The history of AA and the 12 steps in Jekyll Island, GA

On this 11th step, is really a couple of things. First of all, there's a practice of prayer and meditation that has very little step, which is the practice of prayer and meditation. And I'd only been here, you know, less than a week, I suppose, when he said to me, you know, we pray around this place. And I said to him, because it was true at that time, I don't pray. I don't I don't have a habit of prayer.

He said, you will, brother. You will. And he was right. And he introduced me to very simple prayers, ask for help in the morning just like every sponsor tells every pigeon. Ask for help in the morning.

Say thank you at night. And that's what I did. And I said help in the morning. I said thank you at night. And after a few months of that, I had this sense just a sense.

Yeah. I'm fanciful, but I must make in contact with something. So I expanded my prayer life, and I said, help me a lot. And thank you very much. You know?

So I added to it. And then over the years, of course, you know, you can't help but hang around here and going through the book as we do. And pretty soon, I pick up the 3rd step prayer, then I pick up the 7 step prayer. And I'm picking up the serenity prayer all the time and the lord's prayer, which is, of course, a perfect prayer if you consider the author at least. But this is a practice of prayer.

It's a practice, and it's not the step. The step the 11th step requires as a prereq prerequisite to it the first 10 steps. Now I'm not gonna go all the way back, but the 10th and the 11th step are connected. And the book says that the practice of self examination, that's a tense step, combined with prayer and meditation is a very, very powerful force indeed, and so it is. But the step of the 11th step, if you're interested in words, has more words in it than any of our steps.

That's 32 words. And you see it's I see that you sought. It says the men and women who found this program sought to improve their conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation, praying only for knowledge of God's will for them and the power to carry this out. It's interesting they say that that they sought because that's what we have here. We are seekers.

We are seekers, you and I. I suppose I don't know. I guess I was seeking after something all those years. I don't know what the hell it would be, but whatever it was, I never did get it. But we're seekers.

You know? We don't have anything in our program. We don't have anything that says we have the answer. We don't. We have a chapter that says we have a solution, and we do.

There is a solution to a very specific problem, the problem of alcoholism. We don't have the answers. You want the answers? Go find Tammy's ex husband, Jim. He's out now, and you go down the 3 quarter way house and have a chat with Jim.

If he's not available, you can drop down to New Orleans and see if Jimmy's in town. You'll find him on the strip there in one of those motels. And if all else fails, you can pop out to Tulsa and see if Orill has got some time on his hands, if God is not extorting threatening to kill him. Of course, he can't find oral. His cousin, Anal, comes by once in a while.

And these guys have the answer. I've heard them. I've watched them. They have and I love to listen. They have the answer.

My god, they say, I got the answer, and I got it right there, brother. This is the answer. Because they come a cropper here or there. They have the answer. We don't have the answer.

We have a way here. We have a way. This is the way. It's our way. And that's what we have.

We seek. We seek. And what to? To improve our conscious contact, the front of the head with God. To just improve our conscious contact with God.

That's all. And we do it in a way that people have been doing it since time immemorial. Since David, the prophet, came out that time into that desert sky and saw the magnitude of the universe as revealed in that marvelous thing if you ever get in that desert out there. Phoenix and look up, it's just enormous sky. And David took out his harp, and he played a little song for the god of his understanding.

And he said, who am I that you are mindful of me? Everything's so big around here, and I'm so small. And yet he said to the guy that was I was saying, you care for me. You care for me. You have a care for me as we do in the 3rd step.

We say to him, have a care for me. That's all. Have a concern for me. That's the prayer. Not that our lives be run.

Not that he tell us left from right. Have a care. Be interested in what we do, have a concern for the welfare, the welfare of of all of us. That's what the step says to do. He spoke to me all times in in parables, and he said me one time, he said, you know, this program is is very much like a gift that one gives to to a small child.

And he said, and you will all have experience with this. He said, you know, if a kid is of a certain age, 1, and you give him the Christmas present all wrapped up, ofttimes, he will mistake the wrapping for the gift. He'll take the pay you know, he'll take the paper off, and he'll crinkle it and play with it and take the ribbon, put it in his mouth. He thinks you're giving him paper and a ribbon. You might as well give the kid an old newspaper.

You know? You save a muggle kid. But as he gets experience with the gifts, Pretty soon, that rapper doesn't mean a thing to him. Boy, that's so often across the the room, and he's diving down to the bottom of that box to get the gift of value. And it's here.

It's here. And these 11th and 12 steps, this is the gift of value. I think I think the 11th step is the powerhouse of Alcoholics Anonymous. I think all of the power that comes and is generated by this program begins with the the 11th step. See, the 12th step, which I'll come to in a short while, that's really 2 things.

1 is the result of the first 11 steps, and the other is how I am to live my life. I have to carry this message and to practice these principles. The 11th step is the last of the healing steps. It's the powerhouse that sends that power through our program and into us and out of us and into the new alcoholic, and it is traditional. It's the way it's the way it's been done since David and before.

They're just the 2 usual ways that ever since man has conceived this idea that there is something powerful that started all of this and that there is more than we see with our eyes and more than we can touch with our hands, that there is another dimension to it. And it says in our books, we, you and I, we get a glimpse. It says a glimpse of god's will. Just a glimpse of God's will. We'll never I don't know God's will.

I'll never know God's will. You get a glimpse of it hidden, a glimpse of it yawn. All good stuff no matter which which way you see it. And, I said to him, because it was true, I don't know how to meditate. I I didn't.

I'm a graduate of Catholic schools. They may have taught it. I didn't hear it. I knew how to pray okay. I knew how to pray in English, Latin, French.

I knew prayers. I told you this morning. I knew all kinds of prayers you could ever think of. You know? From the fact that from the plague, the prammon, from the wrath of the northy, the vikings.

The Irish have a prayer. They say at church every Sunday, protect us from the wrath of the Vikings. Vikings have been here for 1000 years, but they're still worried about them, the Irish. Rascals coming up in their boats doing dirty things to the Irish girls, but I digress. So he said that you don't know how to meditate?

Learn. Learn. I said, alright. Okay. Learn.

What? He said, take the 12 and 12 and read the chapter on prayer meditation. 12 and 12 says, for those of us who are beginners in meditation, we read the prayer of Saint Francis several times slowly. So I read the prayer of Saint Francis several times slowly. Nothing happened.

In fact, it made me feel worse. You know, I'm not gonna be an a heretic, and the prayer of Saint Francis is a great prayer for a saint. I'm just the opposite. I would much rather get than give. I would much rather be understood than understand.

Good luck to Francis, but don't bring him around. You know? I don't need I don't need his prayers. It's driving me crazy. So I'll tell you what I did.

Now I don't want you to do what I did. I'm just gonna tell you what I did because I did what I did. In fact, I instruct you not to do what I did. I was reading a book. I'm a voracious reader, and I was reading a book those days by a guy named Kelly.

And Kelly, improbably enough, was a Quaker. And I liked what I was reading from Kelly. I forget the name of it now. So I looked in the phone book, and sure enough, there was a Quaker meeting up a couple of towns from where I lived. So for the next 3 or 4 years, I went to the Quakers.

And, it's my kind of religion. They don't have a clergy, and they don't have any services. Everybody just sits around and meditates. And if they're inspired to say something, they do or they don't. And, I was there 3 or 4 years.

I never said a word. But I learned as the Quaker say, I learned to center down. I learned to be quiet. I learned to clear clear my mind. Now I don't want you to go to the Quakers.

They're doing fine. The Quakers don't need you. They don't need a bunch of alcoholics running around, telling them how to conduct themselves. You know? We're an alcoholic.

Let me tell you about your church. You need a little help here. Stay away from the Quakers. They're doing good without you. But I learned to meditate.

And then I learned from my sponsor that I could meditate on things that were close to home, for instance. I could meditate on. I did. I do. How to make my AA group a more effective group.

What I can do to to help my AA group. And, when I was coming first to my AA group in New York, we used to drink instant coffee. God. It was awful. And we had an old guy up there, Dixie.

He used to boil his water for this instant coffee. The whole place was steam, and there was old Dixie. He was about 70, boiling away pots of water. You know? So I bought a coffee pot.

Big shot lawyer like me, I bought him a coffee pot. We had our first real coffee. And Dixie kept boiling water. He didn't make any difference. And while we bought, he was his job was to boil water.

So we let him boil the water. Who the hell cares? He'd boil the water till it unboiled. But we end up with pretty good coffee depending on who was making it. You know?

Just something I could do for the group. One time I was asked to speak at a a meeting in, Philadelphia. It was a morning meeting, breakfast meeting in a big hotel down there, and they called it the unity breakfast. And they had a 1,000 people at this place, and I was the speaker. So when I got back home that night, I was at the ice cream place after the meeting, and I was telling the people I had gone down to Philadelphia.

And there was a fellow named Harry in a group. We used to practice this as a group that is meditating on how to improve things for our group. And Harry, came back about a week later, and he said, we should do that. This group should have a breakfast like that. I said, okay.

So we did. The first one we had, we had a 125 people in an Italian restaurant. We got Italian sausage, good stuff, scrambled eggs, so forth. Now they have it twice a year in the Rye Town. Hilton holds 1500 twice a year, scrambled eggs, bacon, you know, home fries.

It's the biggest event they have up there. They get 3,000 people every year go to this thing all because Harry went home and meditated. What can we do to make this a more effective AA group? And how can we keep that message going in this area where we are? Not a big deal and not a big deal to meditate about.

You don't have to contemplate your navel. You don't need a ritual tattoo. You don't have to shave your head, get a robe, any of that stuff. And the word meditate, of course, comes from the Latin meditare, to think to think. So you think, what can you do?

You do that just we're sit here now. You can do that. You don't need a special place. You don't need anything except willingness. Here's what the book says.

The book says this, ask him in your morning meditation what you can do for the man who still suffers. The answers will come. It says if your own house is in order. How's that for a perfect form of meditation? What can you do for the new guy who still suffers?

Here's a practice I have. I'm a practice I have. I don't know if it's gonna help you or not. I have a good memory, so do you, so you remember very, very well and will never forget those last months that you drank. Remember that?

Bite your ass. Think about it right now. Got it? Now think about the last 6 months that have just gone by. Think about the difference of how you live, where you live, what you do, with whom you go.

You got it? What do you say? What do you say? What do you say? Thank you.

Thank you. Right? Simplest thing in the world, meditate like that. I'm not talking hours or days. I'm talking minutes.

Minutes, and they're the best part of the day. Right? The best part of my day. And all we are is seeking. We seek, you and I.

We seek. So now prayer, as I say, was a different thing, and I knew all the words to all the prayers. You know, I had all the words. I didn't have any of the music. I didn't have any of the substance.

I just had the form of I could pray this way or pray that way. What else? But this step is very specific. It says, when we pray, we pray only only for knowledge of god's will for us and the power to carry that out only. Now I certainly don't know god's will for you or for anybody else, And I don't even know God's will for me.

How would I know that? But I know where I've been since November 24, 1965. I know where I've been. So I think it's safe to say, perhaps, that god's will is that I be as I am a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous. And if that's the case, then all I need is the power to carry it out, and the power is at the meeting.

Because at the meeting is where we assemble, and the power is not with me. It's with us. There is power in this room at this minute. You feel it? I feel it.

I assure you it did not come in here with me. I don't have it. But when you and I are together, boom, there is power, and it is a spiritual power, and it is no less no less than the power of God. Here's what the 12 and 12 says. I find this to be true.

We discover oh, shit. That we do receive guidance for our lives to just about the extent we stop making demands upon god, humbly ask, say please, to give it to us on order and on our terms. Almost any experienced AA, and I'm an experienced AA, will tell you how his affairs have taken remarkable and unexpected turns for the better as he tried to improve his conscious contact with God. He will also report that of every season of grief or suffering, when the hand of god seemed heavy or even unjust. New lessons for living were learned.

New resources of courage were uncovered. And finally, inescapably, the conviction came that god does move in mysterious ways is wonders to perform. And I'm here to tell you, brothers, that that it works and that prayer is answered. And I'll even give you a couple of prayers. Here's the prayers I use.

If you can use them, use them. You gotta be careful because these prayers are very fast. You ready for this one? If you're not ready, don't use it. You ready?

Here it is. Show me the way. Show me the way. That's all. Most times, I know where I wanna go.

I know where I wanna get. Many, many times, I don't know how to get there. So I asked, show me the way. And so just show me the way. You point out the way.

I'll go. I'll do it. And the answers come. Show me the way. It's a good second step prayer, a good third step prayer.

Show me the way. Show me the way. Very simple. Here's an excellent prayer. This one you can do all day long.

You ready for this? Here it is. Thank you. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have this idea of God comes into his office, and he says to the guy, what's going on? And he says, well, 50,000,000 of them want jobs.

Another 50,000,000 want money. Another 50,000,000 are looking for deep and meaningful relationships. And there's 1 guy in Miami keeps saying thank you. And god says, give him anything he wants. Don't you remember as a parent how the kid that said thank you the best got probably got the most even though he wasn't supposed to remember that?

The kid who said thank you the most probably got a little more in the scale of things than some of the others. Who of us who of us do not respond to gratitude? Who doesn't like to hear that? Don't you like to hear the question? Thank you.

Thank you, sir. I had nothing to it. Very gracious. Thank you so much for your question. That's a prayer.

And of all the people who ever prayed, you and I are the ones that should be saying thank you. Is this true? Who we are from where we come to where we are. Are you kidding me? Down on your head, bang your head on the floor 6 times every hour.

Simple prayer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The 12 or 12 tells us that experience shows us this. It also the 1212 also shows us the solution to that problem that I was talking about before of not belonging in the problem that, Conroy was talking about last night, the eternal problem from people like us. And listen to this gang because here it is. I almost forgot about it. Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us.

We are no longer live in a completely hostile world. We are no longer lost and frightened and purposeless. The moment we catch even a glimpse of god's will. The moment we begin to see truth and justice and love as the real and eternal things of life, we will know that God lovingly watches over us and that when we turn to him, all will be well with us here and hereafter. And I am here to tell you that that's the truth.

No matter how bad it was, someone watches over you. And when you turn to him, we will be alright here, and we'll be alright hereafter. And so pray. Brothers, pray and meditate. It's the powerhouse of Alcoholics Anonymous, and it is, like everything else, a communication.

And most of our steps or even all of our steps, I think, are communication, a communication with God one way or the other. And I pursue, we pursue a relationship with God, and and the core of any type of relationship, The center of it has to be communication. Whether we're talking about a business relationship, a social relationship, or even a sexual relationship. The basis is communication. Otherwise, what is it?

It's nothing. And communication is the back and the forth, and they give it to us and they put it into us. You don't go back and look at that 5th step. It says, admit to God. What is that?

What is that? That's prayer. When you admit something to God, that's a communication with God. Admit it to yourself. What is that?

That's meditation. You're meditating. You're thinking. You're admitting it to yourself. That's prayer and meditation.

They slip it right in the 5th step. You know what I mean? They don't even tell you it's in there. But there it is, and that's what this prayer and, and meditation is, is communication so that we can maintain a relationship with the god of our understanding because nothing else is important. Nothing else is important.

You know and I know anything that you can hold in your hands is gonna break and corrupt. Now don't misunderstand me. I'm no hermit, and I'm no ascetic. I like things. I got a 2 week old Cadillac.

I like things, but I know that's not my power. I got one. I'll have a good time on it. There'll be a lot of AA people writing it, and that's as far as it goes. And our 12 step says 2 things.

1, that as the result of these steps, the men and women of this program enjoyed a spiritual awakening. That's it. That's the result. A lot of people read that wrong, and they think it's a result. No.

No. It's the result. That's all you get. You get an awakening of the spirit. I haven't gotten any taller since I got here.

Any change is an interior change. It's a change of attitude. You see, I see things differently. It's an awakening of my spirit. It isn't all that I was so evil or anything.

I made an awful lot of mistakes. I made an awful lot of errors of judgment. I did an awful lot of stupid things when I drank. Of course, I did. I was in I have been engaged in drunken behavior and acted stupidly.

Of course. Of course. But I wasn't evil. And even if I was, so what? But whatever was left whatever was left, it awakened like that.

I don't wake up very fast in the morning. It takes a little while. I gotta, you know, roll around, scratch around, think it over, then I'm waking up. And I got it the same way here. It was just that whatever was worthwhile in me left worthwhile in me was coming over.

And it says in our book that deep down in every man, woman, and child is the fundamental concept of God. Oh, it says it may be covered over by calamity, by wrong thinking, by pomp, and by defects. But deep down, it's there. It says, It was so with us. That's how they tell it to us.

It was so with us. When they looked for this god of their understanding, they found it deep down inside themselves. Awakening of the the awakening of the And this awakening of the the awakening of the spirit, that's what we get. So if you sponsor people, that's the story. You don't do them any good if you tell them they're gonna get a job because you don't know that they're gonna get a job.

They may get a job or they may not. You don't know whether that first wife is coming back or not. You don't know whether that ticket or drug drive charge is gonna go away or not. What the hell are you telling? I hear people sponsoring people, they tell them that.

Bullshit. Here's what the book says. Job or no job, wife or no wife, let no man say that he will not become sober until his family comes back. Families have come back, and the man did not get sober. Families have never come back, and he's as sober as a sober man can be.

And it says, don't let him say it. Don't even let him say it. Don't even let him think it. There is no such thing as conditional sobriety. I will become sober if I get a job.

I will become sober if my girlfriend comes back. I will be sober if the judge drops the charges. No. No. No.

Do not let anybody say that or think it. You're not helping them. You're not helping them. You're perpetuating some kind of a bullshit myth that you don't know the first thing about. We talk here from experience.

From experience. Just because I got my job doesn't mean you're gonna get your job. I hope you do. I hope you do, but your real reliance must always be upon him. Always, and there is no substitute for it.

And I'm not a preacher, and I'm not preaching anything. I'm just telling you the way it is. This is what you get. You get an awakening of your spirit, and with that awakening, you'll be able to handle any problem that comes along. And there's gonna be lots of problems.

Life and life is now. We're all old enough to know that it's not a straight uphill run. It's back and forth and neither and beyond. But, boy, when you think it all over, it's great. Wonderful things happen here.

Marvelous things. Things beyond our possible imagination. Remarkable things will follow, it says. And that's the message. We carry this message.

That's the message of Alcoholics Anonymous, the message of a spiritual awakening. Anything less than that is not our message. You may have your own message. I don't know. Maybe you got your own program.

What the hell do I know? But our message is this message, the message of the spiritual awakening. Sometimes it's a hard message message to carry. New people are not really interested in that. You know?

He said to me, you're gonna have a spiritual awakening. I said, I don't really need one of those. I need money is what I need. Yeah. The attitude of a newcomer.

But it's my job as an old type to insist that the message be not diluted. And there's only the one message, and that's the message that we carry. And now I'm going into a little controversy. This is fine with me. We carry this message to alcoholics, the step 6.

Now I know that some of you may not be alcoholics. Well, I have no message for you because I'm instructed to carry this message to alcoholics. And I'll let you in on a little clue if you don't notice. Alcoholics Anonymous is for alcoholics. Is that difficult?

Let me try it again. Alcoholics Anonymous is for alcoholics. How's that? Now a lot of people come here who are not alcoholics. That's okay with me.

I'm not an AA cop. I don't give a goddamn who comes here. But Alcoholics Anonymous is for alcoholics. Alcoholics Anonymous is like a big self cleaning oven. And about every 2 years, it clicks on to clean, and it just burns off all the crap.

And we're back to the alcoholics, and we wait and see who's showing up next. Because this message is for alcoholics. Now the big lie, and there's plenty of lies spread around, the villain here, if we have to have a villain, I'm glad Conley's not around, is the treatment center. And the big lie they perpetrate is this, and this is an enormous lie. Here's the lie.

One addiction is the same as another. That is an absolute lie. The addiction to alcohol is peculiar to alcohol. The addiction, for instance, to cocaine is totally different than the addiction to alcohol. Cocaine is an up.

Alcohol is a down. Cocaine is fast acting acting. Alcohol is slow acting. There is a great difference chemically. There's a great difference medically, and there's a great difference in recovery, as we all can see.

At Alcoholics Anonymous, it isn't as though nobody knew what the problem was. Doctor Bob took barbiturates. His last day of drinking, had 2 beers and a whole pills that Bill brought out. They used to call them goofballs. They were sphenol bobs, is what it was.

When they sat down to name the book from which we get our name, they could have called it Addictions Anonymous. They could have called it any goddamn thing they wanted. Before the 12 step was the 12 step. If you have that, volume that Bob has out there, The, what is that? The, manuscript that was circulated when it was in mimeographed form.

Go look at the 12 step. You know what it says? It says, we try to carry this message to alcohol to others, comma, especially alcoholics, comma, and practice principles in all our affairs. The group conscious a 100 or so men and women who had recovered from a seemingly hopeless condition of mind and body, looked at that and said, no. That's wrong.

We don't carry the message to others. We carry this message to alcoholics. We do not dilute our message. We have a singleness of purpose. Now that doesn't mean that we disregard other people and don't have empathy with someone who is a cocaine addict, a heroin addict.

Listen. Time Magazine says, it's hard to believe, there are 500 organizations that end in anonymous. That's what Time Magazine says. Now we will be overwhelmed if we took it. In New York City, there's an eight hundred number.

You call the eight hundred number and tell them your problem. You call them up and say, I am sticking bananas up my ass, and I cannot stop. And they say your meeting is Tuesday night, 78th Street. Bring your own bananas. It's all true.

It's all true. You know, we got this anonymous, that anonymous, yo anonymous, ho anonymous. It's not that we are selfish or self centered or anything, but this is a particular solution for a particular disease. And don't tell me that one addiction is the same as another because it is not. And if you have a problem with chocolate cake, good luck.

I don't wanna get exercised about it because you're not gonna be here very long. You're not gonna stay don't stay here very long. So not stupid. They know that this is not for them. They go somewhere else.

The reason they come here in the first place is that this works. And the reason they come here in the first place is they're at treatment centers, and the real reason is that this treatment center only has the one van. They don't have a fleet of buses. They got one car. Take them day 8.

What do you think? They're gonna drive all around town, dropping them off, picking them up. They run the goddamn shuttle system. Bullshit. They got one car.

It's not a big deal, and they know that in there. But, you know, a lot of stuff isn't covered by the insurance, so they tell them. Go tell them. Go tell them you have a desire to stop drinking. Isn't that stupid?

Just trying to use our traditions to go around the corner. Really dopey. Now I don't throw anybody out. They're gonna leave. They're gonna not stay.

I don't give a shit what they want. They're not gonna stay in my group. We have a Monday night banquet meeting. We have a Thursday night staff meeting. What does that got to do with those guys?

They're gonna stick around. They can't whine. They can't tell us they're from dysfunctional families. They can't tell us that their mother took away their rubber duck when they were 3, and the world hates her shits, you know, and have never been the same. Because we don't wanna hear that.

We're talking about the big book. We're talking about steps. That's all we got to talk about. It'd be so goddamn boring for a nonalcoholic. He can't stay.

Now the andas are a different problem. The andas. I'm an alcoholic anda. This is simply an ego problem. I'm an alcoholic ABDA addict.

Oh, really? How sweet. See, that's a ego problem. They want me to know that they have suffered in some peculiar way that I will never understand, big lush than I am. You're an alcoholic?

Well, I'm an alcoholic and an addict. What do you think of that? I think you're an asshole. That's what I think of that because an alcoholic is an addict. So you say, and you're an alcoholic addict, and you're an addict.

You say, and you're an alcoholic alcoholic. The treatment center. And then the treatment center said they tell them to slip it in. See, don't put the Andrew in there. They say, I'm an alcoholic addict.

Or they say, I'm an addict alcoholic. They go pretty fast, so you don't know who the hell who gives a shit? It's it's a very simple matter. It's the simplest thing in the world. I don't know why people have even why do I have to discuss this?

Why do I have to try to convince you of something that is so obvious? Here it is. Alcoholics Anonymous is for alcoholics. Can anything be more simple than that? Cocaine Anonymous is for cocaine abuses.

Alright? Pills Anonymous is for pills abuse. Gamblers Anonymous is for gamblers. Overeaters anonymous is for overeaters. Does anybody have a quarrel with any of that?

What the hell do you wanna go to Hague for? Because it works. That's why. Because it works. That's why it works.

Because you and I are given a special provision by God, and you and I concentrate on recovery. And that's the difference in our fellowship. And for an alcoholic, don't tell me there's another fellowship. There is no other. This is it.

It's here or die. You understand? What the hell would 1 on alcohol do with ovaries and die? What are you gonna do? I should've gotten here.

You say, oh, why? Has nothing to do with us. So we carry this message. This is the message to alcoholics, and that's that. You have no what do you know about anything else?

You have no message for anybody else if you're an alcoholic. If you're not an alcoholic, what are you doing here in the first place? Place? It's like, Ike, we'll see you later. We wish you well.

I wish you well. And then it says we are to oh, here, before I get off this subject. Some people think I make this crap up. Here's a, pamphlet. See this one?

Drugs other than alcohol. Problems other than alcohol. See that? That's an official AA pamphlet. This is a reprint of a grapevine article, 1958, written by Bill Wilson.

So this is nothing new. People coming here are not alcoholics. I've been through everything. Since 65, I was here when Jesus came by. He did.

People come to meetings carrying Bibles in the sixties. They want to rap about Jesus. He he left. I was here when the hyperglycemia epidemic hit. Everybody at hyperglycemia are all walking around eating 6 whole meals a day, chewing on peanuts and stuff.

And thank God we survived the hypoglycemia epidemic. Yeah. And then all the pills people started showing up. They were the first ones to show up, the, prescription drug gang. At least they say, if you can't smell them, you can't tell them.

You know, they they feel like they've been goofy on the pill. And then when cocaine wasn't popular until, you know, 15 years ago in this country, it was very expensive. And the heroin people just sort of hung around, baby. They didn't come by. They just stayed cool.

So I, you know, I saw them all. Here they come. There they go. So that's it for me. Now they this might be too much for you because it's a couple of pages.

See? Very considerate around here. Look. See? This one is that big.

So he took this one. I love it. And he gave us this one. This is only this big. Plus, it's an inoffensive color.

Can't hurt anybody. Nonthreatening. Now follow me, gang. Here we go. Here are some questions.

One, can a nonalcoholic pill or drug addict become an AA member? No. No. No. Goddamn it.

No. Don't bullshit me around. Ready for the next question? Can such a person be brought as a visitor to an open AA meeting for help and inspiration? Of course.

Of course. Of course. Delighted to have them. No? Of course.

Wish them well? Of course, we do. Include them in the prayer? Of course. Of course.

Of course. If so, should these nonalcoholic pill or drug users be led to believe that they have become AA members? No. Goddamn it. No.

No. Can a pill or drug taker who also has a genuine alcoholic history become a member of AA? Yes. Ananda. And that requires good sponsorship.

Say shut up with the ANDA Because you take care of the alcoholism. This is my experience. You take care of the alcoholism. Let God work on the and the ANDA's gonna disappear. It's gone, brother, just like it never existed.

If they get sober, they don't go back to cocaine if they're alcoholic. And you get sober, that the other shit goes. It's an all inclusive program If you're an alcoholic, say, and we're not being honest. Not all. It just happens to be that's the way it is.

Why God didn't do that for the gamblers and the cock chocolate cake eaters? How the hell do I know? Well, I know what I'm talking about, and I'm talking about alcoholics and alcoholics anonymous. That fits. Nonalcoholics and Alcoholics Anonymous, that does not fit.

Just forget about it. It's not gonna work. I wish you well while you stay here. You won't stay very long. Please don't bother me.

Now it says and this is where a guy like me is trapped. See, I believe all this crap. I mean, I really believe this stuff. I am forced to practice principles in all my affairs, so I can't go around throwing drug addicts out. You get out of here.

I can't I don't have the power to do that. I have to practice principles in all my affairs. Now I have heard many, many people tell a story about how they were raised in good Christian homes. I've heard that so often. I don't think a good Christian home is a proper place to raise a child.

And how they were they were imbued with with principles by their church and their parents and their schools. And they were they lived life for principal. But alas, alas, they turned toward alcohol, demon rum. And all of their principals eroded into the whiskey. But now they have come here, and they're on the path to glory.

And all of their principles have been restored to them in data, time, and our God given program. That's nice. That's not me. I never had any principles to start with. I was a bum from day 1.

I was not raised on principle. I wasn't. I was raised on need and expediency. If we needed it, my job was to go get it. It didn't make much difference how I got it either.

Need, I recognize need, expediency. And in the neighborhood, they said, you know, you gotta if you're tough enough to get it, you'll be tough enough to keep it. They said crap like that. They said, don't get mad. Get even.

This is the way I grew up. I grew up on the streets in the South Bronx, and, I had nobody to tell me otherwise. And it was every man for himself. And it worked for me for a while. My selfishness, my self centeredness, it worked for a while.

It got me out of the streets. It got me into the schools. It got me through the schools. It got me into whatever I got into. You know?

It made me sort of success, But it didn't work. You know, it didn't last, and it hadn't. Once the alcohol poured on top of that, it dissolved in a minute. And so any principles I have, I got here. Whatever principles I may have, I found here.

You gave them to me, things I used to use, you know, send me an honest man. Oh, brother. You know? I was practicing law. Send me a man of principle.

I love those people. This is a matter of principle. Oh, you're right, Charlie. Take out your checkbook. We'll see how far your checkbook will carry this principle.

Here's the principle. You got the money, and I want it. That's my principle. So we have rudimentary things here. You know?

That that that's so obvious. Even I honesty, open mindedness, willingness. See, a principle is something that's always true. Rules come and rules go. Principles are the same all the time.

Gravity is a principle. It's the same here as on the moon. It's the same all over the place. It doesn't change. It never changes.

It's always there. It's always in operation. These are principles. Rules, you have a rule. You make a rule.

You amend the rule. You break a rule. That's what Congress is for. To change the rules. It's legislature.