Can there be such a thing as Charismatic AA?

Was there ever such a thing? Is it something we should consider?

No matter how enticing the possibility is, no one living now can really give an accurate, first person account of conditions in the beginning of AA in the first AA meetings in Akron and New York. Nonetheless, we can still conjecture. And while we are conjecturing, we can add some observations and a little editorializing to our speculation. There are all sorts of areas where, actually, quite a bit is accurately known from the writing of the time.

For example, as we review the introduction to They Stopped In Time (BB [p280] unnumbered), we arrive at a very strong suggestion that our first members were what could be considered “low end drunks.” They were people who acknowledged openly that they had paid drastic consequences for, first, alcoholic drinking and, perhaps later in their sobriety, for alcoholic thinking. The authors of the Big Book made an absolute point of not limiting their exploration of our disease to the cessation of drinking.

These early members lived in a society, believe it or not, which was much more tolerant of active alcoholics. It was also a society which, for the most part, considered the disease of alcoholism to be terminal, without hope of recovery. These two factors produced early AA members who brought themselves to sobriety with histories of incredible alcoholic consequences. This is not to say that members with similar consequences aren’t with us today, but the majority of our members fit more comfortably into the They Stopped In Time crowd.

Aside from the ferocity of consequences, there are other comparisons. Bill’s Story (BB p15-16) describes a vibrant and active interest in carrying the message through early Twelfth Step work and the first beginning of AA meetings. Chapter Seven, Working With Others (BB p89-103) describes a sincere and aggressive activity in assisting drinking alcoholics to sobriety. We can easily compare these early accounts of what appears to be very common AA work involving the efforts of large numbers of AA members to what we encounter in meetings and groups in our present day. In the early stages, this work seemed to be both much more common and spontaneous.

Bill’s Story also gives an interesting perspective of his experience in the spiritual part of his  own recovery, one which seems to suggest a different environment than the one present in the thinking of our more modern groups.

“Childhood memories rose before me. I could almost hear the sound of the preacher’s voice a I sat, on still Sundays, way over there on the hillside; there was that proffered temperance pledge I never signed; my grandfather’s good natured contempt of some church folk and their doings; his insistence that the spheres really had their music; but his denial of the preacher’s right to tell him how he must listen; his fearlessness as he spoke of these things just before he died; these recollections welled up from the past. They made me swallow hard.” (BB p10)

[I make no claim that I understand exactly what Bill Wilson was thinking when he placed this sentence in his account of his journey to sobriety. Nonetheless, after twenty-six years of a wonderful second chance at life for this alcoholic, I am more convinced than ever that it was exactly this sentence which ultimately made my recovery possible. Without this valuable idea, my Step Two work could never have become a reality.]

So, with an emphasis on sponsorship for new members approaching Step Two, we can, once again, consider a “big picture.” What were the authors of our book thinking? Why did they chose these unlikely words for Step Two? What, if we dare speculate, was their “spiritual condition” when they assembled this incredible and miraculous avenue of a “new idea” for the hopeless alcoholic?

Our AA experience, along with the good leadership expressed within our Traditions, sincerely warns about “speaking for AA,” the spiritual value of anonymity and all sorts of suggestions about pride. Holding all this in mind, the remainder of this little paper is presented as nothing more than a personal opinion, still, it may have value for precisely that reason.

The Big Picture, Again

Looking Beyond the Literal Text of the Big Book for Spiritual Understanding

We must assume that the spiritual progress made by our earliest members in their step work is quite similar to the same phenomenon as it exists now. After all, the benefits were just as astounding then as they are now. Further, these earliest members very carefully considered this work they had done, probably argued about it a great deal, and finally, with amazing clarity and sincere thought, wrote down everything they thought might help those of us who would come later. It was a good job.

It was an unbelievably good job, essentially one done with such superb care [and love] as to be almost a transcendent message! Now, let’s look at it a little more closely.

Three Stages for Sobriety

Our book, generally, directs itself to three specific stages in the work of the alcoholic seeking sobriety through our AA program.


The very mention of the term “psychology” has probably already rankled the brow of many readers, but there will be no apology. Hopefully, the more detailed explanation which follows can soothe these nerves.

Material Work -- Taking Action

As is the case with all three parts, progress will require serious commitment and more than a little trust on the part of the new member. The most material aspect of all possible, required  action is simply to stop drinking and start hoping. This beginning of AA recovery will mark the end of the changeless, continuous, hopeless alcoholic drinking, and we all know that such a change is quite material. If you find yourself sponsoring a new member at Step Two, all of these changes are sitting at the table with you and him. They are fresh! They are definitely on his mind, and they must also be a central part of your thoughts about him as his sponsor.

Step Two is the door to the “start hoping” part of taking action. Step One is the “heavy lifting” part.

The scope of this required action on his part expands. He will attend meetings. He will read our book. He will probably start to untangle his personal life or begin to face the lingering consequences of his alcoholic drinking. He may start to pray. Perhaps he will think of others.

Step Two sponsorship at this point will have the major objective of presenting these things to him as spiritual things. Spiritual progress makes action possible. The sooner he can understand this, the better. Neither the voice of an invisible god nor the presence of a winged angel is required for an alcoholic to begin to behave better. Spiritual progress, on the other hand, will not be optional.

The idea of “material action” may, at first, appear to be separate from the other two aspects, but our experience in sobriety absolutely dashes such an idea. The new member may be involved in a very real struggle not to take a drink. That seems to be a sort of “arm wrestling match” with our famous eight hundred pound gorilla, but good sponsorship at this point will bring in an honest discussion of all three issues [Action, Psychology and Spirit]. Thinking of them as individual phases of work is an invitation to deception. They are all at play, all the time, at every “step” of the journey forward.

We, as experienced AA members, did not arrive at our final conclusion about the relative importance of these matters all at once. Nonetheless, although all parts are essential, we came to believe that the “spirit” part is the one that will really matter. It makes the rest possible, and we won’t want to keep that a secret from our new member.

Further, this “action” idea is not limited to the man resisting another drink. It is a recurring theme throughout our book’s discussion of step work. We can’t think our way into better action. We must act our way into better thinking!

At the conclusion of the description of Step Eleven in Chapter Six (BB p88), we are, once more, admonished to action: “There is action and more action.” This suggestion is placed in the section of our book dealing with prayer and meditation!

Psychology

Most likely a result of some bad experiences with well-intentioned egg heads encountered along the way, AA’s seem quite comfortable with a good application of our famous anti-intellectualism directed at psychologists. Its likely that we alcoholics have never really represented a good career opportunity for psychological processes and promises when these have been promoted as paths to sobriety.

Nonetheless, our book places us “waist deep” in the psychology business. What else can one consider all the educational material offered to us about alcoholic thinking? If we are determined to understand our alcoholism, we can hardly neglect the chance to get a good picture of the thinking that leads us to so much trouble and misery.

The first reason we are likely to accept when we consider our state -- especially when we consider the consequences of alcoholic drinking -- is the conclusion that our trouble seems to stem from drinking alcohol. Consequently, not drinking alcohol will be our first goal.

Not long after our heads clear up a little, we will begin to wonder “Why? How does this work? How did drinking alcohol ever get to be what seemed, at the time, to be such a reasonable idea?” This natural curiosity leads to the disease considerations and the discussion of alcoholic thinking. The “allergy” idea appears to be a little dated, but the serious  dependency and psychological dangers are very real and immediate.

The Doctor’s Opinion and Bill’s Story (BB pxxv and BB p1) offer a description of the Disease of Alcoholism as it is seen by the non-alcoholic observer. They are vital elements to the message of the AA program, and they perform their respective missions very well.

However, as we enter Chapters Two and Three, There is a Solution and More About Alcoholism (BB p17 and BB p30), we encounter more and more about the Disease of Alcoholism as it is seen from inside the alcoholic. Select any word that pleases you, but this information is about the psychology of the Disease of Alcoholism. Ironically, these two chapters also cement the foundation of a new discovery: The Disease of Alcoholism is not a psychological problem!

Yes, the path to a solution passes through a new understanding of the psychological problems inherent in the alcoholic thinking of the man suffering from the Disease of Alcoholism. No, there doesn’t seem to be a psychological remedy. Not a psychological problem because there is not a psychological solution? Why not?

“... if a doctor is honest with himself, he must sometimes feel his own inadequacy. Although he gives all that is in him, it is often not enough. One feels that something more than human power is needed to produce the essential psychic change. Though the aggregate of recoveries resulting from psychiatric effort is considerable, we physicians must admit we have made little impression on the problem as a whole. Many types do not respond to the ordinary psychological approach.” (BB p xxix)

“On the other hand -- and strange as this may seem to those who do not understand --once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed, ... suddenly finds himself able to control his desire for alcohol, ...” (BB pxxix)

“Shortly afterward I came home drunk. There had been no fight. Where had been my high resolve? I simply didn’t know. It hadn’t even come to mind.” (BB p05)

Bill’s words reveal a man who will need to know about the psychology of his thought process if he intends to ever have a full knowledge of his condition! (BB p32).

“The remorse, horror and hopelessness of the next morning are unforgettable. The courage to do battle was not there. My brain raced uncontrollably and there was a terrible sense of impending calamity.” (BB p6) In these example selections, he provides us with an inescapable, compelling description of the (psychological) symptoms of out of control, alcoholic drinking. He was not (completely) drunk on the nightmarish morning he describes. He was thinking! On to Chapter Two.

“Highly competent psychiatrists who have dealt with us have found it sometimes impossible to persuade an alcoholic to discuss his situation without reserve. Strangely enough, wives, parents and intimate friends usually find us even more unapproachable than do the psychiatrist and the doctor.” (BB p18) Is this the result of our being so pigheaded? Maybe, but more likely, we simply didn’t have anything to tell them -- there didn’t seem to be anything sensible to say! All these thoughts didn’t make sense in the cold light of day, but that didn’t change the fact of our alcoholic drinking or our alcoholic behavior!

“You may have already asked yourself why it is that all of us became so very ill from drinking?” (BB p20) “Once in a while he may tell the truth. And the truth, strange to say, is usually that he has no more idea why he took the first drink than you have. Some drinkers have excuses with which they are satisfied part of the time. But in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot.” (BB p23)

The Big Book continues along this line of discussion with the aim of establishing in the new member a curiosity about his alcoholic thinking, about his alcoholic psychology. This discussion finally leads to the incredible conclusions presented in Chapter Five (BB p61 through p65). By the time his step work has led him through Steps Two and Three, and especially, through the Third Step Prayer (BB p63), he will begin to fully comprehend psychological nature of the Disease of Alcoholism.

Under the efforts of good sponsorship, this will be an intermediate place. The initial phase was to stop his alcoholic drinking [and to accept that this was the only style of drinking available to him as an alcoholic]. He had to see that his worst and most immediate problems were the result of the physical act of drinking.

This second part required the new member to become aware of his alcoholic thinking [and to accept that this high speed, automatic style of thought was the only one available to him as an untreated alcoholic]. He needed to understand what kind of thinking this was, and how astoundingly inevitable it was for him, as an alcoholic, to have it and suffer from its long term consequences.

At this point, many AA’s formulate a plan to [psychologically] resist alcoholic thinking as a means to recover from the Disease of Alcoholism. Presumably, this results from the recovery process they have experienced in their own sponsorship. It may be interesting that largely the same crowd, anxious to condemn the mischief of the psychiatrists and psychologists, have adopted an essentially psychological approach for their own efforts to recover from the Disease of Alcoholism!

The nature of the solutions proposed by the Doctor in Chapter Three (BB p27) don’t sound too promising. “You have the mind of a chronic alcoholic. I have never seen one single case recover, where that state of mind [alcoholic thinking, alcoholic psychology] existed to the extent that it does in you.”

“Exceptions to cases such as yours have been occurring since early times. Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences [not psychologically induced breakthroughs, no matter how compelling]. To me these occurrences are phenomena [not a result of medical or psychiatric treatment]. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements [The fact that the alcoholic’s psychology becomes more workable is a sign, a manifestation, of the solution, but it is a side effect -- a very good one --but still not the solution itself.].” (BB p27) Thinking of progress in resisting alcoholic thinking as the final solution proposed by our program amounts to being stranded in the psychology of the second part of the three things.

The Nature and the Power of the Spirit

“Some of our alcoholic readers may think they can do without spiritual help.” (BB p27) The authors of the Big Book spared very few opportunities to re-enforce the idea that a.) we suffered from a spiritual malady and b.) the solution to it would be a spiritual solution. The new member, as he moves through the second part of the process as it is described in this discussion, will, hopefully, come to squarely place the blame for his psychological problems with alcoholic thinking as the inevitable result of the spiritual problems arising from his case of the  Disease of Alcoholism.

More than anything else that could be added to the picture of successful sponsorship, it is exactly this conclusion which will open the new man’s door to recovery. This is no time for the sincere sponsor to be confused or unenthusiastic. “We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator.” (BB p68)

So, what will be the message about the Spirit? While not to be overly negative, perhaps we still should consider some common detours. These are not opinion or speculation. These are observations made of fellow AA members, many with quite significant periods of sobriety, who lend their recovery to the evidence. Happily, all of them have shared copiously in our meetings.

Perhaps the most visible will be the transformation of the Spiritual Concept through the mechanism of thoughtless self-will . Do we know any members who have directly received information which they consider to be “God’s Will?” On the other hand, have we ever listened to any who imply such an idea -- especially in a subtle way? Any excursion into these dangerous waters becomes instantly paradoxical. When, later on, it becomes a part of sponsorship that bewilders the new member, and his subsequent reluctance to accept it is characterized by his defiance and [an even more doubtful] form of self-will, the sponsorship has degraded to an almost criminal state.

Further, when these claims meet resistance in the new man, perhaps he can be clobbered into finally accepting them as a monument to his new humility. What possible purpose can this serve? It has nothing whatsoever to do with the AA program of recovery.

Next comes the negotiator. We enter into this spiritual swamp with the idea that we can, given the right questions and the right answers, finally arrive at a palatable new hybrid Higher Power that won’t ruffle any feathers on the new man’s sensitivities. Sorry. Defining the Spiritual Experience in a way that makes it comfortable, or worse, passively acceptable, again betrays the work of self-will in the reconfiguring of the universe. When viewed honestly, doesn't this sound a little alcoholic?

Whatever final conclusions this new man arrives at concerning his Higher Power during his work on Step Two, it will not be particularly useful if it has been instantly submitted to his redefinition. The term, Higher Power, contains two important clues which can lead the way to understanding it. The first clue: Higher. The second clue: Power. Get it?

Our Higher Powers become more comfortable to us after we grow enough to start seeing our part in the universe they operate. We get comfortable in sobriety because we change, not because they change. Alcoholics love to sneak around [self-delusion] convinced that they have, once again, tricked everyone. (BB p62) In this dangerous case, the first two names on the list of “everyone” is the Higher Power -- the real one, not the fixed up version -- and himself -- he and his sponsor should be able to see what is going on here.

The entire concept of Higher Power as it is expressed in Step Two is complete. There is no talk of “God’s will,” “a loving God,” “what God wants” or “what God said.” Any AA with an “inside track” on any of these topics probably has an “inside track” on a vicious case of self-will. Worse, not too far away from such a claim there lies what might only generously be considered “dishonest or self-seeking motives.” (BB p86)  Or, at least, spiritual laziness.

The man who has asked for sponsorship has asked for help. He has not asked to be on the menu as his new sponsor’s spiritual breakfast.

Finally, we must consider the business agent . This sponsor has been miraculously empowered to relay all sorts of deals and threats from a Higher Power to the new man. He is more than willing to suggest certain, small departures from the warnings in the Big Book concerning prayer. “We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends.” (BB p87)

Is this a preparation for one’s defense in a trial where selfish prayer is the charge? Will the “helping others” idea be judged by our new man? By his sponsor? Will the judgment be based on the results of the prayer or its motive?

“After making our review we ask God’s forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.” (BB p86) In the matter of corrective measures, is this an instruction to set the issue before a group conscience as set out in Tradition Two, or will this inquiry result in direct knowledge of God’s will? If the latter is the case, how will this differ from the self-will of knowing God’s mind? “For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority -- a loving God as He expresses Himself in our group conscience.” (BB p563) So far as “asking God’s forgiveness” goes, the sponsor had better be ready to explain everything, starting with why the Creator of the Universe would be interested in such a thing.

The exceedingly good news is that the sponsor can explain everything. Every part of this holds the same excitement, usefulness and magic as the rest of the AA program. Nothing here suggests that anything should be omitted! It is, however, a very strong suggestion that the new man deserves a path forward during his step work which makes sense to him! Sponsorship will include making all of these concepts available to the new man.

Any other approach is asking for trouble.

Finally, Charismatic AA

It is said that AA offers sobriety without condition. The introduction to Chapter Five’s How It Works begins “Rarely have we seen a person fail...” (BB p 58) and AA tales suggest that, when asked if there were anything in our Big Book that he would change if he could, Bill Wilson said, “Yes. Change ‘Rarely’ to ‘Never.’”

In the same light, Step Two presents a Higher Power utterly without conditions. Acceptance here is without conditions. Details of what a Higher Power is or is not are conditions which have anything to do with successful step work. The whole concept stands alone without any mitigating details. Placing conditions and demands of what we insist will be the character of the Creator of the Universe will always yield a Higher Power hybrid, and the hybrid part will certainly be alcoholic. After all, wasn’t it created by an alcoholic?

If it seems that any more is needed, go back to the drawing board! This will mean that the new man is still in his alcoholic “dealing” phase.