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[00:00:00.780 – 00:00:02.740] Begs the doctor to tell him the whole truth. [00:00:02.740 – 00:00:08.220] And this doctor had enough humility to say, "Roland, I've done all I can do for you. [00:00:08.220 – 00:00:13.780] With my knowledge of the mind and my skills, I just can't help you anymore. [00:00:13.780 – 00:00:24.380] You're probably gonna die from alcoholism." You know, he could have said, "Roland, I think you're suffering from a bad Valium deficiency." "Let [00:00:24.380 – 00:00:25.660] me write you a prescription. [00:00:25.660 – 00:00:30.120] You come back for another year." He was a good enough man not to do that. [00:00:30.120 – 00:00:39.720] And Roland said, "Are there no exceptions to this?" And this guy was great enough to go out of his field and say, "Oh, yeah.

[00:00:39.720 – 00:00:40.240] Yeah, yeah. [00:00:40.240 – 00:00:47.879] Once in a while, I've seen people like you have a vital spiritual experience." He said, "I don't understand it. [00:00:47.879 – 00:00:58.040] It's phenomenal to me, but I have seen it happen." Now, they tell us that Roland tried to get to Freud first, and Freud [00:00:58.040 – 00:00:59.480] wasn't taking any more patients. [00:00:59.480 – 00:01:03.360] He tried to get to Adler, and Adler was too busy. [00:01:03.360 – 00:01:06.140] Jung was the third choice. [00:01:06.140 – 00:01:14.500] Now, Adler and Jung were both students of Freud, and Jung had fallen out with Adler and Jung on one thing only.

[00:01:14.500 – 00:01:18.340] Adler and Jung thought all answers would lie within the mind. [00:01:18.340 – 00:01:20.700] I mean, Adler and Freud. [00:01:20.700 – 00:01:25.520] Jung thought some people might be able to be helped through spirituality. [00:01:25.520 – 00:01:29.620] You know, thank God that Roland didn't get to Freud or Adler. [00:01:29.620 – 00:01:37.460] We'd be sitting around today psychoanalyzing ourselves rather than depending upon spirituality. [00:01:37.460 – 00:01:46.530] And unfortunately, that's what we're doing in a lot of our AA meetings, trying to psychoanalyze rather than depend upon spirituality. [00:01:46.530 – 00:01:49.620] And what blows my mind to think is this.

[00:01:49.620 – 00:01:59.060] We alcoholics who are so proud of our 12 steps, and rightfully we should be, I think we need to stop once in a while and remember where they came from. [00:01:59.060 – 00:02:04.630] Step one came from a non-alcoholic neurologist in New York City named Dr. [00:02:04.630 – 00:02:05.520] Silkworth. [00:02:05.520 – 00:02:11.039] Step two came from a non-alcoholic psychiatrist on the other side of the world named Dr. [00:02:11.039 – 00:02:11.580] Jung. [00:02:11.580 – 00:02:21.200] The last 10 steps came from a group of people called the Oxford Groupers who were non-alcoholic, practicing first century Christianity to the best of their ability. [00:02:21.200 – 00:02:26.720] Everything that you and I use for recovery came to us from non-alcoholics.

[00:02:26.720 – 00:02:29.320] I think we need to remember that. [00:02:29.320 – 00:02:31.520] It might be good for our humility to do so. [00:02:31.520 – 00:02:31.860] Joe? [00:02:31.860 – 00:02:33.520] Is that odd or is that God? [00:02:33.520 – 00:02:38.520] You know, I think, I think about Dr. [00:02:38.520 – 00:02:39.060] Silkworth. [00:02:39.060 – 00:02:40.460] He, he knew what the problem was.

[00:02:40.460 – 00:02:46.440] He observed that through working with 50,000 of us alcoholics, and it became his opinion, but he didn't have a solution for it. [00:02:46.440 – 00:02:47.410] Dr. [00:02:47.410 – 00:02:53.220] Jung had a solution for alcoholism, the vital spiritual experience, but he didn't know what the problem was. [00:02:53.220 – 00:02:56.720] The Oxford Group had, uh, some tenets that we could work. [00:02:56.720 – 00:03:02.480] They had the planned program of action, so to speak, but they weren't impro- involved in the problem or the solution, either one. [00:03:02.480 – 00:03:05.620] Begs the doctor to tell him the whole truth. [00:03:05.620 – 00:03:11.080] And this doctor had enough humility to say, "Roland, I've done all I can do for you.

[00:03:11.080 – 00:03:16.680] With my knowledge of the mind and my skills, I just can't help you anymore. [00:03:16.680 – 00:03:27.240] You're probably gonna die from alcoholism." You know, he could have said, "Roland, I think you're suffering from a bad Valium deficiency." "Let [00:03:27.240 – 00:03:28.560] me write you a prescription. [00:03:28.560 – 00:03:33.000] You come back for another year." He was a good enough man not to do that. [00:03:33.000 – 00:03:42.459] And Roland said, "Are there no exceptions to this?" And this guy was great enough to go out of his field and say, "Oh, yeah. [00:03:42.459 – 00:03:43.120] Yeah, yeah. [00:03:43.120 – 00:03:50.760] Once in a while, I've seen people like you have a vital spiritual experience." He said, "I don't understand it.

[00:03:50.760 – 00:04:00.920] It's phenomenal to me, but I have seen it happen." Now, they tell us that Roland tried to get to Freud first, and Freud [00:04:00.920 – 00:04:02.380] wasn't taking any more patients. [00:04:02.380 – 00:04:06.240] He tried to get to Adler, and Adler was too busy. [00:04:06.240 – 00:04:09.020] Jung was the third choice. [00:04:09.020 – 00:04:17.360] Now, Adler and Jung were both students of Freud, and Jung had fallen out with Adler and Jung on one thing only. [00:04:17.360 – 00:04:21.220] Adler and Jung thought all answers would lie within the mind. [00:04:21.220 – 00:04:23.580] I mean, Adler and Freud.

[00:04:23.580 – 00:04:28.380] Jung thought some people might be able to be helped through spirituality. [00:04:28.380 – 00:04:32.460] You know, thank God that Roland didn't get to Freud or Adler. [00:04:32.460 – 00:04:40.340] We'd be sitting around today psychoanalyzing ourselves rather than depending upon spirituality. [00:04:40.340 – 00:04:50.340] And unfortunately, that's what we're doing in a lot of our AA meetings, trying to psychoanalyze rather than depend upon spirituality. [00:04:50.340 – 00:04:52.520] And what blows my mind to think is this. [00:04:52.520 – 00:05:01.940] We alcoholics who are so proud of our 12 steps, and rightfully we should be, I think we need to stop once in a while and remember where they came from. [00:05:01.940 – 00:05:07.490] Step one came from a non-alcoholic neurologist in New York City named Dr.

[00:05:07.490 – 00:05:08.400] Silkworth. [00:05:08.400 – 00:05:13.710] Step two came from a non-alcoholic psychiatrist on the other side of the world named Dr. [00:05:13.710 – 00:05:14.350] Jung. [00:05:14.350 – 00:05:24.080] The last 10 steps came from a group of people called the Oxford Groupers who were non-alcoholic, practicing first century Christianity to the best of their ability. [00:05:24.080 – 00:05:29.580] Everything that you and I use for recovery came to us from non-alcoholics. [00:05:29.580 – 00:05:32.200] I think we need to remember that. [00:05:32.200 – 00:05:34.380] It might be good for our humility to do so.

[00:05:34.380 – 00:05:34.720] Joe? [00:05:34.720 – 00:05:36.400] Is that odd or is that God? [00:05:36.400 – 00:05:41.240] You know, I think, I think about Dr. [00:05:41.240 – 00:05:41.930] Silkworth. [00:05:41.930 – 00:05:43.330] He, he knew what the problem was. [00:05:43.330 – 00:05:49.320] He observed that through working with 50,000 of us alcoholics, and it became his opinion, but he didn't have a solution for it. [00:05:49.320 – 00:05:50.290] Dr.

[00:05:50.290 – 00:05:56.060] Jung had a solution for alcoholism, the vital spiritual experience, but he didn't know what the problem was. [00:05:56.060 – 00:05:59.550] The Oxford Group had, uh, some tenets that we could work. [00:05:59.550 – 00:06:05.300] They had the planned program of action, so to speak, but they weren't impro- involved in the problem or the solution, either one. [00:06:05.300 – 00:06:10.320] And here's a wholesale miracle that's happened from that moment until this, if you will. [00:06:10.320 – 00:06:17.260] He said, but, you know, prior to this, he said, the exceptions to your case have been occurring since early time. [00:06:17.260 – 00:06:23.760] Here and there, just once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. [00:06:23.760 – 00:06:25.220] To me, these are a phenomenon.

[00:06:25.220 – 00:06:32.780] He went back and joined the Oxford Group and took the planned program of action of the tenants of the Oxford Group, and he recovered. [00:06:32.780 – 00:06:36.030] And he was able to help Ebby, and Ebby brought this to Bill. [00:06:36.030 – 00:06:41.760] And Bill was over there getting all this other information jailed in the mind of Bill Wilson, one person. [00:06:41.760 – 00:06:43.560] But the miracle is this. [00:06:43.560 – 00:06:47.080] Back in those days, it was just here and there, once in a great while. [00:06:47.080 – 00:06:57.520] Today, we can look around these rooms at each other and say to each other, here and now, every time an alcoholic will apply these things to their life, they too can recover. [00:06:57.520 – 00:06:59.520] And they call it Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:06:59.520 – 00:07:01.500] A wholesale miracle has happened. [00:07:01.500 – 00:07:03.220] I am not the miracle. [00:07:03.220 – 00:07:06.660] The miracle is Alcoholics Anonymous, and I get to participate in it. [00:07:06.660 – 00:07:17.160] I can almost see Bill now as he finishes up with chapter two, probably sitting down and reviewing what he's told us up to this point, saying [00:07:17.160 – 00:07:25.060] to himself that in the doctor's opinion and my story, I was able to show them the problem. [00:07:25.060 – 00:07:29.800] In chapter two, I was able to show them the solution. [00:07:29.800 – 00:07:36.280] Now, let's look at a little picture for just a moment illustrating the solution before we go any further.

[00:07:36.280 – 00:07:40.500] Bill, where is it? [00:07:40.500 – 00:07:41.280] No, it's up there. [00:07:41.280 – 00:07:42.980] It's up there. [00:07:42.980 – 00:07:52.440] In that little picture we have up here on the screen, we've talking about what is the solution. [00:07:52.440 – 00:08:02.520] And on the left-hand side of the picture, we see the fellowship which supports us, where the older members, through the [00:08:02.520 – 00:08:10.800] sharing of their experience, strength, and hope with a newcomer, provides enough support for the newcomer to be able to stay sober for a period of time. [00:08:10.800 – 00:08:13.600] And by the way, it's a two-way street.

[00:08:13.600 – 00:08:18.840] As we older members support the new member, then we draw strength from that too. [00:08:18.840 – 00:08:20.980] Great strength in the fellowship. [00:08:20.980 – 00:08:31.160] It'd be almost impossible to be in AA today for very long and not begin to believe there's some power greater than human power working [00:08:31.160 – 00:08:32.080] within this thing. [00:08:32.080 – 00:08:42.160] When you hear countless hundreds of people saying it's only by the grace of God or because of God as I understand thee or because of the power greater than I [00:08:42.160 – 00:08:46.639] am, I haven't found it necessary to take a drink in X number of days, weeks, months, years, or whatever. [00:08:46.639 – 00:08:54.380] You can hardly hear that over and over and over and not begin to believe there's some power working within this thing.

[00:08:54.380 – 00:09:01.460] The instant the newcomer begins to believe that, that opens the mind and they become willing to investigate. [00:09:01.460 – 00:09:10.080] And upon investigation, we find that simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet, the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. [00:09:10.080 – 00:09:20.080] As we work and apply those steps in our lives, we undergo a personality change sufficient [00:09:20.080 – 00:09:21.660] to recover from alcoholism. [00:09:21.660 – 00:09:25.280] And we find the power greater than human power. [00:09:25.280 – 00:09:31.560] When that happens to us, we then have become older members of Alcoholics Anonymous. [00:09:31.560 – 00:09:41.600] Now we can go back to the left-hand side of the sheet and we can help support the next newcomer, help them

[00:09:41.600 – 00:09:46.320] work their program so they can have a spiritual experience also. [00:09:46.320 – 00:09:51.260] The book plainly states you cannot give something away that you haven't got. [00:09:51.260 – 00:10:01.580] Now, somewhere down the line, when they quit working the program out of the book, then in self-defense, they started measuring success [00:10:01.580 – 00:10:06.720] by how long have you been sober rather than by the quality of that sobriety. [00:10:06.720 – 00:10:12.720] In the beginning, everybody was expected to work the program, have a spiritual experience. [00:10:12.720 – 00:10:17.740] If they didn't want to do that, they were told you might as well leave here because we can't help you if you don't do that. [00:10:17.740 – 00:10:27.959] So older membership was based on quality of sobriety rather than quantity of sobriety.

[00:10:27.959 – 00:10:31.720] Now, today you see all kinds of people in AA. [00:10:31.720 – 00:10:35.060] You see somebody that's been in here maybe six months. [00:10:35.060 – 00:10:36.700] They got a good sponsor. [00:10:36.700 – 00:10:39.100] They got immediately into the program. [00:10:39.100 – 00:10:40.860] They've worked the steps. [00:10:40.860 – 00:10:42.940] They've had a spiritual awakening. [00:10:42.940 – 00:10:49.940] They're always laughing, cutting up, having fun, always helping AA and doing what they can for other alcoholics.

[00:10:49.940 – 00:10:54.080] They are a delight to behold, and you just love to be around them. [00:10:54.080 – 00:10:55.980] Only been sober six months. [00:10:55.980 – 00:11:05.980] You've got others that's been in here six, eight, ten years, treated it like a cafeteria, took some but left what they [00:11:05.980 – 00:11:06.680] didn't want. [00:11:06.680 – 00:11:13.640] Now, they're better than they used to be, but you never know what kind of shape they're going to be in when you run into them. [00:11:13.640 – 00:11:15.560] One day they're up. [00:11:15.560 – 00:11:16.720] The next day they're down.

[00:11:16.720 – 00:11:19.520] They're kind of like a yo-yo going back and forth. [00:11:19.520 – 00:11:29.740] Then you see some people that's been in here 15, 16, 18, 20 years, never worked a step, damn [00:11:29.740 – 00:11:30.520] proud of it. [00:11:30.520 – 00:11:39.020] And they're the ones that say, by God, if you want what we've got, then you're willing to go to any damn lengths to get it. [00:11:39.020 – 00:11:43.320] Now, some of those guys feel so bad you'd like to buy them a drink. [00:11:43.320 – 00:11:45.700] You know they would feel better with a drink, see? [00:11:45.700 – 00:11:49.400] So we're not talking about quantity of sobriety here.

[00:11:49.400 – 00:11:51.950] We're talking about quality of sobriety. [00:11:51.950 – 00:11:58.080] And only those that have had the spiritual experience can help another have a spiritual experience. [00:11:58.080 – 00:12:00.500] You simply can't give away something you don't have. [00:12:00.500 – 00:12:04.220] I see Bill running this all through his mind. [00:12:04.220 – 00:12:11.580] And he probably says to himself, they're not going to like this idea of a spiritual experience any more than I did. [00:12:11.580 – 00:12:14.920] You remember he had an aversion to these things. [00:12:14.920 – 00:12:18.180] He and Ebby argued about this for a long time.

[00:12:18.180 – 00:12:27.960] And I think Bill says, I need to tell them just exactly what's going to happen to them if they don't have this spiritual experience. [00:12:27.960 – 00:12:32.360] And he writes another chapter, and he called it More About Alcoholism. [00:12:32.360 – 00:12:36.920] And in this chapter, he talks about one thing and one thing only. [00:12:36.920 – 00:12:48.980] He talks about the insanity of alcoholism.