AA Exposed.The Truth Behind Bill Wilson. The Man Behind the AA Cult Allegations.

I have long accused the group Alcoholics Anonymous to be nothing more than a cult and Bill Wilson its cult leader. It is an easy half-step to that conclusion with the way the members act, especially the senior members who claim there are no leaders of the group but then take control as exactly that. If one were to look up the attributes of a cult, he would find they exist in groups like the Moonies and hardline fundamentalist Christian churches. They also exist in the rooms of AA. These traits are right down the line by the numbers. Every member who has disagreed openly with any AA mantra or left the program has seen this and every member who remains in AA adamantly denies these attributes. Just like cult members would. For the first rule of a cult is its members deny it is one.

Every cult’s origin is in its founder. Someone creates an ideology then finds people in a weakened state to enlist into that ideology. Jim Jones, Joseph Smith and all the others who created cults did so by gathering those who simply followed. People who were incapable of independent thought and objectivity. When you get enough of those types, sometimes global religions rise and dominate the world. And sometimes groups like Alcoholics Anonymous are formed. And the initial leaders of these types of cults all hold a common trait. None of them lived in the universe known as reality.

To say Bill Wilson was not living in reality is an understatement. I doubt that most AA members are even aware of his background. His program was founded on hardline principles of fundamentalist type Christianity under the influence of The Oxford Group, established by Frank Buchman, an evangelist type. It seemed that Bill Wilson had a conversion to Christianity under his tutelage. He adopted the principles of Frank Buchman’s philosophy, formulated the Twelve Steps directly from Oxford’s Five Core Principles and in every manner seemed to resemble his claim of being “born again,” which would be construed to a born again Christian. But then later he stated he wasn’t a Christian specifically but yet formed his entire AA philosophy based on these Christian fundamentalist type tenets. He later said he didn’t want to be officially converted as it might lead some alcoholics to not join his newly formed organization if they weren’t Christians.

THE SMALL BOOK: HOW I BEAT ALCOHOLISM AND WHY ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS DOESN'T WORK

So it certainly seems that Wilson was already in the practice of deceiving future members as he followed the hardline principles of a hardline Christian organization, based his program on Christian tenets yet claimed he wasn’t one. You will hear this claim from members in the rooms today. I’m an atheist and getting along just fine in the meetings. Yes, you may be an atheist or agnostic or Wiccan, but you are practicing the fundamentalist Christian principles set down by Frank Buchman. This sort of sleight of hand that Wilson performed is very typical of cult leaders.

But it goes much further with Wilson. If deep down, under the rhetoric, he was a closet Christian, his practices completely defied the tenets of Christianity. Bill Wilson was heavily influenced by theosophical principles, even if not a member of The Theosophical Society. Again, he draws from their tenets without claiming membership to the group. Theosophy believes a great deal in divine wisdom and united brotherhood. These tenets have an underlying tone of Marxist type doctrine. As we have seen in the results of enforced Marxism, the utopian concept of “brotherhood” is replaced with authoritarian leaders, who are far removed from it.

If you go to an AA meeting, you will see these leaders emerge. They are sponsors and initiators in the circle. You will really see their heads rise in a snarl if you offer a different opinion than their constant mantras. Wilson established his Alcoholics Anonymous this way. On one hand, he states they are a brotherhood simply serving each other. But then he removes autonomy of Self by enforcing the ideology that only the divine can rescue the alcoholic and that rescue isn’t even permanent but must be granted daily. As long as you follow their tenets. He takes away free thought of the new member, implants twelve steps, based on dogma of authoritative Christian fundamentalism, then claims he isn’t promoting Christian fundamentalism.

But it’s the history of Bill Wilson’s other practices that drop him into the abyss of that universe of non-reality. First, he came to his “awakening” while on psychedelic drugs, while under the guise of fanatical Christian influence. And he continued this dabble into the synthetics. He was involved in LSD experiments because he believed this method would help lead others to an awakening in recovery as well.

But the descent into lunacy only fell faster. Bill W. was a regular and active participant with the occult. This is interesting since his program was based off Christian principles, whether he later called himself a Christian or not. But occult mysticism is strictly forbidden in the Bible. It isn’t one book that states this but many. Deuteronomy, Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, Acts and Revelation all forbid spiritualistic type of practices in these occult activities. Wilson actually had a “spook room” in his house for regular occult sessions. He participated regularly in seances. He channeled spirits and believed he was guided by these spirits while creating the Twelve Step program, which was nothing but copied from the Oxford Group. So Wilson took a hardline Christian philosophy and cemented it with forbidden practices of spirit channeling. Then he stated he kept his occult life separate from AA and wasn’t a Christian as he used the occult and Christianity to formulate his program. Do the AA members even understand what sort of lunatic Bill Wilson actually was?  

This is your founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, AA member.  

Now the members of the rooms will have several rebuttals. First, they will state that Wilson was never a Christian convert. On paper that is true, he stated a more vague notion of finding the divine higher power as necessary to remain sober. But what he stated and what his program was based on are two different things. His program was based off fundamentalist Christianity and he was indoctrinated with these principles.

Then the AA member will state that the practices in meetings today aren’t as in Bill W.’s time. And here is the crux and why so many ex-members of the rooms state they had to deprogram from the cult of Alcoholics Anonymous. The entire program was founded on the principles of this cult leader. This idea of united brotherhood and continued and ongoing service to the cause. The philosophy that former alcoholics can’t trust themselves, only their version of God for all daily decision making and turning autonomy over to the divine for continued daily sobriety. That addiction is permanent and can never be beaten, thus keeping one in the cult rooms forever. The shaming practices and fear tactics thrust on those who differ in opinion. The accusations that every differing opinion is your alcoholism talking, your disease talking. These all come from your original cult leader, who believed his program was formulated by supernatural causes while on psychedelic drugs.

These are all cult tactics to keep a person in the cult. The same are used by the Moonies as well as those spoken fundamentalist churches. I wrote a previous article comparing the two methods of church cults and AA and the attributes aren’t just similar but exactly the same.

I mentioned deprogramming of members who escaped from AA above. That is the correct word. One doesn’t need deprogramming if he simply leaves a non-cult group. I stayed in the Boy Scouts until I was eighteen. But if I had left at sixteen, I wouldn’t need to deprogram. If I left a book club, I wouldn’t need to deprogram. But in AA, the members who flee do. The effects can last for years according to those who spent significant time in Alcoholics Anonymous.

It is much like leaving the Christian faith, which I did almost a decade ago. I wasn’t brought up fundamentalist but the hardline Catholic school in which I spent my early youth might as well have been. We were indoctrinated to fear Hell in the afterlife. You sat on the Christian God’s side because of this fear. Even today, as I know that Hell wasn’t an original Hebrew concept in Old Testament and was largely created later, I still have that inkling of unease of what if I am wrong. That is the effect of wash and rinse cycle type of indoctrination. Alcoholics Anonymous does the same.

The reason these deprogramming effects last is much the same as my upbringing in old school Mother Catholic. The new member is indoctrinated in his weakest state. He is already afraid. He is terrified of this new world in which he is not accustomed. And the rooms initially get him in this state. Fear of death from alcoholism is instilled in this weakened mind. So when he leaves, he will continue to carry this fear unless he deprograms properly.

The effects of the ghost of Wilson can be negated. If one reinvents his life, he will one day look upon AA for what it is. A half-fanatical Christian, half occult group of brainwashed members no different than those who rise up and suddenly speak in tongues on a Sunday service, believing their voice is the voice of God. It isn’t hard to see how this happens if the person was put through that rinse cycle just like the AA member spun in during his early days in the rooms.

If one becomes physically and emotionally strong through fitness activities and clean diet, solves his emotional past as well as advances Self forward, that person will no longer be susceptible to the AA rants. He will become one who owns mental fortitude. Strong people aren’t worried about relapse. Being called a dry drunk won’t affect your psyche as well as the other insane mantras that come from the cult members who still exist in the rooms. Because you will have the resilience to know that you aren’t.

Years into reinvention, you will actually feel sorry for those who still think they need the rooms, the few who are sober for any significant length of time. You will look at them just like you regard that person speaking gibberish, thinking it is God’s voice. You will understand how they became brainwashed.

Because the founder, Bill Wilson, was insane. And his members, then and now, continued the insanity he established. 

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For the condensed and orderly version of how I beat the addiction of alcoholism check out: THE SMALL BOOK: HOW I BEAT ALCOHOLISM AND WHY ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS DOESN'T WORK

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John Barleycorn taken from Jack London's book, John Barleycorn. First published 1913