well-known question attributed to Bill W.’s “spiritual sponsor,” Ebby, were added at the last possible moment to an otherwise-typed document.10,11


The 29 personal testimonies of early A.A. pioneers contained in the "Personal Stories" section of the 1939 edition of Alcoholics Anonymous spoke about the “old,” highly-successful(!) Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program which A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob began developing together over the summer of 1935. Bill W.'s “new version of the program” did not exist! 22 of those personal testimonies in the first edition were not included in the second edition published in 1955. And another four of the personal stories in the first edition were not included in the fourth edition published in 2001. Thus readers of today's Big Book only have access to three of the original 29 personal testimonies found in the “Personal Stories” section of the first edition. As a result, they are receiving very little information about the highly-successful, “old program.” To see the many personal testimonies in the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous to the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A.'s astonishing successes among "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable" alcoholics, check out: Alcoholics Anonymous: The Original 1939 Edition.12

2. Here are some facts about the number of times the word “God,” capitalized pronouns referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, occur on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of the Big Book:
•
•
•
So there are 232 occurrences of the word "God" and related words on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (or 230, see above). I have attached three documents providing all of the actual occurrences of the words and phrases just discussed. In addition, I have also attached a document containing the 41 occurrences of non-biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., "God") on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous for your review.


3. There is a myth that has been floating around A.A. for a long time that needs to be put to rest. The myth relates to the common/standard/approved answer to the following question:
What is the “basic text” for Alcoholics Anonymous?
I recently asked a medical doctor that question. He was here in Maui spending time with my dad (pen name “Dick B.”—www.DickB.com) and me in order to learn more about A.A. and its history. If I heard my dad correctly, he said that this doctor had three years of sobriety but had been around “the rooms” of A.A. for more than 20 years. His answer to my question was:
The first 164 pages of the Big Book.

“The Term ‘God of Our Understanding,’ [rev 11/6/13] 

The word "God" occurs 135 times on pages 1-164. [This figure includes related word- forms, including "God-consciousness" (p. 13), "God's" (pp. 24, 25, etc.), "God- sufficiency" (p. 52), "God-given" (p. 69), and "God-conscious" (p. 85).] If one chooses to omit/disqualify "for God's sake" (p. 24) and "the God of reason" (p. 54), that would leave 133 occurrences of the word “God” which fairly clearly refer to the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

Capitalized pronouns referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., God) occur 81 times on pages 1-164; i.e., "He," "His," "Him," "Thou," "Thy," and "Thee."

Biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., God)—other than the word "God"—occur 16 times; i.e., "Creator," "Maker," "the Father," and "the Father of Light."

[Some people might also include the Preface in the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (“the Big Book”), the four Forewords, the chapter titled “The Doctor's Opinion,” and/or “Appendix II: Spiritual Experience” in their answer.]
The problem with the claim that “the first 164 pages of the Big Book is ‘the basic text’ of Alcoholics Anonymous” is that it is NOT true. It is a myth!
If one looks up the meanings of the word "text" in a standard, college-level dictionary, most of the questions would be answered. For example, here are a couple of the definitions of the word “text” given in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
1 a (1) : the original words and form of a written or printed work
7 : TEXTBOOK13
But for the purpose of exploding this myth, one may look at the front cover of the dust jacket of
the hardback fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. The front cover states:
Alcoholics Anonymous: This is the Fourth Edition of the Big Book, the Basic Text for
Alcoholics Anonymous
In other words, according to the front cover of the Big Book’s own dust jacket, it is the whole book—from cover to cover—that is “the basic text” for Alcoholics Anonymous!
If that isn't clear enough, one may go to page xi of the Preface of the fourth edition of the Big Book for clarification:
. . . This book has become the basic text for our Society . . ."
So again, it is the whole book that is “the basic text” for the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The original “Big Book”--i.e., the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (which had a copyright date of April 10, 1939)--was 410 pages. It contained 10 pages of “front matter,” 396 pages of “main text,” and four pages of “back matter.” The chapter titled “The Doctor's Opinion” was included in the “main text,” and its pages were numbered 1-9. “Chapter One: Bill's Story” began on page 10. Chapter 11, “A Vision for You,” ended on page 179. The “Personal Stories” section, containing 29 personal testimonies from early A.A. pioneers for whom A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among those “who really tried” and “thoroughly followed our path,” began on unnumbered page 181 (with Dr. Bob's personal story beginning on page 183) and ended on page 396. (The “Personal Stories” section was 215 pages long.) At the end of the book, there was a single appendix about the Alcoholic Foundation, which began on unnumbered page 397 and ending on page 400.

In today's fourth edition (published in 2001), the “front matter” of the book is 32 pages long and includes “The Doctor's Opinion.” The “main text” of the book consists of eleven chapters (including “Chapter 1: “Bill's Story”--which now begins on page one), spread over 164 pages, and the “Personal Stories” section—which now begins on unnumbered page 165 and ends on page 559. The “back matter” of the book consists of seven Appendices (pages 561-73) and a final, unnumbered page titled “A.A. Literature.” It is the whole book—i.e., all of the “front matter,” all of the “main text,” and all of the “back matter” (taken together)—which makes up “the basic text” for the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous.



Why are these details important? First and foremost, because the whole book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is “the basic text” for the Alcoholics Anonymous Society; and the Big Book itself says so!

Second, because vitally-important personal testimonies illustrating the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A.'s astonishing successes are contained in the “Personal Stories” section of the Big Book--beginning after page 164 of the fourth edition. For example, have you seen the last line of Dr. Bob's personal testimony in the Big Book?
Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!14
Have you seen this statement by A.A. cofounder Bill W. in the Big Book?
. . . "Henrietta, the Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people."15
Have you seen this statement by A.A. Number 3, Bill D., in the Big Book?
Bill [W.] was very, very grateful that he had been released from this terrible thing, and he had given God the credit for having done it, and he's so grateful about it he wants to tell other people about it. That sentence, "The Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep telling people about it," has been a sort of a golden text for the A.A. program and for me.16
Enjoy!
 

In GOD's love,
 

Ken B.


PS: Please check out the International Christian Recovery Coalition. It is FREE to become a "Participant": www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com. And please check out the "Christian
“The Term ‘God of Our Understanding,’ [rev 11/6/13]

Occurrences of the Word “God”
& Related Words in the Big Book, and a Big Myth”
By Ken B.

Recovery Radio with Dick B." show, the "Russell S. Talks," and other Christian Recovery
resources, available at: www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com.

1 Please see the attached file "The Term 'God of Our Understanding' Is Not in the Big Book or the 12 and 12" for a detailed discussion.
2 Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957), 162; bolding added.
3 Mitchell K., How It Worked: The Story of Clarence H. Snyder and the Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio (Washingtonville, NY: A.A. Big Book Study Group, 1997), 108.
4 DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (New York, N.Y.: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), 131. 5 The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks (New York, NY:
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975), 14.
6 Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 166-67.
7 Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. (New York City: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001), 12. 8 Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 165.
9 See, for example: The Original Manuscript 1938: “The following text is an exact reproduction of Clarence Snyder’s (The Home Brewmeister) copy of the manuscript used to compile the Big Book” (Malo, WA: The Anonymous Press, n.d.); See also: The Original Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous: “This is a reproduction of the 1938 Original Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous. This was the version of The Big Book distributed to friends and colleagues of AA's founders before the First Edition was printed. The text of this document, "Original Manuscript," was left just as it originally appeared in 1938.” http://www.silkworth.net/originalmanuscript/ originalmanuscript.html; accessed 11/27/2013.
10 The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2010), 24-25, 38.
11 For a detailed discussion of the question “Why don't you choose your own conception of God?” see Appendix One: “‘Why Don’t You Choose Your Own Conception of God?’” in Dick B. and Ken B., Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: God’s Role in Recovery Confirmed! (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2012), 43-64. This book is available in 6" x 9" format from Amazon.com (http://mcaf.ee/c02zd), in Kindle eBook format from Amazon.com (http://mcaf.ee/3l0e7), and in other eBook formats.
12 (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2011) with a 23-page Introduction by Dick B.: http://mcaf.ee/pkj5l.
13 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/text; accessed 11/27/2013. The word “textbook” is defined in the same dictionary as: “a book used in the study of a subject”: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/textbook; accessed 11/27/2013.
14 Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 181. 15 Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 191. 16 Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 191.

“The Term ‘God of Our Understanding,’ Occurrences of the Word “God”
& Related Words in the Big Book, and a Big Myth” By Ken B.