No one calls for justice;
No one pleads his case with integrity.
They rely on empty arguments and speak lies;
They conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider's web.
— Isaiah 59:4-5
When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses
over generations, the truth will seem utterly perposterous and its
speaker a raving lunatic.
— Dresden James
How this file works is, click on any lie where you want to see
the evidence, and the link will take you right to it.
The Twelve Steps are an
effective treatment
program for alcoholism, one that rarely fails, because
faith healing is really good medicine,
and
God performs miracles on demand
for us Twelve-Steppers every day. And when people don't quit drinking, it's their
own fault.
In spite of all of its strange features, A.A. is still the best
and
most effective
recovery program available, and the kindest thing you can do for an
alcoholic is to force him into Alcoholics Anonymous.
It is probable that more contemporary alcoholics have found sobriety through
the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous than through all other agencies combined. Alcoholics Anonymous, an interpretation, by
Milton A. Maxwell, Ph.D., contained in Chapter 33 of
Society, Culture, and Drinking Patterns, David J. Pittman and Charles R. Snyder,
editors, page 577.
[Ignore the fact that Milton A. Maxwell was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., and then the Chairman,
as a result of such lavish praise of A.A.]
Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step spinoffs have proved to be highly effective treatment. `Million Little Pieces' writer Frey has stirred debate in 12-step programs,
By Michael Granberry,
The Dallas Morning News,
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/living/13820047.htm
(Note that the author of the article, Michael Granberry, not James Frey, was praising A.A.)
(Oh sure, by making you list and confess all of your sins and shortcomings and defects
and wrongs over and over and over again, in Steps 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.)
If you are having a problem with drinking too much alcohol,
then you have a
disease which only
a spiritual experience
will conquer.
(The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William Wilson, page 44.)
You are powerless over alcohol. You can't quit.
Your life is unmanageable.
There you are, facing ruin again, and still you can't stop.
The more you struggle, the worse you get.
Even if you quit drinking, we can prophesy that you will suffer from
strange mental
blank spots where will power and self-knowledge will be useless,
and you will start drinking again without even knowing what
you are doing. Your defense must come from a Higher Power.
(The Big Book, 3rd & 4th Editions, William G. Wilson, pages 59, 41-42, and 43.)
Alcoholism is an incurable, progressive disease, often caused by an
inherited gene, and
a disease is respectable, not a moral stigma.
(The Big Book, 3rd Edition, Marty Mann, Page 227.)
Here was a book that said that I could do something that all
these doctors and priests and ministers and psychiatrists that I'd
been going to for years couldn't do!
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, page 473.
The relative success of the AA program seems to be due to the fact that
an alcoholic who no longer drinks has an exceptional faculty for
"reaching" and helping an uncontrolled drinker. So Moved, The Washington Post, no author,
06-09-2002, page B03.
God in His wisdom has selected a group of men to be the purveyors of His
goodness. In selecting them through whom to bring about this phenomenon
He went not to the proud, the mighty, the famous or the brilliant. He
went to the humble, to the sick, to the unfortunate — he went to the
drunkard, the so-called weakling of the world. Well might He have said to us:
Into your weak and feeble hands I have entrusted a Power beyond estimate.
To you has been given that which has been denied the most learned of
your fellows. Not to scientists or statesmen, not to wives or mothers,
not even to my priests and ministers have I given this gift of healing
other alcoholics, which I entrust to you.
Judge John T., speaking at the 4th Anniversary of the Chicago Group October 5, 1943.
Since this book was first published, AA has released hundreds [thousands]
of alcoholics from asylums and hospitals of every kind. The majority have never returned.
The power of God goes deep!
The A.A. Big BookAlcoholics Anonymous,
William G. Wilson, "To Wives", page 114.
Bill Wilson actually wrote that lie in the original manuscript of the
A.A. "Big Book", Alcoholics Anonymous,
before the book was ever published.
That was not just innaccurate, it was a blatant lie.
Obviously, the book had not released hundreds of
alcoholics from asylums before it was ever written and published.
In the second edition of the Big Book, Bill Wilson changed the
word "hundreds" to "thousands".
We, of ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, know one hundred men
[thousands of men and women]
who were once just as hopeless as Bill.
All have recovered. They have solved the drink problem.
The A.A. "Big Book" — Alcoholics Anonymous,
William G. Wilson, first edition multilith page 8 and the 1st edition hardback on page 27.
Bill Wilson also shamelessly lied when he wrote that, because
there were only about 40 sober members of Alcoholics Anonymous
altogether in the whole world,
including all of the members of the groups in New York, Akron,
and Cleveland, when Bill started writing the Big Book in late
1938.
Nevertheless, Bill Wilson grandly called them
"The First 100".
And there were only 70 sober members of A.A. worldwide when
Bill Wilson finished writing his chapters in early 1939,
and most of them eventually relapsed and returned to a life of drinking.
They had not "recovered".
They had not "solved the drink problem."
Bill Wilson kept the first copy of the Big Book that came off of
the presses, and it in, he kept track of the authors of the
autobiographical stories, and noted who relapsed and who didn't.
Francis Hartigan, Lois Wilson's private secretary, saw the book, and
reported that
fully 50% of the original Big Book authors relapsed and went back to drinking.
The "hundred" number is a shameless self-promoting barefaced
lie.12
And again, Bill changed the "hundred" term to "thousands"
in the second edition of the Big Book.
We A.A. members are all fortunate people who are
constitutionally capable
of being honest with ourselves.
We are naturally capable of grasping and developing a manner of
living which demands rigorous honesty.
(The Big Book, 3rd & 4th Editions, William G. Wilson, Page 58.)
We spend our lives selflessly seeking and doing the Will of God.
We know what the Will of God is better than anyone else.
We were Chosen By God
for our special mission.
Not only that, we are very humble, too.
... the A.A. group is to be understood as an unusually intimate primary group
which sponsors, in a potent learning situation, a new way of life — a new
subculture. Alcoholics Anonymous: An Interpretation, Milton A. Maxwell, Ph.D., writing in Society, Culture, and Drinking Patterns, David J. Pittman and Charles R. Snyder,
editors, page 582.
[Ignore the fact that Milton A. Maxwell was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., and then the Chairman,
as a result of such lavish praise of A.A.]
The A.A. program is perfect. The only reason that
it doesn't work
for 99% of the people who try it is because they are all disgusting
sinners who won't give up their sinful ways and surrender to God or
the Alcoholics Anonymous group.
They are all unfortunate people who are constitutionally incapable
of being honest with themselves. They are naturally incapable
of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous
honesty. They seem to have been born that way.
(The Big Book, 3rd & 4th Editions, William G. Wilson, Page 58.)
A.A. and the Twelve Steps are
the only way to
survive alcoholism.
Nobody can successfully quit an alcohol or
drug habit without a "support group" and attending hundreds
of meetings for many years, preferably for the rest of his or her life.
Nobody can do it alone.
And anyone who successfully quits drinking alcohol on his own,
without going to A.A. meetings and doing the Twelve Steps,
will suffer from a mysterious disease which will turn him into
a "dry drunk."
You are such a stupid loser
that there is no way that you can quit drinking by yourself, or keep yourself sober.
But a bunch of other similar stupid losers who are also incapable of
quitting drinking or keeping themselves sober will keep you sober.
The answer to all crises in life is, "Get to a meeting, quick!"
And everyone who is recovering from an alcohol or drug problem is
of course doing it with the Twelve Steps, in Alcoholics Anonymous
or Narcotics Anonymous, because there is no other possible way.
A.A. is not an irrational
cult religion,
it's only "a spiritual fellowship".
Ignore the fact that, after indoctrinating many beginners, A.A. founder Bill Wilson wrote,
"From great numbers of such experiences, we could predict
that the doubter ... would presently love God and call Him by
name."
(Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,
William G. Wilson, page 109.)
Also, just ignore Bill Wilson's declaration that:
At the moment we are trying to put our lives in order.
But this is not an end in itself.
Our real purpose
is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God...
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson,
Chapter 6, Into Action, page 77.
Also ignore Bill Wilson's speech to the American Psychiatric Association:
Of course we speak little of conversion
nowadays because so many people really dread being God-bitten. But
conversion, as broadly described by James, does seem to be our basic
process; all other devices are but the foundation.
Bill Wilson's statements to the American Psychiatric Association 105th Annual
Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, May 1949
And Bill Wilson was living proof of the fact that you could drink two or three
bottles of Prohibition's infamous
"bathtub gin" every
single day for many years and still not suffer any
brain damage at all.
You can believe in
any God
you want, or none at all, in A.A. You can have
any Higher Power or God you want,
including a Golden Calf or a bedpan or a motorcycle, and praying to such a Higher Power will
restore you to sanity and take away your desire to drink. That isn't
irrational or crazy;
it works, it really does.
You must be
an agnostic
or an atheist if you object to faith healing,
superstitious nonsense, and voodoo medicine as your
alcoholism recovery program.
It's okay to
lie to newcomers, and
deceive them about the true
nature of A.A., if it will keep them coming back.
Also, we shouldn't openly tell the whole truth about the religious nature of A.A.;
it might confuse the newcomers.
"To some people we need not, and probably should not emphasize
the spiritual feature on our first approach. We might prejudice them."
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William Wilson, pages 76-77.
"There is no use arousing any prejudice he may have against
certain theological terms and
conceptions about which he may
already be confused. Don't raise such issues, no matter what
your own convictions are."
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William Wilson, page 93.
You have to dole out the truth about A.A. to beginners by
"teaspoons, rather
than by buckets"
because
"they simply do not want to get 'too good too soon'." Alcoholics Anonymous Comes Of Age, William Wilson, page 75.
Bill Wilson described the writing of the Big Book, hiding the religious
nature of Alcoholics Anonymous, in order to deceive the newcomers, this way:
Fitz wanted a powerfully religious document; Henry and Jimmy would have none of it.
They wanted a psychological book which would
lure the reader in; when
he finally arrived among us, there would then be enough time to tip him
off about the spiritual character of our society. ... As umpire of these
disputes, I was obliged to go pretty much down the middle, writing in
spiritual rather than religious or entirely psychological terms. Alcoholics Anonymous Comes Of Age
(1957), William G. Wilson, page 17.
Surrendering and being a slave of A.A. makes you free.
Dependency on A.A. makes
you independent.
Dependency on A.A. is wonderful and produces
no baleful results.
Confessing powerlessness makes you powerful.
Apologizing for your behavior your whole life, and confessing
everything and feeling guilty and humble about everything
will give you self-respect.
You need this.
You need us to shove our religion (that we won't call a religion)
and its strange beliefs and practices on you, because
you will die if we don't.
Right now,
your thinking is so messed up
that you think you don't need this program, but you will thank us later.
Also, the A.A. leaders are but trusted servants. They do not rule, and would never engage in
lawsuits to punish A.A. members
who do legal things that the leaders don't like.
Never mind the fact that the Twelve Steps never tell you to quit
drinking, or to help anyone else to quit drinking either.
Never mind the fact that the Twelve Steps don't contain any of
these words or phrases:
"quit drinking,"
"abstain from drinking,"
"drink less,"
"recovery,"
"abstinence,"
"sobriety,"
"health,"
"happiness,"
"prosperity,"
"compassion",
or "love."
Never mind the fact that 6 of the 12 steps refer to God, and surrendering to God,
confessing to God, begging God for miracles, praying to God,
and seeking and doing God's will, and getting power from God.
The Twelve Steps are still all about quitting drinking, not religion.
For that matter, also never mind the fact that 7 of the 12 steps —
Steps Four through Ten — are designed to make you feel guilty:
They are all about you listing and confessing all of your sins,
character defects, moral shortcomings, the exact nature of your
wrongs, and everyone you ever harmed or offended.
The Twelve Steps are still all about quitting drinking, they say;
the Steps are not the mind-bending
guilt-induction routines of a
cult religion.
And never mind the fact that Bill Wilson's Twelve Steps, and
Frank Buchman's procedures from which Bill derived those steps,
strongly resemble the
Red Chinese program
of brainwashing,
with all of its guilt-inducing "self-criticism" sessions.
You really are stupid and evil.
You are far too stupid to be able to quit drinking by yourself.
Your thinking is all messed up, and
you can't trust your own mind.
Your character is full of defects.
Your thinking is alcoholic.
You are selfish and self-centered and manipulative and unspiritual and you just
want to be happy and feel good. Your true innermost nature is that
you are inherently sinful and disgusting.
Treating people badly is how you make them be good. Tough love programs really work
to save the lives of alcoholics and
drug addicts.
Everything good that A.A. members do is Alcoholics Anonymous,
but the bad things that A.A. members do is not really A.A...
If a sponsor does some despicable thing that is not council-approved
to a sponsee, then that doesn't count.
When Bill Wilson wrote on the first page of the To Wives chapter:
As wives of Alcoholics Anonymous, we would like you to
feel that we understand as perhaps few can.
We want to analyze mistakes we have made.
The A.A. Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson,
chapter 8, To Wives, page 104.
— that wasn't deceiving the readers. And when Bill began the next chapter
with the words:
Our women folk have suggested certain attitudes a wife may take with the
husband who is recovering. Perhaps they created the impression that he
is to be wrapped in cotton wool and placed on a pedestal.
The A.A. Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson,
Chapter 9, The Family Afterward, page 122.
— that wasn't a lie either.
And when page 51 of Big Book Unplugged; A Young Person's Guide to Alcoholics Anonymous,
a condensation of the Big Book that targets teenagers, tells us that:
Chapter 8 is written by wives, but you don't need to be a wife to benefit from
the authors' advice.
The spark that was to flare into the first A.A. group was struck at Akron, Ohio, in June 1935,
during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician.
The A.A. "Big Book" Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, page XV
There were many unhappy scenes in our sumptuous apartment. There had been no
real infidelity, for loyalty to my wife, helped at times by extreme
drunkenness, kept me out of those scrapes. Big Book, 3rd & 4th Edition, Bill's Story,
page 3.
Alcoholics Anonymous was
fantastically successful
in the beginning. They had a great success rate in sobering up
alcoholics.
A.A. has only gone a bit downhill just recently.
No reasonable person would criticize A.A., because A.A.
is a wonderful organization that has saved millions.
Anyone who criticizes Alcoholics Anonymous is just
a dry drunk.
