Hawks

Yes!!

Hawks

Yep, agreed and Bill goes on to reveal more about the conceptions he had developed from 1935-1939 as the book goes on.

By page 76, he uses "Creator". .. Which would indicate he had formed a biblical concept.

Bill attended the Oxford Group meetings... Frank Buchman was a Lutheran Church minister, Bill was up to his eyeballs in Christianity from all the spiritual advisers he sought out.

However, Bill seldom talked or wrote of Jesus much at all.

Although he does mention JC whilst describing his agnostic mindset.

If he ever gave a reason for never mentioning JC much, I haven't found it yet.

Emmett Fox's influence on Bill is all over the 12&12 by 1950 though and EF was plum crazy about JC.

Strange!

Boleo

Your right. "Staying on beam" came from Emmet's description of an airplane using a radio beam to guide it in for a landing.

However, I would not say Emmet was a conventional Christian. He frequently spoke of Karma and was heavily influenced by Thomas Troward, who studied Hinduism.

PaperDolls

I'm pretty "straight laced" looking I think.
Looks can be deceiving.

Also, I totally don't look like an alcoholic. :/

dox

Our own conception of God . . .

What a concept!

I think that generalisations about types of people are difficult at best.
Did Bill choose his Higher Power because he was straight-laced and wore a suit and tie?
Or, did he come to his understanding of a Higher Power because there was hardly any other than Judaeo-Christian literature available to him at the time?

Perhaps we should consider the possibility that Bill Wilson's Higher Power chose him.

That's the way it worked for me.

Pagekeeper

There is nothing straight laced about my HP. My HP is utterly radical and revolutionary.

Fly N Buy

Throughout history, men and women of all faiths and backgrounds have stumbled onto the hidden path that led to the same destination, the heartland of the spirit within. The paths vary according to creed and culture, but the journey was (is) the same.

Passage Meditation
Eknath Easwaran

Carlotta

Same here, I look like everyone's favourite auntie or a school teacher not like a radical activist and an alcoholic (whatever they look like LOL) whose higher power is female.

Hawks

Thanks Boleo, I didn't know who Emmet's influence came from.

I agreed on unconventional Christian. He might as well have said " What the ****? Which New Testament are you guys even reading?" to Catholicism in his book Sermon on the Mount.

That book really opened my eyes, in terms of what Jesus actually said vs what organised religion has become.

That would have gone down like a cup of cold sick when first published, probably still does to this day.

Hawks

Under my shirt and tie, is around 40 hours of tattoo work

Hawks

Thanks Dox, great insight

desypete

i think the ones in aa who have a chair leg as there hp are the real sober memebers in aa they have the real wisdom for my money : )

awuh1

I just looked and I cannot find any picture, at all, of Bill speaking at an AA meeting (on the internet). I have to admit I did not spend a lot of time looking, and that's because it doesn't really matter. I think Bill had exactly the right mix of qualities to make, and keep, AA successful.

Yes he is often depicted in a suit and tie. I'm glad he is. People often express their reluctance to attend AA meetings because they believe that they will find a lot of skid row bums there. He and Bobs "straight laced" side helped provide some credibility to the organization. If they had been Buddhists and dressed in traditional attire, in the 30's, I don't think AA would have gotten off the ground.

It's important to keep in mind the context in which Bill lived.

Bill Wilson took LSD, in the 50's! He's often criticized for this. I see it quite differently. For one thing it was legal when he took it and he did so under medical supervision. He was a pioneer, in the very best sense of that term. When he took the drug he was looking for a way to help alcoholics that were not being helped by the program.

So there are two sides. Some may say he was too "straight laced" and others say he was a wacko who took LSD.

Actually, I think he had it just right.

awuh1

BTW Hawks I noticed your thread about the "Signs of God's Existence" I enjoyed it. I found it had a nice treatment of the "cosmological constant". I'm glad that someone else here at SR is paying attention to some of the remarkable things that modern physics is telling us about the basic nature of reality. Quantum physics and it's implications are an aspect of science which is currently quite far from the publics awareness. I think Bill would have appreciated the documentary as well.

Hawks

Great idea Pete.

If I adopt a chair leg as my higher power, I can get a small spiritual experience any time I sit down.

For a massive surge of pure spiritual bliss, I could go to a furniture store.

Tommyh

Hawks,I`ll let you know as soon as the Mothership lands tonight!

Hawks

You're expecting a landing ?

Cool .... where ?

CousinA

This is the only Mothership I'm aware of... P-Funk Mothership - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good night all!

-allan

Tommyh

oh well,I missed it,I guess I better keep on trudging the road to Happy destiny

desypete

lol sounds good to me hawks

we should really change the wording of the steps to came to believe a chair leg could restore us to sanity

made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the chair leg

humbly asked the chair leg to remove our defects

no offense is meant to anyone who has a chair leg as there higher power by the way just in case there is a chair leg hp member reading

: )

chair leg bless you