Does Alcoholics Anonymous provide help and hope to addicts? Great video!!! (page 2)

1. Religious Orientation, Supernatural Beliefs

As predicted in [my 1980s book] The Small Book, the federal courts now refer to AA doctrinal literature, the steps themselves, as “Exhibit A” showing that AA is “unequivocally religious.” AA is intensely religious; what religion would call for 90 meetings in 90 days? What’s going on here? “The Big Book” [AA’s text Alcoholics Anonymous] is regarded as divinely revealed, sacred scripture within the step-cult; all disagreements are settled by citing passages from it. Gaetano Salomone’s extensive, ongoing analysis in JRR [The Journal of Rational Recovery] shows the purely religious identity and origins of AA. One of his unique contributions is his comparison of the surface structure and the deep structure (what you see and what you get) of the 12-step religious conversion program.

Citation? Whatever he’s talking about, I have not seen it.

Families split apart based on AA membership, just as religious conflict often disrupts family ties. At least one Methodist church has gone belly-up to “those people who meet in the basement,” who arose to conduct Sunday services with a teddy bear affixed over the altar where the image of Christ had been. The Church of Serenity, as they called themselves, worship using a special Bible written for alcoholics.

Who? Where? The last part is directly contradictory to AA tradition. I suspect this is more about the church than AA, but without facts it can’t be investigated.

[A woman] (who? “sister troubled?” sorry, I couldn’t resist) called two days after reading The New Cure, excited that she would never return to AA (she was free to go anytime she wanted, and come back or talk to her friends we don’t shun) , of which she said, “Now I know why I always felt uncomfortable at the meetings. They say that the step program is not religious, but spiritual, but they place no value on religious worship whatsoever. They claim to respect all religions, but believe that no religion is adequate to solve problems of alcohol or drug addiction. To me, this means that AA believes itself to be superior to Christianity when addictive ‘disease’ exists within the family. They diagnosed my entire family as codependents or enablers who must enter their plan of salvation, (false I’d like to see where she gets this) as if they were sick. This was extremely disruptive, but I continued meetings and gradually replaced church connections with the recovery fellowship. (could be, I quit going to church after I got in AA, but that was because I realized it was the church that was full of shit) Although they claim there is no conflict between churches and the program, in reality it is impossible to maintain both. (not true, I know lots of people that do so) From AA, I learned to look at God differently from the teachings of my church. After attending step meetings, I was spiritually self-conscious while worshiping at my church, because my perception of Jesus Christ in church was radically different from the Higher Power I was, in effect, worshiping at recovery meetings. I could not express this problem at meetings or at church, but Rational Recovery has reunited me with my religion by showing that drinking is not a disease; it is sin, and AVRT is the nuts and bolts of Christian repentance.”

This is starting to sound like a church person that’s pissed off because AA let’s people make up their own minds about this.

2. Irrationality, Rigidity, Anti-Intellectualism

To AA believers, AA doctrine must be correct, as it is written. No one may speak of the incoherence of AA doctrine, (what doctrine, what inchoherence) and group interaction is designed to prevent or contain skepticism. “Your best thinking got you here.” “There’s no one too dumb to get this program, but many are too intelligent.” “Expect a miracle.”

Group interaction is designed to support you getting sober.

3. A Charismatic Leader

Few would disagree that [AA co-founder] Bill W. has become a folk saint, revered and idolized by the 12-step community. His home has become a shrine, and his personal memorabilia have become sacred artifacts. He is regarded by some as the reincarnation of Christ, guiding the world into the Age of Sobriety, a millennium comparable to the Kingdom of God spoken of in the Bible. AA lifers trace their lineage back to Bill W. through a genealogy of sponsors, and speak with great pride to say, “Bill W. was my sponsor’s great-gransponsor.” Core members of AA are referred to as “Trusted Servants,” despite disclaimers that AA has no leaders. This image-making label endows such individuals with enormous moral authority, for they are, in fact, representing AA’s lineage to Bill W. and ultimately to the Loving God AA obediently serves.

We acknowledge Bill as the first AA. I have never heard a word about his memorabilia. I have never heard anybody say he was the reincarnation of Christ, or refer to AA in millennial terms. Every AA’s sponsorship traces back to Bill W. The “trusted servants” is a reference to a few people that manage the organization (the lease organized organization I’ve ever seen). Every group elects some one from among its members to represent them. They have no special position beyond what they volunteer to do, nor are they accorded any sort of privileges

4. A Hierarchical, Authoritarian Structure

While AA appears to the casual observer as a nonprofit corporation that sponsors autonomous, community-level cell groups, it has evolved far beyond that level of organization. (citation?) Its members, shielded by anonymity and presenting themselves as concerned addictions experts, have infiltrated federal and state bureaucracies, where they manipulate social policies and funding patterns affecting America’s social service system. Hundreds of nonprofit organizations exist purely for the purpose disseminating disease-treatment propaganda and networking within communities to create political support for the 12-step agendas described in AA doctrinal literature. Now in possession of the American social service system, including the prisons and courts, the professional disciplinary and licensing boards, the medicaid and social welfare programs, and the military health care system, AA can be seen as a powerful hierarchy of professional AA’ers employed in positions of social responsibility. AA is a cult which has spread into a bureaucracy, which I call a “cultocracy,” for the lack of a standard word to describe this anomaly. The funding for the AA cultocracy is not from the free-will donations of grateful alcoholics, but taken from each taxpayer by the force of national tax laws. The AA cultocracy enlarges AA’s membership by using the authority of social institutions to force vulnerable people into their recovery groups, where they are indoctrinated under conditions that should interest Amnesty International. The penalty for resisting AA participation may be imprisonment, death from the lack of organ transplant, imprisonment as in parole and early-release policies, loss of social welfare and health care benefits, loss of child custody as in domestic court cases, loss of livelihood as in impaired professional programs, and loss of employment as in employment assistance programs.

A long screed with no citations for any part of it.

It has been known for a long time that persons who test high on authoritarianism relate best to the rigors of the 12-step program and are more likely to become devoted, long-term members. (Citation?)The sponsor system assures social stratification, self-debasement, and gratification of the need for control over others. (citation?) Beyond this, members achieve status and credibility based on time since last drink, so that someone with five years of sobriety might feel diminished in the presence of someone a decade sober. (not in my experience) The result is a core membership of “true believers” whose identities are at one with AA.

I do not support court ordered treatment for the simple reason that I don’t think it works and I don’t like having our meetings clogged with people that don’t want to be there. I know a number of AA groups that won’t sign off on court attendance slips because they think it is a violation of AA principles.

5. Submission of the Individual to the “Will of God”

Quitting drinking is not nearly enough to satisfy the demands of the step program. One must accept the god of AA, the Higher Power, as one’s personal savior. (wrong salvation has nothing to do with it) Nearly all cults have God-control at the core. Jim Jones, David Koresh, and lately the HeavensGate cult are typical of other cults that have taken what they liked from legitimate religions and left the rest. Cults are usually Godly fellowships interpreting the word of God in a unique fashion, always undermining critical thought and making their members progressively more submissive to the will of God. AA’s emphasis on God-control is total, as one AA’er (one out of a couple of million) pathetically demonstrated during a call to RR. He asked, “Does RR think I can lead my life independently?” The answer was, “Yes, if that is want you want.” He said, “Since learning about RR, I pray for only one thing, that I never get that idea in my head. If that ever happens, I’m finished.”

6. Dogmatism, the Ultimate Truth

Reading AA’s central document, “The Big Book,” will show beyond any doubt that AA, despite some polite disclaimers, claims to have the ultimate truth. (where’s a quote to support this?) Anyone who has attempted to argue against AA doctrine during meetings will quickly find out that they are wrong, that the Steps are absolutely true, and to hold opposing beliefs is tantamount to a death sentence. [One person] called to say, “As soon as I told the group I was reading the new RR book, they started rejecting me like I had the plague. It was as if I had betrayed everyone present, or carried the seeds of their destruction.”

(again a second hand source with no backup)

7. Separatism

No cult has succeeded in stigmatizing its members to the extent AA has. Even the HeavensGate cult, requiring uniforms and castration, failed to gain the support of the scientific community to support its bizarre concept of a rescuing UFO hidden in the tail of comet Hale-Bopp. AA has hypothesized the existence of a sacred disease, and found substantial support. Neither Ti nor Do, the cult leaders, obtained the sanction of organized religion to support their conceptions of salvation and heaven. When the 39 cult members died of their own actions which were predicted by cult doctrine, they were not seen to be victims of a hypothetical disease, but to a large extent they were seen as victims of a dangerous cult.

It isn’t much of a stretch to imagine a more highly developed and better organized HeavensGate cult, in which a good number of M.D.’s and psychologists had become devout members. (Heaven knows something more bizarre than that has happened in the “addictionology” field.)

(WTF?)

8. Exclusivity (The Only Path To Salvation)

Throughout the AA scriptures, there appears to be no direct reference to an afterlife, but there is one higher state of being, akin to heaven or nirvana — serenity. Serenity is achieved by diligent step-study which leads to a spiritual awakening, an ineffable and divinely inspired religious conversion experience. Serenity is the state of personal salvation by faith, and is the highest aspiration within the world of the steps. From serenity comes all that is good, good works, good feelings, goodness itself. Serenity is simply divine, and towers above the religious experience of traditional, hierarchical religions. The general attitude of AA society to traditional religion is snobbish humility, once again reflecting the pervasive, inherent contradictions that permeate AA.

(quotes to support this? Serenity is in contrast to the way we used to live. I’ll address that at the end)

9. Self-Absorption (Primary Focus Is the Cult Itself)

AA lore is replete with injunctions to devote one’s life in every way to the cult itself. One may not take credit for abstinence or relief from despair; the only benefactor is AA or God, and the only proper attitude is gratitude. [The AA book] Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions sets forth Tradition One as, “Our common welfare should come first.” AA presents itself as necessary to life itself: “...without AA we will perish.” Any criticism of the Program or of AA is regarded as heresy that endangers the lives of AA’ers everywhere, and must be silenced by admonitions or mottos. Members dwell upon themselves endlessly, working steps on themselves, and attending [meetings] as part of methodical spiritual growth. Step meetings focus on philosophical minutia, and an endless stream of new books on step-recovery, many [published by] Hazelden, are found in bookstores for the struggling recovering alcoholics.

(Again, assertions with no backup)

10. Economic Exploitation

It appears likely that AA has destroyed the economic foundations of more families than addiction itself has. The incestuous relationship of the recovery groups and the treatment centers, where the referral traffic sustains the interests of each, has run up bills that no person or family can pay. Treatment centers have materials for credit applications and mortgage arrangements to pay for the re-admissions of chronic relapsers. If the services were in any way effective, the cost would not be exploitive, but treatment centers are acutely aware that only about five percent of those who come through the turnstiles will remain abstinent for long. Repeat business is the best business in the addiction treatment industry, but claims of “success rates” of 60 to 70 percent are common by the treatment centers.

AA itself has set a suggested limit on how much members can give at meetings (in 1990 it was $500 per year),(I’ve never heard of this, every AA group I’ve been in as been chronically short of funds. And the accounting report and bank rec get passed around every month for everybody to look at) but in the atmosphere of meetings this is akin to a pledge goal. In just one of AA’s many districts, the amount actually sent to AA, not just dropped in the basket, in 1989 was $11 million.

The economic exploitation denied with, “No one makes a dime on AA.” Not so.

(OK, so who? Where’s the proof?)

11. Possessiveness (Go To Great Lengths to Retain Members)

Acclaimed libertarian talk-show host, Gene Burns, noted during a program on Rational Recovery in 1990, “AA has a proprietary interest in every living person who drinks too much.” In our work since then, we have talked almost every day to people who say, “I finally quit because the groupers seemed to think they owned me.” “They kept calling between meetings, and kept telling me I would go crazy or die if I didn’t make more meetings.” “At the meetings, they made me feel naughty for missing meetings.” One man, depressed and frightened but apparently sober, said, “I need help. They’re coming for me.” Believing police or paramedics had been summoned, Lois asked, “Did you threaten yourself or someone else?” He said, “No, they’ve been looking for me. I’m at my sister’s house and they just called and they’re on their way over.” Lois asked, “Who are they?” He answered, “The AA people. They won’t leave me alone. They’re on the porch.” Lois told the caller he could send them away, but he said, “It’s no use. I can’t go against them when they are here,” and hung up.

(Second hand stories with no citation. Totally outside my experience with AA. )

We receive many calls from people who have been securely abstinent for years, but are now required to enter treatment programs. This occurs with professional licensing programs, with drunk driver programs, and in child custody cases.

(Not AA’s problem, take it up with the groups requiring it)

It is commonplace for AA-dropouts to receive calls from AA members asking, “Haven’t seen you for a while. Are you okay?” These calls are not from concern or friendship, but only to manipulate people back into meeting attendance. When the dropout makes it clear that he or she will not be returning, there is no possibility that the grouper will continue to associate or call for other reasons.

12. Mind Control Techniques; Intimidation

While some cults jinx or curse departing members with divine or karmic punishments, AA promises refuseniks hell on earth, either from inevitable drinking or using, or from a malady called dry drunk. The dry drunk concept is one of the most sinister mind-traps ever devised to retain errant cult members. Knowing intimately how addicted people cannot imagine a satisfactory life without the substance, and understanding well the insatiable appetite to continue drinking or using, cult novices are told that quitting drinking or using is useless since addicts cannot be happy, cannot cope with normal stresses of life, or will simply self-destruct after prolonged suffering and deterioration.

(spoken by somebody who has never experienced it)

AA has a well-known reputation as “slogan therapy,” but all cults use repeated phrases as an indoctrination technique. Like all cults, each and every slogan or motto of AA is an inversion of the truth or a platitude to cover an atrocity. The meeting structure itself forbids two-way communications, allowing for one to “share” whatever, with only marginal or no commentary from the group. Approval and disapproval are communicated slyly with acerbic comments from groupers, or nonverbal gestures and cues.

(OK which is it? You can say what you want to get off your chest without back talk from the group, or they’re controlling you. Doesn’t make sense. The last sentence is complete BS)

The fact that all newcomers suffer the same functional problem, i.e, ambivalence with repeated reversal of intent, makes them easy prey for seasoned old-timers who can anticipate addictive thought processes. Instead of freeing people from addiction by telling the simple truth they all must know, they exploit the weakness of newcomers to induct them into the cult. Each abstinent AA’er knows very well that drinking and using is a matter of free choice,(not in my case) and that self-recovery is not only possible, but commonplace. (citation?) Acting out of loyalty and guilt, they repeat the official dogma, that AA is a lifeboat for all addicted people, and to leave the fold is tantamount to choosing death. So zealous has the recovery group movement become, that every single group insists, “Anything can be your Higher Power — a teacup, a doorknob, a stone.” In their zeal, all respect for common sense and self-determination is abandoned in favor of coercive logic approaching absolute mind-control. “At first you come because you have to come,” they say, “but later you come because you love to come.”

No cult on record has achieved such sophisticated means of mind-control that the casual onlooker either doesn’t notice or doesn’t mind the coercion. This is accomplished primarily through the following means:

A. Defining the addicted person as sick, incompetent, in denial, deserving of radical methods and forced humility, i.e., humiliation. Observers will perceive what is actually abuse as necessary and appropriate, as if watching a surgeon slice a person open.

B. The confidence game. The use of legitimate authority symbols, e.g., doctors, psychologists, professional associations, etc., to support the use of the 12-step program. If the state licenses them, they must know something, and if they say it’s okay, then it’s okay.

C. The big lie. Massive denials of reality, such as “AA lends its name to no outside organization,” while virtually all treatment programs are run by professional AA’ers who forcefully indoctrinate participants in the 12-step program. The use of mass media to repeat nonsensical phrases over and over, i.e., “addictive disease,” “treatment works,” “one-day-at-a-time,” “recovery is a process,” “in recovery,” “recovering,” “in denial,” “addiction treatment,” etc., to inure the public and prevent moral outrage over the actual content of American-style addiction recovery.

D. Steptalk, that polished explanation steppers provide when questioned about their odd beliefs and suspicious proclivities. “It isn’t religious, it’s spiritual.” “No one makes money on AA. We are a fellowship of concerned people supported entirely by our own donations.” “Take what you like and leave the rest.” “The 12 steps,” upon which survival is said to depend, “are only suggestions.”

E. Pathologizing inquiry, criticism, and dissent. The Program is divinely inspired, and may not be criticized. Persons who object to cult doctrine are ostracized, reprimanded, regarded as sick, diseased, in denial, in relapse, constitutionally incapable of honesty, or simply doomed. Critics of AA are always angry, in denial, paranoid, sick people. Skeptics and others who test the coherency of AA doctrine are advised, “Take the cotton out of your ears and stick it in your mouth.”

(sources?)

Ok this is as far as I got before my brain hurt too much.

I find it interesting that there seems to be a cottage industry of groups griping about AA – and then trying to recruit you into their program. A good example is Prentice’s “Alcoholism and Addiction Cure” which spends a lot of time tossing up “information” about AA like that above. Of course, what he’s really selling his own program at Passages Malibu which reported costs something between $30,000 and $70,000.

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-06-26/news/buying-the-cure/

http://www.laweekly.com/2009-01-01/news/june-27-2008/

By why of contrast, the program I went through cost 8K.

I looked up Rational Recovery (touted somewhere on this thread)

https://rational.org/index.php?id=1

I will leave it to you to form your own opion.

Bottom line for me:

On August 13, 2005 I tried to kill myself. Two weeks later I went into rehab and I’ve been involved with AA ever since. My life is vastly improved in quantifiable ways (normal liver function tests, staying out of jail, financial stability even in the face of long term unemployment).

AA is a voluntary association. If you don’t want to be a part of it you are free to do something else. If you want help and find something else that works for you, great.

Does Alcoholics Anonymous provide help and hope to addicts? Great video!!!

cyberjesus

cyberjesus

cyberjesus

cyberjesus

JeffT

JeffT

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