The origins of Alcoholics Anonymous always interests me. I have been sober 28 years now only by the grace of God. Attended A.A. a couple of times and despised going. It is basically a self-help program that fails miserably. The relapse rate is extremly high. Please read…..

Bill W. and Dr. Bob: Trying to contact spirits of the dead

Source My Word Like Fire

“At first, though, my host thought I was ribbing him. He knew little of psychics and had heard nothing before this of my adventures.” (A.A. co-founder Bill Wilson, quoted in PASS IT ON, pg. 277)

“[It] might be said for the cofounders at least, A.A. was entangled with spiritualism from the very beginning.” (Matthew J. Raphael, Bill W. and Mr. Wilson, pg. 159)

“[Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Dr. Bob Smith] began every morning with meditation and prayer and twenty minutes of Bible study. Like Bill, Bob believed in paranormal possibility and the two men spent time ‘spooking,’ invoking spirits of the dead.” (Susan Cheever, My Name Is Bill, pg. 197)

“Now, these people, Bill and Bob, believed vigorously and aggressively. They were working away at the spiritualism; it was not just a hobby.” (Early A.A. member Tom Powers, quoted in PASS IT ON, pg. 280)

“Do not seek out mediums and spiritists; do not seek out and be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:31)

“So profound was Bill’s immersion in this area that he at times confused the terms ‘spiritualism’ and ‘spirituality.’” (Ernest Kurtz, Not-god, pg. 136)

“There shall not be found among you…a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 18:10, 11, 12)

“[Dr. Bob] felt that in far distant centuries, the science of the mind would be so developed as to make possible contact between the living and the dead.” (Dr. Bob Smith’s son, “Smitty,” quoted in the official Alcoholics Anonymous biography of his father, DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, pg. 311)

“The ouija board got moving in earnest. What followed was the fairly usual experience—it was a strange mélange of Aristotle, St. Francis, diverse archangels with odd names, deceased friends—some in purgatory and others doing nicely, thank you! There were malign and mischievious ones of all descriptions, telling of vices quite beyond my ken, even as former alcoholics. Then, the seemingly virtuous entities would elbow them out with messages of comfort, information, advice—and sometimes just sheer nonsense.” ( A.A. co-founder Bill Wilson’s statement in Pass It On, pg. 278) (bold mine)

“As for the person who turns to mediums and spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My Face against that person and will cut him off from his people.” (Leviticus 20:6)

According to his official A.A. biography, Bill Wilson considered that “spiritistic matters were no mere parlor game. It’s not clear when he first became interested in extrasensory phenomena; the field was something that Dr. Bob and Anne Smith were also deeply involved with. Whether or not Bill initially became interested through them, there are references to séances and other psychic events in the letters Bill wrote to [wife] Lois during that first Akron summer with the Smiths, in 1935.” (PASS IT ON, pg.275) (bold mine)