This references this post from March 9: https://anonymousalcoholics.home.blog/2024/03/09/how-to-start-an-aa-group-part-1/
It is a good post, but unfortunately it makes assumptions that can’t be made anymore, so I am going to clarify. I am clarifying in parts – by the sections I wrote in the post. I am writing these posts for myself – I doubt anyone really cares. I am doing this for ME. So that I stay sober and sane.
1. Any 2 or 3 alcoholics, gathered for sobriety, may call themselves an AA Group.
Any 2 or 3 ALCOHOLICS. What is an Alcoholic? Found in the the first 43 pages of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, and the Dr’s Opinion. A man or woman, who has a physical allergy to alcohol – once they have 1, they have more and also they cannot stay stopped. Any 2 or 3 of those – who have a desire to STOP PERMANENTLY, one day at a time. They may have a gazillion other things wrong with them, and right with them (7th step prayer), but they have this one thing in common – ALCOHOLISM and the desire to overcome it.
A man or woman. Yes. That is what I said. Why? Because if it’s anything else other than thing between your legs when you were born – you simply have not drank enough booze yet. I have a black dress.
They also must be WILLING to go to any lengths for VICTORY over ALCOHOLISM. This means that they have put this as a PRIORITY above MATERIALISM. .
Willing means that you do it even when you don’t want to. For example, I don’t want to go to a meeting, I am tired and I want to binge watch shows on Netflix, but I pray to God for power and I get in the vehicle of transport and go to the meeting anyway, the way I would if I were still drinking and needed booze.
Any Lengths means that you don’t “try”, you do. You do whatever it is that is asked of you by your sponsor IF it can be supported in the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. Any lengths cannot be defined as it is different every time – but the image that came to my mind is that of “Bouldering” – you get to the top of a big rock on the path and you have to climb down the rock, one foot-hold at a time to get to the parking lot where your car is. It is kind of scary, but you just pray to God, and then one foot, one hand, the other foot, the other hand, you slowly, prayerfully, every step, lower yourself down the sheer face of the rock to the ground vs. crying and waiting for a helicopter to come save you, or back-tracking all the way back the way you came because you are too scared, or throwing a tantrum and making everyone else drop what they are doing to create a contraption to make your trip down the rock easier. Going to ANY LENGTHS makes you grow spiritually. It creates a relationship with God – it gets you into the habit of relying upon the Unseen.
Victory over Alcoholism: This means – that with God’s help, I put hours, days, weeks, months together consecutively of sober time and I learn to live in God’s world. Not: get on medication to overcome bi-polar or alcohol use disorder or substance abuse or chemical dependency. Not become a dry drunk and start overeating or overworking to overcome alcoholism. Victory over Alcoholism means actually practicing the slow process of AA to overcome alcoholism: go to meetings, read the stories, get a sponsor, go through the book with the sponsor and do what the book says to do using pen and paper. Make all amends in person or graveside.. Then help others in this exact manner.
Gathered for Sobriety: This would mean IN PERSON. Eyeball-to-eyeball and heart-to-heart. This does not happen on Zoom. Do we drink on zoom? Did we drink little 0s and 1s? NO! I drank ALCOHOL. I gathered for inebriation therefore I can gather for sobriety!
This would also mean that we leave our cell phones IN THE CAR. Don’t bring it in to a gathering for sobriety and turn it to silent. Don’t bring it in and turn it off. Leave the cell phone in the car because of the purpose of gathering is FOR SOBRIETY. We are NOT gathered for sobriety AND to check instagram. We are NOT gathered for sobriety and to text so-and-so. We are not gathered for sobriety and ANYTHING.
We are gathered FOR SOBRIETY as a singular action, because it is a LIFE and DEATH matter.
What is “for sobriety”? Again – There are 3 parts to the triangle – Recovery, Unity, and Service – and they require your full attention. I have talked about this in prior articles “Paying Attention”. What that actually means.- think about the words – Attention is Currency – you are paying with your attention.
There is more to it than that. Take the Double Slit experiment. I discussed this somewhat in this post. The Double Slit Experiment proved that the observer effects the observed.
Being distracted from the task at hand, not being fully present, being disassociated, actually steals from the other people and the situation.
Single-mindedness – that was the goal of the Ancients and Adepts in Spiritual Mastery – not double-mindedness. Leaving your phone in the car means a commitment that you are gathered for a SINGLE purpose. (5th Tradition) You don’t have your dopamine works in your pocket. Everyone on earth is mesmerized by the Materialistic God of the cell phone these days, nevermind that the towers themselves and the download speed is our secret top priority even though it is destroying life on planet earth – no one cares about that.
Therefore, I would assert that if you are using a cell-phone in an AA meeting you are NOT gathered for sobriety. You are definitely using dopamine along with your coffee and sugar. Hey – I am not a cell-phone-in-a-meeting virgin either – I am just making that decision that going forward, the phone is IN THE CAR and I am “gathered for sobriety”, singularly. Making that sacrifice is going to help ME. I will be being honest with myself. I will be doing what is right for AA. My contribution. My presence for 1 hour.
Finding 2 or 3 people these days who are willing to do the above who all live in the same city – only God can bring that about.
My one sponsee – she still talks about “when I came in “we did the Traditions” – but if that was true – we would still be doing them – wouldn’t we? It simply makes no sense. My husband – he says “The old timers used to tell you “don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out”” – Ok WE are the new old-timers and how come WE are not doing that? It’s this lost sense of ownership – a lack of understanding that WE create our reality by embodying God’s principles TOGETHER which were given to us.
Embodying God’s Principles alone is one thing – but then doing it together and allowing for individual differences – it can be done! You don’t all have to say all the same words like a cult – each individual can understand (stand under, having had their own experience with) the meaning of the black words on the white page and act accordingly, together.
IF everyone is alcoholic, and gathered for sobriety. And then add in the cowardice that has been pounded into us as a result of the world-trauma of the Con-vid Plandemic – and even before – 10 years before the Con – we were already not practicing our principles – the “internet” is a giant materialistic drug that has stolen our minds.
The 3rd Tradition states that “The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.” All your other problems will get resolved if you focus your recovery on that only. We don’t need anymore muddy water groups. I think it may be time to put “HONEST” back in to the 3rd Tradition. “The only requirement for membership is an HONEST desire to stop drinking.” Why? I don’t really feel like people come to AA to stop drinking anymore. They say they are here because they want to be a better person or whatever. OMG! Why would an alcoholic want to be a better person??? So they can get their way of course!!! Page 63 – still more demanding or gracious as the case may be –
But that seems like a no-brainer anymore – that’s why we do everything – we have to have an incentive to do anything, so they say out there in the world – but the thing is about US – alcoholics – is that God provides the incentive. For me – God is my incentive. If it was not for God, I would be dead. That is a literal and true statement. If I am just doing things for ME – well then nothing is going to get done. Lack of Power, that is my dilemma.
Yesterday, I told God that I am ready for Him to take me because I am sick and tired of living in this Materialistic soup of bullshit. I am not particularly depressed or anything. I am fine mentally, spiritually, physically – a few aches and pains- I am just sick and tired of every person that I meet being FAKE and out to GET something and I don’t have anything that they want- I am not special or unique at all – except that I am not going along with the “programming” – that is what makes me different – But I am still here today. He did not take me. So I will plug away and continue to use HIM as my incentive. and try to be helpful to others while not being servile or scraping.
Our common welfare must come first – this means the common welfare of ALL of AA – not of your group. I have gone over this in detail in this blog.
In Northern California, they have “Fellowships” – because they seem to have mistakenly self-centeredly believed that their groups are the whole Fellowship. It’s weird. But probably has to do with their thing that happened in 1946… But it also gives them these weird “rights” where they think they can decide that there is one member that is disrupting the groups so they can kick them out and get a restraining order against the person and then GO TO COURT to enforce the restraining order. Wow! Here is the post that I wrote about this amazing misunderstanding – and of course, it’s all about money.
So this is the end of Part 2. I might go through the rest of this post at a later date.
Anonymous Alcoholics 