welcome to sober Sunrise a podcast bringing you AA speaker meetings with stories of experience strength and Hope from around the world we bring you several new speakers weekly so be sure to subscribe whether you join us in the morning or at night there’s nothing better than a sober Sunrise we hope that you enjoy today’s speaker thank you everyone my name is Joe and I’m an alcoholic and it’s truly by God’s grace and the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and the program of Alcoholics Anonymous that I found in a book called Alcoholic Anonymous I’m sober today and for that I’m very very thankful hi everybody my name is Charlie parlet I’m a very grateful recovering alcoholic hi Charlie because I’m a member of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and by the grace of the power that I found in the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous I haven’t found necessary to take a drink for 10,516 days today one day at a time and for this I’m grateful great to be here Joe leaned over a while ago and he said Charlie this is one of the finest looking Bunches of sick people we’ve seen in a long time isn’t it great we always uh like to say as we start one of these things that we do not consider ourselves to be the gurus of the big book alcoholics annonymous we don’t consider ourselves to be the experts on anything at all we’re just two old drunks met together several years ago found we had a mutual interest in the big book we studied it together for quite some time hopefully we’ve learned a few few things about it and those few things we’ve learned about it we just love to be able to share them with other people we do not attempt to speak for AA as a whole and you are most certainly free to agree or disagree with anything that we say throughout the entire weekend as you see fit in fact if you hear us saying things that can’t be reconciled with what’s in the big book Alcoholics Anonymous we suggest you just don’t pay any attention to those things and we’ll do our best to keep most of our conversation centered on the book itself if we’re going to uh study the big book Alcoholic Anonymous which of course that’s what we’re here for this weekend I think it would do be well if we would go back and look at just a little bit of the history behind the book be able to see what happened to some of the first people that put this thing together and by looking at that history then it’s going to make it a lot easier to understand the book itself as we go through that and and what we like to do to look at some of the history is go to the forward to the second edition Roman numeral 15 and we’ll start with the last paragraph on that page so everybody that’s got your books if you’re ready Roman numeral 15 and the last paragraph on that page Joe one of the things that’s helped me over the years in studying Bill’s writings and he does this and and most all of his writings so if you kind of follow along with what he does and you can help help you understand some of his writings for instance he’ll always tell us what the problem is then he’ll tell us a solution to that problem and then he’ll give us a practical program of action to implement the solution that he just described he does that in most all cases in his writing so that kind of helped me and understanding how Bill writes so on the bottom of the page on Roman numer page 15 he said the spark that was to flare in the first AA group was struck in Aon Ohio in June 1935 during a talk between a New York stock broker and an physici now we know that New York stock broker to be this fell named Bill Wilson I think we’re treating Bill pretty good when we call him a New York stock broker he really wasn’t he was a New York City stock Speculator he made his living out of selling fast talking to slowth thinking people I don’t won’t take anything away from bill because be is a great man but I think we all need to realize that he’s a real alcoholic just like all the rest of us and understanding that it’ll make it easier to understand the book because after all bill is the primary author of the book The New York the The akan Physician is this fellow named Dr Bob Smith now 6 months earlier the broker had been relieved of his drink Obsession by a sudden spiritual experience following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who’d been in contact with the octal groups of that day a little later on we’re going to get into Bill’s story and we’re going to see in Bill’s story where he had what he always called a vital spiritual experience in the town’s Hospital in December of 1934 but prior to him having that spiritual experience certain things had to take place in Bill’s life and one of the things was at this meeting with the alcoholic friend took place in the latter part of November 1934 and this was a fellow named Abby Thatcher and EBY Thatcher came with Bill and sat down in with Bill in his Bill’s kitchen and he gave Bill what turned out to be two vital pieces of information he said Bill people like you and I Who Have Become absolutely powerless over alcohol if we’re going to recover from that condition we’re going to have to have the aid of a power greater than human power he said the doctors and the ministers and the psychiatrists have tried to help people like us but the human power doesn’t seem to be able to do the job and he said we’ll have to have have the aid of a power G greater than human power and he said I’ve been attending meetings with a group of people called the Oxford groupers and they told me if I could have a spiritual experience that during that spiritual experience I would be able to find that power and I would be able to recover from alcoholism he said also they have given me a practical program of action and they guaranteed me if I would follow that program of action I would have the spiritual experience I would find the power and I would be able to recover from alcoholism and he said look at me Bill it’s been two months since I’ve had a drink now Bill knew about EBY Thatcher and he knew how eie drink in fact Bill had always said if I ever get as bad as eie Thatcher I’m going to quit drinking and here’s eie sitting in Bill’s kitchen and Bill is about 2third drunk and EB’s been sober for two months this made a great impression on Bill when he told him of the solution the vital spiritual experience and he told him of the Practical program of action necessary to have that spiritual experience but that isn’t everything Bill had to know let’s go a little further he said he he had also been greatly helped by the by the late Dr William D silkworth A New York specialist in alcoholism who is now kind of no less than a medical SC by AA members and whose story of of the early days of our society appears in the next pages and from this doctor the broker learned the grave nature of alcoholism again as we get into Bill’s story we’ll be able to see how as far back as the summer of 1933 bill was placed in the town’s hospital for withdrawal from alcohol by Dr silkworth and after he had been in there a few days and his mind kind of cleared up Dr silkworth sat down with Bill and begin to explain to him his idea is about this thing concerning alcoholism and he said bill I do not believe that alcoholism is a matter of willpower I do not believe it’s a matter of moral character and I don’t think sin’s got anything to do with it he said I believe people like you are suffering from an illness and he said it seems to be a very peculiar illness it’s a two-fold illness an illness of the body as well as an illness of the mind and he said I I think what has happened to people like you is you have become absolutely physically allergic to alcohol and it seemed to me as though any time you put any alcohol whatsoever into your system it develops an actual physical craving which makes it virtually impossible for you to stop drinking after you have once started and he said because of that allergy which produces that physical craving you’ll never be able to safely drink alcohol again and he said you also have developed what we refer to as an obsession of the mind and he said an obsession of the mind is an idea that overcomes all other ideas to the contrary and he said it really doesn’t make any difference how badly you want to stop drinking from time to time your obsession of the mind to drink will be so strong that it will overcome any ideas not to drink and your mind will actually lead you to believing it’s okay to take a drink and he said then you will take that drink and then you’ll trigger that allergy and you’ll be unable to stop he said you can’t safely drink because of your body you can’t stay sober because of your mind therefore you’ve become absolutely powerless over alcohol now Bill knew that in the summer of 1933 but knowing the problem didn’t solve it because if shortly after that his mind told him it was okay to drink and he took a drink and triggered the allergy and drank for another year in the summer of 1934 he was placed back in the hospital again to be withdrawn from alcohol by Dr silkworth and this time Dr silkworth pronounced him incurable and told Bill’s wife Lois that this guy is either going to die from DTS or he’s going to become completely insane from a wet brain and you’re going to have to lock him up up or hire bodyguard if you expect him to live and Bill overheard that and he said this time fear sobered him for a bit but then on armus day 1934 his mind told him it was okay to drink and he took a drink and triggered the allergy and couldn’t stop drinking it’s only after EBY came to see and gave him a solution to that problem and gave him a program of action that bill was able to recover so basically he had to know three things he had to know the problem he got that from Dr silkworth he had to know the solution and the program of action that came to him from eie and then bill was able to have his spiritual experience and recover from alcoholism and Abby began to take Bill to these oxal group meetings after that he said though he could not accept all the tenants to the oxal group he was convinced of the need of moral inventory confession of Personality defects restitution of the those harmed helpess to others and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God which were the tenants of the oxa group which were later on expanded into the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous now prior his journey to akan the broke had worked hard with many alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic could help an alcoholic but he succeeded only in keeping sober himself after Bill got out of the hospital that last time he began to try to help other other people he began to go out and and San them up out of the gutters and take them to these Octor group meetings he began to go into the bars and dragging them off a bar stool and taking up the oxer group meetings most of them didn’t want to go but he was taking them any out he’s trying to sober up the world he had lots of enthusiasm but after a few months of trying to do this why nobody was staying sober but Bill and he went to Lois and he said Lois I’m trying to help these people these alcoholics stay sober nobody seems to want to stay sober and he said well she said why don’t you go talk to Dr silkworth and see what he has to say so he went over to talk to Dr silkworth and told him the same story and Dr silw said yes I’ve heard some of the shenanigans you’re pulling out there on the streets he said you know Bill you’re staying sober so obviously trying to help other people is helping you stay sober and he said you’re talking to those drunks about that great spiritual experience that you had and the drunk just won’t accept that he said why don’t you do for them what I did for you why don’t you talk to them about the illness of alcoholism talk to them about the physical allergy and the obsession of the Mind show them through your experience how that worked for you and if they will accept that then maybe you can talk to them about spiritual matters he said bill every alcoholic I know has two questions number one why can’t I drink like I used to without getting drunk all the time and number two why can’t I quit drinking now that I want to and he said if you would explain to them the exact nature of the illness tell them about the physical allergy of the body and the obsession of the Mind you’ll get their attention and he said then after you get their attention you you can talk to them about spirituality but tell them what the problem is first now our book said the broker had gone to acon 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 and that alcoholic turned out to be the akran physician and we all know the story of Bill going to akan he and some other guys that put a business deal together they’re going to take over one of the companies there in akan through a proxy fight and while there the whole thing blew up in their face and his friends all deserted him and left him there in akan standing in the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel low sad and depressed counting the money in his pocket realized he didn’t even have enough money to pay his hotel bill he happened to look through a door off the lobby into the bar and I would assume probably the lights were low in the bar the music was probably playing in the bar the laughter was great and the smoke was thick and Bill’s mind said I believe I’ll go in there and be with people of my kind and I’ll feel better and as he started through the door his mind began to think about taking a drink and Bill suddenly realized that if we were in that bar he was going to end up drunk but he remembered how back in New York City every time he tried to help another alcoholic even though he had failed with them every time he had tried he himself had felt better so he said to himself what I better do is find me a drunk here in akan to talk to made a few phone calls came in contact with a lady named Henryetta cber and Henryetta said yeah I know a guy that you can talk to said let me call him and see if I can’t set up a meeting for you so she calls Dr Bob’s house and got hold of Anne Smith Bob’s wife wife and said there’s a fell here from New York City that says he may have a possible means that Dr Bob could recover from alcoholism can you bring Dr Bob over for a visit and Anne said well I’d like to but she said you know this is the day before Mother’s Day and he brought me home a potted plant and it’s sitting on the table and he’s potted underneath the table she said let me wait until in the morning and see if I can get him to come over so of course the next morning as soon as Dr Bob woke up she set in on him to go over to Henrietta and see this guy and talk to this guy from New York City now you know Dr Bob didn’t feel very good the next morning hung over and felt bad and he said I’m not going and Anne kept after him and kept after him and kept after him and finally finally Dr Bob said I’ll go over there and give that guy 15 minutes of my time and then I’m coming back home so an took him over there and Bill and Bob went into a room by themselves and they stayed in that room for literally hours and Dr Bob came out of that room and he said this is the first man I’ve ever met that knows what he’s talking about when he talks about alcoholism let’s see what happened to him he said the position had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma but it failed bill was surprised to find out Dr Bob was already in the Oxford groups he knew more about the solution the spiritual experience and the program of action that bill knew but he had never been able to apply it to the depth necessary to recover cuz he didn’t know what was wrong with him you see he thought it was willpower he thought it was moral character he thought it was sin why would he not that’s what everybody had told him up until that time and what really interested him was the message that Bill had to carry regarding the problem not the solution not the program of action but what alcohol alcoholism really consists of he said but when the broker gave him Dr silkworth description of alcoholism and his hopelessness The Physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy with a Mal for his Maly with a willingness he had never before been able to mustard he sober never to drink again up to the moment his death in 1950 you know bill went in there and this time for the first time he began to talk to Dr Bob about the allergy to alcoholism he told him that every time he would go down by the bar and had every intention to have a drink or two he he would drink more than he intended to and he drank more that night or the next day and and he’d be off and running again and he said this Dr silkworth had told him that that that was a physical allergy that caused him to want to crave more drinks after he took a drink and Dr Bob said well yes I drank just like that you know you you really know what you’re talking about that’s the way I drink too I would want to have one or two drinks and the next thing I know is I drank three 4 5 10 or 15 or 20 and didn’t know how I got started he said that you call that a physical allergy he said that’s right and he said another thing he said when I’m not drinking when I’m sober I have I have these thoughts that I want to drink all the time it’s always on my mind and Dr silor said that’s the obsession of the mind that we’re obsessed with the idea to drink and Dr Bob said well I I have those same kind of thoughts you really know what you’re talking about so they reached a report through the illness of alcoholism and explained it at great detail and Dr Bob said that’s me that’s just the way I drank you really know what you’re talking about so they had some identification going you know this is the first time that Bill had tried this everybody back in New York City he had always talked to him about the solution the great spiritual experience the big white flash he had had in the town’s hospital but he sit down with Dr Bob he didn’t talk to Dr Bob at all about Dr Bob’s drinking either I’m sure that’s what Dr Bob expected to hear everybody else had talked to him about his drinking but Bill said let me tell you about my drinking and through the sharing of his story talking about his own allergy Dr Bob could see himself immediately in it through the sharing of his own story talking about his obsession of the Mind Dr Bob could see himself immediately in it and he could see where he had become absolutely powerless over alcohol and for the first time he was completely defeated when it comes to alcohol then he began to apply the little program of action to a depth he had never been able to do before then he had a spiritual experience and he recovered from alcoholism too now this seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no non-alcoholic could you know through the sharing of our story with a new person we can affect them as no non-alcoholic could because we have immediate identification about the physical allergy about the obsession of the mind about the way we think and the things that we do it also indicated that strous work one alcoholic with another was vital to permanent recovery remember bill was about to get drunk and he really didn’t go see Dr Bob to sober up Dr Bob he went to see Dr Bob to keep Bill Wilson from drinking so it proved that night that working with another alcoholic was vital for our own recovery too now immediately one of the Oxford Group tenants was you got to give it away if you’re going to keep it so immediately they made a decision we’re going to have to find this another alcoholic to talk to and Dr Bob called the akan city hospital where he was uh where he was actually working at that time talked to the Head Nurse and said do you have an alcoholic down there that we can come hook to We believe We found a way to help them overcome alcoholism and she said oh yeah said we’ve got a real one down here said he just back black both eyes of one of the nurses said we got him tied down in bed and Dr Bob said put him in a private room we’ll be down in the morning to see him and she said okay and by the way Dr Bob have you tried this on yourself so the next morning they go down to see this fellow he’s named Bill doson and you see the the picture in AA rooms all over the world of the man on the bed and this is Bill and Bob sitting there talking to bill doson now they didn’t talk to Bill Dodson about Bill dodson’s drinking they talked to him about their own drinking and through the sharing of their stories bill doson could immediately see what his problem was you see he had never known about the allergy and the obsession of the mind he could accept the fact that he was absolutely powerless over alcohol and he would have to have the aid of a power greater than himself in order to recover they began to talk to him about the need for the spiritual experience how they had found that necessary to apply those things in their lives in order to recover they told him how they applied the little program of action and the results that they got two days later bill Dodson said to his wife get my clothes out out of the closet I’m going home and he gets up and he dresses and he goes home and he starts applying the program of action and lo and behold he had a vital spiritual experience and he recovered from alcoholism also now this makes three of them in the summer of 1935 in akan they all three know the problem they all three know the solution they’ve all three applied the program of action they’ve had a spiritual experience and they have Rec covered from alcoholism so this work continued this work at aan continued through the summer of 1935 there were many failures but there was an occasional hardening success you know we always give credit to Bill and Bob in the first 100 which rightly we should but if we would go back and think about that summer of 1935 these guys really had they didn’t have much idea about what they were doing they had found a few simple things that had worked for them and they would try this on many many different people that summer and if it worked then they would keep it and if something didn’t work they might discard that learning as they went through that summer working with people I know one of Dr Bob’s favorite things was to fill them up with sour kraut juice mixed with honey he knew that there was vitamins in that sauerkraut juice that would help the body and of course the honey was a form of energy and they tried that amongst many different things and every once in a while one of these guys would fall over dead like no M seill turned to Bob and say oh let’s don’t do that again you know I think maybe we ought to give credit to those they failed with that summer too they they probably learned more from their failures than they did from their successes said when the broker returned to New York in the fall of 1935 the first AA group actually been formed though no one realizes at the time you know this little group of uh alcoholics that was going to the Oxford Group you know they were having troubles with the Oxford Group because the Oxford groups had four absolutes and the drunks were having trouble being absolutely anything as we well know they couldn’t practice that and it seemed like that these drunks like to stand off in the corner someplace and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes and tell stories not necessarily Mi mix in with the other Oxford group meeting members so they begin to call them the drunk squad or the oct groups and that’s what they like to separate themselves from the normal uh octal group members the book says a second small group had promptly taken shape at New York when bill went back to New York City he began to apply there what he had learned in acran instead of talking about spirituality he talked to the new people there about the exact nature of the illness and sure enough he got their attention some of them began to respond and a second little group started in New York City and besides there were scattered alcoholics who had picked up the basic ideas in akan or New York and were trying to form AA groups in other cities by late 1937 the number of members having substantial soety time behind them was sufficient to convince the membership that a new light had entered the Dark World of the alcoholic in the summer of 1937 bill was back inactive a gain on a business venture and he decided to go by and see Dr Bob and see how things were going in aan and they sat down in Dr Bob’s kitchen and they counted the number of people they knew that were staying sober based on these three little pieces of information and they found approximately 40 people sober and I think this the first time that they really begin to realize maybe we really have found the answer to this thing called alcoholism and if we found the answer then we need to get it to as many alcoholics as we possibly can so the question immediately becomes well what’s the best way to do that and maybe this is the beginning of the group conscience cuz Bill and Bob decided they didn’t want to make that decision themselves it was too important and they called a meeting of the Oxford Group there in akan and at that meeting that night there was 18 people there some alcoholic some non-alcoholics and the topic of conversation was how can we best carry this message of recovery to the greatest number of people now they decided that night to do three things in those days you could hardly get an an alcoholic in a hospital for detoxification any doctor that put one in there had to lie about their condition alcoholism wasn’t very popular in the 1930s that’s for sure so they decided now remember this is in the midst of the depression now in 1932 nobody has a dime hardly at all and they decided what they needed to do was to build a chain of hospitals stretching all the way across the United States where any alcoholic that needed it would be able to have detoxification I would assume Dr Bob was going to be the head doctor they also felt that this little message of recovery they had was so vital that not everybody could be entrusted with carrying it correctly so they decided they needed to hire a group of individuals train them and then let them spread out across the United States more or less as missionaries to carry this message of recovery I would assume Bill Wilson was going to be the head missionary too then they said you know the Oxford groups have written a lot of books spiritual in nature and they’ve been very popular back in the 1930s people read a lot of books this was in the days before television there really was a time before television believe me there was and they felt that if they could come up with a book on alcoholism what it is and the solution to it and and a way to bring that about the first comprehensive book on alcoholism the world had ever seen that then surely this book would become one of the world’s greatest bestsellers and they can take the profits from the book and build the hospitals and train the missionaries that was one reason behind the book but I think the main reason behind the book was that they had already noticed carrying this message one onone one person to another that it already had begun to be changed and you know how people are when we hear something good well we like to repeat it but we usually add just a little bit to it and then the next one will add a little more and a little more and a little more and after a while it doesn’t resemble the first thing and they said what we really need to do is take these three pieces of information about the problem the solution and a program of action put it down in the written form where it will no longer be changed no longer be garbled and any alcoholic anywhere in the world in the future would have this same information and it would be pure and they made the decision that night to write the big book Alcoholics Anonymous now thank God only one of the three things they decided that night came true they never did get to build a hospitals cuz the book didn’t make very much money in the beginning in the beginning they didn’t get to hire and train the missionaries but they did get to write the book so this determination bore fruit in the spring of 1939 by the publication of this volume the membership had then reached about 100 men and women and after they wrote the book they sat down one night at a meeting and they were trying to determine what are they going to call the book they didn’t they needed the title for the book Someone said well let’s call it the way out that sounds like a pretty good name for a book they did some research on that some later and they found out there was some 10 or 12 other books called the way out so they discarded that somebody else suggested well let’s call it comes the dawn now that sounds like pretty good title for a book and they discussed that while and kicked that around and decided not to do that somebody said let’s call it a 100 men now that really sounds like a good name of a book well then a woman joined the group well they couldn’t call it 100 men and a woman so they discarded that idea Bill Bill suggested that hey let’s call it the Bill W movement they discussed that about five minutes and kicked that out and then one evening someone suggested that that we’re alcoholics and we want to remain anonymous how about Anonymous alcoholics or Alcoholics Anonymous that caught on and that’s so that’s what they call the book alcoholic annonymous and the first alcoholic annonymous that the world has ever seen was a book called alcoholic annonymous and it says here this fledging Society this drunk Squad of the oxra group which had been nameless now begin to be called Alcoholics Anonymous from the title of its own book so we have two alcoholics anonymous don’t we we have a book entitled Alcoholic Anonymous and then we have a fellowship entitled alcoholic synonymous two AAS and we still have that today now I think this is very important for us to think about this group of people who had been nameless or who had been known as the drunk Squad of the Oxford groups wrote a book and in that book they put their program of recovery and they called the book Alcoholics Anonymous then after the book was published they then decided to call themselves Alcoholics Anonymous now in 1939 the program in the book Alcoholics Anonymous and the program in the fellowship Alcoholics Anonymous were exactly the same the book then began to go out across the United States and the first person out here in California got a copy of this book read it studied it did what it said recovered from alcoholism started a group called Alcoholics Anonymous the first person in Arkansas got a copy of this book read it studied did what it said recovered started a group called Alcoholics Anonymous now the growth of the fellowship begin to come from the book alcoholic synonymous now as a fellowship begin to grow and get bigger and bigger and bigger they begin to notice not something that the first 100 didn’t have they begin to notice the great power of a fellowship of people who have escaped from a common problem now the first 100 didn’t have that they only had 100 people period but the fellowship as it grew and got bigger and bigger and bigger and they begin to experience the power of Fellowship they then begin to question the need for the severity of the program in the book and they said do you mean we really have to turn all of our will and our life over the care of God as we understand it can we give him the drinking and keep the rest do you mean we’re going to have to share all of our life story with another human being hell God already knows about it we know about it why tell somebody else they begin to say you mean we have to have God remove all of our character de effects hell we won’t have any personality left if he does and they begin to talk about do you mean we have to make amends to all those people we’ve harmed and they begin to say such things as well maybe we don’t need to do every bit of that maybe we could take some of it and leave some of it maybe we can do it cafeteria style pick what we want and leave that that we don’t want and then along about that time came the Great Advent of the treatment centers now please don’t get us wrong we have nothing against the treatment center they serve a worthwhile purpose but in the treatment centers people begin to hear some other type of words in some other languages they begin to go into a group therapy thing and they get to sit around the tables and talk about their problems and they begin to develop such terms as the Dysfunctional Family and they begin to use such words as chemical dependency and they begin to talk about significant others and they begin to discuss meaningful relationships and they begin to talk about dysfunctional sex and they begin to talk about this and they begin to talk about that and the program in the treatment center wasn’t like the program in the book Alcoholics Anonymous well naturally the new people from the treatment center coming into AA wanted to talk about what they knew to talk about is what they had learned in other places and slowly slowly slowly the program and the fellowship began to change and as the years went by it began to change more and more and more and they began to talk about significant others and they begin to discuss meaningful relationships and they begin to talk about dysfunctional sex and they begin to talk about this and they begin to talk about that and the program in the treatment center wasn’t like the program in the book Alcoholics Anonymous well naturally the new people from the treatment centers coming into AA wanted to talk about what they knew to talk about is what they had learned in other places and slowly slowly slowly the program and the fellowship began to change and as the years went by it begin to change more and more and more we we like to refer to those meetings as group depression meetings you go in there feeling pretty good halfway through the meeting you might as well just go ahead and bl blow your brains out hell it’s not even worth living any longer so what we’re going to talk about this weekend is not the program and the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous today we’re going to talk about the program in the book alcoholics synonymous at the first 100 years which has never been changed and the program and the fellowship has definitely changed the program in the book has never changed let’s go to Roman numeral 20 let’s see how effective this thing used to be when the program in the book and the program in the fellowship were the same so while the in internal diffic our adolescent period were being ironed out public acceptance grew by of AA grew by Leaps and Bounds for this there were two principal reasons the large number of recoveries and reunited homes now these made their Impressions everywhere of Alcoholics who came to AA and really tried 50% got sober at once and remained that way 25% sobered up after some relapses and among the remainder those who stayed on with AA showed Improvement other thousands came to a few AA meetings at first decided they didn’t want the program but great numbers of these about 2 i3 begin to return as time pass if my math is correct that 75% of those people who came to AA in the early days and worked the program is in the book stayed sober eventually I don’t know in my area I don’t know what it’s like in your area but we we can’t talk about 75% we can’t talk about 50% we can’t talk about 25% I doubt if we could talk about 10% truthfully and I the reason for that I believe is that the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous got away from the program that’s in a book called Alcoholics Anonymous and that worked and so what we’re going to do this weekend is as Charlie said we’re going to talk about the fellowship that’s in the program called Alcoholics Anonymous and we’re going to ask each and every one of you to go back to your groups and listen to the conversation that you hear around the tables and see how closely it tallies with the program that’s in the book called alcoholic synonymous and if it doesn’t we suggest you do something about it that’s our charge to you this weekend you know a lot are we older a lot of we older members of Alcoholics Anonymous tend to blame this problem on the newcomer the newcomer comes in here and they want to talk about the only thing they know to talk about and too many of we ow our members have said well we can’t identify with those people anymore so so we’re just going to stay home and we do we’ve abdicated our responsibility for Alcoholics Anonymous we’ve turned it over to the sickest of the sickest who are the newcomers and then we stand back and say look what they’re doing to Raa now I think that’s our responsibility to be sure that every newcomer that walks in the door that we tell them that stuff you’ve learned wherever you learned it is probably good information but that is not AA information here’s AA information and we St start talking about the program of recovery in the book Alcoholics Anonymous and we take them by the hand and we lead them through this program of recovery so they can have a spiritual awakening also I think they call that sponsorship and that’s sorely sorely lacking in AA today but I think that’s our responsibility it’s not the responsibility of the new people it’s the responsibility we older members and we need to stand up and stand Pat and insist that in our meetings we talk about alcoholism recovery there from the program in the book and I’ll just bet you we can see more people recover from alcoholism probably never will get back to 75% but we can certainly do better than we’re doing today now we’re not going to preach anymore that’s all the preaching for this entire weekend I guarantee you hope you don’t believe that now that we know a little bit about the history let’s go back to the table of contents let’s look at it for just a moment and let’s see if we can see the same pattern in this book that the first 100 used do all of you have one of these little folders like this okay we’re going to put a picture up here on this screen and I know some of you will hard to be able to see it at all from its location but you’ll have a picture in that book which will match it if you can’t see it you know I’m I’m in the printing business and I have been all my life and I I print books like this I’ve been in conversation with many people on how to lay out a book and when I started reading this book alcoholics and I guess I must had brain damage or something but uh it never dawned on me that this book was laid out any particular way after all a bunch of old alcoholics wrote it so what would they know about laying out a book I thought so I didn’t pay attention to that come to find out though this book is had they’ve had lots of good information lots of good help with laying out this book this book is laid out in a particular manner to bring about certain ideas each chapter is very very important each page is very very important each paragraph is very very important one paragraph leads to the next the information in that paragraph in that page leads to the next and that’s the way it goes in this book Al call everything is important and it’s laid out in a certain sequence to bring about certain ideas most books have three particular goals especially this one does and the first goal in this book it tells us what the problem is that’s the goal number one and they’re going to use a doctor’s opinion build story basically to tell us what the problem is and then the second goal is going to be the solution they’re going to give us a solution to the problem they described and they know we’re going to have problems with that solution just like they did so they’re going to talk chapter 2 there is a solution chapter three more about alcoholism the solution has to do with spiritual matters and they know we have some of those problems so they wrote down chapter 4 called we agnostics for those of us who had problems in that area then this the third goal is the actions necessary for recovery and beginning and we’re going to begin with how it works in chapter five and chapter six is into action chapter 7 is working with others so this book is laid out in particular reasons to bring about certain ideas all the way across all the way through the book and that helped me in study the book I hear people today talking about going to a step study meeting and they’re always referring to studying the steps out of the 12 and 12 but if you’ll notice that these chapters correspond with the steps also and anytime you’re studying the big book you’re studying the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous in that doctor’s opinion and Bill story we’re going to see nearly all the information a little bit of it in chapter two and three but most of it will be in the doctor’s opinion and Bill’s story we’ll be able to see everything that we need to in order to see what our problem really is and we’ll be able to see where we’re absolutely powerless over alcohol and our lives have become unmanageable and really that’s step one step one if we wanted to boil it down to this one word would be powerless then we can when we can see that powerless condition then obviously the answer to that’s going to be power and remember EBY told Bill it has to be the aid of a power greater than human power so through chapters 2 3 and 4 we’re going to be able to see that power and we’re going to get some new information about spirituality so we’ll be able to come to believe that maybe that power could help us also and there we’re dealing with step two that’s the power we came to believe that a power great in oursel could restore us to sanity well if we are know we’re power l and we know we need the power then the only other thing we need to know is how do you find that power and that’s what chapters 5 six and seven are about there we will see the last 10 steps of alcoholic synonymous and if we follow them we will have a spiritual awakening we will have found the power and we’re no longer powerless over alcohol I read this book for years before I saw that sequence the same identical sequence that bill and Bob and the first 100 had to know what is the problem step one what is the solution step two what is the program of action necessary to find it steps 3 through 12 now you begin to study the book in this manner it becomes a very fascinating book to see how each chapter ties into the next chapter to convey these certain ideas in the proper sequence table of contents okay let’s go over for just a few moments to the preface Roman numeral 11 and the second paragraph on Roman numeral 11 because this book has become the basic text for our society and has helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery there exists a sentiment against any radical changes being made in it therefore the first portion of this volume Des describing the AA recovery program has been left untouched in the course of revisions made for both the second and third editions and I think there’s two ideas there first when we see the words basic text I think we’re alerted to the type book we have in front of us all kind of books in the world today you got novels novels written on fact novels written on fiction biographies autobiographies concordances many kind of books but we also have a book called a textbook and many of us don’t have very fond memories of textbooks every time I saw the word textbook all I could think about was cheat I don’t know why I remembered about how back in school when we used a textbook you had to read and study and do things you didn’t want to do take tests and all that kind of jazz lots of work involved in it and for some people in AA today the very idea of a textbook just completely turns them off but if you would take a textbook in its simplest form really all it is is a means of taking information from the mind of one human or a group of human beings put it down in the written word then transfer that information to the mind of another human being who’s using the textbook and that’s all teaching is a lot of people today say you can’t teach in AA I don’t see why you can’t teaching is nothing more than transferring information from the mind of one person to the mind of another increasing the knowledge of the one who’s being taught we all teach every day and we’re all being taught every day I don’t see how in the world we could ever sponsor and help anybody if we couldn’t teach them what we already know and that’s what a textbook does too a textbook usually assumes that the reader of the book will have very little knowledge of the subject matter normally starts at a very simple level then as the knowledge of the reader increases the material presented becomes more difficult the idea of a textbook on mathematics let’s say my friend Joe here knows nothing at all about mathematics he can’t add he can’t subtract he can’t do any of those things oh he can count in fact he could probably count to 21 if he’s standing there naked and got everything where it belongs he might make 21 20 and A2 actually and if I handed him a textbook on mathematics and I said Joe I want you to go to chapter 5 and work the algebra problems well being a good fell he would go to chapter 5 and look at them but he can’t even add and subtract they just look like marks on paper to him but if I say Joe chapter 1 in this textbook on mathematics deals with the value of numbers in addition and subtraction if you’ll read it and study it and let me help you by the time you’re through with chapter 1 you’ll know how to add and subtract and sure enough he learns how to do that and then I say now let’s go to chapter two based on what you’ve learned in one you can go to chapter two and learn how to multiply and divide and sure enough he does that and then I say now you can go to chapter three and you can learn you can learn fractions and decimals and we gradually prepare his mind for the new information in chapter 5 I think the greatest mistake being made in AA today newcomer comes to door we hand him the book and we say go to chapter 5 and do what it says and you’ll be okay and they go to chapter five and they run into a series of algebra problems step one said we admitted we were powerless over alcohol Our Lives become unmanageable the newcomer said man I’m not powerless over anything they have no idea what we mean by that statement step two said came to believe that a power great and ourselveses could restore us to sanity the newcomers said don’t tell me I’m crazy yeah I do stupid things when I’m drunk but when I’m sober I’m like other people they have no idea what we mean by that statement well if you’re not powerless and you’re not nuts then you don’t need step three to be thinking about turning your will in your life over to the care of something you don’t understand in the first place we present them with an impossible situation if we can do nothing else this weekend I hope we’re going to be able to get over the idea of the value of the doctor’s opinion in the first four chapters there is where we learn what the problem is there is where we learn what the solution is that prepares us for chapter 5 you see chapter 5 starts with step three it’s very difficult to start with three unless you got one and two behind you hopefully we’ll be able to see that I think the other thing that is so important there exist a sentiment against any radical changes being made in it the first edition of The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and by the way this happens to be a second printing of it you’ll notice how big this second printing is uh the actual lettering size is the same as your book today but you’ll also notice that it had very wide margins on the pages the alcoholic mind says the bigger the book The Better it’ll sell so that’s why they call it a big book it’s a big book they printed it on the thick the cheapest old paper they could find cheap paper’s th is real thick and you’ll notice how thick this book actually is doesn’t say a bit more than the book does today but you know that actually the thicker it is certainly the more money it’s worth I think I can see their ideas behind some of this what really amazes me is you notice the color on the dust jacket I can you see some alcoholic in New York City walking down the street with this under his arm trying to remain anonymous the brighter the color the quicker it catches the eye and the better it’s going I can see Bill Wilson all the way through this book real con the first printing came out in 1939 by 1955 the fellowship had changed the stories in the back of the book were there for the newcomer to be able to identify with in 55 since bottom had come up age had come down more and more women coming in they said we need to change those stories in the back of of the book so in 1955 they deleted some stories added some more came out with a second edition but the recovery section remained the same 1976 they did the same thing deleted some stories in the back of the book added some more came out with a third edition but the recovery section remained the same and I think what’s so important for me today is whether I’m reading a first second or third edition we have never changed the recovery section I wonder why we’ve never found it necessary to change it because it works doesn’t it yeah you bet you and why does it work three reasons I think alcoholics haven’t changed a bit they still get drunk they get in jail houses they get in divorce courts they get in KN fights they get in gun battles they get in car wrecks they get in penitentiaries they get in cemeteries they’re still doing the same fun things today they did back in 193 haven’t changed a lick alcohol hasn’t changed the names have changed the bottles have changed the colors have changed but alcohol is the same thing today it was in 1939 human nature never changes it’s the same today as it was in 2,000 years ago and that’s what this book deals with deals with alcoholics alcoholism and human nature therefore we’ve never found it necessary to change it I think that’s probably one of the greatest miracles of alcoholic synonymous you know how we love to change things everybody that’s ever read it certainly has Rewritten it at least twice in their minds collectively though we’ve never found it necessary Joe let’s go to the forward to the first edition Roman numer page 13 He said We and I think that’s probably the largest word in Alcoholic Anonymous we can do what I can’t do we of Alcoholics Anonymous are more than 100 men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless State of Mind and Body they’re already beginning to tell us again that’s what the problem is it’s a seemingly hopeless State of Mind and Body and a little later on tonight we’re going to to separate those two ideas the the body from the mind to talk about them in great detail and it says to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book you notice that the word precisely how we have recovered is in italics Charlie would have you to believe that squiggly writing it isn’t it’s italics squiggly writing yeah and anytime you see squiggly OK he’s got me doing it now anytime you see italic in this book it becomes very very important probably ought to read it again and it says precisely later on in the book we’re going to find words such as specifically exactly with clear-cut directions so this book is not a book on just about how to recover from alcoholism this book is going to tell us precisely specifically exactly with clear-cut dire ctions on how to recover from alcoholism and if I want to recover from alcoholism guess what I need to do it precisely specifically and exactly and try to follow the clear-cut direction as best I can otherwise I may not recover from alcoholism I think we see a couple of things here that’s extremely important first we are more than 100 men and women most books that I read have been authored by one person and when I read a book authored by one person if I see something in there I don’t agree with it with my Keen intellectual alcoholic mind I usually say who in the hell are they to think they’re smarter than I am and I just ignore it but I’ve got to realize with the big book that if I’m going to argue with it I’m going to be arguing with 100 people not one the first 40 said Bill we want you to write the book you know more about it than anybody else you’ve been sober longer than anybody else which by the way was just a little over 3 years at that time but they said bill this is not to be your book it’s to be our book and as you write those chapters we want to see them and we will add to delete from and change around whatever we want to when we’re through with it it’ll be the collective knowledge experience and wisdom of all 40 of us over the time the book was published that 40 had changed to to 100 so if I’m going to argue with it today I’m going to be arguing with 100 men and women not just one person and and it’s going to be 100 men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless State of Mind and Body which brings in the word recovered I hear people argue about this all over the world can you recover from alcoholism the book says you can it said the first 100 had recovered from a seemingly hopeless State of Mind and Body now I’ll never be cured of alcoholism I will always have the physical allergy I’ll never be able to safely drink alcohol again but before I came to AA not only could I not drink it safely but I couldn’t keep from drinking it and the result in fact was I lived in an absolutely hopeless State of Mind and Body and I came to AA and I applied the program of action in this book and I no longer live in that hopeless of Mind and Body I still can’t drink but by golly I can stay sober I’ll never be cured of alcoholism but I have recovered from a state of mind and body known as alcoholism and you’re going to see the word recovered and recovering all the way through the book several times I think that’s important the other thing that is so important is to show other alcoholics precisely how we have done that you know if I uh if I went to an AA potluck meeting and let’s say you you’ve made a strawberry cake which happens to be my favorite kind of cake just in case you’re going to make if you ever make me one that’s the kind I like and I bite into that cake and God it’s just perfect the texture is right the taste is Right everything is just right about it and I say who made this cake well you’ll probably say I did and I’ll say would you tell me how and you say yeah I’ll be glad to and you’ll sit down and write out for me a precise specific clearcut set of directions on how to make that cake you’ll tell me the ingredients to put in it the quantity the ingredients the sequence in which to to mix them together the temperature at which to bake it and how long to bake it now if I take your instructions in my kitchen and I follow them precisely as you’ve laid them out when that thing comes out of the oven and cools off and I bite into it I think I can expect it to taste exactly like your cake tasted but if I get your directions in my kitchen and my Keen intellectual alcoholic mind starts working it may say well I’m not sure about six eggs maybe we ought to just put four in there instead of two cups of sugar I believe it would be better with three instead of baking at 375 surely 4 and a qu would be better instead of baking it for 18 minutes I need to bake it for 25 now when it comes out of the oven and I bite into it you bet you I’m going to be biting into a piece of cake but I want wonder how closely it would resemble your cake which was my reason for making it in the first place a precise specific clear-cut set of directions on how to recover from alcoholism we’ve been around AA long enough to know and fully understand you can’t make anybody do anything that they don’t want to in AA the only requirement for membership and Alcoholics Anonymous is a desired stop drinking you can stand up in an AA meeting and say I don’t like you people at all can hardly drink your lousy old coffee and every time I read you 12 steps I vomit but I’m going to be a member of AA because I got a desire to stay sober and nobody can say a word about that but that’s dealing with membership and the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous if you want to recover from alcoholism there are some things you’re probably going to have to do and that’s what this book deals with it doesn’t deal with membership and the fellowship it deals with recovery from alcoholism and if we will do as these first 100 did then surely we can expect to receive what they got recovery from a hopeless condition of Mind and Body known as alcoholism and the book says for them we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further authentication be necessary we think this account of our experiences will help everyone better understand the alcoholic many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person and besides which we are our way of living has its advantages for all in that statement many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person very important to me cuz when I come to alcoholic synonymous I used to stand in the back of the rooms and I look down at my feet and I was ashamed and I had become everything I detested in a human being certainly thinking that I had an illness of alcoholism was not one of my thoughts my thought was something like this I feel like a no good rotten sob and I’m guilty of everything in the world so I must be good rotten sob and I thought that was what alcoholism was turns out that it wasn’t you know I’ve been married and divorced to two women seven times yeah would you repeat that yeah two of them seven times Phyllis only admits to to two of them but I divorced her once and it wasn’t even my turn so she was three the first one was four and this the second was three I’m not sure that’s a record but all bet getting pretty close to it what do you think I’ve heard some people beat that one but my first wife she was a great old gal and I I used to drink in go places I was one of those traveling drunks you know and I didn’t come back right away either they used to have a statement around my group that caus they said they that he who leaves and does not return stays gone a long time and that was me and from time to time I’d get drunk and go places and then I’d come home as if I’d never been away and when I got home I looked out in my yard and all my stuff’s laying out in the yard y’all know what I mean by stuff don’t you dirty unders shorts dirty shirts unironed clothes you know they never throw anything that’s clean and iron I don’t know why that is they’d file for divorce on me and put a restraining order make off with the money make me mad in hell and I say after all i’ done to I mean after all i’ done for them them treat me like that so I I one time I was gone a while and I decided was trying to get back home you know and I was serious so I went to the preacher that my wife first wife was going to at that time and had a little conversation with him and he said Joe what seems to be your problem he asked me and I didn’t know what the problem was if I knew what I told him man cuz I was serious and uh I said well I’ll tell you what I think the problem is and it’s her if you live with her you’d drink too I said well he gave me a prescription a solution and he said you must and boy did he emphasize that word you must must have faith in these things and he laid them out for me well I couldn’t have any faith in those things you know why because I didn’t even believe them how can you have faith in something that you don’t even believe thank God for the Second Step so I could come to believe but that was to happen sometime later so later on I met and married my other wife we met in a bar the Zebra Lounge I can almost smell it now and we were introduced and she looked at me and said you know Joe you look like my third husband I said my God how many of you had and she said two yeah well I liked her right away and we started drinking and having fun and doing all those things and then uh wasn’t long after we got married till she started throwing my stuff out in the yard filing for divorce on every staying order well this time I went to a psychiatrist and sat down and talk to him paid him $75 an hour and he said Mr McCoy for $75 an hour they’ll call you mister said Mr McCoy what seems to be your problem well I didn’t know what the problem was I didn’t so I told him what I thought it was it was her and her if you live with those two you drink too I said well he gave me a prescription he thought I had a volume deficiency he didn’t miss not drinking so I took the volume and continued to drink and I got into real trouble now I mean really trou I got to where I didn’t know the difference between my job and the bar I didn’t know the difference between my wife and your wife and my wife and my girlfriend I got everything all mixed up got into a lot of trouble so the time I come to the doors of alcoholic synonymous I had become everything I detested in a human being I did not like who I had become and I was very very sick it wasn’t until after I got into listening to in the description of Dr silkor opinion on alcoholism that I began to understand what I had here and it wasn’t that I was a no good rotten SOB I had an illness called alcoholism a physical allergy coupled with Obsession of the mind and somehow or other that information helped me overcome some of these ideas that I had and as I look back now and I know more about this you know the very first 16 printings of this book Al call it Anonymous the doctor’s opinion was on page one 19595 in the second edition they move the doctor’s opinion out of the page one and put it into the Roman numeral sections you all know we don’t read roman numeral section do we who does and I think that most of us in alol synonymous got away from the idea of the doctor’s opinion and just looked at Bill’s story page one but the information in the doctor’s opinion is so important to me and to the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous because the rest of the book is going to tell us how to recover from the condition of the body and the mind that Dr silkworth described and I said I was alcoholic for about 2 years and I didn’t even know what an alcoholic was really so let’s look at the doctor’s opinion in that light we start looking at what the problem actually is and most of us are absolutely amazed to find out what the problem is cuz most of us felt before we came here that it was a matter of willpower that after all we had enough willpower that we ought to be able to control our drinking and we found out that willpower didn’t work then we assumed that we were just crazy or maybe we thought it was moral character or maybe we thought we were just sinful rotten people now why wouldn’t we think that that’s what everybody had told us up to this point and throughout the history of humankind they’ve been trying to find out for thousands of years what alcoholism is you know you really can’t do anything about a problem till you understand the problem and most of the people that tried to determine what alcoholism is were non-alcoholics to start with they were the ones that said it was a lack of willpower they said if you’ll just use your willpower like we do you wouldn’t drink that way they’re the ones said it was moral character they’re the ones that said it was sin we alcoholics didn’t say those things hell we just kept on drinking let them worry about what it is alcoholism is not anything new you’ll find references to alcoholism as far back as human history is recorded you know one of the oldest recordings of human history is to be found in the Bible and in the Book of Proverbs in the Bible there’s some information there about alcoholism you know the Book of Proverbs was written by a fellow named Solomon and you all remember Solomon was a very very wise very learned individual he might have been the first social worker of the world’s ever seen yeah about ever people had a problem they went to Solomon to get the answer for it and apparently somebody asked him one time about alcoholism cuz he describes Us in Proverbs he said who has woe who has sorrow who has wounds with cause who has redness of eyes they that tar long at the wine everybody was a wineo and those days they didn’t have the hard stuff like we got it today he said you will be as one who sleepeth in the midst of the sea you remember how you used to lay down in bed and that old bed start moving around on you or that sleepeth at the top of a tall Mass you know how a mass sways back and forth he said you will say they have beaten me and I felt it not and he surely knew some of us men he said in thine eyes Shall Behold strange women alcoholics really haven’t changed very much are they and thine heart shall utter perverse things like trust me honey please trust me he said un yet they will arise in the morning and seek it yet again almost a perfect description of alcoholism as we know it today but he didn’t have an answer for it cuz he didn’t know what caused it thank you for listening to sober Sunrise if you enjoyed today’s episode please give it a thumbs up as it will help share the message until next time have a great day