We are pleased to share information about, and links to, the following websites:
Secular Alcoholics Anonymous provides information and links about the upcoming International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). Here are articles about the three previous (in-person) conferences: The Impossible Becomes Possible (Santa Monica in 2014), The Secular AA 2016 Austin Convention and The 2018 International Conference of Secular AA (Toronto).
The Secular Recovery Group was created to allow people in recovery to share their experiences outside of the constraints of religiosity. The Group offers online meetings each and every day of the week and, among other things, the Secular Recovery Group lists over 540 Face to Face group meetings worldwide.
SMART (Self Management And Recovery Training) Recovery, an international not-for-profit organization, was founded in 1994. It is considered an alternative to AA and 12-Step programs. You can watch a comprehensive three-minute introduction to SMART Recovery here: Welcome to SMART Recovery.
In February 2001, LifeRing was founded in Florida as a “freestanding, democratic recovery support network based on abstinence, secularity, and self-help.” It’s philosophy is these three S’s: Sobriety, Secularity and Self-Help. More information is available here on this AA Agnostica website: LifeRing.
The Beyond Belief Sobriety Podcast examines topics of interest to people seeking a secular path to addiction recovery. There are now hundreds of podcasts, conducted by John S, with many more on the way! They are important not just to members of AA but, indeed, to all of us in recovery.
Joe C, one of the founders of Beyond Belief, the first agnostic AA group in Canada, has his own website: Rebellion Dogs Publishing. The website offers readers very timely articles (and some music!) on the state of recovery in the twenty first Century. Joe, of course, is the author of Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life, a daily reflection book.
William White Papers. Bill White is the former Director of the Research Division of the Chestnut Health Center which engaged in a “science based understanding” of addiction and recovery. The site contains some four hundred articles by him and provides support and insight for those interested in and celebrating the many paths of recovery.
There is a section of the Pagan Press website that has some remarkably fine insights, Alcoholism: Recovery without Religiosity. John L. has been clean and sober for 45 years now and has written wonderful posts for AA Agnostica, including A Proposal to Eliminate the Lord’s Prayer from AA Meetings.
The Sober She Devils is an international secular online women’s meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). This is a closed meeting of AA, welcoming any woman who has a desire to stop drinking. We want to create a safe place for women to express themselves regardless of their world views, beliefs, religion, spiritual experience or rejection of them.
The Buddhist Recovery Network “supports the use of Buddhist teachings, traditions and practices to help people recover from the suffering caused by addictive behaviors… Respectful of all recovery paths, the organization promotes mindfulness and meditation, and is grounded in Buddhist principles of non-harming, compassion and interdependence.”
Recovery Dharma believes that the traditional Buddhist teachings, often referred to as the Dharma, offer a powerful approach to healing from addiction and living a life of true freedom. The program uses Buddhist practices of meditation, self-inquiry and compassion as tools for recovery and healing.
Secular Narcotics Anonymous is a collaborative effort among non-religious Narcotics Anonymous groups and members who support a non-sectarian, secular approach to recovery and the 12-step program. It seeks to bring together information and resources for recovering addicts worldwide.