AA Before There Was AA
by bob k. William L. White, author of Slaying The Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America, published a memoir in 2017. In Recovery Rising, the treatment professional and addiction historian...
Category: History – Early
The early history of Alcoholics Anonymous and the men and women who had an impact on the nascent fellowship.
Courtenay Baylor
By bob k If for no other reason, Courtenay Baylor should be of interest to modern AA members for being the first recovered alcoholic to work as a professionally paid addictions counselor. He set...
The Magical Mystery Cure (is coming to take you away)
by bob k The more liberal talk that’s heard around the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous can convey the impression that conventional AA is user-friendly to those of us in the atheist-agnostic camp. Phrases like...
A Slice of History: The Responsibility Declaration
Originally published in the in the General Service Office AA newsletter, Box 459, Winter 2020 By most measures, Alcoholics Anonymous in 1965 had achieved success that seemed beyond the wildest dreams of its two...
Acceptance?
By John B Something about 12 Step recovery that continues to pique my interest is how some assertions that make absolutely no sense to me have been endowed with the status of AA infallibility....
Sleight of Hand; Slight on “Real” Inclusivity
By bob k Thank the Lord (in a manner of speaking) for the wonderful liberals among the God-believers in Alcoholics Anonymous as I encountered them years ago. These delightful creatures were more interested in...
Religion Free AA – Is It Possible?
By John B My answer to the question is no, and the purpose of this essay is to explain why I believe AA will remain saturated with religion. The claim that AA is not...
THUMPERTOWN THEATER PRESENTS… Bill and Bob Go to the Library
A Screenplay by Robert F. Beach The scene opens on a living room. The furnishings are clearly of high quality but from another era. The date is May 12 1935 and it’s Mother’s Day....
Tales of Spiritual Experience
I’ll never smoke weed with Willie again My party’s all over before it begins You can pour me some Old Whiskey River my friend. But I’ll never smoke weed with Willie again. Toby Keith...
Dr Wilson and Mr Hide
By life-j Biographies of Bill Wilson, while not telling us anything which is actually untrue, do tend to look mostly at the Saint Bill, “plus a few problems too hard to overlook”, such as...
Bill W, LSD, and AA Spirituality
By bob k Toward the end of 1943, the Wilsons were preparing to leave New York. Bill was tired and depressed, and very much looking forward to an upcoming cross-country trip with Lois. Alcoholics...
A Manual for Alcoholics Anonymous
Bobby Beach is back! On March 16, 2017, Bobby Beach made his AA Agnostica debut with “The Watering Down of AA”, an angry anti-fundamentalist screed in response to the angry fundamentalist, anti-atheist, anti-agnostic, anti-weak...
The Watering Down of AA
By Bobby Beach Not a New Thing On any given day, the AA world witnesses a remarkable volume of whining about the watering down of Alcoholics Anonymous. Various individuals, groups, and institutions comprise the...
The first agnostic AA meetings in New York
This was the third of three main talks at a workshop on the history of secular AA at the We Agnostics, Atheists and Freethinkers International AA Convention in Austin, Texas, in November 2016. By...
