Alcoholics Anonymous - Universal Edition
 

I picked up a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous - Universal Edition by Archer Voxx from Amazon yesterday and started reading it. It retains the spiritual elements, as well as the theme that you need a power other than yourself, but it removes the religious tones and references to God.

There's a /slightly/ different version of the 12 Steps. I realize that it might not be everyone's cup of tea but if you (like me) struggle with the religious over-tones of the book, you might enjoy it. It helped me, maybe it'll help you.

CJ.

Interesting. I'm curious about the changes to the Steps. Thanks.

Sounds interesting. Any opinions on this book?

I read another alternative AA big book a while ago that attempted a similar thing. It was well written in the sense that it was a much better job than I could do, but it took all of the guts out of the program and presented a sort of wishy washy politically correct version. It also severely edited stories like Bill and Bobs into something they never would have said, and did not experience.

And that is the problem in changing the old book. It is an attempt to rewrite history. All the big book is is a record of what the founders did to recover, the mistakes they made, and the things they found that worked. When it was released no one knew if the book would do any good, but it did. It exceeded every ones expectations. It turned out that the book had something that would interest alcoholics, depth and weight. And that grew as the ideas contained in it brought about success all over the world like never before. It has track record and street cred.

Any rewrite lacks those credentials. It may work but only time will tell. The trouble is when something doesn't work, alcoholics tend to get drunk and some even die. Personally I am in favor of trying everything you can think of, leaving AA till last. You may well find something that works along the way. But if not, the old AA seems to works where nothing else's does, and it works better, if there are no other options left. Then the God bit doesn't seem to be so much of a barrier.

Imo, bad idea to start altering the BB.

The BB is open to interpretation. Arguments within aa are no different than what you hear in Bible study groups.

When all the arguing is done you find what feels right for you.

As far as God or a higher power is concerned you don't have to believe.

I believe in God but I also believe God helps those who help themselves

Turning it over to whomever or whatever is simply a way of letting go.

Some people can do this easily enough and some like myself not so.

It has little to do with being an alcoholic

However if you can learn to let things go easily enough you're less likely to get bent out of shape and pick up a drink.

I just skimmed through the book. Honestly, they are all mind tricks I use when reading the real thing. Changing god to spiritual principals is basically how i have stayed sober for the last several years.