You may rely absolutely on anything they say about themselves.
That was from a letter written by Dr. Silkworth about Alcoholics Anonymous at the very beginnng of AA. What a great testimony to the validity of this program. Here was a man, who had for years been seeking an answer for the patients he had been treating for alcoholism. And when Bill W. and his band of one hundred men laid out their proposal to him and he saw the results they were achieving in restoring men to sanity and health, he must have been elated.
Alcoholism, the disease, could be arrested.
Since that letter, in the BB of AA, millions of alcoholics did just what the good doctor encouraged them to do. Rely absolutely on what these men told about themselves. How they had recovered from a disease which had ravaged their lives and left them hopeless. And how they were restored to a life free of alcohol or even the thought of a drink.
I was thinking about this today. Yesterday a man, who had a considerable time in the program and went back to drinking, and who now has a few months, told how everyday he tries to read something from the BB. He specifically said that in the morning he was reading the first few pages of The Doctor’s Opinion. I remember I thought to myself how impressed he seemed to be with what he had read and I made up my mind to look at those pages. I did this morning and was struck by the last sentence: You man rely absolutely on anything they say about themselves.
What faith and what hope those words contain. I know that we all came to rely absolutely on what they said about themselves. I know I did. At my first meeting I can remember how I listened to the men and women around the table, telling their stories and how they had recovered. They too had listened to what these men had said and had relied on what they had said about themselves. And now I was doing the same thing; relying absolutely on what these people were saying about themselves. I had to. I was desperate.
Anyway, I was thinking about these words today. Words of hope given to people like myself, who had lost hope. That there was a way out of a disease, which had totally taken over my life. A disease, which was driving me insane and was on the verge of killing me. Yes, I listened, and because I did, I have been able to live a new life I had never conceived of before. Free of alcohol. As a result I have been restored to sanity and have experienced a spiritual awakening.
And all I had to do was so simple: to come to rely absolutely on what they said about themselves. How great is that?