What Is Alcoholics Anonymous?
What Is the Oxford Group?
Practice These Principles
Practice these Principles:
Our Fellowship
• “Our Fellowship has no official membership list, subscriptions, badge,
or rules, nor owns vast amounts of property. It is a name for a group
of people who from every rank, profession, and trade, in many
countries, have surrendered their lives to the God of their
understanding. They are endeavoring to lead spiritual lives under the
guidance of the Spirit of the Universe.”1
The History
Akron, Ohio, June 1935, …talk between a New Work stockbroker and an Akron physician.
“Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession
by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic
friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day. He
had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New
York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical
saint by A.A. members, whose story of the early days of our Society
appears in the next pages. From this doctor, the broker had learned the
grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all the tenets of
the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory,
confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed,
helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon
God.”2
The History
Akron, Ohio, June 1935, …talk between a New Work stockbroker and an Akron physician.
“Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession
by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic
friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day. He
had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New
York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a
medical saint by A.A. members, whose story of the early days of our
Society appears in the next pages. From this doctor, the broker had
learned the grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all
the tenets of the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for
moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those
harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and
dependence upon God.”3
Points
1. Cognitive - obsessive thinking
2. Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal
that is linked with genetic predispositions
(nature)
3. Personality Disorder or defects
4. Religion: the need for confession, restitution,
belief in God and a spiritual experience.
Points
1. Cognitive - obsessive thinking
2. Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal
that is linked with genetic predispositions
(nature)
3. Personality Disorder or defects
4. Religion: the need for confession, restitution,
belief in God and a spiritual experience.
• Imaging and Alcoholism: A Window on the Brain
• The processes that initiate and maintain alcoholism
are regulated by interactions among nerve cells
(i.e., neurons) in the brain. These mechanisms
interact with emotional, cognitive, and social factors
to determine an individual's response to alcohol
consumption.4
• Cognitive Impairment and Recovery From
Alcoholism
• “Brain damage is a common and potentially severe
consequence of long-term, heavy alcohol consumption.
Even mild-to-moderate drinking can adversely affect
cognitive functioning (i.e., mental activities that involve
acquiring, storing, retrieving, and using information).
Persistent cognitive impairment can contribute to poor
job performance in adult alcoholics, and can interfere
with learning and academic achievement in adolescents
with an established pattern of chronic heavy drinking. A
small but significant proportion of the heaviest drinkers
may develop devastating, irreversible brain-damage
syndromes, such as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a
disorder in which the patient is incapable of
remembering new information for more than a few
seconds.”5
Alcohol, Cocaine, Methamphetamine
Most drugs of abuse directly or indirectly target the brain’s reward system by
flooding the circuit with dopamine. The result is significant changes in the brain.
Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction. NIDA, U.S.
Department
Brain Disease and Recovery
Alcoholics Anonymous and the Mind
“. . .the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind,
rather than in his body.”6
“. . .the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception,
will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of selfknowledge.”7
Biology + Environment + Drug Effects
and Brain changes = Addiction
A. A. Points
1. Cognitive - obsessive thinking
2. Medical cause – a disease: Progressive
and fatal that is linked with genetic
predispositions (nature)
3. Personality Disorder or defects
4. Religion: the need for confession, restitution,
belief in God and a spiritual experience.
Scientific Research and the
(2) Medical – the Genetic Link
“Scientists estimate that genetic factors account for
between 40 and 60 percent of a person’s
vulnerability to addiction, including the effects of
environment on gene expression and function.”8
Alcoholics Anonymous and Biology
“Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.”9
“If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit
entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over
the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic.”10
A. A. Points
1. Cognitive - obsessive thinking
2. Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal
that is linked with genetic predispositions
(nature)
3. Personality Disorder or defects
4. Religion: the need for confession, restitution,
belief in God and a spiritual experience.
Scientific research on
(3) Personality Disorders and Addiction
• Research indicates that there is a high correlation of
substance use disorders with personality disorders,
however, they also indicate that there is no single
“addictive personality.”
• Persons with a wide variety of personality traits and
types become addicted to drugs. The common
personality traits associated with addiction may be
the result of the addiction, rather than a prior risk
factor.
Alcoholics Anonymous and
Personality
Step 6: “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these
defects of character.”
Defects:
• Self-centeredness
• Intolerance
• Fear
• Anger and Resentments
Step 7
“Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”
Transforming change that demands:
• Humility
• Service
• Love
“We had lacked the perspective to see that character-building and
spiritual values had to come first, and that material satisfactions
were not the purpose of living.”11
Points
1. Cognitive - obsessive thinking
2. Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal
that is linked with genetic predispositions
(nature)
3. Personality Disorder or defects
4. Religion: the need for confession,
restitution, belief in God and a spiritual
experience.
A. A. and (4) Spirituality
“Our Fellowship is not a religion. It has no
hierarchy, no temples, no endowments; its
members have no salaries, no plans but God’s
plan.”12
The Oxford Group
Keys to a spiritual life from the Oxford Group:13
1.
2.
3.
4.
Absolute Honesty
Absolute Purity
Absolute Unselfishness
Absolute Love
The Principles
“In recovery, we try to take the opposite of our character
defects/shortcomings and turn them into principles. For example, we
work to change….
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
fear into faith
fantasizing into reality
hate into love
selfishness into service
egoism into humility
resentment into forgiveness
anxiety-worry into serenity judgmentalism into tolerance
complacency into action,
despair into hope
denial into acceptance
self-hate into self-respect
jealousy into trust
loneliness into fellowship”14
Where did these principles come from?
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
Step 8
Step 9
Step 10
Step 11
Step 12
Honesty
Hope
Faith
Courage
Integrity
Willingness
Humility
Brotherly Love
Justice
Perseverance
Spiritual Awareness
Service15
Keys to a spiritual life from
the Oxford Group:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Absolute Honesty
Absolute Purity
Absolute Unselfishness
Absolute Love16
Step One
We admitted we were powerless over
alcohol—That our lives had become
unmanageable.
• Powerless?
• Unmanageable?
Step Two
Came to believe that a Power greater
than ourselves could restore us to
sanity.
• Came to believe.
• Power greater than ourselves?
• Sanity?
Step Three
Made a decision to turn our will and
our lives over to the care of God as
we understood Him.
• Turn my will?
• God
• As we understood Him
The Third Step Prayer
How It Works in Alcoholics Anonymous explains:
We were reborn. We were now at Step Three. Many of us said
to our Maker, as we understood Him: “God, I offer myself to
Thee—to build with me and to do with ma as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy
will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may
bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love,
and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!”
We thought well before taking this step making sure we were
ready; that we could at last abandon ourselves utterly to
Him.17
Step Four
Made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves.
• Moral
• Inventory – list of
Step Five
Admitted to God, to ourselves,
and to another human being the
exact nature of our wrongs.
• Admission
• Confession
• Wrongs
Step Six
Were entirely ready to have
God remove all these defects
of character.
• God remove?
• Defects of character?
Step Seven
Humbly asked Him to remove our
shortcomings.
• Him?
• Shortcomings?
Step Eight
Made a list of all persons we had
harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
 Restitution
 Willing amends
Step Nine
Made direct amends to such people
wherever possible, except when to do so
would injure them or others.
• Amends – restitution
• Do no harm
Step Ten
Continued to take personal inventory
and when we were wrong promptly
admitted it.
• Inventory?
• Wrongs?
• Admission?
Step Eleven
Sought through prayer and meditation to
improve our conscious contact with God as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of
His will for us and the power to carry that out.
• Prayer and meditation – contact with…
• God
• Knowledge and power!
Step Twelve
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result
of these steps, we tried to carry this message
to alcoholics and to practice these principles in
all our affairs.
• Spiritual awakening?
• Carry the message?
• Practice these principles
The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—That our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood
Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our
wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure
them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that
out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.18
A. A. Points
1. Cognitive - obsessive thinking
2. Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal
that is linked with genetic predispositions
(nature)
3. Personality Disorder or defects
4. Religion: the need for confession, restitution,
belief in God and a spiritual experience.
Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles that
Influenced A.A.
In the beginning, God
1. God Biblical descriptions of Him, such as Creator, Maker,
Almighty God, Lord, Father, Love, Spirit, Living God.
2. God has a Plan – His will for man – and provides definite,
accurate information for the individual who wants the plan
fulfilled.
3. Man’s Chief End – To do God’s Will, thereby receiving the
blessings God promises to those who align their lives with
His will.
4. Belief – We must start with the belief that God IS.
Continued…. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A.
Sin – Estrangement from God – The Barrier of Self
5. Sin is a reality – The selfishness and self-centeredness that blocks man
from God and from others.
Finding or Rediscovering God
6. Surrender – The turning point which makes it possible for man to have a
relationship with God by surrendering his will, ego, and sins to God.
7. Soul-Surgery – The “art” or way which enables man through Confidence,
Confession, Conviction, Conversion, and Conservation (the 5 C’s) to
have the sin or spiritual disease cured.
8. Life-change – The result in which man, through a spiritual experience,
becomes God-centered instead of self-centered, and focuses on helping
others.
Continued…. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A.
The Path They Followed To Establish a Relationship With God
9. Decision – The action by which man verbalizes his surrender and gives
in to God, saying, essentially, “Thy will be done.”
10.Self-examination – A “moral” inventory in which man takes stock of
his sins and their consequences.
11.Confession – sharing with God and another the inventory results.
12.Conviction – Readiness to change resulting from man’s conviction
that he has sinned and that Christ miraculously can cure.
13.Conversion – The New Birth – Change, namely, that which occurs
when man gives himself to God, is regenerated, has part of God’s
nature imparted to him, and finds the barrier of sin gone.
14.Restitution – Righting the wrong and enabling man to cut the cord of
sin that binds him to the past.
Continued…. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A.
Jesus Christ
15.Jesus Christ – The source of power as the Divine Redeemer and WayShower by whose transforming power man can be changed.
Spiritual Growth-Continuance
16.Conservation – Continuance as an idea, by which man maintains and
grows in his life of grace.
17.Daily surrender – A process in which man engages in daily selfexamination and surrender to get rid of newly accumulated sin and
selfishness.
18.Guidance – The walk by faith in which the Holy Spirit gives Divine
Guidance to a life that is changed from sin to God.
19.The Four Absolutes – Christ’s standards, the standards of absolute
honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love by which man’s life can be tested
for harmony with God’s will.
Continued…. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A.
20. Quiet Time – a period in which man can receive Divine Guidance
and be sensitive to the sway of the Spirit.
21. Bible Study – Meditation which enables man daily to feed his soul on
God’s revelation of His Will in the written Word.
22. Prayer – Talking to God.
23. Listening to God for Leading Thoughts and Writing Down Guidance
Received – The means of receiving revelation of God’s particular
will.
24. Checking – Testing thoughts to be sure they represent God’s
Guidance and not just self-deception.
Continued…. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A
.
The Spiritual Experience or Awakening
25. Knowledge of God’s will – Attaining, with the Guidance of the Holy
Spirit, a knowledge of God’s Universal Will as revealed in the Bible, and
receiving knowledge of His particular Will through obedience to His
Universal Will.
26. God-consciousness – The total changes resulting from the experience of
God when His will is know, lived, and witnessed.
Fellowship with God and Believers, and Witness by Life and Word
27. Fellowship – The fellowship of the Holy Spirit in which believers maintain
fellowship with God and mutually sacrifice to win others to the fellowship
of the love of God revealed by Jesus Christ.
28. Witness by Life and Word – Sharing with others by personal evangelism
the fruits of the life changed and the proof of God’s forgiveness and
power.19
Oxford Group Principles Reflected in the 12 Steps
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
Step 8
Step 9
Step 10
Step 11
Step 12
Admission
Belief
Decision and Daily Surrender
Self-examination
Confession
Regeneration
Soul-Surgery (Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, and Conservation).
Conviction
Restitution
Perseverance
Study, Meditation, Prayer, Listening
Spiritual Experience, Conversion, Fellowship and Witness
Spirituality and A.A.
“The great fact is just this, and
nothing less: That we have had deep
and effective spiritual experiences
which have revolutionized our whole
attitude toward life, toward our
fellows and toward God’s universe.”20
How It Works presents:
“Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter
to the agnostic, and our personal adventures
before and after make clear three pertinent
ideas:
a) That we were alcoholic and could
not manage our own lives.
b) That probably no human power
could have relieved our
alcoholism.
c) God could and would if He were
sought.”21
A.A. and Transformation
“The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty
that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a
way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to
accomplish those things for us which we could never do by
ourselves.”22
The Principle
Where did they come from?
The Step
Step 1
Honesty
Step 2
Hope
Step 3
Faith
Step 4
Courage
Step 5
Integrity
Step 6
Willingness
Step 7
Humility
Step 8
Brotherly Love
Step 9
Justice
Step 10
Perseverance
Step 11
Spiritual Awareness
Step 12
Service
1.
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—That our lives had
become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us
to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God
as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to god, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact
nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of
character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to
make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when
to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong
promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious
contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge
of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we
tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these
principles in all our affairs.23
Where did they come from?
• The origins of AA's principles, and of the AA program itself, can be
traced back to the Oxford Group, a nondenominational spiritual
movement. The cofounders of AA, Bill Wilson
and Dr. Bob Smith, were both associated with the Oxford Group prior
to their meeting in 1935. (Bill attended meetings for five months and
Dr. Bob for two and a half years.) The Oxford Group's influence on the
development of AA was substantial. As Bill Wilson wrote in A1coholics
Anonymous Comes of Age, The important thing is this: the early A.A.
got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects,
restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the
Oxford Groups.
Principles of the 12 Steps:
The Steps are printed on pages 59 and 60 of the Big Book
1. Surrender. (Capitulation to hopelessness.)
2. Hope. (Step 2 is the mirror image or opposite of step 1. In step 1 we admit that alcohol is our
higher power, and that our lives are unmanageable. In step 2, we find a different Higher Power
who we hope will bring about a return to sanity in management of our lives.)
3. Commitment. (The key word in step 3 is decision.)
4. Honesty. (An inventory of self.)
5. Truth. (Candid confession to God and another human being.)
6. Willingness. (Choosing to abandon defects of character.)
7. Humility. (Standing naked before God, with nothing to hide, and asking that our flaws in His
eyes be removed.)
8. Reflection. (Who have we harmed? Are we ready to amend?)
9. Amendment. (Making direct amends/restitution/correction, etc..)
10. Vigilance. (Exercising self-discovery, honesty, abandonment, humility, reflection and
amendment on a momentary, daily, and periodic basis.)
11. Attunement. (Becoming as one with our Father.)
12. Service. (Awakening into sober usefulness.)
•
The origins of AA's principles, and of the AA program itself, can be traced back to the Oxford Group, a nondenominational spiritual movement. The cofounders of AA, Bill Wilson
and Dr. Bob Smith, were both associated with the Oxford Group prior to their meeting in 1935. (Bill attended meetings for five months and Dr. Bob for two and a half years.) The Oxford Group's influence on
the development of AA was substantial. As Bill Wilson wrote in A1coholics Anonymous Comes of Age, The important thing is this: the early A.A. got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character
defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups.
To be spiritually reborn and live in the state in which the four points are the
suggested guides to our lives in God, they advocate four practical spiritual
activities.
Keys to a spiritual life from
the Oxford Group:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Absolute Honesty
Absolute Purity
Absolute Unselfishness
Absolute Love24
1. Sharing our moral inventory and temptations
with God and with another person whose life has
been given to God, and carrying the message to
help others, still unchanged, to recognize and
acknowledge their wrongs. (Steps 4, 5, & 12).
2. Surrender of our lives, past, present, and
future, into God’s keeping and direction. (Steps 3 & 12).
3. Restitution to all whom we have wronged
directly or indirectly. (Steps 8 & 9).
4. Listening to, accepting, relying on God’s and
our sponsors’, spiritual advisors’, fellow
members’ guidance and carrying it out in
everything we do or say, great or small. (Steps 3, 11 &
12).25
The 12 Traditions of A.A.
1. Our common welfare should come first: personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our
group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility of outside enterprise,
lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special
workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to
those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public
controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal
anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before
personalities.26
The Slogans
•
•
•
•
Think, Think, Think
Easy Does It ….. but do it.
One Day at a Time
Say what you mean. Mean what you say;
but don’t say it mean.
• The “We” of the program.
The “New” Assumption?
Relapse is part of recovery?
Types of Groups - Procedures
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Closed versus Open
Speaker versus Discussions
Step versus Topic
Alanon versus A.A. (Alateen and Alatot)
The role of the facilitator (Chair)
Introductions
Donations
Sponsors
Notes
1. Practice These Principles andWhat Is The Oxford Group? (Center City, Minnesota: Hazelden, 1997), 1.
2. Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd ed. (New York: A. A. World Services, Inc., 1976), xvi.
3. Ibid., xvi.
4. Alcohol Alert No. 47, (Rockville, MD: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2000), 1.
5. Alcohol Alert No. 53, (Rockville, MD: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2000), 1.
6. Alcoholics Anonymous, 23.
7. Ibid., 39
8. National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction,” NIDA, April 2007,
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/science-addiction.
9. Alcoholics Anonymous, 33.
10. Ibid., 44.
11. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (New York: A. A. World Services, Inc., 1981), 71.
12. Practice These Principles, 1.
13. Ibid., 4.
14. Phil P., Introduction to Practice These Principles andWhat is the Oxford Group? (Center City, Minnesota: Hazelden, 1997), xii.
15. Ibid.
16. Practice These Principles, 4.
17. Alcoholics Anonymous, 63.
18. Ibid., 59-60.
19. B. Dick, The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous. (Seattle: Glen Abbey Books, Inc., 1992), 58-62.
20. Alcoholics Anonymous, 25.
21. Ibid., 60.
22. Ibid., 25.
23. P., Introduction, xii.
24. Practice These Principles, 4.
25. Ibid., 5-6.
26. Alcoholics Anonymous, 563-568.
Bibliography
Alcohol Alert No. 47. Rockville, MD: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2000.
Alcohol Alert No. 53. Rockville, MD: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2000.
Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd ed. New York: A. A. World Services, Inc., 1976.
Dick, B. The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous. Seattle: Glen Abbey Books, Inc., 1992.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction.” NIDA, April 2007.
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/science-addiction.
P., Phil. Introduction to Practice These Principles andWhat Is The Oxford Group?, xi-xix. Center City, Minnesota: Hazelden, 1997.
Practice These Principles andWhat Is The Oxford Group? Center City, Minnesota: Hazelden, 1997.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. New York: A. A. World Services, Inc., 1981.