Friday 31 May 2013

Alcoholics Anonymous: On help, support

October 24, 1939 Cleveland Plain Dealer

Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here

By ELRICK B. DAVIS

“In two previous articles, Mr. Davis told of Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization of former drinkers, banded to overcome their craving for liquor and to help others to forego the habit. This is the third of a series.

Help

The ex-drunks cured of their medically incurable alcoholism by membership in Alcoholic Anonymous, know that the way to keep themselves from backsliding is to find another pathological alcoholic to help. Or to start a new man toward cure.

That is the way that the Akron chapter of the society, and from that, the Cleveland fellowship was begun.

One of the earliest of the cured rummies had talked a New York securities house into taking a chance that he was really through with liquor. He was commissioned to do a stock promotion chore in Akron. If he should succeed, his economic troubles also would be cured. Years of alcoholism had left him bankrupt as well as a physical and social wreck before Alcoholics Anonymous had saved him.

His Akron project failed. Here he was on a Saturday afternoon in a strange hotel in a town where he did not know a soul, business hopes blasted, and with scarcely money enough to get him back to New York with a report that would leave him without the last job he knew of for him in the world. If ever disappointment deserved drowning, that seemed the time. A bunch of happy folk were being gay at the bar.

At the other end of the lobby the Akron church directory was framed in glass. He looked up the name of a clergyman. The cleric told him of a woman who was worried about a physician who was a nightly solitary drunk. The doctor had been trying to break himself of alcoholism for twenty years. He had tried all of the dodges: Never anything but light wines or beer; never a drink alone; never a drink before his work was done; a certain few number of drinks and then stop; never drink in a strange place; never drink in a familiar place; never mix the drinks; always mix the drinks; never drink before eating; drink only while eating; drink and then eat heavily to stop the craving — and all of the rest.

Every alcoholic knows all of the dodges. Every alcoholic has tried them all. That is why an uncured alcoholic thinks someone must have been following him around to learn his private self-invented devices, when a member of Alcoholics Anonymous talks to him. Time comes when any alcoholic has tried them all, and found that none of them work.

Support

The doctor had just taken his first evening drink when the rubber baron's wife telephoned to ask him to come to her house to meet a friend from New York. He dared not, his wife would not, offend her by refusing. He agreed to go on his wife's promise that they would leave after 15 minutes. His evening jitters were pretty bad.

He met the New Yorker at 5 o'clock. They talked until 11:15. After that he stayed "dry" for three weeks. Then he went to a convention in Atlantic City. That was a bender. The cured New Yorker was at his bedside when he came to. That was June 10, 1935. The doctor hasn't had a drink since. Every Akron and Cleveland cure by Alcoholics Anonymous is a result.

The point the society illustrates by that bit of history is that only an alcoholic can talk turkey to an alcoholic. The doctor knew all of the "medicine" of his disease. He knew all of the psychiatry. One of his patients had "taken the cure" 72 times. Now he is cured, by fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. Orthodox science left the physician licked. He also knew all of the excuses, as well as the dodges, and the deep and fatal shame that makes a true alcoholic sure at last that he can't win. Alcoholic death or the bughouse will get him in time.

The cured member of Alcoholics Anonymous likes to catch a prospective member when he is at the bottom of the depths. When he wakes up of a morning with his first clear thought regret that he is not dead before he hears where he has been and what he has done. When he whispers to himself: "Am I crazy?" and the only answer he can think of is: "Yes." Even when the bright-eyed green snakes are crawling up his arms.

Then the pathological drinker is willing to talk. Even eager to talk to someone who really understands, from experience, what he means when he says: "I can't understand myself." ”

Comment: Apart from the “cured” bit, spot on we'd say!

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

Thursday 30 May 2013

Conference Questions (2012) forum discussion (contd)

Committee No. 6

Question 2:

Would the Fellowship share experience and make recommendations on how a greater understanding of the Traditions and Concepts of AA might be increased among the Fellowship?

Background

Recommendation of Conference 2011, Committee 5, Question 2
Reports of disunity in some areas of the Fellowship
A noticeable lack of AA members to fill service positions at all levels The Declaration of Unity

Consider the contribution to the carrying of the message, financial and practical implications when deliberating each question.

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Alcoholics Anonymous: On religion, discipline and aid

October 23, 1939 Cleveland Plain Dealer

Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here

By ELRICK B. DAVIS

“In a previous installment, Mr. Davis outlined the plan of Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization of former drinkers who have found a solution to liquor in association for mutual aid. This is the second of a series.

Religion

There is no blinking the fact that Alcoholics Anonymous, the amazing society of ex-drunks who have cured each other of an incurable disease, is religious. Its members have cured each other frankly with the help of God. Every cured member of the Cleveland Fellowship of the society, like every cured member of the other chapters now established in Akron, New York, and elsewhere in the country, is cured with the admission that he submitted his plight wholeheartedly to a Power Greater than Himself.

He has admitted his conviction that science cannot cure him, that he cannot control his pathological craving for alcohol himself, and that he cannot be cured by the prayers, threats, or pleas of his family, employers, or friends. His cure is a religious experience. He had to have God's aid. He had to submit to a spiritual housecleaning.

Alcoholics Anonymous is a completely informal society, wholly latitudinarian in every respect but one. It prescribes a simple spiritual discipline, which must be followed rigidly every day. The discipline is fully explained in a book published by the society.

Discipline

That is what makes the notion of the cure hard for the usual alcoholic to take, at first glance, no matter how complete his despair. He wants to join no cult. He has lost faith, if he ever had it, in the power of religion to help him. But each of the cures accomplished by Alcoholics Anonymous is a spiritual awakening. The ex-drunk has adopted what the society calls "a spiritual way of life."

How, then, does Alcoholics Anonymous differ from the other great religious movements which have changed social history in America? Wherein does the yielding to God that saves a member of this society from his fatal disease, differ from that which brought the Great Awakening that Jonathan Edwards preached, or the New Light revival of a century ago, or the flowering of Christian Science, or the campmeeting evangelism of the old Kentucky-Ohio frontier, or the Oxford Group successes nowadays?

Every member of Alcoholics Anonymous may define God to suit himself. God to him may be the Christian God defined by the Thomism of the Roman Catholic Church. Or the stern Father of the Calvinist. Or the Great Manitou of the American Indian. Or the Implicit Good assumed in the logical morality of Confucius. Or Allah, or Buddha, or the Jehovah of the Jews. Or Christ the Scientist. Or no more than the Kindly Spirit implicitly assumed in the "atheism" of a Col. Robert Ingersoll.

Aid

If the alcoholic who comes to the fellowship for help believes in God, in the specific way of any religion or sect, the job of cure is easier. But if all that the pathological drunk can do is to say, with honesty, in his heart: "Supreme Something, I am done for without more-than-human help," that is enough for Alcoholics Anonymous to work on. The noble prayers, the great literatures, and the time-proved disciplines of the established religions are a great help. But as far as the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous is concerned, a pathological drunk can call God "It" if he wants to, and is willing to accept Its aid. If he'll do that, he can be cured.

Poll of "incurable" alcoholics who now, cured, are members of the Cleveland Fellowship of the society, shows that this has made literally life-saving religious experience possible to men and women who, otherwise, could not have accepted spiritual help. Poll shows also that collectively their religious experience has covered every variety known to religious psychology. Some have had an experience as blindingly bright as that which struck down Saul on the road to Damascus. Some are not even yet intellectually convinced except to the degree that they see that living their lives on a spiritual basis has cured them of a fatal disease. Drunk for years because they couldn't help it, now it never occurs to them to want a drink. Whatever accounts for that, they are willing to call "God."

Some find more help in formal religion than do others. A good many of the Akron chapter find help in the practices of the Oxford Group. The Cleveland chapter includes a number of Catholics and several Jews, and at least one man to whom "God" is "Nature." Some practice family devotions. Some simply cogitate about "It" in the silence of their minds. But that the Great Healer cured them with only the help of their fellow ex-drunks, they all admit.”

(our emphases)

Comment: Well that clears up the 'AA is/is not religious' issue doesn't it – NOT! Confused? You should be! No wonder the rest of the world don't get what we're about if we don't ourselves! Again the distinction between “religious” and “spiritual” is fudged to such an extent that no one's left any the wiser. Perhaps we might try this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality

and in particular the following:

“Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality;[1] an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.”[2] Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individual's inner life; spiritual experience includes that of connectedness with a larger reality, yielding a more comprehensive self; with other individuals or the human community; with nature or the cosmos; or with the divine realm.[3] Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or orientation in life.[4] It can encompass belief in immaterial realities or experiences of the immanent or transcendent nature of the world.”

None of the above definitions come into conflict with AA's traditions and taken together form an inclusive approach which avoids altogether any problems of affiliation (religious or otherwise)."

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS Buddha wasn't God. He was a man who through his own efforts transcended phenomenal existence. No divine intervention required!

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here

October 21, 1939 Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here

By ELRICK B. DAVIS

Much has been written about Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization doing major work in reclaiming the habitual drinker. This is the first of a series describing the work the group is doing in Cleveland.

Success

By now it is a rare Clevelander who does not know, or know of, at least one man or woman of high talent whose drinking had become a public scandal, and who suddenly has straightened out "over night," as the saying goes-the liquor habit licked. Men who have lost $15,000 a year jobs have them back again. Drunks who have taken every "cure" available to the most lavish purse, only to take them over again with equally spectacular lack of success, suddenly have become total abstainers, apparently without anything to account for their reform. Yet something must account for the seeming miracle. Something does.

Alcoholics Anonymous has reached the town.

Fellowship

Every Thursday evening at the home of some ex-drunk in Cleveland, 40 or 50 former hopeless rummies meet for a social evening during which they buck each other up. Nearly every Saturday evening they and their families have a party — just as gay as any other party held that evening despite the fact that there is nothing alcoholic to drink. From time to time they have a picnic, where everyone has a roaring good time without the aid of even one bottle of beer. Yet these are men and women who, until recently, had scarcely been sober a day for years, and members of their families who all that time had been emotionally distraught, social and economic victims of another's addition.

These ex-rummies, as they call themselves, suddenly salvaged from the most socially noisome of fates, are the members of the Cleveland Fellowship of an informal society called "Alcoholics Anonymous." Who they are cannot be told, because the name means exactly what it says. But any incurable alcoholic who really wants to be cured will find the members of the Cleveland chapter eager to help.

The society maintains a "blind" address: The Alcoholic Foundation, Box 657, Church Street Annex Postoffice, New York City. Inquiries made there are forwarded to a Cleveland banker, who is head of the local Fellowship, or to a former big league ball player who is recruiting officer of the Akron Fellowship, which meets Wednesday evenings in a mansion loaned for the purpose by a non-alcoholic supporter of the movement.

Cured

The basic point about Alcoholics Anonymous is that it is a fellowship of "cured" alcoholics. And that both old-line medicine and modern psychiatry had agreed on the one point that no alcoholic could be cured. Repeat the astounding fact:

These are cured.

They have cured each other.

They have done it by adopting, with each other's aid, what they call "a spiritual way of life."

"Incurable" alcoholism is not a moral vice. It is a disease. No dipsomaniac drinks because he wants to. He drinks because he can't help drinking.

He will drink when he had rather die than take a drink. That is why so many alcoholics die as suicides. He will get drunk on the way home from the hospital or sanitarium that has just discharged him as "cured." He will get drunk at the wake of a friend who died of drink. He will swear off for a year, and suddenly find himself half-seas over, well into another "bust." He will get drunk at the gates of an insane asylum where he has just visited an old friend, hopeless victim of "wet brain."

Prayer

These are the alcoholics that "Alcoholics Anonymous" cures. Cure is impossible until the victim is convinced that nothing that he or a "cure" hospital can do, can help. He must know that his disease is fatal. He must be convinced that he is hopelessly sick of body, and of mind — and of soul. He must be eager to accept help from any source — even God.

Alcoholics Anonymous has a simple explanation for an alcoholic's physical disease. It was provided them by the head of one of New York City's oldest and most famous "cure" sanitariums. The alcoholic is allergic to alcohol. One drink sets up a poisonous craving that only more of the poison can assuage. That is why after the first drink the alcoholic cannot stop.

They have a psychiatric theory equally simple and convincing. Only an alcoholic can understand another alcoholic's mental processes and state. And they have an equally simple, if unorthodox, conception of God.”

(our emphases)

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

Monday 27 May 2013

Goodmayes 'Altered Attitudes' no more......

“Morning Fellas

Been keeping an eye on the site as always, as always plenty of food for thought and to get the grey matter working.

Back when the site first started there were a few articles written about characters involved with the Goodmayes, Altered Attitudes group – which used to be at 8pm on a Tuesday evening, Goodmayes Lane. This meeting made it onto the Cult Where to Find, and from what I can see still remains there. Based on recent information I have from AA members in the vicinity – it has now closed down after a period of great decline and a fall in numbers and regular members.

My view (and I speak for no one else) is that the group caused a bit of conflict with other meetings in the vicinity as well. There seemed to be no love lost between the founders of Goodmayes and those who felt like they had been chewed up and spat out by the group back in the day who left to start other meetings (which went on to flourish). There was the usual talk of issues and advise being given out about medication, and also taking orders from self- appointed Guru’s who didn’t have sponsors themselves. In my mind this almost created a ‘them & us’ divide in the local area between meetings. Sometimes there would be an undercurrent of friction and resentment when they attended meetings outside of their own little circuit. Sharing would be uniform, and sometimes felt like the way they did things was the way it should be done, and everyone else happened to be doing it incorrectly. One thing I did notice is that the group always turned up in numbers to support one another – I have to say I admired their unity and it’s not something I happen upon too often in AA these days. One or two individuals really spoke arrogantly about how ‘we do this’ and ‘my sponsor said this’ (however this is not exclusive to that group)

Many people I knew in other meetings around that area had been, or tried to be part of the Goodmayes meeting but felt they had been mistreated, misunderstood, poorly advised and invariably ended up leaving either completely, or joining the masses in mainstream AA around Romford / Barking / Dagenham.

I recall one incident where someone I knew personally who was suffering with another mental illness was advised to stop taking the medication as they couldn’t get contact with their higher power and were not technically sober. They were denied the chance to go through the steps and were told they couldn’t be helped unless they were off all medication. It makes me shudder to think of people giving out that advice – and what could have happened to that person had they not been picked up and helped by main stream groups in that area. Though I don’t agree with abrasiveness of the updates about this group in the Essex Area section from a few years ago, I can totally understand why they would say these things and why people were so angry based on the above – I would be hard pressed not to be angry if I had been treated that way.

I have it on good authority that two of the founding members who were at the top of the pile walked away out of the blue from that meeting some time back now. There has been much speculation about why – for me unless I hear it from them directly I just put it down to the usual AA gossip. I know that they sponsored many members, who sponsored many members. This is a prime example of Pyramid sponsorship. Having two people effectively control the group and then walk away has now meant that this meeting is no longer open. It went into decline, internal fallouts happened, attendance took a nose dive and it closed down for good.

My understanding was that no one there was sponsored outside of that group, and when that happened, inevitably there was fallout or friction within – sometimes long serving people being outcast and having to join mainstream groups in the area. ‘Outside’ influences did not seem to be welcomed and I get the feeling when they occurred it was seen as a direct challenge to the top. One of the good things about not being part of that is the variety of experience that different people, with different experiences and different sponsors bring. It showed me that there is no one approach at this stuff, no one way is right, that listening to other peoples experience is a good thing even if you don’t have anything in common with them – you can still learn.

There were some bloody nice people in that group, it wasn’t all bad, nor were all of its members singing from the cult ‘hymn sheet’ either, some of them I still think about today even though I haven’t seen them for some time now. Many of them couldn’t quite adjust to the mainstream and from what I hear don’t bother attending meetings any more seeming quite lost. Seems that the fallout from the top sent the pyramid crumbling. This I find upsetting, as AA should be there for everyone who needs help. The positive I took is that some ex members saw what was going on and seemed to join the rest of us on planet earth, and were welcomed in as anyone else would be. I am wary of groups who seem to be doing things ‘the right way’ whatever that is.

I think it is safe to say this meeting should be removed from the Where to Find now. I realise I have only touched the surface of what was happening there as I was never on the ‘inside’ – however there are lessons to be learned from what happened, and the effects on ex-members.”

Comment: The aforementioned meeting no longer appears in the online AA Where to Find. We have amended our own Cult Where to Find accordingly.

The above illustrates the problems arising when groups are run on a 'personality driven' basis. They fall like a pack of cards when the 'big cheese' invariably bites the dust eg goes back on the sauce, 'screws up' …..or to put it another way: all show and no substance

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS Our usual thanks to our correspondent

PPS Updates and general (and specific) information always welcome!

Sunday 26 May 2013

Big Book Study Guides? AAWS Arrives at a Position (1977)

We quote:

“Increasing numbers of requests come to A.A. World Services for permission to reprint the Twelve Steps and other parts of the Big Book in "study guides" and other interpretive material. Some come from treatment centers that try to give instruction in the A.A. Program to their patients. Other requests originate within A.A. After several months of study by a committee appointed for the purpose, a policy was adopted. The members of the committee unanimously recommended that permission should not be granted to reprint portions of basic A.A. recovery literature in study guides or interpretive material, and that if such guides are necessary, A.A. should publish them itself.

Here is what some A.A.W.S. Directors said. One trustee-director wrote:

"The individual A.A. member does not need another person or institution to think for him or her - in fact, this could be a very bad thing. Part of the beauty and magic of A.A. is that persons from all walks of life, with varied backgrounds, may benefit from the Big Book, the Steps, the Traditions, and the Concepts, from their own points of view. Placing guidelines on paper seems to say, ’This is the way - the only way.’

"The authors of this priceless material knew what they were doing. Their words require study, not interpretation."

Another trustee-director enlarged on this line of thinking as follows: "As it is now, to the extent A.A. takes positions, it is in our literature, etc. and if it isn’t there, A.A. does not have a position. This is clear and simple, and we should keep it this way.

I am of the opinion we should not prepare interpretive or study guides ourselves. Since we feel that alcoholism is a self-diagnosed disease, it follows that recovery is a program of self action. Our literature, our program, the Steps, the groups, and the meetings all facilitate self-diagnosis and self-action within the A.A. environment.

I see our literature, particularly the books, as being study guides. It’s all there. I see the meetings, particularly closed meetings, as the interpretive workshops. Often, comments at meetings have gotten me back to the source documents for further study or have shed additional light on the printed word. I almost have the feeling that the words are living, changing, growing.

One of our slogans is ’Keep it simple.’ I believe our books are just simple enough to stand as they are and just complex enough to live and grow."

A third trustee-director said, "My knowledge of recovery has been received in the Fellowship through the experience of one drunk sharing with another, not on an instructive basis or in a classroom atmosphere. I believe we in A.A. communicate with each other in a language of the heart."

The board has adopted the following policy statement:

"The A.A. World Services Board of Directors feels strongly that permission should not be granted to outside publishers or other parties to reprint A.A. literature for the purpose of study guides or interpretive or explanatory texts, etc. If such interpretive or study guides are to be prepared, they should be published by A.A. World Services, Inc.

The board recognizes, however, that A.A. is a program of self-diagnosis, self-motivation, and self-action and that the use of study guides, courses, classes, or interpretations is therefore not generally appropriate. The program is spiritual rather than academic. Hence, it is preferable that the individual member or prospect interpret the literature according to his own point of view. For these reasons, the board does not plan to publish study guides or interpretations of A.A. literature at this time."

The full position paper is available from G.S.O.”

(our emphases)

From: Box 4-5-9 Vol 22, No 4, August-September 1977

Saturday 25 May 2013

The Pacific Group/Clancy I

“Hey Fellas,

…....

I personally know where several members of the Pacific Group meet/live in the Chicago area. ….........

One of them here is Taylor M ….... She is a very high-up in the organization. She sponsors about 100 women across the country (never visually sees them). She was actually the main reason I even added this to my blog. I was attending a meeting with a friend of mine that was a PG group meeting about 7 years ago. Very strict rules of dress, action, sponsoring. However, I had already been sober awhile and used the meeting for what it was, a meeting.

Well, Taylor went to this meeting and sponsored several people there. I actually worked with her for about a month while my sponsor was away. We did not mesh too well. That is when I learned more about how PGers sponsor. Everything is "untreated alcoholism". Depression, anger, pain, etc. Just stop drinking, follow what I tell you, and all will be well kind of thing. She actually read the Big Book TO me. She also gave me several Clancy tapes.

I later met him when he came to town to visit his sponsees. She being one of them. Then, I was at a get together one day and she told a good friend of mine who was new to the program, to quit taking his medication (for bipolar). She said his problem was just "untreated alcoholism". He went on to not only relapse, but to end up inpatient at a mental hospital.

I personally confronted her on the situation, showed her the part in the Big Book telling us we are not doctors, but there are doctors to treat our other problems besides alcoholism. I also told her that I would be letting people know about her and what she did and warning people about the PG in general. Ever since, I have given information to anyone I meet who might go to their meetings.

The internet was the next logical step.

When I met Clancy about 8 years ago, he outwardly stated that he sponsors men and women of any age. The way the whole crowd treated him, you'd think he was God or something. it was freaky! Clancy has spoken out in meetings and to the press about people such as Anthony H being one of his sponsees. It is disgusting. it's bad enough that regular AAers forget the anonymity a lot of times, but people like Clancy, who get paid to be circuit speakers and drop celeb names, are just the things that AA is completely against.

In a very weird way, the Pacific Group is much like the Scientology nitwits who use people like Tom Cruise to recruit their underlings and get money, leading people unknowingly into a very bad way of life and living.

Please add me to any lists for any help you might need in the States. I would be glad to help in any way I can.

I am 16 years sober, in the REAL AA, and I actively sponsor women and am sponsored by someone who I have known for years.

I attend meetings, do service work, and am not afraid to confront people who are using AA to further their own agendas.

What about you? What is your PG experience? Is it big in the UK?

It is largest in Los Angeles in the States, however, there are several meetings in Florida, New York and other large cities in the States.

Take care!

….....”

(our edits)

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS Our thanks to our correspondent

Friday 24 May 2013

The Therapeutic Role of Alcoholics Anonymous

The Therapeutic Role of Alcoholics Anonymous as seen by a Sociologist

Extracts:

“There is the constant danger that local groups will fall under the control of individuals who have not only imaginative and persuasive powers but also "ideas of their own" sufficiently unique to lead the group out of its loose and tentative structure into a rigidified form of organization and procedure which may destroy, or at least seriously hamper, the therapeutic effectiveness of the group, particularly where its appeal to new members is concerned.”

“This structure also has its dangers - it contains within it the seeds of jealousy, just as the human family does. The sponsor obtains a protégé. That man is "his baby." When another "baby" comes, the first is likely to be somewhat neglected, and to resent it. He may even have a "slip" to regain his place as the centre of attention. Another crisis appears when a protégé begins to be attracted to other members of the group, to listen to their views and explanations, and is "weaned away from his original sponsor. This time the sponsor himself may "slip" from an excess of resentment or a need for attention.”

“There is a more or less definite limit to the number of old members who can retain top positions of veneration and direction in any one local group, and when this limit is approached the political conflicts may be expected to grow more acute. This is the time when the local group is subjected to the most severe strains toward splitting into rival factions or cliques. One possible solution to such a conflict, if it arises, is to make such a clique-formation the basis of a new group in a territorial setting somewhat removed-perhaps in a separate part of the city. If allowed to continue in one setting, these clique strains are a potential source of competition, irritation, jealousy and resentment - a whole series of emotional disturbances which may lead to slips.”

(our emphases)

Comment: Ring any bells?

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

Thursday 23 May 2013

The Last Mile Foundation Inc. ... again! Like a bad penny!

Wayne Butler Executive Director, Last Mile Foundation Inc.

Let’s Play Wayne’s Game! (Not)

Coming Soon! (May 24, 2013!!!!)

“Life’s In Session^®” (Made in China)

Take a pre- sale peek: https://thelastmilefoundation.org/Life_s_in_Session.html

And....

“Greetings to my friends and fellow trudgers” http://www.lifesinsession.com/

Well, it sure rings bells. Monopoly? Nope. Snap? Maybe – “Chuck” Dederich and the Synanon Cult? The “Game”? - Great minds think alike!

“Control over members occurred through the "Game". The "Game" could have been considered to be a therapeutic tool, likened to a form of group therapy; or else to a form of a "social control", in which members humiliated one another and encouraged the exposure of one another's innermost weaknesses, or maybe both of these.” (Synanon Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon)

As we ponder Wayne’s Game, we wonder, could the player’s exposé of another’s innermost weaknesses and control over him begin when the newcomer lands on the ‘Analysis Paralysis’ space? Or when he’s trying, (but not able) to work out ‘over 150 associations of play of the game’? Or when he lands on the ‘Take an Inventory’ space? Or when he gets lost in the ‘28 page Analogy Booklet’ and the ‘rule book’? Or when he picks up a ‘sponsor card’? Or could it be when the ‘2 minute timer’ runs out? Just imagine the sweating newbie’s pounding heart, those frantically flitting eyes, as the sponsor clock is ticking and he knows that time’s running out on him - in ‘Life’s in Session^®!’ BRAIN SEIZURE! Heart stopping! Eh? How exciting! What sponsor fun!

For info on the Last Mile Foundation’s murky goings on in Perth, Australia, see AA Minority Report 2013, appendices 1K and 1J, Click here

For info on Synanon and how to spot a modern day cult in your neighbourhood, we recommend “Cults in Our Midst” by Margaret Thaler Singer: “Cults basically have only two purposes: recruiting new members and fundraising.” (page 11) http://www.amazon.com/Cults-Our-Midst-Continuing-Against/dp/0787967416/ (amazon.com)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cults-Our-Midst-Continuing-Against/dp/0787967416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369163160&sr=8-1&keywords=cults+in+our+midst (amazonbooks.co.uk)*

After that why not put your feet up with a Synanon Short Film, (Hotel California, such a lovely place.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THu690d7qJE

How history repeats itself with a twist!

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

* Or any good bookseller! (bear in mind Amazon's VERY extensive tax avoidance activities!)

Wednesday 22 May 2013

ANA (Alcoholics Not Anonymous)

Akron 75^th Anniversary Binge!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eKTiKVLPy8

Looking for a newbie pair of AA roller-skates (with stabilizers)?? check out Tradition Twelve:

http://www.aa.org/twelveandtwelve/en_tableofcnt.cfm
http://www.aa.org/bigbookonline/en_appendicei.cfm

AA Tradition How It Developed (Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous pages 40-50): http://aa.org/pdf/products/p-17_AATraditions.pdf

A safe way to go!

Vrum, Vrum, RIP Dr. Bob! Peace and Serenity! Love you! WHOOOOLE BUNCHES!

Whooo!

Cheerio,

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Excerpts from Selected Opinions of Federal, State and Tribal Courts Relevant to Drug Court Programs

(enter the term “alcohol” when searching the document for relevant sections)

Monday 20 May 2013

Conference Questions (2012) forum discussion (contd)

Committee No. 6

Question 1:

Would the Fellowship discuss, share experience and make practical suggestions as to how we can highlight the importance, effectiveness and value of Sponsoring into Service?

Background

The main reason for this question is the many gaps to be found in the Directory of Intergroup & Regional Officers, indicating that a significant number of Service positions are not being filled.

References:

General Service Conference Report, 1983, Committee 1 Directory of Intergroup & Regional Officers, 2011/2012 Leaflet “Sponsorship: Your Questions Answered”
The Service Handbook

Consider the contribution to the carrying of the message, financial and practical implications when deliberating each question

Sunday 19 May 2013

News from Denmark and Finland

We quote:

“Hi,

Great initiative, …... recently arrived ….. in Denmark to [discover] "a vision for you" had a stronghold here....

As far as I can determine the Clancy-clan of the Pacific group had their philosophy migrating to an airbase somewhere in Germany. A Dane picked it up and brought it to Denmark. He is out drinking this day. It's terribly unloving. There are some pretty better-knowing narrow-minded people running their own show (the mens-only group will reject a woman desperately seeking a meeting and having 1K in the pot that they go away on a yearly weekend self-developing ; ripping my hair out).

Nice thing is: that apparently Finland had AA splitting into two separate organisations. Simply because the hardliners with a Vision for You got the boot.

How are you doing with them over there? Having our fellowship high- jacked by bigots is awful enough as it is. ( I can stay away) But watching people relapsing because of their weird rules is even worse.

All best regards, in fellowship

…...”

Our response:

"Hi ….....,

Thank you for your mail. We haven't put much on the site about what is going on in continental Europe until recently so it's interesting to hear from you. We always appreciate as much detail as people can supply about their own experiences of 'cult' activity. Our own efforts are mainly concentrated on exposing them and providing AA members with as much information as possible so they can make their own decisions. Essentially what is happening is that AA is beginning to split into factions in the UK with the 'dogmatists' going in one direction and the remainder of the fellowship in the other. Their hardline attitude simply drives newcomers away. In the long run if AA does not take action then the fellowship will simply disintegrate. Membership numbers are falling in the UK [down to 20,000 'regular' members - AA's own estimate] (but see *) and this is a trend we expect to see continue (not all due to cult activity we should say!). Nevertheless we remain optimistic that members will finally face up to what is going on and start to take the issue seriously - and act!"

(our edits)

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS Our thanks to our correspondent. Any further information would be welcome!

* Error - this figure refers only to a sample of groups. See here

Saturday 18 May 2013

Catholics In – Oxford Group Out!

The Catholic Contribution to the 12-Step Movement

“At first, there were no Catholic members in AA, but their participation was made possible by the final separation of AA from the Oxford Group.

In New York, the first Catholic member was Morgan R., who acted as AA's first unofficial liaison with the Catholic Church. Morgan submitted the manuscript of the book Alcoholics Anonymous ("the Big Book") to the New York Archdiocesan Committee on Publications and received a favorable response. The Committee, Morgan reported, "had nothing but the best to say of our efforts. From their point of view the book was perfectly all right as far as it went." A few editorial suggestions were readily and gratefully incorporated, especially in the section treating of prayer and meditation.

Only one change was requested. In Wilson's story, he had "made a rhetorical flourish to the effect that 'we have found Heaven right here on this good old earth.' " It was suggested he change "Heaven" to "Utopia." "After all, we Catholics are promising folks something much better later on!"

A Catholic non-alcoholic who profoundly influenced AA in its early days was Fr. Edward Dowling of the Society of Jesus. Although his involvement with AA was only one of many apostolic and charitable works, his influence on AA was considerable. His work is valuable as a pattern for Catholics who wish to relate constructively to AA and other recovery groups.

Dowling was a Jesuit from St. Louis and was the editor of a Catholic publication called The Queen's Work. Upon reading the Big Book, he was favorably impressed and saw parallels between the 12 steps and aspects of Ignatian spirituality—perhaps especially the Ignatian admonition to pray as if everything depends on God and to work as if everything depends on oneself.

Dowling made Wilson's acquaintance on a cold, rainy night in 1940. Wilson grudgingly admitted the visitor, thinking his unexpected guest was yet another drunk demanding help and attention. Soon, as they talked, the Jesuit began to share an understanding of the spiritual life which was to influence Wilson from that day forward.

This is all the more remarkable because Wilson had never known any Catholics intimately and felt a lingering prejudice against members of the clergy, of whatever denomination.

Wilson viewed his meeting with Dowling as "a second conversion experience." The crippled Jesuit, he said, "radiated a grace that filled the room with a sense of Presence" (interestingly enough, Wilson used the same expression, "sense of Presence," to describe his impression of Winchester Cathedral in England, which had obvious Catholic associations and where he had first experienced a desire for God many years before). Wilson was feeling depressed and angry at God because, at the moment, he seemed to be a failure:

As Wilson's biographer tells it, "When Bill asked if there was never to be any satisfaction, the old man snapped back, 'Never. Never any.' There was only a kind of divine dissatisfaction that would keep him going, reaching out always."

The priest went on: Having surrendered to God and received back his sobriety, Wilson could not retract his surrender by demanding an accounting from God when life did not unfold according to preconceived expectations. Even the sense of dissatisfaction could be an occasion of spiritual growth.

Dowling then hobbled to the door and declared, as a parting shot, "that if ever Bill grew impatient, or angry at God's way of doing things, if ever he forgot to be grateful for being alive right here and now, he, Father Ed Dowling, would make the trip all the way from St. Louis to wallop him over the head with his good Irish stick." And so began a twenty-year friendship between Wilson and Dowling, who remained Wilson's spiritual advisor.

Wilson was deeply attracted to the Catholic Church and even received instruction from Fulton Sheen in 1947. Wilson's wife Lois, looking back on it all, was sure that he was never really close to conversion; but a close friend thought otherwise: "I had the impression that at the last minute, he didn't go through with his conversion because he felt it would not be right for AA."

The simplest explanation is that Wilson remained profoundly ambivalent about organized religion and its doctrines. Just as he had shied away from the "Absolutes" of the Oxford Group, so he could not see his way to accepting Catholicism's own absolutism—in particular, papal infallibility and the efficacy of sacraments: "Though no disbeliever in all miracles, I still can't picture God working like that."

Concerning infallibility, Wilson wrote to Dowling: "It is ever so hard to believe that any human beings, no matter who, are able to be infallible about anything." In a 1947 letter to Dowling he said, "I'm more affected than ever by that sweet and powerful aura of the Church; that marvelous spiritual essence flowing down by the centuries touches me as no other emanation does, but when I look at the authoritative layout, despite all the arguments in its favor, I still can't warm up.

No affirmative conviction comes . . . P. S. Oh, if only the Church had a fellow-traveler department, a cozy spot where one could warm his hands at the fire and bite off only as much as he could swallow. Maybe I'm just one more shopper looking for a bargain on that virtue— obedience!"

To Sheen Wilson wrote: "Your sense of humor will, I know, rise to the occasion when I tell you that, with each passing day, I feel more like a Catholic and reason more like a Protestant!"

This is precisely the challenge faced by Catholic apologists in witnessing to those in recovery groups: bringing the head and the heart together.

Wilson's difficulties with Catholic faith tell us that—without dilution—we must make our faith and its graces more accessible by connecting faith with experience. This does not mean we can neglect reasoned apologetics—far from it. We must respect people's intelligence. But, as Sheen noted, in some cases, our reasoning "leaves the modern soul cold, not because its arguments are unconvincing, but because the modern soul is too confused to grasp them."

If we offer a plausible account of the religious implications of 12-step recovery, we can perhaps get a receptive hearing for a fuller evangelization and catechesis.

At the convention marking AA's twentieth anniversary (the society's "coming of age"), Dowling said, "We know AA's 12 steps of man toward God. May I suggest God's 12 steps toward man as Christianity has taught them to me." He then went on to draw out the parallels between AA's steps of recovery and God's redemption of the human race in Christ, who is both the Incarnate God and the New Adam of redeemed humanity.

Dowling concluded with Francis Thompson's poem The Hound of Heaven, suggesting that the poem was "[t]he perfect picture of the AA's quest for God, but especially God's loving chase for the AA."

Another important, though somewhat later, Catholic influence on AA was Fr. John C. Ford, S.J., one of Catholicism's most eminent moral theologians. In the early forties, Ford himself recovered from alcoholism with AA's help. He became one of the earliest Catholic proponents of addressing alcoholism as a problem having spiritual, physiological, and psychological, dimensions.

Ford said that alcohol addiction is a pathology which is not consciously chosen, but he rejected the deterministic idea that alcoholism is solely a disease without any moral component: "[I]t obviously has moral dimensions, and that is one reason why the clergyman is thought to have a special role to play.

"To answer the question: Is alcoholism a moral problem or is it a sickness, I think the answer is that it is both. I don't think it is true to say that alcoholism is just a sickness, in the sense that cancer or tuberculosis are sicknesses. I think there are too many rather obvious differences between the two to classify alcoholism as a sickness in that sense. On the other hand, I don't think it is true either to say that alcoholism is just a moral problem. There are still a good many people who look at an alcoholic as a good-for-nothing with a weak will or one who doesn't use his willpower . . .

"They keep saying, 'Don't do it again,' over and over. I don't believe he does it just because he wants to do it or because he is willful. When you look at the agony that the alcoholic inflicts upon himself over the course of the years, it seems to me to be very difficult to say he wants to be that way or he does it on purpose. . . . I think it is fair to speak of alcoholism as a triple sickness—a sickness of the body, a sickness of the mind, and also a sickness of the soul."

Wilson, impressed by Ford's insight, asked him to edit Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (with the Big Book, this is the basic text of 12-step recovery) and Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. In part, Wilson's concern in these books was to present the AA program in a way acceptable to Catholic sensibilities.

Ford's contribution to AA was therefore twofold: He drew on both religion and psychology to show alcoholism as a synthetic problem requiring a synthetic remedy, and he took seriously the quasicompulsive nature of addiction while rejecting both absolute determinism and the attendant pitfalls of a purely therapeutic approach. He drew on psychological insights, but ultimately shared the sentiments of Dr. Bob, who used to say, "Don't louse it up with psychiatry."

In so many ways, Ford's approach to addiction and recovery remains a model of spiritual discernment for our own time.”

W. Robert Aufill

(our emphases)

Comment: Setting aside both the underlying (and explicit) evangelistic tendencies and that peculiarly clerical conceit which suggests that they may possess some special expertise when it comes to matters of morality (emphasising thereby the importance of retaining a clear distinction between the 'religious' and the 'spiritual' domains) there are some interesting questions raised here about the “moral” dimension of addiction.

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

AA MINORITY REPORT 2017 (revised)

Friday 31 May 2013

Alcoholics Anonymous: On help, support

Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here

Thursday 30 May 2013

Conference Questions (2012) forum discussion (contd)

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Alcoholics Anonymous: On religion, discipline and aid

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here

Monday 27 May 2013

Goodmayes 'Altered Attitudes' no more......

Sunday 26 May 2013

Big Book Study Guides? AAWS Arrives at a Position (1977)

Saturday 25 May 2013

The Pacific Group/Clancy I

Friday 24 May 2013

The Therapeutic Role of Alcoholics Anonymous

Thursday 23 May 2013

The Last Mile Foundation Inc. ... again! Like a bad penny!

Wednesday 22 May 2013

ANA (Alcoholics Not Anonymous)

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Excerpts from Selected Opinions of Federal, State and Tribal Courts Relevant to Drug Court Programs

Monday 20 May 2013

Conference Questions (2012) forum discussion (contd)

Sunday 19 May 2013

News from Denmark and Finland

Saturday 18 May 2013

Catholics In – Oxford Group Out!

The Catholic Contribution to the 12-Step Movement

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