Hey stepchild, thanks for chiming in! I love these kinds of Big Book studies. Here are my reflections, keying off your responses.

1. What are the two common bonds that recovering alcoholics have that transcend political, economic, social, or religious backgrounds? (Pg 17)

We share one common peril...And more importantly...One common solution. That's the beauty of good meetings...We all share the same solution.

I particularly like the analogy of the shipwreck survivors, especially how everyone is united in camaraderie, regardless of rank. There's something unique about the AA Fellowship in the sense that we ALL have something to learn from each other, whether we're businessmen, or homemakers, or construction workers, etc. Our outside occupations and positions in society make no difference to the common bonds we share in our mutual illness and the fact that we've found a common solution.

2. What can a recovered alcoholic do for an alcoholic, that those who do not have a problem can't do? (Pg 18)

But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished.

Exactly what my sponsor did for me. Not only did I feel I wasn't alone in this hopeless mess I called life...I trusted him to show me how he got out of it.

My first sponsor was incredible - a warrior for AA if I ever saw one. He saved my life. He was constantly calling me and taking me to meetings (my car had been repossessed at the time), and he spent hours helping me and his other sponsees work through the Big Book. His example of selfless 12th-Step work influenced me tremendously when I came to have my own sponsees.

3. When one asks, "What do I have to do?" what is the answer given by the book? (Pg. 20)

It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically. We shall tell you what we have done.

For myself..It was simply a matter of following the clear cut directions in the book...With the guidance of someone who had already had a Spiritual Awakening as a result of those steps.

This seems so obvious: if you want the message of AA, read the Big Book. And yet, how many people ignore it? Our Open Discussion meetings are packed with 50 to 75 members, while the BB Study Group attracts maybe a dozen - on a good night. Last night we had eight. Has AA merely become a non-drinking social group? Because I certainly don't hear a lot of the program at open discussion meetings. AA = The Big Book. If you want AA, READ THE BIG BOOK!!


4. What's the difference between a moderate drinker, heavy drinker, and a real alcoholic? (Pg. 20)

Moderate drinkers have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it. They can take it or leave it alone.

Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason - ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor - becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.

But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.

This hit me like a brick...For I had lost ALL control over drink....Once I started to drink.

I progressed through all three stages. I started drinking moderately in my early thirties. In a few years I was a heavy drinker, and by the time I sobered up at the age of 46, I had tried dozens of times to stop by myself, all to no avail.

5. Where is the main problem? (Pg. 23)

Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body. If you ask him why he started on that last bender, the chances are he will offer you any one of a hundred alibis. Sometimes these excuses have a certain plausibility, but none of them really makes sense in the light of the havoc an alcoholic's drinking bout creates. They sound like the philosophy of the man who, having a headache, beats himself on the head with a hammer so that he can't feel the ache. If you draw this fallacious reasoning to the attention of an alcoholic, he will laugh it off, or become irritated and refuse to talk.

This idea of a physical allergy coupled with a mental obsession was new to me..Though for the first time in my long drinking career it made perfect sense. How many years did I laugh it off...Become irritated...Or just downright refuse to talk about it?

I think this is an important question because it asks: WHERE is the problem, not WHAT. The main problem centers in the mind, so we're looking for a thinking solution. This is so different from much of contemporary recovery philosophy that concentrates on disassociation from the people, place, and things that may or may not be a catalyst for our drinking. As we learn later in the Big Book, our circumstances made no difference to our drinking. We drank because we're alcoholics.

6. What happens to the alcoholic's so-called will power when it comes to the thought of drink? (Pg. 24)

The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.

We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago?

A week or a month ago?....I couldnt even handle last night.

Same here. It didn't matter what sort of debacle I perpetrated the day before, or how remorseful I was about it. The next day I was right back at it. Once, when I totaled my car, guess what I did? I took a cab home and kept on drinking. For me, never mind even last night - an hour after a car wreck I was pounding them down.

7. What is the solution, and how do we bring it about? (Pg. 25)

There is a solution.

Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it. When, therefore, we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet. We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed.

The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.

It is indeed miraculous....These 12 steps truly work.

THE SOLUTION IS THE 12 STEPS!

8. Explain the difference between Spiritual Experience and Spiritual Awakening. (Appendix II, Pg. 569-570)

The terms spiritual experience and spiritual awakening are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms.

For myself...A change in the way I think and live. A reliance on a Power greater than myself...But I had to remove what was blocking me from God...From good.

Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation.

The steps.

I had a spiritual experience early in my sobriety: a white-light experience similar to Bill Wilson's. It was profoundly powerful, and it kept my feet on the path of the program. But the spiritual awakening manifested itself slowly, in the gradual transformation of my life from selfishness to selflessness. (A work that's still in progress!)

9.What shall we do if we are "seriously alcoholic"? (Pg. 25)

One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.

I went with plan B.

I especially like the metaphor of picking up the simple kit of spiritual tools.

10. What did Dr. Jung call the "Great American Businessman"? (Pg. 27)

In the doctor's judgment he was utterly hopeless;

I thought this about myself.

Dr. Jung did say some people had been relieved of their addiction by way of powerful spiritual experiences. He just didn't know how to bring those about. I also felt hopeless at one time, but that changed completely, once I started practicing the steps.

11. Is there only one way to acquire faith? (Pg. 28)

The distinguished American psychologist, William James, in his book" Varieties of Religious Experience, "indicates a multitude of ways in which men have discovered God. We have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired. If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try. Those having religious affiliations will find here nothing disturbing to their beliefs or ceremonies. There is no friction among us over such matters.

I found for myself... Through the process of honestly and thoroughly working the 12 steps...I could see my Faith grow...Both in God and this program. Today I just have to make Spiritual progress...And I don't have to be perfect at it. From useless to living with a purpose....Indeed miraculous.

A lot of newcomers trip over this faith business, so I think it's important to point this passage out. There are many paths to faith, and that faith does not have to include a specific deity or religious tradition. It's simply a faith in whatever is necessary to live a life of sobriety.