QVOF

5 Comments

• #1 by Zulu Warrior on November 20, 2009 - 11:26 pm

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  This infamous book sells snake oil. The first of the six 12 steps originated with the OxFord Group, fundamentalists led by Frank Buchman, a man that wished to befriend Heinrich Himmler and referred to him as a “marvelous lad”. AA captured Buchman’s philosphy of groveling your sins before others/GOD. The OxFord Group was very heavily dependent on recruiting the well-to-do, thus its name. So, Wilson thought it would be great to organize a religion that does the complete opposite, down-and-out drunks. Yet, Wilson’s GOD induced hallicinogens documented in this literature were induced by a narcotic, bella donna, an herb at the time used for drying out drunks, probably similar to what Meth was originally intended for heroin addicts. Doesn’t seem very genuine, does it? His spiritual basis is rather false. And that is the hidden purveying theme of AA. AA is a joke, and if you buy into the propoganda, you’ve become part of it.

  The first 164 pages of the Big Book weren’t authored by Wilson, it was a group effort. Wilson was inept and could not write and claims to have merely been a “referee”. Wilson was a businessman (rather inept), except when it came to stealing the copywrite of the Big Book under his own personal name. Thus, legally controlling it’s profits.

  Wilson demands that one become rigourously honest, yet he did not practice what he preached and was quite the alley-cat, hitting on helpless newcoming women to the point where someone was assigned by Wilson’s side to curtail this practice. Eventually AA managed to give Wilson a secretary, so that he could still practice this lifestyle. Wilson did not have to work a day of his life, off of the efforts of other contributors to the Big Book, and Wilson did not give them $ for their contribuitions. So the 12 Step Program is based on a huge fallacy.

  Getting back to Buchman, he was on the cover of TIME magazine on Hitler’s B-day labeled Cultist Buchman (do Amazon search). This is the real bedrock foundation of AA, not the propoganda of honestly recovering drunks mending simply their ways with the Lord. Oh yes, the 12 Step advocate Wilson demands rigourous honesty and finds himself “experimenting” with LSD (as documented in AA literature or just do a google search) 20 years into sobriety. This “experiment” went on/off for over 2 1/2 years. Some program Wilson invented for himself. AA’s spiritual foundation is similar to the prisoners running the prison.

  So, if you want to go off the deep end and repeat cult induced mantras for years; and practice self induced guilt by confessing your sins to unqualified strangers practicing theology and psychology without a license, GO FOR IT! I did it, or at least signed-off on it for over 15 years.

  But you may think, what harm is it? A six billion $ industry profits off of the snake oil. Judges, social workers all enable it to grow. Betty Ford demands that you read the Big Book from cover-to-cover. No other option. The Big Book figures every angle for a fellow to fall into it’s cult propoganda. Eventually the majority figure this out and leave. But the rest, many whom are still my friends today, are lost (some more than others) and are selling themselves short when they could be doing something more beneficial with their time, IMO.

  One problem that any Christian will have with Alcoholics Anonymous is the organization’s abandoning of the Bible. The Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is their new Bible. Some members claim to still use the Bible; I sometimes hear a bit of lip service to the Bible like, “Keep the Big Book next to the Good Book,” but you won’t see a Bible at a meeting, and you won’t hear it quoted. Everybody is carrying the Big Book, and all readings come from it, or from a similar book of daily meditations, also written by Bill Wilson and other members of A.A..

  In fact, reading aloud from the Bible at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings is usually forbidden. The Bible is considered “outside literature”. Reading aloud at meetings from anything but A.A. “Council Approved” (and A.A.-published) literature is forbidden.

  In addition, A.A. has essentially abandoned Jesus Christ. The A.A. faithful believe that Bill Wilson is superior to Jesus Christ when it comes to dealing with alcoholism, and you will hear Bill Wilson quoted a hundred times more often than Jesus Christ. (As a matter of fact, I can’t really remember the last time I heard Jesus Christ quoted in an A.A. or N.A. meeting…)

  The third edition of the A.A. Big Book does not contain the word “Jesus” anywhere, not even once. Bill Wilson raved constantly about “God”, but didn’t talk about Jesus Christ at all. There is one and only one mention of “Christ” in the entire book, and it is Bill Wilson’s statement that before his hallucinatory experience on belladonna, his so-called “spiritual experience,” he didn’t have much use for Christ:

  With ministers, and the world’s religions, I parted right there. When they talked of a God personal to me, who was love, superhuman strength and direction, I became irritated and my mind snapped shut against such a theory. To Christ I conceded the certainty of a great man, not too closely followed by those who claimed Him. His moral teaching — most excellent. For myself, I had adopted those parts which seemed convenient and not too difficult; the rest I disregarded.
  
  The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, chapter 1, Bill’s Story, pages 10-11.
  
  Apparently, Bill continued to disregard a lot of that stuff even after he “saw the light,” or saw “the God of the preachers”, because Bill never mentioned Jesus or Christ again, not anywhere in the Big Book, not ever.

  The first edition of the Big Book contained one story, “My Wife and I,” that contained a line mentioning Jesus Christ:

  Here were these men who visited me and they, like myself, had tried everything else and although it was plain to be seen none of them were perfect, they were living proof that the sincere attempt to follow the cardinal teaching of Jesus Christ was keeping them sober.
  
  That story was dropped from the second, third, and fourth editions.

  The word “God” appears in the first 164 pages of the Big Book (which William G. Wilson either wrote, co-authored, or edited) 106 times,
  
  the word “Power”, as in “Higher Power” or “that Power, which is God” appears 22 times,
  
  the divine “Him” appears 26 times,
  
  and the divine “His” is used 15 times,
  
  but there is no mention of “Jesus Christ”, not one single mention.
  
  Alcoholics Anonymous is not a Christian religion, no matter what some members like to say. It is a religion all right, in spite of the denials of the members who claim that it is only a “spiritual program.” Alcoholics Anonymous is a Buchmanite religion. Alcoholics Anonymous is just Frank Buchman’s crazy “Oxford Group / Moral Re-Armament” religion, only slightly edited by William G. Wilson and Dr. Robert H. Smith.
  
  Basically, Alcoholics Anonymous believes in and practices the teachings of Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman, another man who had little use for Jesus Christ, because he preferred his own beliefs and teachings to those of Jesus. Bill Wilson did not invent the theology of A.A. — he merely copied it from Frank Buchman.

  In spite of that fact that Bill Wilson tried to hide the strong connections between Frank Buchman and A.A., Buchman’s Oxford Group got three mentions in the third edition of the Big Book, while Christ got only one. (The first two mentions of the Oxford Group are in the Forward to the Second Edition, and the third is on page 218 of the third edition, in the story “He Thought He Could Drink Like A Gentleman”.)

  For that matter, when you consider the fact that Jesus’ first miracle was changing water into wine at a wedding party, there might be a real problem with Jesus being a member of Alcoholics Anonymous… (John 2:1 to 2:11.)

  I am reminded of a contemporary critic of Frank Buchman’s Oxford Group, Pastor H. A. Ironside, who criticized Buchmanism by saying that it was not a Christian religion, in spite of Buchman’s claims that it was, because everything in Buchmanism would still be possible even if Jesus Christ had never been born. The same thing is true of Alcoholics Anonymous. A.A. would not have to change one word of the official church dogma even if Jesus Christ had never been born. The sacred Twelve Steps of Bill Wilson do not mention Jesus Christ, and do not require Jesus Christ in order to work, and the Twelve Steps don’t even require Jesus Christ to have ever existed.

  Neither are the Twelve Steps based on any of the teachings of Jesus Christ. (They are based on the teachings of Dr. Frank Buchman.)

  Alcoholics Anonymous simply has no need for, and no use for, Jesus Christ. A.A. worships Bill Wilson and Doctor Bob, not Jesus Christ.

  Rating: 1 / 5

• #2 by J. Wilson on November 21, 2009 - 1:48 am

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  It was common knowledge among the old-timers that Bill never finished–or even attemped to finish–the 9th step: He claimed the statute of limitations ran out… This is somewhat obvious by noting the tense change in his story in the original book–at the time of its writing he did not claim to have made amends–only that he was “supposed to set right the wrongs”. He never achieved “the promises”, or any regular peace of mind, and spent the remainder of his life chasing many other solutions, including LSD therapy, to battle the terrible depressions he suffered. It’s interesting that, in this book, Bill claims that the 6th step “separates the men from the boys”, when it is almost always the 9th step that takes that something extra to accomplish (apparently, it was too much for him). Further, note the copyright–the year after Bob died. It is likely that Bill didn’t dare print this nonsense while Bob was around. This book is just Bill’s thinking, and is not the consensus of the folks that really worked the program, as the original text is. He was a great salesman, but a very poor example of how to live–his sobriety was as a result of essentially living in the meetings, rather than that of leading a spiritual existence. This book is just his neurotic ramblings, and was written for the sole purpose of generating income for him. Too bad it has distracted so many from the original message.
  Rating: 1 / 5

• #3 by Merna D. Throne on November 21, 2009 - 2:44 am

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  This is a must own book for anyone who is in recovery – one day at a time from alcoholism. Every house should own this as part of your library and reading a bit of it daily. Your healthy sobriety depends on it.

  Sobriety seems very difficult at times, but it passes when you have your structure in place.

  It is soooo worth it!

  Merna

  Pocket of Pearls: A 30-day pocket workbook to start hearing a softer voice inside of you!
  Rating: 5 / 5

• #4 by Summer on November 21, 2009 - 4:54 am

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  This Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions book is core for living —–and for living with our families. The hidden (and usually not talked-about in meetings) problem, though, is that more than 80% of A.A.’ers go home to a still-drinking spouse/child/elderly parent. Learning how to deal with all that is often critical to helping to maintain a sober and more sane daily life. The million-selling Getting Them Sober: You Can Help! (Getting Them Sober) book (endorsed by ‘dear Abby’ and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale) gives literally hundreds of practical and effective ideas on just how to do that.

  Rating: 5 / 5

• #5 by juliebig on November 21, 2009 - 7:35 am

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  I live by this book, order it all the time for work in the treatment industry.
  Rating: 5 / 5