A.A. History - The Same Old, Same Old Errata

A.A. History: The Same Old, Same Old Errata
Dick B.
© 2011 Anonymous. All rights reserved

A Reply to Yet Another Article Purportedly Writing About A.A. History


The article on William James and Bill Wilson misses several of the important historical facts that have recently been verified. It was written by a Ph.D. in New Hampshire.

The article does not cite any of the sources that correctly report the facts the article covers.

(1) Per the biography of William D. Silkworth, Silkworth told Bill on his third hospitalization at Towns, that Jesus Christ, the “Great Physician,” could cure Bill of his alcoholism. And Norman Vincent Peale wrote in The Positive Power of Jesus Christ that Silkworth had given the same advice to a man in Peale’s flock, and the man was cured.

(2) Ebby had been placed in Calvary Rescue Mission in New York, had gone to the altar and made a decision for Christ, was born again, and visited Bill, telling him the results. Bill concluded Ebby had in fact been converted, went to a testimonial and heard Ebby’s story there in Shoemaker’s Cavalry Church, and concluded that he (Bill) might be helped in the same way.

(3) Bill then went drunk with a drunken friend to Calvary Mission, made a decision for Christ there – which was witnessed by several persons including Mrs. Samuel Shoemaker. Bill wrote in his autobiography that, for sure, he had been born again.

(4) Then, drunk again, Bill became depressed and desperate and decided he should call on the Great Physician. He staggered into Towns Hospital, met Dr. Silkworth, announced he had “found” something. Then in desperation, he decided to call on the Great Physician for help. He cried out to God. He instantly had his “white light experience.” He believed he had been in the presence of “the God of the Scriptures” as he wrote in A.A. literature. And

(5) Bill never drank again.

(6) Bill set out with a Bible under his arm and went to drunks in the streets, hospital, mission, and Oxford Group telling them they needed to give their lives to God as he had.

(7) Not a single one got sober.

(8) Bill went to Akron, met with Dr. Bob for the first time and spent six hours with the good doctor.

(9) Dr. Bob—long a Christian—had turned to God in prayer on the carpet at the home of T. Henry Williams, and Dr. Bob’s prayer was soon answered through the help of Bill.

(10) The two co-founders worked with Bill Dotson, an Akron attorney, also long a Christian, told him to surrender his life to God and then help others, and Dotson was cured.

(11) On page 191 of the Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill wrote: “The Lord has been so wonderful to me curing me of this terrible disease that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people” On the same page, A.A,. Number Three Dotson concurred in Bill’s statement and called it the “Golden Text” of A.A. And it truly did become the process by which every Akron A.A. was required to profess belief in God and make a “real surrender” in which he accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

If you wish to fill in the missing links and report the facts in a way that they have seldom been reported until recently, I would suggest you check them for yourself by reading the following documents:
The biography of Dr. Silkworth by Dale Mitchel. (2) Bill’s own autobiography. (3) When Love is Not Enough, the biography of Lois Wilson by Bill Borchert, All published byHazelden. (4) Pages 179 -81. Alcoholics Anonymous. (5) Page 191 of Alcoholics Anonymous. (6) DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. (7) Dick B., The Golden Text of A.A. (8) Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W. (9) Dick B., Turning Point. (10) Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A. (11) Norman Vincent Peale, The Positive Power of Jesus Christ. (12) The Language of the Heart – Bill’s Grapevine Writings.

It is very sad that so many writers have simply not done their homework and hence have missed the significance of Bill’s adoption of the “spiritual experience” idea of William James and the verification of it in James’s recital of the testimony of Jerry McAuley and the S.H, Hadley material you mention. The fact is that the Oxford Group was not the promulgator of these ideas. Rather, they came from the rescue missions, the Salvation Army, the lay YMCA people, and the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor. See Dick B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous, and also Real Twelve Step Fellowship History.

www.dickb.com, www.dickb.com/titles.shtml.