Two Centuries Of Failed Cures Before We Finally Understood More About Alcoholism – Joe and Charlie

Anyway, I wanted to welcome you this morning to the Sober Sailors Big Book Study. It's going to be going on all week and this morning we have Bill P. from Hazelden who is going to talk about the history of the Big Book. So here's Bill. My name is Bill Pittman. I'm an alcoholic Deborah's right here and she just gave me a dirty look cuz usually I when I'm doing this when I start speaking I said I wish one of the promise promises would be that things would stay up when you want them to she He told me in October, I couldn't say that from the podium. This is my first cruise. Anyone else on their first cruise? Wow. Boy, it's something, isn't it? Did everybody bring 200 pounds of clothes? I just don't understand how much clothes that is. I was about 51 pounds, so I got a problem. So my first cruise, I've been putting it off a long time. I think it's gonna be great getting out of Minnesota. I live in Minnesota. In fact, here's a picture of where I live. This is out my front window. And those are some arborvitae trees and right 20 foot bank down to a dirt road then a little farmer's link and I had the lake put in when I moved in and no just kidding but we just call it Bill's Lake because nobody it's too little to call it have a name for it And in my backyard, I feed the deer and one of the doe had three families this year. Could you move the chair out of the infrared or whatever this thing is in any way? Great. I live in Center City, Minnesota at 60 miles northeast of Minneapolis. I was born in Minnesota. I'm 56 years old and 24 years sober, a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Started drinking when I was 13 and ended up at 32. Had 19 good years, bad years. The last four years, I tried to stop starting in different treatment centers and different ways. Didn't work. my entry point to this recovery was the Hazleton Foundation that kept me 10 months most of it was in a halfway house I had been reluctant to give up my occupations prior to probably why I couldn't stay sober but I owned a bar and I ran jukeboxes and pinballs and 90 other bars then I had a company of exotic dancers, so. And I think I accidentally married one in Nevada once, so I had to start over as a janitor, then went back to school. I ended up on the East Coast for my master's degree. I was given an internship, the first one ever granted at Alcoholics Anonymous headquarters in 1983 and I worked with Frank Mouser in the archives and my interest in rewriting the big book had changed to finding out how it was written so for about 21 years I've been paid to study the history of Alcoholics Anonymous and to publish books on the subject and to do presentations and it's always nice to team up with Joe and Charlie it's quite an honor and we did the schedule last night at dinner I thought I was going to do it on Friday so I on my first cruise I thought i'd get one of those beginner rooms it's on the second floor or deck it's an inside cabin and as an old Bob Hope joke is I have to go out in the hall to change my mind it's so small so I'm gonna get used to the room I think it's nice and I'm just learning all the ins and outs of cruising so to start off the big book study we're going to do a history of alcoholism and drug addiction in America some new information of how the big book was written. We're going to cover the preface of the big book and the forward to the second edition. I find that studying the Big Book and Alcoholics Anonymous is easier if you put it in a context of the last 200 years in America. So we're gonna go quickly through what America's done about alcoholism get to the writing of the big book here are the five biggest selling books for alcoholics anonymous members starting on the left the big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous 1939 the little red book 1946 the first the second book for members the 12 and 2012, 24-hour day book, and each day a new beginning, Woman's Meditation Book. These are the top-selling books for members. We start in 1800. America was drinking nine gallons per person a year. The average since Prohibition is two gallons per person, so America was very drunk in 1800s. The first guy to write about that was Benjamin Rush. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a physician. And he came up with this moral thermometer. If you drink water, you'll be happy, wealthy. And when you get down to the bottom, whiskey in the morning is going to lead to jail in the gallows down here. So all these temperance organizations started up. And here's a banner of one in 1837. If you're intemperant, it's going to lead to poverty and disease. If you'RE temperant, you're going to be happy and wealthy. This is the theme. And all you had to do to join a temperance society was to sign a pledge card and promise you one drink. And we know that doesn't work with a real alcoholic. Here's a little medallion for staying sober and a pledge from 1841. 1840s, the Washingtonians, six guys in Baltimore got together, thought they'd start an organization to help people sober up and stay sober. It's called the Washingtonian's. Within five years, they had 400,000 members. It was huge. Everybody was joining. here's one of their meetings here's the guy telling this story looks like a newcomer here so their whole deal was just to sign the pledge and promise not to drink and go to meetings they actually did not have a program and Bill Wilson and other people in the 40s look back at this experience because by 1850 they had disappeared because they got co-opted taken over by politician and churches everybody wanted a piece of them and it just disintegrated here's one of their pledge cards I pledged myself to abstain the use alcohol drinks then we start the stereotype of the Skid Row bomb and what alcohol do to people first drink leads to ruin right outside a bar begging outside a bar this is the happy temperance family before alcohol is introduced into the home even with a little cat here here's after they drink a lot there are destitute lost their home and the cats gone too we get all these images out of Harper's Weekly about alcoholism and the evils of. The morning after, it's the devil giving the god of wine a medal for sending everybody to hell. This guy is tempted, persuaded, hardened and wrecked. It's the progress of drinking 100 years ago, 150 years ago. Here's the little girl asking dad to come home the bartender stole here's the sons of temperance pledge card in the 1860s you'll notice they're using the circle triangle if you go to any gas station in America the little plug where the tankers come in and fill it up with gas that company uses circling triangle it's a universal symbol been used forever there's no connection between the sons the temperance use and the use by AA or non-use these days. Another pledge card, the temperances unions weren't doing very good so they started the anti saloon. They thought if they got rid of the saloons then they'd get rid of the alcohol problem. And the women got involved after the Civil War and they weren't too happy about it either. They were pretty aggressive there and the women and they had little groups and pledged groups and they used children and had little all the children joined temperance societies. They're always using protect us and vote for no alcohol in the bars here they are outside of a bar with their Bibles cranes then they tried to block the entrance to bars and their motto was any lips that touched liquor will never touch mine I don't know if that would have stopped me in this case to show how uh alcohol drug addiction has been around forever this is 120 years old this guy is appetite with a whip here's alcohol morphine opium nicotine and gluttony There was a lot of writing, how to cure by doctors and other medical people. Drunkard's diseased appetite, 1877, how it could cure it. There was huge drug problem after the Civil War. Mrs. Winslow's soothing syrup, you could buy this at the drug store. It had opium in it. You put it on your baby's gums for teething. But a lot of moms killed their babies because they gave them too much. All sorts of cures came out with opium or heroin in it. Here's one for tobacco. Another one for tobacco. You can buy this medicine. This one is for, it's an expectorant, opium one grain. I think I would have had a cough. A lot of coughs. You could get all these cures through the paper and they'd send you a little powder and you'd put it in dad's coffee secretly and it was supposed to sober him up forever. This is good stuff, Metcalfe's Cocaine Wine. You can buy it at the store. Wine with cocaine in it. This one's for your stomach, but it's alcohol 20%. here's my favorite another cough remedy alcohol and heroin while all this was going on treatment center started the most famous was the Keeley Institute he ended up with a hundred different treatment centers in America you'd go for 28 days and you take medicine out of these bottles four times a day he never divulged what was in the formula and this is his main office he had centers appears New York here's one in Minneapolis liquor opium and tobacco habit positively cured he never talked to his alumni so he considered them all completely recovered here's another treatment for alcoholism another sanitarium in Connecticut inebriate home opium habit alcoholism the late 1800s positively cured all of this is going on we finally got prohibition and we've seen all the movies about prohibition and how well it worked here's a song sheet no beer no work I want to be here when we get beer back how are we going to wet our whistle on Saturday night and we're always using Campbell's associated with sobriety 1820s one way you could get alcohol during the prohibition was go to your doctor. Here's a guy, a script doctor, and all these guys want him to write a prescription so they can go to the drug store and get their alcohol during prohibition. Most of the beer companies stayed open by doing temperance near beer drinks. Coca-Cola had cocaine in it for a while. Irish root beer started as a temperance drink. We've seen the images about we want beer back and Destroying the beer, alcohol and here's a car wreck from the 1920s. Drunk driving. Not much new there. Here's Carrie Nation. She was kind of really mad. She'd go into the bars with her hatchet, bust them up. There she is again. And some colorful postcards from back in prohibition the morning after the night before I don't know what he's smoking all sorts of things coming in the morning I'm on the water wagon we get this in the big book and 24-hour day book hey we're on a ship water wagon ship here's a real water wagon we're on the water wagon at Fargo North Dakota 1909 I'm new to PowerPoint and this is this is new too so we're going back and forth a little here Another thing is should they get to let the children come into the bar? We need new customers. 100,000 boys are needed each year in the bars. Prohibition. Always the big graphics. The Titanic carried down 1,500 people. Drink carries off 1, 500 men and women every eight days. I just put this in last night because I'm worried about this Titanic stuff with, you know, in case we hit something. The end of Prohibition. Roosevelt gets elected because he promises to bring alcohol back. We have Adolf Hitler beginning his career in 1933. So we got less than a year and a half after that, the beginnings of Alcoholics Anonymous when Prohibition ends. What's not in the big book is as important as what's in it. There's no temperance language and no prohibition language in the Big Book. Very brilliant move they made. June 10th, Dr. Bob's last drink, that's what we call our anniversary when Bill was in Akron. Bill Wilson, his fourth time in treatment, sobers up in December 34 at Towns Hospital in New York City. The building's still there. Towns hospital closed in the 1940s. This is where Dr. Silkworth worked. Another picture of drug addicts, alcoholics, a little doctor who loved drunks. trying to raise money in 38 to get the book on and to keep the office open so he wrote this letter of introduction for Bill and the guys to carry around to whom it may concern it ended up as the doctor's opinion which is half of our program there's our co-founders Bill and Bob with dr. Bob's wife who may be bill referred to as the mother of a she may be the most critical person in the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous and we certainly overlook all the women who started and helped AA and we grossly overlooked the women involved who stayed behind the early AAs. The third guy they sobered up Bill Dotson, the famous picture out of the grapevine, the man on the bed. The big books out a year they need money they have this big fundraiser with the Rockefellers 1940 nothing comes out of it so the big book is out two years 1941 and there's no tradition so they're getting all the publicity they can this article changed the course of Alcoholics Anonymous the Big Book hadn't been selling too good I got 6,000 letters people were writing in how where can I find a meeting Pat Cronin the first member in Minnesota his inquiry was sent to Chicago where there was a couple AAs who came up to Minnesota and started AA in Minnesota and that's how it started all over the country. Did you want some water? I got some here. I think I've got a cruise cold. We're trying to figure out how to put the two little baby beds together to get one big bed in my room. I don't know. I'm trying to. So what happens in 1941 when the membership goes nuts? They get all these inquiries. We start sponsorship. There's a couple of stories on sponsorship. One is sponsorship, you had to sponsor someone into the hospital so they could detox and A's could go to work on them. The A members killed a couple people trying to do it themselves. also the Clarence Snyder version is it's the term used in country clubs before you could join or go to a meeting you had to be sponsored into a vouched for before you can attend an AA meeting in most parts of the country was so strict that you had to go to big book studies and step study classes before you could even attend your first meeting real strict a lot different that's where the little red book comes from the most popular step study regime and they finally put it in a book in 46 quite different you could not walk into a meeting you had to be taken to and go through these courses quite different today you can find meetings everywhere and walk in and sit in the back and leave and not say a word but a lot of groups are changing and when people are walking in the room they're saying I'm your sponsor so we're going back a little Raleigh Hemsley was a catcher for the Cleveland Indians they sobered him up so here he is national publicity trying to promote AA by using someone on the waterway here they're trying to hide their anonymity with lone ranger may mass they drink no more there on the water wagon Marty man Bill Wilson New Haven 1945 they had to address the fact that most days were still taking other drugs our co-founders were duly addicted and so Bill put out all these articles finally telling any members you got to quit all mood altering drugs and it worked and we got back singleness of purpose even took on a bigger meeting in 1945 woman drunkards pitiful creatures get helping hand this is just just a reflection of the 40s women, it was hard for them to go to meetings. Now Alcoholics Anonymous tackles the ladies' house problem. So thank God some things have changed from the 40s. We showed you those old graphics. Here's some from the grapevine that kind of looked just like a hundred years before. Here is Rum River and death across the A bridge over to Saniya all over the country people put out can openers that means intergroups and a members around the country put out little pamphlets because there wasn't much literature here's one out of Nashville it's fascinating to read all the can open errs from the 40s there's some more grapevine graphics alcohol hell the guy trying to get up here's Johnny one step he thinks it's an escalator just sit on the first step and ride up a members rent more hotel rooms in the other group in America but nobody knows about it every five years we have a world convention there's just a shot from Minneapolis, Toronto 2005. Anybody want to hear about Toronto? Anybody going? Well you maybe maybe you can't go. When they picked Toronto there weren't the rules that are in place right now if you've had any type of criminal activity whether it was a hundred years ago they're not letting anybody in so AA is AA is working with Canada to get the laws changed, or the rules changed. So we can all go up there. During the 1940s, Bill Wilson, Marty Mann took over this farm, called it High Watch. It's still in existence. AA members started treatment centers. They were called Jitter Joints. This is still 1940. Here's Hazleton. this is the farm that was bought in the late 40's by some businessmen as a jitter joint. Here's Hazleton today my office is over there. Isolated Isolating Well we'll stop just for a second How are we doing on time? 925 okay all right let's just stop now we're up we've just gone 130 some years any questions right now before we talk about the writing of the big book Atlanta 2010 okay that's Georgia right all right any other questions about okay over here yeah the Akron intergroup still sells the ones that they produce and and intergroups all over the country still sell their early pamphlets. Question way back here? Okay, I'll speak a little louder. There's a question? Yeah, the grapevine is just about to have every issue on the internet to look at June in June we got grapevine representative over here question back there can opener was just open up for the newcomer the information about the steps open up the program for the new commenter newcomer okay Bill Sobers up in December 34. He meets Bob, Bill goes back to New York after spending the summer there. They start to sober up other people but they're all in the Oxford group at the time and we'll get to the Oxford group in a second. So the Oxford group leader wants to align himself with Hitler in 38 so these guys say let's get away from the Oxford Group plus they kind of wanted to do their own thing and the driving force behind that was Hank Parkhurst his stories in the first edition of the big book, The Unbeliever. So he came up with an outline of what the big books should contain. They did have to sell stock to a lot of people to raise money. You have to pay the printer first before you can get your book and thank God the book sold slowly and they were able to buy it back before the book took off trying to raise money they wrote an eight-page report I don't know if anybody started a foundation you have to have a lot of reports but before the big book here's Hank Parker's writing we need to do a volume a book and it has to serve as a textbook which kind of is an interesting statement before they start writing the book. And I'm sure Joe and Charlie will get into that. Here's Hank Parker's outline of what should be in the book, writing notes why there should be a big book, questions that should be answered. So they assigned Bill to be the author and here's what he'd do. He'd write longhand, he'd take it to Ruth Hock and they type it up for all you authors and publishers. He's counting words up here. This is part of his story early early version. After it was typed up I went to Akron for their comments then back to New York for their comments so it was quite it's a wee book which is why the 164 pages are as good the day is and will always will be it's a lot of thinking went in here's the first chapter it was there as a solution one of the first drafts I've never seen one single case in which alcohol-mindedness was established in this doesn't sound anything like it no story was number two I don't think he liked it, so it may have moved to one. At the age of 10, I went to be with my grandfather and grandma. That's how a bill story starts, the first draft. Something peculiar happened in April. I got a call from Bauman Rare Books in New York City. It's a very sophisticated and expensive rare book dealer. An individual had brought in a manuscript and they called me to fly out and verify it. After they sent out the multi-lyth after they'd finished the big book and all these edits came back they put all the changes into one manuscript and took it to the printer and it says A comes of age. It was so messy that Bill and Hank and other people had to sit with the typesetter so they could typeset the bigbook. Well, what came into Baumann Rare Book was the printer's manuscript, which had been missing for 25 years. It was given to Barry Leach by Ruth Hock in 77. So I went out and looked at it, and unfortunately $400,000 in its years, but I got a lot of information I'll share with you from the book. I've written 16 books myself and helped publish 80 books. And people can take a lot of liberties when they're writing a book. A lot of people think Bill Wilson sat down and what he wrote out is in the big book. One of the last ditch huge arguments before the printing was the fact that the word God was too much in the Big Book. Hank Parkhurst won out and he added these four paragraphs to Bill's story. where we have universal mind, creative intelligence, universal mind. And one of my favorite sentences, and you can tell the style has changed. You can pick this up through the big book. Here's this handwritten, Hank's handwriting of those four paragraphs. Probably one of My Famous, as a writer, this is an unbelievable sentence. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last. You'll see different things like that through the big book. That's his handwriting of that section. So here's what I saw. This is what went to the printer. Here's the preface. Now when anybody who's an editor, you know, after you've edited a book, which it was, and you take it back to the authors, they have to okay each page. I just did that last week on a new book. So okay up here means these changes have been okayed by everyone. Okay. This is the forward as it, or called the preface that's in the big book. See they added we have recovered here. Here's just a couple more pages. You can see all the notes changing, the last ditch change of the book. Matter of control instead of condition. I don't know if anybody has ever picked this up but they sure did and they let it go. Page 23 therefore the main problem the alcoholic centers in his mind rather than body it's if you check out the doctor's opinion it's a little contradictory and they knew it and they didn't do anything about it that's okay pretty minor here's all this changes there is a solution they really went after this paragraph what medical information supports what we're saying here they have okay do people like to be told that they will be instructed in form or do you want to put instruct in there here we go some more changes here's an interesting one remove no matter how well we understand ourselves because every psychiatrist would argue that saying if we understood ourselves well enough we would never do anything harmful to ourselves. This is now another critical juncture when they changed the multi-lyth copy to you must to we. And that's mostly the pronoun changes in this. Well, just to stop a little, I said that there's no prohibition language. AA does not take any position on alcohol as a beverage, which is brilliant. It's just real alcoholics. This is a real mean-spirited paragraph. Never to show intolerance, hatred. We are not witch burners, had it not been for stupidity. Anything about alcohol, buy one who hates it. They're really slamming right there. Here's some more notes of Hank's. I love this one, OK by Townes. Charles Townes, OK in the big book. Now, the way the big book is set up, there's warnings and promises and instructions. And I've been lucky enough to read almost all that currently exists of all the drafts of the big book. And the big book is so calculated, every word they thought over. There's not, everything was thought over, over and over and over by a lot of people. So they scare you, they ask you to do a lot, then they give you a break. And this is something that really shook me up, it's the promises. After the eighth and ninth step, they stop the book in its tracks, do the promises, and here's what's in the margin with Bill's handwriting. This is our one chance to free ourselves of criticism. So they're very calculated in knowing that they better stop the book for a second. They've asked people to do a lot and to give them some uplift and do the promises. It's almost like 151 with the four horsemen going over to the jumping off place, which I think is the scariest paragraph. two paragraphs later freedom from boredom most satisfactory years of your life lie ahead one of the most beautiful promises paragraph right after the scariest one I think in the book I surrender thee my entire life oh God I have made a mess of it trying to run it myself you take it the whole thing and run it for me according to your will and plan that was written five years before the big book by bc kitchen i was a pagan he was an oxford group member and sobered up in the oxford room sound familiar here's some more oxford literature i'm talking about william james williamjames is so intertwined with the actual group in aa and Bob talked about that last night here we got higher power in one of the Oxford group books does this look familiar this is an Oxford group book little chart kind of a looks like four-step work here here's two fish I caught in Florida. That was the last winter, that was last winter. Okay we've gone quickly through how the process of writing the big book and how in my research how calculated the book is, because nobody's beaten the book. If you're a real alcoholic no one has ever beaten 164 pages including The Doctor's Opinion So the big book is published in April 1939. There's 80 people involved, 80 plus including in the 80 are non-alcoholics Towns Silkworth, Thiebaud, Shoemaker, Rockefeller at that one moment when it was published they all may not have liked each other they may not have all completely agreed on everything in the book but they stood together at that one time and the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and the fellowship were one and I think we'll talk about that for a couple days here so I love the period the 1940s when I went to AA I was three years sober and I wanted to help write a book at AA headquarters of course my ego is always interesting so Frank said that Bill Wilson had had the foresight to hire a clipping service meaning that every time Alcoholics Anonymous was mentioned in any newspaper in America that newspaper article would be sent to AA headquarters and he did it in 1939 and they had them professionally bound into big volumes so I show up at AA and Frank says we need an annotated index of this so 7,000 articles later up to 1946 I'm working on the project but it's fascinating. It is the first mention in each city in America when AA started and just to watch AA develop around the country, but there was also other articles in there because we didn't have traditions. We had Texas AA members on the podium arguing with prohibitionists. we had headlines a member shot by spawn see alcoholics anonymous member gets sued by wife because he goes to too many meetings these were headlines so this flying blind period into the adolescent period. In 1955, the second edition of the Big Book came out. At that time there were 6,000 groups, 150,000 members and it was in 50 foreign countries. You read in the forward to the second edition the reason they did another edition, to update the stories and make it reflect more of the people in the fellowship. And they did a lot of history updating in that forward. It's kind of a long forward. Anyone else have a... We're getting into the business history of AA, which is fascinating but not talked about much. Any other reason you can think of we went to a new addition in 55? What? Money? Back in the back here. I can't hear you. Closer, the stories reflect more of the membership. Hank Parkhurst, right after the big book and some concern with Ruth Hock and Bill and all that, got drunk and he died drunk. A lot of the early AAs whose stories were in the first edition sued AA to get money, royalties. So the best way to take care of that was to take their stories out. But not many people know that history. That's the back story. We'll just keep it back there. The what? Hank Parker's book is all of a sudden in the back. Okay. In the foreword of the second edition, it finally mentions the Oxford Group. It says we got moral inventory, confession of personal defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, necessity of belief and dependence upon God. And if you'll read on page 9 of Bill, he could have written that in 1939, but all he says about Ebby is that Ebby brought him a simple religious idea and a practical program of action. Dr. Bob had been going to the Oxford Group two years before he met Bill. So when Bill brought the idea from Silkworth can't use, can't quit can't change, obsession, allergy things clicked for Dr. Rob and he put together his ideas from the Oxford group as Bill did. So the blind period ends, and it says in the second edition during the 40s after the big book, we enter the fearsome and exciting adolescent period. And as I mentioned all the mistakes made in the 40's. You know, I find it real funny when I hear A's complain about problems in A. Well, you should study the 40'S. I mean, there's no problems today. There's just little circular arguments to go around. So we got the traditions 1950 adopted at our first conference. Also says in the forward of the second edition, the reason we've been successful is we've had public acceptance and so many large numbers of recoveries have resulted, and we've united a lot of homes. There's always, boy I get this question all the time. As they put this in the second edition, they claim 50% who came and tried got sober at once and remained, 25% sobered up after some relapse. Remainder who stayed showed improvement. Thousands who came to a few meetings and didn't want the program, two-thirds returned as the time passed. I think that's true in the 50s. And we'll get into a little more discussion on that as we move along. They also claim membership increased 7% a year at the time of the printing of this second edition. In the end, the last sentence, like they're ending page 164, I find that interesting in the foreword of the second edition, join us on the high road to a new freedom. And this sort of concludes this lecture on America's response to alcohol and drug addiction, the starting of AA, the writing of the big book, the 1940s in AA, and up to the second edition. Any questions or comments or discussion? We have some time left and I'd be happy to talk about anything. Back here. It was one of the reasons that they had the 50% success rate because of the strict sponsorship at that time. Sponsored into the program, taken to the program. Yes, I think it was part of why it was successful. And you have to remember that Bill had just lowered the bottom in the 12 and 12 in step one. Bill corrects a lot of the big book in the twelve and twelve, especially the fourth step and the twelfth step. I do think the 1950s were different than 2004. I think the demographic of who was coming into the fellowship was different. I think they were more in tune of how to sponsor people and to teach them the program the fellowship supports this the program is in the book we need something in our bank account if you don't know what's in the first 164 pages when you run into the daily problems ups and downs which I do every day because I wake up crazy every day I got to get my head on straight and I don't do very well working for a big company but if I let too many days like that go along a chemical solution is appealing so I think it was different in the 50s and I think that's accurate and I thank sponsorship and the step study and the study of the big book another question yeah over here rewards what are they the 12 rewards what area are we in here you read you read the 12 Rewards at your meeting you want to tell me what they hope instead of desperation I compiled a list with the help of no wing of 250 slogans used by a members and we can't find where any of them came from so it's just something local it's serendipity we don't know Art Carney's brother was in New York read an obituary in the New York Times 1940. The serenity prayer was in there. He went down and had it printed on little business cards, took it down to Ruth Hawk, said this is a good prayer, put it in the big books you're shipping out. And they selected big paper on the first printing of the big book as you can. And when it got back to the office and they saw the first copies because it was so thick they said boy that's a big book most often questioned when I worked at the grapevine think think think the slogans appeared with think-think-think in the grapevine in the mid 50s there's absolutely no reason someone told me in California last week oh this was this guy he's following me around he said it comes from IBM in the 1950s I think they needed a fifth slogan it sounds good some clubhouses they put it upside down down and if they're real smart clubhouses they'll put the slogans in the right order so you have slogan number six who knows slogan note in the next one if you put the slogan to the right order well in the next couple days we'll figure that out but there's there's absolutely no written history in the archives or anything of why except Someone just sitting there, the artist drawing up the calligraphy, put them in. Think, think, think. Turn it over. No evidence. Think, thing, thing. Turn it all over. It just sounds good. It's been adopted. It sounds good day at a time. Yeah, that's a good one. One big thing, two little things. It could be two little thanks and one big thing. And that's from Joe C. Thank you. When I go down to meetings down to Wolf Street with Joe McWaney, they hold up a little sign when questions go around the big book study. It's how important is it? Then they move on to the discussion. Another question here? the fellowship of the spirit the quote from the big book you believe the fellowship of the Spirit is all of us here The fellowship of the Spirit is your relationship with your higher power. They're both correct. Another thing about how I calculated the big book is there are not a thousand ideas in the first 164 pages. There's only three or four repeated a thousand times. Okay, a couple more minutes. Atlanta, Georgia, 2010. 2010, okay. Up only three in a while and we're going to fall into the second edition you had describing the rate of 7%? 7% increase each year, yes. Yes. Okay, they put it back 20% pyramid. Okay, there's some It was reprinted A pyramid of 20% went retroactive Into the second edition I'm not familiar with The original one Was 20% To change to change the second but the numbers change the numbers okay all right well and what year was that well there's sell a lot of big books in the 80s so okay works publishing was disbanded, turned into the Alcoholic Foundation. Don Prince is here and other people. I hope I just said that right. I'll be corrected, I hope. The phrase, we are not a glum lot. We are not a glom lot, the phrase. Where'd it come from? What page is it on? 132. Where'd I come from, the person who wrote it? A doctor? Dr. Alcoholic Addict put it in. Dr. Paul put it in. Okay. Exactly in the middle of the page. Okay, a question way in the back. I can see the ocean out there. We're on a cruise ship. Okay. Rule 62. Remember in the early 40s, I said that a lot of groups were strict? So one group sent Bill 61 rules that they had in their clubhouse. He wrote them back and he said, why don't you add rule 62? Don't take yourself so seriously. Another question? Oh, wow, hot one here. Okay, there's a question. Okay, Bill Wilson corrected the big book in the 12 and 12. The chapter on the 12th step in the big book is only about one third of the 12 step. If you read in the twelve and twelve he starts out by saying the entire implication of the steps so he addresses the other two parts. The fourth step he clarifies, he puts instincts in there to help us along. The first step he lowers the bottom you don't have to be like all the early guys other people can come in younger people. There's a question yeah? What's the percentage of alcoholics to the general population? Alcoholics, the general population, that'd be 5%. How about on a cruise ship? We're out of the country. I don't care if you got a lot of PhDs, which I went to PhD coursework at NYU. I finished my schooling in alcohol studies. I just got a better sense of humor. alcoholics don't tell you the truth when they're drinking and they move everywhere when they sober up so who knows how many there are where they are or who they are 10 to 15 percent yeah there's always people who have an interest in putting out percentages Okay, Bob talked last night about having a hole in his stomach that he filled with alcohol and drugs and who knows what else. Was this in Las Vegas you were filling that up? Pennsylvania, okay. The instructions in the book that we're going to learn, Joe and Charlie are going to teach. Fill that hole. Put God back in that missing part. Now, the phenomenon of Joe and Charlie in the 70s coming out of Wesley Parish and other influences. We got something out of Winnipeg, the Golden Slippers and Mac. We got the AWOL program on the Northeast Coast out of the Little Red Book. AA has always had people studying and practicing what's written in the book. If you attend a Joe and Charlie seminar and start not to just look at the words, the notes and you look at the book, you put all the notes together, you'll hear the music in the book. And you'll start to hear it wherever you go around AAs all over the country. Well, I'm going to be done. I think I'm done. I'm gonna be done, I should be done Okay, thanks. If you'll take your seats, we're going to begin. Would you join me in a little opening prayer? Lord help me to set aside everything I think I know about you Everything I think I know About myself Everything I know About others And everything I know About my own recovery For a new experience in you Lord A new experience In myself A new Experience In my fellows And a much needed New experience In my own Recovery Amen A couple house cleaning announcements, and these were made, but we want to make sure you guys understand that there has been a workshop added on Tuesday morning. And the reason it was added is that we don't dock in Roton until noon. So that gives us enough space to, with some continuity, continue through the big book study, gives us genug time to attempt to finish it. And that will be from 9.30 to 11.30, Tuesday morning, here in this room. And then also the Friday workshop that's starting at 10 a.m. will actually start at 9 a.am. So the morning workshops will all – 9. 30, I'm sorry, 9. 30 a. m., the morning workshops. And then Tuesday, additional workshop here inthis room, 9 30 to 11 30. Hello, 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 Alcoholic Anonymous that comes from a book called Alcoholics Anonymous. I'm sober this morning, and today I'm very, very thankful. And I've been sober ever since I can remember. Just think about that. I haven't heard the preamble read lately, so I'd like to read it, please. AlcoholicsAnonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve the common problem to help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership. We are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution, does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and to help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. I jumped up here after the break and had to go to the restroom. I went in the restroom, and this lady was tapping me on the shoulder. She said, are you Joe? Joe and Charlie said, yes ma'am. Did she ever get nervous? I said, not really. She says, well, you're in the ladies' restroom. So I'll settle down here in a minute, I hope. Bob and I have a complaint. Charlie here is on a throne higher than we are by about two inches. We kind of resent that. No. I think that's great, don't you? Yeah. Good morning, everybody. My name is Charlie Parman, and I'm a very grateful recovering alcoholic because I'm a member of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. And by the grace of the power that I've found in the 12-step program of Alcoholic Anonymous, I haven't found necessary to take a drink for 12,548 days today, one day at a time. And for this I'm very grateful. You guys look great. Joe leaned over here a while ago and he said, Charlie, isn't this the greatest, best looking bunch of sick people you've seen in a long time? We always like to say as we start in on one of these things that we do not consider ourselves to be the gurus of the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous. We don't consider ourselves to be the experts on anything at all. We're just some old drunks met together several years ago, studied the Big Books together for quite some time. Hopefully we've learned a few things about it. 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 as you see fit. In fact, if you hear us saying things that can't be reconciled with what's in the big book, we suggest you just don't pay any attention to those things at all and we'll do our best to keep our comments on the big books. We fully realize that the mind will only absorb about what the rear end will say and if you've noticed on the program some of these sessions do become quite long. And if you feel the need to get up and move around, please feel free to do so. That's not going to bother us at all. If you feelthe need to go get a cup of coffee or go smoke a cigarette, please feelfree to do that. It's notgoing to botherus at all Or if youfeel the needto go get ridofacupofcoffee, please feelfreetodo that too. There's no sense in sitting thereand suffering in silence when it's not necessary to doso. Our book saysthat we are meant to be joyous happy and free. We love to have fun. We love to laugh. We love to cut up. We love to enjoy ourselves. We love to hear other people laugh also. And from time to time we'll stop whatever we're doing, tell a little joke just to get some humor started. And if we tell a joke and it isn't funny well hell go ahead and laugh anyhow. It'll make you feel better and make us feel better and make everybody else feel better too. And when we're on one of these cruises doing a big book study, I always like to start with a little short story. It has nothing to do with a bigbook, but I think it's appropriate for people like us. It's a story about a ship called the USS Constitution. And it said on August 23, 1979, the U.S. Constitution set sail from Boston with 475 officers and men on board. She had 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder, and 79,000 gallons of rum. Now she had permission to harass and destroy English shipping. Making Jamaica on October the 6th, she took on 825 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. Then she headed for the Azores where she arrived on November the 12th. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 54,300 gallons of Portuguese wine. On November the 18th, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days, she defeated five British men at war, captured and scuttled twelve English merchant men, salvaging only the Rome. By January 27th, her powder and shot were exhausted. unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde and her landing party captured a whiskey distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of whiskey aboard by dawn then she headed for home the USS Constitution arrived in Boston Harbor in February 1780 with no cannon shot no food no powder no rum no whiskey no wine and 48,600 gallons of stagnant water. Seem like we've always had a problem with booze, right? If we're going to talk about the Big Book which of course we plan on doing that this week We also like to go back and look at a little bit of the history of it. Bill did a great job long ago, really did a fine job on the history of the big book Alcoholics Anonymous. But we want to look at just a little Bit of It too from the book itself because if we look at some of the things that the guys had to do who put this thing together in the first place, it's going to make it a lot easier to understand it. and as we go through the book we're going to find that some of this history is going to be repeated for us over and over and over so what we really like to do is start with the forward to the second edition if you guys are ready we'll open our books and we'll go to the forward tothe second edition and let's go to the last paragraph on that page and look at just a little bit of history that's on Roman numeral page 15 that's XB The spark that was the flare in the first AA group was struck at Akron, Ohio in June 1935 during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician. Now we know that New York Stockbroker to be this fellow named Bill Wilson. I think we're treating Bill pretty good when we call him a New Yorke Stockbrokker. He really wasn't. He was a New york city stock speculator. He made his living out of selling fast talk and the slow thinking people. Don't want to take anything away from Bill. he was a great man. But we all need to realize he's real alcoholic, just like all the rest of us are. The Akron physician is this fellow named Dr. Bob Smith. Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drinking session by a sudden spiritual experience following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford group for that day. A little later as we get into Bill's story, and Bill Pittman referred to this while ago, he's referring to a fellow named Ebi Thatcher. And Ebi Thacher was an old school friend and an old drinking buddy of Bill's. And Evi sat down with Bill in Bill's kitchen and he gave Bill what turned out to be two very, very important 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. And he said, I've been attending meetings with a group of people called the Oxford Groups. And he says, they told me if I could have a vital spiritual experience that during that spiritual experience I would find the power greater than human power and I would be able to recover from alcoholism. So he gave Bill the solution to the problem of alcohol, the vital spiritual experience, the finding of the power greater than human power. But he also said, Bill, these people gave me a practical program of action and they told me if I would follow that program of action, I would have the vital spiritual experience. And he said, look at me, Bill. It's been two months since I've had a drink. And this made a hell of an impression on Bill because he knew about Ebby. And you knew how Ebi drank. And he knew that if Ebi was staying sober, some power greater than human power had to be working in Ebi's life. Bill had always said, If I ever get as bad as Ebi Thatcher, I'm going to quit drinking. And here's Bill sitting there about two-thirds drunk, and Ebi has been sober for two months. So this made a real impression on Bill. Ebi gave him two things. He gave him the solution to alcoholism, the need for the vital spiritual experience, the finding of the power greater than human power. He also gave him the program of action necessary in order to find that power. So two of the things that Bill needed to recover came from this fellow called Eddie Thatcher. You see, he'd also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William B. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now kind no less than a medical saint by AA members and whose story of the early days of our society appears in the next pages. Also, we're going to see when we get into Bill's story that when Bill was placed in the town's hospital in the summer of 1933, there to be withdrawn for the first time from alcohol by Dr. Silkworth. Our friend Bob talked about this in great detail last night during the meeting. Dr. silkworth sat down with bill and he explained to bill these ideas that he had gained regarding alcoholism. And he said, Bill, I do not believe that alcoholism is a problem of willpower. I don't believe that it's moral character. I don' t think sin has got anything to do with it. He said, I believe people like you are suffering from an illness and it is a very peculiar illness. It seems to be a two-fold illness. An illness of the body as well as an illness ofthe mind. And he said, Bill, I believe people like you have developed an actual physical allergy to alcohol. And every time you put any alcohol in your system whatsoever, it develops an actual, physical craving that is so strong that you can't stop drinking after you once start. And he says, because of that, you'll never be able to safely drink alcohol again. But he said Bill, that's only half of your problem. He said, I also believe people like you have developed what we refer to as an obsession of the mind. And he said, an obsession with the mind is an idea that overcomes all ideas to the contrary. An obsession with a mind is so strong it can make you believe a lie. And he says, the truth is you can't successfully, safely drink alcohol. And he said, but from time to time your mind is going to tell you that it's okay to take a drink. And believing it's Okay to take A drink, you'll take a Drink. And the figure of physical allergy will take over and you'll end up drunk every time. He said, You can't safely drink because of the physical allergy and you can't stay sober because of The obsession of the mind. Therefore, you have become absolutely powerless over alcohol. Bill knew that in the summer of 1933. For the first time in his life, he understood his problem. You see, he always thought it was willpower. He always thought it was moral character. He always though it was sin. Why should he not? That's what everybody had told him up until that time. But when Dr. Silkworth explained to him his ideas about alcoholism and illness, for the first thing, for the very first time, Bill understood the problem. So he had to know all three of these things in order to recover. He had to known what is the problem, he had know what is a solution, and he had known the program of action necessary to find that solution. And then he recovered from alcoholism.