+ Last updated:
 April 28, 2008

Bill W.
of
Alcoholics Anonymous
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Bill Wilson
Cofounder of A.A.
His Conversion
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Dr. Bob
of
Alcoholics Anonymous 
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Dr. Bob Smith
Cofounder of A.A.
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Endorsements

The Rev. Dr. Robert A. Schuller said in his Hour of Power Sermon this February, 2007, at Crystal Cathedral in California:

“Somebody wrote me and asked me, "Why don't you give credit to the author of the 12 Steps?" The reason I don't give credit to an author of the 12 Steps is that with all of my best research, I have been unsuccessful in finding an actual author to the 12 Steps. Someone has mentioned Bill Wilson as the author and perhaps he is; I am not sure. I have discovered there is a gentleman who is regarded as the leading historian about Alcoholics Anonymous. His name is Dick B. If you want to study the history of Alcoholics Anonymous you can go to http://www.dickb.com/. I'm quoting directly from Dick B., and he says very simply, "AA was based on the Bible. Its co-founder, Dr. Bob said AA took its basic ideas from the study of what he and others called the good book. Both Bill W. and Dr. Bob, as co founders, frequently said that the sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 - 7 contained the underlying philosophy of AA. The Oxford Group, in its developing years, espoused principles that it said were the principles of the Bible. Its founder, Dr. Frank Buckman, was said to be soaked in the Bible and its principle American writer and spokesman on the East Coast, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker, Jr. was called a Bible Christian. Both of these men and their ideas impacted directly on AA fellowship, on its big book, on the 12 steps and on the very language AA uses to this day." Believe it or not, that is the closest I have been able to come to finding an author of the 12 steps. I don't think that is coincidental. I think it is prophetic that an organization which is built on anonymity would leave its foundation anonymous; so that no one could take credit for the hand of God.”
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Take 12 Radio’s producer said: “The World's Foremost AA Historian alive today, Mr. Dick B hosts this important eye opening show on the truth and facts of early AA and why it succeeded.”
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StepStudy,org comments: “Dick B. is the most prolific author of AA history.” [reduce the type size]
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Amazon.com’s The Best Recovery Books quotes author Frank D.: "'Dick B. is probably the most knowledgeable A.A. historian.
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The late seminary professor, psychotherapist, family counselor, and author, The Rev. Howard J. Clinebell, Ph.D. (Professor Emeritus, School of Theology , Claremont , California ) wrote of Dick B. books: “Carefully researched volumes by the leading historian of A.A.”
 

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Robert Holbrook Smith, M.D.
Cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous
“The Prince of All Twelfth Steppers”

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The hills are alive with the sound of statistics. Statistics on A.A. success rates. Statistics on A.A. relapses. Statistics on recovery rates. Statistics on early A.A. cures. And surveys of A.A. and 12-Step populations, and other groups.

Have we had enough? The search engines and the web sites might suggest a continued interest, but they don’t prove the value or need.

As one who has written his share on successes, failures, and cures, I’m not prepared to discard the work already in place, whether mine or that of someone else. But I do think it’s appropriate to suggest some conditions for evaluation.

The conditions:

• Do the statistics come from eye witness statements, rosters, or records.

• Are sample studies based on sound statistical measures, random samples, etc.

• Is a survey conducted by someone who either uses eye-witness materials or follows sound statistical methods.

(finish the article).
 

Dick B.
© 2008 by Anonymous.
 All rights reserved

A Look at the Early A.A. Program that
Bill W. and Dr. Bob Founded in 1935

When Bill Wilson met Dr. Bob Smith at Henrietta Seiberling's Gate Lodge Home in Akron on Mother's Day of 1935, each man had some strong alcoholism recovery factors stored away in his mind.

Bill Wilson brought to the table three major spiritual ideas that Dr. Bob had simply not implemented in his previous Christian walk. (1) Because of the deadly, downward spiral of drunkenness, relief could not come by willpower or human aid alone. (2) The experience of Dr. Carl Gustav Jung as to the efficacy of conversion as a cure, and the experience of Dr. William D. Silkworth as to the efficacy of relying on the Great Physician (Jesus Christ) for complete cure. (3) The vital importance of telling others still suffering about the healing that could be achieved through the power of God.

(finish the article).
 

A.A.’s Dr. Bob
The Truth I Wanted
to Learn

Dick B.
© 2007 by Anonymous.
All rights reserved

The Challenging Search For The Real Dr. Bob

When I first arrived in A.A. in the spring of 1986, if anyone had mentioned the name “Dr. Bob,” the remark would either have passed me by. Or I would have asked, “Who is he?” I didn’t know, and I hadn’t heard—and not for quite some time thereafter.

Then the young man, now dead of alcoholism, asked me if I knew A.A. had come from the Bible. When I answered, “No.” He suggested I read DR. BOB and the Good Old Timers and also remarked that the A.A. pioneers had been so interested in studying the Bible that they wanted to call A.A. “The James Club.” And I won’t repeat what I’ve since written about The Akron Genesis of A.A., The Good Book and The Big Book, Dr. Bob and His Library, The James Club, the AA of Akron pamphlets, and all the rest. But there was still a gaping hole in my knowledge of what Dr. Bob himself had meant when he said he had “refreshed” his memory of the Bible and had received “excellent training” in that as a youngster. He had also spoken of his four-times-a-week attendance at church, and also of his participation in Christian Endeavor.

(finish the article).
 

God and Alcoholismm by Dick B.

Shortly after I got sober 21 years ago, I began hearing in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings the words “higher power.” Hearing them as if the speakers were referring to Almighty God. And, in the Big Book, Fourth Edition, for example, Bill Wilson actually did continue to refer to Almighty God when he twice and only twice used the expression “higher power.” You will see that when you read pages 43, 45, 46, and 100 of Alcoholics Anonymous, 4 th ed. You can also count the number of times Bill specifically referred to Almighty God with a capital “G.” There were over 400 references to “God” including capitalized pronouns and Biblical references like Creater, Maker, Father, Spirit, etc. In Bill’s early writings, the “higher power” words referring to the Creator were undiluted with “choose your own conception” (not in the original manuscripts). Undiluted with “God as we understood Him” (which appears to have come from the many Oxford Group and Anne Smith references to “as much of God as you know” and Shoemaker’s “God as you understand Him”).

(finish the article).
 

A.A.’s Fifteen Major Well-Springs

Early in its founding years, A.A.’s co-founder Bill Wilson put the torch to the idea that A.A. sprang from just one source. He said frankly that nobody invented A.A. He said all its ideas were borrowed. And Dr. Bob broadened the source picture by pointing out that all the basic ideas came from the Pioneers’ study of the Bible.

Unfortunately, neither co-founder put in writing in one place all the well-springs that produced the streams in A.A. Consequently commentators, both favorable to and critical of A.A., have had a field day with discussions of our roots. Most of them have a number of erroneous concepts so embedded in their historical approaches that they just never tell it like it is or like it was. Those who don’t like the Bible say that we left it behind in Akron. Those who don’t like the Oxford Group say that it taught us more about what not to do than what to do. And those who don’t like either the Bible or the Oxford Group have tried to quiet the waters by diverting the stream. They say A.A. is “spiritual, but not religious” even though any well-informed historian, scholar, clergyman, and semanticist would probably ask: “And what’s the difference?” Nobody really knows, but the distinction without a difference leaves many in a peaceful atheistic no man’s land.

(finish the article).
 

Right now, take a look at the speakers, sponsors, and counselors you know or have known in your A.A. or 12 Step Fellowship. I’ve been involved with hundreds of them, and you may have been too. Many are talented, experienced, and articulate speakers and, in fact, good instructors. They are also caring, loving, giving people. But what are you hearing from them today? There are hundreds and hundreds of women and men in the recovery movement who have never studied A.A.’s basic text or learned how to take people through the Twelve Steps in accordance with the instructions. There are far more who haven’t a clue about A.A.’s history and roots, and haven’t any idea where the recovery program got its ideas. And many of these have never opened an A.A. history book, been to an A.A. history conference, or even cared to learn our history. Why? Generally speaking, it’s because they’ve had no resources to work with or with which they cared to work. Sometimes because they just don’t care (finish the article).
 

Do you really want to study, explain, or pass on your program and yet leave out most of its history, roots, sources, and early successes? Did You Know…

Neither A.A.’s Big Book, nor any A.A. literature we’ve found contains any of the details about Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939, which Dr. Bob’s wife shared with AAs and their families every single morning at the Smith Home in Akron.

Neither A.A.’s Big Book, nor any A.A. literature, contains an accurate statement or description of the spiritual books Dr. Bob read and circulated, Anne Smith read and recommended, or early AAs read.

We have found no A.A. literature or any other literature read in early A.A. that accurately tells what Quiet Time consisted of, the devotionals that were used, and the vital necessity for surrender to Christ as part of the process.

Neither the Big Book text nor the personal stories describe the details about the early A.A. Akron’s Christian Fellowship, Bible studies, prayer meetings, or surrenders to Christ.

Neither the Big Book text nor any other A.A. literature tells the details of what Bill Wilson borrowed from the Oxford Group, incorporated in the Big Book, and used in the language of the Twelve Steps.

Neither the Big Book text nor any other A.A. literature contains the slightest reference to the details Rev. Sam Shoemaker discussed with Bill W. about the Bible, the OG life-changing program, or the Steps which Bill asked Sam to write (finish the article).
 

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