Big Book Overview
The Foundation Meeting
We welcome any person seeking help with a drinking problem.
Here online, we offer new folks an overview of the Big Book through the Foundation Meeting, led by a Group Member.
What follows is merely a flavour of what we do here when introducing the Big Book to newcomers or those new-to-the-book. Please bear with us as we do not claim to be experts or gurus on this Big Book. We are just ex-drunks who love what was freely given to us. Please disregard anything here you cannot find in our Big Book:
We make certain that each person coming to us has a Big Book and we start from the Dust Cover where it begins " This is the Fourth Edition of the Big Book, the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous".
By doing this, we are also revealing the biggest secret in our AA Fellowship, where our Recovery Program for Alcoholism is found because it is coded in our Basic Text from pages xxv to 164 in a book called "Alcoholics Anonymous"!
We want folks to know from the very start what ALCOHOLISM is, what the Solution is and HOW to take the ACTION that is necessary to avoid insanity or death by drinking, i.e. to get from THE PROBLEM to THE SOLUTION.
We start moving forward through the Foreword to the First Edition,where we read the Big Book Preamble. Here we learn who authored the Big Book; why they wrote the Big Book; why the Big Book is all we will ever need to recover successfully in sobriety and how our Big Book has also helped give hope to over sixty Anonymous Twelve Step Fellowships that have nothing to do with drinking (Al-Anon, Gamblers, Sex, Drugs, Overeaters, etc)
We also see why our Fellowship cannot by itself help the hopeless and helpless alcoholic recover when we read the Foreword to the Second Edition; here we get some stats about sober success rates when the Big Book was the only show in town.
It is written in the BB, in the early years (1939 to 1953), most folks who came to our Fellowship got sober right away from the first page (50% never took another drink AFTER they "really tried") while an additional 25% returned after a few slips to stable sobriety meaning 75% who had BB Sponsors (and that's all they had in those days) got successful sobriety by following the clear-cut directions of the Big Book.
But then in the mid fifties, Bill W put out the 12 x 12 and our Fellowship got into confusion and disarray as our sober success rate fell well below 50%. Many new folks were (wrongly) encouraged to use the 12 x 12 as their main source for directions even though Bill clearly states in the 12 x 12 on p17 that "The Big Book was and still is the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous".
In recent years, our sober sucess rate has fallen way off the radar (below 5%) for those folks finding 5 years or more contented sobriety, according to various agencies (Rational Recovery Centres), critics (A.Orange Papers) and even supporters of our Fellowship such as the Dallas Primary Purpose Group*
And yet while there has been a dramatic downward shift in our Fellowship, alcoholism has not changed and neither has our Program of Recovery (its remained the same as it ever was since 1935). We tell them about this fatal killer disease called alcoholism as it described in The Doctor's Opinion ( that we have a body which is powerless and a mind that is equally powerless to manage that decision to quit for good); we also tell them that we must admit and submit to our "innermost self" that we alcoholic of the hopeless and helpless type before we can begin to recover.
We also point out that our co-founder Bill W is sharing with us how he fell into alcoholism ("Bill's Story", Ch 1 pg 1-16)) and found hope through the Doctor's Opinion; an opinion Bill W took to a medical man called Dr Bob, who in turn, got "it" after years of turmoil while trying get off the booze. Bill, a stockbroker and hopeless drunk, gave HOPE to Dr Bob, who joined Bill to offer the same solution to many, many others via the program. Many of these are highlighted in the 44 Personal Stories in the Big Book.
We also learn by listening how a "recovered" alcoholic tell their story of "what they were like, what happened and what they are like now" by dealing with their LACK POWER through a Power Greater Than Themselves, which is the beginning of Step Two(We Agnostics). We tell them once they see that, we can face a simple decision: "Am I or am I not willing to follow the clear-cut directions for recovery?"And this is offered by way of a Big Book Sponsor! So the simplicity of our Step Threeis to seek out and ask a RECOVERED alcoholic and be willing to follow precisely the directions of the BB and the BB Sponsor.
To test you have got the right sponsor, you can check it out easily. If he/ or she tell you to read the Big Book from pages xxv to 43 then you have made a good choice. These fifty odd pages will get you ready to see if you are one of us and are also willing to move on.
Look at the 1st paragraph on p44and it tells you quite specifically why you need to read and work through this Big Book.Take the test now - and save yourself and others some time because it will never work if you do not have the "desperation of drowning men" attitude to sober up.We then tell them on p44 to p57how they open the door to a consideration of a conception to a Higher Power of their understanding.
On p58,we let folks know "How It Works"if they follow the clear-cut directions contained ONLY in the Big Book. We explain that the Program of Recovery is a Spiritual Program.On p59 and onwards, we explain the Prayers on Steps 3,7, and 11 while hinting on the others where appropriate; all of which reminds us that God as we understand Him is the source of our recovery. We invite Him to be the Solution to ALL our problems in sobriety!
On page p62, we cut to the chase: we identify our real problem in sobriety as we now accept that drinking is but a sympton. We see that "Selfishness and Self-Centredness" is our main trouble, but we could never see it without some method of revealing this truth to us. So we make a Decision to trust the widsom of our Big book and our Sponsor as offered on p63.
Hereafter, we are told WHENto take a Step; HOWto take a Step and WHATthe result will be AFTERwe have TAKENthe Step while giving us PRAYERS to carry us through the process. The last sentence on P63 tells us now to get busy on the rest of the program; to recover from alcoholism AND the Spiritual Malady.
Steps Fourand Fiveare diagnostic Steps to test our thinking and to find out if what the authors of the BB told us on p62re our Malady will be true for us? From p64to 71we are guided how to complete our inventory.
On p75we get to Step Fiveand its Prayers. We now have sufficient information about our grossier handicaps and what we need to take to God in order that we can experience a "Psychic Change" and to get to know Him better!On p76we make another decision to continue the rest of the program via Step(s) Sixand Seven; where we have told God that we are going to do our part, now please (God) do your part by helping me BEHAVE differently. The Seventh Step Prayer is the completion of the Prayer on p63.
On p76, we are pleased to learn that we have done much and that our lives are on a healthy plan as we have followed the precise directions from StepsFour to Eight.Everything now is but a done deal as we explain our Big Book is telling us we now set to become recovered like the First One hundred on pages 76to 84.
The Ninth StepPromises confirm this blessed event as we continue to grow along Spiritual Lines through p84 to 164 as we straighten out the past while being more accountable and proactive in sharing our personal truth.We tell new folks that they too can become recovered like the "The First One Hundred" in twenty short pages(64 - 84) of our Big Book. The clear cut directions for "continuing" our Spiritual Growth are given on pages 84, 85,86,87and 88(Steps 10 and 11).
Now we have the Power to lead a sober lifestyle since we have now had a Spiritual Awakening (from alcoholism) - we can then offer the Hope of this Solution to the New Person through p89 to 164(Step 12, Chapter 7,8,9,10,11). We have become recovered like so many before us.
Our job now is to do precisely, exactly and specifically what "The First One Hundred" precisely, exactly and specifically did for the new person by following the clear-cut directions precisely, exactly and specifically in our Big Book. And that's it! So simple and yet so utterly garbled in some of our meetings today.
It takes a recovered alchoholic to share this outline of our Big Book with a new person to give him or her the hope about our problem, our solution and the program of action neccessary to recover from this fatal killer disease called alcoholism. All done in 45 minutes or less without a hint of Don't Drink and Go To Meetings ODAAT!
(The Foundation Meeting meets each Sunday at 9:00am to 9:45am in the Wee Room: all welcome and you can for tea or coffee for the main meeting at 10am)
*Note the quote:
Sober rates are used and abused randomly by various groups or individuals with exception of the BB written rates as it was then. In AA groups today, ALL sober success rates ought to be treated with caution and not to be taken too literally!
We recover by the steps we take, not solely by the meetings we make