• Doctor Bob seems to have been a dogmatic, intolerant, power-tripping, neurotic religious fanatic who got his kicks by having people surrender to God on their knees before him.

• Nan Robertson, in her book which enthusiastically praised A.A., described Doctor Bob like this:

  He was a dignified man, gallant to women, yet he had a slangy way of speaking about them. He called women "frails" or "skirts," or, if he really liked one, simply "woman."
  ...
  He relished a dirty joke.
  ...
  Conventional and sometimes dogmatic, Dr. Bob opposed the admission of women alcoholics into the initially all-male A.A.
  Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, Nan Robertson, pages 36-37.

• The official Alcoholics Anonymous history book, PASS IT ON, tells how Doctor Bob prepared himself for an operation on a patient by taking "one goofball" (a sedative) and drinking a beer, to steady his shaking hands (page 149).
        And Bill Wilson told the same story in his history of Alcoholics Anonymous, saying that Doctor Bob went on a binge, and then...

        We got Bob back home and into bed, and right then we made an alarming discovery. He had to perform a certain operation that only he could do. The deadline was just three days away; he simply had to do the job himself; and here he was, shaking like a leaf...
        [Three days later] Anne and I drove him to the hospital at nine o'clock. I handed him a bottle of beer to steady his nerves so he could hold the knife, and he went in.... That was June 10, 1935.
  Alcoholics Anonymous Comes Of Age, William G. Wilson, pages 67-71.

  Nan Robertson described Dr. Bob's recovery from his last binge this way:

  The Smith children remember that the sobering up process took three days. As it happened, Dr. Bob had an operation scheduled for that third day. Bill loaded the doctor up with the classic folk remedy of the time for hangovers -- sauerkraut and tomato juice for vitamins and Karo corn syrup for energy. He gave Bob a few beers to steady his nerves and taper him off. On the way to City Hospital the morning of the operation, June 10, 1935, Dr. Bob still had the shakes. Bill gave him another bottle of beer. Alcoholics Anonymous dates its beginning from that day, the day of Dr. Bob's last drink.
  Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, Nan Robertson, page 54.

  Doctor Bob wouldn't postpone the operation on the grounds that he was unfit to operate -- he didn't want anyone to know that he was unfit. He operated on a patient even though his hands were shaking so badly that he had difficulty holding a scalpel and cutting a straight line. He prepared himself for an operation by drinking alcohol and taking a drug. That is grossly unethical; it is medical malpractice; it completely disregards the welfare of the patient -- Doctor Bob was gambling with the patient's life -- and it is the kind of behavior that warrants revoking a doctor's license to practice medicine.

  Strangely enough, A.A. counts that day as Doctor Bob's first day of sobriety, and considers that day the founding day of Alcoholics Anonymous.

• Bill Wilson also wrote that Doctor Bob had a very bad reputation around Akron, Ohio -- 'when you let the proctologist Dr. Robert Smith operate on you, "you are really betting your ass."'³
  

• In Doctor Bob's own story in the Big Book, Doctor Bob described himself as a childish fool who was constantly trying to outwit his wife by sneaking in and hiding bottles of alcohol. She was constantly turning out his pockets and performing body searches on him when he came into the house, and he was just as constantly thinking up new ways to smuggle in booze (read his story in the Big Book, "Doctor Bob's Nightmare").

  So to his wife he was just a naughty, irresponsible little boy, but to his own children he was a cold, cruel, aloof, autocratic dictator. That is a classic textbook example of a petty tyrant: someone who is a grovelling toady to his superiors, and a haughty martinette to his inferiors -- a weak man who gets his jollies by lording it over someone else who is even weaker, like children. (Or like sick, shaky, weak, detoxing alcoholics, whom he made surrender on their knees before him.)

• Doctor Bob's own children wrote a book about him, where they described him as a horrible cruel father who ran a badly dysfunctional family. The book is "Children of the Healer: The Story of Dr. Bob's Kids As Told to Christine Brewer", by Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows.

  Dr. Robert Smith, 1949.

  Sue Smith wrote about her childhood:

  The paddle Dad used on us came from a game that had a ball with it. One end of the paddle was big and one end was little. Dad used the little end, the part that hurt like the dickens. Mom would use the big end; it didn't hurt so much for some reason. Well, Dad found out and he whittled it down so that both ends were the same. He always kept that paddle on an inside shelf of the bathroom closet. It was about a half-inch thick. Like I say, when we got it, we knew it.
  Children Of The Healer; The Story Of Doctor Bob's Kids, Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows, page 49.

  What kind of a sick sadistic alcoholic sits around whittling a paddle with which to beat his children, carving it so that it will cause more pain?

  Sue Smith fought with her father for years over her high-school sweetheart Ray Windows. She was in love with Ray, and only wanted Ray. Doctor Bob didn't like Ray because he was just a regular, rather unspectacular high-school kid. Sue wrote:

  He told me that "as long as you live in my house, young lady, you're going to do as I say." It was the old Vermont chill -- he could do it with that voice and those steely blue eyes.
  Children Of The Healer; The Story Of Doctor Bob's Kids, Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows, page 33.

  He grabbed me. He would grab me by the arm and dig those fingernails into me. And he'd give me that look.
  Children Of The Healer; The Story Of Doctor Bob's Kids, Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows, page 49.

  Ernie Galbraith, "A.A. Number Four", the constantly-relapsing philanderer whom Dr. Bob shoved on his daughter.

  Doctor Bob got the bright idea of using the older man Ernie Galbraith, A.A. Number Four, to split up Susan and Ray. He asked Ernie to show an interest in Sue, to horn in and break up Sue and Ray. It worked. Ernie was 31 or 32 when Ray and Sue were only 17, so Ernie was able to just heavy Ray out and scare him off. Sue later wrote:

  At that time, Ernie said he was 30. He must have been a little older   ...
  I was about 17.   ...
  I didn't pay any attention to Ernie. I didn't like him. I thought he was a smarty, you know. He was stout, with reddish hair and a round face with blue eyes. he was outgoing, the life-of-the-party type. Ernie was single then and he kept coming to the house, and I think my dad got the bright idea that if he could get Ernie to take me out, and he'd pay the way, he might be able to get me away from Ray. We'd go down and get hamburgers, and Dad would buy them. I knew all that, but I didn't realize it was in connection with Ray at the time. Now I think it was. I think Dad was using Ernie, and it backfired on him.   ...
  ...
  Ernie gradually started to have some appeal. He was an older person and he had a good sense of humor. We always had fun. We joked together. He was a real storyteller. He could make my mom and dad laugh like nobody I've ever seen, just sitting around the kitchen table, telling stories, and drinking coffee. Like I say, they were pushing me, so I figured they liked him. And that was kind of different.
  Children Of The Healer; The Story Of Doctor Bob's Kids, Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows, page 46.

  Then one time, in the fall of 1937, I went out with Ray, and when I came home Ernie was at the house. I tried to go upstairs without being noticed, but he cornered me in the hall and asked me if I'd been out with Ray. I looked him straight in the eyes and said, "yes." So, by gosh, if he didn't whip up and grab me by the arm and get me in the car and drive over to Ray's apartment. Ray was hanging out on the corner, as usual, with a bunch of the guys. It was a warm night. Ernie got Ray in the car and that was when I broke up with Ray. Ernie just told Ray that Dad didn't want me to see him, and I don't remember what the thing was -- whether I had to make up my mind or whatever. I don't remember. I didn't say much. I couldn't even look at Ray. Ray says he got the impression that Ernie was taking over and that he was out. But I know that for about three weeks I wasn't worth a nickel around there, burning the toast and forgetting to put the coffee on. I was grouchy and mean because I had broken up with Ray. I didn't really want to, but I was beginning to like Ernie then, too. Ray said he never cried in his life, but he did that night.
  Children Of The Healer; The Story Of Doctor Bob's Kids, Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows, page 47.

  Heartbroken, Ray Windows ended up joining the Army and going to the South Pacific.

  Ernie Galbraith wrote the story "The Seven Month Slip" for the first edition of the Big Book. As the story's title implies, Ernie relapsed. Often. Like all of the time. The "seven-month slip" was not a little slip after seven months of sobriety; it was seven months long -- seven more months of suicidally-intense drinking after only one year of sobriety. The A.A. program didn't help Ernie to overcome his alcoholism at all.

  And Ernie philandered, too, just like Bill Wilson. Having him "show an interest in" Sue was really like having the fox guard the henhouse. Any farmer stupid enough to do that should not be surprised to find his plumpest hen eaten. Doctor Bob should have learned something about Ernie from reading his Big Book story, but no, Doctor Bob didn't learn.

  The teenage girl Susan was pretty defenseless against the well-practiced older charmer Ernie.

  Ernie wasn't the nicest person. I already knew he was a womanizer. When I went to the WPA school, sometimes he'd take a friend of mine home, usually Barb or Vianna.   ... He was going with a zillion girls at the same time. He was like Will Rogers -- he never met a woman he didn't like.
        Ernie had a lot of appeal, though. Too much appeal. He appealed to everybody. Like my girlfriend Elgie would say, "I don't know what it was. It just seems like you were fascinated with that guy." And that was it. He surprised me and bought me presents, candy, and flowers. I liked that. When I was with him, I felt like I was the number one girl. Then I'd hear about him and some other gal, or he wouldn't show up, and I'd just bawl. Then he'd show up with a box of candy and I'd think he'd change. You always think they're gonna change. After a while, you can't give it up.
        He did stay sober at first. He was A.A. number four. That's how he got into the Big Book, the first one. He was dropped in the second edition because he started drinking again. He was boozing by the time we were married. That was one reason Dad didn't like him. The other, of course, is that Ernie double-crossed him. I've heard people say Dad always thought Ernie was an S.O.B.; he was the only person Dad was ever heard to talk about like that.
  Children Of The Healer; The Story Of Doctor Bob's Kids, Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows, pages 48-49.

  Obviously, Doctor Bob was not a very good judge of character. After Doctor Bob engineered the whole affair, and shoved Ernie Galbraith on his daughter, Doctor Bob whimpered and complained that Ernie had "double-crossed him" by plucking the ripe plum Susan.

  Bill Wilson quietly removed Ernie G.'s story from the Big Book in 1955, when the second edition was published, but it took until 1965 for Sue to get divorced from Ernie. Then, after Ray's first wife died, she finally married her high-school sweetheart Ray Windows.
  

  And there is more, lots more, like the daughter of Susan and Ernie ended up getting pregnant at 16, and then, several years later, killed herself and her own young daughter with Ernie's shotgun in a double murder-suicide.

  Dr. Bob's son, Robert Smith Jr., a.k.a. "Smitty", spent his life in and around A.A. and Al-Anon, yammering crazy platitudes, trying to deal with his own issues.⁷ One example of Smitty's neurotic mind-set is:

        I thought I was a very shallow person, because I didn't seem to be able to love my fellow man. I could see a deeper love in other people than I seemed to be able to have. I read a book that kind of set me on the right track on that one. It said love is a learned phenomenon, you're not born with it. And here's the catch, I think, for us -- you have to be willing to accept love, which I could never do.
        All of this was taught to me slowly. I had a sponsor who interested me in, and forced me into, the service end of it. I learned then that everybody in the program is not perfect. I learned they don't have to be perfect for you to love 'em or even like 'em. Because when you start culling your friends, accepting only the perfect ones, you're not going to have any friends. I used to cull my friends, and if I found the slightest imperfection, I would think I have to discard them. But now I seem to be able to accept them like they are, warts and all, and present myself to other people, warts and all. And boy, you can sure have a lot more friends that way.
  "Children of the Healer: The Story of Dr. Bob's Kids As Told to Christine Brewer", by Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows, page 157:

  That poor guy. His father, Doctor Bob, screwed him up so bad that he was unable to feel or accept love.

  And it is irrational, even insane, to expect everybody around you to be perfect, or even to expect any of them to be perfect. (Such compulsive perfectionism is characteristic of abused children.) But you can't flip out and go to the opposite extreme either, and give everybody "unconditional love and complete acceptance". If you don't set some standards, and cull your friends, then you will end up with Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy, and Rev. Jim Jones for your circle of friends.

  Neurosis, insanity, and tragedy ran rampant in the Smith family. Go read: Children Of The Healer: The Story of Dr. Bob's Kids, by Bob Smith Jr. and Sue Smith Windows.

  Dr. Bob's daughter, Sue Smith Windows, even gladly gives testimony in court against Alcoholics Anonymous. When the German A.A. organization was suing some German A.A. members for printing and freely giving away copies of the old, out-of-copyright versions of the Big Book, Sue volunteered to go to Germany to give testimony against the A.A. leadership. Unfortunately, her ill health prevented her from doing so, but she wanted to. However, she did send a notorized statement that flatly declared that Bill Wilson stole the Big Book money and copyright without the knowledge or permission of her father or any of the other Akron A.A. members.

  Alas, Sue Smith Windows recently died of old age. May she rest in peace.

Dr. Robert Smith (left) and William G. Wilson (right) in Akron, Ohio, 1949.

Both of those sociopaths fit the description of "former victim turned persecutor." Neither could "hack it" in the real world. They were both obsessive-compulsive, fanatical and manipulative. Behind their strong and confident exteriors -- pseudo-personalities -- they both needed their leader positions to compensate for a very fragile sense of self-worth, self-esteem and self-identity. They both had long histories of suicidally-intense alcohol abuse. They had both wrecked their own lives. They were both members of another cult religion, The Oxford Group, before they founded their own cult religion.

Bill Wilson was an abused child -- the son of an abusive alcoholic father -- and an untreated Adult Child of an Alcoholic.

And Wilson was certainly a "charismatic charmer who could change personalities in a flash." Bill bragged about giving newcomers unconditional love and complete acceptance, but he had a mean vindictive streak in him, where he would turn on people, and condemn them to death by alcohol for disagreeing with him.

Both Bill W. and Dr. Bob fit the description of "a disturbed guru", not to mention "a crazy religious fanatic".

42. Disturbed Members, Mentally Ill Followers
A.A. scores a 10.

Pretty obviously, just for starters, most of the members were drinking themselves to death before joining A.A.. That isn't normal, or healthy.

That isn't to say that every member of A.A. is mentally ill, far from it. But there has to be something really wrong with someone's mind if he really believes that a praying to a doorknob or a bedpan will restore him to sanity and fix his alcohol problem. There has to be something wrong with his logic if he thinks that an organization that promotes such nonsense is okay, and is on the up-and-up. And there has to be something wrong with his judgement if he falls in love with it at first sight:

When we reached A.A., and for the first time in our lives stood among people who seemed to understand, the sense of belonging was tremendously exciting.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William Wilson, page 57.

There has to be something really wrong with his thinking if he buys into the whole insane package of A.A. dogma. He has to be at least a little nuts if he thinks that all of the crazy and delusional things that are listed in the other Cult Test items here are somehow all okay.

One sage observer of the scene commented:

I see it as sort of like the victims of con artists. The thing they all have in common that allows a con artist to get over is that they are gullible and greedy. They want something for nothing, amazing stock returns, pyramid schemes, etc., and they are gullible enough to get swindled. Generally, I do not feel sorry for victims of con artists. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. If it sounds ridiculous, it probably is. If it sounds like hyperbole and exaggeration, it probably is.
Cheers,
Joe H.

A 24-year A.A. old-timer wrote,

I have also noted how angry so many of the "old timers" are. I have observed that closely and concluded for myself that the problem is that most people have a lot of grief in their lives and in a way, AA is always focusing on losses. At the same time, there is nowhere to go with grief as it isn't allowed. So the sadness gets stuffed leaving only the anger to be dumped out in the meeting, usually aimed at someone who isn't getting the program or was foolish enough to tell the truth about their selfish life. Notice that sometime. Old timers in AA are often an angry lot: a mask of serenity with a seething cauldron underneath.

And there is no shortage of true believers who are ready to lash out angrily and hatefully whenever anyone dares to criticize A.A. or its beliefs. Many people are not interested in the truth at all. Rather, they just want to hear some affirmation of their own beliefs -- that is, their own superstitions.

I regularly receive emails from true-believer A.A. members who claim that I am wrong about something or other. When I answer, showing them the evidence that supports my statements, they simply ignore it and change the subject, and complain about something else. They simply will not allow their opinions to be changed by mere facts. They are in denial. That is not good mental health, nor is it recovery, nor is it a lifestyle of "rigorous honesty." That is a lifestyle of self-deception.

43. Create a sense of powerlessness, covert fear, guilt, and dependency.
A.A. scores a 10.

Margaret Thaler Singer lists this item as one of the five essential criteria for an effective thought reform or brainwashing program.

A.A. creates feelings of powerlessness, covert fear, guilt and dependency in its victims in a variety of ways:

• Step One says that members are powerless over alcohol, and unable to manage their own lives.

• Step Two says that members are insane.

• Step Three says that members must turn over -- surrender -- control of their lives and their wills to "God as we understood Him", who can be anything, including the local Group Of Drunks.

• Step Four demands that members make lists of everything they ever did wrong in their entire lives, and Step Five instructs members to confess that list to someone.

• Step Seven tells members to "humbly" beg God to remove their "defects of character" and "moral shortcomings". It doesn't say anything about people healing themselves.

• Step Nine demands that members make another list of everyone they ever harmed or offended.

• A.A. tells newcomers that their thinking is defective, and their morality is hopelessly flawed. "You are selfish. Everything you do is just for yourself."

• A.A. also tells members that they cannot ever recover: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." You will allegedly always be a sinful weak alcoholic, in imminent danger of relapsing and dying drunk in a gutter unless you Keep Coming Back to A.A. meetings.

  We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control.   ...   Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.
  The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, Chapter 5, "More About Alcoholism", page 30.

  We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic."
  The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, Chapter 5, "More About Alcoholism", page 33.

• The words "must", "requirement", and "necessity" are used in "the Big Book" and "12X12" far more often than the word "suggestion".

  Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us!
  The Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, Chapter 5, "How It Works", page 62.

  "I decided I must place this program above everything else, even my family, because if I did not maintain my sobriety I would lose my family anyway."
  The Big Book, 3rd Edition, Chapter B10, He Sold Himself Short, page 293.

  So it is that we first see humility as a necessity.
  Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 174.

  The word "suggestion" is often closely followed by threats of "...or else your fate will be Jails, Institutions, or Death."

  ... after a while we had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life -- or else.
  The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, We Agnostics, page 44.

  Unless each A.A. member follows to the best of his ability our [Bill Wilson's] suggested Twelve Steps to recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant.
  Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 174.

  ...the [Twelve] Steps ... are "suggested" in the same way that, if you jump out of an airplane with a parachute, it is "suggested" that you pull the ripcord to save your life.
  Daily Reflections; A Book of Reflections by A.A. members for A.A. members, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1990, page 344, December 1.
  

• Bill Wilson devoted a large part of both the Big Book and his second book, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, to declaring that alcoholics are all evil immoral insane sinners. That is good for inducing feelings of guilt and self-doubt.

  Alcoholics especially should be able to see that instinct run wild in themselves is the underlying cause of their destructive drinking. ... This perverse soul-sickness is not pleasant to look upon.
  Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 44.

  An alcoholic in his cups is an unlovely creature.
  The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, page 16.

  By now the newcomer has probably arrived at the following conclusions: that his character defects, representing instincts gone astray, have been the primary cause of his drinking and his failure at life...
  Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 50.

  Few indeed are the practicing alcoholics who have any idea how irrational they are, or seeing their irrationality, can bear to face it. Some will be willing to term themselves "problem drinkers," but cannot endure the suggestion that they are in fact mentally ill. ... no alcoholic ... can claim 'soundness of mind' for himself.
  Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 33.

  Now let's ponder the need for a list of the more glaring personality defects all of us have in varying degrees.   ... Some will become quite annoyed if there is talk about immorality, let alone sin. But all who are in the least reasonable will agree upon one point: that there is plenty wrong with us alcoholics about which plenty will have to be done if we are to expect sobriety, progress, and any real ability to cope with life.
        To avoid falling into confusion over the names these defects should be called, let's take a universally recognized list of major human failings -- the Seven Deadly Sins of pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, sloth.
  Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 44.

  See the file Us Stupid Drunks for many more such examples.

• A.A. makes members repeatedly publicly or privately confess all of their sins and failures. Every meeting is just another confession session.

• Bill Wilson insisted that A.A. members must become dependent upon the group for their very survival.

  His lone courage and unaided will cannot do it. Surely he must now depend upon Somebody or Something else.
  Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 39.

  You can, if you wish, make A.A. itself your 'higher power.' Here's a very large group who have solved their alcohol problem. In this respect they are certainly a power greater than you, who have not even come close to a solution. Surely you can have faith in them. Even this minimum of faith will be enough. You will find many members who have crossed the threshold just this way.
  Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William Wilson, pages 27-28.

  (Crossed what threshold? To where?)

  Therefore dependence, as A.A. practices it, is really a means of gaining true independence of the spirit.
  Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 36.

• A.A. makes demands for superhuman perfection. Members are supposed to feel just "Serenity and Gratitude" from practicing the Twelve Steps. Members are only supposed to feel unconditional love and complete acceptance towards newcomers. Since members cannot meet these super-human standards, they feel guilty and inadequate.

• Phobia induction -- A.A. implants fears in members, particularly fears about what will happen to them if they leave the group -- they will die drunk in a gutter. Members who quit the group have no future but Jails, Institutions, or Death, they say.

• And A.A. also makes members afraid to think. Members are told that thinking critically about the A.A. program will lead to a relapse. Newcomers are even told that they are not qualified to think.
  "Stop Your Stinkin' Thinkin'!"
  "You have a thinking problem, not a drinking problem."
  "Your best thinking got you here!"
  Bill Wilson actually declared that A.A. members do not even have the right to think for themselves.

Also see the item They Make You Dependent On The Group for more information about dependency.

44. Dispensed existence
The cult decides who is worthy, and who deserves to live.
A.A. scores a 10.

• A.A. decides whether people are good or bad, based on their abstinence from alcohol, their "working a strong program", and their acceptance of Bill Wilson's religion.

  When first contacted, most alcoholics just wanted to find sobriety, nothing else. They clung to their other defects, letting go only little by little. They simply did not want to get "too good too soon." The Oxford Groups' absolute concepts -- absolute purity, absolute honesty, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love -- were frequently too much for the drunks. These ideas had to be fed with teaspoons rather than by buckets.
  Alcoholics Anonymous Comes Of Age, William G. Wilson, pages 74-75.

• A.A. decides what "good" and "bad" mean.

• A.A. has an elitist world view.

• A.A. dispenses conditional love and conditional approval to alcoholics, in spite of its public claims of doing just the opposite. It's "love" and approval depend, of course, on a person's conformity to the group, sobriety, and acceptance of A.A. dogma as "the true spiritual principles".

• A.A. practices shunning and ostracism of those who quit A.A.. They are declared to no longer be good people. (They may be "dry drunks".) In fact, they are declared to be dangerous -- people who may lure good members back into drinking.

45. Ideology Over Experience, Observation, and Logic
A.A. scores a 10.

This item is one of Lifton's 8 and Singer's 5 Criteria for brainwashing or mind control -- Doctrine Over Person -- implement group doctrine over personal beliefs. Past experiences and values are invalid if they conflict with the new A.A. morality.

This item is pretty obvious, in that almost all members of A.A. and N.A. are people who previously got into trouble with alcohol or drugs or both, so it is easy to tell them that their former life was no good, and their thinking was no good, so now they must live the 12-step way or else their fate will be "Jails, Institutions, or Death".

The slogan is "Principles Before Personalities", which means that cult dogma can be used to trump anybody else's statements, facts, or beliefs.

As a good A.A. member, you should:

• Believe what your sponsor and the other old-timers tell you, rather than your own common sense and your own thinking (because they say that your thinking is "alcoholic" and "your best thinking got you here").

• Believe that A.A. doctrines are correct, even if they seem contrary to your own personal experiences, and even if they seem illogical, contradictory, and nonsensical. (Newcomers who disagree with A.A. dogma are said to be "in denial" and "thinking alcoholically".)

• Believe that the Twelve Steps really do work to make people quit drinking, or quit doing drugs, or quit being nagging wives, or quit wanting sex, or whatever it is...

• Abandon your own logical, rational mind and "Reason", and just "have faith" in the grandiose proclamations of Bill Wilson in the Big Book. Your own beliefs and understanding of religion are irrelevant, as are the opinions of most other preachers, theologians, ministers, doctors, and psychiatrists.
  

• Believe that the founders or the old-timers of A.A. can see another, higher, reality which you cannot yet see, because you don't have enough years of Time (time in A.A., that is).

• Likewise, believe that the old-timers have knowledge and wisdom which you do not have, so their judgement is better than yours.

• If Bill Wilson or Doctor Bob said something, then it is true because they said it. Just ignore any and all facts to the contrary. In no case can you cite your own experiences as evidence that Bill W. was wrong about something.

46. Keep them unaware that there is an agenda to change them.
A.A. scores a 10.

This is one of Margaret Thaler Singer's Five Essential Conditions for a brainwashing program:
"Keep them unaware that there is an agenda to change them, and unaware of how they are being changed, step by step."

One of Edgar Schein's essential conditions for a brainwashing program is:
"Keep the person unaware of what is going on and the changes taking place."

Bill Wilson described how Alcoholics Anonymous is just such a program:

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.
      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. Happily for everyone, this conclusion is erroneous.
      ... Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James [in his book The Varieties of Religious Experience] calls the "educational variety" because they develop slowly over a period of time. Quite often friends of the newcomer are aware of the difference long before he is himself. He finally realizes that he has undergone a profound alteration in his reaction to life; that such a change could hardly have been brought about by himself alone.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, Appendix II, "Spiritual Experience", page 569.

So, the old-timers can see how the program is working on the newcomer's mind, but the newcomer can't see what they are doing to him, until later.

In Step Eleven we saw that if a Higher Power had restored us to sanity and had enabled us to live with some peace of mind in a sorely troubled world, then such a Higher Power was worth knowing better, by as direct contact as possible. The persistent use of meditation and prayer, we found, did open the channel so that where there had been a trickle, there now was a river which led to sure power and safe guidance from God as we were increasingly better able to understand Him.
        So, practicing these Steps, we had a spiritual awakening about which finally there was no question. Looking at those who were only beginning and still doubting themselves, the rest of us were able to see the change setting in. From great numbers of such experiences, we could predict that the doubter who still claimed that he hadn't got the "spiritual angle," and who still considered his well-loved A.A. group the higher power, would presently love God and call Him by name.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, pages 108-109.

Note the hidden agenda: The newcomer may have joined A.A. because he had a drinking problem that he wanted to deal with, but Bill Wilson's masked intention is to make him "love God and call Him by name." The truth about that hidden agenda, and the real nature of the A.A. program, is only doled out "by teaspoons, not buckets."

And this line is rather disturbing:
"Looking at those who were only beginning and still doubting themselves, the rest of us were able to see the change setting in."
Bill says that the beginners will not be able to see the "change setting in", but the elders will. So the newcomers will not be aware of how the indoctrination and the Twelve-Step program is changing them and affecting their minds, bringing them to the point where they will be ready to "love God and call Him by name", but the elders will know what is going on.

That sounds like brainwashing. The least that you can call it is the underhanded disguised religious conversion of the newcomers by the old-timers. (Yes, religious conversion done by this organization that claims that it isn't a religion and it doesn't do religious conversions.)

"There is no better means to discovery of a Higher Power than within a 12-step program."
Grandchildren of Alcoholics; Another Generation of Co-dependency, Ann W. Smith, page 125.

47. Thought-Stopping Language. Thought-terminating clichés and slogans.
A.A. scores a 10.

The use of lots of thought-stopping slogans and clichés is one of Robert Jay Lifton's eight essential conditions for a "thought reform" (brainwashing) program.

A.A. has so many slogans and thought-stopping clichés that I can only paraphrase the Bible: "Our name is Legion, for we are so many." Alcoholics Anonymous has to be the world's champion for slogans; I just cannot think of any other cult or organization that has more slogans.

Notice that many of them conflict with each other, so you can sometimes quote a slogan for whichever side of an issue you wish to take. Also notice how many of them are negative, and condescending or demeaning. That helps in the cult conversion process, breaking down the minds and wills of newcomers.

• "It isn't religious, it's spiritual."
  
• "Nobody comes here by accident."
  
• "You're exactly where you're supposed to be."
  
• "Think, Think, Think."
  
• "Stop Your Stinkin' Thinkin'."
  
• "You have a thinking problem, not a drinking problem."
  
• "Don't Intellectualize, Utilize."
  
• "Don't Compare -- Identify!"⁸
  
• "Your thinking is alcoholic."
  
• "Don't let them live rent-free in your head."
  
• "Your best thinking got you here."
  
• "You need a checkup from the neck up."
  
• "Keep An Open Mind."
• "You are in denial."
  
• "You're only one drink away from a drunk."
  
• "Take What You Want, and Leave the Rest."
  
• "If you leave, you'll come back on your knees."
  
• "Are you in AA or around AA?"
• "This is a program of rigorous honesty."
  
• "Fake it until you make it."
  
• "Act As If..."
  
• "You can act yourself into thinking right easier than you can think yourself into acting right."
  
• "Don't let anything get in front of your recovery."
  
• "You must be willing to go to any length for your sobriety."
  
• "Easy Does It."
  
• "Don't Procrastinate."
  
• "God is Good Orderly Direction."
  
• "God is a Group Of Drunks."
  
• "God never gives you more than you can handle."
  
• "Let Go and Let God."
  
• "God will only do for you what you can't do for yourself."
  
• "Our Need Is God's Opportunity."
  
• "Quit Playing God."
  
• "God Will Never Give You More Than You Can Handle."
  
• "Ego is Easing God Out."
  
• "Ego is Edging God Out."
  
• "Faith is hope with a track record."
  
• "Faith is spelled A-C-T-I-O-N."
  
• "Faith without works is dead."
  
• "To Keep It, You Have To Give It Away."
  
• "Alcoholics Anonymous requires no beliefs."
  
• "I came, I came to, I came to believe."
• "It's Our Way or the Die Way."
  
• "Expect a miracle."
  
• "You Are Not Alone."
  
• "Count Your Blessings."
  
• "Anger Is But One Letter Away From Danger."
  
• "Get Off The Pity Pot."
  
• "Live and Let Live."
  
• "Keep Coming Back."
  
• "You are exactly where God wants you to be."
  
• "It Works If You Work It."
  
• "Work It, You're Worth It."
  
• "The Twelve Steps are but suggestions only."
  
• "Work the Steps, Or Die!"
  
• "If you don't work a Fourth you'll drink a fifth."
  
• "A.A. is the last house on the street."
  
• "Higher Powered."
  
• "Stuff Your Feelings."
  
• "I Don't Do Feelings."
  
• "Don't Take Somebody Else's Inventory."
  
• "FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real."
  
• "FEAR = False Expectations Appearing Real."
  
• "FEAR = Frantic Effort to Appear Recovered."
  
• "FEAR = F*** Everything And Run, or Face Everything and Recover."
  
• "HALT: Don't get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired."
  
• "AA = Altered Minds."
  
• "Principles Before Personalities."
  
• "Religion is for people who are afraid of going to Hell; Spirituality is for people who've been there."
  
• "The surest way to AA is to first go all the way to hell."
  
• "You need a meeting."
  
• "You don't have to know how electricity works, in order to use it."
  
• "Alcohol is Cunning, Baffling, and Powerful."
  
• "Alcohol wants to kill me."
  
• "My disease wants to kill me."
  
• "Nothing is so bad that a drink will not make it worse."
  
• "No one is too drunk for the program."
  
• "Principles Before Personalities."
  
• "It Works -- It Really Does!"
  
• "Recovery Is a Journey, Not a Destination."
  
• "Stick With the Winners."
  
• "Keep Coming Back... It Works If You Work It, It Won't If You Don't."
  
• "H.O.W. = Honesty, Openmindedness, Willingness."
  
• "Live In The NOW."
  
• "Just For Today."
  
• "A person with one eye on yesterday and one eye on tomorrow is living cockeyed."
  
• "One day at a time."
  
• "Living in the here and now."
  
• "God is never late."
  
• "You will be amazed."
  
• "If God Seems Far Away, Who Moved?"
  
• "Sponsors: Have One -- Use One -- Be One."
  
• "Be Part Of The Solution, Not The Problem."
  
• "I Can't Handle It. God, You Take Over."
  
• "Willingness Is The Key."
  
• "Clean and Serene."
  
• "If AA uses brainwashing, then our brains must need to be washed."
  
• "No Pain... No Gain."
  
• "Pain is the fire that burns the heart burn."
  
• "N.U.T.S. -- Not Using the Steps."
  
• "S.O.B.E.R. = Son of a B****, Everything's Real."
  
• "Before You Say: I Can't... Say, I'll Try."
  
• "Don't Drink, Read The Big Book, And Go To Meetings."
  
• "It's In The Book."
  
• "Use The 24-Hour Plan."
  
• "Make Use Of Telephone Therapy."
  
• "Stay in Recovery For Yourself."
  
• "Look For Similarities Rather Than Differences."
  
• "Do It Sober."
  
• "Pass It On."
  
• "Another Friend of Bill W's."
  
• "God Is Never Late."
  
• "Have A Good Day Unless You've Made Other Plans."
  
• "90 Meetings in 90 Days."
  
• "You Are Not Alone."
  
• "Wherever You Go, There You Are."
  
• "Remember Your Last Drunk."
  
• "Remember That Addiction Is Incurable, Progressive, and Fatal."
  
• "Try Not To Place Conditions On Your Recovery."
  
• "When All Else Fails Follow Directions."
  
• "Respect The Anonymity of Others."
  
• "Pain Is Optional."
  
• "Let Go Of Old Ideas."
  
• "We are not responsible for our family. We are not responsible to our family."
  
• "Try To Replace Guilt With Gratitude."
  
• "What Goes Around, Comes Around."
  
• "Change Is A Process, Not An Event."
  
• "Stay Sober For Yourself."
  
• "Call Your Sponsor Before, Not After, You Take The First Drink."
  
• "When all else fails, listen to your sponsor."
  
• "Your best sponsor is the Big Book."
  
• "Sick And Tired Of Being Sick And Tired."
  
• "It's The First Drink That Gets You Drunk."
  
• "Drink, Drank, Drunk."
  
• "What Goes Around, Comes Around."
  
• "P.L.O.M. = Poor Little Old Me."
  
• "Pain is a constant. Suffering is a choice."
  
• "Remember Happiness And Serenity Are An Inside Job."
  
• "You know you are sharing a feeling when you do not need a reply."
  
• "Any Addict Clean Is A Miracle."
  
• "We Demand Less And Give More."
  
• "Our worst day in sobriety is better than our best day drinking."
  
• "Believe In God Or Be God."
  
• "If Only...."
  
• "Help Is Only A Phone Call Away."
  
• "Around The Program Or In The Program?"
  
• "You Can't Give Away What You Don't Have."
  
• "One Drink Is Too Many And A Thousand Is Not Enough."
  
• "Under Every Skirt Is A Slip."
  
• "If you don't want to slip, avoid slippery places."
  
• "Courage To Change..."
  
• "Easy Does It, But Do It."
  
• "Bring The Body And The Mind Will Follow."
  
• "But for the Grace of God."
  
• "This Too Shall Pass."
  
• "I Can't... God Can... I Think I'll Let Him."
  
• "I Can't Handle It, God. I'll Give It To You."
  
• "More Will Be Revealed."
  
• "When man listens, God speaks."
  
• "If It Works... Don't Fix It."
  
• "Resign from the Debating Society."
  
• "Your secrets will keep you sick."
  
• "You're only as sick as your secrets."
  
• "Screw Guilt."
  
• "Some are sicker than others."
  
• "Like a wire stripped of its insulation."
  
• "We're All Here Because We're Not All There."
  
• "Some people are so successful in recovery, they turn out to be almost as good as they thought they were while drinking."
  
• "Alcoholism is an equal opportunity destroyer."
  
• "Don't take yourself too damn seriously." (TSATT, page 149.)
  
• "Rule 62: Don't take yourself so seriously."
  
• "Stop living in the problem and start living in the answer."
  
• "I pray to God every day that I never get the idea that I can run my own life."
  
• "It is insane to keep on doing the same old things you've always been doing, and expect to get different results."
  
• "Don't leave five minutes before the miracle."
  
• "One Drink, One Drunk."
  
• "Only another alcoholic will understand."
  
• "Alcoholism is the only disease that tells you you're all right."
  
• "Denial isn't just a river in Egypt."
  
• "Nobody can do it alone."
  
• "We are all Miracles."
  
• "Take the cotton out of your ears and stick it in your mouth."
  
• "Meeting makers make it."
  
• "Keep your own side of the street swept."
  
• "The most important thing is suit up and show up."
  
• "The most important thing is just never take that first drink."
  
• "The most important thing is to work the steps."
  
• "Sit Down, Shut Up, and Learn Something."
  
• "Quitting isn't an option for addicts like us."
  
• "If you drink, your fate is jails, institutions, or death."
  
• "Alcoholics can't afford to have resentments."
  
• "Turn it over."
  
• "Let it go."
  
• "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"
  
• "Just Don't Drink, Dummy!"
  
• "Progress, Not Perfection."
  
• "First Things First."
  
• "Poor me, poor me, pour me another drink."
  
• "Nobody is ever too dumb to get the program, but some people are too intelligent."
  
• "Opinions are like ass-holes -- everybody's got one, and most of them stink."
  
• "If you point a finger at someone, you will find three pointed back at you."
  
• "Acceptance is the answer to all of your problems today."
  
• "Get On Your Knees."
  
• "If you don't bend your knees, you'll bend your elbow."
  
• "Bend your knees before you bend your elbow."
  
• "Get humble."
  
• "You can't save your face and your ass at the same time."
  
• "Stop fighting everyone."
  
• "We're the experts on addiction."
  
• "Sober 'n Crazy."
  
• "Don't Quit -- Surrender."
  
• "He's taking a geographic."
  
• "Anything can be your Higher Power: a teacup, a doorknob, a stone."
  
• "At first you come because you have to come, but later you come because you love to come."
  
• "This Is A Selfish Program."
  
• "If you call me when you're sober I'll show you how much I love you. If you call me when you're drunk I'll show you how much I love ME."
  
• "There aren't any 'musts' in this program, but there are a lot of 'you betters'."
  
• "Unless each AA member follows to the best of his ability our suggested Twelve Steps of recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant. We must obey certain principles or we die."
  
• "He suffers from terminal uniqueness."
  
• "What you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here."
  
• "We can only keep that which we give away." (Meaning: recruit new members for the cult, and indoctrinate them.)
• "Freely giving what was freely giving to us..." (Meaning: recruit as we were recruited; indoctrinate them as we were indoctrinated.)
• "He's a bleeding deacon" (He's an unhappy old-timer).
  
• "He's on a dry drunk" (He is simultaneously sober and in disagreement with A.A.).
  
• "He's sitting on the pity pot" (He is indulging in self-pity; not being grateful for A.A.).
  
• "Who would you rather associate with, your former drinking buddies, or sober people in recovery?"
  

  And undoubtedly, the single worst thought-stopping slogan of all is:
  

• "Utilize, Don't Analyze."
  

And if they want a few more slogans, I have some favorites of my own that I'll be happy to donate to the cause:

• "My Kharma just run over your Dogma."
  
• "Pray for Brains."
  
• "Some are more brainwashed than others." -- Me
  
• "Death is just Mother Nature's way of telling you that it's time to quit smoking." -- John B. Pace
  
• "Wake up and smell the coffee."
• "Put new batteries in your bullshit detector."
• "Keeping an open mind is a virtue, but not so open that your brains fall out." -- James Oberg
• "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
  
• "A mind is a wonderful thing to waste." -- From our beloved ex-Vice President Dan Quale
  
• "Life is what happens while you are trying to get your life together." -- Me
  
• "A year spent making mud pies is just a year wasted -- you still don't have any pies to eat." -- Me
  
• "There is nothing quite like dying for convincing you that you really need to take better care of your health." -- Me
• "Keep An Open Mind." -- Be entirely ready and willing to admit that Bill Wilson was insane, the Twelve Steps don't work, and the whole program is a bunch of cult baloney. So keep an open mind, please, and quit being in denial.
• "You can get more stinkin' from 12-step thinkin' than you can from drinkin'." -- Me
  

Also see the item "Cult-speak" for more redefined words and thought-stopping language.

48. Mystical Manipulation
A.A. scores a 10.

Cults routinely practice the engineering of experiences. Robert J. Lifton called it Mystical Manipulation, and described it as,

• Everyone is manipulating everyone, under the belief that it advances the "ultimate purpose".
• Experiences are engineered to appear to be spontaneous, when, in fact, they are contrived to have a deliberate effect.
• People mistakenly attribute their experiences to spiritual causes when, in fact, they are concocted by human beings.
  Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, by Robert Jay Lifton, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1963.

Mystical manipulation is also the perception of coincidental or inevitable events as spiritual signs. Recruits are taught that such signs reveal the greatness of the group.

A.A. does that constantly. How it works is:

• You feel worse and worse as you do your Fourth Step, making long lists of all of your sins, defects, wrongs, and moral shortcomings.
  
• You feel guilty and inadequate.
  
• The pressure and anxiety builds up inside of you.
  
• Then you do your Fifth Step, and break down and confess everything to someone else.
  
• When it is over, the sudden release of tension feels good.
  
• You are relieved that it is finally over.
  
• You mistakenly interpret that feeling of immense relief as a spiritual experience, and you imagine that you have been relieved of your sins.

In addition, A.A. members routinely claim that the benefits of sobriety are caused by supernatual forces, which they are not. Any time someone quits killing himself with alcohol and starts eating better, he will feel better -- a lot better. After several months of sobriety, which gives the brain time to heal some of the damage from alcohol, the ex-drinker will experience sudden rushes of energy, clarity, and heightened awareness. A.A. members are wont to claim that these experiences are "spiritual experiences" or "spiritual awakenings", caused by God, rather than the simple, natural result of recovery from alcoholism.

49. The guru or the group demands ultra-loyalty and total committment.
A.A. scores a 10.

In the Big Book, Bill Wilson instructs the A.A. recruiters to pressure a prospective new member to write a blank check -- to get him to agree in advance to do anything:

... let his family or a friend ask him if he wants to quit for good and if he would go to any extreme to do so.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, page 90.

Then A.A. says that members can never graduate from the program, and they can never leave. They must continue to go to meetings and Work The Steps for the rest of their lives. They must be willing to go to any length to get "sobriety" -- "half measures availed us nothing."

If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it -- then you are ready to take certain steps.
      At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not.   ...
      Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, Chapter 5, "How It Works", pages 58-59.

The A.A. old-timers sneer at the newcomers who only want to quit drinking and do not wish to devote their lives to a cult religion -- the old-timers call them "one-steppers". (Bill Wilson was twice as generous -- he called them "two-steppers".)

The Big Book actually declares that Alcoholics Anonymous must come before everything else in a member's life, including job, wife, and children -- it's really The Only Thing that matters:

We all had to place recovery above everything...
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, Henry Parkhurst, Chapter 10, To Employers, page 143.

"I decided I must place this program above everything else, even my family, because if I did not maintain my sobriety I would lose my family anyway."
The Big Book, 3rd Edition -- Chapter B10, He Sold Himself Short, page 293.

And a rehash of the Big Book that is intended for youths tells a story of a supposedly-successful recovery where...

Even after she remarries, she doesn't lose sight of her priorities. She places God first and A.A. second. Her husband is never more than the third most important aspect of her life.
Big Book Unplugged; A Young Person's Guide to Alcoholics Anonymous, John R., page 107.

Bill Wilson also declared:

Although financial recovery is on the way for many of us, we found we could not place money first. For us, material well-being always followed spiritual progress; it never preceded.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William Wilson, Chapter 9, page 127.

So A.A. comes before job and career. (Note how Bill Wilson often equated involvement with A.A. and "spiritual progress". He also equated A.A. activities with "recovery". They aren't the same things at all. That's another propaganda trick, "False Equality".)

And, Bill says, you must busy yourself with A.A. activities every day, even to the point of neglecting your family:

Helping others is the foundation stone of your recovery. A kindly act once in a while isn't enough. You have to act the Good Samaritan every day, if need be.
...
Your wife may sometimes say she is neglected.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William Wilson, Chapter 7, Working With Others, page 97.

Note that "helping others" is a euphemism -- cult-speak -- for recruiting new A.A. members.

50. Demands for Total Faith and Total Trust
A.A. scores a 10.

Bill Wilson constantly demanded that you have complete and total faith in his cult religion, and believe his statements without question.

I was beginning to see that I would require implicit faith, like a small child, if I was going to get anywhere.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, The News Hawk, Page 259.

Bill Wilson used all of chapter four of the Big Book to lecture the readers on how they must believe in Bill Wilson's version of God. Wilson even declared that you must abandon human intelligence, logic, and 'Reason', and just have blind faith in his program. You can't even allow intelligence, common sense, or sanity to interfere with belief that Bill Wilson's way is The Only Way:

Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word... Rather vain of us, wasn't it?
      We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion. ... People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William Wilson, We Agnostics, page 49.

Hence, we saw that reason isn't everything. Neither is reason, as most of us use it, entirely dependable, though it emanate from our best minds.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William Wilson, We Agnostics, pages 54-55.

(So, because Bill and his friends couldn't think correctly, you shouldn't try to, either.)

Some of us had already walked far over the Bridge of Reason toward the desired shore of faith. The outlines and the promise of the New Land had brought lustre to tired eyes and fresh courage to flagging spirits. Friendly hands stretched out in welcome. We were grateful that Reason had brought us so far. But somehow, we couldn't quite step ashore. Perhaps we had been leaning too heavily on Reason that last mile and did not like to loose our support.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William Wilson, We Agnostics, Page 53.

So you should abandon Reason and just "have faith" in Bill Wilson's delusions of grandeur.

Also see the file "A.A. and Religious Faith" for more information about how you must give up your mind to Bill Wilson and A.A., and just "have faith".

Footnotes:

1) Nan Robertson, Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, page 76.

2) Nan Robertson, Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, page 80.

3) Nan Robertson, Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, page 32. "When you go to Dr. Smith, you really bet your ass."

4) Bill W. A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson     Francis Hartigan
Francis Hartigan was Lois Wilson's private secretary, so if anybody should be privy to the insider secrets about Bill's infidelities, it would be Francis. And Hartigan says that Bill was about as faithful as a horny alley cat, all of his life, both before and after sobriety. Hartigan says that Bill regularly 13th-stepped the dewy-eyed pretty young things who showed up at the A.A. meetings. Bill was so obnoxious that the other old-timers had to form a committee to watch him -- "The Founder's Watch Committee" -- to follow Bill around and keep him from doing it all again and again, and publicly embarrassing Alcoholics Anonymous yet again.
See chapter 25, The Other Woman, page 192, for a description of the Founder's Watch Committee.

5) Bill W., A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson     Francis Hartigan
This biography was written by Lois Wilson's private secretary, Francis Hartigan.
How could an allegedly dead-broke, down-and-out, unemployed alcoholic afford to give his wife a private secretary?
Answer: After Bill finished raiding the A.A. treasury, he was far from broke.

6) The Soul of Sponsorship: The Friendship of Fr. Ed Dowling, S.J. and Bill Wilson in Letters, edited by Robert Fitzgerald, S.J., page 59.

7) "Children of the Healer: The Story of Dr. Bob's Kids As Told to Christine Brewer", by Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows, pages 152-158.

8) The Alcoholics Anonymous Experience, Milton A. Maxwell, Ph.D., pages 64 and 93.

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