The Program in the Big Book Versus Group Therapy – Joe M.

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 today and very, very thankful. I have to ask you guys a question. Is it light in here or is it dark. Charlie told me it was bright. I had laser surgery last week and I can't see nothing hardly. I don't know if I can even see this to read it, but I'm going to try. Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and to help others 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. It does not wish to engage in any controversy. It neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and to help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. And I'm very excited to be here today. Are you? I want to thank John and the committee for putting this thing together. It took an awful lot of work and i want to thank each and every one of you for being here because without you there would be nothing be a lousy meeting but just charlie and i can tell you that so we need each other and i'm glad we're here i uh have you seen that little aflac duck on television yeah he went to the grocery store and went to the produce manager and asked him said do you have any grapes and he said no don't have any grape today so the next day he went in he asked him did you have any grapes? He said, no, I don't have any grapes. Told you yesterday, I don't have any grapes. The next day he went in and he said, do you have any grapes? He said I've told you twice now we don't have any grapes. I'll tell you again, we do not have any grapes. And if you come in here one more time looking for grapes, I'm going to staple your feet to the floor. The next morning he walks in, he said, do you have any staples? He said no. He said you got any grapes? Sound like an alcoholic duck to me. But I'll introduce you to my good friend and my mentor and present sponsor, Charlie P. from Maysville, Arkansas. Hi everybody, my name is Charlie Parmley and I'm a very grateful recovering alcoholic because Because I'm a member of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. And by the grace of the power that I found through the 12-step program of Alcoholic Anonymous, I haven't found it necessary to take a drink for 13,014 days one day at a time. And for this, I'm very grateful. You guys look great. You guys are great. You guys do look great, this is a hell of a crowd here for Thursday afternoon. and get to see lots of old, old, old friends here and get the chance to make a lot of new friends this weekend. In fact, Joe leaned over here a while ago and he said, Charlie, this is the best looking bunch of sick people we've seen in a long time. As we start one of these things, we always like to say that we do not consider ourselves to be the gurus of the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous. us. We don't consider ourselves to be the experts on anything at all. We're just two old drunks. We met together several years ago. We found that we had a mutual interest in the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous. We studied it together for quite some time. Hopefully, we've learned a few things about it. And those few things we've learnt 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 and conversation pertaining to the book itself. we love to have a good time. We believe our book when it says we are meant to be joyous, happy and free. We love to cut up. We love the good times. We love talking about it. We love telling jokes. We love hearing people laugh. From time to time, we stop whatever we're doing, get a little humor started, and we'll tell a joke. And if it isn't funny, go ahead and laugh anyhow. It will make you feel better, and it will certainly make us feel better also. We're fully aware of the fact that the mind will absorb only, only about what the rear end will stand. And some of these sessions do become quite long. For instance, this was going to run until about 5.30. And if you feel the need to get up and move around, please feel free to do so. It's not going to bother us at all. If you feel the need to go out and smoke a cigarette, get a cup of coffee, please feel free to do that. It won't bother us at all. If you feels the need go get rid of a cup o' coffee from time to time, please feel to do free to that too. There's no sense in sitting there suffering in silence, you know. And if we can all approach this weekend with those ideas in mind, I think not only are we in for a good opportunity to learn about our book and about our program, but we're going to be in for a good time also. Joe and I are going to have fun and hopefully you guys will too. Okay? All right. If we're going to talk about the big book Alcoholics Anonymous which, of course, that's what we're here for. It's necessary for us to review a little bit of the history also, the same as John has just done some of it. Some of it will be a repeat from what John said. Some ofit won't be. But if we're really going to understand the book, we need to find out a littlebit of information regarding the first members of Alcoholics Anonymous, how they got sober, what happened to them, and how they finally ended up writing the big book, Alcoholics Anonymous. So we always like to start our sessions by going to the forward to the second edition. And we'll find the forward of the second addition in the third edition of the big book on Roman numeral 15. And I'm not sure only fourth, but I think it's the same page. Am I right? in the fourth edition. Let's go to Roman numeral 15 and let's go down to the bottom of the page and we'll start with that last paragraph, Joe. There's one thing that Bill did and if you get this picture of how he writes and anything that you read by Bill you'll be able to understand it better. And everything that he writes and especially in the big book and from then on all of his writings he always told us what the problem was He gave us a solution to that problem. Then he told us about a practical program of action to implement the solution that he just described. He does that over and over and certainly that's done here in the big book. So let's go to the last paragraph. If you're anything like I was when I first came to AA, I didn't know anything about Roman numerals at all. So that is XV. That's the page number on it. I used to read paragraphs in this book like this when I was new and look up and it'd just be gone. It wasn't there anymore. That's called brain damage, by the way. Of course, you don't know you got it until you get rid of it. Anyhow, the spark that was to 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. We know that New York stop broker to be this fellow named Bill Wilson. I think we're treating him pretty good when we call him a New York stockbroker. He was really a New Yorke City stock speculator. I don't want to take anything away from Bill Wilson. He was a great man, but we all got to realize that he's a real alcoholic just like all the rest of us. Thought just like we did, acted just like мы did, had the same ideas, emotions, and etc. He was realmente a speculator rather than a broker. Now, six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who'd been in contact with the Oxford groups of that day. As we get into Bill's story, we're going to see that this alcoholic friend who had been in contacts with the Oxford groups of dat day was a fellow named Evie Thatcher. And Evie Thatcher was an old drinking buddy of Bill's. They went to school together. They drank a lot together. And Ebi Thatcher came to visit with Bill, and he gave Bill what turned out to be two very vital pieces of information. He said, Bill, people like you and I who have become absolutely powerless over alcohol, if we're going to recover from that condition, we're gonna 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 Groupers. And he says, they told me that if I could have a spiritual experience, that during that spiritual experience I would find that power greater than human power and I wouldn't have to drink anymore. He said, they also outlined for me a practical program of action and they guaranteed me if I would follow that program of action that I would find the power greater than human power and I would be able to recover from alcoholism. And he said, look at me Bill, I've been sober for two months. Now this made a great impression on Bill because he knew Ebi and he knew how Ebi drank and he know that if Ebi had been sober for two month some power greater than Ebi Thatcher had to be working in Ebi's life. And Bill had always said, if I ever get as bad as Ebi Thatcher, I'll quit drinking. And here's Ebi sitting in front of him with two months' sobriety. What Ebi really gave to Bill, he gave him first the solution to alcoholism, the vital spiritual experience during which we find the power greater than human power. He also gave him the program of action necessary to be able to have that vital spiritual experience. So Bill learned the solution and the program of action from a fellow named Evie Thatcher. But that's not all the information Bill had to know in order to recover. He'd also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now counted no less than a medical saint by AA members and whose story of the early days of our society appears in these next pages. From this doctor, the broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism. And again, we're going to learn when we get into Bill's story that Bill was placed in a town hospital in the summer of 1933 and he was withdrawn from alcohol by this little doctor called Dr. Silkworth. And after he was withdrawing and his head kind of cleared up a little bit, Dr. Silkworth sat down with him and gave him some really important information. He said, Bill, people like you who are obviously powerless over alcohol, he said, I really believe that people likeyou are suffering from an illness. He said I don't think willpower has got anything to do with alcoholism. He saidI don'tthink it's a matter of moral character, sin or anything else. He said, I think you're suffering from an illness. And he said, it's 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 says, it has been my experience in working with many, many alcoholics here at the town's hospital that when people like you put any alcohol or whatever into their system, Something happens to them that doesn't happen to normal people. He said, I believe that the alcohol, when it goes into your body, produces an actual physical craving. And he said that physical craving is so strong that you can't control the amount you're going to drink after you once start drinking. He said now you were just going to have one or two drinks. but you put the alcohol in the system, the craving develops and you can't stop drinking and you end up drunk over and over and over and he said, I believe that you have become physically allergic to alcohol and you'll never be able to safely use it again. He said, but that's only half of your problem. He said I also think that people like you have developed what we call an obsession of the mind. He said an obsession of the mine is an idea that overcomes all ideas to the contrary. He said it really doesn't make any difference how badly you want to stop drinking. From time to time, the obsession of the mind is going to tell you that it's okay to drink. And you'll take a drink knowing full well it's going to be okay. but then that will trigger your physical allergy and you can't stop drinking and you end up drunk and sick and in all kinds of trouble. He said, You can't safely drink because of the physical allergy because of The Body. You can' t stay sober. You can live without drinking because of obsession with the mind. And he said, If you can' d drink without getting drunk and you ca' n't live without drinkin', then you become absolutely powerless over alcohol. And the first time in his life, Bill Wilson understood what his problem was. You see, he always thought it was willpower. He thought it Was moral character. He thought It was sin. Why would he not? That's what everybody had told him up until that time. But when Dr. Silkworth gave him the ideas about the illness of alcoholism, for the first Time, Bill Wilsons understood his problem. Now, that didn't keep him from drinking though. We know he left the town's hospital and shortly thereafter his obsession of the mind told him it was okay to drink. And he drank and he triggered the allergy and he drank for another year. A year later, he's back in the town'S hospital again. And this time, Dr. Silkworth pronounced him incurable. and told Bill's wife they'd have to be locked up somewhere or they'd Have to hire a bodyguard or he would die during DTs or he'd Have To Be Put In The Insane Asylum Somewhere. And Bill overheard that. And he said that fear sobered him up for a little bit also. But not too long after he came out of the town's hospital, his mind told him it's okay to drink. And he took a drink and he triggered the allergy and he couldn't stop drinking. So knowing the problem, even though it was vitally important for Bill to know that, did not solve the problem. It's only when Evie Thatcher came to see with a solution to that problem and a program of action that Bill Wilson was able to recover from alcoholism. So he had to know three things. Number one, what is the problem? Number two, what are the solutions? What is the solution? And number three, what is the program of action necessary to find that solution? Abbie began to take Bill to these Oxford Group meetings. Bill liked those meetings very much. In fact, he'd been there several times and he'd drank in a number of times when he went there. He would testify, participate in the meetings, and he enjoyed that. And Abbie said, Bill, man, you make a marvelous talk. Too bad you're not staying sober, you know. But Bill liked the meetings. And he said, though he could not accept all the tenets, he was introduced to the tenet of the Oxford group. Now, the word tenet simply means steps. Steps. Ideas or steps. So the tenest of the Oxford group, he was convinced of the need of moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helplessness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God, which was later on, those tenets were expanded into the 12 steps of our cause anonymous. And Bill began to take those to heart when he started getting sober. And he'd go out into the bars, and he would pick these guys up out of the bar and bring them to the Oxford Group meeting. Most of them didn't want to go. He'd just drag them off the bar stool and take them anyhow. Drag them up out the gutter and take him to the Oscar Group meeting Like I said, they didn't wanna go. But helping other people was helping him stay sober, and they liked that idea. And after being sober about six months, He told Lois, he said, Lois no one seems to want what I have. And she said, well why don't you go talk to Dr. Silkworth and see what he has to say about that. So he went to talk to Doctor Silkworth and he told him that nobody was staying sober. He was. And Dr. silkworth said, Bill I've heard some of those shenanigans you're pulling out there on the streets. Dragging those people to those Oxford group meetings. Trying to cram that spiritual experience you had down in their throats and they won't buy it. He said, why don't you do for them what I did for you? Why don't You talk to them about the illness of alcoholism? Explain to them like I explained to you about the physical allergy and the obsession of the mind first. And then if they accept that, then You can talk to him about the final solution which is a spiritual experience. And You can describe the one that You had. He said Bill, every alcoholic I know has two questions. Number one, why can't I drink like I used to without getting drunk all the time? And number two, why cannot I stay sober now that I want to stay sober? He said if you will explain to them the exact nature of their illness, you'll answer those two questions and you'll get their attention. And then you can talk to them about spirituality. But he said tell them what's wrong with them first. Now the book says prior to his journey to Akron, The broker had worked hard with many alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic could help an alcoholic, but he succeeded only in keeping sober himself. The broker Had gone to Akron on a business venture which had collapsed, leaving him greatly in fear that he might start drinking again. He suddenly realized in order to save himself, he must carry his message to another alcoholic, and that alcoholic turned out to be the Akron physician of the fellow we know as Dr. Bob. We all know the story of Bill Wilson standing in the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel. He had gone there on a business venture. Through a proxy fight, they were going to take over a company. Bill was going to get to be the president of the company. And the proxy fight and the whole deal collapsed on him. He's standing in a lobby of the Mayflowers Hotel. His friends had deserted him. counting the money in his pocket and realized he didn't even have enough money to pay his hotel bill. He happened to look from the lobby through a door into the bar. And I would imagine the lights were probably low in that bar. Music was probably playing. Laughter was great and the smoke was surely thick. And Bill said, I believe I'll go in there and be with people of my kind and I'll feel better. As he started through the door, he began to think about the idea of taking a drink. And for the first time, really, his mind said, Bill, you can't do that. If you go in there, you're going to get drunk just as sure as anything. So in desperation, he stepped back out of that doorway, looking down around the lobby, and he saw a church directory on one wall of the lobby. He made a few phone calls and was put in contact with a lady named Henrietta Cyberling. And he told Henrietta, he said, I'm a rum hound from New York. Don't let that turn you on. And he said I think that we have found a way to help other rum hounds. He said do you know of anybody that I might be able to talk to to keep me from getting drunk? And she said oh yes, we know a guy. And he's a well-known doctor here in town. And she said, in fact, we were praying the other day in our Oxford group meeting about this fellow. And she says, the word came through that Dr. Bob could not drink as much as one drink. And she say, this seems to be the answer to our prayer. She said, let me get in contact with you and set up a meeting. called Ann Smith, Dr. Bob's wife told her the situation and said can you bring Dr. Bob over and she said well I would love to but she said tomorrow as you know is Mother's Day and Dr. Bob has brought me home a potted plant and he's potted under the kitchen table she said I can't get him over there today but I'll try to tomorrow so the next morning she sat in on Dr. Bob and finally He finally conned him into going over to Henrietta Cyberling's place. And he said, I'll go over there and give that rum hound from New York 15 minutes of my time. And then I'm coming home. They went over to Henryetta's house. Dr. Bob and Bill went into a room by themselves. Five hours later they came out of that room. and Dr. Bob said this is the first guy that I ever talked to that knew what he was talking about when it comes to alcoholism. You know, I think about Bill walking up and down that Mayflower Hotel lobby. John mentioned earlier about the fragileness of AA. And my life and your life and this program hangs upon his decision. Do I go in there and have a drink? Or do I go help a drunk? I'm glad it wasn't up to me to make that decision. If it was up to me, you wouldn't be sitting there. You know, we talk about in AA, all we've got to talk about is seconds and inches. If I'd have been over that way just a few inches, or over this way just a few seconds later, seconds and inches, Bill made the decision to go help a drunk. And on that church directory, there was a name on there that says Reverend Tunks. And that stuck in Bill's mind because back Well, his hometown, when you went for a tonk, that meant you were going for a walk. And so he used that name and he called that name. He's seconds and inches old. It's fragile. But he made that decision, thank God he did. It's one of those coincidences. A coincidence is the name that God likes to use when he wants to remain anonymous. That was one of them right there. This physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma, but he'd failed. He'd been a member of the Oxford group. He tried to practice those tenets, but he couldn't stay sober. But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth's description of alcoholism and his hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he'd never before been able to muster. He sobered never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950. Bill sat down and did what Dr. silkworth asked him to do. He said, don't tell them about this great spiritual experience you have. Talk to them about the illness of alcoholism. Explain to them about the physical allergy and the obsession of the mind, how that works with you. And he sat down and told a well-trained physician, which is another miracle that you can tell a physician anything, about the illness of alcohol. And he was able to accept this idea. You know, he stayed there for five hours listening to Bill and they're talking back and forth. He's like, I drink just like that. Those things happen to me. this identification that is so necessary in AA was set up between Bill and Bob. Bill didn't talk to Dr. Bob about Dr. Bobby's drinking. He said, let me tell you my story. And he sat down and began to talk about his own alcoholism. And he talked about literally hundreds of times that he was on his way home from work, stop off in a speakeasy, going to have just one or two drinks and go home and have dinner. He said, I'd take the one or two drinks and then something would happen and I'd find that I didn't get home for dinner and maybe not until midnight and maybe until the next day or the next week. Dr. Bob said, my God, man, that's what's been happening to me. And Bill said, well, there's a little doctor named Dr. Silkworth in New York City that explained to me that this is a physical allergy of the body, that it produces a craving in our system and we can't stop after we want to start. He talked about the many, many times he'd sworn off drinking. He said, man, I've got a tremendous amount of willpower. Always been able to do anything I wanted to do. But when it comes to alcohol, willpower seems to be no help whatsoever. He said I'd swear off one day and find myself in the bar then 10 o'clock or 11 o' clock or 2 in the afternoon drinking again and wondering how in the hell did I get here this time? Dr. Bob said, My God, man, that's what's been happening to me. And Bill explained to him what Dr. Silkworth had told him about the obsession of the mind. And for the first time, Dr. Rob understood his problem through Bill sharing his story with Dr. Robert. Now, Dr., Bob already knew the solution. He knew the need for the spiritual experience. He was already a member of the Oxford group. He already knew the practical program of action. So what Bill had to give to Dr. Bob that Bob didn't know was, What is the problem? And as soon as he could see the problem, and then he could go after the solution in a way he never had before, and he applied their program of Action, and he sobered up too. Now this makes two people. in Akron, Ohio. They seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no non-alcoholic could. It also indicated strenuous work. One alcoholic with another was vital to permanent recovery. The two things that AA is basically built upon are one alcoholic sharing with another and strenious work. One alcoholic within another was vital for permanent recovery." You know, Bill didn't go there to sober up Dr. Bob. He went there to keep Bill Wilson from drinking, and thank God it did keep him from drinking. And Dr. Bobby sobered up, and then the two of them started working with other alcoholics. Bill moved in with Dr. Bobs and stayed there a couple of months or so. He didn't have any money. He said, hence, the two men set to work almost frantically upon alcoholics arriving in the ward of the Akron City Hospital. Bill and Bob were sitting one night after some prayer and meditation, and Dr. Bob said, Bill, we need to get busy doing this thing. He said, what do you mean busy? He said、I mean we need find some drugs to work with. You said that would help us. And he said、Well, I don't know any drugs here in Akron, do you? And he says、No, not really. But I know the head nurse down there at the hospital. Surely she'll know some drugs. So he called her up and said、Hey, doyou have a drug to workwith? We've got this fellow from New York who seems to have a solution for alcoholism. And she said, well, I just happened to have one. But by the way, Dr. Bob, maybe try this solution on yourself. She was quite aware of his drinking, although he didn't know that people were. He said, yes, and it's working for me. I said, Well, you take him off the ward and put him in a private room, and we'll be down tomorrow to talk to him. Now, a ward, some of you guys know what an award is. An award is at the end of the hall. You don't have enough money for a private or semi-private room. It's a charity case, basically. and they put you on the end of the hall with some screens around you. If it looked like you were going to die, they would take you off the ward and put you in a private room so you could die with a little dignity. And of course this AA number three is aware of this. When he wakes up, he's in a ward, in a public room. In a private home. What's this private room all about, he said. Well pretty soon Bill and Bob come in and begin to talk to him about their drinking. And then again, they didn't talk to Bill Dotson about Bill Dottson's drinking. They talked to him about their drinking. And Bill Dottson began to identify with these guys and said, Hey, I drink just like you guys. I thought I was a goner. I thought there was no way I'd ever be able to say so. But you guys were giving me hope. And that identification was set up between Bill Dotzon and Bill and Bob. So now we have three, and we know three things. All three know what the problem is. They know what The Solution is. and they know the practical program of action to implement the solution. The book says, hence the two men set to work almost frantically upon alcoholics arriving in the ward of the Akron City Hospital. Their very first case, that's this fellow named Bill Dotson, a desperate one recovered immediately and became AA number three. He never had another drink. This work at Akron continued through the summer of 1935. There were many failures, but there was an occasional heartening success. You know, as we look back at that time now, we always give credit to Bill and Bob and Bill Dotson and the first 100. And rightfully, we should do so. But I think we probably ought to give some credit to those that they failed with too. You see, the summer of 1935, they really didn't know much about what they were doing. Everything they did was on an experimental basis. They would try something and if it worked, they would retain it. If it didn't work, they would discard it. One of Dr. Bob's favorite things was to fill them up with a mixture of sauerkraut juice and honey. The sauer kraut juice had all the vitamins and the goody-goodies, and the honey made it possible to drink it. They tried that amongst many different things. And every once in a while, one of these guys would fall over dead. Like an almost sea bell turned to Bob and said, Oh shit, let's don't do that again. So I think maybe we ought to give credit to those they failed with, too. They probably learned more from the failures than they did from their successes. When the broker returned to New York in the fall of 1935, the first AA group had actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time. They were members of the Oxford Group, and they called themselves the Drunk Squad of the Oxford Groups, NOAA. By late 1937, the number of members having substantial sobriety time behind them was sufficient to convince the membership that a new light had entered the dark world of the alcoholic. Bill was back in Akron again on a business venture in the summer of 1937. went by Dr. Bob's house to visit with him. And they sat down and they counted the number of people that they knew were staying sober at that time. And they found approximately 40 people. The little group in Akron, a little group that started in New York City, one, they're beginning to get single guys sober various different places. And I think for the first time they began to realize they might have had an answer to alcoholism. And, of course, the question became, well, what are we going to do about it if we've got that answer? And I'm sure John mentioned the fact that they could have done several different things. They could have said, well, we'll selfishly keep it for ourselves. Hell, 40 is enough. They could Have said, we'll franchise it here in Akron, New York City, and we'll sell it. They could HAVE done a lot of things. But they decided they didn't want to make that decision. And maybe this is the beginning of the group conscience in AA. They called a meeting of the people in the Oxford group that they knew that would probably attend it there in Akron. I think there was a total of 18 people at that meeting, some alcoholics, some non-alcoholic. And they decided to do three things. Number one, build a chain of hospitals stretching all the way across the United States so alcoholics could be detoxed and get medical attention. Surely Dr. Bob was going to be the head doctor. They felt that the message had such depth to it that not just everybody could carry it, so they would need to hire and train a group of missionaries and let them fan out across the United States carrying the great message. And I'll bet Bill Wilson was goingto be the Head Missionary. The final thing, of course, they decided to do was to write the book Alcoholics Anonymous. They wrote the book Alcoholics Anonymous basically for two reasons. Number one, they needed money and they wanted money. The Oxford groupers had written several spiritual books and they sold good. Back in the 1930s, you know, books were pretty popular. This was in the days before television. And there really was a time before television, believe me there was. And they knew that if they could write a book on alcoholism, explaining what it is and giving a solution to it and tell people how to find it, it would become one of the world's best sellers. And they could make lots of money. And with that money, they could build the hospitals and hire and train the missionaries. But the other main reason behind it is they'd already noticed in a two-year period of time that the information one person was carrying to another by word of mouth was becoming garbled. People were adding a little more in and leaving a little bit more out, and they said sooner or later this information will become worthless if we don't get it down in written form so the alcoholics in the future will be able to see it, have it, and use it as we know it today, referring, of course, to 1937. And with those ideas in mind, they decided to write this book called Alcoholics Anonymous. It was an out time that Southern Ruth sought to place her message and unique experience before the world. Now, this determination bore fruit in the spring of 1939 by the publication of this volume. The membership had then reached about 100 men and women. And John said a while ago they wrote those two chapters. We're going to sell the book based on those two chapter. Someone said, well, we ought to have a title for the name of this book. If we're going print a book, we'll have a time for it. And somebody said, Well, let's just say had a meeting one night there at T. Henry Williams and his wife Clarice home and said, Let's think of a title of the book. One of them said, let us call it The Way Out. It sounded like a pretty good name for a book. and they'd done a little research on that and found that there was 10 or 12 or 13 other titles called The Way Out, so they discarded that. Somebody said, well, let's call it Comes the Dawn. Sounds like a pretty good name for a book, doesn't it? Bill was a little bit, ego got involved. He said, Well, let'S just call it the Bill W. Movement. About 33 seconds later, they said, No, we're not going to do that, Bill. Somebody said Hey, letS call it A Hundred Men. Hey, that sounds good, doesn't it, guys? A book called A Hundred Men. Well, then a woman joined the group. Well, they couldn't call it A Hundred Men and a Woman, so they discarded that. That night someone had brought a guy from the Nuthouse and he was sitting over in the corner. I guess he was on Thorazine or something like it. But he was kind of drooling out of both corners of his mouth mumbling and he mumbled off the words Anonymous Alcoholics Alcoholics Anonymous and they said hey that sounds like a good name for the book so a drunk from a nut house named Alcoholics Andonymous I think that's rather apropos and then in that book called Alcoholics Anonymous and this was the first Alcoholics Anonymous the world has ever seen was the story of the first hundred men and women who recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body to show other alcoholics precisely how they recovered was the main purpose of that book. And they knew it would be a great seller, you see. Then our book says, this fledgling society which had been nameless or the Oxford Group or the drunk squad of the Oxford group began to call themselves Alcoholics Anonymous from the title of its own book. Okay, in 1939, the first Alcoholics Anonymous that the world ever saw was a book titled Alcoholics Anonymous. And within that book is the story of how the first 100 men and women recovered from alcoholism, explaining what they had to find out about alcoholism explaining the problem of alcoholism also explaining the solution that they had to use in order to recover a spiritual experience. Also, it contains the program of action that they Had to Use in Order to Recover from Alcoholism. Now, the second Alcoholics Anonymous was a group of alcoholics who named themselves Alcoholics Anonymous from the title of their book. So in 1939, we had two AlcoholicsAnonymouses. We had a book called AlcoholicsAnalymous which contained a program of recovery that the first 100 men and women used. We had 100 men и women who were alcoholic who called themselves AlcoholicAnonymous fromthe title of the book. So we had two Alcoholics Anonymouses then, the same as we do today. Now in 1939, the program in the book AlcoholicsAnonymous was the same as the program In the Fellowship. The first 100 men and women had practiced the program in the Book. So there was no quarrel between the program in thebook and the program and a fellowship. The book began to go out across the country. And we had some various different pieces of publicity. And the first guy down here in Florida got a copy of this book and read it, studied it, did what it said and recovered from alcoholism. Started an AA group. The first one in Texas did the same thing. The first on in California. The first ones in Michigan. The first in all the states. got a copy of this book, read it, studied it, did what it said, recovered from alcoholism, and started an AA group. So AA began to grow and get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And as it got bigger, they began to notice something the first 100 didn't have. they begin to notice the great power that comes through fellowship. When one alcoholic shares with another and then they share with another and another and another and another, they begin the experience great strength and great power from the fellowship. First 100 didn't have that. They couldn't go to 90 meetings in 90 days. You know, they depended upon the spiritual experience for their power. And as the fellowship got bigger and bigger and bigger, people began to question the need for the severity of the program in the book. They began to say such things as, do we really need to turn all of our will in our life over to the care of God as we understand Him? Couldn't we just give Him the alcohol and we'll keep the rest? Do we really needs to make a searching and fearless moral inventory? And they went from the word moral to the word immoral. A list of dirty, filthy, and avid. They said, do we really need to do that? They said you mean we really need to share this with somebody else? Hell, God already knows it. I know it. We don't need to show it with another human being. Do you mean we're going to have to make amends to all those people we've harmed? and they begin to say such things as, well, maybe we don't need to do everything that the book says to do. Maybe we can treat it like a cafeteria. Maybe we Can take what we want and leave the rest in the book and everything will be okay and we'll still be able to stay sober. And gradually, gradually, the program and the fellowship which is designed to change our personality completely and find a power greater than human power begin to be watered down. And in came the great advent of the treatment centers. Now, please don't get us wrong. We've got nothing against treatment centers They serve a very worthwhile purpose. But in most treatment centers, in order to justify being there and keeping an alcoholic in there for 30 days or 60 or 90, they're going to have to do more than just study the big book Alcoholics Anonymous So they started bringing in some psychiatrists, some psychology people. Mental health departments began to get involved in the treatment center business. And we began to give people an AA from the treatment centers. And we begin to hear these terms like chemical dependency. We begin to heard such terms as dual addiction. we begin to hear such things as polyaddiction we begin to hear such things as the dysfunctional family we begin to hear such things as meaningful relationships thousands and thousands of words that were not part of a program and the newcomer comes in and naturally they want to talk about what they know to talk about what they've learned out there And slowly, slowly, slowly, our meetings in AA begin to change. Instead of talking about having a spiritual experience through the practice and teaching of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous from the big book, AlcoholicsAnonymous, we begin to have group therapy sessions. And you go into some of those meetings today and if they didn't read the preamble before the meeting, you wouldn't know what kind of meeting you're in because they talk about everything except alcoholism and recovery from alcoholism. Joe and I call those group depression meetings. You go in there feeling pretty good. Halfway through the meeting, hell, you might as well just blow your brains out. There's no sense in living at all. So what we're going to talk about this weekend is not the program and the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. We're going to talk about the program in the big book, Alcoholics Anonymous. And just maybe, just maybe if we're fortunate, maybe we can get our fellowship back into the program in the Big Book AlcoholicsAnonymous instead of into group therapy sessions and group depression meetings. Hopefully that's what we're after, Joe. Went out to a club, a house that we had a club there in Tulsa a few months ago and listen, there was about 30 people in an hour meeting, noon meeting. And this one guy was talking about 20 minutes. You've seen him. I punched that old timer set and I said, Dick, what's he talking about? He said, I don't know. He never says. Remember one time, a long time ago, I called my sponsor Franklin at that time and I asked him, Franklin, my program is not working worth a darn towards that effect. And he said, well, tell me about your program. And I said, Well, I'm mad at Phyllis and I'm mad at the people I work with. I'm kind of mad at some people in AA. My program is just not working. And he says, Well Joe, have you ever tried to work in the program? There's a lot of difference between my program and the program, you see. So that's what we're going to talk about this weekend, the program that comes from this book I call Synonymous. And then over here on Roman numeral page 19, the last line we're going to see some of the successes that they were having when the program and the fellowship was one and the same so while the internal difficulties of our adolescent period were being ironed out public acceptance of AA grew by leaps and bounds for this there were two principal reasons, the large number of recoveries and reunited homes these made their impressions everywhere Of alcoholics who came to AA and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way. 25% sobered up after some relapses. Among the remainder, those who stayed on with AA showed improvement. Other thousands came to a few AA meetings and first decided they didn't want the program. But great numbers of these, about two out of three, began to return as time passed. And my math is correct. That's 75% who ultimately came and really try and stayed sober. We can't talk about 75% today. Can't even fantasize about 50%. Can't brag about 25%. I don't know what the real recovery rate is, but I suspect it's less than 10% way down there. And the main reason I see, I just come off of a 7,000-mile road trip, going to AA meetings all over the West, went to a lot of meetings. And if I had to stay sober in some of those meetings, I think I would die. In fact, I told a couple of groups that on the way around. There was one night there were three newcomers sitting there, brand new, never been to AA before, brand new. And some of the things they told those people was absolutely atrocious. Going to nut houses and having car wrecks and I think one of them had 49 car wreacks and explained to every one of us. finally i couldn't that's just the way i am after a while i said man i tell you you three new people i'm gonna tell you something maybe it'll save your life it'll save mine i said if you sit in these meetings and listen to that crap you'll die sitting in an aa meeting i said in aa there's a big book somewhere and i don't see one around here but there is one it's about that thick and it's blue and you can get it and then the story tells how the first 100 men and women recovered from alcoholism and lived marvelous lives, most of them. And I suggest that you find that book. You see? I don't know how I got off on that. But, I mean, I've been all over the West and all the month of May. But Bill Wilson wrote this little pamphlet called Problems Other Than Alcohol. Lots of good information. I said AA is fragile. It's very fragile. I think everybody in AA ought to read this little Pamphlet. Bill Wilson brought it in 1958. And right here on that paragraph, right there, he says this. He said, Now what was that? Sobriety, freedom from alcohol through the teaching and practice of the 12 steps is the sole purpose of an AA group. That's the only reason to have an AA group, is to practice and teach the 12 steps to people and to each other. So that's the Only Reason. And if we will do that, then our recovery rate, I believe and I know, will come back up. I've seen that happen with my own eyes. But we've got to get off of those other meetings. They're killing people all over AA, everywhere. You know, probably... We're not going to preach too much more, are we? No. Give me my chance. Okay. Charlie can tell it. Nobody really knows what the recovery rate in AA is today, but I would venture it is less than 10% of the people that come to AA and probably less than 5%. Now who's responsible for that? A lot of the old-timers like to blame it on the newcomer, and they say, well, those newcomers come in here and they want to talk about everything except alcoholism and I can't identify with them and I'm just going to stay home. And when the old-timer does that, we abdicate our responsibility for AA. We turn it over to the sickest of the sickests who are the newcomers and we stand back and say, look what they're doing to our AA. No, I don't think it's the newcomer. The newcomer is going to talk a lot. They're going to be able to talk to us about whatever they know to talk about, you know, that's natural. The responsibility is for the old-timer to say to the newcomer, look, that information you learned out there is probably good stuff, but it has nothing to do with AA. It has nothing TO DO WITH THE AA PROGRAM. Here's how you recover from alcoholism. And we talk about the big book Alcoholics Anonymous. We talk about THE PROGRام in Alcoholics Aanonymous. We insist that the newcomers follow THE PROgram so that they can recover from alcoholicism. And if they don't want to follow the program, then we need to tell them there's not a thing in the world we can do for you. We can't help you unless you're willing to work this program. And that's the responsibility of the old members of AA. You know, I would almost bet money that still today the recovery rate would be a minimum of 75% who come to AA and really try this program. Not 75% of the people come to AA, but those who come to AAA and get a sponsor, good sponsor, and really practice this program, well I bet our recovery rate would be back to 75% today just as well as it was then. And now that you all know all this stuff, it has now become your responsibility to see that the newcomer does these kind of things And if they don't want to practice the program, we need to make them aware of the fact there's really not much we can do for you. Oh yeah, you can come to meetings if you want to. You can drink coffee. You can throw your dollar in the pot. But you're not going to recover from alcoholism just by coming to meetings. And as we go through our book, we're going to be able to see where that's exactly true. That fellowship alone is just not sufficient. Now we're through preaching. Okay, good. but I'm glad of that. But that's what we're about, you see. That's what wir'e about. Now that we know a little bit about the book itself, let's go back to the table of contents. Let's take a look here at two or three ideas. Remember that it was necessary for Bill Wilson to know the problem, to know this problem, to know his solution, to know The Program of Action. It was necessary for Dr. Bob to know the problem, to know The Solution and know the program of action. So immediately when they went out on what they called an Oxford group visit, today we would call it a 12-step call, these are the three pieces of information that they would present to the newcomer. When they sat down and wrote the big book Alcoholics Anonymous, all they did was take the information that they had used in order to recover and put it down in that same sequence. And we call it the Big Book Goals. And there's three things in there we're going to really look at and stress. The first thing we're gonna do is we're gone look at the problem. You see, we alcoholics in AA, we're the only alcoholics in the world that knows what's wrong with us. By the way, in that little handout thing you've got, you've some pictures that will match this up here. So if you're way back in the back, you've a picture that will make it. We people in AA are the only alcoholics in the world that really understand our problem. The alcoholics that are out there still drinking, they think it's weak will. They think it is moral character. They think its sin. Why would they not? That's what everybody had told them up until this date. Well, we're going to find in the doctor's opinion and Bill's story. Some of it will be in chapter 2 and 3, but the majority of it is going to be in the doctor's opnion and Bill story. We're going find out what the problem really is. We're gonna be able to see why we are powerless over alcohol. And if we can really see and accept the fact that we are powerless over alcohol, our lives have become unmanageable through the doctor's opinion and Bill's story, then we will have been working on step one. After we see what the problem is, the next thing the big book does for us is to give us a solution to that problem. And we're going to find chapter 2, there is a solution. Chapter 3, more about alcoholism. Chapter 4, we agnoxics to help you and I come to believe that there is a power greater than ourselves that can restore us to sanity. It will explain the insanity and it will convince us of what we need in order to recover from alcoholism. So really, in those three chapters, we're working on step two. You know, if the answer is powerless, then obviously... I mean, if The Problem is Powerless, then obviously the answer is going to be power. And that's what those three chapters are dealing with. The power greater than ourselves that can resource to sanity. Now, if they convince us in those chapters that we're powerless, if they convince us that the answer lies within power, then the only other thing we need to know is how do you find that power? And we're going to find three chapters devoted to that. chapter 5, how it works, chapter 6, into action, chapter 7, working with others. And within those three chapters, we're going to find the program of action necessary to find that power which will be steps 3 through 12. You know, I get amused at people today when they're talking about going to a step study, they're always talking about the 12 and 12. Well, any time you're studying the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, you're studyin' the steps. Part of it deals with step one. Part of is deals with Step 2. And part of it dealz with the last three steps. And this is the same identical information that the first 100 had to know and they also had to follow it in that sequence in order to recover from alcoholism. now today if we look at the big book as following that sequence then it becomes a very fascinating book you know i first got a hold of this book i didn't i didn' t have any idea that it was written in a certain sequence to convey certain ideas i read it like a novel and i would read something in bill's story and yeah i kind of agreed with him i read chapter two and didn't like that at all. I went over and read some of the stories in the back of the book and they sounded pretty good. And I came back and read chapter 5 and I damn sure wasn't going to do what it said. When you once buy into the idea that this thing is written in a sequence, it becomes a fascinating book. One chapter leads to the next chapter to the last chapter. To the next paragraph. One paragraph leads to the next photograph, to the second paragraph, to the third paragraph. Building on information, conveying these ideas to us so that we can recover as the first 100 did. I like the way this book is laid out because that's kind of the key to this book, really. Bill got sober pretty much the way that this book was laid out. His first experience was the doctor's opinion, getting that information. Ebby brought Bill a solution, Chapter 2. He wasn't too happy about that solution, and neither was I. Told us a little bit more about alcoholism, more about what's going to happen to us unless we accept the solution that he described. And then he wrote a chapter for me and many people like me called the Chapter to the Agnostic. I didn't know what really an agnostic was, but I kind of liked that word because I figured I was that way anyhow. But the word really means, agnostic means knowledge. And you put the ag in front of it, it means without. Those of us who are without knowledge, and that's what I was, he wrote that chapter for me because he knew that I was going to have trouble just like he did. Remember, he said his mind snapped shut against that series, and he knewthat I wasgoing to be the same way. And I like the beginnings of how it works. It begins with step three, meaning that he used the doctor's opinion in the first four chapters to do steps one and two. If we're not convinced of one and two through the doctor's opinion in the first four chapters, I'm going to go back and reread it and get convinced because the program starts at step three. And as Charlie has said, all these in goal one, all of these problems and goals are reduced down to one word, powerless. We're just powerless over alcohol. If we'RE powerless, obviously we're going to need the power. That's the solution. Well, where and how are we to find this power? When our book said on page 45, that's exactly what this book is about. It's to enable me to find a power greater than myself which will solve my problem. And it didn't say it would help me solve my problems. I'm going to find the power, and the power is going to solve the problem. So this book has laid out in textbook style. I was in the printing business all my life. I printed books like this. I've sat in on meetings with other people who were talking about how they're laying out the book. And when I come to AA, it never dawned on me, after 30-some odd years in the printing business, that this book had any rhyme or reason to it. Come to find out, it has lots of rhyme and reason, lots of ways it's laid out. And I was haphazardly going back and forth and all over the place. No wonder I scatterbrained, you know. But I start with a doctor's opinion and carry them as Charlie said. but each chapter leads you to the next chapter, the next paragraph leads you to the last paragraph. The next paragraph... He didn't put these lines in here just to cover up space. They're all for a reason. And I need to find out what they are and how they apply to me because then the black of this book tells me how to recover. Okay, now let's go to the preface. We're going to look at a couple ideas as we go through here. Now, this is the third edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous that is on Roman numeral 11 in this third edition. Is it Roman numera 11 in the fourth edition? Okay. Let's go to that second paragraph. And it says, because this book has become the basic text of our society and has helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists a sentiment against any radical changes being made in it. Therefore, the first portion of this volume describing the AA recovery program has been left untouched in the course of revisions made for both the second and the third editions. The sections called The Doctors of Binyon have been kept intact, just as it was originally written in 1939 by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, our society's great medical benefactor. Okay, we'll look at two ideas here. Number one, because this book has become the basic text for our society, we're really alerted to the type of book that we have in front of us. There's all kinds of books in the world today. There's novels written on fact, novels written upon fiction, biographies, autobiographies and concordances. We could name lots of different kinds of book. But there's one kind of book we're all familiar with called a textbook. And a lot of us don't have too fond memories of textbooks. Because remember, we had to use them in school. We had to read and study and take tests and et cetera, et cetera. And we didn't like the idea of textbooks." Every time I read a textbook, I think about cheating for some reason. But if you look at a textbook in its simplest form, Now, the only purpose of it is to take information from the mind of one human being or a group of human beings, transfer that information to the mind OF ANOTHER HUMAN BEING OR A GROUP OF HUMAN Beings, increasing the knowledge of those that have been taught. And that's all a textbook is for. is transference information so that those who are being taught can learn something they didn't know before. A textbook is nearly always written in a sequence. Let's take a textbook on mathematics. Let's say my friend Joe here knows nothing at all about mathematics. He can't add, he can't subtract, he cannot do any of those things. Oh, he can count probably to 21 if he's got everything where it's supposed to be. He might make 21. Twenty and a half, actually. And I woke up to Joe and I said, Joe, in this textbook in mathematics in chapter 5, it deals with algebra problems. I want you to go to chapter 5 and work those algebra problems He can't even add and subtract. He goes to chapter 5, and all he just sees is a bunch of marks on paper, period. But if I say, show this textbook on mathematics. Chapter 1 deals with the value of numbers, addition and subtraction. Read it, study it, let me help you, ask questions when you need to. And you'll learn how to add and subtract, and sure enough, he does. And then I said, let's go to chapter 2 now. Now that you know how to Add and Subtract, you can learn how how to multiply and divide in chapter 2. And he learns how to do that, and then I say well now let's go to chapter 3 and you can learn about fractions and decimals. And slowly, slowly, in a sequence we prepare his mind for the algebra problems in chapter 5. I think the greatest mistake I see being made in AA still today. A newcomer comes in the door. Somebody hands him a copy of the big book. It says go to Chapter 5 what it says and you'll be okay. And they go to chapter 5 and immediately they see a bunch of algebra problems. They read the 12 steps. Step 1 says, Admittedly we were powerless over alcohol our lives have become unmanageable. Thank you. And the newcomer says, I'm not powerless over anything. Step 2 says, Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. The newcomer said, Man, don't tell me I'm crazy. Oh yeah, I do stupid things when I'm drunk, but I'm like normal people when I am sober. Well, if you are not powerless and you are not nuts, then you don't need to be thinking about turning your will and your life over to care of something you don' t understand in the first place. We present them with an impossible situation. If we can do nothing else this entire weekend, I hope we'll be able to see the real purpose, the value of the doctor's opinion in the first four chapters. You know, chapter 5 starts with step 3. And you can't start step 3 unless you've got 1 and 2 behind you. And hopefully we're going to be able to see all that information we need written in a proper sequence to let us be able to see what the problem is and what the solution is and then we can start the program of action. I think the other thing it is so important is because this has become the basic text for our society and helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery that it gives a sentiment against any radical changes being made in it. Therefore, the first portion of this volume describing the AA recovery program has been left untouched in the course of revision for both the second and the third editions, and today, of course, the fourth edition. In 1955, the fellowship was changing so rapidly. Age was coming down. Bottom was coming up. More and more women coming into AA. They decided the stories in the back of this original book no longer accurately reflected the membership. And that's where the newcomer makes a lot of identification. So they decided to drop some of the stories out of the first edition, add some new ones, came out with a second edition. But the doctor's opinion in the first 164 pages remained the same. In 1976, they made the same decision and came out with the third edition. And I think the year 2000, they make the same decision and come out with the fourth edition. But all that has ever been changed in the book is the stories in the back of the book. The recovery section has remained exactly the same. I think it's important we know that. I think its important that we see that. I think the greatest miracle in Alcoholics Anonymous today is we've gone through four different editions of the big book and we've never found it necessary to change the part that deals with the recovery program. You know how you, God, You know how we are. We love to change things. Anybody that's ever read this book has rewritten it in their mind two or three times anyhow. But collectively, we've never found it necessary to change the recovery portion of the book. Why? It works, doesn't it? It works just as good today as it did in 1939. Why? I think three reasons. Number one, alcoholics haven't changed. They're still doing the same thing today they did in 1939. They get drunk. They get in car wrecks. They get into jail houses. They get on divorce courts. They get knife fights. They get penitentiaries. They get graveyards. Today, just doing the same thumb things today they were doing in 1939. Alcohol hasn't changed. They've changed the names and the colors and the containers. But alcohol is the same thing today that it was in 1939 Human nature never changes. And that's what this book deals with. It deals with alcoholics, alcoholism, human nature. And therefore, we've never found it necessary to change this book. I think that's one of the greatest miracles in AA. Joe? Let's go now forward to the first edition. Tomer, is this your book? I'm in your coat. Tomer. Okay. No, it belongs to that other guy. I'm fine right now and said forward to the first edition he said we there's the biggest word in all of alcohol synonymous we we can do what I cannot do and the word we is used 17 times in this chapter less than the next chapter and less than none in the fourth chapter I don't know why but anyhow we of alcohols anonymous are more than 100 men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. That's two different things. And we're going to separate the body from the mind pretty soon and explain them both in great detail. And this is to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. And you see these little words that are in italic? Charlie says squiggly writing, but they're really italic. Very important. So it means to read them again. It'll be important. to show us precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. And in this book, you're going to see words like specifically, exactly, with clear-cut directions. So this book is going to tell us precisely, specifically, exactly, clear- cut directions on how the first 100 men and women recovered. If I want to recover like they do, guess what? I need to do precisely, specifically, exactly, follow the clear current directions or I may not recover from alcoholism. I think one of the most important statements in this book is we of Alcoholics Anonymous are more than 100 men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. Most books that I read have been authored by one person. And when I read a book that has a single author in it, And if I read something in there I don't agree with, I just say to myself, well, who in the hell are they to think they're smarter than I am? And go right on about my business. But if I do that with a big book, I'm not going to be arguing with one person. I'm going to being arguing with 100 men and women. The first 40 told Bill, they said, we want you to write the book. You know more about it than anybody else. You've been sober longer than anybody. And at that time, I got about three years. But they said, Bill, this is not to be your book. It's to be our book. And as you write those chapters, we want to see them. And we'll add to, we'll delete from, we'll change around, whatever we want too. When we're through with it, it will be the collective knowledge, experience, and wisdom of all 40 of us. Over the time the book was published in 1939, there was 100 of them. So if I'm going to argue with what this book says today, I need to remember I'm arguing not with one person but 100 people and there are 100 people who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body that thing that's killing me is a practicing alcoholic and that makes it a little harder to argue with them if they've recovered from what's killing them which brings up the word recovered now we hear this argument going on in AA all over the world. Can you really recover from alcoholism? Well, I hope you can. If you can't, we're all going to be in damn bad shape. You know, I'll never be cured of alcoholism. I will always be an alcoholic. No ifs, ands, or buts about that. But before I came to AA, I couldn't drink without getting drunk and I couldn't stay sober. And I lived in a hopeless condition of mind and body. I came to AA. I found the big book Alcoholics Anonymous. I applied the program in my life. Now today, I still can't drink without getting drunk. But by golly, I can stay sober and no longer live in that hopeless condition of mind or body. And you're going to find the word recovered all the way through this book. So I don't think there's any argument about that at all. We can recover from alcoholism. The other thing I think is so important is to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book It's kind of like making cake and many of you have heard me talk before about the strawberry cake. I go to a potluck meeting and there's a strawberry cake there and I just love it. That's my favorite cake. And I get a piece of that cake and I bite into it and man, it's just perfect. The texture's right. The taste is right. The moisture content's right Couldn't want anything any better. And I say, Who made this cake anyhow? Well, you being a good cook, you might say I did. And I said, Would you tell me how you did that? And you say, Sure, I'll be glad to. And you sit down and you write out for me a precise set of directions on how to make that cake. You tell me the ingredients to put in it, the quantity of the ingredients to put it in, the sequence in which to mix them together, and the temperature at which to bake it. Now if I take your directions in my kitchen and if I follow them precisely as you've laid it out, when that cake comes out of the oven and cools off I think I can expect it to taste exactly like your cake tasted. But if I take your directions in my kitchen, and my keen intellectual alcoholic mind begins to work. It says, well now, I don't know about this three egg deal. I think it ought to have four eggs. Instead of a cup and a half of sugar, it oughta have two cups of sugar. Instead of baking it for 18 minutes, I oughta bake it for 32. Instead of bacon at 375, I'll bake it at 450. When that thing comes out of the oven and I bite into it, You betcha I'm going to be biting into a piece of cake. But I wonder how closely it would resemble your cake, which was my reason for making it in the first place. A precise, specific, clear-cut set of directions on how to recover from alcoholism. You'll notice the words precisely how we have recovered, they are in italics. And I like to call that squiggly writing. And when you see squiggly writing in the big book, stop. Read it some more. Look at it. Study it. Because usually it's something extremely important. And here precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. Joe? And now we're going to go to the doctor's opinion. They talk a lot about the first 164 pages. but the doctor's opinion is important too maybe it's 173 pages instead of 164 because Charlie said earlier there hasn't been no changes made to the book first 16 printings the book, The Doctor's Opinion was on page 1 1955 they revised the book for the first time and we don't know why they did this there was never any conference action approving it No writings as to why Bill approved it or disapproved it. We don't know what happened. But somewhere along the line, they took the doctor's opinion, took it off of page one and put it in the room.