Dick B. Speaks on A.A. History
Epochs--1935 to 1939 on the January 28, 2014, episode of the "Christian
Recovery Radio with Dick B." show
Dick B.
© 2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved
__________________________________________________________________________
You
may hear Dick B. speak about Alcoholics Anonymous History Epochs--1935 to 1939 here:
or
here:
Episodes
of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show are archived at:
Introduction
This
evening's talk is intended to be a small preview of some of the major content
which we will call "the rest of the story" in our forthcoming video
series titled "Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of
the Story." Shortly, we will have completed six videos and an accompanying
guidebook that will visually and audibly fill in important blank spots in the
recording of A.A. history and the Christian Recovery Movement that has already
been done. The gaps have occurred in books, articles, forums, tapes, movies, YouTube
videos, and other media.
Perhaps
the gap has occurred because A.A. itself has never claimed to be a research
organization. And almost all of its historical literature derives from the
writings of Bill Wilson who has been dead for more than 40 years and himself
wrote many books and articles covering various ideas he deemed important.
This
first preview will cover what we call "the rest of the story" as to
how Bill Wilson attained sobriety and was able to build the structure of ending
drinking by alcoholics, suggesting they rely on the Creator for help, and then
arguing persuasively that those who got well immediately put a high priority on
helping others get well by the same means.
In the ensuing years, A.A. has undergone a number of
epochs which expanded or altered the recovery techniques originally used. And
we will be handling what might be numbered as five by the time the first
edition of A.A.'s Big Book was published in April 1939. The first technique was
simply the action taken by the first three AAs at the time when they were
relying for answers in the Bible, and had no 12 Steps, no 12 Traditions, no Big
Books, no drunkalogs, or meetings (as we know them today).
Alcoholics
Anonymous History Epochs – 1935 to 1939
Programs of Recovery that AAs Used – And When!
Dick B.
© 2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved
The
Epoch of A.A.’s Founding and the Founding of A.A.’s First Group—Akron Number
One-- When the First Three AAs Had Each Achieved Permanent Sobriety
A Summary of how and when Bill
Wilson was cured in his final Towns Hospital visit:
The
first event occurred during Bill Wilson’s third hospitalization at Towns
Hospital when Bill, his wife, and Dr. Silkworth had a conversation about the
“Great Physician.”
Silkworth
had just told Bill that if he didn’t stop drinking he would die or become
insane.
Pressed
for some solution, Silkworth told Bill that the Great Physician could cure
Bill’s alcoholism.
Bill’s
old schoolmate and drinking friend Ebby Thacher appeared quite soon thereafter.
Ebby told Bill he had been to the altar at Calvary Mission, “got religion,” and
“God had done for him what he could not do for himself.” Bill said Ebby “talked
about a personal God” and “told me how he had found Him.” He “described to me
how I might do the same thing and convinced me utterly that something had come
into his life which had accomplished a miracle. The man was transformed; there
was no denying he had been reborn.” And
Bill checked out Ebby’s story when he went to Calvary Church and heard Ebby
give his testimony from the pulpit.
Bill
decided that if the Great Physician had done what He did for Ebby, perhaps he
could do the same thing for Bill at the Mission. Bill went to the altar at
Calvary Mission, prayed with one of the brothers, and was reported by three
eye-witnesses to have accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Mrs. Samuel
M. Shoemaker, Jr. (wife of the rector of Calvary Church) told Dick B. on the
phone that she “was there when Bill made that decision for Christ.” Bill had
told his wife Lois what had happened at the Mission; and Lois stated in a talk
in Dallas. Texas that “he went up, and really in great sincerity, did hand over
his life to Christ.” Shoemaker’s assistant minister Rev. W. Irving Harris sent
to Dick B. his own type-written memorandum and stated: “It was at a meeting at
Calvary Mission that Bill himself was moved to declare that he had decided to
launch out as a follower of Jesus Christ. Bill himself twice confirmed his
rebirth in these words: “For sure I’d been born again.” And, in a letter to
Bill’s brother-in-law Dr. Leonard Strong which inspected at Stepping Stones,
Bill wrote that he, like Ebby, had “found religion.” Lois Wilson wrote:
“Although my joy and faith in his rebirth continued, I missed our
companionship.”
But
Bill encountered still another challenge. He not only got drunk but became
depressed and despondent. And, as he reached the end of his rope on the way to
Towns Hospital for help, he said: “If there be a Great Physician, I’ll call on
him.” And this was followed by Bill’s well known “vital religious experience”
in his Towns Hospital room.
Though
varied in the way he told the facts, the account involved these events. First,
Bill cried out, “If there be a God, let Him show himself.” Second, almost
instantly his room as ablaze with an indescribably white light. Third, Bill
sensed he was on a mountain top he had not climbed and that he felt the breeze
of the Spirit. Fourth, he thought: “Bill, you are a free man. This is the God of the Scriptures.”
Bill
was cured. He never drank again. He never again doubted the existence of God.
And he confirmed the validity of his religious experience with Dr. Silkworth
and by spending most of a day reading accounts of such experiences in the
missions by Professor William James in his book Varieties of Religious
Experience. Bill believed he had been commissioned to help all the drunks in
the world. And, upon his discharge from the hospital, with a Bible under his
arm, rushed out to drunks on the streets, in mental wards, in Towns Hospital,
in fleabag hotels, and even in Oxford Group meetings telling them that they
needed to give their lives to God. And his story is the one that is found on
page 191 of even the latest edition of Alcoholics Anonymous:
“Henrietta,
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.”
By
about December 14, 1934: Bill Wilson had been to the altar at Calvary Mission,
had been born again, had checked into Towns Hospital, had cried out to God for
help, had had his room blaze with an indescribably white light, and had said to
himself: “Bill, you are a free man. This is the God of the Scriptures.” And
Bill never drank again. He wrote in the Big Book that “the Lord” had cured him.
dickb@dickb.com
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