Alcoholics Anonymous: Twelve Steps or Six

Alcoholics Anonymous: Twelve Steps or Six? Dick B. © 2009 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
Where did the Twelve Steps Themselves Come From?
The answer is that the Twelve Steps, and the "Big Book" which suggested how to take them, came from a large number of sources--probably sixteen and counting. Those sources included the Bible, YMCA; the Salvation Army; the Gospel Rescue Missions; Worldwide Christian Endeavor Society; Oxford Group; Rev. Sam Shoemaker; Dr. Bob's wife Anne Ripley Smith; the necessity for conversion to Christ; Quiet Time; the Christian literature and devotionals early AAs read; New Thought writings; William D. Silkworth, M.D.; Professor William James of Harvard; renowned psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung; lay therapist Richard Peabody; and still others.
My books examine the various sources for each of the Steps. See By the Power of God, Twelve Steps for You, The Good Book and The Big Book, The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous, New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., Turning Point: A History of Early A.A. Spiritual Roots and Successes; The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth; Anne Smith's Journal 1933-1939; Good Morning!: Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Alcoholics Anonymous; The James Club and The Original A.A. Program's Absolute Essentials. See the title pages of my main website (http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml).
Recently, critics of A.A. and of our history have endeavored to bind and fetter the Twelve Steps to the Oxford Group, to "heresy," to "spirituality," to "spiritualism," to idolatry, to "not-god," to abysmal failures in recovery, to absurd names for God, to half-baked prayers, to self-made religion, to automatic writing, to New Thought, and even to "nothing at al."--as the latest A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature now suggests.
A.A.'s Big Book and the Joe and Charlie Big Book Seminars have made clear that an almost complete set of the Twelve Step ideas were tendered to Bill Wilson by his friend Ebby Thacher at Towns Hospital in 1934. The ultimate source of the Big Book and Twelve Step ideas was the writing of William Griffith Wilson (Bill W.) during the period beginning in early 1938 and ending in the spring of 1939. The Printer's Manuscript--soon to be published--shows the hundreds of changes made in the Multi lith copy of the Big Book just prior to sending the manuscript to the Printer. Moreover, 400 pages of Christian and Biblical material was tossed out in the editing process, as A.A.'s Pass It On and Bill's secretary Ruth Hock have confirmed. We now know from Wilson's own remarks that the Twelve Steps came largely from the teachings of Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., that Bill actually asked Shoemaker to write the Twelve Steps; that Shoemaker declined; and that Bill nonetheless dubbed Rev. Sam a "Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous." Thus the answer as to where the Twelve Steps came from and how they were written Bill Wilson lies in the documented facts themselves, and not in the unsupported reconstructions, characterizations, or opinions of critics and revisionists..
Were there Six Steps in the Original A.A. Program?
Answer: No! There exists a lot of confusion concerning the gross differences between the Original Christian Fellowship program founded in Akron on June 10, 1935, developed thereafter by November, 1937 and continuing through 1938. Here is what A.A. Cofounder Dr. Bob said in his last major address to AAs in Detroit in 1948--ten years after this formative period.
"At that point [in "early A.A. days"] our stories didn't amount to anything to speak of. When we started in on Bill D., we had no Twelve Steps either; we had no Traditions.
"But we were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book. To some of us older ones, the parts that we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James. . . .
"It wasn't until 1938 that the teachings and efforts and studies that had been going on were crystallized in the form of the Twelve Steps. I didn't write the Twelve Steps. I had nothing to do with the writing of them. . . . We already had the basic ideas, though not in terse and tangible form. We got them, as I said, as a result of our study of the Good Book."
What were the Elements of the Original A.A. Program?
In November, 1937, Bill Wilson visited a week with Dr. Bob in Akron, Ohio. The two men "counted noses" and found that there were forty alcoholics who had stayed bone dry, 50% permanently cured, 25% cured after a relapse, and the remainder showing improvement. And then Bill went to New York seeking money from Rockefeller. Rockefeller dispatched his agent Frank Amos (later a trustee-to-be of the Alcoholic Foundation) to investigate and report on the program. We have copies of both the first and second Amos reports. The first came from the Rockefeller Archives; the second from my trip twenty years ago to the Stepping Stones archives. Both were displayed at our Nationwide Recovery Conference with Dick B. in Irvine, California on May 15 and 16, 2009. Part of Amos' report is set forth in A.A. General Service Conference-approved book, DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers.
The Seven Original Program Ingredients Summarized in the Frank Amos Report
The Frank Amos report to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., dated February 23, 1938, described the Akron "Program" founded in 1935. Amos said it was being carried out faithfully by the Akron group. The men in the group, he said, all looked to Dr. Bob for leadership. And these were the specifics Amos set forth about the "Program" [DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (New York, N.Y.: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), 131]:
• An alcoholic must realize that he is an alcoholic, incurable from a medical viewpoint, and that he must never drink anything with alcohol in it.
• He must surrender himself absolutely to God, realizing that in himself there is no hope.
• Not only must he want to stop drinking permanently, he must remove from his life other sins such as hatred, adultery, and others which frequently accompany alcoholism. Unless he will do this absolutely, Smith and his associates refuse to work with him.
• He must have devotions every morning-a "quiet time" of prayer and some reading from the Bible and other religious literature. Unless this is faithfully followed, there is grave danger of backsliding.
• He must be willing to help other alcoholics get straightened out. This throws up a protective barrier and strengthens his own willpower and convictions.
• It is important, but not vital, that he meet frequently with other reformed alcoholics and form both a social and a religious comradeship.
• Important, but not vital, that he attend some religious service at least once weekly.
What About the Six "Word of Mouth" Ideas Bill Wilson Mentioned?
First of all, it was Bill Wilson--not Dr. Bob--who spoke of these six word-of-mouth ideas. Bill called them "word of mouth." He said they varied from place to place and person to person. And I have actually located several different versions of these six ideas--one version written in Bill's own hand many years after the 1930's and given to me by his secretary Nell Wing. For the varieties of these so-called six ideas, see:
The first set, recorded in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 160.
The second set, recorded in The Language of the Heart, 200.
The third set, recorded in Lois Remembers, 92.
A purported fourth set--allegedly used by Dr. Bob--but actually not recorded in any literature commissioned by Dr. Bob, not recorded in the First Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, attributed to Earl Treat and the founding of A.A. in Chicago, added in a later edition of the basic text as a story titled "He Sold Himself Short," and containing language that neither resembles Wilson's six ideas nor language used by Dr. Bob. The lengthy recital of what Dr. Bob allegedly did with Earl Treat at least two years after the founding of A.A. does not controvert Dr. Bob's statement that there were no Steps or Traditions at the beginning; that he didn't write the steps or have anything to do with writing them; and that the original program came from the Bible.
There are other versions also of the six Bill Wilson ideas. Further, as Bill himself stated specifically, the ideas for Bill's Twelve Steps came largely from the language and teachings of his friend Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York. There were no Steps in 1935. The Oxford Group had no Steps, and Bill expanded the six ideas to Twelve Steps as he wrote the Twelve Steps in late 1938.

About the Author
Writer, historian, retired attorney, Bible student, active and recovered member of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous; author of 34 titles on the history and sources of early A.A.