Last night I began writing a short history of AA. Things I had read and things I had heard from old timers way back. But this morning I woke up and guess what? I was presented with a very short and simple history.
I found it last night in two letters written by Bill W. to Dr. Jung, and the reply from Dr. Jung to Bill. That was in 1961. It was about the time that Dr. Jung treated a man named Rowland H. back in 1931. That story is recounted in the chapter in the BB called There Is A Solution.
And there it is. The roots of AA, back then in 1931 and up until today. Rowland desperate and puzzled as to why he couldn’t stop drinking and the pronouncement by Jung that he was to all intents and purposes hopeless…unless he would do something. And it was that something, which became the solution for all of us. A spiritual experience or awakening, as we know it today.
My sponsor’s widow and I were talking last night about the various editions of the BB, when and where they were published, when she said someone had written in her copy of the second edition, “Oh, thank God!”. Where was it written? On the first page of There Is A Solution. I had the same reaction, when I first opened my copy of the BB and saw that title in the index. I remembered how thrilled I was.
Jung’s message to Rowland, Rowland’s message to Ebby T., Ebby to Bill W., and Bill to Dr. Bob. There is a solution. And here we are some 75 years later and it’s still working. It worked for them and it has worked for me.
There’s a lot more to it. I found that out in reading those letters. But basically it’s pretty simple. All that’s needed from someone like me is the knowledge that alcohol is going to kill me and then the willingness to surrender to the helpless and hopeless condition I was in, when I came here. And then do what all those old timers ahead of me did.
What did they do? It’s in the BB.