The Proper Channel for Those Who Are Pure-Blooded Addicts – Scott

Welcome to Sober Sunrise, a podcast bringing you AA speaker meetings with stories of experience, strength and hope from around the world. We bring you several new speakers weekly, so be sure to subscribe. We hope to always remain an ad-free podcast, so if you'd like to help us remain self-supporting, please visit our website at Sober-Sunrise.com. Whether you join us in the morning or at night, there's nothing better than a sober sunrise. We hope that you enjoy today's speaker. Basically today we're going to go ahead and Scott's going to start us off with a little overview of what's in the preface and the forewords. And then I'm going to give a little bit of history on the doctor's opinion and its importance and how it came to be part of the basic text of the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. So, Scott, why don't you come on up here? Sure. Thank you. You guys will have to bear with me. I'm multitasking, recording and speaking. My name is Scott Mann, very definitely an alcoholic. I was separated from alcohol on November 28, 1997. It's a real honor to be here with you guys. Before I get started, I want you to know that each and every one of you people has influenced my sobriety. I am absolutely convinced that every single person that walks in these doors has influenced my life in one way or another. And a little bit about what we're going to do here. Matthew and I have, you know, we talk inside the program and outside of the program. and we realized that a lot of people, they talk about the big book, but do people absolutely understand the big book and the doctor's opinion? One of the biggest myths, and I want to start out with this, one of the biggest myths you hear in these rooms is that there's 164 pages. Matter of fact, let's get a show of hands how many people's sponsor has said read the first 164 pages. And guess what? You probably skipped over the doctor's opinion, right? Right? Have you drank again? Yeah? Well, I like audience participation and I think that's what's going to open this up for everybody to feel like we're a part of it. I do not represent Alcoholics Anonymous. I represent a sober person who has stayed sober in spite of myself. Okay? But I think the doctor opinion is the essence of the first step. If I don't understand the doctor's opinion, real good chance I'm going to drink booze again. Real good chance. Because the doctor opinion lays out the allergy, the obsession of the mind, and obviously the spiritual malady. The three parts, the body, the mind and the spirit of the illness. I used to understand the spirit or the illness but I guarantee you I didn't understand either the body or the mind. I just thought it was only a moral issue. Okay? I.e., I went down to the Pentecostal church every Sunday morning, every Wednesday night and I rededicated my life. But for whatever reason, I couldn't stop drinking when I did that. And I had no idea this is not just a moral issues. Okay? They didn't tell me that at the Pentecostal church. They didn' say, well buddy, you're suffering from an allergy of the body and you're condemned by an obsession of the mind to drink yourself to death. They said, brother, just keep coming back to the altar calls. God's going to change your life. And I'm not here to talk about what the Pentecostal church did or didn't do. But that was my experience prior to coming to Alcoholics Anonymous. Long story made short, I want to start out at the very beginning. The doctor's opinion is what we're hoping we'll get through today. But I wantto start you guys out on the preface. Did you forget the prayer? Yeah, you forgot the prayer, didn't you? Thank you, John. I'm an alcoholic. That's okay. Yeah, let's go ahead and have a prayer, guys. Let's have a moment of silence followed by the serenity prayer. God, grant me the serENITY to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Okay. So we're going to start on page XI, Roman numeral 11. Has everybody got a book? You don't have a book. Dale, do you mind bringing out the books from the back for the folks who don't have the books? So I want everybody to follow along with me if at all possible. Hopefully you brought your highlighter. I'm going to make some notes. And what we're gonna do is I'm just gonna go through one paragraph at a time. Some stuff is pertinent to your sobriety, some stuff isn't. But we're going to go ahead and go through it the way my sponsor did it with me, one paragraph at a time. It says at the top of the preface, this is the fourth edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. The first edition appeared in April 1939, and the following 16 years more than 300,000 copies went into circulation. The second edition, published in 1955, reached a total of more than 1,150,500 copies. The third edition, which came off the press in 1976, achieved a circulation of approximately 19,550,000 copies in all formats. Okay, there's some good information there for me. Basically, one thing I want to say about the big book, it's not as much what it says as what it means. That's what my sponsor wanted me to understand when I went through this book with him. He says, don't read this thing just literally for what it says. Try to find the underlying meaning. And what that first paragraph means to me is, in 1939 when this book was written, they put out 300,000 copies. Sounds like a lot of copies, right? But in 1976, there were 20 million copies in circulation. So what that says to me is this is an important book. We went from 300,000 copies and then 41 years later, I think it's 41, forgive me if my math is wrong, but in 1976 we've got 20 million copies out there. If this book was not important and this book did not work, I promise you it wouldn't have increased like that. So let's go to the second paragraph. It says, because this book has become the basic text for our society and has helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists strong 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 the second, third, and fourth editions. The section called The Doctor's Opinion has 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, there's a very, very important sentence there for me in the very first line. It says, because this book has become the basic text, so it's saying this book is a textbook. What were textbooks when you guys were in school? You went home and studied textbooks, right? See, this was not my experience the first six years of sobriety, Physical sobriety. I like to say that physical sobriete because I don't know if I was really sober then because I hadn't been introduced to this book, to this level until I went to an 81-year-old man on the east side of town. And ever since I got with him, I've been a free man. The textbook philosophy, I used to think this was just a nonfiction novel. You go pick it up in the self-help section at Barnes & Noble, right? Anybody else ever thought that? Well, that's not what this is saying. This is a textbook. I have to study this book if I want to recover from alcoholism. Not read it, study it. Read it and study it in two different ballgames. So it's already telling us this is a textbook and we're only on the second paragraph of this book. And it talks a little bit about the section called The Doctor's Opinion Has Been Kept Intact. So the doctor's opinion has stayed the same since 1939, i.e., once again, there's some important information in that chapter. Otherwise, they would have changed it by now. So let's go to the third paragraph. It says the second edition added the appendices, the 12 traditions, and the directions for getting in touch with AA. But for the chief change was in the section of personal stories which was expanded to reflect the fellowship's growth. Bill's story, Dr. Bob's nightmare, and one other personal history from the first edition were retained intact. Three were edited, and one of these was retitled. New versions of two stories were written with new titles. 30 completely new stories were added, and the story section was divided into three parts under the same headings that are used now. The only thing that says to me is basically, you know, we've got four editions of this book that have been written. And I guess each edition, we've had different types of members coming in. We've had new experience, new members. Therefore, they've changed the personal stories up a little bit to reflect the change in AA membership, okay? And I'm assuming that when we write it, when the fifth edition of this book is wrote, there will also be some changes then because I think that AA is constantly changing. But we need to hope that it's changing for the better and not the worse. And we'll get into that later on. So the third edition, part one, Pioneers of AA was left untouched. Nine of the stories in part two they stopped in time were carried over from the second edition. Eight new stories were added, and part three they lost nearly all. Eight stories were retained, and five new ones were added. The only thing that jumped out at me on that is I came to Alcoholics Anonymous, I've been sober since the age of 23. I was in the minority. The group that I got sober in, the Harbor Group, I do not think there was another person my age at that time when I came in. So I got a mind from the very beginning that was telling me, you may not be an alcoholic. From the very get-go. When you're 23 years old and all your peers are late 40s, 50s, my mind's trying to get me out the door. And some of you guys can probably still relate to this. You may think you're too young to be an alcoholic now. But anyway, I went to a guy in the meeting one time in Harbor and he said there's a section in the back of the book. It's called They Stopped in Time. And it was written from young people's perspectives. That man may have saved my life that day. I didn't know about this. And so I went to the back of the book, and lo and behold, there were about eight stories that were reflective of people that got sober in Alcoholics Anonymous at a young age. See, every time I've been willing to seek, God has always provided an answer for me. But I've got to say, the first couple of years I had a lot of doubts if I was an alcoholic. I really did. Not to think about all the misery, the panic attacks, anxiety attacks, guilt, shame and remorse. See, my mind doesn't even think about that stuff. It talks about that we're unable to bring into consciousness the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. So I'm sitting in Alcoholics Anonymous wondering if I'm an alcoholic I didn't remember the time I wanted to blow my brains out at the age of 20 years old. So we're dealing with some serious business here A serious mental illness So I think it talks a little bit about And everybody's going to find something in this book That relates to them on a personal level I'm sharing my experience Hoping that maybe it will spawn something In you guys that you will see Next part says The fourth edition includes the 12 concepts for world service And revises the three sections of personal stories as follows One new story has been added to part one, and two that originally appeared in part three have been repositioned there. Six stories have been deleted. Six of the stories in part two have been carried over. Eleven new ones have been added, and eleven taken out. Okay, this is pretty monotonous now, okay? Part three now includes twelve new stories. Eight were removed in addition to the two that were transferred to part 1. Okay, we've got a lot of information there. It's basically reiterating how much the book has changed. It's kind of funny, too, how much it's changed. I mean, you've got to realize we've still got alcoholics writing this book. We're opinionated people, and I'm sure they're very opinionated up in New York too, even though they're at the GSO. So there's a lot of changes going on here. The 12 Concepts of World Service is basically service at a world level. So we've got the service at personal recovery first, then we've Got Service at a Group Level, and then you have Service at the World Level. And that's what the 12 Concept for World Service are. Last paragraph on the preface says, All changes made over the years in the big book, AA members' fond nickname for this volume, have had the same purpose to represent the current membership of Alcoholics Anonymous more accurately and thereby to reach more alcoholics. So that sums up everything we just talked about that the big look has changed only to represent and help more alcoholists. If you have a drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the 42 personal stories and think, yes, that happened to me. Or more important, yes, I felt like that. Or most important, yes, I believe this program can work for me too. And so if you just read the first 164 pages, you just skipped some real good information, didn't you? Right? And again, I'm speaking from personal experience because I've done it before. I really have. And I was a dead man walking. I was the dead man. I was dead man walkin'. So let's go on to the forward of the first edition. I told Matthew I wasn't going to be long-winded, but it's almost a contradiction to my nature. Okay, so we're on page Roman numeral 13, forward ofthe first edition, and remember you guys can take notes. Highlighter's great, but I usually have a pen beside me too. A.A. was four years old when this book was written. Can you imagine these guys going from 1935 to 1939? Absolutely blind. I mean, they didn't have anything down in writing of their concepts and their beliefs. They were studying everybody else's concepts and beliefs at that point. And I think that's the reason Bill wrote this book, ultimately, is he realized, I've got to get this down on paper. It's going to have a lot greater effect on alcoholics if it's down on paper, somewhere that people can look at it. So in 1939 when this book was written, A.A. was four years old. It says, We of Alcoholics Anonymous are more than 100 men and women who have recovered, past tense, from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. There's some real important information there for me. Recovered. There's more controversy. How many recovering alcoholics? Do you hear that a lot in here? You hear recovering? Okay, well let me clarify this. Recover does not mean cured. I promise you if I had not been through the big book and worked the 12 steps with a sponsor I am recovering these guys were recovered because they had done that so look at it how you want to but if you've gone through the 12 Steps you are a recovered alcoholic but recovered and cured are two different things to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book so if this book is the basic text we already established in the preface this book is the basis basic text for our society isn't that what it said and then it says that the main focus of this books is to show others how we recover so would it be important to say that the main purpose of this program is this book? Would it be safe to say that since it said what it said in the preface about that? This book is very, very important. It's the only thing that I can carry on to another alcoholic that's foolproof. It really is. It's fool proof because all the information is right here. That ain't opinion. It's all right here and anything that I may say today that contradicts this book, you can disregard it. Because I'm sharing my experience on this. So the book is an absolute necessity to overcome alcoholism. For them, we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further authentication will be necessary. That says maybe I don't need any other books to recover from alcoholism? Now once I've recovered, then I can get into some other literature. Then I can start reading my daily reflections and I can start becoming a guru on a daily basis. I can start praying and meditating in the morning. But first of all, I better recover first. See what we got going on is we're reading all kinds of other literature that is real good information. Don't get me wrong. It's all AA literature. But we've already established this book is the basic text for recovery. the end, period, the end. Not living sober. This book. It says no further authentication will be necessary. That means there's no reason I don't have to change this. I don'T have to go write my own version of it. Although my ego says it'd like to, I've got to tell you. I was thinking about, man, I wonder if we could come up with our own version. I'm like, dude, that's absolutely insane. See, my mind can still go out there. And I have to tell your guys this. I have to say it out loud so I can hear myself. But that's the kind of mind we're working with here. I'm talking about how important this book is, and then I've got a mind that says maybe I could come up with my own version. You know what I mean? We think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic. Many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person. And besides, we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all. Guess what? They've got over, what, 200 12-step programs now? AA was the very first 12-stepprogram. Now they've got, you name it, Narcotics Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous Gamblers Anonymous. It goes on and on and on. And what that says to me is anybody can benefit from this way of life. I.e., I think that's why there's been people go out and start 12-step programs that were based upon our 12 steps, because AA was the first 12-step program. And now you've got over 200. Second paragraph, it says, It is important that we remain anonymous because we are too few at present to handle the overwhelming number of personal appeals which may result from this publication. Being mostly business or professional folk, we could not well carry on our occupation in such an event. We would like it understood that our alcoholic work is an avocation. Real important word, guys. Highlight, underline, parentheses, avocation. The definition of avocation is... I've got my little big book dictionary here. And I'm going to give you some opinions on this. You can agree with them or not. Activity which is less important than one's regular job. That's the actual definition. Activity, which is more important than your regular job, An avocation to me means I do this for free and for fun. Whenever I get done talking today, I'm not going to ask you guys to write me a check for my services. Because this is an avocation. If I start charging money for this, you might as well go buy me a funeral plot. Really, you might als well. And this is my opinion and my opinion only. I think that's part of the reason treatment centers don't have the success That Alcoholics Anonymous does They're charging money for what we do for free And I guarantee you The message that one alcoholic carries to another One alcoholic that has recovered Is going to have a lot more power Than me having to pay some guy five grand To go stay in his treatment center Don't get me wrong Treatment centers have a place They're about discovery They're about drying out. They're abut getting the booze and the drugs out of my body. But one alcoholic helping another for free and for fun is the oldest principle known to man. You cannot charge money for this, okay? And that's what avocation means to me. We do this for free, and for fund. And thank God for that. Thank God for tha. then it says when writing or speaking publicly about alcoholism we urge each member of our fellowship to omit his personal name designating himself instead as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous okay that's an anonymity statement and what it means to me in the way my sponsor described it he says you can give your full name within the fellowship of Alcoholic Anonymous The anonymity statement is more to protect your fellow AA member, your friends in AA, rather than yourself. It'd be like if I went outside and I said I saw Matthew and I gave his last name to somebody that's not in AA. I just shattered Matthew's anonymity. That's if I'm outside of this room and I give Matthew's full name and the person I'm talking to is not an AA member. I've shattered his anonymity And I've got to tell you, I've done this stuff once or twice in my sobriety without even realizing I was doing it. Like running into somebody I know and we have a mutual friend like, hey, did you hear so-and-so is going to AA? Whoop, I didn't realize it. I just broke that guy's anonymity. You know what I mean? So the important thing for me to understand, it says when writing or speaking publicly. This is not publicly. Publicly is at the Kiwanis Club. It's at your local high school. your local middle school, wherever. That's publicly. So if I'm out speaking in public as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I can only give my first name. I can't say my name is Scott Mann. I'm an alcoholic. I say my named is Scott. I'm a member for AlcoholicsAnonymous. And that's what Bill Wilson was talking about. And you know why? Because back then they only had 100 members. Guess what? they didn't have every group in town for people like us to go speak at. They had to go to churches. They hade to go the Kiwanis Club because they didn t have anywhere to go and speak. That's why Bill Wilson wrote this anonymity statement. This does not apply as greatly to us today as it did to them back then because there was only a hundred of those people. You know, they were very limited on where they could go share their stories. And we're going to read about that in the forward of the second edition they go and they spoke at a couple of special dinners for people that were non-AA members. So the important thing for me to know is within the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous I can give my full name. But once I leave these rooms and I go speak in public as a member of Alcoholic Anonymous, I better just give my first name only to protect AA and protect anonymity. Next paragraph says, the last sentence sounds kind of like that advocation again I really want to be helpful to those who are afflicted I don't have any other real needs that I need to have met here than help somebody that's a fellow alcoholic funny about this, the foreword of the first edition Bill, our third tradition stated the only requirement for membership was an honest desire to stop drinking. Well, if we look at it now, it doesn't say anything about honest. And now this is folklore, but I heard Bill took honest out because there ain't an alcoholic on the planet who knows how to be honest when he comes in here. And I heard that's why he took it out. But anyway, matter of fact, I don't know if I could have handled that either when I came because honesty was definitely not my best policy. I've got to tell you. So I think it's kind of ironic He originally had honest in there, and now it's just a desire to stop drinking, which is important. We shall be interested to hear from those who are getting results from this book, particularly from those whose have commenced work with other alcoholics. We should like to be helpful to such cases. It says inquiry by scientific, medical, and religious societies will be welcome. That's pretty open-minded, wouldn't you say? Pretty open-mindered. He's saying we'd be glad to hear from scientists, doctors, religions. And that once again reconfirms that AA does not have all the answers to every problem known to man. Otherwise he wouldn't be saying you're welcome to ask us any questions you might have. We don't have all of the answers. I'm not a doctor. I'm no lawyer. I'm just a sober member of AA who has stayed sober. And that's what I really have to pass on fundamentally. Forward to the second edition, which is on page 15, Roman numeral 15. I want to say this real quick while we're doing it, guys. Matthew, I don't know if you mentioned that we're going to have a... We want to have kind of an ask-it-basket question and answer time. So for anybody that has any questions on what we're going over today that you want to ask, go ahead and write it down on a piece of paper. Put it in a basket. And when we have a little break after the first hour, we'll come back and try to answer all those questions. And if we can't get to all of them for some reason, I'll be glad, we'd be glad to answer any questions at the end of the deal today. So guys, feel free to write down any questions you might have, okay? Because that's what we are here for. Forward to the second edition. So this was written in 1955. A.A. is 20 years old at this point, okay? So it's been 16 years since the last writing. It says, Since the original forward of this book was written in 1939, a wholesale miracle has taken place. Our earliest printing voiced the hope that every alcoholic who journeys will find the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination. Already continues the early text, twos and threes and fives of us have sprung up in other communities. What that's saying to me is AA is continuing to grow. It's continuing to grow, and even after 16 years it's continuing to grow." So 16 years have elapsed between our first printing of this book and the presentation in 1955 of our second edition. In that brief space, Alcoholics Anonymous has mushroomed into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000 recovered alcoholics. so we've got 150,000 recovered alcoholics and 16 years prior we had 100 so do you think this program works do we have any doubt yet we still got any doubting Thomas's out there like me we went from 100 recovered alcoholists 16 years later we got 150 thousand that speaks for itself I'd say groups would be found in each of the United States and all of the provinces of Canada. AA is flourishing communities in the British Isles, the Scandinavian countries, South Africa, South America, Mexico, Alaska, Australia, and Hawaii. All told, promising beginnings have been made in some 50 foreign countries and U.S. possessions. Some are just now taking shape in Asia. Many of our friends encourage us by saying that this is but a beginning, only the augury of a much larger future ahead. and let's look up augury because I forgot what that meant. Augury is a sign, an indication, something that indicates future happenings. Bill uses a lot of language in here. I got this little big book dictionary when I was in Akron at Founders Day this year and I tell you, this thing is a lifesaver, man. And you can buy them online too, by the way. They've got them if you've seen them before. The spark that was to flare into the first AA group was struck at Akron, Ohio in June 1935 during a talk between a New York stockbroker, Bill Wilson, and an Akron physician, Dr. Bob Smith. 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 had been in contact with the Oxford groups of that day, he had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical saint by AA members and whose story of the early days of our society appears in the next pages from this doctor the broker had learned of the grave nature of alcoholism though he could not accept all the tenants of the Oxford groups he was convinced of the need for a moral inventory confession of personality defects, restitution of those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in dependence upon God. There's a lot of information there, guys. So basically this started June 1935. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob got together. I like to get a little bit... Let's see here. Okay, I think it goes in the next paragraph. I'll actually get further into the stories. But Bill and Dr., Bob were both members of the Oxford group. and a brief history on the Oxford group. It was a program that was very similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. They believed in one alcoholic helping another. But the Oxford groups was a religious organization, and they were very clear about that. I believe they even had membership dues. And I think that a lot of their strict doctrine of religion is what ended up being part of their downfall. Why they did not succeed as well as AA is because they had a lot of religious ideas, okay? So Bill and Dr. Bob were both members of the Oxford Group, and Bill could not accept all the tenants of the Oxford Group. And the tenants or the Oxford group, as my sponsor shared with me, are what they call the four absolutes, okay, and you don't read about this in the big book, but it's very, very, very important because the four absolutes is what ended up being the 12 steps that you guys know today okay and that was on absolute honesty with basically is the first step getting honest that i'm powerless over alcohol my life's unmanageable absolute honesty absolute purity absolute unselfishness and absolute love those were the tenets of the oxford group and bill i think was more... I just don't think the guy was ready yet. You know what I mean? We can say it was religion and he couldn't accept it, but really the dude just ain't hit bottom yet is what it gets down to. But he realized there were some tenets from the Oxford group that were absolute necessities. And he already saw he had the awareness of that. But he just didn't know how to put it into his life yet. So next paragraph It says, prior to his journey to Akron, the broker had worked hard with many alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic can help an alcoholic. But he had succeeded only in keeping sober himself. You guys probably heard about that story. He'd been helping drunks for like six months, and none of them had stayed sober for any amount of time whatsoever. And so he went to his wife, Lois, and he said, Lois you know I just don't know if I'm doing the right thing. I don't know what's going on here. And none of them are staying sober. And she looked at Bill and she said something very poignant. She said, Bill, but you are. See, that's it, baby. That's the ticket to freedom right there. You see, whether you guys accept what we're talking about up here and whether you stay sober or not, ultimately I want you to stay sober. I wouldn't rather have anything else in the world, but I guarantee I'm going to. And this is important to understand. By getting out of myself and helping others, that's how we find sobriety. So Bill was staying sober. They weren't staying sober, but Bill was. So anyway, the broker went to Akron on a business venture, which had collapsed, leaving him greatly in fear that he might start drinking again. He suddenly realized that in order to save himself, he must carry his message to another alcoholic. That alcoholic turned out to be the Akron physician. I'm going to give you a little history on this because I learned about it a lot this year when I went to the Founders Day in Akron, Ohio. Which, by the way, if you guys have never been, I would highly recommend it. It was a once-in-a-lifetime AA experience for me. We went to The Mayflower Hotel. We saw where actually Bill was when he made the phone calls and saw the bar that he almost went in and drank. And we went to Henrietta Seiberling's gatehouse where Dr. Bob and Bill met that day and where they started the whole program. But basically what happened is Bill was in a real bad place. He had gone to Akron on business. Apparently, the guy had lost his ASS, and he really wanted to take a drink. And he already had realized that the guy, he can't stay sober on his own. And so he started pacing the lobby at the Mayflower Hotel. He heard the camaraderie. There was a bar room upstairs that literally, and I've been there, so the bar room is maybe 20 feet from the lobby where Bill was. So I can see that the guy was probably pretty tempted. It's only about a 20-foot walk to order him a drink. And I think he said he thought about going in and ordering the drink right there. And so he went in and instead, actually what happened is he had a thought cross his mind. He was going to order the drink so he could have some camaraderie, so he can make a friend for the weekend so he wouldn't be alone. There's that loneliness that we all deal with. And instead, a thought came to his mind, what about the other alcoholics? Pretty powerful right there. You know why? That guy was about, he was at the lowest point in his life about to take a drink of booze and the thought that came to that man's mind is what about the other alcoholics? That's powerful. You know what I mean? So Bill went into the bar, story goes, and instead of ordering a drink, he got change so he could go out to the pay phone in the lobby. Now this is the story I got this year when I went up there. Bill got on the phone. He started going down the church directory It was Mother's Day, by the way. You know, Mother's Day, people are spending it with their families. It's a pretty busy time of year. And so this guy starts calling people on this phone list. And he called. He got to ten phone calls. He got to his tenth phone call before anybody truly responded to what he was saying. Of course, can you imagine a guy calling on Mother's day and saying, Hey, my name is Bill Wilson. I'm an alcoholic staying at the Mayflower Hotel. I need to find another alcoholic to talk to. You know what I mean? I mean, if I got a phone call before I came here like that, I might be like, this dude's neurotic. You know What I mean. And I think some of the phone calls he made within those ten calls, a couple of the people said, well, why don't you come join us in church tomorrow. So some of them were compassionate, but they still couldn't provide another alcoholic. And so I believe about the 10th phone call, he called a person named Walter Tunks, a reverend. Walter Tuncks was very receptive, although he was busy too. He said, I do think I know somebody, and he knew Henrietta Cyberlin. So Walter Tununks put Bill with Henrietta Cyberlin. Well, Henrietta Seiberling came from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber family in Akron, Ohio. You guys have heard of Goodylear Tires. Her husband was one of the founders of Googlyear Tires, Henriette. And Henriette, Walter Tunks knew Henriette because Henriette was a member of the Oxford Groups. See, there's the Oxford group connection again. And so Bill called Henriette and Henriette was the first person really who took the time of day to talk to Bill Wilson that day. She was the 1st one who stopped what she was doing. We owe a lot to that person, that girl, that woman. She stopped what she was going to do to help Bill Wilson that day and she says you know Bill I'm not an alcoholic but I sure understand you guys I've you know I can only imagine that you're in a tough place and I can see why you'd want to talk to somebody else and so she said I do know somebody She said, I have a dear friend. Her and her husband are members of the Oxford Group too. Her name is Ann Smith. And so Henrietta made a phone call to Ann. And Dr. Bob was pretty much three sheets in the wind that day. So Ann said, hey, Henrietta's on the phone, Bob, and there's some man from Akron staying at the Mayflower Hotel who'd like to talk to you. And Bob was wasted at this point. It's like late in the afternoon, you know, on Mother's Day. He said, oh, I don't want to talk to that guy. Tell him to call tomorrow. You know what I mean? And anyway, long story made short, Henrietta said, well, Bill, Dr. Bob, you know, he's not in a good place today, but can you make it till tomorrow? And just by Bill being willing to make all those phone calls he made, he was able to get through the day sober that night. And so the following day is when they actually met, Bill and Dr. Bobby, the day after Mother's Day, okay? And they met at Henrietta's gatehouse. And if you guys see this property that she owned, her and her husband, it's unbelievable. It's a mansion. And this gatehouse is the size of an average person's house. And they've got it all set up with all these historical AA stuff. I mean, it is really pretty amazing. But anyway, Bill and Dr. Bob, Henrietta and Ann, Dr. Rob's wife and Henrietta, put those two guys together. Okay? And Dr. Bob said, I'm only going to give the guy 15 minutes. Okay? Well, six hours later, they left there. And Bill Wilson obviously didn't take a drink. Dr. Bobby didn't end up getting drunk after Bill went back to New York. He had to go back out for one more experiment. He wasn't quite convinced, you know? but shortly thereafter and Matthew's going to touch on this the next part of our session he's going otouch on what Bill finally said to Dr. Bob to sway his opinion to change his mind but that's basically what happened as a result of a series of phone calls like 4 or 5 people Bill Wilson and Dr.Bob finally got together now I've got to tell you that is willing to go to any length to stay sober. Would you agree? This guy made ten phone calls, had to go through five more phone calls after that, and we're all standing here now. And I want to think about myself today. Poor me. Poor pitiful me. You see what I'm saying? We are selfish and self-centered, man, And we don't even see the light of what our forefathers in AA did for us, man. I mean, that guy was willing to go to any length. That's the best description I think I've ever heard. Being left all alone in a strange town and making 10, 15 phone calls before you find another alcoholic to talk to. That's what it takes, man." Anyway, that's enough on that. But that's a little bit of what happened for Bill and Dr. Bob to get together. It says the physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma, but it failed. But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth's description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy, spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never been able to muster before. And Matthew is going to touch on that one after the break. He's going to go a little deeper into the language of the heart. He sobered never to drink again Up until the moment of his death in 1950 This seemed to prove, once again That one alcoholic can affect another non-alcoholic Excuse me This seemed To prove that one alcoholic could affect another As no non-Alcoholic could And I would absolutely agree with that It also indicated that strenuous work Strenuous Work one alcoholic with another was vital to permanent recovery. I think everything we've read about so far it all goes back one alcoholic helping another, doesn't it? You know what I mean? I hadn't seen strenuous work with other alcoholics in a long time, guys. Have you guys ever seen strenulous work with other alcoolics? No, you have? Yes, I have. Okay. It's few and far between now though, isn't it? Not in Dallas. Not in Douglas? Good. Well, we just need to bring that over here to Fort Worth, don't we? So let's go on top of page, we're on Roman numeral 17. Hence the two men set to work almost frantically. I mean he uses some pretty big words to describe this. upon alcoholics arriving in the ward of the Akron City Hospital. Their very first case, a desperate one. Man, and that's what it takes. He's got to be desperate to get this. Recovered immediately. Now I hear that he really didn't recover immediately. I hearthat it took a while for Bill Dotson to recover and became AA number three. He never had another drink. And by the way, AA number 3 was a man by the name of Bill Dosson. Okay. 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. When the broker returned to New York in the fall of 1936, the first AA group had actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time. Okay, so the first official AA group was in Akron. Okay, that's where the first oficial group was. A second small group promptly took shape at New York to be followed in 1937 with the start of a third group at Cleveland, which was, I believe, started by a man by the name of Clarence Snyder. Okay, a lot of people say that ClarenCEnyder is the guy who invented sponsorship. A lot of People say he's the one who is responsible for sponsorship. He wrote The Home Brewmeister, and I believe it was the first or second edition of the big book. Very, very spiritual man. I was reading some information on Clarence Snyder. And ClarenCE, when he got a newcomer, he took that newcomer through the steps in about 72 hours. All 12 steps in 72 hours! Again, I hadn't seen that around here in a long time. And I don't do it myself. I don' t do it my self. But can you imagine? That's serious business. And another thing about Clarence, though, he was a very religious man. And so part of him sponsoring somebody is they had to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And I'm not going to go into that deeply, but, of course, we can talk about that, too, because it all goes back to the big, big book anyway. But ClarenCE was the guy who, I believe, started AA in Cleveland. That's been my understanding. And he did a lot of miracles. he performed a lot of work in Alcoholics Anonymous. Incredible man. Besides these, there were scattered alcoholics who had picked up the basic ideas in Akron or New York who were trying to form groups in other cities. 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. And what that meant to me is the miracle of God was finally working in their life. It was now time the struggling groups thought to place their message in a unique experience before the world. And once again, that's when they realized we've got to put all this down on paper. We've gotto be able to pass this on and be able show people what we're talking about. You know what I mean? And that's where Bill Wilson started writing this book. The determination bore fruit in the spring of 1939 by the publication of this volume. The membership had then reached about 100 men and women. The fledgling society, which had been nameless, now began to be called Alcoholics Anonymous from the title of its own book. So once again, it all goes back to this program, the meeting we're in today, all goes Back to This Book. Without this book, there would be no AA meeting. And see, we got the cart before the horse. We're doing it backwards. we're coming to AA and we're just going to meetings and we are not studying this book but the book is what should come first then the meetings so once again the book is how the whole fellowship really began the flying blind period ended and AA entered a new phase of its pioneering time because they finally had something they could read and study it wasn't opinion anymore You know, those first four years there's a lot of opinion because they didn't have anything really set in stone yet. With the appearance of the new book, a great deal began to happen. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, the noted clergyman, reviewed it with approval. In the fall of 1939, Fulton Aursler, the editor of Liberty Magazine, printed a piece in his magazine called Alcoholics and God. And I actually printed that off the Internet yesterday. I was doing some research on what we're doing. And it's a very cool story if you guys haven't read it, this Alcoholics and God. This brought a rush of 800 frantic inquiries into the little New York office which meanwhile had been established. Each inquiry was painstakingly answered. Pamphlets and books were sent out. Businessmen traveling out of existing groups were referred to these prospective newcomers. New groups started up and it was found, to the astonishment of everyone, that A.A.'s message could be transmitted in the mail as well as by word of mouth. By the end of 1939, it was estimated that 800 alcoholics were on their way to recovery. Okay, I'm big on statistics and numbers. So in the spring of 1939 when Bill wrote this book, there were 100 members, right? 100 recovered alcoholics. And by the end of 1939, after this book was put out in the world, there were 800. So we're talking about a six-month period. We went from 100 members to 800. In the four years prior, without this book, we only got 100 members. So you can again see the importance of this book that this was truly the way they carried the message to one another. In the spring of 1940, John D. Rockefeller Jr. gave a dinner for many of his friends to which he invited AA members to tell their stories. News of this got on the world wires, inquiries poured in again, and many people went to the bookstores to get the book Alcoholics Anonymous. By March 1941, the membership had shot up to 2,000. Then Jack Alexander wrote a feature article in the Saturday Evening Post and placed such a compelling picture of AA before the general public that alcoholics in need of help really deluged us, which means overwhelmed. By the close of 1941, AA numbered 8,000 members. The mushrooming process was in full swing. AA had become a national institution. So spring of 1939, we got 100 members. By the end of 1941 we got 8, 000. And in the first four years, without this book, we only got 100, period. So we went from 100 members to 8,000 in two and a half years after this book came out. Again, it's one thing to have experience and share your opinion with an alcoholic, but it's another thing to happen in writing. So this is the message of this book. Our society then entered a fearsome and exciting adolescent period. the test that it faced was this. Could these large numbers of erstwhile erratic alcoholics successfully meet and work together? Probably not. Would there be quarrels over membership, leadership, and money? Would there been strivings for power and prestige? Yes, yes, yes. Still have it today. Would there'd be schisms which would split AA apart? Soon AA was beset by these very problems on every side and in every group. But out of this frightening and at first disrupting experience, the conviction grew that AA's had to hang together or die separately. We had to unify our fellowship or pass off the scene. Okay, so now that we got there was 8,000 of us and we're growing by the day you get a lot of alcoholics together in one place what happens? You get a little bit of you get alot of egos too, right? You get alot o' egos. And so these guys started getting together and there were so many of them that they started having some group problems. They started having a lot of opinions, a lotof fights, a loto arguments and Bill Wilson realized that something has to happen here and that's when he started writing the Twelve Traditions. He realized that's the only way that we were going to stay together. Otherwise, we were literally going to kill one another and that is the whole purpose of the Twelve Traiditions. I promise you if Bill wouldn't have written them we wouldn't be having this meeting today. Okay, we would have absolutely killed one another with our egos and our opinions by now. I mean, you get alcoholics. I'm speaking from my own experience, one of the most egotistical people in the world. We are the most arrogant people known to man, and you get all of us together, Katie barred the door, man, because you're going to have some egos. And so Bill realized that, and that's why he wrote The Twelve Traditions. Another thing I want to say about this, guys, and everything I share is my experience. There's a reason groups are ununified Okay, there's a Reason It's because there's no personal recovery first There's no Personal recovery first I have to recover Through this book Through the 12 steps Before I can ever become unified Matter of fact Before I work The steps guys I've got to tell you, none of this mattered to me whatsoever. I'd talk about drug addiction, sex addiction, you name it, in AA meetings. Because I hadn't recovered. My ego was still running the show. My mind had not changed yet. I had not had a psychic change. So before the traditions can truly be practiced by an individual member of AA, he has to have recovered through the 12 steps. That's how it's always been for me. The person that I was before I recovered is not a unified person. Got to tell you, I'm not a united individual by myself alone. And that's why we don't have unity in our groups, guys. It's because we've got a lot of members that have not recovered through the 12 steps. Hate to tell ya, that's it. Don't want to sound like a bleeding deacon, so I'm going to leave it at that, but this is my experience. so second paragraph down on Roman numeral 19 as we discovered the principles by which the individual alcoholic could live which is the 12 steps right the principles by the individual alcoholic so we had to evolve principles bywhich the AA groups and AA as a whole could survive and function but again the principles came first didn't it the steps come first then come the traditions It was thought that no alcoholic man or woman could be excluded from our society, that our leaders might serve but never govern, that each group was to be autonomous and there was to be no professional class of therapy. There would be no fees or dues. Our expenses were to be met by voluntary contributions. There was to be the least possible organization even in our service centers. Our public relations were to be based on attraction rather than promotion. It was decided that all members ought to be anonymous at the level of press, radio, TV, and films. And in no circumstances should we give endorsements, make alliances, or enter public controversies. I'm just thinking about endorsements. You know, I'm thinking about like basketball players, they get an endorsement from Nike or Reebok. You know it would be like me going out and endorsing Budweiser beer. You know what I mean? We can't get involved in those outside issues. Okay? They will destroy us. They will destroy us, and so that's the 12 traditions right there. That's when Bill wrote them. It says, this was the substance of A.A.'s 12 traditions, which are stated in full on page 561 of this book. Though none of these principles had the force of rules or laws, which that means I can't throw you in jail if you don't live by the traditions. But quite frankly, you're going to throw yourself in jail. You're going to be in a spiritual prison if you don' t live by. I lost my train of thought. Though none of these principles had the force of rules or laws, they had become so widely accepted by 1950 that they were confirmed by our first international conference held at Cleveland. Today, the remarkable unity of AA is one of the greatest assets that our society has. And I just can't go on and on enough about it. 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 numbers of recoveries in 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. And among the remainder, those who stayed on with AA showed improvement. Other thousands came to a few AA meetings and at first decided they didn't want the program. But great numbers of these, about two out of three, began to return as time passed. A lot of information there too, guys. It tells me right there, and this is the foreword of the second edition. It was written in 1955. So this reflected our fellowship in 1955 It says, of alcoholics who came to AA and really tried, i.e., worked the 12 steps, one out of two got sober and stayed sober. Okay, what do you think our statistics are today? A lot lower. Now I heard one out OF 20 gets a five-year medallion. and I think I got that from a guy speaking about the Dallas Central Office. They added up how many desire chips they sold in comparison to how many five-year medallions they sold. And for every 20 desire chips that the Dallas central office sold, they only sold one five- year medallion. So that basically says one out of 20 that gets a desire chip is going to get five years of sobriety. Well, this just says that one out of two got sober and stayed sober in 1955. Okay, so what's the problem here, guys? We're not sharing this book anymore. That's the problema. We're sharing treatment center lingo, narcotics anonymous lingo. We're showing all kinds of crap that has nothing to do with AA. That's a problem. That's not the problem. Okay? This book, one out of two got sober. And then it says one out of four sobered up after some relapses. I remember reading that Dr. Bob's home group in Akron, they had a 93% success rate. You guys can research this. The home group, the first group of Alcoholics Anonymous that Dr., Bob was a member of, a 93 percent success rate. Okay? We got 5% success right now. Okay, what's the problem? We're not sharing the message of this book. Period. The end. Okay? This book will get us back to the success rate where more alcoholics recover. Because our forefathers already promised us that through their own experience. And you cannot argue with experience. Okay. Our forefothers taught us before we ever came here. Thank God for that. Believe me, I couldn't have done it. I needed some guidance and I'm grateful for this. I'm going to read a little bit more and then we're going to take a short break, guys. Let's see. Another reason for the wide acceptance of AA was the ministration of friends. Friends in medicine, religion, and the press. Together with innumerable others who became our able and persistent advocates. Without such support, AA could have made only the slowest progress. Some of the recommendations of AA's early medical and religious friends will be found further on in this book. Once again, that reiterates I am not a doctor. I'm not a lawyer. I'm nicht ein Künstler. It's saying right there the greatest asset of our program is our friends in medicine, religion, and the press. So that lets me know, once again, that I have to seek outside help. I don't have all the answers. And that's another thing the book tells us that it's very clear we have to seek the help of people outside of this program to help us in other areas. Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious organization. Neither does AA take any particular medical point of view, though we cooperate widely with the men of medicine as well as the men of religion. Once again, I need doctors and I need preachers. I need both of them, and I use both of them. I go to church and I also go to my doctor. I think it's very important. Alcohol being no respecter of persons, we are an accurate cross-section of America, and in distant lands the same democratic evening up process is now going on by personal religious affiliation. We include Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus and a sprinkling of Muslims and Buddhists. More than 15% of us are women. Well, the first thing that came to my mind is the Pentecostal church couldn't claim that. We couldn't blame Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims and Buddhist all in one place. I promise you that's not the way I was brought up. I was bought up to be very prejudiced, very judgmental, very close-minded. And Alcoholics Anonymous is such a powerful program, a powerful message. It doesn't matter what religion you are. It doesn' t matter what color your skin is. It doesn''t matter any of that. All that matters is if you want to recover. That's the only thing that matters. There ain't a church known to man that can claim that. There may be a few out there now. Maybe the Unity Church might be one close. But, you know, guys, a 12-step program. This is powerful stuff, okay? At our present, our membership is pyramiding at the rate of about 20% a year. So far upon the total problem of several million actual and potential alcoholics in the world, we have made only a scratch. And boy, that's a fact. In all probability, we shall never be able to touch more than a fair fraction of the alcohol problem in all its ramifications. Upon therapy for the alcoholic himself, we surely have no monopoly. And my sponsor told me that that means AA is not the only way. Okay? AA is a good thing. AA is the last choice for an alcoholic to get sober. For me, it has been. Because I tried the Pentecostal church. I tried psychiatrists over and over and again. And AA was the last choose for me. But we are not the one way. If you guys can find it in another place, another arena, and you can find what we find here, baby, go get it. Get it. But for me, this has been the only thing that's held true. So it says, Yet our great hope that all those who have yet found no answer may begin to find one in the pages of this book and will presently join us on the high road to a new freedom. And we're going to take a short break. Appreciate you guys and your attention. And Matthew's going to come back up and share a little bit after that. Thank you. Okay, and one thing I want to say, at the beginning of the forward to the third edition, AA is now 41 years old. So first edition we were four years old, second edition, that's okay, it's just the tape, that' s okay. We got two CDs going too, so cool. second edition we were what did I say 20 years old the second edition and now in 1976 AA is 41 years old so it's just kind of reflecting the change in our membership by March 1976 when this edition went to the printer the total worldwide membership of Alcoholics Anonymous was conservatively estimated at more than 1 million with almost 28,000 groups meeting in over 90 countries So we went from 100 members to now we've got over a million, 41 years later. Does anybody have any doubt still that this program works? Surveys of groups in the United States and Canada indicate that AA is reaching out not only to more and more people but to a wider and wider range. Women now make up more than one-fourth of our membership. Among newer members, the proportion is nearly one-third. 7% of the AA surveyed are less than 30 years of age, among them many in their teens. And I was in the 7% when I came in because I was 23. And again, you don't see as many young people staying around anymore. We see a lot of young people come. We get a lot OF young people here at the 24th, but we don't See as many really stay sober long term. I haven't yet. We do have a couple members that come here that did get sober in their teens. Two ladies. There's two girls I can think of that got sober when they were 17 years old, 18. And that's almost unheard of. The basic principles of the AA program, it appears, hold good for individuals with many different lifestyles just as the program has brought recovery to those of many different nationalities. The 12 steps that summarize the program may be called los dos pasos in one country, les deux es tapas in another, but they trace exactly the same path to recovery that was blazed by the earliest members of Alcoholics Anonymous. In spite of the great increase in the size and the span of this fellowship, at its core it remains simple and personal. Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, Sharing experience, strength, and hope. And again, that summarizes our whole program in one paragraph. One alcoholic sharing with another. So forward to the fourth edition. AA is 66 years old at this point. This is the fourth addition of Alcoholics Anonymous. It came off the press in November 2001. At the start of a new millennium, since the third edition was published in 1976, Worldwide membership of AA has just about doubled to an estimated 2 million or more, with nearly 100,800 groups meeting in approximately 150 countries around the world. Okay, so from 1976 to 2001, we've got another million members at least. So, I mean, we at least doubled in that 25-year period than we did in the prior 41 years from 1939 to 76. This is, again, and I believe if we continue carrying the message of the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, we will continue to grow. But if we keep bringing in all these outside issues of drug addiction, treatment center philosophy, all these things were really hindering our growth. We really, really are. And see, we don't realize it either. You don't know until you know. And so I think you cannot go wrong with sharing a big book message because it's something that was written a long time before we ever came around. Literature has played a major role in AA's growth, to reiterate what I was just saying. And a striking phenomenon of the past quarter century has been the explosion of translations of our basic literature into many languages and dialects. In country after country where the AA seed was planted, it has taken root slowly at first, then growing by leaps and bounds when literature has become available. Currently, Alcoholics Anonymous has been translated into 43 languages. That's pretty important stuff. As the message of recovery has reached larger numbers of people, it has also touched the lives of a vastly greater variety of suffering alcoholics. When the phrase, we are people who normally would not mix, page 17 of this book was written in 1939, it referred to a fellowship composed largely of men and a few women with quite similar social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Like so much of AA's basic text, those words have proved to be far more visionary than the founding members could have ever imagined. The stories added to this edition represent a membership whose characteristics of age, gender, race, and culture have widened and have deepened to encompass virtually everyone the first 100 members could have hoped to reach. So it just reiterates how much our membership has changed in the last 66 years at this point. In 1939, there were 100 members and they were all very similar social, economic, and ethnic background. Now we have all different kinds of people, okay? And this is just reflecting that. It says, while our literature has preserved the integrity of the AA message, sweeping changes in society as a whole are reflected in new customs and practices within the fellowship. Taking advantage of technological advances, for example, AA members with computers can participate in meetings online, sharing with fellow alcoholics across the country or around the world. And I don't know if any of you guys have ever been in an online AA meeting. I've been in a couple, okay? I ended up getting out of it because it was just kind of a selfish habit. I'd get in and I'd stay in it for five or six hours on these AA chat lines, really not talking about much. A lot of the people that were in there had just gotten a desire chip and there wasn't a lot of recovery in some instances. But I might have not been on some of the better chats anyway. But if you want to and you need somebody to talk to and you've got a computer, go online. You can get in an AA chat room and you can talk to members online. I mean, this is stuff that was not available to the first 100 members. And those cats stayed sober, and they found their way. And man, we've got virtually everything available to us now, and we're so selfish that we're not growing. We're not changing, you know? If we can get back to the philosophy of those first 100 members, we'll be a lot better organization in a greater sense of helping more alcoholics, I mean. In a meeting anywhere, AAs share experience, strength, and hope with each other in order to stay sober and help other alcoholics. Modem to modem or face-to-face, Does AA speak the language of the heart in all its power and simplicity? And I'm going to sit down now, and we're going to invite Matthew to come up. And he's going to start laying out the hopelessness of the doctor's opinion. So you guys put your hands together for Matthew. Thank you. Yay, Matthew! Well, my name is Matthew Massey, and I am an alcoholic. Hey, Matthew. And I want to hear a round of applause for Scott. First off, I did want to also acknowledge that we do have a basket over there. Any questions that anybody might have, feel free to drop them in. And either me or Scott will do the best that we can to answer them based on the literature. this next portion I'm going to go into a little bit of the AA history on the doctor's opinion and on the importance of it and then we're going to get into we're not going to be able to go into the doctor'S opinion itself and I do want to let you all know any information that I read to you all is going to either be out of The Language of the Heart which is an AA approved book it's all Bill W.'s writings So it's on a lot of good stuff. This is a good book just to get if you want to know on different issues in Alcoholics Anonymous. It kind of singles them out, especially dealing with traditions, just terms like anonymity or self-supporting. It'll talk about that one particular principle rather than the whole tradition. But it does talk about the whole traditional as well. So it has helped me greatly. Okay, Scott kind of gave us a little bit of the AA history And the preface and the full words And this doctor's opinion I'll tell you what The first time I ever read the doctor's Opinion I must have been in Alcoholics Anonymous for six months And the reason why I read it Was because I was listening to a big book study by Joe and Charlie And in this study they said that The Doctrine and Covenants used to be the first chapter in the book of Alcoholics Anonymous. And they moved it into the Roman numerals. And they said a lot of people are missing this chapter now because who the heck wants to look at the table of contents and all that stuff? So they skipped to chapter one. And I can testify, and I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but has anyone here ever went to sponsor someone and they didn't know what to tell this guy because the guy asked you, will you be my sponsor? And I've always wanted to offer my services to someone. And I'm telling this guy what to do, but I'm saying, I'm not telling him the wrong thing because I skip him right over the doctor's opinion. Yep. I'm one of them. I've skipped people over it. I've skipped it. And I have watched numerous people tell other people to look right past the doctor'S opinion. So we're going to get into how important this actual chapter is. I guess by December 11, it doesn't say here the exact year, but I'm supposing that's 1934, Bill W., he came into the Charles B. Towns Hospital. There was a Dr. Silkworth in charge, and that was the chief physician of that hospital. Dr. Silkworth, it says here For years had been proclaiming alcoholism as an illness An obsession of the mind coupled with an allergy Of the body And that's the medical estimate Of alcoholism So Bill comes in here He's been in there several times already And Dr. silkworth actually thought Bill might recover and he had seen a few cases recover but this last time that he came in he realized that Bill was hopeless and Bill also realized the same thing and this is what it goes on to say about this and this Is Bill's words himself He says, The verdict of science the obsession that condemned me to drink and the allergy condemned me to die was about to do the trick That's where medical science personified by the benign little doctor began to fit in. Held in the hands of one alcoholic talking to the next, this double edged truth was the sledgehammer which would shatter the tough alcoholic's ego at death and lay him wide open for the grace of God. Wow. They called it the medical sledge hammer back then. The doctor's medical estimate on alcoholism. See before anything could be done And before they could accept the spiritual principles, they had to believe themselves to be hopeless. That they couldn't do anything to get or stay sober. And that's basically step one. I'm screwed. I'm doomed. I can't. I'm sure y'all have heard that before. So then it says, in my case, it was of course Dr. Silkworth who slung the sledge while my friend Abby carried to me the spiritual principals and the grace which brought on my sudden spiritual awakening at the hospital three days later. I immediately knew that I was a free man, and with this astonishing experience came a feeling of wonderful certainty that great numbers of alcoholics might one day enjoy the priceless gift which had been bestowed upon me. Very grandiose. You know, he was ready to save the world. I can relate, man. I've been out there trying to savethe world too, and I can say it didn't work. But I tried, and I didn't lose too many hairs over it. So Bill, he goes out. He's out trying to save drunks. Scott kind of went into it in the forewords. He's now trying to safe drunks for about six months. I've read stories where he'd have drunks living in his house five at a time. One particular time, Lois came home from work to see three drunks sitting stiff and just tents and two other drunks beating each other up with two-by-fours. And this is exactly what I read. This is what Bill was doing, man. He's working with the hopeless type. The hopeless type, he could get them sober, but none of them stayed sober. Okay? And he's trying to figure out what the problem is. You know, it worked for him. It worked for Him. So, this is what happened. Finally, one day, Dr. Silkworth took me down to my right side. He said, Bill, why don't you quit talking so much about the bright light experience of yours? It sounds too crazy. Though I'm convinced that nothing but better morals will make alcoholics really well, I do think you have the cart before the horse. The point is that alcoholics won't buy all this moral exhortation until they convince themselves that they must. If I were you, I'd go after them on a medical basis first. While it has never done any good for me to tell them how fatal their malady is, it might be a very different story if you, a formerly hopeless alcoholic, gave them the bad news. Because of the identification you naturally have with alcoholics, you might be able to penetrate where I can. Give them the medical business first and give it to them hard. This might soften them up So they will accept the principles That will really get them well Wow So he's out there Kind of like we do in here We've got a bunch of newcomers coming in And we're going into spiritual God and this It's doing me good But what about this guy That came in here And he asked me to sponsor him And I skipped him right over the medical estimate Into Bill's story And there's a solution and he gets to hear about all the spiritual experiences that we're supposed to have, but he's not willing to accept those principles in his life because he doesn't realize yet that he's hopeless. Maybe he's still got a reservation or a lurking notion, whatever it might be. You know, I feel like I'm here only because of God's grace because I also skipped over that. And until I saw the hopelessness in the situation and how I was hopeless, I wasn't really willing to pursue the spiritual remedy, You know, to go to any length to achieve that sobriety. And it goes far beyond sobriery for me today. So this is what happened next. Scott kind of covered it. It's in Roman numeral 16. This is the first drunk that I could find that he worked with after the doctor told him to put the horse before the cart. It says here he was on that business trip in Akron. The broker had worked hard with many alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic could help an alcoholic, but he had succeeded only in keeping sober himself. The broker hade gone to Akron on a business venture which had collapsed, leaving him greatly in fear that he might start drinking again. He suddenly realized that in order to save himself, he must carry his message to another alcoholic. That alcoholic turned out to be the Akron physician. This physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma, but had failed. I watch it happen in here all the time. I've helped a guy skip over the medical estimate so that he could fail as well. I've helping him do that. And I'm not saying it's my fault, but maybe he would have had a better chance if I'd have laid out the hopelessness first. It says here, But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth's description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster. Oh, and in 1950, he never took another drink again. Wow. Wow. So Obviously we see That this doctor's opinion It started the steps It was the beginning It's where it all began And then Ebi Ebi got sober in the Oxford group Ebi came in Showed him the spiritual principles Which would make him a free man He had his bright light experience And he never had to take another drink again And I can kind of relate to that. Mine wasn't so profound, but it eventually played out in the same way. I never had to take another drink again. My desire for drinking was gone. So I'm going to go ahead and open up here to Roman numeral 25, and we'll go ahead и get on into the doctor's opinion. It says here, We of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the reader will be interested in the medical estimate of the plan of recovery described in this book. Now, this is the doctor. He had already read the pages. He had watched us grow. The first 100 people, a lot of our members in early times came out of his hospital. He let Bill and Dr. Bob go into his hospital and work with those drunks. They were their test monkeys. and I don't know about y'all but if my doctor says that I got cancer I'm going to believe him and that's one reason why this is in here convincing testimony must surely come from medical men who have had experience with the suffering of our members and have witnessed our return to health a well known doctor chief physician at a nationally prominent hospital specializing in alcoholic and drug addiction gave Alcoholics Anonymous this letter And that was the Charles B. Towns Hospital in New York To whom it may concern I have specialized in the treatment of alcoholism for many years He treated alcoholics for 20 years Unsuccessfully defeated And the man still proclaimed his love to us And his devotion to us And I believe the reason that this is Because he knew we were sick He knew we were sick. The people out there didn't know we were sick. He knew we were sick. In late 1934, I attended a patient who thought he had been a competent businessman excuse me, though he had been a confident businessman of good earning capacity, was an alcoholic of a type I had come to regard as hopeless. Bill. Bill was hopeless, remember? And then he finally gave him the medical estimate and Bill finally could accept the hopelessness of his situation along with the principles that Evie brought to him, and this is what happened. In the course of his third treatment, he had acquired certain ideas concerning a possible means of recovery as part of his rehabilitation. He commenced to present this conception to other alcoholics, impressing upon them that they must do likewise with still others. This has become the basis of a rapidly growing fellowship of over 100 others, excuse me, growing fellowship, these men and their families. This man and over 100 other have appeared to recover. Now this is real important. The doctor, he couldn't see us even recovering. All he did was watch us die for 20 plus years. He didn't know the solution. He only knew the problem. And that's real important He didn't have a prescription for our remedy. It was something that medical science could not provide. So he says, we appear to have recovered. He's pretty skeptical. And he's skeptical throughout his whole writing. Let's see. Also, I do want to hit the note on this 12-step work that we're seeing here, one alcoholic to another. It actually did start with the Oxford group. They believed in intensive work, one with the other. And that's where our 12-step actually evolved, was from the Oxford group. So I personally know scores of cases who were of the type with whom other methods had failed completely. So other methods besides what was in this book failed completely? He didn't know any other remedies. Remember, only a few cases actually recovered. Only a few. So maybe there are other ways out there, but this way has worked. And I think Scott laid that out real well, that the program in this book really works for alcoholics of the hopeless type. And it all starts here with this chapter, The Doctor's Opinion. Okay. These facts appear to be of extreme medical importance because of the extraordinary possibilities of rapid growth inherent In this group, they may mark a new epoch in the annals of alcoholism. So Alcoholics Anonymous, they made history in alcoholism They made the history books All the treatment centers that I've ever known are based on this book right here Well, they'll give you a choice This book or the blue book Which one do you want? And they do kind of tell you some things that might not be right Believe me, I've been in them before And they told me some things, well, you can just switch this word or that word or this word to that word. But it's kind of like it says in Step 12, that your job is to be where you can be of the most service. And Alcoholics Anonymous is where I can serve the best. So that's what brings me here. You may rely absolutely on anything they say about themselves. Wow, now that is a characteristic of a recovered alcoholic, man. They're practicing that principle of honesty. They are practicing the principle of honestly. Very yours truly, William D. Silkworth, M.D. And this next portion is kind of, Bill, I guess you know, he had to put his say-so in on it. Yeah, so let's go on to Ed. that he kind of, there's two letters here by Dr. Silkworth and the second letter, Scott's going to come in here and take over on it. And before the second letter, Bill puts his say-so in. It says, The physician who at our request gave us this letter has been kind enough to enlarge upon his views in another statement which follows. In this statement, he confirms we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe. So this is a must. This is a requirement. They say no requirements, but they got some musts, and I don't know about y'all, but a must is definitely a requirement that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or outright mental defective. Okay. So I can't really adjust to life. I'm a little bit uncomfortable, discontent, irritability, you know, the obsession. I can take a few drinks and I can bring ease and comfort to me. And I can sit down at the table with y'all and I don't have to shake my leg and all that stuff. I'll be okay. And so I take those few drinks. And that's the way it played out in my life. I don't know how many times I've gotten sober, but it played OUT in my LIFE that way. And I would just take a few drinks. That's all I wanted was a little bit of comfort, ease. I wanted to relax. I wanted TO feel good. Okay? And that'S what a few DRINKS would do for me. But what I DIDN'T KNOW was that I had that SICKNESS OF THE BODY, the phenomenon of CRAVING. And every time, that few DRANKS turned into a whole lot of DRINKs. It turned in from a sensation to oblivion. And that's the way it worked for me. I lived that way for 13 years before I finally just couldn't take it anymore. Okay. These things were true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of us. But we are sure that our bodies were sickened as well. In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete. So obviously, if I didn't realize I had a phenomenon of craving, sure, I'm going to keep thinking that I can just take a few drinks and find that ease and comfort. I'm gonna think that I can just drink a little bit and I can take a couple drinks and it's going to happen like that over and over and I didn' even realize when I woke up that I was supposed to have stopped after a few. I'd mark the bottle and then the mark would move down and then it would be empty. I didn''t know why I couldn''t stop and I didn't even try to figure it out, but I'm glad someone told me why. The doctor's theory that we have an allergy to alcohol interest us. As lame in our opinion as to its soundness may of course mean little. But as ex-problem drinkers, we can say that his explanation makes good sense. It explains many things for which we cannot otherwise account. Mark kept moving down the bottle. Why the bottle would end up empty every morning? You know, I mean, this is like a fifth. Sometimes even a half gallon. You know? Not quite the whole thing maybe. You know I hear stories of people drinking you know a gallon of whiskey a day. Not that bold but you know get a half-gallon and I'd be pushing the limits but I could probably finish it off and not even realize it until the next morning. Though we work out our solution On the spiritual As well as the altruistic plane So spiritual We're trying to get connected With what Ebi talked about With what Ebby talked about To build those principles But what about after that What about after we work the 12 steps Then comes the altristic plane Once we become a recovered alcoholic And we can actually care about the next man We're on the altristic plane that unselfishness, the devotion to the welfare of others. And that's what altruistic is. There's two parts to this solution there. The doctor just told us, or excuse me, Bill just told us, he just told us there's two parts, the spiritual and the altruistic. So it'd be pretty selfish of me to just work those steps and then keep it for myself. Right? Well, I don't know if I don'T think I could have just worked them and not try to give it away, man, because they worked on me. And I cared about the next man more than I ever could have before I worked on him. We favor hospitalization for the alcoholic who is very jittery or beef-fogged. I was down there at Central Office. Me and Mark went down there yesterday. And this lady calls in, and she says that she thinks she needs a meeting, and she's never been to Alcoholics Anonymous before, and she's thinking about a hospital, and she goes on. We're talking for a minute, and I had to let her know, first off, that Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on those outside issues. You know, the medical profession is something that we're not. But I hadと let her knоw, and she did say she was having some signs of withdrawal. She was shaking, sweating. I had то let her kоw that this is a life-threatening situation here, that people die from detoxing from alcoholism. It's more serious than coming off of heroin, and some people might beg to differ, but a heroin addict, as long as they're drinking water, they're going to be okay versus an alcoholic who will go into a seizure or the DTs and die. So it's serious. And I don't know about looking at this medical standpoint, if I've got the phenomenon of craving going, how could I stop? How could I stop? I'm going to need to go into the hospital. Some people need to. I needed to. I went into the hospitaI. It was a 24-hour observation. I didn't have any detox symptoms, but I needed tO be free of that craving so that I could not take another drink. It was that craving that was making me continue to drink. So I needed Tto be free to that. More often than not, it is imperative that a man's brain be cleared before he is approached as he has then a better chance of understanding and accepting what He has to offer. Yeah, I don't know. I've tried to work with a lot of wet drunks. You know, it's kind of like talking to a wall. But I felt great afterwards, man. But I got tired of watching the failures and I realized that they really did need to sober up so that they can actually hear the message that I had to give to them. And it even tells you in the working with others chapter that they're more receptive once they've sobered up some. The morning after is the best time to get them because they're still remorseful, feeling guilty, shameful. And they're willing to maybe hear what you got to say. The next portion is the second letter. I don't know. Do we want to go into that today or do we want answer the questions? Let's answer the question and then we can go ahead and start on it. Okay. Yeah, there's some questions. All right. First off, we've got one question that a friend asked on the six steps from the Oxford group. And we got those. She asked what they were. I'll go ahead and read a paragraph that comes before. Well, let's see. It says, Dr. Silgworth had indeed supplied us the missing link without which the chain of principles now forged into our 12 steps could never have been complete. Then and there, the spark that was to become Alcoholics Anonymous had been struck. During the next three years after Dr. Bob's recovery, our growing groups at Akron, New York, and Cleveland evolved the so-called word-of-mouth program of the pioneering times As we commenced to form a society separated from the Oxford group, we began to state our principles something like this. And this is the first six steps that you sometimes hear about. Step one, we admitted we were powerless over alcohol. Step two, we got honest with ourselves. Step three, we Got Honest With Another Person In Confidence. Step four, we made amends for harms done others. Step five, we worked with other alcoholics without demand for prestige or money. Step six, we pray to God to help us to do the things as best we could. They kept it simple back there, huh? Yeah, my sponsor laid it out to me that one of the reasons why they turned those into six steps or 12 steps is to kind of make it easier for the alcoholic to accept them into their lives. And I don't know if that's true or not. There is a little more history. we will go into that history down the road but right now we're kind of keeping it around step one in the doctor's opinion so let's see here what are your thoughts on 12-stepping an addict well I have had problems with outside issues myself and I have no problem sitting down with someone who has those afflictions I can relate, and I can show them how they can relate as well. But this is Alcoholics Anonymous, and I have worked with pure-blooded addicts in AlcoholicsAnonymous to watch them make great progress only to go back out and to do what they do best, and that's throw their life away. So what I do is after I kind of help them calm down and show them that they can trust me, I got this card right here that says drug problem, N.A., call Narcotics Anonymous, and it's got their number because I care about them, okay, because I can relate. But 95% of my story consists of drinking, and that's why I'm an Alcoholics Anonymous. And I can imagine how it feels to sit here with everyone else talking about something that you don't know nothing about, that you've never had a problem with. It's like, you know, I can't imagine how it feels. And so I want to make sure that they're around people that they can relate to. And once again, I'm going to go ahead and read it out of here. Let's see here. All right. So you're an addict, an Alcoholics Anonymous. You work the 12 steps. And then what? It says, okay. I'm trying to find it for y'all. Okay, here it is. It says your job now is to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others. So never hesitate to go anywhere if you can be helpful. And I think that says it best, man. It talks about the identification process. if you're just an addict, that alcoholic that walks through the door that's shaking, vibrating, he's dying he's scared and you sit down and say my name's Matthew and I am an addict. How the heck am I going to catch you? That's why Dr. Silkworth could not help all the 20 years worth of drunks because they couldn't relate to him. Let's see. make sure. So yeah, I don't mind 12-stepping an addict at all, but I want to make sure that I direct them to the proper channel, which is Narcotics Anonymous. Now we do have the personal stories in the back of our book, which consist of some drug use, but those are also alcoholics. It's okay if you've got other problems than alcohol, man. We've got all kinds of problems. I could make pages of problems, but if you're not an alcoholic, man, we want to making sure you're in the proper place so that you can be of the maximum usefulness to others when the time comes so did I answer that question properly or is there anyone else that wanted me to elaborate no okay what do we do if family members don't always understand our decisions in our life and make us feel guilty for not doing what they want in life. Well, I can relate. My wife says that the reason our marriage failed was because of Alcoholics Anonymous. Obviously, I wasn't doing what she wanted. Now, they got a good chapter in the back here it's called the family afterwards i would recommend that to any family member and i would recommended to the the alcoholic as well to read that chapter because it kind of helps you to have balance and that's what we're looking for you know we don't want to go to extreme and and one area of our life coming off of the extreme of another because there's not going to be balanced there we're learning to live here you know, we're learnign to live with the people on our families and and I've had to learn to live all over again just this past six months since, you know, my son comes to live with me and it's like, you know, so now I got to balance my life out in a new way. But it's not like he can say, you know, Daddy, you're going to AA too much or something, you know? But he does say, Daddy are you going to play with me? And sometimes I can and sometimes I can't, you know, that's just kind of the way it is. But there's also Al-Anon, kind of like the Narcotics Anonymous thing, it is an issue that there's a proper channel for it. And those people have to hit their bottom too. They've been sickened as well. It says it in here that it engulfs the lives of all who touches the sufferers. They're spiritually sick too usually. They're suffering from selfishness and self-centeredness too. The main thing, now this is the key for me. I had to learn to love them when they let me. And when they didn't let me, I had learned to tolerate them. And that was the real key for me to be able to handle other people's selfishness or demands, a lot of times unhealthy demands. Any other questions? That was all of them. Can we say those six steps again? Sure. 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol. Obviously, that's our step one today. 2. We got honest with ourselves. That'd be step four. 3. We made amends for harms done to others. 4. We met with another person in confidence. Step five. 5. We've made amens for harms done to other people. Obviously, we're making our amends there. Step 8 and 9. 5. We worked with other alcoholics without demand for prestige or money. Step 12, obviously. Giving freely what was freely given to us. Step 6. We prayed to God to help us to do these things as best we could. And they talked a lot about that in here, in what they called quiet time. And they were just looking for the knowledge of God's wills in everything, even the little things, all things. So that was their last step, and it was obviously supposed to be a really important step. Yeah, I've heard that he did go back out. I heard also that even though he went back out, he stayed Bill's sponsor. Is that correct? Okay. So, obviously that's the importance of The relationship between A sponsor and a sponsee You know, so Okay, well we really appreciate Everyone coming out We're going to get back together We'll have it posted on the board up there It'll be the fourth Saturday of next month We're gonna go into the rest of the big book A little bit more history And the steps And how they came about So we can see how we've grown and what the importance are of the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. If y'all would, let's share the Lord's Prayer and an empty spiritual foundation of all our traditions that remind us to play principles before personality. Who you see here, what you hear here, please leave it here when you leave here. Hear, hear. Thank you for listening to Sober Sunrise. If you enjoyed today's episode, please give it a thumbs up as it will help share the message. Until next time, have a great day. Thank you.