Sunday 3/26/23 Big Book Comes Alive Step Study Workshop with Howard E. – Week 1 of the Fourth Zoom Cycle

(0:26 – 0:36)
Thank you. Hey, welcome back. My name is Howard Eber and I am still an alcoholic.
(0:37 – 2:34)
I apologize for that rough start. We’ll try and get back on track here the right way. We
will, for the first two weeks at least of our doing this, I’m going to suggest that you use
your fourth edition.
A lot of us have the study version, which I highly recommend because it has a blank
page every other page for note-taking, as you can see here. And one of the handouts in
the email I sent is how to obtain that. Very easy to do.
It’s through Amazon or any other number of places. Suggest you pick it up, but you won’t
need it for the first two weeks. We’ll be focusing on the fourth edition because it has the
material that’s not in the other book.
Just a couple of things. You know, if you went to a doctor and he diagnosed that you had
this big, caring malignant tumor on your brain stem, and his suggested method of
therapy was a cancer support group, vitamins, exercise, and dietary supplements. And I
think if you got that diagnosis with that kind of method for treatment, you would run as
fast as you can to another doctor to find out what to do to save your life.
And I think for the chronic addict alcoholic, the 12-step method is the only aggressive
treatment that offers us the best chance for eradicating the root cause of this behavior.
And I think in my experience, the majority of our meetings now are not about that
aggressive treatment. They’re about other things.
They tell you to go to 90 meetings in 90 days. They tell you to take responsibilities.
Basically, they’re hospice care, and that’s not a method of treatment.
(2:34 – 5:06)
That’s a way to keep somebody comfortable while they’re dying. So we are focused here
on the program in this book because this is our program, nowhere else. And I’m going to
read a couple of sections in the beginning here to kind of answer a few questions.
I think before we go on to actually study this book, there are a few questions that come
up, and I’m going to use some of Bill’s writings to answer some of the source material
with source material. And I’m going to put it up here if you’d like to follow it, if I can find
my share here. No, that’s not it.
All right. I’m not going to worry about it. Okay.
First, where am I? Can I find everybody? All right. I’m not pushing my luck anymore with
that. Let’s do this.
The questions that come up are the following, and I’m going to try and address them
with Bill’s writings. The first question is why? Why do we even bother to work the steps?
You go to meetings today. I started going to meetings in 1983, and nobody was talking
about steps.
People were talking about 90 meetings in 90 days and taking commitments. Well, let’s
just see what Bill would have had to say to the don’t drink and go to meetings crew. In
the 12 and 12 on page 39, he says sobriety brought about by the admission of
alcoholism, which is step one, and the attendance at a few meetings, step two, I guess,
is very good indeed, but it is bound to be a far cry from permanent sobriety and a
contented useful life.
That’s where the remaining steps of the AA program come in. Nothing short of
continuous action upon these steps as a way of life, as a way of life means it’s ongoing,
it’s constant, can bring about the much desired results. Further on in the 12 and 12, Bill
says, and unless each AA member follows to the best of his ability our 12 steps to
recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant.
(5:06 – 7:59)
Let me just read that again. That unless we follow our suggested 12 steps, we are
signing our own death warrant. And he goes on to say that his drunkenness and
desolation, which to me means relapse, results from his personal disobedience to
spiritual principles.
In other words, not working the steps because the spiritual principles, Bill says in the
beginning of on page 59 of the Big Book, the steps are the suggested program of
recovery. And back in the 12 and 12, he’s in the forward, he says that AA’s 12 steps are
a group of principles, spiritual in nature, which have practiced as a way of life, once
again, ongoing, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become
happily and usefully whole. So that’s what Bill says about why we work the steps.
Well, then what’s the point of meetings, right? If all we’re gonna do is work the steps,
why don’t we just sit down with this book, read it, and that’s what we’re supposed to do.
Well, in one of my least favorite of the IP’s problems other than alcohol, Bill says
sobriety, freedom from alcohol through the teaching and practice of the 12 steps is the
sole purpose of an AA group. Our chief responsibility, he says to the newcomer and as
Bob sees it, is an adequate presentation of the program.
So you got to ask yourself this last meeting I went to, did they adequately present the
program? Did I feel that they were teaching me how to practice these steps? Or were
they talking about the ongoing adventures of Aunt Fanny and Uncle Fudd? Or the next
door neighbor whose dog is always crapping on your lawn? Or the guy across the street
who keeps stealing your newspaper when it’s delivered every day? That’s what you find
in a lot of meetings today. Well, and for those of you incidentally who think, and I was
one of these who that AA meetings are just a dumping ground, just a place where like a
spiritual gas station, where we just pull in, fill up, get all pumped up and we feel great.
And then we run out of that energy and then come back and fill up on it the next day.
Well, that’s not where this is going to get you. It’s not going to help you recover. Bill is
telling us that the purpose of meetings, the prime object was to provide a time and place
where new people might bring their problems.
New people, not people who’ve been around a while. So if that’s the case, why don’t we
read this? Right? This little thin book. When I came in in 1983, I was in treatment and
they gave me a choice.
(8:00 – 9:43)
You could have this book for free or this book for free. Just out of curiosity, a show of
hands, who would have picked the thinner book? Because that was me. This thing looked
like a whole lot of work.
So I took this other little book. But why do we not work out of that book? Well, in the 12
and 12, Bill says, this book, the book Alcoholics Anonymous, our big book, became the
basic text of our fellowship and it still is. This present volume, the 12 and 12, proposes to
broaden and deepen our understanding of the 12 steps as first written in the earlier
book.
Broaden and deepen our understanding. So in order for me to have an experience, I
have to have some work done before I broaden and deepen that experience. And the
basic experience comes from here.
Broadening and deepening comes from this, comes from maybe the Hazleton Guide,
couple of hundred questions on each page, any number of other sources, the golden
books. There’s a lot of places to go to, to deepen and enrich your understanding. But
there is only one place to find the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
It is in the book, which incidentally, it was the program before, called the program,
before it became called a fellowship, adopted that name. The program was in the book
and the fellowship adopted that name. Why then this workshop? Why do we do this?
Why do we get together and read this book and dissect it the way that we do? Well, very
early on, there was a great book written that we now know as the Little Red Book.
(9:44 – 13:45)
It was, it was written by Edward Webster, who also wrote Schools and Bottles. Some of
you may be familiar with that. This is really the first kind of guidebook to an adjunct to
working the steps out of the big book, because when the book was originally published,
the big book, it was red.
This was the Big Red Book, and this was the Little Red Book. And in this book, there’s
some interesting comments about why we do what we do, and I want to read it to you. It
says, for those who qualify as real alcoholics and are willing to adopt the AA program as
a means of recovery, we recommend a close study of this book, Alcoholics Anonymous.
This book has all of our answers. And he goes on to say, worthwhile results have followed
the inauguration of weekly classes devoted to guidance of new members in their quest
for a better understanding of the 12 steps as a way of life for recovery from alcoholism.
These classes have created a solidarity of understanding within our fellowship, a better
adherence to the big book, better understanding and application of its philosophy, more
effective sponsorship, and a much higher ratio of sobriety among our members.
Good enough reason for me why we should be studying it out of this book this way in
these sit-down methods. So, having cleared the ground a bit of a lot of this stuff,
background material, I’m going to ask that you take out your book, the fourth edition,
and turn to the first page. Hopefully your first page looks like my first page.
Is that what your first page looks like? If you open the book before turning any other
pages, this is the first page. This is, in a sense, a graphic illustration of the set-aside
prayer that we read at the beginning of the meeting. This is the sum total of all of the
knowledge that I have when I start reading this book.
And I don’t care how many times I’ve read it. Every time I go through it, I have to start
with this blank sheet because I have to be able to learn. And if I have this filled in with all
kinds of information, I’m not going to learn a thing.
So, this is the way we start our journey. And if you turn to the next page, the so-called
title page, let me put that up on the screen. If I have better luck with this, I apologize.
I should have had this better organized. I do not. Where are the handouts? Here we go.
Title page. Okay. I don’t know if you can see that.
So, let me try and put it up again just to make sure you can see it. Okay. Your title page
should look something like this without the notes in it.
This is the title page. It tells us in the first statement, this is the story of how many
thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism. The story.
It’s a chain of events that we’re going to read about. We’re going to find out about how
thousands of men and women have recovered. Today, I would say there’s about 2.1
million people who have recovered.
(13:45 – 13:59)
And this book begins with a promise. And the way we work in these workshops is I
suggest we do highlighting in a certain manner. We highlight promises in pink, prayers
and promises in pink.
(13:59 – 17:16)
We highlight musts in green for people who say there are no musts. Well, we’ve counted
about 115 to date. And whenever we see a recovered reference, we highlight that in
orange.
So, on my copy of I have this whole sentence highlighted, but the word recovered is
underlined in orange because it’s one of the references to how many times Bill has used
the word. And now we see about 33 of them incidentally. On our list, we got about 33.
But what I want you to do is to write this diagram down underneath it. The circle with the
equilateral triangle in it. Some of you in Great Britain probably have this in your book
already.
We lost it here. We lost the use of that symbol in 1993. And AA decided not to get into a
long drawn out legal battle against the people who were using this symbol as well.
But for us, it will always remain. These are, I’m sorry, the legacies, the three legacies of
Alcoholics Anonymous. If you make this circle and put the triangle in it, on the bottom,
please write recovery.
And that’s accomplished through the steps which is written underneath that. And we find
that on page 59 and 60 specifically spelled out. But actually, the steps are laid out
through 164 pages.
But you’ll find the steps listed on 59 and 60. On the right side, as I look at it, is service.
And that’s accomplished through the concepts which you’ll find on page 574 to 575.
On the left side of that triangle, please write unity accomplished through the traditions.
And you’ll find that on page 563 and 566. These are the three legacies of AA.
And a legacy, if you look up in the dictionary, is defined as something that’s handed
down from one generation to another. So it’s our responsibility to keep these the way
they are and to hand them down to the people who come after us. Next page, the
copyright page, just has some basic information about the copyright.
It says the first edition, there were 16 printings of it from 1939 to 1955. If you care for
your specifics, there were 4,650 copies printed in the first edition, 4,650 of those. Most of
you are looking at a book that on the fourth line says fourth edition, new and revised,
2001.
Think about that. The book that we’re holding is 22 years, was written 22, was published
22 years ago. Does that make you feel old? It certainly does to me that this book has
been in publication for 22 years.
(17:16 – 18:34)
Let’s turn to the table of contents. And I’m going to put up that graphic because we need
that as well. Okay, can you see that? Someone? No, we can’t.
These technical problems are going to kill me today. How’s that? Yes, we can see it. You
can see it? Yeah.
Thank you. I don’t know why it’s like that, but be that as it may. And you can only see
part of it.
I don’t. Can you see it now, Bina? Yes, we can see the whole page. Yes, the vision for
you.
Yes. Thank you. Okay, the table of contents.
I’m going to ask that you draw a line under the forward to the fourth edition. And where
it says forward to the second edition, please write our history. We’re going to be
spending some time today and probably into next week on that section.
(18:35 – 18:49)
Then underneath that first line, we have the doctor’s opinion and Bill’s story. And please
draw a line under Bill’s story and bracket those two chapters as the problem. Step one.
(18:50 – 19:31)
The next three chapters are bracketed with a line underneath them. There’s a solution,
more about alcoholism and we agnostics. That’s the program of action.
Page 17 to 25 will be on step one. And then 23 to 29 begins step two. That’s all about
the solution.
Step two. Drawing a line under we agnostics, we have how it works into action and
working with others. And how it works is steps three and four in that chapter into action
five through 11 and working with others.
(19:32 – 20:56)
The second part of step 12. Step 12 is actually a three part step made up of a promise.
Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to other alcoholics.
And there’s the second part, working with others. And to employers would be the same
thing. When we get to two employers, we’re going to be looking at that in terms of
working with others.
And to wives and family afterwards, eight and nine, please write step 12, part three.
Practicing these principles in all of our affairs. Now, usually when we read those
chapters, we just kind of fly over it and extract the principles that Bill puts in there.
And we’re going to do that. But we’re also by vote of group conscience, we’re going to
read those chapters the same way we read every other chapter. Word for word, line by
line.
So we’re going to have a lot of fun with those chapters. We’re going to be spending quite
a bit of time there. That’s the table of contents.
If I turn the page, I’m going to start with the preface. The preface, go through the actual
table of contents. We’re on the preface page.
This is the preface to the fourth edition. I assume we’re all looking at that fourth edition.
So this is the preface to the fourth edition.
(20:57 – 21:49)
It says this is the fourth edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, again, published in
2001. The first edition appeared in April 1939. In the following 16 years, more than
300,000 copies went into circulation.
The second edition, published in 1955, reached a total of more than 1.1 million copies.
The third edition, which came off the press in 1976, achieved a circulation of
approximately 19,550,000 in all formats. Now, I’m going to ask that you highlight the
first one, two, three, four, eight lines of the next paragraph, because we’re being alerted
to the nature of the book.
(21:49 – 22:10)
We’re being told what this is about. And he says, because this book has become the
basic text of our society. Please underline that word, text.
There are three types of literature. There’s fiction, nonfiction, and text. Fiction, we know,
works of fantasy, science fiction, and so on.
(22:11 – 22:30)
Nonfiction are true stories, histories, biographies, et cetera. And then there’s textbooks.
And textbooks are written to convey information, to teach something to the student, to
convey information from the mind of the teacher to the mind of the student through the
written word.
(22:31 – 24:24)
And if we are not clear what the writer meant, what the teacher means when he uses
those words, we’re going to come to some wrong conclusions. So as we go through this
book, I assure you, we’re going to be giving some definitions or redefinitions to a lot of
phrases you may already be familiar with. And if you haven’t caught it, we already came
through one of them on the very first page, the word recovered.
How many times do we hear people at meetings say, oh, you never say the word
recovered? Well, when you hear that, you know, you’re dealing with somebody who
hasn’t read the book. It’s on the first page. Even if all you did is open it to see what it’s
about, you saw that word.
And for what it’s worth, we will get a definition from Bill in a moment, what recovered
means from a hopeless state of mind and body. But I think maybe it’s worth taking a
second to break it down now. Recovered to me means the symptoms of my disease are
no longer present.
The symptoms of my disease. What are some of the symptoms of my disease? Well,
drinking, there’s one big symptom that’s no longer present. I am a productive member of
society.
I’m no longer a source of chaos and confusion and conflict to everybody around me.
People in my family and my circle of friends turn to me for opinions once in a while
because I seem to be a source of harmony rather than confusion. So that source of
confusion and chaos in everybody’s life is gone.
So those are symptoms of my disease, among others, that are no longer present. I have
recovered from that part of my disease. I’m not cured because cured would mean the
disease itself is no longer present.
(24:25 – 25:50)
And my disease will always be present. It’s always one bad idea from waking up. So
that’s the difference between recovered and cured.
Recovered, we’re going to see over and over in this book. Among other words, we’re
going to get different definitions of what we thought we knew about them. So continuing,
he said, this has become the basic text of our society, has helped such large numbers of
alcoholics, alcoholic men and women to recover 2.1 million to date.
There exists strong sentiment among many radical changes being made in it. Therefore,
the first portion of this volume describing the AA recovery program, that is page one
through 164, that’s the recovery portion of this book describing our program, has been
left untouched to underline that, please, has been left untouched in the course of
revisions made for the second, third, and fourth edition, meaning it has remained pretty
much intact since 1939. They haven’t found a way to make it better.
They haven’t found a way to add to it. They haven’t found a way to change it. That’s
quite a powerful statement.
(25:51 – 30:32)
And there are a lot of people here who could probably correct me in some of the details
historically here, but as I understand it, at the World Convention in 1976, it was decided
that any changes to the first 164 pages of this book have to be approved by 75 percent,
75 percent of worldwide groups. So each of your groups, try and get your home group to
decide on the kind of sweetener to use for your coffee. Should you have milk or half and
half or flavors? Should you have coffee? Should you have tea? Should it be
decaffeinated? These are things we can’t decide in a small group, but in order to make a
change in this book, you’d have to have 75 percent of worldwide groups approve it,
which means probably never going to happen, which I think is a good thing.
There’s a lot of things in this book that may be dated and misogynistic, but if we could
see through it, then it’s nonsense. We don’t need to rewrite this book. It’s fine the way it
is.
Continuing, he said, the section called The Doctor’s Opinion has been kept intact, just as
it was originally written in 1939 by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, our society’s great
medical benefactor. The second edition added the appendices, especially Spiritual
Experience, which initially was just called Appendix Two. We now call it Spiritual
Experience, but it was originally just Appendix Two.
The twelve traditions and the directions for getting in touch with AA, but the chief
change was in the section of personal stories, which was expanded to reflect the
fellowship’s growth. Bill’s story, Dr. Bob’s nightmare, and one other personal story from
the first edition were retained intact. Three were added, and one of those was retitled.
New versions of two stories were written with new titles. Thirty completely new stories
were added, and the story section was divided into three parts under the same headings
that are now used. I’m going to skip the next two paragraphs to try and save some time,
but I want to read the last paragraph.
It says, all changes made over the years in the big book, AA members fond nickname for
this volume, have had the same purpose to present the current membership of
Alcoholics Anonymous more accurately and thereby to reach more alcoholics. And please
highlight the rest of this. This is important.
If you have a drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the 42
personal stories. So we already have an assignment. We’re not even in the recovery
portion of the book, and we have an assignment.
The assignment is to read those personal stories. We start out by reading those stories
for identification. So he says that you may pause in reading one of the 42 personal
stories and think, yes, that happened to me.
Underline that. That’s important. Or more important, yes, I felt like that.
Or most important, and please underline this, yes, I believe this program can work for
me too. In other words, reading those stories will give us hope. We need to start out with
hope.
Beyond that, we can build everything, but without it, we can’t get anywhere. Next page,
forward to the first edition. This is the forward as it appeared in the first printing of the
edition, first edition in 1939.
That was published in April 10, 1939. As you’re going to see as we go through this, I am
a bit of a history buff, and I try to temper a lot of that without spending way too much
time getting too deep into it. But there are certain things I think that are important
historically, and we’re going to touch on them.
And it helps to know when the book was first published. April 10, 1939. On We of
Alcoholics Anonymous.
Understand, please, the we here refers to the first 100. This is not a we program. This
applies to the first 100 who is going to be making reference over the next few pages,
and those who have recovered from a hopeless state of mind and body.
(30:33 – 32:29)
We of Alcoholics Anonymous are more than 100 men and women who have, please
underline this, it’s important, recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and
body. And there is our first definition of recovered from a hopeless state of mind and
body. We no longer are hopeless if we’re here, and we hope we can find the answer
here.
We’ve started that journey, and we have recovered from that hopeless state of mind and
body. He goes on to say, for them, we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no
further authentication will be necessary. In other words, you don’t have to go out and
experiment anymore to prove whether you’re alcoholic or not.
If you can read these stories and see yourself in us, there’s no need for further
experimentation. Plus, not everybody gets to come back from their first experiment. So if
you believe what the book tells us, and you identify with the people telling us it, no
further experimentation is necessary.
You don’t need to go out and risk dying. We think this account of our experiences will
help everybody, not just the alcoholics, everybody, wives, family, employers, society,
anybody. Everybody to better understanding of, to better understand the alcoholic.
Please underline and highlight this sentence, many do not understand, comprehend that
the alcoholic is a very sick person. That is the first mention of it in the book. Up until
now, it was thought that it’s all in a person’s mind, it was all a psychological issue, that
all you had to do is to be determined and just say no.
(32:30 – 33:04)
Well, this was the first mention of the fact that it’s not that case at all, that the alcoholic
is a very sick person, and we’re going to learn more about that condition, that malady.
And besides, we’re sure that our way of living, once again, underline our way of living
steps. This is an ongoing process, it’s not one and done, it’s a way of life, a way of living.
Breathing, eating is a way of living. Working steps are too. That our way of living has its
advantages for all.
(33:05 – 34:45)
Think of how many groups there are out there using our 12 steps. My sponsor told me
that he counted about 600 of them at one point. I don’t know, but there are an awful lot
of groups out there, C-A-S-A-G-A-O-A-A-A-A and so on, who have all adopted our 12
steps.
Think of how many millions of lives have been saved by the 12 steps written into this
book. And we’re going to see when we get there that it took Bill less than 25 minutes to
write those steps out. It is important that we remain anonymous because we are too few
at present to handle the overwhelming number of personal appeals which may result
from this publication.
Being mostly business or professional folk, we could not carry on our occupations in such
an event. We would like it understood that our work, alcoholic work, is an avocation. It is
not a job.
It is a hobby in a sense. It’s not a vocation. Please highlight this next phrase, this next
paragraph.
When writing or speaking publicly about alcoholism, we urge each of the fellowship to
omit his personal name, designating himself instead as a member of Alcoholics
Anonymous. So if you want to use your last name at a meeting, you should so people
could identify you and get to you if they want to. You can go to a meeting and a guy
named Jim says something that you want to remember and after the meeting you can’t
find that guy.
(34:46 – 36:20)
And you ask around, anyone know what Jim’s last name or phone number is? And the
first question is Jim who? So this refers to our tradition of anonymity with about your last
name refers to outside the fellowship. Back to Bob who didn’t do much writing, did some
writing about that and he said he believes that people who withhold their last name are
really violating the tradition the same way the people who go out in front of the press
and use their last name. One is violating it at the level of one is above the other is below.
We have to stay below that level. So if you want to use your last name, don’t let anyone
tell you you can’t. And I’m not saying you should.
I’m just saying that if anyone tells you you can’t, it’s nonsense. It doesn’t violate a
tradition. Very earnestly we ask the press also to observe this request or otherwise we
shall be greatly handicapped.
We are not an organization in the conventional sense of the word. There are no fees or
dues whatsoever which we know later became part of our preamble and first time I
heard that in March of 1982 I thought they said there are no fleas or Jews allowed. So I
had a lot to learn.
There are no fees or dues whatsoever. Please highlight this. The only requirement for
membership is an honest desire to stop drinking which we know became the third
tradition.
(36:21 – 37:53)
Please underline, highlight that. We’re now allied with any particular faith, sect or
denomination nor do we oppose anyone. And highlight this please.
We wish, simply wish to be helpful to those who are afflicted. In other words, we can
trust these people’s motives. They’re not trying to tell us what to do.
They’re trying to show us what they have done. And if we want to quit drinking, we can
join them by doing what they did. Very simple.
They’re not lecturing us. They’re telling us their experience. Forward to the second
edition.
The figures given in this forward describe the fellowship as it was in 1955. So from 1939
to 1955 is what we’re talking about here and this was published in July. Since the original
forward of this book was written in 1939, and highlight this please, a wholesale miracle
has taken place.
The wholesale miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous is the mass production of spiritual
awakenings. Think about it. That’s what we do if we follow the people before us and we
do what they did and work these steps as a way of living.
(37:54 – 39:02)
We are mass producing spiritual awakenings. Our earliest printing voiced the hope that
every alcoholic who journeys will find the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his
destination. Bill W. used to call AA the court of last resort.
We think of that as the last door on the last house on the last block. For me, the last
thing I tried was the first thing that worked. AA was the court of last resort for me
because I tried everything else.
Vitamins, books, exercise, all that junk. Nothing worked until Alcoholics Anonymous, the
book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Already continues the early text.
Twos and threes and fives of us have sprung up in other communities. 16 years have
elapsed between our first printing of this book and the presentation in 1955 of our
second edition. In that brief space, Alcoholics Anonymous has mushroomed into nearly
6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000 recovered alcoholics.
(39:03 – 39:37)
Groups are to be found in each of the United States and all the provinces of Canada. AA
has flourishing communities in the British Isles, Scandinavian countries, South Africa,
South America, Mexico, Alaska, Australia and Hawaii. All told, promising beginnings have
been made in some 50 foreign countries and US possessions.
Some are just now taking shape in Asia. Many of our friends encourage us by saying that
this is but a beginning and the augury of a much larger future ahead. Augury just means
a sign, an indication.
(39:39 – 41:43)
Thank God for Zoom because there are people here today of the 220 some odd people
here today, a lot are from all of those areas and we have found each other and a
fellowship has grown up about us as a result of COVID and Zoom. So I should say thank
God for COVID because it brought us all together like this. The spark that was to flare
into the first AA group was struck in Akron, Ohio in June 1935 during a talk between a
New York stockbroker, Bill Wilson.
I think that was kind of generous but he called himself a stockbroker. He was actually a
speculator. Charlie Palmly used to say Bill Wilson was a fast talker to slow thinking
people.
That’s what Bill Wilson did and an Akron physician that’s Dr. Robert Smith. Six months
earlier the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual awake
experience following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who’d been in contact with the
Oxford groups of the day. Now let me just stop give you some background.
We’re going to get more into this later but a little later when we get into Bill’s story we’re
going to see where he had this vital spiritual experience in Towns Hospital in December
of 1934. So the thing we just read about that he’d been relieved of his obsession by a
sudden spiritual awakening occurred in December 1934 at Towns Hospital. Towns
Hospital no longer exists in Manhattan.
The building is still there. It’s 293 West Central Park West between 90th and 89th street
if you want to go visit it. It’s a co-op and there’s not even a sign there to indicate what
this building represented at one time but be that as it may.
(41:43 – 48:43)
We’re going to see later on that Bill had this experience but prior to his having this
spiritual experience certain things had to take place in Bill’s life. Certain things had to fall
into place. One of those things was this meeting with the alcoholic friend named Ebby
Thatcher which took place in the later part of 1934.
This gent Ebby Thatcher came over to Bill’s house and sat down in his kitchen and gave
him what turned out to be two very vital pieces of information. Now Ebby Thatcher was a
boyhood friend of Bill’s and we’ll learn about all of this later. Ebby Thatcher was
according to Bill Wilson the worst alcoholic he ever met.
Bill said if I ever got as bad as him I’d have to quit. That’s who we’re talking about here
and this guy came over and sat opposite Bill and he gave him two pieces of information.
He said Bill people like you and I have become absolutely powerless over alcohol and if
we’re going to recover from this condition we’re going to have the need we are required
to have the aid of a power greater than ourselves that can do for us what we could not
do for ourselves.
That doctors, ministers, psychiatrists they’ve all been here to help us but no human
power has been able to do the job. We need the aid of a power greater than ourselves
and Ebby said Bill I’ve been attending these meetings with a group of people called the
Oxford Groupers and they told me that if I had this spiritual experience that during that
experience I would access that power and I would be able to recover from alcoholism
and they gave me a program of action which later became our 12 steps and Ebby said
they promised me three things. They said if I that I could find this power have a spiritual
experience and as a result recover from a hopeful state of mind and body but it all
begins with finding this power.
It doesn’t begin with 90 meetings in 90 days. We have to access this power that power
will give us a spiritual experience and we’ll be able to recover and he said Bill look at me
it’s been two months two months since I had a drink and again Bill always looked at him
as the worst drunk he ever met. So here’s Ebby sitting there living breathing proof of
what he’s saying and it made a great impression on Bill.
How could it not? But that’s not all Bill had to know that’s only one thing. Let’s go back to
the book and see the other parts of this story that he had to know. So the first thing he
had to know was that Ebby that there was a power that could help solve his problem.
In a sense he was alerted to the second step but he still didn’t know what was wrong
with him. Continuing the third line on XVI he had also been greatly helped by the late Dr.
William D Silkworth a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less
than a medical saint by AA members and whose story from the early pages of our
society appears in the next few pages early days of the society appears in the next
pages. From this doctor please underline this from this doctor the broker had learned the
grave nature of alcoholism.
That’s the second piece of information that Bill had to learn and I’m going to suggest
actually that you highlight the rest of that paragraph just to save some time. But the
other thing that Bill had to learn is what Dr. Silkworth had taught him when he went into
the hospital. He said he being Dr. Silkworth I don’t think this is a question of willpower
Bill.
I don’t believe it’s a matter of moral character and I don’t think sin has anything to do
with it. I think people like you is actually suffering from an actual illness and it’s a very
peculiar illness. It’s made up of two parts an illness of the body as well as an illness of
the mind and he says that people like you have become absolutely allergic to this
alcohol.
That anytime you put this into your system it creates an actual physiological craving
which makes it impossible for you to stop. Dr. Silkworth saw a lot of people coming in in
terrible condition and he dried them out and he nursed them to health and he released
them and then they come back in a few weeks or a few days worse than they ever were
before. And then there’s another group of people who come in in terrible condition just
like the first bunch and he nurses them back to hell and he helped and health and lets
them go and they never come back.
And then there’s a third group of people who drinks normally socially and they never
wind up in the hospital or a loony bin because of it. And Dr. Silkworth started to see
there’s something different about this first group of people and in the time that Dr.
Silkworth when this book was written Dr. Silkworth had nursed 40,000 alcoholics at his
hospital and he’s saying to Bill that I don’t think this allergy is the real root of your
problem Bill. He said the real problem is the obsession of the mind that you have that
after stopping drinking the mind begins to play tricks on you.
That it begins to remind you of all the good things that alcohol did and convinces you
that it’s okay to take that drink and at some point it triggers you to actually take the
action of taking the drink and then you’re unable to stop because the physiological part
has kicked in. That’s the second piece of information that Bill Wilson had to have. Two
pieces of information are referenced here.
He had to have the solution from Ebby and he had to have the definition of the problem
from Dr. Silkworth. Silkworth told him you have a physical allergy and a mental
obsession. You’re not morally bad, you’re not weak, there’s nothing wrong with you that
way.
Continuing and this is highlighted so he could not accept all of the tenets of the Oxford
group. He was convinced of the need for and you may want to number these things. One
moral inventory, two confession of physical defects, three restitution to those harmed,
four helpfulness to others and the necessity of and belief in and dependence upon God,
number five.
(48:44 – 50:14)
Now a lot of you know later in the book on page 263 the author tells the story of the six
steps that he worked with Dr. Bob and one of those six steps is missing from this
narrative. The first thing on that list on page 263 was complete deflation, surrender to
Christ. That isn’t listed here and we’re going to learn a bit why as we go along.
But continuing, oh I’m sorry, I wanted to spend a moment too on this. He couldn’t accept
all the tenets of the Oxford group. The Oxford group was basically a second century
Christian fellowship.
They had a leader. We didn’t have leaders. They had a leader, a guy by the name of
Frank Bookman.
It was a second century Christian fellowship. They believed heavily in promotion, not just
attraction. They went after people with money.
They weren’t real interested in alcoholics because most of us didn’t have any money to
give to them. They wanted people of stature. They wanted famous people, athletes and
so on.
They were political to some extent. When you took inventory with this group, they did
the inventory. They made a decision, your group, your home group made a decision as
to whether you had properly surrendered or not.
(50:15 – 54:33)
They believed that smoking leads to drinking. Lips were not allowed. What happened to
the Oxford group? Why didn’t we just become part of the Oxford group? Well,
somewhere in the late 30s, the leader of the Oxford group made a trip back to Europe
and visited with a lot of heads of state and two of the people he met with were Herman
Goering and Joseph Goebbels, the number two and three men in the Nazi party.
And when he came back, he was quoted in a newspaper saying, you know, these Nazis,
they have a couple of good ideas. And he was referring to their anti-communism
position, but it didn’t make a difference. When you’re quoted in a New York paper as
sympathizing with the Nazis, that was the death toll for the Oxford groups.
They changed their name. They never grew back into what they were at that time. And I
think it all ended with that.
Very often at this point, I display, I put up the article that this was that I’m referring to,
but I don’t want to take more time with that. Suffice to say that there was an article that
quoted him. If you’d like to see it, just ask me and I’ll send you a copy.
Next paragraph. Prior to his journey to Akron, the broker had worked hard with many
alcoholics on the theory, and please highlight and underline this, only an alcoholic could
help an alcoholic, but he had succeeded only in keeping himself sober. Bill was working
with alcoholics on the Bowery in New York, Salvation Armies.
He was approaching people who weren’t asking for help. He was approaching these
people and telling them of the spiritual experience that he had. And all these guys
wanted to do is put a touch on him for a few bucks so they can go get a drink.
Bill was not saving anybody. And the story goes that he had a conversation with Lois, his
wife, and pointed out that this isn’t working very well. I’m not keeping anybody sober.
And she said, yeah, you’re keeping yourself sober, Bill. Why don’t you go talk to Dr.
Silkworth and maybe he can help you with your approach. And Bill Wilson went and had
a chat with Dr. Silkworth and Silky pointed out that you’re beating people over the head
with a spiritual solution and they haven’t even asked you for anything.
Before you can do that, you have to establish a common footing with these people. So
you tell them your story so they can see yourself in you. And then if they’re interested in
that solution and they see that, well, gee, I’m just like this guy, but he’s not drinking
anymore.
And they’ll ask you, what did you do? And then you could tell them about the solution
you found. But you can’t begin with the spiritual approach. You have to begin with the
identification, which is why our book begins with Bill’s story.
Identification. Continuing, the broker had gone to Akron on a business venture which had
collapsed, leaving him greatly in fear that he might start drinking again. He suddenly
realized that in order to save himself, he must carry his message to another alcoholic.
You should underline that. Several times Bill was telling us the same thing. The power of
one alcoholic helping another is without parallel.
When Dr. Bob met with Bill after a few minutes, Dr. Bob said he was only going to see
Bill for 15 minutes and they wound up sitting for six hours. And when they came out of
this chat, Dr. Bob said this guy is the first person I ever met who knows what he’s talking
about when it comes to alcoholism. Because up until that point, everybody was talking to
Dr. Bob just like he was anybody who was talking to us before we came here was talking
at us, telling us about things we should do and we shouldn’t do without a point of
identification.
And it was easy for us to say, you don’t understand. How do I explain craving and this
obsession to somebody who’s never experienced it? One alcoholic to another can do
that. And that’s what Dr. Bob saw in Bill.
(54:33 – 54:50)
He saw that he knew what he was talking about because he’d experienced the same
things. Everybody talks to us, our family, our friends, doctors, everyone’s talking at us.
We come in here and the people talk to us and tell us about their experience and
strength and hope.
(54:51 – 55:34)
Okay, where are we? Okay, let’s continue. That alcoholic turned out to be the Akron
physician, Dr. Smith. Somehow, Nina got left out.
Let me just get her in here. I’m sorry for this. Oh, well.
Okay. The physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to solve resolve his alcoholic
dilemma but had failed. Dr. Smith had tried, he’d been part of the Oxford group.
(55:35 – 57:41)
But despite using their spiritual activities, they believed you can achieve absolute purity,
honesty, unselfishness, and love by practicing their spiritual activities that we just
mentioned before. Moral inventory, confession, and so on. And he did that, but he
continued to relapse because he would feel better.
He would have a drink and trigger that allergy. And he’d be off to the races again
because he didn’t know what was wrong with him. Dr. Bob found out about what was
wrong with him when Bill Wilson told him his story.
And he says, and please highlight this, but when the broker gave Dr. Silkworth’s
description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the
spiritual remedy for his malady with willingness he had never been able to muster. He
sobered never to drink again. Please highlight that.
Up to the moment of his death in 1950. This seemed to prove, and please highlight this
again, one alcoholic could affect another as no non-alcoholic could. And highlight and
underline this, if you will, and this is where we’ll stop.
It also indicated that strenuous work, strenuous work, not just going to meetings,
strenuous work. The word strenuous means requiring great effort. Intensive is another
word that we’ll use for this.
Intensive work, strenuous work, one-on-one, one alcoholic with another. Strenuous work,
one alcoholic with another was vital to permanent recovery, vital. Here’s another word.
Vital is life-giving. Vital is indispensable. It is life-supporting.
You can do without one lung. One lung is not a vital organ. One of your kidneys, not a
vital organ.
(57:41 – 59:07)
Your heart is a vital organ. You can’t live without it. I have survived most of my life
without using my brain, but that’s technically a vital organ, although I never used it very
much.
It is technically a vital organ. And we’re going to end today on this term, permanent
recovery. We’re going to pick up on that next week, because if you’re like me, when I ran
into that, I had some real concerns about that permanent recovery.
I thought it’s one day at a time. Well, we’re going to answer those questions next week.
We’re going to talk about that next week.
So please come back and join us. I apologize for the technical errors here. I will do my
best this week to kind of get them ironed out and figure out why we had them in the first
place.
We’d like to wrap up each week on page 164. I’ve asked Desi to read it for us, and then
we’ll go right into the Lord’s Prayer. We do have a discussion that takes place 15 minutes
from now.
You don’t have to sign off. Just please go dark, turn off your sound and audio, and come
back at 630, and we could discuss anything that we’ve talked about here, anything
related to what we’ve talked about here. It’s not a general discussion meeting.
It’s about the material pertaining to what we’ve been talking about. So I’m going to put
164 up here. Des, if you could just take us out with that.
(59:09 – 59:37)
No problem, Howard. Just give me a second here. I’ll find it for you.
Okay, can you see that, Des? No, but I’ve got it in front of me anyway. Well, I want
people, because we’re going to join you in a second. Let me get it.
(59:39 – 1:01:07)
How’s that? Yeah, there it is. Okay. Thanks, Howard.
Thanks, Kathy. Thank everyone for meeting the possible. I’m Des.
I’m a very grateful alcoholic. Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realise we
know only a little.
God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask him in your morning meditation
what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come if your
own house is in order.
But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your
relationship with him is right. And great events will come to pass for you and countless
others.
This is the great fact for us. Please unmute and join us if you don’t mind. Thank you for
joining us in the Lord’s Prayer.
(1:01:31 – 1:01:43)
Amen. Apologise for the technical glitches.