'Trimpey did not sober up in AA, although he does acknowledge having attended about thirty meetings.'
Wow, I didn't know that. So he says he sobered up without AA and then went to some AA meetings? I'd heard the story differently. He doesn't strike me as a guy who would hang out on the fringe of AA by choice just for the coffee. That's practically asking for endless stream of angry yelling from the wife.
A friend had a 5 minute meeting with Jack at The Ranch, but when he didn't want to shell out $600 to pay Jack to take an hour to share with him the secret formula Jack immediately pretended my friend was invisible and he was quickly ushered out. He was taken back, but I do understand that business is business.
'I don't know the exact numbers, but RR had meetings in over 1,000 cities by 1994.'
Were the meeting lists destroyed, or is there a list still available? I'd be curious about which 1000 cities had meetings. I still can't understand why I never heard a thing during all that explosive but (per JT) ultimately worthless meetings growth.
'Yes. RR invited professional psychologists to facilitate their meetings, which led to many of them having more focus on CBT/REBT than on AVRT. Many did quit and moved on, but others kept coming back for years, and the focus shifted away from quitting for good to broader concerns. Interestingly, a very similar thing happened to AA on account of the expanding treatment industry and the Open Discussion meeting format.'
Getting psychologists to donate their time is no small feat. I wonder what could have possibly been in it for them to talk with a group of RR attendees? The material from one early member I read indicated that lay people led them, but it was probably different in different areas and times.
So you went to the old RR meetings. That's really something special. Getting the message that long ago has no doubt been a positive for you. Good you're still involved helping others. Truth is you're the first long term RR person I've 'met'. Probably lots of other 15-20 year RR members on SR too I've not yet noticed.
People like you and the others show how well it really works.