Dccclxxii - Young Burning Witch

DCCCLXXii - Young Burning Witch
«Нижнее днище нижнего ада мне казалось не так глубоко - БГ»

Проблем у неё не бывает, Она далеко не зашла,
На нижнем днище нижнего ада, Она никогда не была…
Она даже маме не звонит, хотя мама часто права,
И в Кемерово не найти человека, дом которого скрыла трава…
Она уже на вершине - Милан, Дубай, Голливуд,
ДиКаприо и Тарантино, в одном с ней квартале живут…
Все ночи она в зазеркалье, все дни в кротовой норе,
Она возвращается в Кемерово, один раз в пять лет в Январе…

Однако когда Марс закроет Сатурн, лишь кольца Сатурна видны,
Она начинает чувствовать тех, кто смотрит чуть ниже спины…
Тогда босыми ногами, ступает она по росе,
Туда куда позовёт её голос, того о ком знают не все…
Возможно его имя Каин, а возможно Тригонометрист,
Возможно он жил до потопа, а возможно он был альтруист…
Но ей очень хочется молча, стоять рядом с ним у костра,
Смотреть как луна отразившись в воде, в подводный зовёт её, храм…

А может быть ей это снится, возможно кривы зеркала,
И врядли она научилась, добро отличать от зла…
Лишь в Кемерово есть пещера, в которой жил раньше Платон,
И в этой пещере кентавр, дракон, чёрный ворон и слон…
Там гномы, кроты,  исполины и тот кто поднимет вуаль,
Возьмёт её нежно на руки, покажет туманную даль…
Откроет ей тайны вселенной, изложит ей суть бытия,
Рассеет меж трав прах на землю, времён ход вернёт до нуля…

Лишь с ним обретёт она силу, и волю ему подчиня,
Холодной статуей застынет, из бус ожирельем звеня…
Сливаясь в тантрическом танце  под медленный топот копыт,
Захочет с ним сблизиться жарче, пока вход в перу не скрыт…
Захочет продать свою душу, за эти мгновения с ним,
Послушать, что шепчет ей в уши, вдохнуть от костра едкий дым…
И ярче Луны разгораясь, влечением-страстью полна,
Она в этот миг умирает, но снова воскреснет она..

…

DCCCLXXii - Young Burning Witch
“The bottom of lower hell didn’t seem so deep to me - BG”

She doesn't have any problems, she hasn't gone far,
At the bottom of the lower hell, She has never been...
She doesn't even call her mom, although mom is often right,
And in Kemerovo you won’t find a person whose house was hidden by grass...
She's already at the top - Milan, Dubai, Hollywood,
DiCaprio and Tarantino live in the same block as her...
All nights she is in the looking glass, all days in a wormhole,
She returns to Kemerovo once every five years in January...

However, when Mars covers Saturn, only Saturn's rings are visible,
She begins to feel those who look just below her back...
Then with bare feet she walks through the dew,
Where her voice will call, someone not everyone knows about...
Perhaps his name is Cain, or perhaps Trigonometrist,
Perhaps he lived before the flood, or perhaps he was an altruist...
But she really wants to silently stand next to him by the fire,
Watch how the moon reflected in the water calls her to the underwater temple...

Or maybe she’s dreaming, maybe the mirror is distorting,
And it’s unlikely that she learned to distinguish good from evil...
Only in Kemerovo there is a cave in which Plato lived before,
And in this cave there is a centaur, a dragon, a black raven and an elephant...
There are gnomes, moles, giants and the one who lifts the veil,
He will take her tenderly in his arms and show her the foggy distance...
He will reveal to her the secrets of the universe, explain to her the essence of existence,
He will scatter the ashes on the ground among the grasses, and return the course of time to zero...

Only with him will she gain strength and submit her will to him,

Merging in a tantric dance to the slow clatter of hooves,
She will want to get closer to him more intensely, until the entrance to Peru is hidden...
He will want to sell his soul for these moments with him,
Listen to what whispers in her ears, inhale the acrid smoke from the fire...
And flaring up brighter than the Moon, full of attraction and passion,
She is dying at this moment, but she will rise again...

…

http://stihi.ru/2014/04/02/6164
Влюбленный Крокодил

Влюбленный по полю по лесу бродил,
И возле реки его сьел крокодил...
Теперь крокодил как влюбленный , влюблен,
По полю, по лесу теперь бродит он...
Я много ездил и везде ходил,
Любовь у всех съедает крокодил...
Даже тебя, хоть ты не влюблена,
Съест крокодил и будет сыт сполна...
И где б ты не была, кого бы не любила,
Всегда остерегайся крокодила!


© Copyright: Сергей Полищук, 2014
Свидетельство о публикации №114040206164

…

Огненные Стервы
http://stihi.ru/2009/03/30/4393
Не холод привлекает нас мужчин
А красота, сопротивление и смелость
И пусть инстинкт причина всех причин
Нетронутость и целостность, и верность

Такие редкие достоинства в цене
Толкают к действию, к победе, к наслаждению
Вновь интерес возбудит, наваждение
Креплённое на выпитом вине

Изгибы тела, шелк волос, цвет глаз
Зажгут огнём в душе и сердце страсть
Желание войти в то тело первым

Но где же вы, о чистые и юнные?
Сразили вас пороки обоюдные
Молоденькие, огненные стервы!


© Copyright: Сергей Полищук, 2009
Свидетельство о публикации №109033004393

…

LEST WE BECOME COMPLACENT

The Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Responsibility Statement is "I am responsible. When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA always to be there. And for that I am responsible". 

The statement was written by Grapevine editor Al S. and first presented at the 1965 AA International Convention in Toronto. AA co-founder Bill W. spoke of the "immensity of our task" in helping alcoholics, and the Responsibility Declaration has a personal meaning for many sober alcoholics.

…

What is the third step prayer?

God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and to do with me 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!

…

What is the 7 step prayer?

“My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.”

…

What is the step 9 amends prayer?


Ninth Step Prayer

Higher Power, I pray for the right attitude to make my amends, Being ever mindful not to harm others in the process. I ask for Your guidance in making indirect amends.

…

The 11th Step Prayer is a prayer that is part of the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) recovery program's 11th Step. It is also known as the St. Francis Prayer.

The prayer is:
* "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace"
* "Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon"
* "Where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope"
* "Where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy" ;;The 11th Step encourages people to find what resonates most with their higher power. This could mean exploring different ways to connect spiritually, based on their unique beliefs and experiences

…

It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85

When I am in pain it is easy to stay close to the friends I have found in the program. Relief from that pain is provided in the solutions contained in A.A.'s Twelve Steps. But when I am feeling good and things are going well, I can become complacent. To put it simply, I become lazy and turn into the problem instead of the solution. I need to get into action, to take stock: where am I and where am I going? A daily inventory will tell me what I must change to regain spiritual balance. Admitting what I find within myself, to God and to another human being, keeps me honest and humble.

From the book Daily Reflections.
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

…

As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrec #Spiritual #humility

 3
October
Going It Alone, p. 274

Going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous. How many times have we heard well-intentioned people claim the guidance of God when it was plain that they were mistaken? Lacking both practice and humility, they deluded themselves and were so able to justify the most arrant nonsense on the ground that this was what God had told them.

People of very high spiritual development almost always insist on checking with friends or spiritual advisers the guidance they feel they have received from God. Surely, then, a novice ought not lay himself open to the chance of making foolish, perhaps tragic, blunders. While the comment or advice of others may not be infallible, it is likely to be far more specific than any direct guidance we may receive while we are still inexperienced in establishing contact with a Power greater than ourselves.

12 & 12, p. 60
Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec

…

Как это видит Билл #essentialsofrec #духовное #смирение

 3
Октябрь
Действуя в одиночку, с. 274

Делать это в одиночку в духовных вопросах опасно. Сколько раз мы слышали, как благонамеренные люди заявляли о водительстве Бога, хотя было очевидно, что они ошибались? Не имея ни практики, ни смирения, они обманывали себя и были способны оправдывать самую явную чепуху тем, что именно это им сказал Бог.

Люди очень высокого духовного развития почти всегда настаивают на том, чтобы проверить у друзей или духовных наставников руководство, которое, по их мнению, они получили от Бога. Разумеется, новичку не следует подвергать себя риску совершения глупых, возможно, трагических ошибок. Хотя комментарии или советы других не могут быть безошибочными, они, вероятно, будут гораздо более конкретными, чем любое прямое руководство, которое мы можем получить, пока у нас еще нет опыта в установлении контакта с Силой, более могущественной, чем мы сами.

12 и 12, с. 60
Почему бы не подписаться на получение электронных писем со всеми ежедневными публикациями?
Или подписывайтесь на нас в Твиттере #essentialsofrec 

AA Prayers

God direct my thinking today so that it be divorced of self pity, dishonesty, self-will, self-seeking and fear. God inspire my thinking, decisions and intuitions. Help me to relax and take it easy. Free me from doubt and indecision. Guide me through this day and show me my next step. God give me what I need to take care of any problems. I ask all these things that I may be of maximum service to you and my fellow man in the name of the Steps I pray.
AMEN
God forgive me where I have been resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid today. Help me to not keep anything to myself but to discuss it all openly with another person - show me where I owe an apology and help me make it. Help me to be kind and loving to all people. Use me in the mainstream of life God. Remove worry, remorse or morbid (sick) reflections that I may be of usefulness to others.
First Step Prayer
I admit I am powerless. I admit that my life is unmanageable when I try to control it. Help me this day to understand the true meaning of powerlessness. Remove from me all of my denial.
3rd Step Prayer
God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and to do with me 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! Amen
Fifth Step Prayer
Higher Power,
My inventory has shown me who I am, yet I ask for Your help in admitting my wrongs to another person and to You. Assure me, and be with me in this Step, for without this Step I cannot progress in my recovery. With Your help, I can do this, and I will do it.
AMEN
Second Step Prayer
I pray for an open mind so I may come to believe in a Power greater than myself.
I pray for humility and the continued opportunity to increase my faith. I don't want to be crazy anymore.
Fourth Step Prayer
Dear God,
It is I who has made my life a mess.
I have done it, and I cannot undo it. My mistakes are mine, and I will begin a searching and fearless moral inventory. I will write down my wrongs, but I will also include that which is good. I pray for the strength to complete the task.
Sixth Step Prayer
Dear God,
I am ready for Your help in removing from me the defects of character which I now realize are obstacles to my recovery. Help me to continue being honest with myself and guide me toward spiritual and mental health.
          
 Seventh Step Prayer
My Creator, I am now willing that You should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that You now remove from me every single defect of character which stand in the way of my usefulness to You and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here to do Your bidding. Amen
Ninth Step Prayer
Higher Power,
I pray for the right attitude to make my amends, being ever mindful not to harm others in the process. I ask for Your guidance in making indirect amends. Most important, I will continue to make amends by staying abstinent, helping others, and growing in spiritual progress.
Eleventh Step Prayer
Higher Power, as I understand You,
I pray to keep open my connection with You and to keep it clear from the confusion of daily life. Through my prayers and meditations, I ask especially for freedom from self-will, rationalization, and wishful thinking. I pray for the guidance of correct thought and positive action. Your will, Higher Power, not mine, be done.
Eleventh Step Prayer
Eighth Step Prayer
Higher Power,
I ask for Your help in making my list of all those I have harmed. I will take responsibility for my mistakes, and
be forgiving to others just as You are forgiving to me. Grant me the willingness to begin my restitution. This I pray.
Tenth Step Prayer
I pray I am continue:
To grow in understanding and effectiveness;
To take daily spot-check inventories of myself;
To correct mistakes when I make them; To take responsibility for my actions; To be ever aware of my negative
and self-defeating attitudes
and behaviors;
To keep my willfulness in check;
To always remember I need Your help; To keep love and tolerance of others as my code;
And to continue in daily prayer how
I can best serve You,
my Higher Power.
              Twelfth Step Prayer
Dear God, My spiritual awakening continues to unfold. The help I have received I shall
pass on and give to others, both in and out of the Fellowship. For this opportunity
I am grateful. I pray most humbly to continue walking day by day on the road of spiritual progress. I pray for the inner strength and wisdom to practice the principles of this way
of life in all I do and say. I need You, my friends, and the Program every hour of each day. This is a better way to live
  Lord, make me a channel of Thy peace; that where there is hatred, I may bring love; that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; that where there is discord, I may bring harmony; that where there is error, I may bring truth; that where there is doubt, I may bring faith; that where there is despair, I may bring hope; that where there are shadows, I may bring light. That where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort, than to be comforted; to understand, than to be understood; to love, than to be loved. For it is

 by self-forgetting, that one finds. It is by forgiving, that one is forgiven. It is by dying, that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen.
Just for today, I will try to live through this day only and not tackle my whole life problem at once.
I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me if I felt that I had to keep it up for a lifetime.
Just for today, I will be happy. This assumes to be true what Abraham Lincoln said, that "most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."
Just for today, I will try to strengthen my mind. I will study. I will learn something useful. I will
not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.
Just for today, I will adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my "luck" as it comes, and fit myself to it.
Just for today, I will exercise my soul in three ways:
I will do somebody a good turn, and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don't want to--just
for exercise. I will not show anyone that my feelings are hurt; they may be hurt, but today I will not show it
Just for today, I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress becomingly, talk low, act courteously, criticize not one bit, not find fault with anything and not try to improve or regulate anybody except myself.
Just for today, I will have a program. I may not follow it exactly,
but I will have it. I will save myself from two pests: hurry and indecision.
Just for today, I will have a quiet half hour all by myself, and relax.
During this half hour, sometime, I will try to get a better perspective of my life.
Just for today, I will be unafraid. Especially I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful, and to believe that as I give to the world, so the world will give to me.

 -Kenneth L. Holmes

…

Twelve-step program
Organizations for recovery from addiction



"12 Steps" redirects here. For the song of the same name, see Cxloe. For the hip hop album, see 12 Step Program (album).
Twelve-step programs are international mutual aid programs supporting recovery from substance addictions, behavioral addictionsand compulsions. Developed in the 1930s, the first twelve-step program, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), founded by Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, aided its membership to overcome alcoholism. Since that time dozens of other organizations have been derived from AA's approach to address problems as varied as drug addiction, compulsive gambling, sex, and overeating. All twelve-step programs utilize a version of AA's suggested twelve steps first published in the 1939 book Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism.
As summarized by the American Psychological Association (APA), the process involves the following:
* admitting that one cannot control one's alcoholism, addiction, or compulsion;
* coming to believe in a Higher Power that can give strength;
* examining past errors with the help of a sponsor (experienced member);
* making amends for these errors;
* learning to live a new life with a new code of behavior;
* helping others who suffer from the same alcoholism, addictions, or compulsions.
Overview

Twelve-step methods have been adapted to address a wide range of alcoholism, substance abuse, and dependency problems. Over 200 mutual aid organizations—often known as fellowships—with a worldwide membership of millions have adopted and adapted AA’s 12 Steps and 12 Traditions for recovery. Narcotics Anonymous was formed by addicts who did not relate to the specifics of alcohol dependency.
Demographic preferences related to the addicts' drug of choice has led to the creation of Cocaine Anonymous, Crystal Meth Anonymous and Marijuana Anonymous. Behavioral issues such as compulsion for or addiction to gambling, crime, food, sex, hoarding, getting into debt and work are addressed in fellowships such as Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous and Debtors Anonymous.
Auxiliary groups such as Al-Anon and Nar-Anon, for friends and family members of alcoholics and addicts, respectively, are part of a response to treating addiction as a disease that is enabled by family systems. Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA or ACOA) addresses the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional family. Co-Dependents Anonymous (CoDA) addresses compulsions related to relationships, referred to as codependency.
History

Further information: History of Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the first twelve-step fellowship, was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith, known to AA members as "Bill W." and "Dr. Bob", in Akron, Ohio. In 1946 they formally established the twelve traditions to help deal with the issues of how various groups could relate and function as membership grew. The practice of remaining anonymous (using only one's first names) when interacting with the general public was published in the first edition of the AA Big Book.
As AA chapters were increasing in number during the 1930s and 1940s, the guiding principles were gradually defined as the Twelve Traditions. A singleness of purpose emerged as Tradition Five: "Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers".Consequently, drug addicts who do not suffer from the specifics of alcoholism involved in AA hoping for recovery technically are not welcome in "closed" meetings unless they have a desire to stop drinking alcohol.
The principles of AA have been used to form numerous other fellowships specifically designed for those recovering from various pathologies; each emphasizes recovery from the specific malady which brought the sufferer into the fellowship.
Twelve Steps

Several terms ending in "step" redirect here. For other uses, see Scale (music), Eighth Step Coffee House, and Ninth Step Station.
Further information: List of Twelve Step alternate wordings
See also: The Fifth Step
The following are the original twelve steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:
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.
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 meditationto improve our conscious contact with God, 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.
Where other twelve-step groups have adapted the AA steps as guiding principles, step one is generally updated to reflect the focus of recovery. For example, in Overeaters Anonymous, the first step reads, "We admitted we were powerless over compulsive overeating—that our lives had become unmanageable." The third step is also sometimes altered to remove gender-specific pronouns.
Twelve Traditions

Main article: Twelve Traditions
The Twelve Traditions accompany the Twelve Steps. The Traditions provide guidelines for group governance. They were developed in AA in order to help resolve conflicts in the areas of publicity, politics, religion, and finances.Alcoholics Anonymous' Twelve Traditions are:
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA 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 AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. AA, 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 AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always to 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.
Process

In the twelve-step program, the human structure is symbolically represented in three dimensions: physical, mental, and spiritual. The problems the groups deal with are understood to manifest themselves in each dimension. For addicts and alcoholics, the physical dimension is best described by the allergy-like bodily reaction resulting in the compulsion to continue using substances even when it's harmful or the addict wants to quit. The statement in the First Step that the individual is "powerless" over the substance-abuse related behavior at issue refers to the lack of control over this compulsion, which persists despite any negative consequences that may be endured as a result.
The mental obsession is described as the cognitive processes that cause the individual to repeat the compulsive behavior after some period of abstinence, either knowing that the result will be an inability to stop or operating under the delusion that the result will be different. The description in the First Step of the life of the alcoholic or addict as "unmanageable" refers to the lack of choice that the mind of the addict or alcoholic affords concerning whether to drink or use again.The illness of the spiritual dimension, or "spiritual malady," is considered in all twelve-step groups to be self-centeredness.The process of working the steps is intended to replace self-centeredness with a growing moral consciousness and a willingness for self-sacrifice and unselfish constructive action. In twelve-step groups, this is known as a "spiritual awakening." This should not be confused with abreaction, which produces dramatic, but temporary, changes. As a rule, in twelve-step fellowships, spiritual awakening occurs slowly over a period of time, although there are exceptions where members experience a sudden spiritual awakening.
In accordance with the First Step, twelve-step groups emphasize self-admission by members of the problem they are recovering from. It is in this spirit that members often identify themselves along with an admission of their problem, often as "Hi, I’m [first name only], and I’m an alcoholic".
Sponsorship

A sponsor is a more experienced person in recovery who guides the less-experienced aspirant ("sponsee") through the program's twelve steps. New members in twelve-step programs are encouraged to secure a relationship with at least one sponsor who both has a sponsor and has taken the twelve steps themselves. Publications from twelve-step fellowships emphasize that sponsorship is a "one on one" nonhierarchical relationship of shared experiences focused on working the Twelve Steps.According to Narcotics Anonymous:
Sponsors share their experience, strength, and hope with their sponsees... A sponsor's role is not that of a legal adviser, a banker, a parent, a marriage counselor, or a social worker. Nor is a sponsor a therapist offering some sort of professional advice. A sponsor is simply another addict in recovery who is willing to share his or her journey through the Twelve Steps.
Sponsors and sponsees participate in activities that lead to spiritual growth. Experiences in the program are often shared by outgoing members with incoming members. This rotation of experience is often considered to have a great spiritual reward. These may include practices such as literature discussion and study, meditation, and writing. Completing the program usually implies competency to guide newcomers which is often encouraged. Sponsees typically do their Fifth Step, review their moral inventory written as part of the Fourth Step, with their sponsor. The Fifth Step, as well as the Ninth Step, have been compared to confession and penitence.Michel Foucault, a French philosopher, noted such practices produce intrinsic modifications in the person—exonerating, redeeming and purifying them; relieves them of their burden of wrong, liberating them and promising salvation.
The personal nature of the behavioral issues that lead to seeking help in twelve-step fellowships results in a strong relationship between sponsee and sponsor. As the relationship is based on spiritual principles, it is unique and not generally characterized as "friendship". Fundamentally, the sponsor has the single purpose of helping the sponsee recover from the behavioral problem that brought the sufferer into twelve-step work, which reflexively helps the sponsor recover.
A study of sponsorship as practiced in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous found that providing direction and support to other alcoholics and addicts is associated with sustained abstinence for the sponsor, but suggested that there were few short-term benefits for the sponsee's one-year sustained abstinence rate.
Effectiveness

See also: Effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous, Effectiveness of Crystal Meth Anonymous, Effectiveness of Gamblers Anonymous, Effectiveness of Narcotics Anonymous, Effectiveness of Neurotics Anonymous, Effectiveness of Nicotine Anonymous, and Effectiveness of self-help groups for mental health
Alcoholics Anonymous is the largest of all of the twelve-step programs (from which all other twelve-step programs are derived), followed by Narcotics Anonymous; the majority of twelve-step members are recovering from addiction to alcohol or other drugs. The majority of twelve-step programs, however, address illnesses other than substance addiction. For example, the third-largest twelve-step program, Al-Anon, assists family members and friends of people who have alcoholism and other addictions. About twenty percent of twelve-step programs are for substance addiction recovery, the other eighty percent address a variety of problems from debt to depression. It would be an error to assume the effectiveness of twelve-step methods at treating problems in one domain translates to all or to another domain.
A 2020 Cochrane review of Alcoholics Anonymous showed that participation in AA resulted in more alcoholics being abstinent from alcohol and for longer periods of time than cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational enhancement therapy, and as effective as these in other measures.The 2020 review did not compare twelve step programs to the use of disulfiram or naltrexone, though some patients did receive these medications. These medications are considered the standard of care in alcohol use disorder treatment among medical experts and have demonstrated efficacy in randomized-controlled trials in promoting alcohol abstinence. A systematic review published in 2017 found that twelve-step programs for reducing illicit drug use are neither better nor worse than other interventions, though the researchers behind the review noted the weakness of most of the studies analyzed, which may lead to interpretations of their results that did not accurately reflect the actual picture.
Criticism

See also: Alcoholics Anonymous § Criticism, Gamblers Anonymous § Criticism, Narcotics Anonymous § Controversies, Overeaters Anonymous § Criticism, Self-help groups for mental health § Criticism, and Sexaholics Anonymous § Criticism
In the past, some medical professionals have criticized twelve-step programs as "a cult that relies on God as the mechanism of action" and as lacking any experimental evidence in favor of its efficacy. Ethical and operational issues had prevented robust randomized controlled trials from being conducted comparing twelve-step programs directly to other approaches. More recent studies employing non-randomized and quasi-experimental studies have shown twelve-step programs provide similar benefit compared to motivational enhancement therapy (MET) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and were more effective in producing continuous abstinence and remission compared to these approaches.
Confidentiality
The Twelve Traditions encourage members to practice the spiritual principle of anonymity in the public media and members are also asked to respect each other's confidentiality. This is a group norm, however, and not legally mandated; there are no legal consequences to discourage those attending twelve-step groups from revealing information disclosed during meetings. Statutes on group therapy do not encompass those associations that lack a professional therapist or clergymanto whom confidentiality and privilege might apply. Professionals and paraprofessionalswho refer patients to these groups, to avoid both civil liability and licensure problems, have been advised that they should alert their patients that, at any time, their statements made in meetings may be disclosed.
Cultural identity
One review warned of detrimental iatrogeniceffects of twelve-step philosophy and labeled the organizations as cults, while another review asserts that these programs bore little semblance to religious cults and that the techniques used appeared beneficial to some. Another study found that a twelve-step program's focus on self-admission of having a problem increases deviant stigma and strips members of their previous cultural identity, replacing it with the deviant identity.Another study asserts that the prior cultural identity may not be replaced entirely, but rather members found adapted a biculturalidentity.
See also

* Addiction recovery groups
* Drug rehabilitation
* Effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous
* Group psychotherapy
* List of twelve-step groups
* Self-help groups for mental health
* Recovery model

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How Carl Jung Inspired the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous
in Health, Life, Psychology | June 19th, 2024  60 Comments
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There may be as many doors into Alcoholics Anonymous in the 21st century as there are people who walk through them—from every world religion to no religion. The “international mutual-aid fellowship” has had “a significant and long-term effect on the culture of the United States,” writes Worcester State University professor of psychology Charles Fox at Aeon. Indeed, its influence is global. From its inception in 1935, A.A. has represented an “enormously popular therapy, and a testament to the interdisciplinary nature of health and wellness.”
A.A. has also represented, at least culturally, a remarkable synthesis of behavioral science and spirituality that translates into scores of different languages, beliefs, and practices. Or at least that’s the way it can appear from browsing the scores of books on A.A.’s 12-Steps and Buddhism, Yoga, Catholicism, Judaism, Indigenous faith traditions, shamanist practices, Stoicism, secular humanism, and, of course, psychology.

Historically, and often in practice, however, the (non)organization of worldwide fellowships has represented a much narrower tradition, inherited from the evangelical (small “e”) Christian Oxford Group, or as A.A. founder Bill Wilson called them, “the ‘O.G.’” Wilson credits the Oxford Group for the methodology of A.A.: “their large emphasis upon the principles of self-survey, confession, restitution, and the giving of oneself in service to others.”
The Oxford Group’s theology, though qualified and tempered, also made its way into many of A.A.’s basic principles. But for the recovery group’s genesis, Wilson cites a more secular authority, Carl Jung. The famous Swiss psychiatrist took a keen interest in alcoholism in the 1920s. Wilson wrote to Jung in 1961 to express his “great appreciation” for his efforts. “A certain conversation you once had with one of your patients, a Mr. Rowland H. back in the early 1930’s,” Wilson explains, “did play a critical role in the founding of our Fellowship.”
Jung may not have known his influence on the recovery movement, Wilson says, although alcoholics had accounted for “about 13 percent of all admissions” in his practice, notes Fox. One of his patients, Rowland H.—or Rowland Hazard, “investment banker and former state senator from Rhode Island”—came to Jung in desperation, saw him daily for a period of several months, stopped drinking, then relapsed. Brought back to Jung by his cousin, Hazard was told that his case was hopeless short of a religious conversion. As Wilson puts it in his letter:
[Y]ou frankly told him of his hopelessness, so far as any further medical or psychiatric treatment might be concerned. This candid and humble statement of yours was beyond doubt the first foundation stone upon which our Society has since been built.
Jung also told Hazard that conversion experiences were incredibly rare and recommended that he “place himself in a religious atmosphere and hope for the best,” as Wilson remembers. But he did not specify any particular religion. Hazard discovered the Oxford Group. He might, as far as Jung was concerned, have met God as he understood it anywhere. “His craving for alcohol was the equivalent,” wrote the psychiatrist in a reply to Wilson, “on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God.”
In his reply letter to Wilson, Jung uses religious language allegorically. AA took the idea of conversion more literally. Though it wrestled with the plight of the agnostic, the Big Book concluded that such people must eventually see the light. Jung, on the other hand, seems very careful to avoid a strictly religious interpretation of his advice to Hazard, who started the first small group that would convert Wilson to sobriety and to Oxford Group methods.
“How could one formulate such an insight that is not misunderstood in our days?” Jung asks. “The only right and legitimate way to such an experience is that it happens to you in reality and it can only happen to you when you walk on a path which leads you to a higher understanding.” Sobriety could be achieved through “a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism”—through an enlightenment or conversion experience, that is. It might also occur through “an act of grace or through a personal and honest contact with friends.”
Though most founding members of AA fought for the stricter interpretation of Jung’s prescription, Wilson always entertained the idea that multiple paths might bring alcoholics to the same goal, even including modern medicine. He drew on the medical opinions of Dr. William D. Silkworth, who theorized that alcoholism was in part a physical disease, “a sort of metabolism difficulty which he then called an allergy.” Even after his own conversion experience, which Silkworth, like Jung, recommended he pursue, Wilson experimented with vitamin therapies, through the influence of Aldous Huxley.
His search to understand his mystical “white light” moment in a New York detox room also led Wilson to William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience. The book “gave me the realization,” he wrote to Jung, “that most conversion experiences, whatever their variety, do have a common denominator of ego collapse at depth.” He even thought that LSD could act as such a “temporary ego-reducer” after he took the drug under supervision of British psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond. (Jung likely would have opposed what he called “short cuts” like psychedelic drugs.)
In the letters between Wilson and Jung, as Ian McCabe argues in Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous, we see mutual admiration between the two, as well as mutual influence. “Bill Wilson,” writes McCabe’s publisher, “was encouraged by Jung’s writings to promote the spiritual aspect of recovery,” an aspect that took on a particularly religious character in Alcoholics Anonymous. For his part, Jung, “influenced by A.A.’s success… gave ‘complete and detailed instructions’ on how the A.A. group format could be developed further and used by ‘general neurotics.’” And so it has, though more on the Oxford Group model than the more mystical Jungian. It might well have been otherwise.
Read more about Jung’s influence on AA over at Aeon.
Note: Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on our site in 2019.
Related Content:
Carl Jung Offers an Introduction to His Psychological Thought in a 3;Hour Interview (1957)
Take Carl Jung’s Word Association Test, a Quick Route Into the Subconscious (1910)
Carl Jung’s Hand-Drawn, Rarely-Seen Manuscript The Red Book
Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

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The only hope Jung said he could offer was for a life-changing "vital spiritual experience"—an experience which Jung regarded as a phenomenon. Jung further advised that Rowland's affiliation with a church did not spell the necessary "vital" experience.

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He told the despondent Hazard that psychiatry and medicine could no nothing more for him and that his only hope would be to have what the psychiatrist called a "vital spiritual experience." Dr. Jung further suggested that Rowland find what we would now call a "self-help group" to help him have such an experience.

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Rowland Hazard III
American politician



For other people named Rowland Hazard, see Rowland Hazard (disambiguation).
Rowland Hazard III (October 29, 1881 – December 20, 1945) was an American businessman and member of a prominent Rhode Island family involved in the foundation and executive leadership of a number of well-known companies. He is also known as the "Rowland H." who figured in the events leading to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Quick Facts Member of the Rhode Island Senate from South Kingstown, Preceded by ...
Family and early life

Rowland Hazard III was born into one of the most prominent families in the Rhode Island textile industry. He was the eldest of five children of Rowland Gibson Hazard II (1855–1918) and Mary Pierrepont Bushnell (1859–1936). Although several generations of Hazard men bore the name Rowland, the Rowland Hazard born in 1881 adopted the name suffix"III" to distinguish himself from his well-known forebears. According to biographers, Rowland III was known as "Roy" to the Hazard family. He was a graduate of the Taft School and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1903, where he was a member of the Elihu Club at the time it became a secret Senior Society. Among his Yale classmates, he was known as "Ike" or "Rowley."
Hazard married Helen Hamilton Campbell (1889–1946), a graduate of Briarcliff Manor College and daughter of a Chicago banker, in October 1910. The couple divorced in 1929, but remarried in 1931. They had one daughter, Caroline Campbell Hazard (1911–1953), and three sons, Capt. Rowland Gibson Hazard (1917–1944), Peter Hamilton Hazard (1918–1944), and Charles Ware Blake Hazard (1920–1995). Two of their sons, Capt. Rowland G. and Peter Hamilton Hazard, were killed in World War II.
The pioneering psychiatrist Carl Jung was known to two of Rowland Hazard III's early friends. Yet it was Hazard's famous encounter with Jung that began alcoholics’ connection with the Oxford Group.
Hazard is also attributed as the commissioner of the oldest boy scout troop in Rhode Island, Troop 1 Wakefield in South Kingstown.
Like his father, Hazard was a member of the Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars.
Business interests

Although he briefly served in the Rhode Island state senate (1914–1916), Rowland Hazard III was primarily a businessman throughout his career. He was active in the Hazard family's primary enterprise, the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, until its sale to M.T. Stevens and Sons in 1918. He was also involved in the Solvay Process Company and the Semet-Solvay Company.
Rowland III was instrumental in completing his father's ambition to play a leading role in the formation of the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation (later AlliedSignal, then Honeywellfollowing a 1999 merger with that company). From 1921 until 1927 he was affiliated with Lee, Higginson and Company, a New York banking firm. He organized La Luz Clay Products Company near his ranch in La Luz, New Mexico. Later in his career, he became an executive vice president of the Bristol Manufacturing Company, a maker of precision instruments based in Waterbury, Connecticut. He was a director with several companies in addition to Allied Chemical and Dye, including the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company, the Interlake Iron Company, and Merchant's Bank of Providence, Rhode Island.
Relationship to the Oxford Group and the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous

Rowland Hazard III's struggles with alcoholism led to his direct involvement in the chain of events that gave rise to what is today Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), where he is remembered as "Rowland H.," though Rowland himself never actually joined AA. His own efforts at recovery were markedly influenced by his consultation with pioneering psychologist Carl Jung and his subsequent involvement with the Oxford Group, one of the most highly visible Christian Evangelicalmovements of the 1920s and '30s. Recent research by R.M. Dubiel further suggests that Rowland may have also been treated by Courtenay Baylor, a lay therapist of the psycho-spiritual therapeutic effort known as the Emmanuel Movement.
Though Rowland is not named, his experience with Jung is described in the book Alcoholics Anonymous. According to this account, Jung pronounced Rowland a chronic alcoholic and therefore hopeless and beyond the reach of medicine as it was at the time (a credible opinion, considering Jung's role in the early development of psychoanalysis and then, after he left, of analytical psychology ). The only hope Jung said he could offer was for a life-changing "vital spiritual experience"—an experience which Jung regarded as a phenomenon. Jung further advised that Rowland's affiliation with a church did not spell the necessary "vital" experience.
This prognosis so shook Rowland that he sought out the Oxford Group, an Evangelical Christian movement prominent in the first half of the twentieth century. The Oxford Group was dedicated to what its members termed "the Four Absolutes" as the summary of the Sermon on the Mount: absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. The Group was also dedicated to the vigorous pursuit of personal change, and to extending the message of hope through change by means of "personal" evangelism: one changed person sharing his experience with another (see Oxford Group).
Rowland was aware of the Oxford Group emphasis on personal evangelism through the example of personal change when he came in contact with an alcoholic named Ebby Thacherwhile Rowland and two other Oxford Group members who knew Thacher were summering in Glastenbury, Vermont, in 1934. Thacher was the son of a prominent New York family who, like many well-to-do Eastern US families of the period, summered in New England, forming lifelong associations and friendships with other "summer people" as well as with permanent residents of the area. Upon learning that Ebby was on the verge of commitment to the Brattleboro Retreat (the former Vermont Asylum for the Insane) on account of his drinking, Rowland and fellow Oxford Group members Shep (F. Shepard) Cornell and Cebra Graves sought out Ebby and shared with him their Oxford Group recovery experiences. Graves was the son of the family court magistrate in Ebby's case, Collins Graves,and the Oxford Groupers were able to arrange for Ebby's release into their care. This led to Ebby's acceptance of the principles of the Oxford Group and his own sobriety. Encouraged in the example of personal evangelism, Ebby later sought out an acquaintance of his own.
Bill (William G.) Wilson was raised in Vermontnear the summer homes of Rowland Hazard, Ebby Thacher and others who had found release from their alcoholism in the Oxford Group. Ebby had been a "drinking buddy" of Wilson's over many years. By late 1934, Wilson was on the verge of total alcoholic collapse, living off his wife's income in the couple's Brooklyn, New York, home, when Ebby paid him a visit. Ebby shared with Bill the message of recovery through the application of spiritual principles, famously encouraging Bill to choose his own conception of God. This visit with Ebby set in motion a series of circumstances that led to Bill's own recovery from alcoholism in late 1934. Bill Wilson went on, with Dr. Robert H. ("Dr. Bob") Smith of Akron, Ohio, to carry the Oxford Group message of spiritual recovery to other alcoholics. The group of recovering alcoholics founded by Wilson and Smith would later break away from the Oxford Group to become Alcoholics Anonymous by 1939.
The Oxford Group renamed itself Moral Re-Armament in 1938, and largely faded from the prominence it had enjoyed in the 1930s. Moral Re-Armament would eventually become a non-religious humanitarian organization, changing its name to Initiatives of Change in 2001.
This version of Rowland's story is commonly accepted within AA, confirmed in substance if not in detailed fact by evidence such as an exchange of letters between Bill Wilson and Carl Jung in 1961, in which Jung acknowledged his acquaintance with "Rowland H."[failed verification] Jung also made reference to his treatment of an unnamed alcoholic member of the Oxford Group in a 1954 talk, transcribed and recorded in Volume 18 of his Collected Works, The Symbolic Life.
Dispute and confirmation of the historical account

More recently, scholars have questioned this traditional account. In a 1954 recollection of his early life and the beginnings of AA, Bill Wilson stated that "A well-known American businessman named Rowland Hazard had gone to Zurich, Switzerland, probably in the year 1930 [...] as the court of last resort [...]. Hazard remained with Jung a whole year; desperately wanting to resolve his problem..." Wilson reiterates this approximate timing in his 1961 letter to Jung: "Having exhausted other means of recovery from his alcoholism, it was about 1931 that [Hazard] became your patient. I believe he remained under your care for perhaps a year."
These recollections of Bill W. have become the basis of assumption for dating Rowland's initial consultation with Jung in the approximate period of 1930–31. More recent investigation into the historical record does not support this timing. Based on research of Hazard family records of the Rhode Island Historical Society, author Richard M. Dubiel suggested in a 2004 work that the period during which Rowland could have consulted with Jung in this time frame may have been limited to some time between June and September 1931, and perhaps only a few weeks within that span.
This confusion of the historical record appears to have been subsequently resolved by researchers Amy Colwell Bluhm and Cora Finch who, though working independently, were both aided substantially by Hazard family letters and papers in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. According to both Bluhm and Finch, these Hazard family documents clearly place Rowland in Jung's care for some months beginning in 1926 rather than 1930 or 1931. It appears likely that Wilson was simply repeating Cebra G.'s (inaccurate) recollection of the dates of Rowland's initial treatment by Jung.
These more recent investigations also shed additional light on Rowland's treatment beyond his consultation with Jung. In his 2004 work, Dubiel also discovered evidence that Rowland was likely treated in the early 1930s by Courtenay Baylor, himself a recovering alcoholic and proponent of the so-called Emmanuel Movement. Inspired by Episcopalclergyman Dr. Elwood Worcester of Boston's Emmanuel Episcopal Church, the Emmanuel Movement began in 1906 as an effort to treat what would today be regarded as psychological afflictions and disorders such as alcoholism through the application of spiritual principles. The work of the Emmanuel Movement was largely carried on by Baylor after Worcester's death.
Rowland's sobriety does not appear to have been continuous, at least in early years. Bluhm and Finch find suggestions in Hazard family letters of Rowland's possible alcoholic relapse during a trip to Africa in 1927–28.Dubiel also documents a 1936 binge, but it is unclear if Rowland drank intermittently thereafter, if at all, for the remainder of his life. Dubiel notes that Rowland's later years "appear to have been prosperous enough,"and included his joining the Episcopal Churchin 1936, in which he remained active for the rest of his life. As noted earlier, Rowland never joined AA himself.
References

* Genealogy of a Campbell Family from Virginia, Some Descendants of Whitaker Campbell (1727-1814) through Nine Generations
* Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (2001) Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. ISBN 1-893007-16-2, 575 pp.
* Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (1984) Pass It On: The story of Bill Wilson and how the A.A. message reached the world. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., ISBN 0-916856-12-7, 429 pp.
* Dubiel, R. M. (2004) The Road to Fellowship: The Role of the Emmanuel Movement and the Jacoby Club in the Development of Alcoholics Anonymous. New York: iUniverse. ISBN 0-595-30740-X, 191 pp.
* Bluhm, A. C. (November 2006). "Verification of Jung's Analysis of Rowland Hazard and the History of Alcoholics Anonymous". History of Psychology. 9 (4): 313–324. doi:10.1037/1093-4510.9.4.313. PMID 17333633.
* Finch, C. (2006-07), "Stellar Fire: Carl Jung, a New England Family, and the Risks of Anecdote"
* Culture Alcohol and Society Quarterly: Newsletters of Kirk/CAAS (Collection of Alcoholism and Addictions Studies) Collections at Brown University
* Rowland Hazard III Papers website at the Rhode Island Historical Society
* Historical Record of Troop 1 Wakefield

…

Footnotes

1. [1];Although Rowland Hazard's full name in connection with the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous has been known for years, the Traditions of AA recommend that AA members maintain their anonymity at the level of media, in keeping with the spirit of placing "principles before personalities." Members typically refer to themselves publicly, if at all, by first name and last initial only. After the 1971 death of AA co-founder Bill W. and publication of his full name in obituaries, the AA General Service Conference advised that "AA members generally think it unwise to break the anonymity of a member even after his death, but in each situation the final decision must rest with the family." (See http://aa.org/pdf/products/p-47_understandinganonymity1.pdf for further information.) This was the case with both Bill W. and fellow AA co-founder "Dr. Bob" Smith before him. Rowland Hazard, however, apparently never considered himself a member of AA.
2. [2];"Progress Report: The Messengers to Ebby" (PDF). Culture Alcohol & Society Quarterly. III (2): 5. January–March 2007.
3. [3];Dubiel, R. M., Op. cit., p. 64.
4. [4];1. Leonard Bacon, winner of the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, was Hazard's first cousin. Bacon was analyzed by Jung in 1925, an experience which inspired a short book of poetry, Animula Vagula.
5. [5];2. Hazard's Yale classmate and friend, psychologist Charles Robert Aldrich, was a colleague of Jung and included Hazard among those he thanked in the preface of his book, The Primitive Mind and Modern Civilization.by Aldrich, C. R. (1931)London: K. Paul Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 249 pp.
6. [6];For further information on the Hazard family's involvement with the Solvay companies, see article on Solvay, New York.
7. [7];"Honeywell History". www.hon-area.org.
8. [8];Dubiel, p. 78
9. [9];Dubiel, pp. 65-76.
10. [10];Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 26-28
11. [11];"Brattleboro Retreat (Vermont Asylum for the Insane)". www.crjc.org.
12. [12];Cebra Graves, Oxford Group Messenger to Ebby Thacher, which appears largely to reference "Progress Report: Shep-Cebra-Rowland-"Ebby"" (PDF). Culture Alcohol & Society Quarterly. II (8): 2–4. July–September 2006. and "Progress Report: The Messengers to Ebby" (PDF). Culture Alcohol & Society Quarterly. III (4): 5–10. July–September 2007.
13. [13];Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 12
14. [14];Pass It On, pp. 381-386
15. [15];1961 letter from Dr. Carl Jung to Bill Wilson concerning Rowland Hazard IIIArchived 2012-07-15 at archive.today - photographic image
16. [16];Jung, C. G.; Adler, G. and Hull, R. F. C., eds. (1977) Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 18: The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings, Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-09892-0, p. 272, as noted 2007-08-26 at "Additional Information". Archived from the original on 2007-09-08. Retrieved 2007-08-26.
17. [17];Wilson, B. (2000), Bill W.: My First 40 Years. Center City, MN: Hazelden. ISBN 1-56838-373-8 (Transcription of recording originally made in 1954), pp. 123-4.
18. [18];Pass It On, p. 382
19. [19];Dubiel, p. 74.
20. [20];Bluhm, A. C., op. cit.
21. [21];Finch, C. op. cit.
22. [22];"Cebe says he can't remember the year this occurred, but he thinks it was 1930 or 1931." "Summarizing Cebra's Recorded 1954 Conversation with Bill W.: Part II: Rowland and Dr. Jung" (PDF). Culture Alcohol & Society Quarterly. III (3): 6. April–June 2007.]
23. [23];McCarthy, Katherine (June 1, 1984). "Psychotherapy and religion: The emmanuel movement". Journal of Religion and Health. 23 (2): 92–105. doi:10.1007/BF00996152. PMID 24306998. S2CID 23261334.
24. [24];"Understanding and Counseling the Alcoholic".
25. [25];Bluhm, op. cit., pp. 321-2
26. [26];Finch, op. cit.
 
…

Oxford Group
Christian organization



Not to be confused with Oxford Movement.
For the 1960s/1970s group of animal rights advocates at the University of Oxford, see Oxford Group (animal rights).
The Oxford Group was a Christian organization (Later known as First Century Christian Fellowship and the Moral Re-Armament (MRA), a modern, nondenominational revivalistic movement) founded by American Lutheran minister Frank Buchman in 1921. Buchman believed that fear and selfishness were the root of all problems. He also believed that the solution to living without fear and selfishness was to "surrender one's life over to God's plan". It featured surrender to Jesus Christ by sharing with others how lives had been changed in the pursuit of four moral absolutes: honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love.
Buchman said that he had a spiritual experience at a chapel in Keswick, Englandwhen he attended a decisive sermon by Jessie Penn-Lewis in the course of the 1908 Keswick Convention. He resigned a part-time post at Hartford Seminary in 1921 to found a movement called the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement. By 1928, the Fellowship had come to be known as The Oxford Group or Oxford Groups.:;11–12,;52;
The Oxford Group enjoyed wide popularity and success in the 1930s. In 1932, Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang said, "There is a gift here of which the church is manifestly in need." Buchman encouraged participants in his group to continue as members of their own churches.
Two years later, Archbishop of York William Temple paid tribute to The Oxford Groups"which are being used to demonstrate the power of God to change lives and give to personal witness its place in true discipleship". As a Protestant movement, it was criticized by some Roman Catholic authorities, yet praised by others.
The tenets and practices of an American Oxford Group greatly influenced the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Ebby Thacher’s sobriety led to Bill Wilson's victory over alcoholism. Wilson's efforts to carry the "spiritual solution" of the Group to suffering alcoholics led to Dr. Bob’s sobriety in 1935. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob shortly after founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).
In 1938, Buchman proclaimed a need for "moral re-armament" and that expression became the Oxford Groups movement's new name. Buchman headed the Moral Re-Armament for 23 years until his retirement in 1961. In 2001 the movement was renamed Initiatives of Change.
Frank Buchman

Main article: Frank Buchman
Frank Buchman, originally a Lutheran, was deeply influenced by the Higher Life movement whose strongest contribution to evangelism in Britain was the Keswick Convention.[citation needed]
Buchman had studied at Muhlenberg Collegein Allentown, Pennsylvania and at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and was ordained a Lutheran minister in June 1902. Having hoped to be called to an important city church, he accepted a call to Overbrook, a growing Philadelphia suburb, which did not yet have a Lutheran church building. He arranged the rental of an old storefront for worship space, and lived upstairs.
After a visit to Europe, he decided to establish a hostel for mentally disabled in Overbrook, along the lines of Friedrich von Bodelschwingh’s colony for the mentally ill in Bielefeld, Germany, and inspired by Toynbee Hall charitable institution in East London.
Conflict developed with the hospice's board. In Buchman's recollection the dispute was due to the board's "unwillingness" to fund the hospice adequately. However, the Finance Committee of the Lutheran church body of Pennsylvania, aka Pennsylvania Ministerium, which oversaw the budget, had no funds with which to make up an ongoing deficit and wanted the hospice to be self-supporting. Buchman resigned.
Exhausted and depressed, Buchman took his doctor's advice of a long holiday abroad, and this is how, still in turmoil over his resignation, Buchman attended the Keswick Convention in 1908, hoping to meet pastor F. B. Meyer, one of the leading lights of the Keswick Conventionand one of the main advocates of Quiet Timeas a means to be "inspired by God".
F.B. Meyer was not present, and Frank Buchman chose to attend the sermon by Jessie Penn-Lewis instead, which became "a life-changing experience" for him:;30;
"I thought of those six men back in Philadelphia (the hospice's board) who I felt had wronged me. They probably had, but I'd got so mixed up in the wrong that I was the seventh wrong man.... I began to see myself as God saw me, which was a very different picture than the one I had of myself. I don't know how to explain it, I can only tell you I sat there and realized how my sin, my pride, my selfishness and my ill-will had eclipsed me from God in Christ.... I was the center of my own life. Not Him. That big 'I' had to be crossed out. I saw my resentments against those men standing out like tombstones in my heart. I asked God to change me and He told me to put things right with them. It produced in me a vibrant feeling, as though a strong current of life had suddenly been poured into me and afterwards a dazed sense of a great spiritual shaking-up."
Buchman wrote letters of apology to the six board members asking their forgiveness for harboring ill will. Buchman regarded this as a foundation experience and in later years frequently referred to it with his followers.
F. B. Meyer and the Keswick Convention's influence on Buchman was a major one. Meyer had published The Secret of Guidance in 1896. One of his mottos was: "Let no day pass without its season of silent waiting before God." Meyer personally coached Buchman into "daily guidance".:;36;
The theology of the Keswick Convention at the time was that of the Holiness movement with its idea, originally derived from Methodism, of the second work of grace which would allow "entire sanctification": Christians living "in close union with Christ" could remain "free from sin" through the Holy Spirit. That is where Buchman's assertion (bizarre to many Lutheran or Reformed ears) that "human nature can change" originates. Another assertion was "Absolute moral standards belong by Holiness", even though this formula used by Buchman had been formulated by the American Presbyterian missionary Robert Elliott Speer.
From 1909 to 1915, Buchman was YMCAsecretary at Pennsylvania State University. Despite quickly more than doubling the YMCA membership to 75% of the student body, he was dissatisfied, questioning how deep the changes went. Alcohol consumption in the college, for example, was unaffected. During this time he began the practice of a daily "quiet time".
Buchman finally got to meet Frederick Brotherton Meyer, who when visiting the college, asked Buchman, "Do you let the Holy Spirit guide you in all you are doing?" Buchman replied that he did indeed pray and read the Bible in the morning. "But," persisted Meyer, "do you give God enough uninterrupted time really to tell you what to do?"
Another decisive influence appears to have been Yale University theology professor Henry Burt Wright (1877–1923) and his 1909 book The Will of God and a Man's Lifework, which was itself influenced by Frederick Brotherton Meyer and Henry Drummond, among others.
Frank Buchman was also very influenced by Presbyterian Yale theology professor Henry Burt Wright (see The Four Absolutes infra).
Buchman's devotion to "personal evangelism", and his skill at re-framing the Christian message in contemporary terms, were admired by campus ministry leaders. Maxwell Chaplin, YMCA secretary at Princeton University, wrote, after attending one of the Buchman's annual "YMCA Week" campaigns: "In five years the permanent YMCA secretary at Penn State has entirely changed the tone of that one-time tough college."
Lloyd Douglas, author of The Robe took part in the same campaign. "It was," he wrote afterwards, "the most remarkable event of its kind I ever witnessed.... One after another, prominent fraternity men ... stood up before their fellows and confessed that they had been living poor, low-grade lives and from henceforth meant to be good."
In 1915, Buchman's YMCA work took him to India with evangelist Sherwood Eddy. There he met, briefly, Mahatma Gandhi (the first of many meetings), and became friends with Rabindranath Tagore and Amy Carmichael, founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship. Despite speaking to audiences of up to 60,000, Buchman was critical of the large-scale approach, describing it as "like hunting rabbits with a brass band".
From February to August 1916 Buchman worked with the YMCA mission in China and eventually returned to Pennsylvania due to the increasing illness of his father.
Buchman next took a part-time post at Hartford Theological Seminary as a personal evangelism lecturer. There he began to gather a group of men to assist in the conversion of China to Christianity. He was asked to lead missionary conferences at Guling and Beidaihe, which he saw as an opportunity to train native Chinese leaders at a time when many missionaries held attitudes of white superiority. Through his friendship with  Xu Qian (Vice-Minister of Justice and later acting Prime Minister,) he got to know Sun Yat-sen. However, his criticism of other missionaries in China, with an implication that sin, including homosexuality, was keeping some of them from being effective, led to conflict. Bishop Logan Roots, deluged with complaints, asked Buchman to leave China in 1918.
While still based at Hartford, Buchman spent much of his time traveling and forming groups of Christian students at Princeton Universityand Yale University, as well as Oxford.
Sam Shoemaker, a Princeton graduate and one-time secretary of the Philadelphian Society, who had met Buchman in China, became one of his leading American disciples.
In 1922, after a prolonged spell with students in Cambridge, Buchman resigned his position at Hartford to live by faith and launch the First Century Christian Fellowship.
First Century Christian Fellowship to Oxford Groups

Following a dissent with Princeton University, Buchman found greater support in England where he designed a strategy of holding house parties at various locations, during which he hoped for Christian commitment to his First Century Christian Fellowship among those attending. In addition, men trained by Buchman began holding regular lunchtime meetings in the study of Julian Thornton-Duesbery, then Chaplain of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
By 1928, numbers had grown so large that the meetings moved to the ballroom of the Oxford Randolph Hotel, before being invited to use the library of the Oxford University Church, St Mary's.
In response to criticism by Tom Driberg in his first scoop in the Daily Express that this "strange new sect" involved members holding hands in a circle and publicly confessing their sins (a fabrication according to those who were there), the Daily Express printed a statement by Canon L.W. Grensted, Chaplain and Fellow of University College and a university lecturer in psychology bearing "testimony not only to [their] general sanity and good health but also to [their] real effectiveness. Men student whom I have known have not only found a stronger faith and a new happiness, but have also made definite progress in the quality of their study, and in their athletics too."
The name Oxford Group appeared in South Africa in 1929, as a result of a railway porter writing the name on the windows of those compartments reserved by a traveling team of Frank Buchman's First Century Christian Fellowship followers. They were from Oxford and in South Africa to promote the movement. The South African press picked up on the name and it stuck.:;52–53; It stuck because many of the campaigns of the Oxford Groupwere undergirded by Oxford Universitystudents and staff. And every year between 1930 and 1937 house-parties were held at the University.
In June 1939, the Oxford Group was legally incorporated.
Spiritual life, not religion

The Oxford group literature defines the group as "not being a religion", for it had "no hierarchy, no temples, no endowments, its workers no salaries, no plans but God's plan". Their chief aim was "A new world order for Christ, the King".
In fact one could not "belong" to the Oxford group for it had no membership list, badges, or definite location. It was simply "a group of people from all walks of life who have surrendered their life to God". Their endeavour was to lead a spiritual life "under God's Guidance" and their purpose was to carry their message so others could do the same.
The group was more like a spiritual revolution, unhampered by institutional ties; it combined social activities with religion, it had no organized board of officers. The group declared itself to be not an "organization" but an "organism". Though Frank Buchman was the group's founder and leader, group members believed their true leader to be the Holy Spirit and "relied on God Control", meaning "guidance received from God" by those people who had "fully surrendered to God's will".:;113; By working with people from all the churches, regardless of denomination, they drew new members.:;6; A newspaper account in 1933 described it as "personal evangelism — one man or woman talking to another and discussing his or her problems was the order of the day".:;141; In 1936, Good Housekeeping magazine described the group as having neither membership, nor dues, nor paid leaders, nor new theological creed, nor regular meetings; it was simply a fellowship of people who desire to follow a way of life, a determination, and not a denomination.:;170;
Primary purpose
Frank Buchman's speeches include references to "The Oxford Group's primary purpose".
* The Oxford Group seeks to be "living Christianity". It builds on the "accomplished work of Jesus Christ" as set forth in the New Testament. Its aim is to bring to life and make real for each person the articles of faith with which their own Church provides them.
* The international problems and wars are said by the group to be personal problems at bottom, of selfishness and fear. Ways of life must therefore be changed if problems are to be solved. According to the group, peace in the world could only spring from peace in the hearts of men. A dynamic experience of God's free spirit is said to be the answer to international, national and regional antagonism, economic depression, racial conflict and international strife.
* The secret is said to be "God Control", the only sane people in an insane world being those controlled by God. God-controlled personalities would make God-controlled nationalities. This is the aim of the Oxford Group. The true patriot should surrender his life to God to bring his nation "under God's control". World peace could only come through nations which have achieved "God-control". And "everybody can listen to God. You can. I can. Everybody can have a part."
* "There are those who feel that internationalism is not enough. Nationalism can unite a nation. Supernationalism can unite a world. "God-controlled" supernationalism seems to them to be the only sure foundation for world peace!"
* This is all in this declaration by Buchman: "I challenge Denmark to be a miracle among the nations, her national policy dictated by God, her national defense the respect and gratitude of her neighbors, her national armament an army of life-changers. Denmark can demonstrate to the nations that spiritual power is the first force in the world. The true patriot gives his life to bring about his country's resurrection."
The Four Absolutes
Moral standards of
* "Absolute honesty",
* "Absolute purity",
* "Absolute unselfishness", and
* "Absolute love",
though recognized as impossible to attain, were guidelines to help determine whether a course of action was "directed by God".
The "Four Absolutes" seem to have first appeared in a book by Robert E. Speer, titled The Principles of Jesus. In the Chapter, Jesus and Standards, Speer laid down "Four Principles" (honesty, purity, unselfishness, love) that he believed represented the distilled, uncompromising, moral principles taught by Jesus. Speer quoted Bible verses for each "Principle".
In 1909, Professor Henry Burt Wright of Yale, citing Speer's work, dug up many more Bible verses that set forth these same Principles in the YMCA book: The Will of God and a Man's Lifework. Wright dubbed them Absoluterather than "Principles". Next, Frank Buchman and the Oxford Group adopted and popularized the phrase "The Four Absolutes".
In Oxford Group terms, sin was "anything that kept one from God or one another" and is "as contagious as any bodily disease". The soul needs cleansing: "We all know 'nice' sinless sinners who need that surgical spiritual operation as keenly as the most miserable sinner of us all.":;11–16;
Spiritual practices
To be "spiritually reborn", the Oxford Groupadvocated four practices set out below::;9;
* "Sharing our sins and temptations with another Christian".
* "Restitution to all whom we have wronged, directly or indirectly".
* "Surrender our life past, present and future, to God's keeping and direction".
* "Listening for God's guidance, and carrying it out".
Sharing
In the Oxford Group, sharing was considered a necessity. Sharing referred to telling others, in small or big groups, about personal life details of sins, steps to change behaviours and their results, as well as telling others what guidancewas received during a "quiet time". It allowed one to be healed, therefore it was also a blessing to share.:;19–21; Sharing was considered to not only bring relief, but honest sharing of sin, and of "victory over sin", was considered a way to help others to open about themselves. Sharing built trust. The message one brings to others by speaking of one's own sins, one's own experiences, the power of God in guiding one's life would bring hope to others that a spiritually changed life gives strength to overcome life's difficulties. It must be done with total conviction for "Half measures will be as fruitless as no measures.":;25;
Some found public confession disturbing. Beverley Nichols stated "And all that business about telling one's sins in public... It is spiritual nudism!"
However Cuthbert Bardsley, who worked with Buchman for some years and later became Bishop of Coventry, said, "I never came across public confession in house parties — or very, very rarely. Frank [Buchman] tried to prevent it, and was very annoyed if people ever trespassed beyond the bounds of decency.":;139; Buchman's biographer, Garth Lean, wrote that he attended meetings from 1932 on "and cannot recall hearing any unwise public confessions".
Guidance
The central practice to the Oxford Groupmembers was guidance, which was usually sought in a quiet time early morning, using pen and paper. The grouper would normally read the Bible or other spiritual literature, then take time in quiet with pen and paper, seeking "God's directions" for the day ahead, trying to find "God's perspective" on whatever issues were on the listener's mind. He or she would test their thoughts against the standards of "absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness and love", and normally check with a colleague.
Guidance was also sought collectively from groupers when they formed teams. They would take a "quiet time", each individual writing his or her sense of "God's direction" on the matter in question. They would then check with each other, seeking consensus on the action to take.
Some church leaders criticized this practice. Others supported it. The Oxford theologian, B.H. Streeter, Provost of Queen's College, made it the subject of the Warburton Lectures, given at Oxford University in 1933-1935. These lectures were published under the title The God Who Speaks. Throughout the ages, he wrote, men and women have sought God's will in quiet and listening. The Oxford Group was following a long tradition.
Sometimes groupers were banal in their descriptions of "guidance". However, innumerable examples were given by them of groupers discovering creative initiatives through times of "quiet time seeking God's direction", as can be seen in books about the Oxford Group such as For Sinners Only by A. J. Russell (1885-1953), which went through 17 editions in two years[citation needed], or Frank Buchman - a life by Garth Lean(1912-1993).
Buchman would share the thoughts which he felt were guided by God, but whether others pursued those thoughts was up to them.
The Five Cs
The "Five Cs":
* Confidence,
* Confession,
* Conviction,
* Conversion, and
* Continuance
was the process of life changing undertaken by the "life changer":
* Confidence: the grouper had to have confidence and know his secrets would be kept .
* Confession: the grouper had to be honest about the real state of their life.
* Conviction: the acknowledgement of the seriousness of their sins by the grouper and the need to be freed of them.
* Conversion: the process of the grouper's decision to surrender to God had to be the grouper's own free will.
* Continuance: the grouper was responsible as a "life changer" to help new groupers become all that God wanted them to be.
Only God could change a person, and the work of the "life changer" had to be done under God's direction.:;79;
Methods

"House Parties"
The first First Century Christian Fellowship"House Party" was held in China in 1918.
In the summer of 1930 the first International House Party was held at Oxford, followed by another the next year attended by 700 people. In the summer of 1933, 5,000 guests turned up for some part of an event which filled six colleges and lasted seventeen days. Almost 1,000 were clergy, including twelve bishops.By 1934 the International House Party had grown and was attended by representatives from 40 nations, and by 1935 it had grown further more, and was attended by 50 nations, to the total of 10,000 representatives. The 1936 International House Party at Birmingham drew 15,000 people, and The First National Assembly held in Massachusetts drew almost 10,000 people.
* There were also travelling teams organized house parties : featured out-of-town people came to the party to relate their experiences in the "Group Way of Life". Attendance was by printed invitation. Invitations were also sent to "key people" in the community.
* House parties were held in a variety of locations: wealthy homes, fashionable hotels, inns, or summer resorts, as well as outdoor camps, and, at times, less fashionable locations such as college dorms. House parties were held from a weekend up to two weeks. A house party team would meet in advance for training and preparation. The team would remain throughout the meetings and handle a number of details. Oxford Group literature was on display.
* Meetings followed no formal agenda and were not like church meetings, as singing and public prayer were absent. Time was devoted to talks by the team members on subjects such as sin, surrender, quiet time, the four absolutes, guidance, and intelligent witness.
However, the Oxford Group had its own song:
"On sure foundation Build we God's new nation, strong and clear each year On God's word Shall we stand and build together what none can ever, bridges from man to man, the whole wide earth to span."
Slogans
Most were coined through Buchman's "quiet time"; he knew slogans would catch attention, be more easily remembered and more readily repeated. They provided simple answers to problems people face in themselves and others. A few are listed below:;129;
* "Pray: stands for Powerful Radiograms Always Yours",
* "Constipated Christians come clean",
* "Every man is a force, not a field",
* "Interesting sinners make compelling saints",
* "When a man listens, God speaks"
* "A spiritual radiophone in every home",
* "Sin blinds, sin binds",
* "World changing through life-changing"
Literature
Some of the Oxford Group literature is available online. See references.
* For Sinners Only by Arthur James Russell (1932) was characterized as the Oxford Group "bible"
* Soul Surgery by H. A. Walter (1919)
* What Is the Oxford Group? by The Layman with a Notebook (1933) and
* The Eight Points of the Oxford Group by C. Irving Benson (1938)
About alcoholics who found sobriety in the Oxford Group, there were three autobiographies by Oxford Group members who were active alcoholics which were published in the 1930s. These books provided accounts of the alcoholics' failed attempts to make their lives meaningful until, as a result of their Oxford Group membership, they found a transformation in their lives and sobriety through surrendering to God. The books were;
* I Was a Pagan by V. C. Kitchen (1934)
* Life Began Yesterday by Stephen Foot (1935)
* The Big Bender by Charles Clapp (1938).
* The stories contained in Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, are very similar in style to these much earlier works.:;176;
History

Campaigns through Europe
The Oxford Group conducted campaigns in many European countries. In 1934 a team of 30 visited Norway at the invitation of Carl J. Hambro, President of the Norwegian Parliament. 14,000 people crammed into three meetings in one of Oslo's largest halls, and there were countless other meetings across the country. At the end of that year the Oslo daily Tidens Tegn commented in its Christmas number, "A handful of foreigners who neither knew our language, nor understood our ways and customs, came to the country. A few days later the whole country was talking about God, and two months after the thirty foreigners arrived, the mental outlook of the whole country has definitely changed." On April 22, 1945 Bishop Fjellbu, Bishop of Trondheim, preached in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. "I wish to state publicly," he said, "that the foundations of the united resistance of Norwegian Churchmen to Nazism were laid by the Oxford Group's work".:;232;
Similar stories can be told of campaigns in Denmark, where the Primate of Denmark, Bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard said that the Oxford Group "has opened my eyes to that gift of God which is called Christian fellowship, and which I have experienced in this Group to which I now belong".:;78; When the Nazis invaded Denmark, Bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard, Bishop of Copenhagen, was sent to a concentration camp. Before imprisonment he smuggled a message to Buchman saying that through the Oxford Group he had found a spirit which the Nazis could not break and that he went without fear.
Attempt to reach Nazi leaders in Germany
In the 1930s, the Oxford Group had a substantial following in Germany. They watched the rise of the Nazi Party with alarm, as did those elsewhere in Europe and America. Buchman kept in close touch with his German colleagues, and felt compelled to attempt to reach the Nazi leaders in Germany, and win them to a new approach.
Buchman was convinced that without a change in the heart of the National Socialist regime, a world war would become inevitable. He also believed that any person, including the German leaders, could find a living Christian faith with a commitment to Christ's moral values.:;233–237;
He tried to meet Hitler, but was unsuccessful. He met with Himmler three times at the request of Moni von Crammon, an Oxford Group adherent, the last time in 1936. To a Danish journalist and friend he said a few hours after the final interview that the doors were now closed. "Germany has come under the domination of a terrible demonic power. A counter-action is absolutely necessary."
As study of Gestapo documents has revealed, the Nazis watched the Oxford Group with suspicion from 1934 on. A first detailed secret Gestapo report about The Oxford Group or Movement was published in November 1936 warning that 'it had turned into a dangerous opponent of National Socialism'. The Nazis also classified the Stalinist version of Bolshevism and non-Nazi, right-wing groups such as Catholic Action as dangerous to Nazism.
Upon his return to New York from Berlin, Buchman gave a number of interviews. He was quoted as reportedly saying, "I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defence against the anti-Christ of Communism." The Rev. Garrett Stearly, one of Buchman's colleagues from Princeton University who was present at the interview, wrote, "I was amazed when the story came out. It was so out of key with the interview." Buchman chose not to respond to the article, feeling that to do so would endanger his friends among the opposition in Germany.:;240;
During the war, the Oxford Group in Germany divided into three parts. Some submitted to Himmler's demand that they cut all links with Buchman and the Oxford Group abroad. The largest group continued the work of bringing Christian change to people under a different name, Arbeitsgemeinschaft f;r Seelsorge(Working team for the Care of Souls), without being involved in politics and always subject to surveillance. A third group joined the active opposition. Moni Von Crammon's son-in-law was one of those executed along withAdam von Trott zu Solz. They were executed under Hitler's orders after the July 20 plot.
After World War II, further Gestapo documents came to light; one from 1939 states: "The Group preaches revolution against the national state and has quite evidently become its Christian opponent." Another, from 1942, states: "No other Christian movement has underlined so strongly the character of Christianity as being supernational and independent of all racial barriers.":;242;
Some from the Oxford Group in Germany continued to oppose the Nazi regime during the war. In Norway, Bishop Arne Fjellbu of Trondheim said in 1945: "I wish to state publicly that the foundations of the united resistance of Norwegian Churchmen to Nazism were laid by the Oxford Group work."
Presence in the United States
In 1927, after his two years trial as a rector to Calvary Church in Manhattan, Sam Shoemaker gradually set the U.S.s headquarters of Frank Buchman's First Century Christian Fellowshipsoon to be named Oxford Group at Calvary House adjacent to the church.
By 1936, the organization had already come to national attention from the media and Hollywood.
Transformation into Moral Re-Armament
Main article: Moral Re-Armament
In 1938, Buchman made a speech in East HamTown Hall, London, in which he stated: "The crisis is fundamentally a moral one. The nations must re-arm morally. Moral recovery is essentially the forerunner of economic recovery." The same year the British tennis star H. W. Austin edited the book Moral Rearmament (The Battle for Peace), which sold half a million copies.:;279; Gradually the former Oxford Group developed into Moral Re-Armament.
A number of Oxford Groups as well as individuals dissociated themselves from Buchman as a result of his launching of Moral Re-Armament. Some Oxford Group members disapproved Buchman's attention to matters not purely personal, or his 'going into politics.' Buchman's view was that if Moral Re-Armament was the car, the Oxford Group was the engine, and that individual change was the basis of both. He had said to his students of Penn State and Hartford as early as 1921 that the First Century Christian Fellowship was "a program of life issuing in personal, social, racial, national and supernational change" or that it had "nothing to do with politics, yet everything to do with politics, because it leads to change in politicians". Nonetheless, while maintaining a lot of Christian language, Moral Re-Armament became inclusive of all shades of religious and philosophical convictions, Buchman comparing in a speech Moral Re-Armament to "the good road of an ideology inspired by God upon which all can unite. Catholic, Jew and Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Confucianist - all find they can change, where needed and travel along this good road together".
In Britain, the Oxford Group/Moral Re-Armament was very active. The novelist Daphne du Maurier published Come Wind, Come Weather, stories of ordinary Britons who had found hope and new life through the group. She dedicated it to "Frank Buchman, whose initial vision made possible the world of the living characters in these stories", and added, "What they are doing up and down the country in helping men and women solve their problems, and prepare them for whatever lies ahead, will prove to be of national importance in the days to come." The book sold 650,000 copies in Britain alone.
When war broke out, Moral Re-Armamentworkers joined the Allied Forces in large numbers, and were decorated for valour in many theatres of war. Others worked to heighten morale and overcome bottlenecks, particularly in war-related industries. About 30 Oxford Group workers were exempted from military service to continue this work. However, when Ernest Bevin became Minister of Labour in 1940, he decided to conscript them. Over 2,500 clergy and ministers signed a petition opposing this, and 174 Members of Parliament put down a motion stating the same. Bevin made it clear that he would resign from the Government if he was defeated, and the Government put a three-line whip upon its supporters. As a result, the Oxford Groupworkers were excluded from the Exemption from Military Service bill.
In the United States, where Moral Re-Armament was doing similar work, Senator (later President) Harry Truman, Chair of the Senate Committee investigating war contracts, told a Washington press conference in 1943: "Suspicions, rivalries, apathy, greed lie behind most of the bottlenecks. This is where the Moral Re-Armament group comes in. Where others have stood back and criticized, they have rolled up their sleeves and gone to work. They have already achieved remarkable results in bringing teamwork into industry, on the principles not of 'who's right', but of 'what's right'.":;324;
At the end of the war, the Moral Re-Armamentworkers returned to the task of establishing a lasting peace. In 1946, Moral Re-Armamentbought and restored a large, derelict hotel at Caux, Switzerland, and this became a centre for reconciliation across Europe, bringing together thousands, including German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman.:;382; Its work was described by the historians Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson as an "important contribution to one of the greatest achievements in the entire record of modern statecraft: the astonishingly rapid Franco-German reconciliation after 1945".[page needed]
In the following decades, Moral Re-Armamentwork expanded across the globe, particularly into the African and Asian countries moving towards independence from colonial rule. Many leaders of these independence struggles have paid tribute to Moral Re-Armamentcontribution towards bringing unity between groups in conflict, and helping ease the transition into independence. In 1956 King Mohammed V of Morocco sent a message to Buchman: "I thank you for all you have done for Morocco in the course of these last testing years. Moral Re-Armament must become for us Muslims as much an incentive as it is for you Christians and for all nations.":;454; In 1960 Archbishop Makarios and Dr Kucuk, President and Vice-President of Cyprus, jointly sent the first flag of independent Cyprus to Frank Buchman at Caux in recognition of Moral Re-Armament help.:;524;
In 2001 Moral Re-Armament became "Initiatives of Change", a name expressing the emphasis of the organization in effecting social change beginning with personal change. Initiatives of Change claims spiritual roots but no religious affiliation, and invites "those with a faith...both to explore the roots of their own tradition, and to discover and respect the beliefs of others".
Impact and legacy

Impact on industry
In Buchman's view, management and labourcould "work together like the fingers on the hand", and in order to make that possible he aimed to answer "the self-will in management and labour who are both so right, and so wrong". MRA's role was to offer the experience which would free those people's hearts and minds from the motivations or prejudices which prevent just solutions.
William Grogan, an International Vice-President of the American Transport Workers' Union, said that "between 1946 and 1953 national union leaders, local union officials, shop stewards and rank and file union members from 75 countries had received training" in MRA principles. Evert Kupers, for 20 years President of the Dutch Confederation of Trades Unions, stated that "the thousands who have visited Caux have been deeply impressed by its message for our age and by the real comradeship they found there." In France Maurice Mercier, Secretary-General of the textile workers within the Force Ouvriere, said: "Class war today means one half of humanity against the other half, each possessing a powerful arsenal of destruction... Not one cry of hatred, not one hour of work lost, not one drop of blood shed - that is the revolution to which Moral Re Armement calls bosses and workers."
Alcoholics Anonymous
Further information: Alcoholics Anonymous and History of Alcoholics Anonymous
In Akron, Ohio, Jim Newton, an Oxford Groupmember, knew that one of Harvey S. Firestone's sons, Russell, was a serious alcoholic. He took him first to a drying-out clinic and then on to an Oxford Group conference in Denver. The young man "gave his life to God", and thereafter enjoyed extended periods of sobriety. The family doctor called it a "medical miracle". Harvey Firestone Senior was so grateful that, in January 1933, he invited Buchman and a team of sixty to conduct a ten-day campaign in Akron. They left behind them a strong functioning group which met each week in the house of T. Henry Williams, amongst whom were an Akron surgeon, Bob Smith, and his wife Anne. Bob was a secret drinker.:;151–152;
Rowland Hazard, claimed that it was Carl Jungwho caused him to seek a "spiritual solution" to his alcoholism, which led to Rowland joining the Oxford Group. He was introduced by Shep Cornell to Cornell's friend Ebby Thacher. Ebby had a serious drinking problem. Hazard introduced Ebby to Jung's theory and then to the Oxford Group. For a time Ebby took up residence at Sam Shoemaker's Calvary Rescue Mission:;381–386; that catered mainly to saving down-and-outs and drunks. Shoemaker taught inductees the concept of God being that of one's understanding.
Ebby Thacher, in keeping with the Oxford Teachings, needed to keep his own conversion experience real by carrying the Oxford message of salvation to others. Ebby had heard that his old drinking buddy Bill Wilsonwas again drinking heavily. Thacher and Cornell visited Wilson at his home and introduced him to the Oxford Group's religious conversion cure. Wilson, who was then an agnostic, was "aghast" when Thacher told him he had "got religion".:;131–139;
A few days later, in a drunken state, Wilson went to the Calvary Rescue Mission in search of Ebby Thacher. It was there that he attended his first Oxford Group meeting and would later describe the experience: "Penitents started marching forward to the rail. Unaccountably impelled, I started too... Soon, I knelt among the sweating, stinking penitents ... Afterward, Ebby ... told me with relief that I had done all right and had given my life to God." The Call to the Altar did little to curb Wilson's drinking. A couple of days later, he re-admitted himself to Charles B. Towns Hospital. Wilson had been admitted to Towns hospital three times earlier between 1933 and 1934. This would be his fourth and last stay.:;150;
Bill Wilson obtained his "spiritual awakening" going through the steps with Ebby in Towns Hospital where he had his conversion. Wilson claimed to have seen a "white light", and when he told his attending physician, William Silkworth about his experience, he was advised not to discount it. After Wilson left the hospital, he never drank again.:;83–87,;165–167;
After his release from the hospital, Wilson attended Oxford Group meetings and went on a mission to save other alcoholics. His prospects came through Towns Hospital and the Calvary Mission. Though he was not able to keep one alcoholic sober, he found that by engaging in the activity of trying to convert others he was able to keep himself sober. It was this realization, that he needed another alcoholic to work with, that brought him into contact with Bob Smith while on a business trip in Akron, Ohio.
Earlier Bill Wilson had been advised by Dr Silkworth to change his approach and tell the alcoholics they suffered from an illness, one that could kill them, and afterward apply the Oxford Practices. The idea that alcoholism was an illness, not a moral failing, was different from the Oxford concept that drinking was a sin. This is what he brought to Bob Smith on their first meeting. Smith was the first alcoholic Wilson helped to sobriety. Dr. Bob and Bill W., as they were later called, went on to found Alcoholics Anonymous.
Wilson later acknowledged in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age: "The early AA got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgement of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Group and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else."
In 1934, James Houck joined the Oxford Group and became sober on December 12, one day after Wilson did.[citation needed] AA was founded on June 10, 1935. In September 2004, Houck was the last surviving person to have attended Oxford Group meetings with Wilson, who died in 1971. At the age of 98, Houck was still active in the group, now renamed Moral Re-armament, and it was his mission to restore the Oxford Group's spiritual methods through the "Back to Basics program", a twelve step program similar to AA. Houck believed the old Oxford Group spiritual methods were stronger and more effective than the ones currently practiced in A.A. Houck was trying to introduce the program into the prison systems.
Houck's assessment of Wilson's time in the Oxford Group: "He was never interested in the things we were interested in; he only wanted to talk about alcoholism; he was not interested in giving up smoking; he was a ladies man and would brag of his sexual exploits with other members", and in Houck's opinion he remained an agnostic.
Influences

Because of its influence on the lives of several highly prominent individuals, the group attracted highly visible members of society, including members of the British Parliamentand other European leaders and such prominent Americans as the Firestone family, founders of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Ohio. Though sometimes controversial (the group attracted opposition from the Roman Catholic Church), the group grew into a well-known, informal and international network of people by the 1930s. The London newspaper editor Arthur J. Russell joined the group after attending a meeting in 1931.[citation needed] He wrote For Sinners Onlyin 1932, which inspired the writers of God Calling.
Among those influenced by the Oxford Group and Frank Buchman, one also finds:
* Paul Tournier, the Swiss physician and author whose Medicine of the Personbecame a worldwide success
* Emil Brunner, the Swiss Protestant(Reformed) theologian
* Theophil Spoerri, a Swiss writer and academic who was instrumental in setting up the Gotthardbund, a civil society organisation which fought against Nazi propaganda in Switzerland from 1940 to 1945.
* Gabriel Marcel, French philosopher, playwright and leading Christian existentialist:;497;
Evaluation and critics

Carl Jung on the Oxford Group
Carl Jung on the matter of an individual and his involvement in the Oxford Group:
My attitude to these matters is that, as long as a patient is really a member of a church, he ought to be serious. He ought to be really and sincerely a member of that church, and he should not go to a doctor to get his conflicts settled when he believes that he should do it with God. For instance, when a member of the Oxford Group comes to me in order to get treatment, I say, "You are in the Oxford Group; so long as you are there, you settle your affair with the Oxford Group. I can't do it better than Jesus.:;272;
Published literature critical of the Oxford Group
In 1934 Marjorie Harrison, an Episcopal Churchmember, published a book, Saints Run Mad, that challenged the group, its leader and their practices.
The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr criticized Buchman's philosophy and pursuit of the wealthy and powerful. "The idea is that if the man of power can be converted, God will be able to control a larger area of human life through his power than if a little man were converted. This is the logic which has filled the Buchmanites with touching solicitude for the souls of such men as Henry Ford or Harvey Firestone". He called its moral principles "a religious expression of a decadent individualism... bourgeois optimism, individualism and moralism expressing itself in the guise of religion", and added, "no wonder the rather jittery plutocrats of our day open their spacious summer homes to its message!"
Confusion with Oxford Movement

The Oxford Group is occasionally confused with the Oxford Movement, an effort that began in the 19th-century Anglican Communion to encourage high-churchpractice and demonstrate the church's apostolic heritage. Though both had an association with members and students of the University of Oxford at different times, the Oxford Group and the Oxford Movement are unrelated.

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References

1. [1];Lean, Garth (1985). Frank Buchman - a life. Constable. ISBN 9780094666504.
2. [2];Driberg, Tom (1964). The Mystery of Moral Re-Armament: A Study of Frank Buchman and His Movement. Secker & Warburg.
3. [3];Minutes of meeting of Diocesan Bishops, Church House, Westminster, January 18, 1932
4. [4];Lean, Garth,  Frank Buchman - a life, Constable 1985, p. 28.
5. [5];Driberg, Tom The Mystery of Moral Re-Armament.
6. [6];Lean, Garth, Frank Buchman - a life, Constable 1985, pp. 30-31.
7. [7];Meyer F. B., The Secret of Guidance, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1896,Online text
8. [8];Sacks Daniel, Moral Re-Armament: The Reinvention of an American Religious Movement, Springer, 2009, 230 pages, ISBN 9780230101883, p. 128
9. [9];Lean, Garth, Frank Buchman - a life, Constable 1985, p. 36.
10. [10];/ Lean, Garth, Frank Buchman - a life, Constable 1985, p. 74-78.
11. [11];Lean, Garth, Frank Buchman - a life, Constable 1985, p. 38.
12. [12];Lean, Garth, Frank Buchman - a life, Constable 1985, p. 46.
13. [13];Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.
14. [14];Thornton Duesbery, The Open Secret of MRA, p. 11.
15. [15];Daily Express, 5 March 1928. Cited in Garth Lean (1988). On the Tail of a Comet: The Life of Frank Buchman. Helmers & Howard. ISBN 978-0-939443-06-2.
16. [16];"Step Study.org" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 15, 2007. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
17. [17];Pittman, Bill (1988). AA the Way it Began. Glenn Abbey Books. ISBN 9780934125086.
18. [18];The Layman With a Notebook (1933). What is the Oxford Group?. Oxford University Press.
19. [19];Anonymous (1984). Pass It On: The Story of Bill Wilson and how the A.A. message reached the world. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. ISBN 0-916856-12-7.
20. [20];Buchman, F (1961). Remaking the World. London: Blandford Press.
21. [21];Time October 14, 1935, "In Geneva Groupers"
22. [22];Time, "Men, Masters and Messiahs"
23. [23];Speer Robert Elliott, Jesus and Standards, The Principles of Jesus p. 35 - https://archive.org/details/principlesofjesu00spee
24. [24];Wright Henry B., Will of God and a Man's lifework
25. [25];Nichols Beverley, All I Could Never Be, p 255-256.
26. [26];Streeter, Burnett Hillman, The God Who Speaks, Macmillan, 1936
27. [27];Russell, A.J. (1932). For Sinners Only. Hodder and Stoughton.
28. [28];Arthur James Russell (June 27, 1885 - December 30, 1953)
29. [29];Garth Dickinson Lean (December 26, 1912 - October 17, 1993)
30. [30];Pittman, Bill, AA the Way it Began, p. 117–121
31. [31];results, search (May 15, 2003). For Sinners Only. Hats Off Books. ISBN 1587361787.
32. [32];"Soul Surgery". Retrieved June 8, 2018.
33. [33];Benson, C. Irving (March 1, 2007). The Eight Points of the Oxford Group. Read Books. ISBN 9781406765182. Retrieved June 8, 2018 – via Google Books.
34. [34];Kitchen, V. C. I Was a Pagan[permanent dead link]
35. [35];Kitchen, V. C. I Was a Paganhttp://stepstudy.org/downloads-2/
36. [36];Foot Stephen Life Began Yesterday
37. [37];Tidens Tegn; December 24, 1934
38. [38];Message through Karen Petersen, written to Buchman by Irene Gates; October 23, 1943
39. [39];Sharlet, Jeff (2008). The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060559793.
40. [40];Jacob Kronika, Berlin correspondent for Nationaltidende, Copenhagen and Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm, and Chairman of the Association of Foreign Journalists in Berlin
41. [41];Article by Kronika in Flensborg Avis, Denmark, January 2, 1962
42. [42];Leitheft Die Oxford- oder Gruppenbewegung, herausgegeben vom Sicherheitshauptamt, November 1936. Geheim, Numeriertes Exemplar No. 1
43. [43];New York World-Telegram, August 26, 1936[full citation needed]
44. [44];Lean, Frank Buchman - a life, p. 242
45. [45];Luttwak, Edward Franco-German Reconciliation: The Overlooked Role of the Moral Re-Armament Movement in Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft, edited by Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, OUP, page 38
46. [46];Sermon in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, April 22, 1945
47. [47];Time, "Orders from G.H.O." July 29, 1936
48. [48];Buchman, Frank N.D., Remaking the World, London, 1955, p. 46.
49. [49];"History - IofC International". www.iofc.org. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
50. [50];Johnston and Sampson, Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft, Oxford University Press, 1994
51. [51];"Frequently Asked Questions - IofC International". iofc.org. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
52. [52];Grogan, William; John Riffe of the Steelworkers, Coward, McCann 1959, p. 140
53. [53];Foreword to World Labour and Caux, Caux 1950
54. [54];Piguet and Sentis, Ce Monde que Dieu nous confie, Centurion 1979, p. 64
55. [55];Hartigan, Francis Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000
56. [56];Alcoholics Anonymous World Services (June 1957) Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age: A Brief History of A.A.; p. 39
57. [57];Towson, Melissa, "Living Recovery", Time
58. [58];Hartigan, Francis, Bill W.:A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000
59. [59];"Moral Rearmament", Time, September 19, 1938.
60. [60];Hartigan, Francis (2000). Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson. New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 78-79.
61. [61];Kurtz, Ernest (1988). AA: The Story. New York: Harper & Row, p. 47. (This is a revised edition of Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous.)
62. [62];Two Listeners (2012). Russell, A.J. (ed.). God Calling (American usage/inclusive language ed.). Pasadena, Calif.: Hope Pub. House. p. Preface-The Voice Divine. ISBN 978-1932717266. Archived from the original on December 7, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
63. [63];Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 18: The Symbolic Life. Princeton University Press. February 21, 1977. ISBN 9780691098920.
64. [64];Harrison, Marjorie (1934). Saints Run Mad: A Criticism Of The "Oxford" Group Movement (PDF). London: John Lane The Bodley Head / Bowering Press. Retrieved November 12, 2023.
65. [65];Niebuhr, Reinhold, Christianity and Power Politics, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940, Hitler and Buchman.

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==External links==
* Hansard report of debate in the British House of Commons, 7 October 1941 on "Military Service - Oxford Group] - concerning a request to exempt some members of the Oxford Group from military conscription
* [https://www.foranewworld.org/ For A New World] A Swedish not-for-profit foundation creating an on-line archive offering books, periodicals, sound recordings, films in more than 30 languages related to Buchman and his movement.

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Christian movements]]
[[Category:Alcoholics Anonymous]]
[[Category:1931 establishments in England]]
[[Category:Christian organizations established in 1931]]

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Sigmund Freud's theory of oral fixation and other ideas have been applied to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and addiction recovery in a number of ways, including: 

 



* ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
* Oral fixation ;Freud's theory of oral fixation suggests that early childhood experiences can influence adult behaviors, such as alcohol addiction. ;; ;;;
    * ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
* ;;;;;;;
* Psychodynamic mechanisms ;Some have attempted to integrate AA's 12 steps with psychodynamic mechanisms, equating each step with a specific mechanism. For example, the first step of admitting powerlessness could be equated with the defense mechanism of denial. ;; ;;;
    * ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
* ;;;;;;;
* Ego ;The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous discusses the importance of a healthy ego, which can help people feel happy and free. However, it also notes that egos can become destructive and lead to problems, such as self-centeredness and an inability to see others' points of view. ;; ;;;
    * ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
* ;;;;;;;
* Shame ;The natural sense of shame that all humans have can become toxic for people with addiction, leading to feelings of isolation and disconnection. Recovery from addiction can help people develop a healthier relationship with their needs and desires.;;…

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Человек из Кемерова
(Man from Kemerovo)
Борис Гребенщиков

У меня были проблемы
Я зашёл чересчур далеко
Нижнее днище нижнего ада
Мне казалось не так глубоко
Я позвонил;своей;маме
И мама была;права
Она сказала: "Немедля звони
Человеку из Кемерова"

Он;скуп на слова, как Де Ниро
С ним спорит только больной
Его не проведёшь на мякине
Он знает ходы под землёй
Небо рухнет на землю
Перестанет расти трава
Он придёт и молча поправит всё
Человек из Кемерова

Адам стал беженцем
Авель попал на мобильную связь
Ной не достроил того, что он строил
Нажрался и упал лицом в грязь
История человечества
Была бы не так крива
Если б они догадались связаться
С человеком из Кемерова

Мне звонили из Киева
Звонили из Катманду
Звонили с открытия пленума
Я сказал им, что я не приду
Нужно будет выпить на ночь два литра воды
Чтоб с утра была цела голова
Ведь сегодня я собираюсь пить
С человеком из Кемерова

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https://youtu.be/QzOVv1Lv8vE?si=HCJphUSSIkzJc7-H