William Griffith Wilson, also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., is the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Born on November 26th, 1965, in East Dorset, Vermont, Bill had a happy childhood till age 11.
In the year 1906, Bill’s parents got divorced, and his father moved to British Columbia while his mother moved to Boston to study Osteopathic medicine. This gave rise to Bill’s feelings of abandonment, and it was during this time that he first experienced depression.
The Journey of Bill W.’s Personal Life and Career
Bill and his sister were raised by their maternal grandparents, Fayette and Ella Griffith. They were acutely aware of both, Bill’s hurdles and capabilities, and encouraged him in all his pursuits. This resulted in Bill emerging as a class leader and eventually the senior class president. At the time when all was going well for Bill, his first love, Bertha Banford, died unexpectedly.
This loss sunk Bill into a depression so severe that he did not graduate high school. He then enrolled in Norwich University, a military college, which prepared him well for World War I. But he left shortly before graduation to join Coast Artillery in 1917, where he discovered an innate talent for leadership.
Upon discharge, Bill secured a position in a surety company in Brooklyn and took night courses in economics and law. Bill's potential law career ended as he could not complete his final exam because of his intoxication. During his military service, Bill also married the love of his life, Lois Burnham.
After this, Bill worked on Wall Street and became quite successful. As his fame rose, so did his desire for alcohol. His heavy drinking was only tolerated as it weighed against the heavy profits that Bill brought in. However, in just a few years, his drinking got so bad that his business associates and his wife started ignoring him.
Soon, his luck on Wall Street ran out too, when the market crashed in 1929. This led to the couple moving into the home given to them by Lois’s parents, where Bill descended into ‘chronic and desperate’ alcoholism.
The Oxford Group: Where It All Began!
In November 1934, Bill was visited by his childhood friend Ebby Thatcher. Bill knew his friend to be a very heavy drinker, much like himself. So, when he offered a drink with Ebby, only to have to be refused, Bill was very astonished. “What’s up with you?” he questioned.
“I’ve got religion”, Ebby answered. Bill almost scoffed, for he was agnostic and very much a man of “science”. But he listened to Ebby’s story. He learned that Ebby had been inspired to join a non-denominational evangelistic group called the Oxford Group. The group had no membership, dues, paid leaders, creed, or theology.
Started by Frank Buchman, with the help of Dr. Samuel Shoemaker, the Oxford Group worked on four absolutes.
- Absolute Honesty
- Absolute Purity
- Absolute Unselfishness
- Absolute Love
It was said that “Any human being who wanted to become a better human being could follow the dictates of these four absolutes and achieve his goal.” The four absolutes were dissolved into six steps (for their execution). They are –
- Complete Deflation of Ego
- Help and Guidance from God i.e., Dependence on God
- A Moral Inventory (A question of right or wrong)
- Confession to a Third Person
- Restitution
- Continued work with others in need
Ebby had worked with this group for two months and was now sober. As his sixth step, he had chosen the worst alcoholic he knew and had decided to visit him, to pass on his spiritual experience and its results. That alcoholic was Bill Wilson. Despite all this information, Bill was hesitant to join the spiritual fellowship and kept arguing with Ebby regarding the existence of God and some religious concepts.
Finally, exasperated, Ebby told him, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?" And Bill was sold. But even after that, Bill didn’t stop drinking. However, he was very much tempted to visit the Oxford Group given that he had been hospitalized twice because of his drinking; he had started stealing from his wife’s purse, and he was utterly disgusted with himself. His visit proved futile as he still couldn’t stop drinking.
The Miracle That Leads to Great Beginnings
One day, as he drowned himself in alcohol, Bill got very frustrated, angry, and helpless. Sitting in the kitchen at dusk, he shouted to his lung’s capacity, “I'll do anything! Anything at all! If there be a God, let Him show Himself! If there is a God, reveal yourself to me”.
Suddenly, he was surrounded by a slowly growing, enveloping white light, which made him feel like he is on a mountaintop with a cool breeze flowing through him. A voice accompanied this telling him, “You are now a free man”.
And gradually, the white light receded into the background. Bill then found himself back at the table, with everything just as he left, but this time, with no urge to drink. This incident marked the start of his sobriety. He then immediately called up Dr. William Silkworth and told him about what happened. The doctor in return tells him, “Something has happened to you, I don't understand. But you had better hang on to it".
The Real Beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous
After the life-changing experience, Bill joined the Oxford Group and started following the six steps. In his attempt to go through the last step, Bill changed the step to “Continued work with other alcoholics in need”, from just “Continued work with others in need”. He also ended up hosting a group of drunks in his house.
With no money, no job, and major depression, all of them just ate donuts, drank coffee, and shared their stories. But these moments proved powerful as they all bounded together by the commonality of the disease and finally found the will and a way to stop drinking.
All of them soon visited Dr. Silkworth. Dr. Silkworth was a medical doctor at the Towns Hospital, New York. He was the first person to view alcoholism as a disease, and not a choice. He also described the first two dimensions of the disease–the physical allergy and the mental obsession. This concept of his is now widely accepted and is discussed in detail in the Doctor’s Opinion of the Big Book.
After a few months, Bill was down again, and he started wondering if his so-called spiritual experience was just a hallucination. Luckily for him, his friend Ebby chose the same time to gift him a book titled “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, written by William James.
The stories in this book served the purpose of helping in the writing of the Big Book. The beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous started in Akron, Ohio. During a failed business trip to Akron, Wilson was tempted to drink again, and he decided that to remain sober he needed to help another alcoholic.
So, he called phone numbers in a church directory and eventually secured an introduction to Dr. Bob Smith, an alcoholic Oxford Group member. Dr. Bob, however, extremely reluctant to meet Bill, gives him an appointment of 15 minutes.
Upon hearing Bill explain Dr. Silkworth’s theory, Bob became enraptured, and the meeting extended to 5 hours. And so, began the journey of Alcoholics Anonymous. Three days after the “meeting”, the two sober people in the fellowship, come in contact with the next member to join them.
With their consistent effort and hard work, the fellowship grows. One day, Dr. Bob tells Bill W. “We can’t keep this wonderful ‘cure’ to ourselves. There are millions of alcoholics who struggle with addiction. We must help them too.”
So, they decide to spread the message by writing about it. Hence, began the writing of the book, “Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have recovered From Alcoholism.” The book is now referred to as the Big Book.
While writing the book, as he reached Chapter five, Bill realized the six steps of the Oxford Group would not be enough for the recovery of a distant alcoholic. So, he decided to elaborate on those six steps.
Without knowing what or how many more he was going to add, Bill started writing, and half an hour later, he was left with the 12 steps. The name “Alcoholics Anonymous” is said to be suggested by Hank Parkhurst. Bill Wilson’s experience with sobriety is written as the first chapter titled, “Bill’s Story”.
The manuscript of the Big Book is now published by the Hazelden Publications titled, “The Book that Started It All – the original working manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous”. William H. Schaberg traced the genuine history behind the writing of the Big Book in his creation, “Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A.”
The Conclusion
The story of Bill W. is truly fascinating. It draws you in and leaves you breathless. He started something that to this day saves thousands of people. He and his group told the world that Alcoholism is not a character defect.
Instead, “it’s a disease which manifests as a physical allergy in the body that leads to mental obsession and spiritual bankruptcy”. Alcoholics Anonymous is now an international mutual aid fellowship with millions of members all over the world. The Big Book still serves as the Holy Scripture for the recovery from alcoholism.
Subsequent fellowships, like the Narcotics Anonymous, the Overeaters Anonymous, have adapted the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions to their respective primary purposes.
Addiction is a disease. Addicts are not to be condemned, but to be directed. As impossible as it seems, addiction can be dealt successfully with patience, guidance, and some humour. People with addiction are not monsters or low lives.
They are just sick, and they need help. This is not to say that they should be let off with no consequences for their actions. They will face the result of their actions, but they also need guidance and direction. So please, if you know someone struggling with addiction problems, get them to a meeting nearby, and watch and engage, as the rest of the story unfolds.
Written By: Chandana. C. K
Edited By: Farheen Firoz
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