Aa history Lovers 2006 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page



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. A large

volume of 400 pages, it sets forth their methods and experience

exhaustively, and with much clarity and force. The first half of the

book is a text aimed to show an alcoholic the attitude he ought to take

and precisely the steps he may follow to effect his own recovery. He

then finds full directions for approaching and working with other

alcoholics. Two chapters are devoted to family relations and one to

employers for the guidance of those who surround the sick man. There is

a powerful chapter addressed to the agnostic, as the majority of the

present members were of that description. Of particular interest to the

physician is the chapter on alcoholism dealing mostly with its mental

phenomena, as these men see it.
By contacting personally those who are getting results from the

book these ex-alcoholics expect to establish new centers. Experience has

shown that as soon as any community contains three or four active

members, growth is inevitable, for the good reason that each member

feels he must work with other alcoholics or perhaps perish himself.
Will the movement spread? Will many of these recoveries be

permanent? No one can say. Yet, we at this hospital, from our

observation of many cases, are willing to record our present opinion as

a strong "Yes" to both questions.


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++++Message 3771. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Disease Model

From: Billlwhite@AOL.COM . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/5/2006 8:52:00 AM


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A chronology of the disease concept and a quite exceptional paper by Ernie

Kurtz on AA and the disease concept are posted at

http://www.bhrm.org/papers/addpapers.htm
Bill White
In a message dated 10/5/2006 12:15:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

timderan@msn.com writes:


> Subj: [AAHistoryLovers] Disease Model

> Date: 10/5/2006 12:15:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time

> From: timderan@msn.com

> Reply-to: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com

> To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com

> Sent from the Internet

>

>

>



> I have a question, well probably a few of them.

>

> What is the history of the use of the term disease



> in relation to alcoholism in AA?

>

> When did alcoholism become classified as a disease?



>

> I know that Dr. Bob used the disease model in relation

> to alcoholism in order to emphasize what alcoholism was

> and what it was like. But, I do not know if he pushed

> the disease model as it is today.

>

> Can anyone help here?



>

> tmd


>

>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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++++Message 3772. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Disease Model

From: John Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/5/2006 1:43:00 PM


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Ernest Kurtz, a regular contributor to this site,

has published a comprehensive monograph on the history

of AA and the disease concept. It's called " Alcoholics

Anonymous and the Disease Concept of Alcoholism."

The essay is available on the Internet, at the Primary

Purpose Group website of Spartanburg, South Carolina:

(http://www.aaprimarypurpose.org/reading.htm)
It's a sublink under "Recommended Readings":

http://www.aaprimarypurpose.org/literature/AAandDiseaseConcept-Kurtz.pdf


The term "disease" is found in several Big Book stories,

and in some of the newer pamphlets of AA. The term

"disease" is only used once in the first eleven chapters

of Big Book, and that's in the context of "spiritual

disease". Newcomers from treatment centers are usually

transfixed by the term "disease".


john lee

pittsburgh


________________________________________
timderan wrote:
I have a question, well probably a few of them.
What is the history of the use of the term disease

in relation to alcoholism in AA?


When did alcoholism become classified as a disease?
I know that Dr. Bob used the disease model in relation

to alcoholism in order to emphasize what alcoholism was

and what it was like. But, I do not know if he pushed

the disease model as it is today.


Can anyone help here?
tmd
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++++Message 3773. . . . . . . . . . . . Question about AA''s link to Science

of Mind


From: mama.duck . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/30/2006 2:25:00 AM
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Hi everyone! I'm hoping to learn more about the

history of AA.


I have a sister-in-law who is big into Science of Mind.

My husband is in Al-Anon and the three of us often have

conversations that find phrases and wording to be so similar

that I once spoke up about it.


She told me that, and I can't remember exactly what she

said, but in a nutshell she credits Science of Mind for

the start of AA.
I have limited knowledge of the history of AA but I've

never heard any connection to Science of Mind. Does

anyone know what I'm talking about or have any info

about this?


Thanks a bunch! mama duck
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++++Message 3774. . . . . . . . . . . . Science of Mind, New Thought, and AA

From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/6/2006 6:22:00 PM


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Religious Science (also known as Science of Mind),

founded in 1927 by Ernest Holmes (1887-1960), was one

version of the NEW THOUGHT movement.
It was the New Thought movement as a whole (and not

just this one version) which had a major effect on

early AA. New Thought was a religious movement originally

stemming from the ideas of Phineas Parkhurst "Park" Quimby

(1802-1866). From his study of hypnotism and the effect

of placebos on disease, he came to the conclusion that

the way we think can have a profound effect both on creating

physical illness and healing physical illness.


The NEW THOUGHT movement which developed out of Quimby's

ideas pointed to the way our ideas and attitudes actually

created the world we lived in. If I view the world as

a hostile place full of people trying to do me harm,

I will eventually live in a world filled with people

who are trying to do me harm. If I view the world with

seething resentments, I will create a world around me

where I will increasingly find more and more things to

resent. But if I view the world around me as filled with

mostly good people, and if I regard the world with love

and forgiveness towards all, I will increasingly find

myself living in a world filled with good and loving

people who treat me with kindness and tolerance.
(1) Religious Science (Science of Mind), the group your

sister-in-law is involved with, was one of the New

Thought churches which developed out of Quimby's ideas.

See their web site at http://www.religiousscience.org/


(2) Unity Church is the largest New Thought group at

present, with over two million members in over fifteen

different countries. See their web site at http://www.unity.org/
(3) Divine Science is another New Thought group. See

their web site at http://divinescience.com/


EMMET FOX (1886-1951) was a famous Divine Science

minister. Early AA members went to hear him preach

at New York's Church of the Healing Christ. Fox's

book "The Sermon on the Mount" was especially

influential in early AA and widely recommended

reading for newcomers.


JAMES ALLEN, "As a Man Thinketh"

(see http://hindsfoot.org/kML3rc1.html for Mel B.'s

edition of this little book) was another important

New Thought book which was widely recommended reading

for AA newcomers during the early period.
Emmet Fox's book and James Allen's book both appeared

on the recommended reading list for AA newcomers used

in early Akron AA. This is important, because it

makes it clear that the New Thought movement was just

as influential on early Akron (midwestern) AA as it

was on early New York (east coast) AA.

______________________________
NEW THOUGHT and SWEDENBORGIANISM
Warren Felt Evans was one of the first individuals

who wrote seriously on the teachings of Phineas Quimby.

Evans was also the one who took the important step of

integrating the philosophies of Quimby and Swedenborg.

The presence of certain Swedenborgian elements in New

Thought may have been one of the things which made

New Thought so congenial to Bill and Lois Wilson (Lois

had been brought up as a Swedenborgian).

______________________________
OTHER RELATED IDEAS
(a) Norman Vincent Peale (author of "The Power of

Positive Thinking") openly admitted the deep influence

of New Thought on his ideas.
(b) Dale Carnegie (author of "How to Win Friends and

Influence People") presented a sort of secularized

version of New Thought principles.
(c) "A Course in Miracles" is based heavily on the

sort of ideas which appear in New Thought.


(d) The Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Richard Maurice

Bucke (1837-1902), published a book called

"COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS" in 1901, just a year before

his death. There are ideas in his book which are very

similar to New Thought concepts. Mel B. told me that

when he spoke with Bill Wilson in 1956, Bill

recommended that he read Bucke's book, and told him

how important an influence it had been on his ideas.

______________________________
You said that your sister-in-law "credits Science of

Mind for the start of AA." That would be overdoing it

a little. AA started out as part of the Oxford Group,

not as part of a New Thought group.


From the Oxford Group, early AA got its understanding

that only acts of divine grace can produce real psychic

change. AA also got the substance of a good many of the

twelve steps from the Oxford Group, including the ideas

of confession and restitution (making amends). The

Oxford Group was the most important source of ideas

for early AA.
But early AA got important ideas from the New Thought

movement also. A good many of Bill W.'s statements

about the nature of God in the Big Book are cast in

New Thought terminology. The same thing could be said

about the second most published AA author, Richmond

Walker, in "Twenty-Four Hours a Day."


The focus in the Big Book on removing resentment and

fear from our lives (in the fourth through seventh

steps) is very much a kind of New Thought approach

to spirituality. By removing the disturbances in our

thoughts, we will heal our lives at every level.
Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana)

______________________________


APPENDIX 1: UNITY CHURCH BELIEFS
Five basic Unity Church principles:

1. There is only one Presence and one Power active

as the universe and as my life, God the Good.

2. Our essence is of God; therefore, we are inherently

good. This God essence was fully expressed in Jesus,

the Christ.

3. We are co-creators with God, creating reality

through thoughts held in mind.

4. Through prayer and meditation, we align our

heart-mind with God. Denials and affirmations are

tools we use.

5. Through thoughts, words and actions, we live the

Truth we know.
What are the basic tenets of the Unity teachings?

1. God, Divine Mind, is the Source and Creator of

all. There is no other enduring power. The nature of

God is absolute good; therefore, all manifestations

partake of good. What is called "evil" is a limited or

incomplete expression of God or good. Evil's origin

is ignorance.

2. We are spiritual beings, ideas in the Mind of God,

created in God's image and likeness. The ideal expression

for every human being is the pattern every person is

seeking to bring forth. Each individual manifests the

Christ in his or her own unique fashion. The perfect

expression of the Christ is, therefore, different for

each person.

3. Jesus was a special person in history who expressed

perfection and thereby became the Christ, or Jesus Christ.

He was a Teacher who demonstrated the importance of

thoughts, words, and deeds in shaping the life and world

of the individual.

4. Jesus' teaching was based on prayer, which to Him

was conscious communion with God. Preparation for prayer

involves the use of the spoken word, the creative power

of God, which is made practical through denials and

affirmations. Unity teaches that repeated use of

statements of Truth (denials and affirmations)

establishes right patterns of thinking, feeling, and

acting. This is one way individuals use the creative

power of God to take dominion over mind, body, and

affairs.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
APPENDIX 2: RELIGIOUS SCIENCE (SCIENCE OF MIND) BELIEFS
The Science of Mind is built on the theory that

there is One Infinite Mind which of necessity includes

all that is, whether it be the intelligence in man,

the life in the animal, or the invisible Presence

which is God. In it we learn to have a spiritual

sense of things.


The Science of Mind is intensely practical because

it teaches us how to use the Mind Principle for

definite purposes, such as helping those who are

sick, impoverished, or unhappy. Each one of us should

learn to become a practitioner of this science, a

demonstrator of its Principle, a conscious user of

its Power. Power already exists, but the existence

of Power is of no particular value to us until we

use it. We must not only be conscious of Power, but

we must be actively conscious of it. This is one

of the first lessons we learn in the Science of Mind.
Religious Scientists believe, very simply, that

the Universe is fundamentally spiritual -- it has

intelligence, purpose, beauty and order. Whether we

call it God, spirit, energy, or Universal Intelligence,

every person, place and thing emanates from this

spiritual universe. We believe this Universal

Intelligence is within us, as well as around us,

and that we are conscious of it. The way of life

we teach and practice is learning how to live in

accordance with spiritual principles.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
APPENDIX 3: DIVINE SCIENCE BELIEFS
God is all, both invisible and visible.

One Presence, One Mind, One Power is all.

This One that is all is Perfect Life, Perfect Love,

and Perfect Substance.

Man is the individualized expression of God and

is ever one with this Perfect Life, Perfect Love,

and Perfect Substance.
Life is Continuous.

It proceeds from Divine Life, which is Good in

all its manifestations.

There is only one Power in the Universe, the

Power we call God.

There is no evil except that which is man-made.

The normal state of man is abounding health.

The Divine Purpose is to express the Joy of Life.


The foundation truth of Divine Science is that

limitless Being, God [Good], is equally present

everywhere and is the ALL of everything. God is

pure Spirit, absolute, changeless, eternal, manifesting

in all creation. "God is everywhere, therefore God

is here. What God is is everywhere, therefore what

God is is here."
If Good is omnipresent, what becomes of evil? What

happens to the darkness which fills a room when the

light is turned on? The darkness does not move out

and go somewhere else, it simply does not exist in

the presence of light. Darkness is not a reality, it

is merely the absence of light. In the same way when

the individual thought is centered upon the omnipresence

of good, evil thought does not move out and continue

to exist elsewhere; it simply becomes nonexistent. Evil

has no reality within itself; it can have existence only

so long as an individual supports it by his belief in it.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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++++Message 3775. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Science of Mind, New Thought,

and AA


From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/6/2006 9:07:00 PM
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Hi Folks,

Glenn has written an excellent summary of New

Thought here. If anybody is interested in pursuing

this subject further, I recommend "Spirits in

Rebellion," by Charles S. Braden, Southern Methodist

University Press, Dallas, 1963. It can probably be

obtained by library loan or it's possible a copy

can be purchased on the Internet. Braden, a longtime

professor of history and literature of religions at

Northwestern University, really covers the waterfront

in detailing the rise and development of New Thought.
The best New Thought book, in my opinion, is Emmet

Fox's "The Sermon on the Mount."


"As A Man Thinketh" by James Allen is a small book

that really gets to the basics of the importance of

thought. There are many others, and I've observed

that AA members can use them profitably to supplement

and reinforce what we have in AA.
Mel Barger
melb@accesstoledo.com

(melb at accesstoledo.com)

_________________________________________
----- Original Message -----

From: "Glenn Chesnut"

Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 6:22 PM

Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Science of Mind, New Thought, and AA


Religious Science (also known as Science of Mind),

founded in 1927 by Ernest Holmes (1887-1960), was one

version of the NEW THOUGHT movement.
It was the New Thought movement as a whole (and not

just this one version) which had a major effect on

early AA. New Thought was a religious movement originally

stemming from the ideas of Phineas Parkhurst "Park" Quimby

(1802-1866). From his study of hypnotism and the effect

of placebos on disease, he came to the conclusion that

the way we think can have a profound effect both on creating

physical illness and healing physical illness.


The NEW THOUGHT movement which developed out of Quimby's

ideas pointed to the way our ideas and attitudes actually

created the world we lived in. If I view the world as

a hostile place full of people trying to do me harm,

I will eventually live in a world filled with people

who are trying to do me harm. If I view the world with

seething resentments, I will create a world around me

where I will increasingly find more and more things to

resent. But if I view the world around me as filled with

mostly good people, and if I regard the world with love

and forgiveness towards all, I will increasingly find

myself living in a world filled with good and loving

people who treat me with kindness and tolerance.
(1) Religious Science (Science of Mind), the group your

sister-in-law is involved with, was one of the New

Thought churches which developed out of Quimby's ideas.

See their web site at http://www.religiousscience.org/


(2) Unity Church is the largest New Thought group at

present, with over two million members in over fifteen

different countries. See their web site at http://www.unity.org/
(3) Divine Science is another New Thought group. See

their web site at http://divinescience.com/


EMMET FOX (1886-1951) was a famous Divine Science

minister. Early AA members went to hear him preach

at New York's Church of the Healing Christ. Fox's

book "The Sermon on the Mount" was especially

influential in early AA and widely recommended

reading for newcomers.


JAMES ALLEN, "As a Man Thinketh"

(see http://hindsfoot.org/kML3rc1.html for Mel B.'s

edition of this little book) was another important

New Thought book which was widely recommended reading

for AA newcomers during the early period.
Emmet Fox's book and James Allen's book both appeared

on the recommended reading list for AA newcomers used

in early Akron AA. This is important, because it

makes it clear that the New Thought movement was just

as influential on early Akron (midwestern) AA as it

was on early New York (east coast) AA.

______________________________
NEW THOUGHT and SWEDENBORGIANISM
Warren Felt Evans was one of the first individuals

who wrote seriously on the teachings of Phineas Quimby.

Evans was also the one who took the important step of

integrating the philosophies of Quimby and Swedenborg.

The presence of certain Swedenborgian elements in New

Thought may have been one of the things which made

New Thought so congenial to Bill and Lois Wilson (Lois

had been brought up as a Swedenborgian).

______________________________
OTHER RELATED IDEAS
(a) Norman Vincent Peale (author of "The Power of

Positive Thinking") openly admitted the deep influence

of New Thought on his ideas.
(b) Dale Carnegie (author of "How to Win Friends and

Influence People") presented a sort of secularized

version of New Thought principles.
(c) "A Course in Miracles" is based heavily on the

sort of ideas which appear in New Thought.


(d) The Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Richard Maurice

Bucke (1837-1902), published a book called

"COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS" in 1901, just a year before

his death. There are ideas in his book which are very

similar to New Thought concepts. Mel B. told me that

when he spoke with Bill Wilson in 1956, Bill

recommended that he read Bucke's book, and told him

how important an influence it had been on his ideas.

______________________________
You said that your sister-in-law "credits Science of

Mind for the start of AA." That would be overdoing it

a little. AA started out as part of the Oxford Group,

not as part of a New Thought group.


From the Oxford Group, early AA got its understanding

that only acts of divine grace can produce real psychic

change. AA also got the substance of a good many of the

twelve steps from the Oxford Group, including the ideas

of confession and restitution (making amends). The

Oxford Group was the most important source of ideas


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