TWELVE STEPS
AND TWELVE PROMISES
- We admitted we were powerless
over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
Promise: We are going to know a new freedom and a new
happiness.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than
ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Promise: We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the
door on it.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our
lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Promise: We will comprehend the word serenity and we will
know peace.
- Made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves.
Promise: No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we
will see how our experience can benefit others.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to
another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Promise: That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will
disappear.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all
these defects of character.
Promise: We will lose Interest in selfish things and gain
Interest in our fellows.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Promise: Self-seeking will slip away.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed,
and became willing to make amends to them all.
Promise: Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will
change.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever
possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Promise: Fear of people and of economic insecurity will
leave us.
- Continued to take personal inventory and
when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Promise: We will intuitively know how to handle situations
which use to baffle us.
- Sought through prayer and
meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only
for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Promise: We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us
what we could not do for ourselves.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the
result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these
principles in all our affairs.
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.
SLIPS AND
HUMAN
NATURE
By William Duncan Silkworth, M.D.
Originally published in the Grapevine
for January 1947, this work has become
a classic is A.A. literature.
The mystery of slips is not so deep as it may appear. While it does seem odd that an
alcoholic, who has restored himself to a dignified place among his fellowmen and continued
dry for years, should suddenly throw all his happiness overboard and find himself again in
mortal peril of drowning in liquor, often the reason is simple.
People are inclined to say, "There is something peculiar about alcoholics.
They seem to be well, yet at any moment they may turn back to their old ways. You can
never be sure." This is largely twaddle. The alcoholic is a sick person. Under the
techniques of Alcoholics Anonymous he gets well - that is to say, his disease is arrested.
There is nothing unpredictable about him any more than there is anything weird about a
person who has arrested diabetes. Let's get it clear, once and for all, that
alcoholics are human beings. Then we can safeguard ourselves intelligently
against most slips. In both professional and lay circles, there is a tendency
to label everything that an alcoholic may do as "alcoholic behavior." The
truth is; it is simply human nature. It is very wrong to consider the
personality traits observed in liquor addicts as peculiar to the alcoholic. Emotional
and mental quirks are actually symptoms of mankind! Of course, the
alcoholic himself tends to think of himself as different, somebody special, with unique
tendencies and reactions. Many psychiatrists, doctors and therapists carry the same idea
to extremes in their analysis and treatment of alcoholics. Sometimes they make a
complicated mystery of a condition which is found in all human beings, whether they drink
whiskey or buttermilk. To be sure, alcoholism, like every other disease, does manifest
itself in some unique ways. It does have a number of baffling peculiarities which differ
from those of all other diseases. The slip is a relapse! It is a relapse that occurs
after the alcoholic has stopped drinking and started on the AA program of recovery. Slips
usually occur in the early stages of the alcoholic's AA indoctrination, before he/she has
been a member of the AA program for many months or even several years, and it is in this
way, above all, that one finds a marked similarity between the alcoholic's behavior and
that of "normal" victims of other diseases.
No one is startled by the fact that relapses are not uncommon among arrested tubercular
patients', but here is a startling fact. The cause is often the same as the cause which
leads to slips for the alcoholic.
It happens this way: When a tubercular patient recovers sufficiently to be released
from the sanitarium, the doctor gives him careful instructions for the way he is to live
when be gets home. He must obey stringent rules.
For the first several months, perhaps for several years, the
patient follows directions. But as his strength increases and he
feels fully recovered, he becomes slack. There may come the night when he
decides he can stay up until twelve o'clock. When he does this, nothing happens. Soon he
is disregarding the directions given when he left the
sanitarium.
The same tragedy can be found in cardiac cases. After the heart attack, the patient is
put on a strict rest schedule. Frightened, he goes to bed early, avoids strenuous exercise
such as walking upstairs, quits smoking, and leads a Spartan life. Eventually, though,
there comes a day, after he has been feeling good for months or several years, when he
feels he has regained his strength, and has also recovered from his fright. If the
elevator is out of repair one day, he walks up the three flights of stairs. Or he decides
to go to a party or do Just a little smoking or take a cocktail or two. If no serious
after effects follow the first departure from the rigorous schedule prescribed, he may try
it again, until he suffers a relapse.
He deliberately turned away from his knowledge of the fact that he has been
the victim of a serious disease. He grew overconfident. He decided he didn't have to
follow directions. He thinks he can get away with it.
Now that is precisely what happens with the alcoholic, the arrested alcoholic, or the
alcoholic in AA who has a slip. Obviously, he decides to take a drink again
some time before he actually takes it. He starts thinking wrong
before he actually embarks on the course that leads to a slip.
There is no reason to charge the slip to alcoholic behavior or a second heart attack to
cardiac behavior. The alcoholic slip is not a symptom of a psychotic condition. There's
nothing screwy about it at all. The patient simply didn't follow directions.
For the alcoholic, AA offers the directions. A vital factor, or ingredient
of the preventive, especially for the alcoholic, is sustained
emotion. The alcoholic who learns some of the techniques of the mechanics of
AA but misses the philosophy or the spirit may get tired of following directions not
because he is alcoholic, but because he is human. Rules and
regulations irk almost anyone, because they are restraining, prohibitive, negative. The
philosophy of AA, however, is positive and provides ample tools to defuse sustained
emotions if there is enough of a desire to follow directions voluntarily.
In any event, the psychology of the alcoholic is not as different as some people try to
make it. The disease has certain physical differences, and the alcoholic does have
problems peculiar to him. But in most instances, there is no more reason to be talking
about "the alcoholic mind" than "the TB mind" or "the cardiac
mind."
I think we’ll help the alcoholic more if we can first recognize
that he is primarily a human being afflicted with human nature.
Bill Wilson's
Alcoholics Anonymous (The Book)
The History of
the Big Book
Question: What is the single most sought
after and collected title in the history of book collecting?
Answer: Bill Wilson's ALCOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS.
Throughout history one of the most frustratingly incurable of mankind's many horrors
has been the problem of alcoholism and addiction. In 1935, on Mother's Day, in Akron Ohio,
what could be argued as one of the greatest positive events of the 20th century took
place. Two hopeless drunks discovered a solution -- not a scientific cure for alcoholism,
but a way NOT to drink -- one day at a time.
Not unlike the goings on almost two thousand years earlier among another group of
people in trouble and in search, the very small group quickly became a community. From the
dregs to the cream of society ...sitting together, laughing together, crying together,
talking about strange things, people with a certain quality, a fellowship so oddly
compelling that strangers dropping by out of curiosity would stay, saying "I don't
understand this yet BUT I WANT IN." Soon a small group of 2 or 3 became many groups,
then a large community. Then they decided to write it all down.
That's where we, as seekers and finders of out-of-print and collectible books come in.
The sixteen printings of the 1st edition of ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, the original work and
contributions of these first 100 or so men and women led by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith,
is out of print. It has been replaced by the current 3rd edition, revised and updated to
more accurately and relevantly reflect the demographics of the current membership.
Book lovers with a personal interest in the fellowship, or those who just appreciate
and understand its social, historical and medical importance, seek "the big
book" 1st editions. In them they find a tangible link to the early formative years of
the program, the history and lore of which has reached mythic proportions in some circles.
Forgetting the demand side of the supply and demand equation, the first 7 printings of
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS are genuinely scarce. The 2nd through 7th each had a print run of
only 5000 copies (the coveted 1st printing, "the red book," having only 4,730).
For those whose aspirations and/or budgets do not extend to those heights, the 8th through
the 16th printings, whose print runs varied from about 15,000 to 50,000 copies, are much
more affordable, starting around $400.
Almost every printing has a story or something about it that sets it apart from its
fellows... The "green book"...the unaccountably rare (everyone's got a theory)
7th printing... the little 8th, published under the paper rationing strictures of WWII...
and on and on.
In addition to the first editions, there are many avenues for one seriously interested
in collecting AA material to pursue. The once lightly regarded 2nd editions with their
unique reversible dust jackets have been seriously collected for the past several years
now. Bill Wilson's involvement with a spiritual revival movement known as the Oxford Group
Movement formed the basis of the program that evolved into ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS. Its
history and literature are inextricably entwined with AA and are of a great deal of
interest to those most interested in the spiritual foundation of AA. Fiction such as
Charles Jackson's LOST WEEKEND, Upton Sinclair's CUP OF FURY, and biographies such as
Lilian Roth's I'LL CRY TOMORROW are also possible ways to go.
The history of AA has left a paper trail, almost from its birth over 60 years ago. It
is my belief that those interested in following it and owning bits and pieces of it will
continue to grow just as its membership has over the years.
Flowchart of Events of Interest to
Members
Of The Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous
by Miles M.
William Griffith Wilson born Nov. 26, 1895, in a small room behind a bar in East Dorsett,
VT., to Gilman 1901 - Professor and Emily Wilson.
William James lectures at University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Lectures published as The Varieties of Religious Experience
in 1902. Bill's father, Gilman, deserts the family.
Bill's mother, Emily, moves to Boston and becomes an Osteopathic Physician. Bill and
sister Dorothy live with maternal grand-parents, Fayette and Ella Griffith.
Bill's first "success" making a boomerang - "a fitting irony".
@1907 - About age 12 Bill "leaves the Church" over a required 1908 - Oxford
Group temperance pledge.
begun as A First Century Christian Fellowship.
Frank Buchman, Founder. They espoused the Four
Absolutes: Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness
and Love. They 1909 - Bill begins secondary
practiced the princi- education at Burr & Burton
ples of self-survey Academy.
confession; restitution; and service to others.
1911 - Ebby Thatcher and Bill first met.
1912 - Bill's "first love", Bertha Bamford, dies after
surgery in New York. Bill began a three year depression.
1914-1918, World War I
1914 - Bill enters Norwich University - a military college
with strict discipline.
Bill meets Lois Burnham, daughter of New York physician Dr. Clark Burnham.
April
6, 1917 - U.S. enters World War I.
Summer 1917 - a Second Lieutenant in the coast artillery at Ft. Rodman,
Mass., Bill takes first remembered drink - Bronx Cocktail - feels a miracle - relaxed and
free. A profound experience he recalled vividly more than 50 years later.
January 24, 1918 - Bill marries Lois Burnham.
Summer 1918 - On way to France, Bill visits Winchester Cathedral and is stirred by a
"tremendous sense of presence". Reads epitaph on headstone of a Hampshire
Grenadier.
Nov. 11, 1918 - January 16, 1919 - 36 Armistice signed, states ratified World War I ends.
constitutional
May 1919 - Bill returns home. amendment for
prohibition.
1920 - Bill enters Brooklyn Law School.
1921 - An investigator for U.S. F & G and also works around
Wall Street.
Christmas 1923 - Bill vows to stay sober one year - Lasted
only 2 months.
1925-26 - Bought motorcycle and became (First?) "Market Analyst." Disease
progressing.
1926 - On Wall Street full time. Disease progressing.
Late 1928 - Early 1929 - Bill crosses "invisible line" in
his drinking.
Oct. 1929 - Stock Market
collapse.
Nov. 1929 - Bill goes to Canada for a job with Dick Johnson.
1930 - 31 - Back in Brooklyn and Wall Street. Living with Lois's family - unemployed.
Disease progressing.
1931 - Rowland Hazzard sees Dr. Carl Jung in Zurich, Switzerland. Told no
medical or psychological hope for an alcoholic of his type; told the only hope was a
spiritual or religious experience or conversion. This was considered "the first
in the chain of events that led to the founding of A.A."
Spring 1932 - Bill's business deal in New Jersey - drank Apple Jack
and drunk three days. Contract cancelled.
At Towns Hospital, Bill meets Dr. William Silkworth on second admission. "The Little
Doctor Who Loved Drunks."
1930-34 - Bill in "An Alcoholic's Hell"
1933-34 - Bill in Towns Hospital four times.
Dec. 5, 1933-
Prohibition ended.
Bill resumes drinking after
each admission. Disease
progressing.
Dr. Silkworth Summer 1934 Rowland Hazzard
pronounces Bill a... "HOPELESS DRUNK" return to America and
becomes involved in
Oxford Group.
1934 - Emmett Fox
publishes The Sermon
On The Mount.
Nov. 1924 - Ebby T. carries Aug. 1924 - Rowland
message to Bill at home. Hazzard and Cebra
Tells his story. "One persuade court to
Alcoholic Talking To Another." court to parole Ebby
Thatcher in their
Bill starts attending Oxford custody. Ebby sobers
Group at Calvary Church, up at Oxford Group at
Bowery Mission. Calvary Episcopal
Mission, Sam Shoemaker.
Bill drinks again - Back to
Towns Hospital.
Dec. 1934 - Bill has "Hot
Flash" spiritual experience
at Towns Hospital. NEVER
DRANK AGAIN.
Dr. Silkworth assured
Bill he was not crazy;
rather a "psychic The next day Ebby
upheaval" or "conversion brought Bill a copy
experience." of William James'
Varieties of Religious
Experience.
Bill reads Varieties of Religious
Experience, an explanation of
need for Pain, Suffering, Calamity
and "Deflation in Depth" and the
"Simultaneous Transmission of
Hope." The two "Halves" are
joined into a "Whole."
Bill returns to Oxford Group and
works with other alcoholics, also at
Sam Shoemaker's Calvary Mission and
at Towns Hospital, emphasizing his
"Hot Flash" spiritual experience.
He noted they "seemed to do better"
talking of their common problems,
but no success in sobering up others.
Bill develops belief
that alcoholics are
resistant to the
"Four Absolutes" of
the Oxford Group.
1935 - Bill, still sober, but no
success yet in helping others. Still
frequents Wall Street. Went to Akron
Ohio for proxy fight. Lost proxy
fight. Bill at Mayflower Hotel.
Very discouraged and afraid he might
drink.
May 11, 1935 - Bill reached reali-
Rev. Walter Tunks zation of: I need another alcoholic.
. "He starts making telephone calls.
*The final founding moment
Referred to Norman of A.A.*
Sheppard
May 12, 1935 @5:00 P.M. - Bill Robert Holbrook
Referred to Henrietta meets Dr. Bob. Bob still Smith. Born August
Seiberling, an Oxford drinking. Bill tells Bob of 8, 1879 in St.
Group adherent. She his experiences with alcohol Johnsbury, VT.
arranged a meeting the the hopes, promises, failures Dartmouth College, Pre-
next afternoon at the told of the obsession, compul- Med at University of
Seiberling Estate with sion, and physical allergy; Michigan. M.D. at
Dr. Bob Smith. told him of Ebby's visit and Rush Medical College,
simple message, "show me your Chicago, IL. Intern
faith and by my works I will at City Hospital,
show you mine." Akron, OH. Procto-
logist. His wife,
Anne was a friend of
Henrietta Seiberling.
They brought Dr. Bob
to Oxford Group meet-
ings for 2-1/2 yrs.
Dr. Bob understood with sudden and he continued to
Bill had presented Dr. clarity - the difference with get drunk regularly.
Bob four aspects of one the Oxford Group. "The spirit-
core idea: ual approach was as useless as
(1) Utter Hopelessness any other if you soaked it up like
(2) Totally Deflated a sponge and kept it to yourself."
(3) Requiring Conversion The purpose of life was not to
(4) Needing Others "get" , it was to "give."
June 10, 1935
Dr. Bob has last drink
_______________________
ALCOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS
FOUNDED
------------------------
June 11, 1935 - Dr. Bob
suggests they both start
working with other alcoholics.
June 28, 1935 - Bill and Dr.
Bob confront Bill Dotson,
first "Man on the Bed."
Bill D. was a prominent
attorney in Akron. The 3rd
A.A. Note: Bill D. had a
spiritual experience without
familiarity with Oxford
Group principals.
Henrietta Seiberling Summer, 1935 - Bill stayed in
supplied them with in Akron. He and Dr. Bob worked
"Infusion of Spirit- with alcoholics and attended weekly
uality" mainly through Oxford Group meetings and received
Paul to Corinthians on spiritual nourishment.
"Love" and James on
"Works" if faith is to
have meaning, Fall & Winter 1935 - Back in
New York on Clinton St. Hank P.
and Fitz M. got sober.
Mid 1936 - a small but solid Bill's efforts with
group developing at Clinton alcoholics receiving
St. in New York. criticism from
Oxford Group.
Charles Towns offers Bill a
job at Towns Hospital. Bill
wanted it. The question
presented to the Group and
rejected because - what they
had, the "thing" that bound
them together and those
feelings could not be bought
and paid for. The only
authority was the Group
Conscience and all decisions
were to be made by the
Group. 1937 - Beginning of
the split from the
Oxford Group.
Residents at Clinton St.
Ebby T.
Oscar V.
Russell R.
Bill C.
Florence R.
Nov. 1937 - Bill and Dr. Bob
meet in Akron and compare
notes. Forty cases sober and
staying sober. More than
twenty sober for more than
one year. All had been
diagnosed as HOPELESS.
+
A meeting of the Akron
Group to consider Bill's ideas
for a book, pamphlets and
how to expand the movement.
Presented but only narrowly
passed by a majority of 2.
Feb. 1938 - Rockefeller
gives $5,000 and saves
A.A. from professionalism.
May 1938 - The Alcoholic
Foundation established as a
trusteeship for A.A.
May 1938 - Beginning of the
writing of the book
Alcoholics Anonymous.
Dec. 1938 - Twelve Steps
written.
1939 - Membership reaches
100.
April 1939 - The book
Alcoholics Anonymous
published.
Summer 1939 - Withdrawal
from association with Oxford
1940 - Bill meets Group complete. Oxford
Father Ed Dowling who Group renamed "Moral
becomes his "spiritual Re-Armament."
advisor." "Rule No. 62."
March 1941 - Jack Alex- Feb. 1940 - First World Service January 1944 - Dr.
ander's Saturday Even- Office for A.A. Harry Tiebout's first
ing Post article paper on the subject
published and member- June 1944 - The A.A. of "alcoholics
ship jumped from 2000 Grapevine established. anonymous"
The Washingtonians in 1946 - The Twelve Traditions
the 1840's failed, due of A.A. formulated and
principally to failure published.
to adhere to "Single-
ness of Purpose," and June 1, 1949 - Anne Ripley
this failure influenced Smith died.
the development of the
A.A. Traditions.
July 1959 - First international
convention of A.A. at Cleveland,
Ohio. Twelve Traditions
adopted.
Nov. 16, 1950 - Dr. Robert
Holbrook Smith, co-founder
of Alcoholics Anonymous died.
June 1953 - The book Twelve
Steps and Twelve Traditions
published.
Oct. 1954 - The "Alcoholic
Foundation" becomes the
"General Service Board of
A.A."
July 1955 - 20th Anniversary
Convention at St. Louis, MO
Second edition of Alcoholics
Anonymous published. The three
legacies of Recovery, Unity
and Service turned over to the
movement by its oldtimers.
1957 - Creation of first overseas
General Service Board of A.A.
in Great Britain and Ireland.
A.A. Comes of Age published in
October. Membership reaches
over 200,000 in 7,000 groups in
70 countries and U.S. possessions.
1959 - A.A. Publishing, Inc. became
A.A. World Services, Inc.
July 1960 - 25th Anniversary Convention
at Long Beach, CA
1962 - Publication of Twelve Concepts
for World Service written by Bill W.
July 1965 - 30th Anniversary Convention
at Toronto, Canada. Keynote adopted,
"I Am Responsible."
1966 - Change in ratio of trustees
of the General Service Board; now
two-thirds majority of alcoholic
members; the A.A. fellowship accepts
ütop responsibility for all it's
future affairs.
1967 - Publication of the book The A.A.
Way of Life now titled As Bill Sees It.
Oct. 9-11, 1969 - 1st World Service
meeting held in New York with delegates
from 14 countries.
1970 - 35th Anniversary International
Convention at Miami Beach, Florida.
Keynote: "This we owe to AA's of the
future. To place our common welfare
first; To keep our fellowship united.
For on A.A. Unity depend our lives, and
the lives of those to come." Bill's
last public appearance.
Jan. 24, 1971 - William Griffith Wilson,
co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, dies
at Miami Beach, FL.
Oct. 5-7, 1972 - 2nd World Service meeting
held in New York.
1973 - Publication of Came to Believe.
April 1973 - Distribution of the book
Alcoholics Anonymous reached one
million mark.
1975 - Publication of Living Sober.
1976 - Publication of 3rd Edition of
Alcoholics Anonymous.
October 5, 1988 - Lois Burnam Wilson died.
==========================
Sources: Bill W. by Robert Thompsen
Not God. A History of Alcoholics Anonymous by Ernest Kurtz
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, A.A. World Services, Inc.
Pass It On - Bill Wilson and the A.A. Message, A.A. World Services
The Language of the Heart, The A.A. Grapevine
Dr. Bob and the Good Old-Timers, A.A. World Services, Inc.
On The Tail of a Comet, The Life of Frank Buchman by Garth Lean
The Washingtonian Movement, by Milton A. Maxwell, Ph.D.
A.A. The Way It Began, by Bill Pittman
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