Wholesaling William James

I was at a meeting recently where Step Seven was under discussion: “Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.” The conversation, a very elegant conversation I might say, focused on humility but veered from the topic of “humbly asking to have the shortcomings removed” to a rehash of the shortcomings themselves.  

The meeting required me think again about the origin of the Steps and the essence of A.A.

Bill Wilson composed the Steps with some constructive criticism from the other early A.A. members notably Dr. Bob. Bill knew a good deal experientially about the Oxford Group’s “steps” particularly as articulated by Ebby his “sponsor.”
Then Bill while in detoxification, for the last time, experienced a powerful and dramatic spiritual experience that he describes in his history of A.A. Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (p.63). The day after his personal spiritual experience Bill was given and read William James’ account of such experiences The Varieties of Religious Experiences: A Study in Human Nature.  This book by America’s first and still one of the most notable, American psychologists’ was an empirical analysis of exactly these experiences.  It is easy to see why Bill would be so impressed with VRE, study and refer to it throughout his life, and why he would recommend that all his colleagues in A.A. read and study this still influential work. Ultimately Bill would say that all he really did in creating A.A. was to “wholesale” the ideas he found in VRE for the recovering person.

Very tersely we can summarize James in the following way.  Religious geniuses, a very select sample of individuals (think normal distribution of the ability to have such experiences), have what we in A.A. would call spiritual experiences (see paragraph #3 page 106, 12x12 for a description) spontaneously.  These experiences are dramatic, life changing experiences with whatever the person thinks of as the divine, and often occur in the face of great personal despair, loss, tragedy, etc. A common result of such spiritual experiences was the elimination of all “habitual” vices, e.g., nicotine dependence, alcohol dependence, sexual compulsion, etc. The experiences often also lead to changes in the history of the world when the experiences occur in individuals who are also brilliant and thoughtful, i.e., the great religious leaders of history.  

These experiences can be cultivated systematically by less talented individuals but the experiences are often not as powerful or dramatic. (See Appendix II Spiritual Experience” in Alcoholics Anonymous.) Nevertheless if the individual works at a spiritual path the spiritual experience occurs. There are many and diverse spiritual paths to try and cultivate. The spiritual experience, James emphasized, emerges from the subconscious/unconscious parts of the individuals mind and gives the individual power to accomplish things that appeared very difficult or impossible.  These events have been described and documented throughout history and are still occurring in the present.  

What many of the most brilliant people who have such experiences tell us is that beyond the subconscious/unconscious processes they perceive a power that is greater, higher, outside time and space, which is friendly toward humankind and wants to help individuals and humankind in general. This latter statement cannot be verified empirically but is so repetitive an outcome of such experiences that it is well worth considering carefully.

What Bill describes is developing, based on the Oxford Groups steps which were conveniently available, a “generic” spiritual path that seemed to work for the first 100 alcoholics whose method and experiences are documented in the 1939 book Alcoholics Anonymous now in its 4th edition (2001).

However, a very clear parallel message in this work, and throughout A.A., notably expressed in Dr. Bob’s story and for example in the story of A.A. number three, is that it was this message of a spiritual path delivered by a person who was himself trying to recover from alcoholism.  This was the other key component that went with the spiritual path: one alcoholic talking to another alcoholic.  There was no distance between one alcoholic talking to another alcoholic.  It was a horizontal relationship.  It wasn’t talking up or down to the person it was a level playing field, two sick people talking to each other.  Two people who shared the same experience.  This notion of the importance of shared experience and the irreducible nature of experience was also an undercurrent throughout VRE.

So the point is that one shouldn’t get too “hung-up” on the Steps nor dismiss them lightly.  The Steps are a systematic path to enlightenment, i.e., the dramatic psychic rearrangement we call a spiritual awakening (see the Promises p.83-84 Alcoholics Anonymous). There are other paths equally useful to attain the same end although they don’t emphasize as strongly the “don’t drink or drug today (DDT) message.”  Knowing that, however, it might be just easier to accept the convenient path that A.A. offers rather than wasting time and risking life and limb by looking around for other paths. But sometimes this exploration may be necessary.  As long as the message of abstinence from alcohol and other drugs is contained in whatever spiritual path one needs to take, then take that path.