The Oxford Group and Service – Practicing These Principles Workshop – Part 4 of 5 – Michael E.

And we're talking about applying these principles in all of our affairs. And earlier we mentioned principles according to the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous is referring to the steps. So that means that we're going to apply these steps in all of our fairs. This is a way of living that hopefully we will use for the rest of our life. Does anybody have their big books with them? If you do, you might want to read along with me. We're just going to read a few things out of the big book. So for right now, go to page 13. And we're going to talk a little bit about the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. We're starting on 13 where it says, this is Bill going into the hospital for the last time. He just had a visit from Ebby Thatcher and he was going to meetings of the Oxford group getting a little of it under his belt then he drank again and then he goes into the hospital for that last time. It says, at the hospital I was separated from alcohol for the last time. Treatment seemed wise, for I showed signs of delirium tremens. There I humbly offered myself to God as I then understood him to do with me as he would. I placed myself unreservedly under his care and direction. I admitted for the first time that of myself I was nothing, that without him I was lost. I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my newfound friends take them away root and branch. I have not had a drink since. My schoolmate, meaning Evie, visited me and I fully acquainted him with my problems and deficiencies. We made a list of people I had hurt and toward whom I felt resentment. I expressed my entire willingness to approach these individuals admitting my wrong. Never was I to be critical of them. I was to write all such matters to the utmost of my ability. Can you see this is Bill actually going through the steps? They don't have numbers. This is still the Oxford group, so it's called a set of principles, so Bill is actually taking and applying these principles. I was to test my thinking by the new God consciousness within. Common sense would thus become uncommon sense. I was To sit quietly when in doubt, Asking only for direction and strength To meet my problems as he would have me. Never was I to pray for myself except as my request for on my usefulness to others. Then only might I expect to receive, but that would be in great measure. One thing I want to say about what we just read here, never was I to pray for myself except as My request for on My usefulness for others. You know, a lot of people think that you can't pray for yourself, you can only pray for other people and the knowledge of God's will. This is basically, though, saying we can pray for ourselves if it will benefit other people. The big book says this is a program of attraction. And if we're groveling out there and we're unemployable and we don't have a car and just life, S-U-C-Ks, I mean, no one's going to be attracted to that. We can do that out there drinking. So God wants us to be the very best that we can be so that we are an attraction. And so it's fine to pray for the right car. It's fine for you to pray. It's also fine to pay for the job, be self-supporting through your own contributions. You can put $2 in the basket. You can give somebody a ride to a meeting. And I was told it was even fine to pray for the right relationship because that's the natural instinct that God gave us. But we don't praise for specifics. You know, God knows what's right for us more than we do for ourselves. And to pray from Mercedes Benz is a little bit selfish and self-centered. So that's what we avoid, or praying for specifics, but anything that will make us a better example to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is fine. My friend promised when these things were done and I would enter upon a new relationship with my creator, that I would have the elements of living which answered all my problems. Belief in the power of God plus enough willingness, honesty, and humility to establish and maintain the new order of things were the essential requirements. Simple but not easy. A price had to be paid. It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all. these were revolutionary and drastic proposals there were hearing proposals instead of principles but the moment i fully accepted them the effect was electric there was a sense of victory followed by such a peace and serenity that i have never known there was utter confidence i felt lifted up through the great clean wind of a mountaintop blew through and through god comes to most people gradually but his impact on me was sudden and profound for a moment I was alarmed and I called my friend the doctor this is dr. Silkworth who will be talking a little bit about later on I asked him if I were still saying he listened and wondered as I talked finally he shook his head saying something's happened to you I don't understand but you had better hang on to it anything is better than the way you were The good doctor sees many men who have had such experiences. He knows that they are real. While I lay in the hospital, the thought came that there were thousands of hopeless alcoholics who might be glad to have what has been so freely given me. Perhaps I could help some of them. They, in turn, might work with others. And that, without Bill even knowing it, was the beginning of what they called the Drunk Squad in the Oxford Group. All through Bill's story, it talks about religion. because it was a religion when Bill got sober. And it was, I'll go into that in a little bit later on. Let's jump down here. This is where I talked earlier about this paragraph. My friend had emphasized the absolute necessity of demonstrating these principles in all my affairs. That means we have to practice love and service at work. We have to love and practice service at home. You know, we just can't come into these rooms, walk that walk, talk that talk, and then go out in the world and act like a jerk. You know, out in the world is where we really need to practice these principles. Particularly was it imperative that he work with others, that particularly was it comparative to work with other as he had worked with me. Faith without works was dead, he said, and how appallingly true for the alcoholic. Faith without work, he's said, that is something that we got from Ann Smith, Dr. Bob's wife. It's from the book of James in the Bible. It was one of her favorite sayings. And if you go to Dr. Bob's home, you can see the only thing that's authentic in Dr. Bob's Home is Anne's Bible. It's under glass and it's open to faith without works is dead. And they used to have quiet morning meditation for an hour. And she would always end it with saying faith without work is dead so they'd all go out and apply what they had attained in their meditation. And how appallingly true for the alcoholic. For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead if he did not work he would surely drink again and if he drank he would truly die then faith would be dead indeed with us it is just like that i had a girl that i sponsored she drank again and we got back into the big book and we're going over step one and we came to this you know where it says to drink again is to die and she slapped that book and she said see the book lied i didn't die i drank and I didn't die. We're talking about a spiritual death. We die spiritually when we drink again. It says, then faith would be dead indeed. With us, it is just like that. So we're talking about a physical death. However, a lot of people do physically die. Many people that I have known have died from picking up again. Anyway, back on page 14, you do see my friend had emphasized the absolute necessity of demonstrating these principles in all my affairs. And so we're to go over a couple pages where it's going to talk about demonstrating these principles and so i want you to turn to also page 19. it says at the top of 19 it says none of us make a sole vocation of this work nor do we think its effectiveness would be increased if we did we feel that elimination of our drinking is but a beginning. A much more important demonstration of our principles lies before us in our respective homes, occupations and affairs." So this stuff is being given to us right in the very beginning of the book. Right in Bill's story we're being told that we have to practice these principles in all our affairs and now it's telling us that we have to apply these principles you know in our work, in our homes and in all of our affairs. So I'm going to just talk a little bit about how some of these principles came about. There's four things that make up Alcoholics Anonymous besides the steps. Everybody knows that this is a 12-step program, but the four things that help make up alcoholics anonymous is one, that alcoholism is a disease, is a physical allergy coupled by a mental obsession, that we're not bad people, this is an actual illness. The second thing that makes up Alcoholic Synonymous is that we can choose our own conception of god no matter how limited we can choose our conception of God some people have to make god group of drunks their higher power but that works just fine the third thing is what is the third thing I'm having a little brain fluff hmm it'll come to me later anyway and And the fourth thing is it has to be one drunk talking to another drunk. It can't be a priest talking down to a drunk, it can't be a psychiatrist talking down a drunk. It has to be one drink talking to other drunk and we do this so that we can stay sober. You know this is the one thing that's going to ensure that we don't drink again is getting out of ourselves and trying to help you know help another person I mean hopefully they can get sober but the main reason is to ensure our sobriety I'm going to tell you how these four things came about and I can't even remember the third thing right now but it'll come to me okay there are four men trying to get sober at the same time and there's no such thing as Alcoholics Anonymous in the early 1930s and those four men was Roland hazard Evie Thatcher Bill Wilson and dr. Bob Smith all four of these men were chronic alcoholics actually all four of them really you know came from some money none of them had really tragic childhoods or anything like that the first man we're going to talk about is Roland hazard Roland hazard was a chronic alcoholic from a very wealthy family everything money could buy they tried to get him sober and you know he just couldn't get sober so what he decided is that he needed psychiatric effort and in his grandiose alcoholic thinking you know he had to have the most famous psychiatrist and back then psychiatry was the in thing to do and so he had the choice between three psychiatrists and one of them was Sigmund Freud the other one was Adler and dr. Carl Jung and of course his first choice was Freud he's the most famous his second choice was at but Freud was very ill and couldn't take him on his second choices Adler Adler was on vacation so he ended up with dr. Karl and Dr. Carl Jung was in Switzerland and so Rowan had to go to Switzerland he took a boat over to Switzerland stayed with Dr. Karl Jung for a year learned everything there was to learn about sobriety and alcoholism and he had all this self-knowledge and Rowan knew he would never drink again because he has all this self knowledge as a year sobriete he's never going to drink again he was confident utterly confident he gets on the boat to go back to New York and he gets drunk on the vote so he comes goes back to Carl Jung and he asked him he says what happened you know why did I drink again and Dr. Jung told him that he was a chronic alcoholic and he'd never seen one case such as his recover except through a vital spiritual experience that's the third thing we can only recover through a vital spiritual experience i knew it would come and you know just the humility you know of dr young admitting that you know he could do no more for him you know his only hope was a vital spirituality experience and roland you know was relieved he thought well he was a religious man and then dr jung had to tell him though his religious convictions were very good they did not spell the necessary vital spiritual experience to recover from the disease of alcoholism. So anyway, Roland goes back to New York and somehow Roland is sponsored into the Oxford Group. The Oxford Group is a religious affiliation. It was a Lutheran minister who broke off from a Lutherian church and he started this movement. And the nickname was Oxford Group because the headquarters was at Oxford University. You know, and it was, you know, pretty big in Europe and on the East Coast, but it wasn't all through the United States, you know. It wasn't everywhere. But so he is sponsored into the Oxford Group and that's where we get the word sponsors. It's from the Oxford group and what the sponsor's job was to guide you through the principles of the program. Now when the drunks got together when we started getting a few drunks over in the Oxford group and they decide to get together and write this book way before we break off or before we broke off, they wanted to write this books so it would work for drunks everywhere. You know, the book was to go out everywhere where there was no such thing as the Oxford Group. There's not even AA yet. There's no such things as the Oxford Group. So they can't tell you to get a sponsor. How are they going to make this book work and not tell you get a sponsored? Because they wouldn't know what you were talking about. There would be no one to ask to sponsor you in California. So how they wrote this book, the whole book teaches you how to be a sponsor, that's what this book teaches. It's not about having the perfect sponsor, it's about being a sponsor you know. that is what this book teaches you and there's a chapter in here on sponsorship and that's called working with others that's how they got around that but anyway so he has sponsored into the Oxford group he does what's equivalent to his steps he has vital spiritual experience and he recovered from the disease of alcoholism the Oscar the Oxford Group the leader of the Oxford Group you know wanted fame he wanted notoriety he wanted publicity all those things but he also one thing in the Oxford group is they did not approve of smoking and they didn't approve of drinking you know so when drunk started coming in and some of them are relapsing and they all smoke you know it started causing problems but they had squads in and because Roland was from a famous well-off family and from money he was placed on the business squad so his job was to go out in the world and get famous businessman into the Oxford group say somebody like Firestone now Firestone was in the Oxford group not from Roland Hazard but that he was in The Oxford Group so anyway that's his place on the business squad but some a couple of people approach him there's a sprinkling of alcoholics getting drunk few people approach them and they're telling him about his friend Evie Thatcher who lives in Vermont that Evie was being committed for alcoholic insanity he had committed his third offense you know in Vermont they had that thing three strikes and you're out and he had committed his third offense and he was being committed for alcoholic insanity I'm going to tell you about a second offense because I think it's funny and I have a sick sense of humor so whatever he was doing is he's also from a wealthy family and he has an automobile in the early 30s and he's driving and his car and he is drunk he is rip-roaring drunk and he literally crashes his car into someone's home his his car goes into the wall into a a woman's kitchen and he got out of his car and asked her for a cup of coffee that's not so insane really so anyway roland decided he was going to go to vermont and this was a setup i mean this was a set up with with some other people the son of the judge in vermont was involved in it so anyway it was a startup of getting him released in care of the oxford group but evie didn't know that so anyway Roland you know talks the judge into releasing Abby into the care of the Oxford group and the judge says fine just get him out of Vermont so he goes back to New York with Roland hazard he's taken through his steps he has a spiritual experience and he recovered from the disease of alcoholism so every Thatcher was friends with Bill W every Thatchers at different times went to school with Bill Wilson and he went to school with Roland Hazard. Bill and Roland both lived in New York but they didn't know each other. Abby lived in Vermont but he knew the two of them. Dr. Bob Smith lives in Ohio and he doesn't know any of them, but the interesting thing about these four men is all four of them were born in Vermont. They were all born in a relatively small area of each other and even though they didn't all know each after things progressed they found out a a lot of their relatives you know older relatives knew some of the older relatives so that's just a little bit of trivia so anyway Evie's from a wealthy family so he too is placed on the business squad so Roland and Evie are in the business squads but Evie remembers his friend Bill Wilson he knew Bill was a chronic alcoholic he had gotten in a lot of trouble with Bill talks about that airplane jet I just want to get your attention so those of you that are falling asleep on me okay sorry Roger okay so anyway okay so now every Thatcher's now now sober and you know we're starting to get a few drinks over in the awkward group he remembers his friend Bill Wilson you know and he knew that he wanted to carry this message to Bill Wilson so every factor looks bill up and in the book it talks about standing in his kitchen and he's telling Bill I've got religion you know Bill sees there's something different about him all through Bill story it says religion. It doesn't say anything about spirituality like it does later on in the book. He says, I've got religion. And Bill is very anti-organized religion. He is not an atheist, but he's anti- organized religion. So he just backs up and bristles up, and you know, he doesn't want to hear a word about it. But somehow, you know Evie got through a little bit. And one thing that Evie said is that he said to Bill, he said, why don't you choose your own conception of god and bill says that statement hit him hard it melted the icy intellectual mountains into shadows he had lived and shivered for many years and it was just a matter of being willing you know just the least little bit of willingness and that just opened everything up for bill you know being able to choose his own conception of God so Rowan Hazard through Carl Jung finding out you know that we can only recover through vital spiritual experience Evie Thatcher telling Bill he can choose his own conception of God. Bill is just in the right place at the right time, and he is a vehicle. And all this stuff that makes up Alcoholics Anonymous is coming to Bill. Bill's only experience in and out of Towns Hospital, his doctor was Dr. Silkworth. And Dr. silkworth is the doctor that came up with the theory that alcoholism was a disease, a physical allergy coupled by a mental obsession. And in the first edition of the big book, Dr. Silkworth writes a little bit about it, but he doesn't find it because it's not accepted by the American Medical Association. But later after it's accepted bythe American Medical Associations, he goes and he writes a littlemore and he signs it so he gets full credit. Anyway, so Bill starts going to, you know, a few meetings of the Oxford group, so he's getting a littlebit of this under his belt. He ends up drinking again. He goes into Towns Hospital for the very last time. In Towns Hospital, he has this vital spiritual experience. In that period, the week he was there, Ebby comes and takes him through the principles or the steps of the program. But Bill is the one who only wants to work with drunks. He doesn't care about the business squad. He doesn'T care about any of the stuff that makes up the Oxford group. All he cares about is working with drunken people. And so when Bill got out of the hospital, that's what he did. He set about working with drunk. he started getting them out of bars getting them out of gutters, hospitals any place he could get a drink he would get a drunk and he'd take them home feed them, clothe them, try to get them sober and not one of these drinks got sober he did this for six years and not One of These Drinks Got Sober six months yes I'm sorry that's why you're here six months he did it for six months and not on of these drugs got sober And so finally he got really frustrated, you know, and he just decided he wasn't going to do this anymore. Not one of these drinks got sober, he told his wife. Two very important things came to him at this time. Perfect timing, God's timing. He tells his wife Lois that he is not going to do this any more. Not oneof these drinks gets sober. And Lois points out to him, she says, but Bill, you're still sober. And that's the first time Bill realized he had six months of sobriety. He had never had six month of sobrietty. And how did he get that? He got that by getting out of himself and working with other drunks. And another thing that came to him in perfect timing was he was talking with Dr. Silkworth about his frustration of not, you know, being able to get anybody sober. And Dr. silkworth told Bill, he says, Bill, you're preaching to him. Stop preaching. Share with him about the disease of alcoholism. Share about your experience, strength, and hope. You know, basically just talk about what it was like for him, you know and what it's like today and talk about it being a physical allergy coupled by a mental obsession and all this information came to him in perfect timing because he got a job his first employment in five years that took him to Akron Ohio so he is just plucked up out of New York he's dropped in Akron Ohio to do some work on a proxy deal and the deal falls through and Bill is pacing up and down in the Mayflower Hotel not knowing what he was going to do he had ten dollars in his pocket but it was not enough to get home on so he's just walking back and forth in the lobby and he keeps walking past the bar you know and in the bar, you know there's warm lights everybody's being congenial and tinkling of glasses you know it was very warm and inviting and Bill did start to get into that stinking thinking. You know he started to think well maybe he could go in there drum up a conversation with somebody about this proxy deal and he'll only drink ginger ale and so he started to walk into the bar and all of a sudden he was just gripped with fear and he knew that if he walked in there he would get drunk and he knew his only hope was to find a drink to work with so instead of going into the bar he walked over to the church directory and he started making phone calls he called one name Bill had a lot of characteristics about him that were a little bit strange but one thing he loved is he loves strange names and so he went to the church director and he looked for the strangest name, and that name was Reverend Tunks. And thinking about telling you a story I don't know if I should tell this or not I'm going to tell it okay I got to remember where I'm at let me tell you story about Reverend Tunk. No I was speaking in words I speak I speak in Florida a few years ago and I was with Sue Windows and Smitty the two children of Dr. Bob. Sue's now dead but she was alive at that time. And anyway at dinner time they announced this woman she stood up and she was probably in her 80s but she was beautiful you know she was absolutely beautiful and she stood up they introduced her as Reverend Tunks his daughter you know and so everybody is you know really impressed by this and I'm just kind of watching her through the conference and she's kind of just following Smitty around Dr. Bob's son you know for a lot a long time so finally when I was alone with Smitty I said, did you know her when you were growing up in Akron? And he got this giggle, you know, and he said, yeah, she was my girlfriend. And so it was really cute to watch them. But then at the end, this is what I don't know if I should tell you, so forgive me. At the end I asked, I said well how's it going? And he said well she can't decide if she's an alcoholic or not and I've been there, done that and not going back. And today he's married. He met a wonderful woman in Memphis, and today he is married in his 80s. He is just such an awesome inspiration. If any of you ever get the chance to hear Schmitty talk, don't miss it. Just don't mess it. But anyway, so he called Reverend Tunks. He told him, I'm an Oxford grouper, I am a rum hound, I have a cure for alcoholism, and I have to find a drink to work with. He was not in the Oxford group. Tunks wasn't in the Oxford group, but he was familiar with the Oxford Group. It was in Akron, Ohio and he gave Bill ten names of people he knew that were in the Oxford group. And so Bill proceeded to call these names and none of them answered. He kept avoiding this one name, Cyberline, because he had had some dealings with the Cyberline I think it's a rubber industry that didn't go well and so he didn't want a chance at being that Cyberline. So finally that was the last name and he, that's his last option so he called Henry a Cyberline which was the ex-wife of one in the Cyberling so it was quite safe for him. But he gives her the same spiel. He says, I'm an Oxford grouper, I have a cure for alcoholism, and I have to find a drink to work with. And as soon as he said that, she knew that that was an answer to her prayers. She had been praying daily for Dr. Bob Smith. Now this is a very interesting thing for me. I mean, it still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Dr. Rob Smith was in the Oxford group for two and a half years, and he could not get sober in the Oxford group. So it tells us there's a little more to it. But just before Bill came into town, a couple weeks before he came into town, he admitted to his group that he was still drinking, you know, that he's closet drinking and hiding it, and he just asked his group to pray for him. So the whole group starts praying for Dr. Bob Smith, and all of a sudden Bill is plucked out of New York and just dropped in Akron, Ohio, and He has to find a drink to work with. Now, if that isn't, you know, God, I don't know what is, you know. But anyway, she got them together. He was too drunk to meet with him that night. So Ann promised, who is Dr. Bob's wife, Ann promised to get Bob together with Bill the next day. And so the two are meeting at Henrietta Cyberline's estate house. They're in a room together, and Bob just immediately gets in Bill's face. He's hostile, and he's coming off of a drunk anyway, and you know how you hate somebody preaching to you about your drinking when you're coming off a bender. In fact, on the way over there in the car, he told Ann he wasn't giving this bird any more than 15 minutes of his time. He said, tell them I have an emergency. He was a doctor, which is a proctologist, a vet doctor, very apropos for alcoholics, I think. But anyway, so they get the two together, and Bob immediately gets in Bill's face, and he says, I'm a physician. I know everything there is to know about alcoholism. I've been to the best doctors. I've been to the best psychiatrists, I've been in every church, I'd been sprayed sprinkled and dunked. What do you think you can say or do for me that hasn't already been said or done? You know and Bill just told him the truth you know it's the language of the heart where the heart speaks and the heart listens and he just says I am not here to get you sober. I'm here so I can stay sober. You know and that just kind of threw Bob and he dropped his defenses and Bill did exactly what Dr. Silkworth told him to do. He started talking about the disease of alcoholism and sharing his past experiences and how he got sober and you know Bob stopped drinking that night he stopped drinking Bill had to stay in town for a little bit longer because he couldn't get home really but he was gonna stay in town to do more work on this business deal and wanted to ensure Bob wouldn't drink so Ann talked Bill into moving into their house so Bill moved in with them Bob has two weeks of sobriety under his belt and the American Medical Association had a convention that he hadn't missed in 20 years and so he wanted to go and did not want him to go because every time he went he got drunk and he disappeared but Bill really did believe you cannot protect an alcoholic from alcohol I mean we have to be able to go out in a world around alcohol bill talked Ann into letting Bob go because if he couldn't be around an alcohol he said still had an alcoholic mind you know so Bob gets on the train to go to this conference and he drank he got drunk did what he always did and disappeared you know when he was gone for a few days and finally he surfaced at somebody's house they called Bob's home and Smitty and Bill went and fetched him and brought him back home and they were desperately trying to get him sober because he had surgery to you know to perform on Monday morning now this is back the recession you know they were in a recession the depression was ending and they were still in a recession. Everybody was hard up for money, especially Bob because of his alcoholism. They're foreclosing on his house. He's desperate to work and desperate for the money. Never mind the poor guy's butt he's about to cut open. He needs to perform this surgery because he needs money. So they're desperately trying to get him sober so he can go perform this surgery. And Monday morning comes and he is sober. He is stark, raving sober. His hands are shaking so bad there is no way he could hold a scaffold. I drove him to the hospital and Bill gave him one beer to drink and one goofball. So I know goofballs, I looked up everything I could look up on goofballs and it's some kind of a sedative you know and so he went in and he performed the surgery and the surgery went perfect. You know it just went perfect he called home and he told Ann and Bill that the surgery went fine and he'd be home later on he had some things to take care of and it was quite late at night he hadn't been home and they just knew he was out drinking. Finally he came home and he was sober, and what he did is he went around the city of Akron and he started making his amends. That's one thing he had never attempted, you know, he didn't want to damage his reputation by admitting to some of his patients that he was alcoholic, so he went around and he admitted that he's alcoholic and made amends for not being where he's supposed to be and not performing things he was supposed to perform, and he went around to his creditors and set up payment schedules to pay him back. this action did hurt his business but, you know, it let him be available to work with all the drunks that he later worked with. So anyway Bob's sober now and Bill they decide that they're going to go around and start trying to get drunks in Akron sober and the very first man that they worked with was a man named Eddie and most people don't know about this one. This is a story that Bob tells. Most people think the first man he worked They worked with Bill Dotson, but that was the second one. This man named Eddie, they had actually moved into the house and they had him, you know, stuck up in Sue's bedroom. They give him, what is it, formaldehyde or something like that to knock him out for a few days and... Peraldehydes. And anyway, so he comes to and he escapes down the trellis and goes out and drinks and they capture him. they bring him back and I mean it was back and forth, back and forth with him escaping. But this man had a violent error about him and at one point Ann was in the house and he was down in the kitchen and he got a kitchen knife and started chasing Ann around the house at night. She ran upstairs, she was on her knees praying and he's standing over her with a knife when Bill and Bob got home. And so they made the decision that he was much too sick, that they could not work with anybody that was that dangerous and they suggested to his wife that they that he needs to be put away and so I guess that's what happened that Bob Smith talks about at dr. Bob funeral 15 years later a is in full swing at the funeral this man came up to Smitty dr. bob son and he asked them if he remembered him and he said no and he says I'm Eddie and Eddie had a year sobriety and he picked it up and now collects anonymous in Detroit so you So you never know when the seed's planted, you know, when it's going to bloom, you know, and it blooms 15 years later for Eddie. And I guess you just can't be too sick. You know, maybe you just Can't Be Too Sick. So anyway, the, you know, they start working with Bill Dodson. He's, you know, the story of the man on the bed. He's an attorney, and he gets sober right away. So they're starting to get a few people sober in Akron. Bill goes up to New York. Some people in New York are getting sober. A group in Cleveland are getting sober. So they've got, you some drunks that are getting sober in the Oxford Group. The Oxford Group is having a lot of problems with them because they all smoke, some of them relapse, and so there was this tension. So the drunks started meeting in their own homes. So it would be just like the drunk squad, but they were meetings of the Oxford group. There's no such thing as AA, no such things. So they start meeting in Their Own Homes, but it was the whole family, Oxford Group, pamphlets. The drunks got together, and they decided that they wanted to write a book. They thought there was enough of them now that they really had something to offer the world. The book says we are 100 men and women. Actually, at that time there were only 79, but Bill figured by the time the book was published there would be 100. I always wonder how that falls into rigorous honesty, you know. But there is that little thing that says rigorous self-honesty. But anyway, and only 40 of them had input on the book. Only 40 of whom had input in the book So they go about writing this book And that's a whole thing that, you know, you'd have to have a whole day to talk about the writing of the big book. But a lot of real interesting things that I told you that they stretched those steps into 12 and the thing on sponsorship. They're having a lotof conflicts because those drunks are making Bill take things out and put things in. And, I mean, finally Bill got where he was just going to refuse to write the book, you know unless some of them butt out, you now, and they did. but the one thing that they made him take out that he snuck back in in another part of the book Bill was good about sneaking it back in if he thought he didn't write it and God did was finding God deep within a group of that drunks really thought that God was a being up in the sky I hear Bill talking about finding God Deep Within and Bill really did believe it didn't matter where God was if God was being in the Sky that was fine, but we can only connect deep within so that's something he snucks back in the book something that was another god thing i think at that time is when they wrote the book on the third step about turning your will and your life over to the care of god and then you have as you understand him we had a couple atheists in that first group of alcoholics and they were they wanted to talk about the psychological thing they didn't want all the spiritual stuff in the book you know and they were especially i think it was jim b uh was he was just driving everybody crazy with blasphemy and um but he was staying sober so there's nothing they could do he was saying sober you know for a couple years even though he didn't believe in god and his god was group of drunks that he didn'T want this stuff in the book uh so because of him just to shut him up Just to shut him up, they added, God as you understand him in the third step. And that little, those few words has opened the doors to millions of alcoholics that had problems with God, that opened the door for them. But anyway, all these drunks really wished he would go out and drink again. They just couldn't stand him. That's how spiritual they were. And so he's a traveling salesman. He goes out, and he does drink again, and he's in a motel held up, and we call the group in New York, and they won't go get him they're glad he's drunk they're sick of his stuff you know so they're not going to go get them and what happened for jim is he pulled open a drawer and in the drawer was a gideon bible and he opened it up just to a page that had something that spoke to him and when he got back to new york he had a power greater than himself that he truly believed in so it's just he was an atheist at the perfect time it's this one God's coincidence after another, the making of Alcoholics Anonymous. So anyway, the book is, we've got the book out, AA's Growing in Leaps and Bounds. And it's a struggle, I'm skipping over a whole bunch of stuff but AA's growing in leaps and bounds and we start having a lot of problems. We're having a lot conflicts, we don't have a set of traditions to hold us together which is another set of principles. And finally Earl Treat sent Bill Wilson a letter saying he was so afraid AA was going to be destroyed from the inside just like the Washingtonians. And up until that time Bill had not heard of the Washingtonian. Who's heard of The Washingtonians? God, this is well informed in Minnesota, it doesn't surprise me though. But anyway, so The Washingtonian was a group of alcoholics in the 1800s getting sober. It was six drunks that used to drink in a pub, the temperance movement was going on And a couple of those drunks went to this revival, a tent revival just to see what it was about and comes back in the bar sharing it with the other drunks and about this temperance thing. And the pub owner just got really angry and he said you guys are a bunch of hypocrites. You're here drunk every night talking about the temperance movement. So that pissed off those drumps and so they wanted to prove they could stop drinking if they wanted to. So those six just left and started this movement called the Washingtonians. And they were much faster growing than we were, much faster growing. And one thing, they had a set of principles similar to ours that every meeting they went to they had to bring a wet trunk with them. So that's one thing that really helped them grow. So Jim sent Bill an article on the Washingtonians and what destroyed the Washingtonian is they did not have a set of traditions to hold them together. They were not single in purpose. They wanted to put their beliefs on everybody. They had a big huge convention. Abraham Lincoln was the speaker very impressive but he's not an alcoholic. And so when the Civil War broke out, because they didn't have that set of traditions, that absolutely tore that group apart. In the early 1900s, there was another group getting sober called the Emanuel Group, part scientific and part religious, similar to Christian science, but it wasn't Christian science. And they were successful getting drunk sober, but they started, you know, that money property prestige, breaking up clinics, wanting to charge for their services. Everyone wanted to be a counselor, and that destroyed that movement. And so after studying these two groups and Bill's own experience with the Oxford group, the reason why they broke off from the Oxford Group was because first of all the Oxford groups you know angry at them smoking and drinking and they were angry at the book and they especially angry at the books because they did not give any credit in the first edition to the Oxford Group, didn't even mention it and that's what really upset the Oxford group. The reason why those drunks when they wrote the book did not mention the Oxford group was because at that time the leader of the Oxford group was having communications with Hitler. He thought if he could get Hitler in the Oxford group, Hitler would do his steps and Hitler would change his ways. But to the rest of the world it looked like the Oxford group were Nazi supporters so that, and those drunk knew it, they knew it. mentioned that that would destroy you know anything that this book could offer if they had mentioned the Oxford group so that's why they didn't mention it but the real reason why we broke off is because you know they were very first century Christianity and you know those drunks are choosing you know their own conception of God and that's all through this book they wanted alcoholics Jewish alcoholics to come Catholic alcoholics and they couldn't come to the Oxford group so thats the real reasons why they broke off and they broke broke off the The book was written first and in about 1939 we broke off from the Oxford Group and we named ourselves after the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. So the book came first and then we broke up. And as I said we started having, oh, Rowan Hazard and Evie Thatcher stayed with the Oxford Rowan Hazzard and Evie Thatcher stayed with the Oxford Group, and that's why Bill and Bob are considered the co-founders. It broke off in 1939 but they considered the anniversary date back on the day of Bob's last drink which is June 10th, 1935 so that's our anniversary date because that's really when the start of Alcoholics Anonymous began. And Rowan Hazard as far as we know did not drink again, but Evie Thacher did. And if you've seen the name, My Name is Bill W., it looks like he drank because he was jealous of Bill and Bob's relationship. And that's not true. He drank because they went back to Vermont, got away from his program, and that's where he drank. In the movie, I talked to Bill B., who wrote the movie. He collaborated with Lois Wilson on the whole movie. And I asked him, I said, why did you portray Evie Thatcher as a stockbroker and jealous of Bill & Bob's? Relationship. And he said because after A.A. was in full swing, you know, Ebby Thatcher was in and out coming to A. A., Bill was trying to get him sober. And after A., A. was well-known and at the very first convention, Ebby's drunk. And he is jealous and he's standing in the lobby of the hotel pulling people aside saying, Bill and Bob didn't start this thing, Bill and I started it, you know trying to take credit for it. And that's what Lois wanted portrayed in the movie and that was the only way they could fit it in. So, so that's a good reason. so he did I guess it worked for me so anyway um so Bill made a study of the Washingtonians manual group Oxford group wrote every group in the United States and Canada asked them to send a list of their rules they put all those rules together and if every group had the whole list of rules there wouldn't be a human being allowed in Alcoholics Anonymous that's how ridiculous it was so that's why Bill really fought for the traditions you know he wrote the traditions and he fought for the traditions you know and the cleveland group didn't want the traditions bob was so mixed up with the the cleveland group and the new york group that before bob died he totally supported the traditions and he knew that we desperately needed the traditions and the traditions are the only reason why alcoholics anonymous is 68 years old today is that what we are 68 to 68 years today and because we're 68 years old what we've done is we've raised the bottoms of alcoholics you know the book talks about low-bottom alcoholics and what we have done is we've raise the bottom so I want to read a page in here and then we're going to break for length and this page is I don't know if you even know it's in here but let's see I think it's 279 in the fourth edition it's 315 in the third edition and there's no page number so you have to look for 312 in the 3rd edition and 278 in the fourth edition, but it's called They Stopped in Time. And this is talking about the next 17 stories and I like to read this page because this is where we are because of a set of traditions and raising the bottoms of alcoholics that come in today. It says they stopped in time. Among today's incoming AA members many have never reached advanced stages of alcoholism though given time all might have. Most of these fortunate ones have had little or no acquaintance with delirium, with hospitals, asylums and jails. Some were drinking heavily and there had been occasional serious episodes but with many drinking had been little more than a sometimes uncontrollable nuisance. Seldom have any of these lost either health, business, family or friends. Why do men and women like these join AA? The 17 who now tell their experiences answer that question. They saw that they had become actual or potential alcoholics, even though no serious harm had yet been done. They realized that repeated lack of drinking control when they really wanted control was a fatal symptom that spelled problem drinking. This plus mounting emotional disturbances convinced them that compulsive alcoholism already had them. That complete ruin would only be a question of time. Seeing this danger, they came to AA. They realized in the end that alcoholism could be as mortal as cancer. Certainly no sane man would wait for an malignant growth to become fatal before seeking help. Therefore the 17 AA's and hundreds of thousands like them have been saved years of infinite suffering. They sum it up like this, they didn't wait to hit bottom because thank God they could see the bottom. Actually the bottom came up and hit us that sold us on Alcoholics Anonymous. How many of you are on this page? That's great. How many of you on page 21 are real alcoholics? Okay. All right, okay, so we're going to break for lunch.