Quite often friends of the newcomer are aware of the difference long before he is himself. Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James calls the “educational variety” because they develop slowly over a period of time. Though it was not our intention to create such an impression, many alcoholics have nevertheless concluded that in order to recover they must acquire an immediate and overwhelming “God-consciousness” followed at once by a vast change in feeling and outlook.Īmong our rapidly growing membership of thousands of alcoholics such transformations, though frequent, are by no means the rule. In the first few chapters a number of sudden revolutionary changes are described. Happily for everyone, this conclusion is erroneous. Yet it is true that our first printing gave many readers the impression that these personality changes, or religious experiences, must be in the nature of sudden and spectacular upheavals. The terms “spiritual experience” and “spiritual awakening” are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms. The appendix was designed to clear up the confusion. If the burning bush variety experience didn’t occur, many thought they had failed. Apparently many in the early fellowship thought the term “experience” had connotations of “suddenness” as if a burst of new life and energy was intended to be thrust upon them. In Appendix II Spiritua l Experience they try to clear up the murky waters a bit. ![]() There is a good reason for this – because the book does! You might have noticed that I use the terms spiritual awakening and spiritual experience interchangeably. In other words, a spiritual experience is necessary within the AA system. The Big Book isn’t shy on this prescription. Like what the hell is a spiritual awakening? Spiritual Experience Defined That does leave loads of questions though, does it not? The message is this: as a result of working the steps you can have a spiritual awakening. It’s funny, if you ask a million different people what the AA message is they will likely provide you with a million different answers. history and the ways in which this book-so central to the worldwide growth of this important movement of spiritual recovery-actually came into being.I think the first half of the 12th Step sums it up as succinctly as ever… “Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message…” Without Hank there would have been no book, but his unfortunate slip back into drinking just months after it was published resulted in him being almost completely written out of the stories that were told later.įast paced, engaging and contrary, Writing the Big Book will decisively change whatever you think you know about early A.A. ![]() Most surprising is the emergence of Bill Wilson’s right-hand man, Hank Parkhurst as the unsung hero in this story. operated and grew along with a vast amount of previously unreported details about the cast of colorful characters who made that group so successful. ![]() Writing the Big Book presents a robust and vivid picture of how early A.A. Woven together into an exciting narrative, these real-time documents tell an almost week- by-week story of how the book was created, one that unfolds with many unexpected turns and more than a few revealing departures from the hallowed stories that have been so widely circulated in the past. history have been written since then, Writing the Big Book is the first to bring that same kind of exhaustive research, scholarly discipline and informed insight to the subject.īill’s book-ranging from October of 1937, when a book was first proposed, to April of 1939 when Alcoholics Anonymous was published-is based primarily on the wealth of 1930s documents currently preserved in several A.A. It has been 40 years since Ernie Kurtz wrote Not-God, the last truly professional treatment of the history of Alcoholics Anonymous.
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