January 29th 2024 AA Grapevine Podcast Season 6, Episode 5 is called “Sober Since Disco.” Rebellion Dogs Publishing's Joe C talk about the importance of special composition group including groups for young people, atheists/agnostics, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Women's etc.
For more information of secular AA (agnostics, atheists, freethinkers) meetings
Joe talks to Sam and Olis about being secular in a spiritual program.
There's listener feedback from Penny on the different types of AA meetings, and Aaron writes in about his favorite line from the Big Book, which is tattooed on his forearm.
While we provide the podcast at no charge, we do have expenses. Grapevine is the only AA entity that does not accept contributions, so to support the AA Grapevine Podcast, please subscribe to Grapevine Magazine in print, online, or on the new Grapevine app.
You can email us at podcast@aagrapevine.org. To record an Ask-It-Basket question or a recovery-related joke, call 212-870-3418 or email a voice recording to podcast@aagrapevine.org
We look at history—why? Isn’t this a contemporary, or even future gazing look at recovery and addiction? Well yes and yes. Yuval Noah Harari, PhD author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind says, “History is not the study of past; history is the study of change; it’s not about remembering the past; it’s about liberating ourselves from it.”
Episode 75 of Rebellion Dogs Radio (and this blog) explores three calls to action by Alcoholics Anonymous that need our attention in 2024:
New stories of AA diversity today are needed to update the 48-year-old Do You Think You’re Different? Let’s get our freak on; if you ever felt you can’t or won’t blend into AA, we want you to help demonstrate what we mean by, “We are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful.”
About our primary literate in AA—The Big Book + 12 & 12: rewrite it? Or reify it? Grappling with a need to adapt to changing times, being sensitive to change-resistant tendencies, the trustees’ Literature Committee is polling members, looking for their marching orders: preserve what’s written; or breathe fresh life into last millennium’s AA message and widen our gateway? Directly from AA’s General Service Office, we have these seven questions for you.
The 2022, much anticipated, AA membership survey is posted with current data on AA for all to see; counselors, healthcare and criminal court diversion professional who refer people to AA, the general public and last but not least AA members to show how we are doing, from our home groups to the USA/Canada General Service Conference at reaching all those who want or need AA to be available, equitably, and effectively. Our responsibility declaration nudges us to look at this new info, see who were are serving, who we may be failing and confront how, whenever, wherever, someone reaches out, we want the hand of AA always to be there (for everyone regardless of age, race, gender, creed, cultural touchstones). There’s information for the first time about USA/Canada AA’s use of online meetings and our preferences. It’s like those pioneering driving blind days all over again.
DIVERSITY: What makes you different?
If you are someone in recovery and you were helped by peer-to-peer, maybe AA specifically, did you immediately feel at home at your first meeting, or did you feel different that the group you were exposed to? If you felt or feel different, we have a humble writing assignment for you as our first topic.
The AA Literature desk wants your story, 500—800 words. DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DIFFERENT? is the 48-year-old pamphlet #13 that tipped the scale in my own should-I-stay or should-I-go sobriety. I found people (stories) spoken in my language for the first time in AA. If you do not know this collection of AA stories, click the link to read. Thirteen essays of people who felt marginalized, a teenager, atheist, clergy, high bottom, low bottom, movie star, person of color, LGBTQIA+, share the barriers and bridges navigated to find a rightful seat in AA. How timely to hear from a 15-year-old when I was a teenage alcoholic. I was happy to read what Ed the AA atheist and Jan the AA agnostic had to say about sobriety without an anthropomorphic personal higher power.
It's a great recovery tool; and it’s old. Today’s teenager doesn’t have any use for 1970s teenage angst; it could be unrelatable, leaving gender identification, pronouns et al alone for now—yes we need to attend to contemporary, sensitive, inclusive language, but—it all starts with a story, one person in recovery talking to another with alcohol use disorder. This pamphlet/leaflet needs to be updated to reflect the diversity of AA in the third decade of the 21st century.
So if you, or someone you know, is not the white male, hetero-normative middle-class majority that the membership survey, which we will talk about shortly, reveals is the best served demographic by AA today, then write your story. Maybe you feel different-light, not marginalized enough; I don’t know if you are or are not, either but please consider throwing your hat in the ring by adding your story to the pile. They will only pick a few from many but they can only choose from the stories provided. This could be a literature initiative that helps many—it helped me.
So it was written: Are the writings of Bill Wilson sacred to AA? AA’s General Service Conference is currently seeking each of our opinions. Should we—shouldn’t we?
If you want to get an AA area assembly’s member’s remaining hairs on fire, bring up changing the words in the Big Book 164 pages. Beyond the apathetic majority in the middle of AA, my friend Bob K says, “There are those who want us to go back to 1939 and those who think we are already stuck there.” I get it; I have heard the concern and pleas from both camps. I suggest there is a silent majority; the apathetic middle of the road whose sobriety isn’t and wasn’t informed by book-learning in AA. Using myself as an example, the words of Bill Wilson were neither a comfort nor a barrier because I learned AA from the fellowship, one AA member talking to another, one on one, from the podium or around the room in discussion, instructions and “by the book” was not my experience of having the AA message brought to me. The experience of others, trial and correction, the hope and connection and sense of belonging from living persons with substance use disorder, such as alcohol in the case of my AA attendance, this was what informed my recovery. I know others were brought in 12-step culture in by-the-book, instructional, orderly fashion. That’s great but many, like myself, aren’t emotionally attached to a book that either aided or frustrated our recovery.
So what’s between the covers of the book next year will not likely change my life one way or another. Some of you, your identity, your story, is connected to being uplifting by, or marginalized as a result of, the words of AA literature. The “we must change or fade to obscurity” camp and the “we must preserve the integrity of the message and not water AA down” camp both love AA and want us to last forever. They just disagree on how to get there; they may be certain, or at least highly suspicious, that the other camp is delusional and dangerous. So be you directly affected by this issue or just a stakeholder as any AA member is, the people who serve the membership want their marching orders from us, as it should be in this chaordic[i], upside-down-service-structure fellowship.
Here are the questions from our Literature Committee and the answers I sent in. You show me yours, I'll show you mine; I will go first. But, please tell us what you think, and we will provide information on how to send your views to AA.
HOW SHOULD WE TREAT A.A. FOUNDERS’ WRITINGS
SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSION
1. Do you think that A.A. Founders would object to or embrace revisions to their writings? If yes, why? If not, why?
No 1953 GSC speech by Bill Wilson commending groups/members who altered the Steps as carrying on “the same pioneering process we had to go through ourselves,” and concluded about changing text, “If improvements are to come, who can say where they will come from?”
2. Do you think the Founders’ writings are effective in reaching new members? If not, what measures do you think can be taken to resolve this issue?
AA has been stuck at 2 million members all century; we are keeping old-timers happy and not appealing to new people. This century, AA has shrunk in members everywhere but USA. Our primary literature is religious, dated, and irrelevant in the eyes of newcomers.
3. What reasons would you consider for changing our Founders’ writings?
More has been revealed. A quinquennial revised “Doctors’ Opinion” replace the misogyny and add non-Abrahamic version of the Steps (Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, Secular).
4. How do you feel about changing A.A. Founders’ writings to replace outdated references?
DO NOT REPLACE—preserve an original 164 for fundamentalists, but ALSO offer a contemporary basic text also. Update it every five years then we can re-visit the question in 20 years.
5. What suggestions do you have for preserving the Founders’ writings, along with keeping pace with our current A.A. Society and its future?
One original AA text, go back to 1939, why not? One five-year cycling variation of the Big Book. Grade 5 Math doesn’t change every five years, does it? But school boards update the language of their text books to keep pace with best teaching standards, trial-and-correction, cultural demographic shifts. “IF” AA’s books are basic texts, not a historical document for scholars, then we can follow other teaching/cultural trends.
6. Should there be a special Conference process for approval of changes to our Founders’ writings? (e.g., super, or qualified majority – 75%, and/or 2-year consideration process.)
You avoid this whole binary controversy with YES/AND instead of EITHER/OR. Keep the fundamentalists happy; encourage the freethinkers to stay in AA.
7. What additional ideas, thoughts or suggestions can you share about changing or not changing the Founders’ writings?
As stated about changing or no change is not a very creative solution—add ideas, don’t divide members.
If everyone dead before the turn of the century is a founder, modernize Came to Believe and Living Sober, too. Living Sober is the only defendable irreligious literature we have. Those 31 chapters could use a 21st century attention to online meetings, pronouns, and more contemporary touchstones. Came to Believe could offer humanist, non-theistic essays along with Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist and other words for higher power besides a male, interfering singular god the Bill W believed in. That’s just so American-centric. Maybe that’s why groups are smaller and fewer outside of the USA.
So, above is one members suggestions. And if you care about AA messaging and if we should preserve, replace or add to our literature, please follow our lead: stop bitching and start typing. We need your input, too. Remember the seven-question link allows a word doc download and your answers must be mailed (snail-mail):
AA's Triennial Survey (USA/Canada General Service Conference) 2022
This pamphlet is an initiative by the AA Public Information desk. In AA's effort to provide answers to the type of questions professionals (healthcare/human resources etc.) want to know about AA as well as the press or curious members of the general public, our membership survey answers many of their questions about what their clients/patients may find at a typical AA meeting. It’s demographics than answers questions of diversity of race, age, gender identification, length of time in recovery, the background of members, how people find out about AA, how many meetings we go to, how many of us have sponsors, etc.
Also useful, is it helps us take inventory of how well we are helping others. How effective are we at reaching and resonating with people across the cultural divide as far as race/gender/age groups etc. are concerned?
Membership Survey 2022 is not AA Worldwide but includes a sample of members, groups and the Areas of the USA/Canada General Service Conference.
More than 6,000 A.A. members were randomly selected and surveyed in 2022 by the General Service Office for the U.S. and Canada. The Membership Survey, which has been conducted periodically since 1968, provides a snapshot of the A.A. fellowship and its members. This survey is not a census. The survey results may be of interest to the professional community, the media, and the general public — anyone who wants to know more about A.A.
In January of 2023 I did a presentation for the Growing In Understanding group on the history of this USA/Canada membership survey and in anticipation of the 2022 info being released – but wait there is more – I also shared the Great Britain 2020 data and looked at new questions they were asking members and what we could learn from them (LINK below for Rebellion Dogs Publishing YouTube page).
In April the General Service got a report on the 2022 survey ahead of it being printed. Because this was the first triennial survey to ask about virtual (Zoom, Skype etc) meetings and because new groups have started with no brick-and-mortar physical location time was devoted to this topic. Here are some talking points from USA/Canada delegates:
Are they groups that transitioned from live to online/virtual? Do you know if they intend to stay in whatever their current format is?
• Some online groups were in-person meetings before the pandemic and have chosen to remain virtual
• Other groups decided to convert to a hybrid platform after the pandemic
• An in-person group transitioned online, half of the group wants to remain online while half of the group returns in-person
• Majority intending to stay virtual
• We have many that are not structured and are not interested in becoming part of General Service
• New groups being developed for the purpose of reaching more people outside the area
• A lot of new groups. Some that transitioned from in-person to either online only or Hybrid. They plan to continue this process.
• Our area is open to online groups
• Strong resistance to online area assemblies
• Some groups and meetings seem to want to meet without any connection to the district, Area and A.A. as a whole
• Seeing a substantial decline in online groups and online groups going dark as we move back to in-person groups • Some people with accessibility issues have opted to remain connected online as independent groups
• Some AA members seem to prefer to meet online, whether for convenience or safety or due to the difficulties of finding trusted servants
To the best of your knowledge, do online groups in your area have members from multiple districts, from outside of your Area or from other countries? Yes: 76.12%; No: 23.88%
• Members of the group include local members and other from around the world. The group is trying to figure out where they belong, where they should send their 7th Tradition contributions, etc.
• Most of them have members from all over the U.S. and in some cases, other countries. That is primarily due to them sharing meeting codes on social media.
• For the groups that have contacted us we encourage them to use the Traditions to guide the group conscience when making the decision on what district and Area to join
By the time surveys were done in 2023 75% of members had attended virtual meetings online or by phone. What do members prefer?
19% like in-person and online equally, 79% prefer in-person, 2% prefer virtual.
DIVERSITY in AA
AA 2014 survey
AA 2022 survey
NA 2018 survey
Asian
1%
1.2%
2%
Black, African American
4%
3.65
13%
Hispanic, Latino
3%
7.35
7%
Indigenous, Native
1%
2.8%
1%
Pacific Islands, Hawaii
0.3%
White, Caucasian
89%
87.7%
70%
Multi-racial
0.3%
4%
Other
2%
0.5%
1%
AA 2014 survey
AA 2022 survey
NA 2018 survey
Male
62
63.94%
57%
Female
38
35.45%
42%
Gender fluid, nonbinary
0.46%
Other
0.15%
1%
AA shows a 1.3% improvement in moving away from the Caucasian majority. For comparison, Narcotics Anonymous last surveyed their members in 2018 and show improved diversity and inclusion to AA. This statistical lack of diversity which most of us would agree this is what we see in our meetings, does it make you wonder? What barriers, systemic discrimination and microaggression lurks in our meeting formats, messaging and culture?
More context as to the extent of AA's diversity shortcomings, can be offered by more global record record keeping.
The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA USA) surveys alcohol (and other drugs) use disorder in the USA and reports that for people suffering from alcohol use disorder, indigenous/ Native Indian 11.2% of their population, Whites 7.8%, Black/African American 7.1%, Latino/Hispanic 7.1%, Asian 4.1%. People of color are less likely to complete addiction treatment than their white counterparts.
As far as genders compare, the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) reports that 68% of males and 64% of females (of people 12 years old and over) consume alcohol but males make up most of the accidents, illness, injury, death and violence associated with drinking, consuming 3 x more the non-male drinkers. 19 liters a year for men, 6.5 liters/year for women. Women's drinking is on the rise, while males are in decline. Women are more susceptible to blackouts, liver disease, and cancers associated with the toxins in alcohol.
So, is AA racist? Are we sexist? Is this the cause of underrepresented people in AA?
Let me take on the question first. My home group, in Toronto Canada, as ethnically diverse as a major city comes, does not reflect the cultural tapestry within the the University that we are located in or in the larger community. Over ½ of or attendees identify as male, some weeks substantially so. Am I a racist; a misogynist? I don't like to see myself that way. But before I point a finger at AA as a whole, what about my inventory of my white-male privilege and what am I doing or bride the gap in my home group? Equity begins at home, our home group for instance.
People who are the target of discrimination have a different experience of society than the majority that does not. Pew Research in 2019 looked at America's views of racism and skin color informed reaction. “Race relations in the U.S. are generally bad.” 58% of all adults agree. Whites: 56%, Blacks 71%. “The legacy of slavery affects the position of black people in Americana society today a great deal/fair amount.” Combined, 63%, 54% of Whites and 84% of Blacks. “Our country hasn't gone far enough in giving Blacks equal rights with Whites.” Agreement among Whites: 37%, Blacks, 78%. That is a very different experience of society based on what side of the privileged divide we live on. The overall average was 45%.
So, the racism or sexism that I do not face informs my experience of AA. The question is how can see more clearly? I do not consider myself a racist or misogynist. But being an ally, that's a verb, not a noun, what am I and what can I do in support of equality for all.
From Harvard Business Review, Robert Livingston a good basis for educating ourselves + a good basis for a group inventory, How to Promote Racial Equity (2020). It starts with what we know: Denial is not a river in Egypt and you can't eliminate a problem until a sizable consensus believes there is racism and that it's a problem that will do harm if ignored or denied. Studies reveal culprits and enablers in society, our workplace, and how could AA be immune, “57% of all Whites and 66% of working-class Whites consider discrimination against Whites to be as big a problem as discrimination against Blacks and other people of color. These beliefs are important, because they can undermine an organization’s efforts to address racism by weakening support for diversity policies.”
Race-neutral policies enable denial and maintain discrimination. A commitment to diversity is not evidence of the absence of discrimination. Muttering “always inclusive, never exclusive,” is a sweet refrain but it does nothing to eliminate discrimination in AA. AA, like what studies show rampant in other organizations also, already has equality policies and statements and diversity informed public service announcements AND our 2022 survey reveals that we have not made our rooms more welcoming to stay in for women or people of color. When people of color raise concern in AA they are met with hostility. “That's an outside issue,” is not what ‘outside issue’ means and we all know that; such a rebuttal is microaggression, maybe not so “micro.”
The idea that racism is a deliberate action motivated by malice is another denial-wake up call from Harvard Business Review. Unconscious or unintended discrimination is still discrimination. “I did not know the gun was loaded,” shows lack of awareness; but that doesn't bring the victim back to life.
Effort, not desire, we know that in AA and AA is a good example of putting in the effort to help those in need, so we can do this but taking inventory, honestly and thoroughly comes before the breakthrough. We know AA is a happy place for white males--we are over represented here. So why aren't women, people of color and youth better represented? This isn't an impossible riddle. Not for us, we admit how and when we are wrong and and we make amends. What Harvard calls “problem awareness, and "root cause analysis” we call Step One and Step Four. this is the first of three sequential states: Condition. As our Safety in AA: Our Common Welfare recognizes:
Safety in AA: “Problems found in the world can also make their way into A.A. … racial discrimination, sexual orientation or gender intolerance. … these experiences can affect whether someone feels safe to return to the group.”
The point is that recognizing the condition isn't the solution. Reading this every meeting will not end discrimination. Next is Concern. We need empathy (not sympathy). All of us have faced discrimination from the stigma of addiction, we need to listen and connect. Here's an action Step. What if we asked that our local annual AA conference invite a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) panel each year to talk about their experience of discrimination in AA. The same could be done with gender in AA, a young people's or athiests panel.
Once understood and then felt, Correction takes two efforts: Strategy and Sacrifice. “The real challenge for organizations is not figuring out ‘What can we do?’ but rather ‘Are we willing to do it?’” Pray for the willingness, exercise it, if we don't know, trial and correction, be committed, make a sacrifice.
Is this critical, is this fair? I am asking what I am going to do; what I will ask my group to do. But each district and Area can do the same thing. As the saying goes, “If you see something, say something.” I see that our membership survey tells us the truth; our Safety in AA is good work but we aren't there and I will not willfully turn away from our collective shortcomings; so I am saying something.
Another improvement in the 2022 survey is that not only do we ask how long since your last drink, but also, how long have you been in recovery. Maybe that's a better measuring stick in a program that honors progress and not perfection.
when you first came to AA
since your last drink
Less than a year
13%
23%
1 - 5 years
155
20%
5 – 10 years
12%
13%
10 - 20 years
19%
16%
More than 20 years
41%
28%
AA isn't the only pathway pursued by most members - AA is a part of recovery for most, not the one and only intervention. 60% of us received counseling or treatment before coming to AA and 8/10 said that was significant. After coming to AA 56% of us are in counseling/treatment or we have been; 9/10 of us say our recovery process beyond AA is significant.
Out of ten members two have no sponsor and eight do; one has no home group and nine do join and belong to a group.
We have attributes we need/want from a meeting
54% of us say we need a group with “Members like Me.”
29% need a group in a certain language
22% need accessible meetings
25% need additional characteristics.
There was a time when the average age of AA members was getting smaller as more young people came and stayed sober. We're getting older every survey this century and now 52 years old is our average member.
Under 21: is down to 0.2%, 21-30s: 9%, our 30s: 16%, 40s: 20%, 50s: 25%, 60s: 19% and over 71 = 11%
I remember after I got sober the 1977 membership survey noted that under 30 years of age members doubled since the last survey. By 1980 one out of five members were under 30, 3% in our teens or twenties. 72% were under 50-years-old. We were much younger and growing - 35-40% were sober under a year and only 20-30% were sober 5 years or more.
AA as a whole is not sitting on their hands; they see what we see, and they are taking action. We share some Public Service Announcements, super short but super targeting: Young people talking to young people, talking about in AA you can find - just as we told them we need in a meeting - to see and hear people just like us.
Thanks to those who serve AA as a whole. Be sure to answer GSO’s call for action to tell us all your story if you think you’re different. To get some idea about story length and feel, see the current DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DIFFERENT.
And if you care about AA messaging and if we should preserve, replace or add to our literature, stop bitching and start typing. Remember the seven-question link allows a word doc download and your answers must be mailed (snail-mail) to:
Our musical feature is Ellis with the new song “Forever.” Discover Ellis
It was the Fall of 2019, Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA by William Schaberg was about to be published and Joe C sat down with the author to talk about the soon-to-be-unveiled book born of eleven years of primary documentary research on Rebellion Dogs Radio, Episode 49. Four years later, more has been revealed and new insights gained. So listeners asked, “When are you two going to sit down again for a podcast?” Here it is.
This time around we look at new insights and speculation into early AA history. Bill and Joe share about their own recovery experience and reflect on changing AA culture through the years and what might inform the future of AA groups, members and culture.
We talk about the probable influence of the most popular New Thought books of the day and how this cultural phenomena informed our AA 12-Step suggested program of Recovery. Read “Bill W's secret bookshelf.”
We talk about the idea that and documentary evidence that supports the idea that Bill W thought he was done writing the Big Book--without the 12 steps or any step-by-step guide.
Rebellion Dogs Radio always features rebellious music. Episode 74 feature a Toronto band covering a recently lost British icon who died, too young, but sober: Goodnight Sunrise covers David Bowie's Space Oddity (Ground Control to Major Tom).
Rebellion Dogs thinks this Space Oddity cover is amazingly artistic and new sounding - it may send you clamoring back for your original psychedelic era version (and that's okay, too). Visit Goodnight Sunrise, view their campy look at the music industry today in their video WAIT FOR IT. See this band live if you get the chance.
In 1972 Bill Wilson was dead and AA was learning to live sans-founder. In Episode 72, The Secret Diaries of Bill W by bob k bring him back for another lap around the track. We spend, well pretty much the whole episode talking about all kinds of things but mostly bob k and Joe C talk about writing, writing this historical fiction, mostly but it's a fun chat that we welcome you to join.
CLICK the pic above for a link to your own copy of Secret Diaries (eBook or paperback)
We have the author of We Sober Agnostics as our guest talking about his journey in recovery, what he has to offer in terms of The Survival Guide for Agnostics, Atheists And Non-Believers in 12-Step Programs. Our musical contribution is Montreal synth pop-rock band Your Ex And I (YXNI) and their 2023 debut "For all the Loves."
I really enjoyed my chat with Michael; it was joyful to get to experience his recovery, view of life and approach to living sober. Today's show has music and a 12-Step Life book that are both brand new this year and both sound familiar. Synth-pop: Going back to my early recovery, The Human League, Depeche Mode, New Order, Yazoo, and so on, I find in today's indie world, nothing someone loves ever dies. There are people today making the music you love if you are tiring of adult contemporary "best of the 70s, 80s, 90s" nostalgia.
So too with ye olde recovery, be it a big book meeting or Life Ring or She Recovers, what is old is new again with slightly different haircuts. Michael has been an atheist/agnostic since last century but he's comfortable in mainstream AA, prefers face-to-face meetings and we hear all about it today.
I hope you enjoy our chit-chat as much as I did.
I think We Sober Agnostics is well suited for it's target audience; the freethinker in regular AA, ambivalent about their place in AA and AA's place in their sobriety. What the 2020 Great Britain membership survey tells us is more people in mainstream AA are atheist. They don't like that label maybe but, do they believe in a prayer-answering, sobriety-granting supernatural force? No. And I am pretty sure that's what atheism means - a worldview without a supernatural, personal higher power. The 2020 Survey shows us that at least nine out of ten AAs have found some power greater than themselves. Of those who do, 2/3 have a humanist, secular, material world concept... the process (or program), the collective wisdom of the room (or Zoom), an inner resource, etc, etc. This overwhelming majority aren't relying on secular AA meetings or bolting for SMART, LifeRing or other more contemporary peer 2 peer groups. They find a way to fit in, not bothered by ye olde Big Book language.
For secular AA regulars I think there are some good meeting-starter sections in here, too.
Michael has a blog, another good way to “test drive” his ideas and writing style. Check out the latest from MIchael HERE
Also, I expect people who don't like recovery books won't like this one, people who only like recovery books in a certain style will prefer what they already enjoy to this newbie. But I'm glad we have a new booklet this year. Keep them coming, folks.
Meet Clinical Psychologist at Greater Manchester West NHS Mental Health Foundation Trust, Mani Mehdikhani.
Mani is one of AA Great Britain’s non-alcoholic trustees on their General Service Board. Among other duties, Mani and his committee prepared the quinquennial AA membership survey which went out to Alcoholics Anonymous members in Great Britain and English-speaking Central Europe Region groups.
A remarkable thing happened as they prepared to put these questions before members: The COVID-19 pandemic. As members transitioned from primarily face-to-face meetings to online gatherings, here was an opportunity to collect data on how members were adjusting. The General Service Board did just that.
Here is what members shared.
Less than one-in-five (18%) Great Britain AAs had experience with online meetings, pre-pandemic. More members in the Central Europe Region were inclined towards online AA.
By the time the survey of 2020 was collected, 93% of members/groups were able to transition to online (Zoom, etc.) means of connecting with each other.
Early in our adaptation to online AA, members greatest concerns were: (i) helping newcomers, (ii) doing service work, (iii) sponsoring members and (iv) “carrying the message.”
The 2020 survey was the first to work with the Central Europe Region to collect data together.
While much of AA, as most of the world, adapted to a virtual, social-distancing means of interacting with each other, Zoom was not a better way of doing things for everyone. And some members were already attending phone or video meetings anyway. A few months into lock-down the key drawbacks among people who were not in love with ‘the new normal’ were: (i) a lack of technical skills, (ii)online meetings not a suitable replacement for face-to-face (f2f) meetings (33-36%), (iii) concerns about privacy, (iv) no access to bandwidth or IT devices, (iv) group was continuing to meet f2f.
The subcommittee adapted the 2015 Survey instruments as templates; previous items were retained. However, several new questions of interest were identified for exploration:
What role does the concept of ‘ Higher Power ’ play in members’ recovery?
How do members define higher power and spirituality?
What role does Service play in members’ recovery? How is service defined?
Last episode we explored survey results based on the written report. What added benefit came from speaking with the survey’s architect directly?
Well, personally, I had extrapolating some of this data from what it says to what it means; Mani’s scientific observations helped me reel-in some of the hypothetical conclusions I was already starting to draw. “That’s human nature,” he kindly suggested to me. But it was also reassuring to hear that the Board also did not have their full appetite satisfied and they would love to ask follow-up questions to try to direct their efforts most effectively.
The purpose of these membership surveys (in General Service regions such as Great Britain or USA/Canada) is: (i) inform the public and professionals that interact with alcohol use disorder about the demographics and other characteristics of AA members and meetings and (ii)use the data to inform the Board in terms of where their future efforts would best serve the membership of AA.
Mani and the General Service Board say they view with great interest how online AA will both aid the still suffering alcoholic but how virtual spaces will alter the service structure which has—based on geographical locations of members and their meetings before—divided groups/members by geography and how shall the service structure adapt to our more global makeup of meetings and member-interactions?
As we discussed at length in Episode 69 of Rebellion Dogs Radio, we now know more about the worldview of members (in this geographic area) and who applies AA through a religious and/or a secular view. It was eye-opening to hear about the personal significance of this new line of questions in the survey about worldview directly from Dr. Mehdikhani, and to hear how these findings inform the General Service.
On a personal note, I have not been so excited to share an interview with listeners for while. We have talked to other non-alcoholic trustees, General Service Board chair emeritus Ward Ewing (USA/Canada), for instance. It is not lost on me how complex the interaction is between mutual aid groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and healthcare is, today. Employee Assistance professionals, healthcare workers and law-enforcement professionals, largely understand their need for a better understanding of the peer-to-peer recovery world. The generous time and expertise these non-alcoholic professionals lend AA, when they volunteer as non-alcoholic trustees, is vital to how we function. It also gives us—which I think is a feature of Episode 70’s interview—an objective outsider’s view of AA.
With or Without God: the latest Alcoholics Anonymous Membership Survey from Great Britain identifies how many members are religious vs. secular.
Episode 69 of Rebellion Dogs Radio looks at our more enlightened understanding of AA members, at least a significant sample size surveyed this decade. The findings from the Great Britain 2020 AA Membership Survey + English Speaking Central Europe meetings have shared their experience and their understanding of how AA works for them. We look, more broadly, not only at this modernism movement that includes measurable assessment of AA members and AA life today, but we look at how progress is happening in AA. We look at AA maturity in the context of fundamentalism AND modernity, in AA. It is worth viewing both sides: what are the payoffs for those who embrace a strict orthodoxy and why and what do we need to change to better reach more of those who come to us with alcohol or other substance use disorder.
Every five years the Great Britain General Service Conferences surveys members to:
carry the message to professionals, and
help inform the General Service Conference for future decision making.
In 2020 members in Great Britain and English speaking Europe were asked: "Do you believe in a higher power?"
Those who answered "yes" were asked: "Is your higher power religious or secular?"
35% of members hold a religious belief about higher power.
65% of members hold a secular belief about higher power.
From there we ask how this might "inform the General Service Conference for future decision making," and how AA is doing overall in the first two decades of Century 21 in balancing the need to modernize AA and the resistance to change felt by fundamentalist AAs.
Rebellion Dog Radio (addiction/mental health and recovery) EPISODE 68 features our guest Carl Erik Fisher, Columbia University Psychiatrist, host of Flourishing After Addiction podcast, and author of THE URGE: OUR HISTORY of ADDICTION.
Our musical feature on Episode 68 is Goodnight Sunrise with their song debuting 02 22 2022 "One Pill."
Carl Erik Fisher’s search for answers about mental health and addiction hasn’t been satisfied by science and medicine; our trip with Carl takes us into a journey of history, art and philosophy. Sacred cows and wanting definitions and understandings be damned.
The Urge illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has persistently reflected broader questions surrounding being human and care for (& connection with) one another. Fisher introduces us to the people who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists, researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning with our history of addiction, he argues—our successes and our failures—can we light the way forward for those whose lives remain threatened by its hold.
The Urge: Our History of Addiction reveals that the idea of disease and disorder are older than we think. A medical and community concern about (what we now call) substance use disorder) is not a 20th century construct...
"In 1606 Parliament passed an 'Act for the Repressing of the Odious and Loathsome Sin of Drunkenness.' Religious writers of the seventeenth century had log been describing drunkenness as a problem of 'addiction': in 1609, the influential Puritan John Downame bemoaned the fates of those who 'addict themselves to much drinking' and lamented how 'many of our people of late, are so unmeasurably addicted to this vice.' Addiction was no longer just an action one did but also a condition: people actively 'addicted' themselves to something, but were also 'addicted' by something else acting on them - like, of course, gin.
Medical writers during the Gin Craze drew on these developments and began using the word 'addicted' to explain the impaired choice of habitual drunkenness. However, it was far from a clear formulation. The word 'addicted' was usefully ambiguous and flexible..."
Enjoy this interview with someone who I hope will be offering sobering insights into the dialogue of addiction and mental health then and now, for some time to come.
The Music
Goodnight Sunrise, one of the most theatrical and engaging live music acts in Toronto, is missing their time on stage but they're "Not Dead Yet," as their last pandemic song reminded us. We always close with something musical and today it's their 2022 02 22 release "One Pill." Some acts I see in a lot of festivals and clubs I go to, seem to find it difficult to replicate on stage what they created in the studio. Goodnight Sunrise might have the opposite challenge: putting in a mp3 what we experience with their live performance. "One Pill" may have cured that problem for them. The song, seems to me draw from another list song about mild-altering escape, Huey Lewis and "I want a new drug," Or like the retro-psychedelic mental health trip that might still be humming to the 1960's Grace Slick song, "White Rabbit. Here are the "One Pill" lyrics ...
One pill to make you stronger One pill to wear you out One pill to make you wonder One pill to ease your doubts
We’re all just trying to get by Everybody’s on their own supply Doesn’t matter what you call it if it takes you higher
We’re all just living a lie Nobody gonna ask you why Doesn’t matter what you call it if it takes you higher
One pill to wake you up One pill to help you sleep One pill to hold you captive One pill to set you free
You’re looking in the wrong direction If you’re looking for something to find And if you keep on staring at the same reflection You might as well be blind
One pill to take you farther One pill to slow you down One pill to fuel the fire One pill to burn you out One pill to take you higher One pill to break the fall One pill to feel desire One pill to feel at all
And while you're clicking,Flourishing After Addiction is a podcast by Carl Erik Fisher that I have made a must-hear. I can't recommend it more; go bookmark it wherever you enjoy podcasts.
"The way our ‘worthy’ alcoholics have sometimes tried to judge the ‘less worthy’ is, as we look back on it, rather comical. Imagine, if you can, one alcoholic judging another!" Bill W.
In the UK, AA’s General Service Office retaliation against it’s own group has created click-bait for media outlets. The Daily Mail and other news outlets are reporting that an AA “group is under threat after being censured for reciting the Lord’s Prayer,” and members of the group were “told by leaders it had become too Christian-focused and has been removed from the organization’s online directory.”
Of course, it’s only ten-years ago USA and Canada central offices were making news for discriminating against atheist and agnostics AA groups. There is the Goldilocks syndrome that explodes into AA groups being scapegoated for being way too liberal or way too conservative. Do AA meetings need to be “just right” not too this and not too that?
We look at the latest debacle in South Somerset UK, and how for 75 years AA Traditions, Concepts, and Warranties promising autonomy, love, and tolerance, could not prevent bleeding deacons from turning on fringe meetings and setting AA Tradition on fire.
In Big Book meetings, members can quote chapter, verse and page numbers from memory. If we had meetings where people could quote AA Concepts and Warranties, would we not avoid these self-inflicted public embarrassments? Could a focus on AA policy and history prevent the tyranny of the majority from their habitual acts of dis-unity?
One headline now reads: “Are You Kidding Me? Cancel Culture Now Attacks Alcoholics Anonymous Group.”
In January 2022’s podcast we look at a history of AA’s promise to groups to let them conduct themselves independently and without governance on one side, and the AA deacons that pull the fire alarm and kick groups out for non-conformity, on the other side. This pattern habitually repeats itself in AA. Joni Mitchell’s song, “Circle Game,” comes ot mind:
And the seasons, they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We are captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return, we can only look
Behind from whence we came
Round and round and round in the circle game
We do not devote an hour to fault-finding or laying blame. That would be more circle game, we think.
We’re trying to learn; taking inventory in a sense of how the mantra of love and tolerance of others as an explicit code, leads to these periodic and bouts of dis-unity. Can AA live up to its own principles or is it impossible to transcend a human tendency towards tribal conflict?
This is worth talking about and today we do, with historical review of policy and how individuality and non-conformity trigger AA into behaving badly.
Our musical feature on Episode 67 is producer and singer/songwriter Conor Gains. His latest single is "Lightning" The single takes you through the ups and downs of being intensely in love and how it can strike like “Lightning." Connection and rejection, these are stormy forces in life too so I thought it might fit the mood of the episode. Bill Wilson wrote about our fear, our tribalism and how maybe we come through these storms, better for it: "Perhaps it means that we are losing all fear of those violent emotional storms which sometimes cross our alcoholic world; perhaps it bespeaks our confidence that every storm will be followed by a calm; a calm which is more understanding, more compassionate, more tolerant than any we ever knew before."
Episode 67, this blog/podcast is dedicated to the memory of AA Historian Arthur S, who died January 3, 2022. The loss of Arthur creates a void of love and service that I hope we can collectively fill. I didn’t really know Arthur like a regular at my own home group, but I relied heavily on his scholarly contribution to the continuing saga of AA and addiction recovery history. Arthur, while capable and prolific, was clear to not speak for AA, while asserting that he held a “personal interest in the history of AA and consider it imperative to correct historical inaccuracies and propagation of myth.” Among other cornerstones of AA history scholarship, I have often referenced, in 2008 along with Glenn C (also recently passed) and Tom E, compiled AA Recovery Outcome Rates—Contemporary Myths and Misinterpretations[i]. I have relied heavily on Art’s contribution to the AA Timeline[ii] and the 20,000 pages from the A.A. History Lovers sight. Glenn C had this to say: “Arthur continued to be the researcher we all depended on to give us a reasoned answer to hotly debated questions, backed up by impeccable sources.”[iii]
"We don't care if you're from Yale or jail, here." Jim Burwell (March 23, 1898 - September 8, 1974) "Action is the magic word; you can't get goosed by the spirit if you don't get off your duff!"
Understandably, September 1974, I did not know who Jim Burwell was, or how his past would inform my future. September 8th, 1974 , that was a Saturday, easy for me to remember. As it turns out, Jim B and I would both awake in hospital beds: he in a palliative care unit in San Diego, and me on a gurney in the Emergency Room of the Lakeshore General Hospital in Montreal.
Jim B was 36 years, two months, four days sober, an atheist, and one of the first few dozen to get sober in Alcoholics Anonymous. Jim B would die this day, outliving both official AA founders, Dr. Bob and Bill W.
Meanwhile, in Montreal, early morning Saturday September 8th, 1974, I was brought to the hospital by ambulance, having been found face up in my own vomit in the boy’s locker room of the Macdonald High School hockey rink, by the Zamboni driver. He was opening up the arena around dawn to prepare the arena for the day’s scheduled programme. What I was told, is that he found me laying motionless, thought for dead.
Coming out of my first black out, I was in a busy Emergency Room hallway. I did not know where I was. The last memory I had was from 15 hours before, friends and me, passing a bottle around between the high school football field and the back-alley entrance the school. We were there for a Friday night dance. I had been drinking all day; I had not paced myself. The music was starting inside the school; it was time to go into the gymnasium. I collapsed to the ground and I couldn't get up. I remember hearing, “Come on Joe; it’s time to go; get up!” I could not respond. The last memory I have, paralyzed and speechless, I was drifting into—what I now understand to be—a blackout. Fading to black, my last memory was someone tugging on my feet, saying to our friends, “I’m tying his shoelaces to the bicycle rack. He’ll be fine here; let’s go inside.”
My next conscious moment, I assumed I was in the school somewhere. But I didn't know where I was or how I got there; I didn't even know I was coming out of a blackout. Instinctively, I searched for clues. There was a window high on the wall by the ceiling of the hospital corridor. Sun was coming through. “That can’t be,” I thought, “It’s nighttime.” Of course it wasn’t night, anymore; I was discombobulated. I was sick and aching and struggled to get my wits about me. Soon, my toxicology report would be read to me by an unimpressed, unsympathetic doctor who had recently pumped my stomach. According to the good doctor and the mad science of 1974 toxicology was this news flash: Joe, you did cocaine for the first time in your life, sometime, somewhere in the lost hours of the night before.
I was trying to process, get my shit together, I drew a blank on what happened from the time that I was ditched by my mates, about 7 PM Friday, and waking in alarm, hours later, miles away, in a hospital. No memory recollection or second-hand accounts since then, have revealed any details of the where, when, what, why and with whom of those lost hours of September 7th. I will say that coke was, for this teenager, generally out of my price range. I did not really hang out with coke-heads, I guess because they didn't seem to want to hang out with me. Still unknown to this date, what might I have done to get and take cocaine that night? It’s a mystery.
I would be going to my first AA meeting—not that I thought I needed it—on Tuesday September 11th. Unbeknownst to me, my recovery journey was beginning. I don’t keep a journal, but I know I was one of the Grade 9s, crashing the Grade 8 dance, which is always the first Friday night after Labour Day. Two weeks earlier, August 25th, 1974, I turned 14-years-old. So that's how my September 8th was unfolding.
Back in San Diego, widow Rosa Burwell and SoCal’s AA were preparing for their beloved Jim B’s funeral and memorial. I know this because I just found this recording that I am so pleased to share with you.
This recording, the memorial service of Jim B, is for me, like finding a stash, a baggy of puzzle pieces of AA history. Many of Jimmy B’s sponsees speak. The meeting's chair is Al, 21 days from his 41st sober anniversary. It's 1974, minus 41 years of sobriety, that equals... oh my: Al got sober in 1933. Al was sober longer than Bill Wilson!
Rosa Burwell, his widow was there of course. She has the distinction of being the first Southern California female delegate to the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Marge was only the second female California delegate; she was 11 years sober at the memorial and remembers being at Jim’s 25-year celebration, early in her sobriety.
Roy recalls Jim bringing AA to Philadelphia. We will hear in this recording, just months before this memorial, a telegram would be received, informing Rosa and Jim that 1,150 AA members celebrated the anniversary of the group Jim B started in Philly. The telegram boasted that they could have sold 1,000 more tickets if they had room for them all.
Eunice knew Jim from AA in Washington, saw him next, years later, reading the Steps in a meeting in San Diego. Eunice and Rosa became the best of friends.
Sybil C got sober in LA March 21, 1941, the first AA woman West of the Mississippi River. From the lectern, Sybil shared about an early AA play about the 12 step program (Jackie B, did you already know this?!? Jackie’s written a play about AA history that features Sybil prominently). As the story is told by Sybil, the LA play featured an unabashed atheist from formative New York AA. During a local performance, Sybil will recall on this recording, she sneaked Jim B into the wings to come on stage, playing himself before an unsuspecting audience. The place went wild with enthusiasm.
I just found this Jim B recording on a hard drive, by accident. What I was looking for were some documents for 2022 writing projects. I am undertaking a brand-new book that looks at the plethora of 21st century recovery options. Concurrently, I am doing some updates for a third printing of Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life with a new Preface and a hard-cover print option. I am thinking and talking about translating Beyond Belief. So no, I had no plans for, nor sense of urgency for a new podcast when I sat down at my desk, however many hours ago that is now.
Other writers will relate. When wrestling with the seemingly overwhelming weight of starting to write and keeping at it, any distraction will do—if fact the distraction always appears relevant and urgent, at the time. This Jimmy B recording was just such a distraction. At the time of writing this, it is 3:47 AM and seven or eight or nine hours since I was searching in earnest for files pertaining to my planned writing. Joe makes plans; And the muse laughs. Ha, ha, ha. Ernie Kurtz would describe being a person with addiction this way, "We must thirst; where will I direct that thirst?"
I do not remember who gave me this recording I found today; if you are out there reading this blog, and you sent it to me, “Thank you and sorry I forgot all about it until now.” If you would be so kind to reveal yourself to me, I will happily give credit as—I must say—credit is due. This recording is amazing.
To Arlene, my new friend from Zoom secular AA, sober since 1969, who was a member at Mission Hills group, that Jim and Rosa B attended. Where you at this memorial, Arlene? Tell me more; tell me more. (see below, Thanks Arlene)
To my fellow historians, if you have more details about this cast of characters appearing in this recording, I am listening; do tell.
If any of you are unfamiliar with this recording, I hope it helps fill your AA history puzzle. Let me know. It was very hard to listen to. I imported it into my editing suit and cleaned up the recording to the best of my ability. This is 1970s reel to reel audio tape, converted to cassette, left in a pile somewhere, until being converted to a compact disc wav file and then to the mp3 I have here. I have tweaked what I can. While the recorded content and quality of this blog/podcast will not change; this commentary you are reading is a work-in-progress, a living document. Any insights and additions, from anyone out there, would be much appreciated.
Jim B died September 8th, 1974, and I did not—I could have died. Asphyxiation from one’s own vomit is and has been “Game Over” for some of my music heroes and uncounted fellow addicts that we never got a chance to know. So, I dodged a bullet; another bullet as the story goes, with more shots in the dark to come.
My mother’s 34th birthday was the next day, just as it was every September 9th of her life. I wasn't thinking much about that. Mom was a few months sober, September of 1974, not something I paid much attention to, either. I had been invited to go to Alateen, during my mother's AA pink-cloud phase... Yeah right, as if!
I wasn’t impressed by my mother's suggestion that maybe I should try an AA meeting. It was just another in a series of lectures of how to run my life. What would a 34-year-old lady know about young people?!? "I hope I die before I get old!" As a ploy, just to get her to shut up already, I said, “Okay; if it’s such a big deal for you, I’ll go to a stupid meeting!”
Art picked me up Tuesday night and we both chain-smoked on our way to the Veteran’s hospital for my first meeting. We continued smoking through the meeting. I was not all that impressed. Right now, I would love to say the spirit of Jim jumped into my body or something like that (figuratively of course) and I was struck sober to carry the sobriety torch, handed off from him to me. Alas, I had a few more near-death experiences some of which would land me back in this same hospital, before I got sober, a couple of years later. The larger picture is that many people were dying or almost dying that same day, in hospitals and gutters around the world. Jim B and Joe C's stories aren't bound together any more than the days accounting of people dying or nearly dying, some "with" alcohol use disorder, some, fatally "from" alcohol use disorder.
Jim B’s story “The Vicious Cycle” wasn’t included in the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. To the hundreds or thousands that would owe their sobriety—in part—to Jim B, it felt like the record was being set straight when Jim’s story was added to our Big Book’s Second Edition in 1955. "A Vicious Cycle" remains in today's Fourth Edition.
In the 1968 AA Grapevine, 30 years sober, Jim tells his side of the story - first written about him, not by him in the book, Alcoholics Anonymous:
“...the early meetings were quite religious, in both New York and Akron. There was always a Bible on hand, and the concept of God was all biblical. Into this fairly peaceful picture came I, their first self-proclaimed atheist, completely against all religions and conventions. I was the captain of my own ship (The only trouble was my ship was completely disabled and rudderless.) So naturally I started fighting nearly all the things Bill and the others stood for, especially religion, the ‘God bit.’ But I did want to stay sober, and I did love the understanding Fellowship. So I became quite a problem to that early group, with my constant haranguing against all spiritual angles.”
Jim never started believing (in anything supernatural) but he did stop fighting. And in this 30-years-of-sobriety address, he offers to others on our recovery journey, his experience of secular AA sobriety:
Enjoy this trip down history’s memory lane and anyone with further insights... call me :-).
For me, personally, this was the "life during wartime" phase of my addiction. This has been a heightened time of reflection for me, since this recording took me on an unexpected detour from my plans for the day.
Looking back now, I didn't share any appreciation for the doctor who dealt with my stinky unconscious body, suffering from self-inflicted life-threatening wounds. He saved my life and I treated him like an inconvenience. I never looked up the Zamboni driver to thank him for his role in saving my life and cleaning up after me; I was too ashamed and embarrassed. What was Art getting out of taking this punk-ass kid to his regular meeting with his World War II veteran fellows. I never asked him about his story, his war trauma, how he came to AA or anything about him. I didn't want to go to the meeting, I was embarrassed to be in his company and I just wanted the day to be over.
I certainly don't remember thanking my mother for picking me up from the hospital or expressing regret for her being awoken to, "Mrs. so-and-so? This is Lakeshore General Hospital calling. Do you have a son named Joe?" I don't know and don't have any memory of her birthday on the Sunday; did I say, "Happy Birthday mom; I really appreciate you." I am quite sure I was quite self-absorbed.
I couldn't see kind acts, I saw these people as obstacles, as people who did not understand and witnesses to what felt to me like humiliation. I certainly did not appreciate the gravity of my situation or my role in my misfortune. I didn't identify as an "alcoholic." I saw myself as a victim of a series of bad breaks and serious misunderstandings. I expect they are all dead now. All I can do, is to hope that I can remember to pay it forward.
People who need love the most, deserve it the least.
I am a bad example, or a sample, of how true this expression is. Will I be ready for the next person who needs love the most and deserves it the least. I hope so.
That's my story of common suffering as it was unfolding, September of 1994, at least a snapshot of my story. And this recording, from two Provinces and ten states away, three time zones and 4,668 km (2,900 miles) South and West of my tale, is another snapshot of our kinship of common suffering. I was no poster-child that "recovery is possible" in 1974. The Jim Burwell Memorial recording is a case history of how recovery is possible, and it's also contagious.