Big Book study in McKenzie Bridge, OR

This is again unique experience. It says the termination bore fruit in the spring of 1939 by the publication of this volume. I go turn it off.

You might want to look at that. I know

determination bore fruit in the spring in 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. What were they going to call it? They had a hundred men the way out. Bill Wilson was humble and suggested the Bill W movement. The James Gang

100 men was popular but then a woman showed up ruined everything and The James Gang was because they had been studying the book of James

a lot. And this is a pretty cool cover. I liked a lot of the old stuff they did.

It says their pathway to a cure. If you notice this bottle has got a guy trapped in the bottom of it here,

it's a way out.

I love some of the old stuff they did before they dialed it back.

And you hear all kinds of crazy, you know, stories about it now. It says the fledgling society, which had been nameless, now began to be called Alcoholics Anonymous from the title of its own book.

In Akron, OH, they were called the Alcoholic Squad of the Oxford Group. But in New York now you got to look at the two personalities that are really running this thing. Doctor Bob was a live and let live. He was a man. Don't. Don't preach this stuff, you know? Yeah. I mean, Bob. Bob was in the trenches. Bob worked over 5000 Alcoholics, worked with them, didn't just talk to them, worked with them, work steps with them, helped 5 in 15 years. You can do the math on that. It's at at least an alcoholic

day, sometimes two and three a day. But in New York, they were called the nameless bunch of drunks. They were anonymous. They were professionals. These were some of them were going back into industry and they didn't want people knowing about this because again, alcoholism was very misunderstood. Shoot, today it's still misunderstood. People think you're weak willed and have low moral fiber. We're not weak willed people. And Larry will share a story about that later. But there was a there was a drunk

and he was a wet brain drunk and it contributing editor to New Yorker magazine.

And he was just, you know, all he knew is that there were a bunch of anonymous Alcoholics. That's all they were anonymous Alcoholics. And he would rock back and forth in the meeting and Anonymous, Alcoholics, Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous, period. What's he blabbering about over there? They took the name Anonymous Alcoholics and they flipped it Alcoholics Anonymous. And they took the period right in the middle of the page in this very covert cover,

the circus jacket.

You're not anonymous when you're walking around with this book, but

and they made this book big. You've heard a cult referred to as a big book. This book is actually smaller than the original big book. My microphone's off. I'm sorry. I I

a mold,

you notice it's bigger than my third edition,

but it was larger than this. And the reason being they used, well, it was larger when you're looking at it like this, but it was thicker. And the reason it was thicker, they used the cheapest, heaviest stock paper they could get because Bill Wilson being the the forever salesman, thought if it was large

and thick, it was valued more people would buy it. And in 1939, when this book came out, tail end of the depression, $3.50 is what they were selling this book for. That's the equivalent of over $25 today. And a lot of people and early groups that they had maybe one group for the for the one book for the whole group. And then somebody would be entrusted to keep the book and then show up at the meeting and read from the book. There was another experience that happened during this time

that we're going to vote on three things that this first group conscience be. Y'all been to a group conscience? Aren't they fun? Please. What kind of coffee are we having next week? Oh, I can't imagine what that would be like out here. For God's sake, if you said Folgers. My God, you guys are the damnedest. And I love coffee.

I love that part of this country. Anyway, they were going to have hospitals.

Keep in mind they didn't have two nickels scrubbed together, but this is going to be a big hit. They're going to have hospitals where they're going to treat Alcoholics and then they're going to have these paid missionaries, counselors to work with Alcoholics, compensated 12 step work. And then they were going to print this book. Well, the hospitals got shot down. Missionaries got shot down. Hell no. And then in the vote to transmit the information by a book passed by how many votes? Two votes. Two votes.

You know why they print votes, right?

To transmit the information from one human mind to another. That's why. That's why it's here. Because if they hadn't printed their unique experience in here, you see, I'll be sitting a chat and say, man, you're not going to believe this. I was in the South side of Atlanta two weeks ago and I heard about this thing, 12 little things. And if you do them this way and that way, we'll see by the time it gets back to Eugene. He's got sheep and ceiling fans involved in the thing. You see what I'm saying?

Well, I know you test

more. More importantly, this book was not designed just to transmit information. You know, the joke goes something like this. The sponsee calls a sponsor and says, listen, I read the book and I'm not getting anything out of this. He says, well, go grab yourself a cookbook. So he grabs a cookbook. He goes, find the chocolate cake recipe, your favorite. Read it to me. So he reads it to him. Read it again. He reads it to him again, one more time.

Cool, Cut me a slice, I'll be right over.

What? I can't cut you a slice of cake? All I did was read it,

man. The book is designed to transmit an experience. It's a set of principles, spiritual in nature, which, if practice is a way of life, will enable us to

recover. That's the whole purpose of the book. That's one of the many purpose of the bill Wilson alludes to. But the whole purpose is to transmit an experience, not just information. I there's a guy in Atlanta named Bucky. He sits on the front porch of the 8111 clubhouse. He knows this book better than I do. I saw him drunk at Applebee's. No, he's, he recites how it works from memory, not the stuff we read in the meeting. He reads stuff like being convinced for his step three, you know, I mean, he's like right there and he knows it,

but he doesn't do it. And knowing this information is great, but unless you do this and practice this, you don't get the goodies that the 1st 100 got. So it says the flying blind period ended. AA entered a new phase of its pioneering time. Also, the alcoholic. We were still the alcoholic squad of the Oxford Group and we were the nameless bunch of drunks until Clarence Snyder, home brewmeister in Cleveland,

started and had the quote UN quote first a a meeting and at the International Conference in 1950, he shows up,

got that tie looking all good, had his notes for the acceptance speech because he was one of the founders, right? No, he died with a resentment at Bill 'cause he didn't get called the podium. It says with the appearance in the new book, a great deal began to happen. Doctor Harry Emerson Fostic, the noted clergyman, reviewed it with approval

in the fall of 1939. Fulton or Slur,

then editor of Liberty magazine, printed a piece on his magazine called Alcoholics and God. Now,

this guy up here, Harry Emerson Fostic, he had a radio show

and a lot of people listen to his radio show and when he reviewed it with approval, man free advertising. Bill Wilson loved that. You know, he was cagey and he wanted to try to get as many people as possible to hear this book.

And then then they print this article. This is the first widespread piece. Then at the bottom you see that little banner. It says Alcoholics and God by Morris Markey. Liberty Magazine was like Time. So people read it and they went, wow, there must be something to that because see, there was a little undercurrent buzz about this secret handshake society that was going on

and all of a sudden it gets a little public approval.

Says this brought a rush of 800 frantic inquiries into the little New York office, which meanwhile had been established. Bill Wilson and his partner got him. Hank Parkhurst had an actual built business they started called Honest Dealers, and they sold oil and car Polish and all kinds of different stuff. But they actually moved into New York and Manhattan and they opened at the 24th St. Clubhouse. And it was this little rickety back alley building. And on the second floor of this building, they set up an office in Lois and Bill moved into the bedroom in the back.

And that's where they had it. And they had this lady who was

Ruth Hawke, non alcoholic. She was,

she was the first secretary for a A. She didn't get paid. She got stuck in works publishing and promises from Bill and Hank that she would one day be compensated. But it says each inquiry was painstakingly answered. Up until the 70s, if you wrote Alcoholics Anonymous, you got a handwritten letter back.

You went to new you sent it and I've seen some letters from like, you know, the late 60s, early 70s and they were handwritten letters. They weren't this. Thank you for contacting Alcoholics Anonymous Your your your issue is very important to us. You know, here is a patent answer. You know, they were kept. I mean each painstakingly Bill Ruth Hawke, the early members, they were writing these letters back. It was written 12 step work helping people help find

solve problems in their home groups or be able to find ways and solutions to meet or connect with another. Another member of the early fellowship.

Bill wrote the manuscript, hand read it, hand wrote it, she would type it. Pamphlets and books were sent out. Businessmen traveling out of existing groups were referred to these prospective newcomers.

In the early days, you would write a letter to New York and you're in Omaha, and they'd be like, Hank, do you know anybody who's going to be traveling to Nebraska? He goes, hold on. And he'd ring up a buddy of his down in New Jersey and be like, you know, anybody traveling. Yeah, yeah. We got a guy.

He's going to be going to Chicago and then he's stopping in Omaha. So they sent him back a letter saying, listen, hold on for about 10 days.

You can call central office in most big cities and get a 12 step referral or somebody will come and call you. They'll they'll, you'll call and they'll connect you. Or you can show up in a meeting and hopefully be connected. It was painfully slow in the early days. And we're going to watch how this thing keep in mind, we're going to dial back to where this all began in 1939. And it went to 800,

800 inquiries and members by the influx of this Liberty magazine article. And then what happens? It says new group started up. And it was found to the astonishment of everyone that a as message could be transmitted in the mail as well as by word of mouth. By the end of 1939, it was estimated 800 Alcoholics were on their way to recovery. That's pretty quick. Pretty quick considering there's no e-mail, there's none of this stuff going on.

And then we're going to go up to the spring of 1940.

JD Rockefeller junior gave a dinner for many of his friends to which he invited a A members to tell their stories. What really happened here is Bill and Bob were their houses were being foreclosed on. They were dog broke and they had heard that Rockefeller had

a not a fund, but a

what? Foundation? Foundation. I'm, I'm tired. He had a foundation and they might be able to get a little money out of them. So they had they went to see his gatekeeper, a guy by the name of Frank Amos.

And Frank says, I might be able to hook you up. Well, Rockefeller holds this party for these drunks. And Bill Wilson is the one that spoke. Actually, John didn't even show up. His son Nelson went. But it was a big deal. I mean, Rockefeller family is a lot like, you know, any of the other big. Yeah. I mean, if Trump hangs out with a bunch of crackheads, you get get. It's going to make the front page news. Rockefeller dines with socks, you know, And it was weird. They set up these individual tables, and at each table were a bunch of Rockefellers, friends and

of us. And during dinner, one of us would tell our story. And then Bill did the granddaddy story, the bedtime stories at the podium. But The thing is, is Bill put the clothes on Rockefeller at the end of this deal. And through God's grace, Rockefeller said, sorry, dude, don't think it's a good idea. And he gave them a small stipend of $5000 that they could draw on Bill and Bob because if he had given them money,

it would have screwed it all up. And that was his theory,

says inquiries poured in again, and many people went to the bookstores to get the book Alcoholics Anonymous. By March 1941, membership shot up to 2000. So, yeah, this thing has grown. It's it's mushroomed by twice over twice now in less than two years. All right, then Jack Alexander wrote a feature article on the Saturday Evening Post. And play such a compelling picture of AA before the general public that Alcoholics in need of help really deluged us. All right, Jack Alexander is a guy that's kind of like Mike Wallace

and the publisher of Saturday Evening Post, which was the grandpa of the magazines at the time,

said Jack,

there's a cult going on, and I need you to go check these people out. There's a lot of rumbling going on about this Alcoholics Anonymous. Go out there and expose them. So he did. He went to New York, he went to Akron. And what happened? Instead of him being able to bust us out, we took him into our homes, We cooked him dinner,

we took him to our meetings, and we let him hear the honest sharing from our hearts, one heart to another. And during that experience, he was blown away. And it says that he plays such a compelling picture before the public

that by the close of 31, the number a #8000 members, it quadrupled. And

this, this deal right here. I mean, you can, you can go into an A&A meeting and pick up a pamphlet with that article, read it. And Bill Wilson, it was a quote that was attributed to Bill. I have yet to be able to find it. But the mythology is that Bill said that he couldn't have read, written a better article himself. You know, I mean, what? Because it's a great article. I mean, it's really a cheerleading article for Alcoholics Anonymous. And then it says the mushrooming process was in full swing. A, A had become a national institution. That's huge.

So now we're we're growing up. This is our society then entered a fearsome and exciting adolescent period.

The keyword in there is adolescent. The test that it faced was this. Could these large numbers of versed while erratic Alcoholics successfully meet and work together? Absolutely not. Would there be quarrels over membership, leadership, money,

strivings for power, prestige? Would there be schisms which would split a A apart? All right. Soon A A was beset by these very problems on every side and every group. But out of this frightening and it first disrupted experience, the convictions grew that A A had to hang together

or die separately. We had to unify our fellowship or pass off the scene.

There's a place in Katona, New York. You know, we commonly referred to Ardmore Ave. in Akron, OH as being the birth place of Alcoholics Anonymous really was 182 Clinton St. where Bill and Lois live before they were dispossessed. You know, the 24th St. clubhouse in New York where a lot of the big book was written, those great places. There's also Stepping Stones up in Katona, New York, and there's this little outbuilding on the backside called Wits End, and that's where Bill's desk is. And I had to

get the privilege of looking through the window at it. I didn't get on the tour. It's cheap, I guess. But I was looking through the window and I can see all the little cigarette burns. And I could see where Bill Wilson penned the 12 and 12 and a lot of other literature was right there at that desk. And the girl I was dating at the time was a member of NA. She couldn't appreciate what the hell I was looking at. So I could go on, man, look at that. And I, she lost on her. But I'm just like, this is holy ground. This was very sacred ground. Bill Wilson took over

700 letters that he had received and some of them were as as trivial as that damn group over in Little Rock isn't doing it right. And that little group over across the state line in Mississippi ain't doing it right. You know, in two groups against each other, both writing letters to Bill. He's taking these experience, this letters, all these different experiences from groups and he's calling them all together. He's finding out that we are really going to destroy ourselves. We just heard that last week and Hilton Head Island SC this

that had about 10 years. She was part of the intergroup structure. There was she had she came over to me to gossip and told me about this group that met around the corner and how they were doing it all wrong and had been doing it for years, but they were still going strong. And I'm going what's wrong with this picture, But it says we had to unify our fellowship. Somebody had sent from North Carolina sent Bill a little story about a group called the Washingtonians who in the late 1860s had started a movement. Actually, I'm sorry, in the 1840s had started a movement

and their movement was powerful as a temperance movement. Their size at that time relative to the population of the world was bigger than a A is now.

And the Washingtonians was really nothing more than one alcoholic helping another. It really didn't have a program of action. It really didn't have anything other than fellowshipping and helping each other. Not drink temperance. But they were so motivated. They got a young up and coming lawyer from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, who is prior to his career as president, They brought him to speak at one of their rallies because they were all about promotion, promotion. And they're all about not drinking until they were also not about.

And then they were, and then about religion and then about politics and then wow. And then by the time the end of Civil War, Washingtonian, what, nobody had ever heard of them. They were bigger in numbers in their day than we are today as a A and they, they, we, we, we hear about singleness of purpose. We hear about combating alcoholism, right. You know, when people talk about the most important thing or person in a, in a meeting, well, the person is the new guy, but the most important thing is that's unified.

Because if they go across the way and they find that Frank's got a different way of doing it and they go over here and Bob's got another way of doing it. And over here, man, you just listen, you just, you're showing up. You don't, you rush into taking the steps, man. They're going to shop and answer and they're going to get different answers. Hopefully we can be unified as a fellowship. So we continue to do what like our different literature says, sobriety, freedom from alcohol through the practice and teachings of 12 steps. But you'll go into some meetings and after they read how it works, you don't hear anything else about alcoholism.

And it's a free for all, so the book says. As we discovered the principles by which the individual alcoholic could live, so we had to evolve principles by which the A groups and A as a whole could survive and function effectively. Principles or rules of action or conduct.

Rules of action or conduct.

It was thought that no alcoholic man or woman could be excluded from our society. Sounds like an early draft of the 12th Traditions here.

You know that's a good news because I've seen some unruly drunk show up at meetings. And you can be kicked out of a meeting, but you can't be kicked out of a A. So 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 are to be no fees or dues. Our expenses were to be met by our own voluntary contributions. There was to be the least possible organization even in our service centers. Boy, isn't that the facts. Our public relations were to be based upon attraction rather than promotion.

It was decided that all members ought to be anonymous at the level of press, radio, TV and films. Let me bring out a couple of things in that One tradition right there says that I need to be anonymous at the level of press, radio, TV and films. My name is Larry Scott and I'm an alcoholic. My phone number is 678-300-2108. I don't need you looking for Larry S When you come to Atlanta, you're not going to find me.

My name is Larry Scott. We are not anonymous amongst ourselves.

We printed, we do. Our Home group is. We are not a glum lot. Big book study on Thursday nights at Dunwoody Methodist Church and twice a year we bring in key speakers from all over the all over the place and we print their name. Chris Raymer. Mickey Boudoir,

Carl Morris, and it's OK with them. We're not anonymous amongst ourselves, but in the book here, it says at the level of press, radio, TV and films. If you look at today's version of that tradition, T VS Not there,

they thought TV was a passing fad. It wasn't going to make it. They dropped it

then, it goes on to say, and in no circumstances should we give endorsements, make alliances, or enter public controversies. Bill Wilson broke every one of those traditions before he wrote them down

their experience. And Bill was right and he was a right and fool. When you give him a typewriter and enough time and some coffee, he'd be writing the all kinds of stuff. And he would write things on a, a letterhead and send out his opinions about other things outside of a, a on a, a letterhead. And they had to go. Bill, listen, I know this is like your baby. You can't do that.

A does not have an opinion. And on September 11, 2001, when those planes flew into the towers in New York City, they went to sent the general service office in New York and they asked for A as opinion and we didn't have one, thank God. Then then they found one of us outside to give an opinion. I'm sure you know, what do you think? Damn them, you know.

So this was the substance of age 12 traditions, which are stated in full on page 561 of this book. And the good news is that the long form came out first,

which is great because anytime somebody comes in going, hey, the only membership requirements is an honest desire. And I'm like, you should read the long form of the tradition. It should be the long, you know, those who suffering from alcoholism, you know, and if you don't know what alcoholism is, there's a chapter called Doctor's opinion. It'll help you diagnose it. So it says, though none of these principles had the force of rules or laws, they become so widely accepted by 1950. They were confirmed by the first International Conference in Cleveland

today. The remarkable unity of A A is one of the greatest

assets of our society has now. While the internal difficulties the adolescent period were being ironed out, public acceptance of a A grew by leaps and bounds. Guys are going to want to want to highlight and underline all this information right here. This is powerful stuff. Now, for this, there were two principal reasons. Number one, large number of recoveries and #2 reunited homes. We had a conversation about this out here on the deck this afternoon.

We're talking 1955 here.

The war has just ended. The second big WW

and a A the public acceptance of a a head was growing by leaps and bounds and the reasons were is the large number of people getting sober. It was working and reunited homes. Divorce was not even uttered in the households in 1955. You stayed no matter what.

So families are getting back together, families, not couples and and people are getting sober. So the public acceptance was enormous around our around our world.

It says that these made their impressions everywhere of Alcoholics who came to a A and really tried, there's your key. 50% got sober at once and remained that way. So one out of two that came in and really wanted this thing and they really did the work. 50% success rate, What else? 25% sobered up after some relapses

and among the remainder, those who stayed on with a A showed improvement. Other thousands came to a few a A 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. If you go and look at the book Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age,

this equation is broken down and in 1955 Alcoholics Anonymous had a 75% success rate. It's not my opinion. It's printed in our literature.

Yeah. You know, we pulled up today and Christian saw you says I'll be damned, Mr. Colonel Sanders. I did not. He didn't. But if you really try, your chances today are no different than they were back then. And I'm going to. This is my opinion, OK? My opinion is since the influx of treatment centers in psycho Babble,

our success rate has died down. When a A first started,

this is fact. There was just there was there was speaker meetings and there were literature meetings. Treatment centers came on the scene and all of a sudden they had these group participation meetings. Success rate took a dive. And then you got the influx of the other issues. But the point I make is you guys paid money to come here this weekend and hear something out of this book. And I love what my buddy, my buddy Christian says. You're not here

and you're not going to get sober because of he and I.

You never went to the bar and got drunk because of the bartender.

You went to the bar because of what he was pouring. And my prayer is that we pour the truth up here this weekend. You all take five and we're going to see what Doctor Sophos got to say.

Guys, a couple of things that I want to go over before we get started here.

I'm on, I'm on.

Bite me

guys. A couple of things before we get going. I think it's

real important that we say thank you to to Frank and Tez. Those guys have worked their butts off to get us all here.

And as I mentioned, we get to, we get the honor and the privilege to do this stuff all over the country. And we thought that our host last weekend had outdone themselves. They cooked up three huge stock pots of low country boil, if you haven't had that, as potatoes and corn and andouille sausage and and shrimp.

And we thought that was the deal. And then we get out here and Frank has run us all over

y'all's area and just blown our minds and fed us incredible food and God, what a great place.

We were talking about group conscience as a while ago, and Frank and I had one out here in the hallway a while ago where y'all were doing what y'all were doing. And if you would leave your clocks the way they are until you get in your car to leave on Sunday. Otherwise Christian and I might get stuck here with y'all for another week and we don't want to do that.

I got dogs and motorcycles and women I got to go see.

Lastly, I'm going to give you a promise and this is for my heart to you. And I mean this with every fiber of my being.

If you make the notes in this book

and you hear the truth and you educate yourself and you arm yourself with this information about yourself and about your disease,

the only reason you'll ever drink again is because you want to.

I mean that with everything in me. The only reason that you'll ever drink again is because you want to. There's a caveat. You have to do the work.

The information that we transmit that is in this book is great, but it won't change who you are unless you actually apply it in your life and do it and invite the God of your understanding and to help you. Well, when I said arm yourself with the with the information, you can't arm yourself until you do the work. You can read it all damn day. Let's go Doctor's opinion. Doctor William Duncan Selkirth lost his shirt in 1929. This in the New York Stock market crash.

He went to work at Towns Hospital. A little bit about Towns Hospital. It was the predecessor of the Betty Ford.

It was a high end drying out joint. That's all it was. I mean, we, we, we sugar coated. He did a lot of work at Bellevue as a neurologist, but he really took on a job that was a little bit beneath him and he studied his, his choice. He studied Alcoholics. He was there to flush them with, with, you know, all kinds of laxatives and vitamins and hydrotherapy and electroshock. And they're doing all kinds of stuff trying to help Alcoholics.

But he decided to study them because he noticed that they were showing back up six weeks later and then another six weeks later. And it was a revolving door of these, well, to do New York socialites coming in and leaving, coming in and leaving. And he couldn't understand because, see, every other disease could be treated, but alcoholism just befuddled him. And it'll give you a couple real quick dates. And these won't do anything except kind of show you a progression.

In 1784, Doctor Benjamin Rush,

his signature, appears on a Declaration of Independence. He described alcoholic addiction as a disease.

In 1849, a doctor Magnum Husse, a Swedish physician, was the first to use the term alcoholism. Keeping in mind now the AMA has not accepted alcoholism as a disease. This man was the first one to call it a disease. Huge difference. Well, he he just coined the term alcoholism. In 1951, American Public Health Association described alcoholism as an illness and in 1957, the AMA finally declared alcoholism as a highly complex

illness and Blue Cross and Blue Shield decided they pay for it. If you want to go to 28 days

used to be a lot more and then they finally got smart and cut back. Says we have Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the reader will be interested in the medical estimate of the plan of recovery described in this book. Once again, any time that they use the word we or us in this book, they're talking about the 1st 100. And the reason this is in here, this is an unbiased opinion.

It's like if I were going to go out and sell a manual on punching out a, a, a big a big twin Harley, nobody's going to buy it because I'm just a, a, a run-of-the-mill knucklehead that that loves to ride. But if I get signed up with somebody that's maybe from the race team at Harley-Davidson Factory and they co-authored this thing and they tag it,

the chances of that book selling big time is a lot higher. So when? When

when Alcoholics Anonymous decided to sell this book, they're going to put Doctor Soapworth in there because after all,

he's hooked up with us. Yeah. And this is really this letter is in here for no other reason than to get lend credibility to us as a fellowship. This first letter that he wrote does nothing to describe what we have or how to help other alcoholic. He wasn't writing for us. He was writing to represent us, to make us look good. So this is convincing testimony must surely come from medical men who have had experience with the sufferings of our members and have witnessed our return to health. Well known doctor, chief physician at a nationally prominent hospital

specializing in alcoholic and drug addiction gave a a this letter to whom it may concern. I have specialized in the treatment of alcoholism for many years. Late 34I attended a patient, though he had been a competent businessman of good earning capacity, was an alcoholic of a type I had come to regard as hopeless. Bill Wilson and you want to highlight underline that word hopeless. That means he's going to die, back off the table.

In the course of his third treatment, he acquired certain ideas concerning a possible means of recovery. During his third treatment, he had learned from Ebby Thatcher about the practical program of action and the spiritual solution from the Oxford Groups. As part of his rehab, he commenced to present his conceptions 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 these men and their families.

This man and over 100 others appear to have recovered. There's that silly word again if you'd like to highlight it, he says. I personally know scores of cases who were of the type with whom other methods had failed completely. 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 epic in the annals of alcoholism, annals or historical records. These men may well have a remedy for thousands of such situations. You may rely absolutely

on anything they say about themselves, anything they say about themselves. If I come up to you and I start talking to you about Turk,

listen up because he's a dog. No, If I start, if I come up and I start talking to you about another alcoholic, take it with a grain of salt. I just met this man yesterday. I have no idea. I love them, but I don't know much about them. But if I start talking to you about me and my disease and my solution, my experience, listen up, because you can rely absolutely on what I tell you. Because when I'm talking to you, I'm talking about your life

very truly. Or is William D Silkworth, MD

in the original book? He didn't sign that book. You're welcome to come by and visit this one. This is on that page. It says very truly your sign dot dot dot dot dot MD. This is a theory. He wasn't sure it was going to pan out, but he gave him the letter and then he hung around for a minute and what happened?

You got the the reading.

It says the physician who had a request, gave us this letter, has been kind enough to enlarge upon his views in another statement which follows. That's that second letter. In his statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe, that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind talking about the allergy and the obsession. Now, it didn't 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 we're outright mental defectives. These things were true to some extent,

in fact to a considerable extent with some of us, but we're sure that our bodies were sickened as well and our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete. Once again, the physical factor, the allergy of the body, is the component of this disease that sets me apart from a hard drinker, normal drinker, problem drinker of the notorious social drinker. Alcoholism has been around since recorded history. I've got a document in my hand that came from the other BIG book

and

I want to read it to you. If you want to write this down, you might want to go to Proverbs 23.

And here's what that book says.

It says who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine?

Who go to sample bowls of red wine?

Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.

In the end, it bites like a snake and poisons like a Viper.

Your eyes will see strained sights in your mind. Imagine confusing things. You're like the one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging, up on the mast. They hit me, you will say, but I'm not hurt. They beat me, but I don't feel it. When will I wake up so I can find another drink? Kind of sounds like an alcoholic, doesn't it?

That's proverbs. There's a version of that floating around. We we look every time we go to a new location, try to find some new version and there's like the Jerry Falwell or something version of the the and it says like your eyes will behold strange women and you can hook up.

Still do you go to enough A&A meetings? You can see some of them. All right,

we're gonna skip over to the top of the next page,

says the doctor writes. The subject presented in this book seems to me to be of paramount importance to those afflicted with alcoholic addiction. There's a lot going on in that little sentence. It says the subject presented, the subject presented as the precise method of recovery and then he uses to a very strong word paramount importance,

the book says. I say this after many years experience as medical director and one of the oldest hospitals in the country treating alcoholic and drug addiction. There was therefore a sense of real satisfaction when I was asked to contribute a a few words on a subject which is covered in such masterly detail in these pages. We doctors have realized for a long time that some form of moral psychology was of urgent importance to Alcoholics, but its application presented difficulties beyond our conception. What with our ultra modern standards,

scientific approach to everything, we are perhaps not well equipped to apply the powers of good. Yeah, they were ultra modern standards. Let's talk about that a second.

Hydrotherapy. Shock Therapy.

Hydrotherapy. Envision in your mind's eye a large room, tiled walls, tiled floor, tiled ceiling, alternating hot and cold shower heads.

They'd take a vibrating drunk and strap him down on a Gurney, crank him shower heads up and run him down through there. Hot coal, hot coal, hot coal, hot coal.

At the end of the run they had a real clean trunk.

Didn't do a thing for his alcoholism, but he was clean.

You know, Clancy, this is I've never done this at this stage, but Clancy did a talk one time and he was talking about something they tried at all these different spin dries and they had a a bar set up and, and, and when the spin dries had a bartender, they had all the liquor that you could want right there, all that rock and rye and red liquor. They had Crown Royal and Scotch and you name

and these patients in the day room and they're shuffling around. You know how they shuffle

Medication,

But you could belly up to the bar and order a drink.

The only difference was they had a wire attached to the bottom of the glass. Knee belly up. And see, I think I'll have a Scotch on the rocks, he'd say. Coming right up, dude.

You pick it up, you look at it and go. I wonder what that wire's for.

Turn it up and it went down smooth and so that went pretty good. I have another same

you turn it up, you go. You hit that button under the bar and he go bam and knock the hell out of you. And I thought, you know, a little shock to the face might get you to quit.

That's what I'm thinking.

Christian mentioned weak willed people earlier.

We're not weak willed people,

we live in the South and in July, August, it gets to be over 100°.

You come up out of that place wherever it is you're working and you got to have a drink. Not that you want one, you got to have one. Y'all know what I'm talking about? So easy way out, that'll beat up car in the parking lot