This workshop is now closed for 2026

This Week's Work

Week 15

This starts Step 4 - Column 1& 2

Week 16

This starts Step 4 - Column 3 Part 1

Week 1

January 8th, 2026

Preface and Forwards, Part 1

Transcribe from the Big Book Awakening (pgs. 1-8) into the corresponding pages in your Big Book (Title Page-p. xxi).
Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.
Print out the questions specific to your addiction and bring to our meeting next week.

Inside of BB with names of how this message was passed down

Week 2

January 15th, 2026

Preface and Forwards, Part 2

Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction

AA: Pgs. 1-3 in STEPS 1-2-3 QUESTION GUIDE (STEP 1)

Al Anon: No Questions for this week: The Idiot’s Guide to the first Three Steps for Chaos Creators, Excitaholics, and Adrenaline Addicts

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Week 3

January 22th, 2026

The Doctor's Opinion

In the AA Big Book, read the Doctor’s Opinion on pages xxv – xxxii.
As you read BBA Workbook pages 9 – 13, put them in the Doctor’s Opinion of the AA Big Book.
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction

AA: In the 1-2-3 Question Guide, answer all THE DOCTOR'S OPINION questions: questions 1 – 20, pages 4 - 9

Al Anon: in the The Idiot’s Guide, answer all THE DOCTOR'S OPINION questions: questions 1 – 10, pages 6 - 9

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Dr. "Silky" Slikworth The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks

A drunk is lying on a bed in a hospital, and a doctor is sitting beside the bed. The drunk is talking earnestly to the doctor. "...a wave of depression came over me," the drunk is saying. "I realized that I was powerless - hopeless - that I couldn't help myself, and that nobody else could help me. I was in black despair. And in the midst of this, I remembered about this God business.. .and I rose up in bed and said, "If there be a God, let him show himself now!"

(A doctor specializing in alcoholism hears all kinds of crazy stories from drunks in all stages of de-fogging. You'd expect him to have his tongue in his cheek at this point.)

"All of a sudden, there was a light," the drunk goes on, "a blinding white light that filled the whole room. a tremendous wind seemed to be blowing all around me and right through me. I felt as if I were standing on a high mountain top..."

(You'd think a doctor would become hardened after listening to these drunks rave day after day. It's a discouraging, thankless field... alcoholism.)

The drunk continued: "I felt that I stood in the presence of God. I felt an immense joy. And I was sure beyond all doubt that I was free from my obsession with alcohol. The only condition was that I share the secret of this freedom with other alcoholics and help them to recover."

The drunk paused and turned to the doctor. "Ever since it happened, I've been lying here wondering whether or not I've lost my mind. Tell me, doctor - am I insane - or not?"

The drunk was Bill W.

Fortunately for Bill - fortunately for A.A. - fortunately for the thousands of us who have come after - the doctor was Dr. Silkworth. By great good luck - or by the grace of God (depending upon your viewpoint) - the doctor was Dr. Silkworth.

It would have been so easy to dismiss Bill's experience as hallucination, one of the many possible vagaries of a rum-soaked brain. And a disparaging word from the doctor right at this point could have choked off the tender shoot of faith and killed it. Alcoholics Anonymous might have got started somewhere else, somehow. Or it might not. Certainly it wouldn't have started here. Very possibly the life of every one of us A.A.'s hung on the doctor's answer to the question, "Am I insane?"

It was there that Dr. Silkworth made the first of his indispensable contributions to A.A. He knew - by an insight that no amount of medical training alone can give a man - that what had happened to Bill was real, and important. "I don't know what you've got," he told Bill, "but whatever it is, hang on to it. You are not insane. And you may have the answer to your problem." The encouragement of the man of science, as much as the spiritual experience itself, started A.A. on its way.

When Dr. Silkworth died of a heart attack in his home in New York early in the morning of March 22nd, even those A.A.s who knew him best and loved him most awoke to the realization that we had lost a greater friend, a greater doctor, a greater man than we had ever realized. It was particularly hard to appreciate the greatness of the man while Dr. Silkworth was yet with us, because of his profound personal modesty and the disarming gentleness, the unassuming and almost invisible skill, with which he accomplished his daily miracles of medical and spiritual healing.

We know that he was a prodigious and relentless worker, but still it was a shock to discover that in his lifetime of work with those who suffer our disease, he had talked with 51,000 alcoholics - 45,000 at Towns Hospital and 6,000 at Knickerbocker!

Yet he was never in a hurry. And he had no "formulas," no stock answers. Somehow he found out very early that the unexpected was to be expected in alcoholism, and for a man who knew as many of the answers as he did, he came to each new case with a wonderfully open mind... the great and classic example of which is his handling of Bill.

And this gentle little doctor with his white hair and his china blue eyes - child's eyes, saints eyes - was a man of immense personal courage. It must be remembered that he went much farther than merely encouraging Bill's faith in his spiritual experience, he saw to it that Bill was permitted to come back into Towns Hospital to share his discovery with other alcoholics. Today - when "carrying the message to others" has become a very respectable part of an undeniably effective program - it is easy to forget that "carrying the message" in the beginning was a highly unorthodox undertaking. It had no precedent and no history of success; most authorities would have turned thumbs down on it as just plain screwball.

Again, we forget how our technique has been mellowed and refined by the wisdom of experience. We know that the blinding light and the overwhelming rush of God-consciousness are not necessary, that they are indeed very rare phenomena and that the great majority of recoveries among us are of the much less spectacular gradual and educational kind. But in the beginning, the "hot flash" was stressed - nay, insisted upon.

Dr. Silkworth had his professional reputation to lose, and nothing whatever to gain, by permitting and encouraging this unheard-of procedure of one God-bitten drunk trying to pass on his strange story of a light and a vision to other alcoholics - most of whom at that time received it with lively hostility or magnificent indifference.

Then Bill met Dr. Bob, and the first few drunks, incredulously, began to make their incredible recoveries. The infant society, without a book, without a program really, and without a reputation or standing of any kind - began its growth. We forget how halting and feeble that early growth was, how bedeviled with obstacles in a world skeptical of spiritual experience and often hostile to it.

Dr. Silkworth from the beginning threw all of his weight as a doctor, a neurologist, a specialist in alcoholism, into aiding the progress of this mongrel and highly unpedigreed society in every possible way. He committed social and professional heresy right and left in order to publish and implement his burning faith in a movement which as yet only half-suspected its own destiny and which had to grope rather blindly to find terms for its own faith in itself.

When there was need for money to publish the book Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. Silkworth used his personal influence without stint to help raise the money. As a preface to the book he wrote the chapter titled, "The Doctors Opinion," giving A.A. his praise and approval without reservation or qualification- at a time when there were only a thin one hundred of us dried up!

He was indeed our first friend, and indeed a friend in need. His faith in us was firmer than our faith in ourselves. Bill says: "Without Silky's help, we never would have got going - or kept going!" Again, his contribution was indispensable.

Why did he do it?

The answer to that is the answer to Dr. Silkworth's whole career: he loved drunks. Why he loved drunks is a secret known only to God and the doctor - and perhaps the doctor himself did not wholly understand the mystery. "It's a gift," he used to say, his eyes twinkling.

He discovered his gift very early in his medical practice. He was graduated from Princeton in 1896, and took his medical degree at New York University in 1900. Then he interned at Bellevue; and it was while working at Bellevue that he found he was drawn to alcoholics, and they to him.

When nobody else could calm a disturbed drunk, Dr. Silkworth could. And he found, rather to his amazement, that even the toughest and most case-hardened of drunks would talk to him freely - and that many of them, even more amazingly, wept. It became evident that he exerted - or that there was exerted through him - some kind of thawing influence on the life-springs of the alcoholic.

Yet the years that followed were full of discouragement. There were two years on the psychiatric staff at the U.S. Army Hospital at Plattsburg, N.Y., during the first world war, followed byseveral years on the staff of the Neurological Institute of the Presbyterian Hospital in New York. Twice he entered into private practice, only to be drawn back into hospital work with alcoholics. His work continued on at Charles B. Towns Hospital, New York, a private hospital specializing in alcoholism and drug addiction. Here, Dr. Silkworth's special skill with alcoholics - and his growing understanding and love for them - had full scope. Yet he estimated that the percentage of real recoveries among the alcoholics he worked with was only about 2 per cent. The large number of hopeless cases, and the deep degrees of human tragedy and suffering involved, weighed heavily upon the gentle doctor. He was often profoundly discouraged.

Then came Bill - and A.A.

One who has known the doctor intimately over many years has said this about it: "Silky never told me this. It's my own opinion. But I believe that A.A. was Silky's reward. All those years he plodded along - treating drunks medically - defending them - loving them - and not getting anywhere much. And then God said: "All right, little man, I'm going to give you and your drunks a lift!" And when the lighting struck, there was Silky, right where he belonged - in the midst of it!"

Early in his career, at a time when alcoholism was almost universally regarded as a willful and deliberate persistence in a nasty vice, Dr. Silkworth came to believe in the essential goodness of the alcoholic. "These people do not want to do the things they do," he insisted. "They drink compulsively, against their will." One of the early drunks whom Dr. Silkworth treated, a big husky six-footer, dropped on his knees before the doctor, tears streaming down his face, begging for a drink. "I said to myself then and there," Dr. Silkworth related, - this is not just a vice or habit. This is compulsion, this is pathological craving, this is disease!"

He loved drunks - but there was nothing in the least degree fatuous or sentimental about that love. It could be an astringent love, an almost surgical love. There was the warmest of light in those blue eyes, but still they could burn right through to the bitter core of any lie, any sham. He could see clean through egotism, bombast, self-pity and similar miserable rags that we drunks use so cleverly to hide our central fear and shame.

All this he did - without hurting anyone. While insisting rigorously that recovery was possible only on a moral basis - "You cannot go two ways on a one-way street" - he never preached, never denounced, never even really criticized. He brought you, somehow, to make your own judgements of yourself, the only kind of judgments that count with an alcoholic. How did he do it? "It's a gift." Just coming into his presence was like walking into light. He not only had vision - he gave vision.

There is not room here - nor has there been opportunity for the necessary research - to consider his status as a medical man. It can be said that he held a position of very high eminence in his profession. He encountered opposition to some of his views, and he was latterly the recipient of very widespread recognition and praise for his work. It is literally true that he was the world's greatest practical authority on alcoholism. His pioneering work in the concept of alcoholism as a manifestation of allergy has been validated by later experience and has been the subject of a great deal of medical interest and research just recently.

Dr. Silkworth's was a great contribution to the establishment and development of the alcoholic treatment center at Knickerbocker Hospital in New York. In later years, he was sought out for consultation and advice by doctors and by those in charge of state and city alcoholic treatment projects. There was a steady stream of visitors, some of them from foreign lands. Also, every day, there were long distance telephone calls from those seeking further help, those seeking his advice - all over the U.S.

There remain these things to be noted: Dr. Silkworth was a small man, well under medium height. His complexion was ruddy. His remarkable eyes have been mentioned. His hair was snow white and no member of A.A. knew him otherwise, for he was already well along in years when our relationship began. You would say that the habitual expression of his face was a smile you thought about it, and realized that the features were really nearly always in repose, and the impression of a smile arose actually from a certain light about his face. ( Too many of us have noticed it to be mistaken!)

He loved to be well dressed - was, in fact, quite dapper - and in this he was not without a certain whimsical and self- recognized vanity. Nurses - the hospital staff - everyone who worked with him quite plainly and simply adored him. He was unfailingly gentle, courteous, thoughtful. He was happily married, and he and Mrs. Silkworth shared a delight in growing things - in flowers - in gardening.

He was utterly and completely indifferent to money, to position, to personal gain or prestige of any kind.

He was a saintly man.

We drunks can thank Almighty God that such a man was designated by the divine Providence to inspire and guide us, individually and as a group, on the long way back to sanity.

And now - in this anonymously written journal of an anonymous society - I hope I may be permitted, in closing, the anomaly of a personal note. You see, Dr. Silkworth saved my life. I was one of those "hopeless" ones whom he reached and brought back to life - to A.A. - and to God. And I have wanted very much to write this tribute faithfully and well, in the name of all those who share my debt and gratitude. And yet I have realized from the beginning that this article will please nobody. To those who knew and loved the saintly doctor, it will seem insufficient. And so, some of those who didn't know him will think it overdone, for the truth about Dr. Silkworth is strong medicine in a materialistic age.

This dilemma would be tolerable, were it not for a third difficulty: I have written all along in the uneasy knowledge that what is said here is by no means pleasing to the doctor himself. The incident of physical death certainly has not placed him beyond knowledge of what goes on here below. And that he will not be pleased with all this, because while he was stern about very few things, he was sternly and seriously opposed to the publication of his own name and fame.

I take comfort, however, in the fact that his sense of humor most certainly will have survived his recent transition to a new home. And I feel sure that his disapproval of the present essay will be tempered by amusement, and by the priceless gift he gave us all so freely while he was yet as we are - his great love.

Learn more

The Physical Allergy

I "must" have the physical part of this disease to be the real alcoholic/addict

Diagnosis: An allergy to alcohol/drugs/fixing-controlling

Question: Do I 'break out' in a physical craving after the first drink or drug?

Do I have control over the amount that I drink or use after the first one?

"We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all".

Prescription:

Complete abstinence fro alcohol and drugs, A spiritual experience, continued relationship with a GOD, than oneself, and continued work with other alcoholics.

Questions to qualify me as the real alcoholic / addict?

Does my experience abundantly confirm that when I drink, my body has a "physical reaction" to where I cannot control the amount I drink once I start? Does this happen with drugs?

Can I control how much I drink once I start? Once I use drugs?

Do I have a physical dependency to alcohol once I consume it? To drugs?

Do I understand what it means to have a physical dependency to alcohol? To drugs?

Am I the "real" alcoholic? The "real" drug addict? Am I BOTH?

"We doctors have realized for a long time that some form of moral psychology (spiritual experience) was of urgent importance to alcoholics, but its application presented difficulties beyond our (a doctor's) conception. What with our ultra-modern standards, our scientific approach to everything, we (doctors) are perhaps not well equipped to apply the powers of good (God) that lie outside our synthetic knowledge".

Week 4

January 29th, 2026

Bill's Story (Part 1)

In the AA Big Book, read the first part of Bill's story, page 1 through the top paragraph of page 9.
As you read BBA pages 14 – 16, put them into pages 1 – 8 of the AA Big Book
Write your own personal experiences in the side margins as they relate to Bill.
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: In the 1-2-3 Question Guide, answer BILL’S STORY questions (1st Half of Bill’s Story): questions 1 – 15, pages 10 -12

Al Anon: in the The Idiot’s Guide, answer all BILL’S STORY questions: questions 1-17, pages 10-14

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Listen to Pat T. on Bill's Story

Click to Listen

Video of Bill & Lois

Picture of Bill & Ebby

Week 5

February 5th, 2026

Bill's Story (Part 2)

In the AA Big Book read the second part of “Bill's Story,” pages 9 (first paragraph)-16.
As you read BBA pages 17 – 28, put them in your AA Big Book pages 9-16.
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: In the 1-2-3 Question Guide, answer BILL’S STORY questions (2nd Half of Bill’s Story): questions 17 – 21, page 1

Al Anon: In the Idiot’s Guide, page 14, answer questions 18-21.

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Week 6

February 12th, 2026

There is a solution - Part 1

In the AA Big Book read “There is a Solution” pages 17 – 22 B.
As you read BBA pages 19 – 23, put them in your AA Big Book
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: In the 1-2-3 Question Guide, THERE IS A SOLUTION (Part 1 Physical Craving) answer questions 1-18, pages 14 – 19

Al Anon: In the Idiot’s Guide, pages 15 – 17, answer questions 22 – 28.

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Week 7

February 19th, 2026

There is a solution - Part 2

in the AA Big Book read “There is a Solution” pages 23 – 29.
As you read BBA pages 24 – 27, put them in your AA Big Book
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: In the 1-2-3 Question Guide, THERE IS A SOLUTION (Part 2 Mental Obsession) answer questions 1-19, pages 20 -24

Al Anon: In the Idiot’s Guide, page 17-18, answer questions 29 – 34.

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Summary:

Recap: Given sufficient reason, can I stay stopped?

Let's not look at why you're an alcoholic in the circumstances and the drama of your life. Let's find out what everybody has in common...everyone in this room has different circumstances.

My circumstances are a result of my drinking/using. There's a big different as the 'result of' my drinking and 'why I'm an alcoholic'.

Does my experience abundantly confirm that after a couple drinks I am completely powerless over the amount I take after? I need to be 100% CLEAR ON THIS.

I know need to change my perspective.

The next 20 pages we are looking at the MENTAL OBSESSION

If it was just a PHYSICAL disease, then why don't they just dry me out? Rehabs would have a 100% success rate if it were only a physical disease.

Page 23: INSANITY

Why do they say "academic' and 'pointless'? -It's academic because it is real important for you to have identified does that happen to your body after you take a drink. But it's pointless because knowing that by itself, will not keep you sober. Knowledge of my disease WILL NOT keep me sober.

Therefore the main problem, now that I'm dried out, centers in my mind.

(pg. 23 P3) There is the obsession that 'somehow' 'someday', I will beat the game.

Bottom of page 23 says 'if the man be a real alcoholic' the happy day may not arrive.

At a certain point he reaches a place where the he passes into the state of where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of no avail.

Will my strongest desire keep me sober?

Is the only requirement for membership (a desire to stop drinking), the only requirement to keep me sober. Or have I reached a stage that somewhere in my years of drinking, my desire is not strong enough to keep me sober?

The only requirement is not the requirement to keep me sober.

(read page 24 P1) CHOICE:

Was it just a choice "to" drink or 'not' to drink?Did you choose not to drink in the morning and end up drinking/using later that week...later in the day?

Am I without defense against the first drink?Thinking the drink through - smash that idea. The book tells me that the day will come when thinking it through won't work (page 24 P2).

I've thought it thru, and still drank...or didn't think at allIf I place my hand on a hot stove, do I do it again? Of course not. then isn't drinking like placing my hand on a hot stove? Why do I continue to do it?(page 25) There is a Solution - self-searching, leveling of pride and confession of shortcomings. This is one of the first times the book tells me there is more than one requirement in the recovery process. The is only one requirement to be a member..but the requirement for recovery

Self-searching - step 4, 5, 10

Leveling of pride - steps 4,5,6,7,8,9,10

Confession of shortcomings - steps 5,9,10Fourth dimension:

You and I have lived in the 3 dimensions: cravings of the body, of the mind and dominated by our emotions.

The fourth dimension is the spiritual realm within.

I'm not just physically and mentally sick. I am spiritually sick too

(pg 25 P4) Middle of the road solution

How do I know when I'm hearing middle of the road solutions in meetings.

If I'm hearing anything that doesn't require that I need to have a deep and effective spiritual experience

No human aid can keep me sober - that the root of my problem lies deep within. I need to treat the "root" of the problem. My sickened spiritual nature.

We can treat the branches for awhile. But I need to go deeper.

(pg. 26) Dr. Jung is going to tell us what goes on in our minds. Similar to what Dr. Silkworth told us about our bodies. He knew exactly what we needed and said he couldn't provide the heal either. Just like Dr. Silkworth.

Roland Hazard was under the care of Dr. Jung for a year in 1931…3 years before Bill Wilson got

sober.

Dr. Jung’s suggestion for the only hope for recovery for Roland was a vital spiritual

experience.

Week 8

March 5th, 2026

More About Alcoholism - Part 1

In the AA Big Book read “More About Alcoholism,” pages 30 – 37 (top paragraph).
As you read BBA pages 28 – 31 (middle of page where is says insane), put them in your AA Big Book.
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: In the 1-2-3 Question Guide, MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM (part 1) answer question 1-14 (including ’10 most insane things), pages 25-28

Al Anon: In the Idiot’s Guide, page 13, answer questions 35 – 36.

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Summary:

Summary - Admission of powerlesness

There's a Solution- Can we control the amount that we drink, once we drink?

Can I stay stopped on my own power?

Does my experience abundantly confirm that once I put alcohol in my body I cannot control the amount? We then turned our focus to the mind "can I control staying stopped"? We spend 20 pages 23-43 on the obsession of the mind.

Confirm: We are still at the first half of the first step. Does your experience abundantly confirm that once alcohol or dope is put in your body, you cannot quit?

The Mind on page 23: The mental obsession. I don't have Power, Choice or Control

If I have choice, why don't I just choose not to drink and never go to meetings?

Do I see that I have a mind that is going to take me back to a drink?

Control - If I've lost Power, do I really have a choice?

Does that man on the couch, paralyzed from the neck down:

Does he have the POWER to get up from the couch and go to the door?

Does he have CONTROL?

POWER is Strength

CONTROL is Ability

And CHOICE is more than 2 reasonable options

But what if 2 guys come in and pick him up? A power greater than himself?

Can you really make that choice to just wake up out of bed and CHOOSE not to drink?

If you can...then maybe you might not be the real alcoholic.

Do you have a defense to "just not drink"?

OBSESSION is an idea that comes in my mind and out weighs all other reasons why I shouldn't.

ILLUSION.. Is the way I see the world. The way I see realty, is not right.

DELUSION. The way I lie to myself inside

All 3 of those words are interchangeable- they all mean something different but they are distorted way of thinking

CONCEDING TO MY INNER MOST SELF THAT I AM ALCOHOLIC. Not what the rooms told me, but by doing this work can I concede to my innermost self that I am alcoholic. "you got a problem Jane"... Am I listening to what people have told me or am I listening to myself?

THE DELUSION THAT I AM LIKE OTHER PEOPLE OR PRESENTLY MAYBE, HAS TO BE SMASHED.

I have to see this! Why does it say 'presently maybe'? Because 'me' at 5 months, 5 years, 50 years...the realty is that no matter how much time I have, I will never drink like a normal person.

THE EXPERIMENT

IF YOU'RE NOT CONVINCED YOU'RE ALCOHOLIC:

Bottom of page 31: Marty Mann's (first woman in AA) suggestions was to take 2 drinks a day, no more no less, for 6 months.

See...I get to smash any middle of the road solution by having to go back out there and experiment. I can take this to meditation.

THE EXPERIMENT on the top of 34 is better. Stay stopped for a year on your own. No meetings no nothing.

Page 32: Mr. Carpet Slippers...these are considerations.

Do I believe that after 25 years of being sober that I will be able to drink without physical consequences? Without death?

Page 33: I must have no reservations that some day I can drink again.

Page 34: Can a person quit on a non-spiritual basis depends upon the extent to which he has already lost the power to choose whether he will drink or not. Am I a person who has lost the power to choose? If so, the only solution is a spiritual solution.

INSANITY. Top of page 35..."crux of the problem" Seeing the insanity starts before I drink. See...one thing this book is going to do is take me out from behind the biggest excuse of my life, that alcohol is my problem.

Take the drugs and the alcohol away and I'm sane! Uhhh 'no'. It wasn't until I did this work that I saw that I was more insane while I was sober and untreated. I figured that since I was sober, my decision must be good because I wasn't influenced from alcohol.

Take my solution (alcohol) away and I'm left with the problem (my mind).

I thought my insanity was caused by the alcohol

Alcohol is a result of.

You take away my solution (alcohol) and there's my problem

Week 9

March 12th, 2026

More About Alcoholism - Part 2

In the AA Big Book read “More About Alcoholism,” pages 37 – 43
As you read BBA pages 31 – 33, put them in your AA Big Book
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: IIn the 1-2-3 Question Guide MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM (part 2) answer questions 1-8, pages 29 - 30

Al Anon: In the Idiot’s Guide, pages 18-19, answer questions 37 - 39.

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Summary:

We do not look at the reasons why you are alcoholic in the result of your alcoholism and the circumstances of your life.

INSANITY - is NOT the craziest things you did while you were drinking. The craziest and most insane thing you did was that 'stoned cold sober' you picked up again.

Remove the solution (alcohol) and I'm left with the problem (my mind).

The one statement that sums up the truth about my disease is "the delusion that I am like other people or presently may be has to be smashed" (page 30). There will never come a day when I can drink like a normal drinker.

Things don't keep me sober:

INTENTION, KNOWLEDGE. DESIRE, WILL POWER, SELF DISCIPLINE, HUMAN POWER

Says on the bottom of page 41 "that if I have an alcoholic mind, the time and place would come that I would drink again" if I am relying on Intention, Knowledge, Desire, Will Power, Self Discipline or Human Power.

We hear in the rooms of AA "I'm an alcoholic I can't drink". No...I'm an alcoholic, I will drink. I've got to see this: On my own power (without reliance on God), I will drink again. Without reliance on God, I will create chaos and sabotage relationships.

"My life is unmanageable because I drink" is looking at the circumstances in my life caused by drinking.

"I drink because my life is unmanageable" is looking at the root of the problem.

When people relapse, what's the one thing we hear? Quit going to meetings. But there is something deeper. "I thought, I could run my life on self will" It's not always because I quit believing in God, but instead I believe more in myself running my life and less on God taking charge. The truth behind the relapse is I failed to enlarge my spiritual life.

Week 10

March 19th, 2026

Unmanageability, Spiritual Malady, Untreated Alcoholism

In the AA Big Book, read pages 44, 45, and 52 (middle)
As you read BBA pages 34 – 36, put them in your AA Big Book.
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: In the 1-2-3 Question Guide WE AGNOSTICS (Step 1 - Unmanageability) answer question 1 – 15, pages 31 - 34

Al Anon: In the Idiot’s Guide, pages 19 – 23, answer all questions 40, the list,& 1-5.

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

THIS COMPLETES STEP ONE

Week 11

March 26th, 2026

This is Step 2

In the AA Big Book, read “We Agnostics,” pages 44 – top of 51.
As you read BBA pages 37 – top of 41, put them in your AA Big Book.
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: In the 1-2-3- Question Guide, WE AGNOSTICS (Step 2 – Part 1), answer questions 1 -15, pages 35 - 38

Al Anon: In the Idiot’s Guide, pages 23 – 25, answer questions 6 – 13.

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Summary:

Step 2: Came to believe that a power greater than myself can restore me to sanity (PAGES 44 - 51)

THE CORNERSTONE: Came to believe that a Power greater than myself can restore me to sanity

I have to get to the place, not where I see that step 1 is acceptable, but where it is unacceptable. Have I admitted that I am the real alcoholic and the only solution for me is spiritual help? I have to be able to see the hopelessness in step 1, before I truly believe the only hope for me is from a Power greater than myself.

I can't go for this unless I've seen Insanity, powerlessness and hopelessness. I have to have had a gut-level experience with step one to see that I have no other alternatives but to accept spiritual help.

In the beginning of We Agnostics it asks us if we have learned anything about alcoholism.

Did all I give to God was my alcoholism/drug addiction?...what more did I need to give???

Is my dependance on God? On external things?

What is Agnosticism?

A belief in 'something' out there, but no relationship

What is Atheism?

No belief in any god

Every Capital is a name for a Power Greater than myself. How do I feel about the terms described in the book about God?

(middle pg 49) Am I a spearhead of God pointing people in the direction of a relationship with Him?

DOUBTS AND PREJUDICES:

What is prejudice? (Webster dictionary): "An unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought or reason".What are the things that are holding me back?

Am I judging the forest by a few bad trees?

Pronouncing someone guilty before weighing the evidence. Gain the evidence before passing judgment on specific belief systems.

SET ASIDE PRAYER

Some people that have been in AA for awhile need to unlearn some things. Some people come into this program thinking that the "program" will keep them sober and they lay "God" aside. This prayer is not asking me to forget what I knew, but lay aside what I think I know. Even to lay aside what I think I know about God...for an open-mind and a new beginning with God.

WHO WAS GOD TO THE ORIGINAL PIONEERS? (Pg. 212 Oxford Groups and Alcoholics Anonymous by Dick B)

Week 12

April 2nd, 2026

More Step 2

In the AA Big Book, read “We Agnostics,” pages 51 – 57
As you read BBA pages 41 – 45, put them in your AA Big Book.
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: In the 1-2-3 Question Guide WE AGNOSTICS (Step 2, Part 2), answer questions 16 – 27, pages 39 - 43

Al Anon: IIn the Idiot’s Guide, pages 25 – 28, answer questions 14 – 20.

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Week 13

April 9th, 2026

This is Step 3

In your AA Big Book, read pages 58 to 63.
As you read BBA pages 46 – 52, put them in your AA Big Book
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: In the 1-2-3 Question Guide HOW IT WORKS (step 3), answer questions 1 – 19, pages 44 - 47

Al Anon: In the Idiot’s Guide, pages 29 – 34, answer the questions 1 – 21.

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.
We will be taking the 3rd step together!

Week 14

April 16th, 2026

This starts Step 4

If you don’t already have a 4th step example packet, download it here.
Make the following copies from the BBA:

a. 30-50 copies of resentment inventory page 57 & 61

b. 10 copies of the fear grid on page 65

c. 10 copies of the sex inventory on pages 69 & 70

In your AA Big Book, read page 63 (bottom) – 66 (bottom, ending at “poison”).
As you read BBA pages 53, 58 and 59, put them in your AA Big Book.
Answer the questions in the for your corresponding addiction:

AA: As instructed in the BBA page 54, make a column 1 list – people, institutions, and principles

Al Anon: As instructed in the BBA page 54, make a column 1 list – people, institutions, and principles.

Read through the Big Book with your transcriptions and consider your experience.

Week 15

April 16th, 2026

This starts Step 4 - Column 1& 2

If you don’t already have a 4th step example packet, download it here.
In your AA Big Book, read the bottom of page 64
Read page 55 in the BBA.
Put a name on top of each resentment inventory work sheet.
Complete a 2nd column “the Cause” like the one on page 55 in the BBA. Put “the cause” on the top of your copies as per page 57 in the BBA (Make sure to do the target)

Week 16

April 23rd, 2026

This starts Step 4 - Column 3 Part 1

If you don’t already have a 4th step example packet, download it here.
Complete doing the first 4 things in the 3rd column (self-esteem, pride, ambition, and security) on your resentment sheets, as instructed in the BBA on pages 56 & 57 as per examples done with sponsor.
As you read BBA pages 62 – 63, put them in your AA Big Book (starting on the bottom of page 66 “We turned back...” to the middle of the page 67 “set matters straight”).

Week 17

April 30th, 2026

This starts Step 4 - Column 3 Part 2

If you don’t already have a 4th step example packet, download it here.
Complete all the 3rd columns and the realizations.

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