The Original Six Step Program

[Dallas]

The Original Six Step Program

The below list of six Steps was the original formula that Dr. Bob and Bill W. were using before the 12 Steps were written down for the first edition of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. In the book A.A. Come's of Age, and in the book Pass It On, Bill explains how the six steps ended up becoming 12 Steps.

* We admitted we were licked.
* We got honest with ourselves.
* We talked it over with another person.
* We made amends to those we had harmed.
* We tried to carry this message to others with no thought of reward.
* We prayed to whatever God we thought there was.

Hope you enjoy reading them.

Dallas

[918gma]

I was reading some of Bill's writings once and I came across a piece on his writing of the Chapter how it works.

It said that he had been having a lot of trouble with it. He kept starting it and it just wasn't working for him. Finally he set every thing aside got down on his knees and said a prayer. He got back up and wrote the original how it works in 20 minutes.

It got a little choped up and watered down by the rest of the hundred others in the program at that time. They said Bill's version sounded to much like the Oxford absolutes. They wanted to cut it up. There was quite a bit of controversy back and forth. Finally Bill agreed to the changes that they wanted to make, on the condition that he would be allowed to finish the rest of the book unedited. They reluctantly agreed.

I have a copy of the original how it works. If any one would be interested in seeing it I can post it for you. Let me know.

[Dallas]

Hello 918gma! I'm so glad to see you here! And, I'm really glad that you are into the history of AA! It shows me that you really care about your sobriety, your life, and about AA! And, if AA is around for generations to come, it will be members like you who keep it going and growing!

I know what you mean by the difference in the final version of Chapter 5, How it works, compared to the original, that was in the last manuscript of the Big Book, before it was published in 1939. I love reading it and noticing the difference.

In a famous quote that is often attributed to some famous, anonymous person, that I never knew, and that I'm just repeating, it says; "Whenever a civilization or society perishes or declines, there is always one condition present, they forgot where they came from."

The Washingtonians, and other endeavors that seemingly showed promise for providing a viable solution to the alcoholic problem forgot where they came from and got away from their primary singleness of purpose. They watered-down and made changes to their programs, got away from their primary purpose, and it eventually led to their demise.

An interesting note in the book AA Comes of Age, indicates that in 1944, of those entering AA, 50 percent never drank again. 25 percent remained sober throughout their lives after experiencing some early difficulties and the remaining 25 percent could not be accounted for. It goes on to say that 75 percent of AA members recovered. And, if the early 1940's Cleveland, Ohio, group’s records are accurate, it would indicate that they were experiencing an amazing 93 percent success rate for recovery.

In 1987, I remember discussions that we had in our AA Central Office in Van Nuys, California, about the unusually high number of newcomer chips that we were ordering (chips for less than 1 year) compared to the one year chips that we were ordering. We came to the erroneous conclusion that "well, maybe it's because their are so many more meetings, that newcomers are going to several meetings to collect newcomer chips and by the time they reach one year, they've kind of settled downâ€

[918gma]

Thank you for sharing. What a message. I do believe much the same way you do.

Meetings are great and helpful, but the program is in the book. It's funny when you think about it, the solution to all our problems can be found in 167 pages.

I am also a big follower of Joe and Charlie. What an awsome team they are. They firmly believe that an AA meeting should be just that, a meeting of Alcoholics talking about the program of AA.

I think the history of the program helps us stick to the basics, by showing us that the original program, which is very spiritually based, is the awnser. I have heard so many people that have relapsed and come back in. They all say the same thing. They stoped praying. They lost their conscious contact with their high power. Once you've lost that, you have lost every thing.