The "Missing Piece"

Dr. William D Silkworth
(1873-1951)

Recently, when re-reading The Doctor's Opinion in the 'Big Book' of  Alcoholics Anonymous, I was struck by the fundamental difficulty that both Dr. Silkworth and Carl Jung, himself, were faced with in treating alcoholics. Both knew that "an entire psychic change" could alleviate the alcoholic addict's difficulties, yet both were faced with their inability to trigger such a change. There was a "missing piece" somewhere. Indeed, Dr. Silkworth explicitly admits this. "Faced with this problem," he notes, "if a doctor is honest with himself, he must sometimes feel his own inadequacy. Although he gives all that is within him, it often is not enough. One feels that something more than human power is needed to produce the essential psychic change." (Emphasis added.)

At page 27 in the 'Big Book,' Dr. Jung admits to the same basic futility of effort in working with Rowland H. (that "certain American businessman") which Dr. Silkworth faced when working with Bill.

"Here and there, once in a while," Jung told Rowland, "alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me these occurrences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them."

"In fact," he pointed out, "I have been trying to produce some such emotional rearrangement within you. With many individuals the methods I have employed are successful, but I have never been successful with an alcoholic of your description."

Dr Carl G. Jung
(1875-1961)

 Rowland was initially relieved upon hearing this, pointing out to Jung that he had long been a "churchman." This, however, as Jung pointed, was not enough as "in his case (that) did not spell the necessary vital spiritual experience." Rowland was dismissed by Jung with the advice that he associate himself with some unspecified religious body that might (just might) help him find such a vital spiritual experience.

As fate would have it, upon his return to America Rowland associated himself with the then-popular Oxford Group which had adopted a series of concrete steps that an individual could take in order to effect a closer relationship with his or her God. As part of those steps, Rowland altruistically reached out to Ebby Thatcher, and Ebby reached out to Bill W. The rest is A.A. history.

Bill W. and his sponsor, Ebby T.

Yet, when one looks back at this improbable chain of events that would lead to the further recovery of millions of alcoholics and addicts of all stripes worldwide, one sees that two unique factors were at play when Ebby reached out to Bill that was not the case when Bill was being attended by Doctor Silkworth.

First and foremost, as Bill pointed out many times, he was able to identify "at depth" with Ebby. Here was an alcoholic who should be drinking but was not. Secondly, and just as importantly, Ebby had a concrete solution - a program of action - that Bill could (and eventually did) utilize to effect the "vital spiritual experience" that would relieve him of his alcoholism. Rowland and Ebby had found "the missing piece." Dr. Silkworth could identify the problem, as could Jung, but neither had the mechanics of a "moral psychology" that could help bring about a spiritual awakening.

The word-of-mouth program that Ebby passed on to Bill was simple:

1.  Ebby admitted that he was powerless to manage his own life.
2.  He became honest with himself as never before; made an "examination of consciousness."
3.  He made a rigorous confession of his personal defects and thus quit living alone with his problems.
4.  He surveyed his distorted relations with other people, visiting them to make what amends he could.
5.  He resolved to devote himself to helping others in need, without the usual demand for personal prestige or material gain.
6.  By meditation, he sought God's direction for his life and the help to practice these principles of conduct at all times.

(Source: Three Talks to Medical Societies by Bill W., Co-Founder of A.A.)

This word-of-mouth exposition of the Oxford Group's program (which Bill would later expand "for the sake of greater clarity and thoroughness" into A.A.'s Twelve Steps) was "the missing piece" that both Silkworth and Jung lacked. These steps (in their final form) would be the concrete things that an alcoholic addict (or an addict of any kind) could do in order to produce "the entire psychic change" posited by Silkworth and described by Jung. ("Ideas, emotions and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them.")

For sure, Alcoholics Anonymous has "no monopoly" on this. There are, as William James points out in The Varieties of Religious Experience, "a multitude of ways in which men have discovered God." (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 28.) Yet, whether by Providence or happenstance, there was a confluence of events that brought the work of Jung, Silkworth and Frank Buchan's Oxford Groups together, and from this confluence of events sprang the miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous. Seventy-five-odd years later, the "missing piece" that bridges medicine, psychology and spirituality (i.e., the Twelve Steps) remains as effective as ever in relieving alcoholic addiction. Jung's helpful prescription "spiritus contra spiritum" still applies, and without the practical steps to bring this spiritus into our lives, millions of recovered alcoholic addicts (and others) would have likely died of their disease.

Our lives in recovery still depend on how well we practice the principles that Rowland, Ebby, Bill, Dr. Bob and so many others found in this "missing piece" of the alcoholism equation. There is a solution to alcoholic addiction, and "it (still) works if we work it."

Reflections on A.A.'s Early History: The Cental Role of Meditation

In a 1958 lecture delivered to the New York City Medical Society on Alcoholism (contained in the "Three Talks to Medical Societies" pamphlet) Bill W. described the fateful evening when Ebby T. came to visit him in his home. Surprisingly, Ebby was sober. And, as if that wasn't bad enough from Bill's point of view, Ebby had "got religion." Nevertheless, Bill heard Ebby out, and afterwards, as Bill describes it, "(t)he spark that was to become Alcoholics Anonymous had been struck."

Here, in Bill's words, is a summary of what ensued that evening:

". . . (H)e told me of his conversations with (Rowland H.), and how hopeless alcoholism really was, according to Dr. Carl Jung. Added to Dr. Silkworth's verdict, this was the worst possible news. I was hard hit. Next Ebby enumerated the principles he had learned from the Oxford Group. Though he thought these good people were sometimes too aggressive, he certainly couldn't find any fault with most of their basic teachings. After all, these teachings had sobered him up."

"In substance, here they are, as my friend applied them to himself in 1934:

      1.  Ebby admitted that he was powerless to manage his own life.
      2.  He became honest with himself as never before; made an "examination of conscience.
      3.  He made a rigorous confession of his personal defects and thus quit living alone with his problems.
      4.  He surveyed his distorted relations with other people, visiting them to make what amends he could.
      5.  He resolved to devote himself to helping others in need, without the usual demand for personal prestige or material gain.
      6.  By meditation, he sought God's direction for his life and the help to practice these principles of conduct at all times.

"This sounded pretty naive to me," Bill recalls, "(n)evertheless, my friend stuck to the plain tale of what had happened. He related how, practicing these simple precepts, his drinking had unaccountably stopped. Fear and isolation had left, and he had received a considerable peace of mind. With no hard disciplines nor any great resolves, these changes began to appear the moment he conformed. His release from alcohol seemed to be a byproduct. Though sober but months, he felt sure he had a basic answer. Wisely avoiding arguments, he then left."

"The spark that was to become Alcoholics Anonymous had been struck," Bill points out. "One alcoholic had been talking to another, making a deep identification with me and bringing the principles of recovery within my reach."

Carl Jung: Click here to read
Jung's letter to Bill W.

Reading this account, I am struck by two seemingly separate but interrelated points: (1) the emphasis that is put upon Carl Jung's conclusions about alcoholism, and (2) the emphasis that is put on meditation for seeking God's direction for life. Indeed, prayer is not mentioned at all.

Jung's conclusions on alcoholism are set out on pages 26-27 of the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous, and indicate (a) that sometimes alcoholics have had"vital spiritual experiences" sufficient to relieve their alcoholism, (b) that such experiences seem to be "in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements, and (c) that "(i)deas, emotions and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motivations begin to dominate them."

These conclusions are related to Ebby's sixth point, that he and the original Oxford Groupers utilized meditation to ascertain how they should implement their spiritual principles into their conduct at all time. Meditation, it seems, is the process by which we raise our minds to a higher level which is devoid of our old thoughts and ways of thinking. Thus, old ideas, emotions and attitudes are, indeed, "cast to one side."

Ebby T. with Bill W.

In a subsequent biography ("Ebby: The Man Who Sponsored Bill W."), Ebby describes how he and Rowland H. practiced the Oxford Group principles, including daily meditation.

"Rowland gave me a great many things that were of a great value to me later on," Ebby recalls. "He had a thorough indoctrination and he passed as much of this on to me as he could. When we took trips together we would get up early in the morning, and before we even had any coffee, we would sit down and try to rid ourselves of any thoughts of the material world and see if we couldn't find out the best plans for our lives for that day and to follow whatever guidance came to us."

Ebby's observations about the centrality and importance of meditation are reflected in the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous (at pages 86-87), where we read:

"On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin (however), we ask God to direct our thinking,  especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. . . . In thinking about our day ahead we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don't struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while."

 And the result of such a meditative practice?  "What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration," we read, "gradually becomes a working part of the mind." Thus, if we are to experience the wholesale change in our "ideas, emotions and attitudes" that marks a spiritual awakening and thus relieves us from our alcoholism, the practice of effecting a conscious contact with God through daily meditation is absolutely crucial.

Supplicatory prayer which affirms and invokes God's help, while important, is a lesser form of a direct and conscious contact with a Higher Power. Meditation is the process by which we effect and improve such conscious contact, while contemplation - the highest form of prayer - is going out from meditation into the world, while maintaining our conscious contact with God so that we may truly practice A.A.'s principles in all our affairs.

All three types of prayer, but particularly meditation, were emphasized in early A.A., and  all three continue to be applicable and essential today if we are to effect, attain and maintain a vital spiritual experience of God in this world.

Despair, Hope and the Nature of a Spiritual Awakening

For permanent and contented sobriety, the alcoholic addict in recovery is dependent, first, in attaining a spiritual awakening and, secondly, on the daily maintenance of his or her spiritual condition.

"If, when you honestly want to," we read in the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous, "you find that you cannot quit entirely, of if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer."

[Alcoholics Anonymous, page 44.]

Carl G. Jung
(1875-1961)

But what is the nature of such a "spiritual experience" and what might trigger such a process? In the 'Big Book', Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, is said to have described such "spiritual experiences" as being "phenomena . . . (which) appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements." Importantly, he notes that the existing "ideas, emotions and attitudes" of the alcoholic are replaced with "a completely new set of conceptions and motives."

[Alcoholics Anonymous, page 27.]

A.A. co-founder (and principal author of the 'Big Book'), Bill Wilson, famously experienced just such a sudden and unexpected spiritual awakening just prior to his receiving treatment for his chronic alcoholism at Townes Hospital in New York in December of 1934. At the time, his sudden and profound conversion experience initially scared the formerly agnostic Wilson. He sought assurance from his attending physician that he had not gone completely insane, and was somewhat reassured that he had not. Later, his sponsor, Ebby T., brought him a copy of William James' "The Varieties of Spiritual Experience." Reading this volume, Wilson was further reassured, not only of his sanity, but of the reality and efficacy of the spiritual awakening he had undergone.

"Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it," James observes, "is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different."

"We may go through life without suspecting their existence," he notes, "but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation."

"No account of the universe in its totality," he writes, "can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them," he notes, "is the question - for they are so discontinuous with ordinary consciousness."

"Yet," he observes, "they may determine attitudes though they cannot furnish formulas, and open a region though they fail to give a map. At any rate, they forbid a premature closing of our accounts with reality."

[Wm. James, "The Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 388.]

William James
(1842 -1910)

It seems probable from Wilson's varied writings, including his account in the 'Big Book,' that there were two stimuli which sparked his sudden and unexpected "spiritual awakening." The first was his attending physician's diagnosis that he would soon die or have to be institutionalized as a result of his uncontrollable drinking. The second it seems, was the hope that his sponsor, Ebby inspired in him. Together with the assurance that he could rely on a God of his own conception, Bill describes how his intellectual reservations melted away when Ebby visited him, and how he "stood in the sunlight at last."

The presence of profound despair and the infusion of sudden hope, it seems, sparked Bill's awakening, and his reaction to these emotional stimuli - i.e, his sudden and profound spiritual awakening - it turns out, was not necessarily abnormal. In "The Varieties of Religious Experience," James describes precisely how such a violent swing of emotions can trigger the emotional rearrangement that he (like Jung) characterizes as the essence of a spiritual awakening or "conversion."

"Emotional occasions, especially violent ones," James observes, "are extremely potent in precipitating mental rearrangements. This sudden and explosive ways in which love, jealousy, guilt, fear, remorse or anger can seize upon one are known to everybody. Hope, happiness, security, resolve, emotions characteristic of conversion, can be equally explosive."

"And," he points out, "emotions that come in this explosive way seldom leave things as they found them."

[Wm. James, "The Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 198.]

Thus, experience shows how it is possible that an alcoholic addict in recovery, sharing at depth with another who is in emotional despair, may help precipitate a spiritual awakening that will relieve the sufferer from his or her addiction.

Of course, as was the case with Ebby and Bill, it is also necessary to show the sufferer exactly what steps he or she must take to assure the effectiveness of such an awakening. For, as William James notes, above, such experiences "open a region (of consciousness) though they fail to give a map."

The Jung-Wilson Correspondence

Bill Wilson
(1895-1971)

Shortly before the latter's death, Bill W. wrote to Carl Jung, thanking the great psychologist for his largely unheralded impetus in the chain of events that would establish Alcoholics Anonymous (and her sister 12 Step groups) as, perhaps, the most effective way for treating addictions, to alcohol and otherwise. For it was Jung who passed on the vital information (through the aegis of Roland H. and Ebby T.) that "a vital spiritual experience" could be sufficient to arrest the fatal progression of alcoholism.

Roland H., whom Jung had treated for alcoholism in or around 1932, took this important message to heart and joined the then-popular Oxford Group, and through him, Jung's remarks were carried to Ebby T. (an old drinking friend of Bill's), and on to Bill, himself. (Roland attained life-long sobriety, but remained in the Oxford Group, never becoming a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.)

The important message conveyed through Jung's treatment of Roland, set out on pages 26-28 of the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous, contains the following description of what seems (in Jung's view) to happen to individual alcoholics who undergo profound psychological changes as a result of a spiritual (or religious) awakening:

"Ideas, emotions and attitudes which were the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and new conceptions and motives begin to dominate them."

Carl G. Jung
(1875-1961)

In his reply to Bill's letter of acknowledgment (copied, below), Jung outlined the basic reason why an alcoholic drinks, a reason that, of course, underlies the effectiveness of the spiritual solution found in A.A. Making an intuitive observation, Jung noted that: "His craving for alcohol was on a low level the thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval terms: the union with God." Thus, Jung's conclusion that a real and effective spiritual or religious experience could aid the individual in overcoming alcoholic addiction.

However, Jung warned: "The only right and legitimate way to such an experience (i.e., the non-dualistic union with God) is, that it happens to you in reality, and that it can only happen to you when you walk on a path which leads you to higher understanding. You might be led to that goal," he observed, "by an act of grace or through a personal and honest contact with friends, or through a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism."

Fortunately for the alcoholic addict, effecting a "conscious contact" with a Power greater than the limitations of our ordinary, egoic self results in "grace"; the fellowship within our A.A. (or sister) group and/or with our sponsor affords us the requisite "personal and honest human contact" we need; and, the process of continual "self-examination, meditation and prayer" we engage in provides us with "a higher education of the mind" beyond the confines of our egoic and incessant rationalism.

Here is the body of the letter from Jung to Bill W., which is also included in the Grapevine book, "The Language of the Heart." Note, Jung's ultimate prescription for alcoholism: "spritus contra spiritum".

On Spiritual Awakening and Recovery from Alcoholic Addiction

My spiritual awakening was electrically sudden and absolutely convincing," Bill W. wrote. "At once I became a part - if only a little part - of a cosmos that was ruled by justice and love in the person of God. No matter what had been the consequences of my own willingness and ignorance, or those of my fellow travelers on earth, this was still the truth. Such was the new and positive assurance, and this has never left me. ("As Bill Sees It," p. 225.)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Bill's spiritual awakening at Towne's Hospital was obviously convincingly and stunningly sudden. In fact, it was so sudden and unexpected that Bill thought perhaps he had gone mad. Asking Dr. Silkworth (of the "Doctor's Opinion") if that might not be the case, he was assured that whatever had happened it was surely preferable to what he had had before, and that he had better hold onto it.

William James
(1842-1910)

At some point in the next several days, Ebby T., Bill's sponsor, brought him a copy of William James' "The Varieties of Religious Experience," which was then popular with many of the members of the Oxford Group. In it, Bill would have found many accounts of experiences startlingly similar to his.

Perhaps because of this, Bill was particularly attentive to Ebby's recounting the experience that Ebby's friend Rolland H. had in undergoing psychoanalysis with the pioneering psychologist, Carl Jung. It is recounted in pages 26 to 28 in the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous, while the essence of Jung's message to Rolland may be found on page 27.

Carl Jung (1875-1961)

"Here and there, once in a while," we read, "alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me these occurrences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them." [Emphasis added.]

Clearly, Bill - who went overnight from being a nameless and hopeless drunk, to a man who, as a spiritual and social pioneer, would go on to lifetime of sobriety in which he helped literally millions of other drunks achieve sobriety - was the recipient of just such a phenomenological experience. He had achieved, in an instant, a clear consciousness of God.

While thousands of A.A. members (and members of A.A.'s sister 12 Step organizations) have undergone such sudden spiritual awakenings - some repeatedly - for most, perhaps, this experience of "a new state of consciousness and being" (as Bill describes it in The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions) is only gradually attained. Thus, in the second edition of the 'Big Book' (when there were approximately 150,000 A.A. members "in recovery"), the "Spiritual Experience" appendix was included to assure those who had not had a sudden awakening that their spiritual experiences were equally valid and effective, a point emphasized by James in "The Varieties of Religious Experience."

The bottom line of the "Spiritual Experience" appendix, however, is that by practicing the Steps, most members attain, however falteringly, to a higher state of consciousness beyond their ordianry egoic, self-consciousnesshttp://recoverytable.blogspot.com/2011/04/radical-non-duality.html.

"With few exceptions," we read, "our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves."

"Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience. Our more religious members call it God-consciousness."

Thus, within themselves (i.e., within their own consciousness), members of A.A. who have undergone such a spiritual awakening, discover a wholly unexpected level of consciousness and being; a state of consciousness that is devoid of the old "ideas, emotions and attitudes" that once dominated them. As a skeptic, I would not have believed this, if it had not happened for me.

As William James observed:

"(O)ur normal waking human consciousness, rational consciousness, as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness. . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded."

In going through the 12 Steps, we are introduced to a process of "self-examination meditation and prayer" (The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 98) that are intended to be a stimulus to a new and higher state of consciousness, however transient, through which we can attain to a Power greater than our narrow "selves," and which can help us through even the greatest difficulties that we may face in life. The more we work at it, the more readily such God-consciousness may be attained and maintained. It is not, however, necessarily a matter of becoming suddenly and wholly conscious of the presence of God. Patient, continual and daily work that maintains and enlarges our spiritual lives is the key.

Bill's Reflections on A.A. . . . Its History, Message and Solution

"Three Talks" Pamphlet

Of all the pamphlets published by Alcoholics Anonymous, perhaps the most helpful - at least for beginning members who have taken Step One and admitted their alcoholism and personal powerlessness - is the "Three Talks to Medical Societies by Bill W., co-founder of AA," pamphlet. Certainly, it is the only pamphlet that is referred to directly in the Big Book (in Appendix III, "The Medical View on A.A.") The "Three Talks" pamphlet provides beginners with a brief, yet concise, history of A.A., its message  and "solution."

Taken from Bill's 1958 presentation to the New York City Medical Society on Alcoholism, the first of the "Three Talks" is particularly helpful, giving a precise synopsis of how A.A. came to be formed, how the program works, and just what A.A.'s "solution" for the suffering alcoholic is.

After preliminary remarks, Bill dives right into the history and message of A.A., relating how Carl Jung told Oxford Grouper to-be, Rolland H. (that "certain American business man" described on page 26 of the Big Book) that once in a while a "vital spiritual experience" will remove an alcoholic's mania for drink. Bill describes this as the moment when "the first taproot of A.A. hit paydirt."

Importantly, Bill includes Dr. Jung's description of precisely how these "huge emotional displacements and rearrangements" affect the psyches of alcoholics:

"Ideas, emotions and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them."

(This, of course, is what happened to Bill when he had his sudden and abrupt "spiritual awakening" in Townes Hospital, a number of years after Jung spoke to Rolland H.)

Next, Bill relates how Rolland carried this message to the man who would become Bill's "sponsor," Ebby Thattcher, thereby establishing "the second cardinal principle of A.A." - the "identification at depth" of one alcoholic with another. (Elsewhere, he would call this principle, the only original idea in A.A.'s 'program,' everything else being "borrowed" from other sources, ancient and modern.)

Bill then tells how Ebby visited him at his home (the night that Bill's "gin would last longer than his preaching"), and he then sets out the simple, "word-of-mouth" program of action that Ebby had been working and offered to Bill, in the following manner:

1. Ebby admitted that he was powerless to manage his own life.
2. He became honest with himself as never before; made an "examination of conscience."
3. He made a rigorous confession of his personal defects and thus quit living alone with his problems.
4. He surveyed his distorted relations with other people, visiting them to make what amends he could.
5. He resolved to devote himself to helping others in need, without the usual demand for personal prestige or material gain.
6. By meditation, he sought God's direction for his life and the help to practice these principles of conduct at all times.

 (Bill later explains that, "For the sake of greater clarity and thoroughness, the word-of-mouth program which my friend Ebby had given me was enlarged into what we now call A.A.'s 'Twelve Suggested Steps for recovery.'")

Note that the only reference to "a Higher Power" is in Ebby's last point, that "by meditation" direction and help was sought. Of course, A.A.'s Step 11 says that it is "through meditation and prayer" that we seek "to improve our conscious contact with God" as we understand that conception. Yet, how many times do we hear continually relapsing A.A. members - and even season veterans - relating how they pray, pray, pray. And how many times do they mention meditation? This is no small point. Oxford Groupers and early A.A. members had a sustained practice of meditation or "quiet time" in the morning, before they made their plans for the day, and a similar meditation time at night.

"By meditation, he sought
          God's direction for his life . . ."

If all we do is "talk" to God - affirming and invoking God's presence and power in our lives - but never "listen" in meditatioin, how are we to effect a conscious contact. It is through meditation that we gain the ability to change the level and focus of our consciousness (from self-consciousness, which is the problem, to God-consciousness, which is the solution).

At Step 11 in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Bill describes  how an interwoven and logically interrelated practice of "self-examination, meditation and prayer" will provide us with an "unshakeable foundation." Prayer, while beneficial in and of itself, is not sufficient. Meditation must be a part of our practice to gain the ultimate benefits that A.A. offers.

Finally, Bill relates his own sudden spiritual awakening, how William James' Varieties of Spiritual Experience confirmed the reality of his experience, and how the Varieties outlined that "ego deflation at depth," or "a complete defeat in a controlling area of life," is a necessary precondition for a true and effective spiritual experience.

The balance of the Three Talks pamphlet describes the contribution of Townes Hospital's Dr. Silkworth, his contribution that clarifies alcoholism is both an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind, and the further growth of the A.A. movement.

Of course, alcoholism and addiction are no less a problem now than they were in 1958. Yet Bill's closing remarks to the medical professionals of New York is no less relevant. He concludes by making a pledge that "A.A. will always stand ready to cooperate" with the whole medical community. "When our combined understanding have been fully massed and applied," he presciently predicts, "we of A.A. know that we shall find our friends of medicine in the very front rank - just where so many of you are already standing today."

This last remark stands out when we consider that "detox" and "rehab" were not a part of the larger vocabulary in 1958. And yet, it clarifies the point that both A.A. and the medical/treatment center communities have a vital role to play in providing a "solution" to the still suffering alcoholic addict.