THE DARK SIDE OF AA. IS AA A SECRET CULT?
- chphurst
- Sep 27
- 10 min read
I have declared quite adamantly that the support group, Alcoholics Anonymous, isn’t as much a support group as a cult. The organization may have not started as a cult in Bill and Bob’s original initiation of it, but it has certainly evolved into one over the last century. And worse yet, they are a cult with a tremendous failure rate to keep their own members sober. I would contend that if they would stop engaging in cult tactics and alter their program to a method of global holistic recovery, that the organization would have much better results than it does.
But why do I refer to them as a cult? One of my other endeavors, as a non-specified theist, closer to the Jewish faith more than anything else, was a channel debunking the beliefs of Christian fundamentalists. In this content, I investigated a great deal into their claims of the young earth being only four thousand years old and the global flood in the time of Noah. One of the episodes on the almighty YouTube also referred to this specific type of Christian as a cult member and listed the signs of a cult, which do largely resemble those types of fundamentalist churches.
Those exact signs also can be directed to Alcoholics Anonymous. I have been in a few of their meetings, long ago, and found that the mantras, peer pressure and mindset are not much different than the Christian fundamentalists’ who I am well familiar with over my almost six decades on this terrain. Any google search will reveal that the symptoms of belonging to a cult are identical no matter what the organization is.
A cult indoctrinates a member whose origin is one of weakness or dysfunction in his life. For people who have their world together and are self-assured do not belong to cults. This is true for fundamentalist churches as well. People who are capable of thinking for themselves and do not follow the rest of the sheep generally will not be found in their Sunday services. AA also indoctrinates the person at the height of his dysfunction and weakness—when he is in the initial stages of withdrawal. None of us were strong when we were engaged in the addiction and we are at our lowest during those first two phases of recovery, which last typically thirty to forty-five days after the last drink. And the emotional effects of even up to those first six months can be severe in the third phase of recovery. We are in a picture perfect place for the brainwashing to begin. And if we enter AA’s doors unaware of these cult signs, there is a significant chance we could reside in its mental prison for good, never realizing the cult symptoms were there at all.
The first sign of a cult is one of authoritarianism. Total authority, yet lacking the accountability of outcomes. You will experience this in any fundamentalist type church. The other members will begin with friendliness toward the new recruit. That geniality will fade if they suspect you aren’t buying into their doctrine. And this is the exact scenario of the AA organization. The warm “support” will last only until you question this absolute authority.
I was eleven months clean before I stepped into an AA meeting. I went to two meetings in two different locations in two weeks. Largely to see if they had anything to offer as I was still in the long protracted withdrawal phase that lasts up to the two year mark. The point when the neurochemistry has finally rebalanced itself. A milepost where I state the former alcoholic can claim cure, which is heresy to the AA mantra.
One of the group sponsors was addressing the circle. He stated loudly and boldly that AA was the only way to sobriety. Largely like that pastor at the pulpit whose members kneel to his wizened authority. If one didn’t believe AA was the only way, then you would hear a cry of accusation for swimming in that river in Egypt. You were in denial. Denial of your condition. Denial of your “disease.” Denial that you will always be an addict.
But yet they do not acknowledge that most sources state they have a sixty to eighty percent failure rate. That would be the lack of accountability, one of the definitions of a cult. The fact is most fail in the AA program. The AA pundits will state the reasons people fail isn’t their program. It is the person hasn’t hit rock bottom yet. He wasn’t working the steps. The person was still swimming in that river in Egypt. To which I would respond: all sixty to eighty percent of them? Or maybe it is that your program just doesn’t work for most, AA. And the ones who do stay sober are now imprisoned in the rooms of your absolute authority—for life.
Which leads to the next sign that you’re in a cult. Unreasonable fears of the outside world. The outside world being one without AA. The fundamentalist church will try to keep its members, especially its youth, far away from non-fundamentalists. They have youth groups like Horizons, which the teenagers flock to when not in the Sunday service or Bible study. Many parents home school their children so they can negate without interference all that “science stuff.” It’s the same in AA. If it wasn’t, then why are people still in “the rooms” five and six nights a week at ten years sober? That is insane. For that protracted rebalancing phase has long concluded. Those people should be living on their own now. But they have that instilled fear that if they leave the rooms, John Barleycorn is waiting around the corner to recapture their souls. The people still sitting in the rooms after years of sobriety? They no longer have an addiction problem. They have a psyche problem. They are now emotionally addicted to AA.
The third sign of a cult is zero tolerance for criticism. Have you ever tried to show the conclusive scientific fact that there was no global flood to a Christian fundamentalist? The reaction is a snarl, in which they repeatedly point to their zealot scientists, who aren’t using science at all, who attempt to demonstrate there certainly was that ark that survived it. It is the exact same mentality that an AA member spews.
I experienced this more than once in my first five years sober. In my first thirty days, I periodically went to an online AA chat room—largely to ask how long the withdrawal symptoms I felt would last? When I hit the forty-five day mark, the first day I could say I actually felt good, I added that I wasn’t in AA. Did anyone on the screen congratulate me for making it past what I consider phase two in recovery? No. The screen erupted with condemnation. You can’t do this alone. AA is the only way. You need to start the steps. On and on. I wasn’t even criticizing them at the time. The only critique was I wasn’t doing it their way. At five years, when writing my recovery book, a woman saw a reference on the coffee shop table and came over. She was a former alcoholic who asked me what room I went to? I told her I didn’t do AA. Her response? The same snarl. AA teaches you how to live. You have to learn how to live without alcohol. I thought I was doing pretty well. I kept a fitness program five nights a week, clean diet, I wasn’t smoking, hiking the big trails and taking a shot as a writer while growing my investments. But even at five years sober, the AA proponents consider it a direct attack that you did it without the rooms.
I’m near seventeen years sober today. But if you look at the comments in the YouTube addition of this blog, you will still see the same snarl from the AA community. You’re just a dry drunk. You were never a real alcoholic. Your life is still incomplete. You’re full of nothing but I’s, Me’s and Self’s. The reaction one would expect of a cult. Just like the fundamentalist church’s response. You weren’t a real Christian. You’re headed to Hell. Your life is a void. Different cult with the same symptoms.
Another sign that you belong to a cult is the leaders are always in the right and exclusive in knowing the truth. The leaders of Alcoholics Anonymous are the Big Book, the Twelve Steps, the senior members in the circle and, of course, the ever and all-knowing Sponsor. In the fundamentalist church, it is the same structure. If you happen to be a younger member, the hierarchy is Pastor, Parents and Everyone Senior To Yourself. They have absolute knowledge and no tolerance for dissent. They ignore differing opinion of their worldview, even if you place absolute evidence right in front of them. Have you ever tried this with a Christian fundamentalist? You show them a fossil record that conclusively demonstrates that whales evolved from animals that spent part of their time on land, and what will they say? The Devil is trying to mislead you.
It is the same in an AA meeting. In my first of two AA encounters, when it was my time in the circle to share, I stated I was a former alcoholic, on my way to cure, was eleven months clean and had never been to a meeting. You could hear a pin drop. One of the senior members later confronted me that no one is a former alcoholic. I reiterated I was and would claim complete cure in a year. Did this senior member of twenty-five years sobriety even consider this fact? My sobriety gained by not going to AA versus the majority failure rate of those who did? Of course not. He is now a leader in the cult hierarchy. Someone who spends the majority of his long sober life still in AA. That mentality is not one of a support group that wants to benefit its members. That is a cult that only wants you to follow the rules established by that very cult.
Another sign that you belong to a cult is the reaction when one of its followers leave it. I have known of a significant number of former addicts who left AA. One was my brother who stayed with them for a few years after he quit the barley. He is well over twenty years clean today. Most atheists leave as AA indoctrinates religion, whether they admit it or not, as I showed in an another article about the Twelve Steps. Seven are oriented around God. And others walk out the door simply because they recognize the cult signs just like I did.
But the same snarl is given for leaving as is for critiquing their methods. In a fundamentalist church, if one rejects their philosophy and exits, he will lose friends and possibly even family. They will regard him as fallen and turn their backs on him as that condemned sinner who just opened the path that will walk him to Hell. It is the same in AA. Never have I been congratulated by an AA member for my now long sobriety. I’ve been told I’m just a dry drunk. Yet my life is fulfilled and theirs is sitting in the rooms every night, smoking cigarettes and rehashing over and over their stories of the days deep in John Barleycorn’s bottle. And they have to justify their prison by raging because you live outside of its walls. Just like a cult member.
Alcoholics Anonymous would wholly deny that my accusation that they are a cult is legitimate. Again, just look at the comments from the proponents of AA who happened to fall upon my YouTube version of this blog or the blog itself. Cult members are known for not living in reality. They will state that AA has helped people across the country stay sober. That is incorrect, AA. First, your cult fails the majority who step inside your doors. There is a small growing movement of non-twelve step programs across the country that have far better results than the AA protocol. Not just by beating the addiction to alcoholism but holistically healing the person in every plane. And as far as the very minority who do stay sober in the AA program? They may not drink any longer, but you certainly have not helped them. They are mentally trapped in your rooms. They are afraid to go out on their own outside of your doors. Most are not physically healthy, ingesting caffeine and nicotine every night just to get through your highly negative meetings. They lost alcohol addiction and now have a new addiction. Their drug is now Alcoholics Anonymous.
They will state: AA is the most successful program to address alcoholism. Again, address your failure rate. There is one study they harp on from Stanford whose results greatly differ from basically everyone else’s statistics. And I greatly question the sample taken from that study and its metrics. Again, you are not mostly successful, AA. You fail most of the time. And a sure sign of a cult is one which won’t acknowledge its actual poor outcomes.
They will state: I was never a real alcoholic. I once got that on a comment from a motivational channel, which I had a few episodes on beating addiction. I am a hundred and fifty-five pounds at 5’ 6.” I was drinking three and sometimes four cases of beer a week in the end days of my addiction. I was drinking continuously through the weekends. Are you serious?
They will state: your life will never be complete without AA. Sure, let’s look at my life and one of your typical members. Mine consists of high level fitness, healthy diet and no toxic additives. I hike the mountains all over the world. I’m eighty percent retired in my fifties. I continue endeavors like this blog, have written five books and have become savvy in short and long term investing, which only gives me more financial freedom than I already have. Versus the AA member sitting in the rooms most nights with years of sobriety—the minority who do stay sober for years.
I can only attribute this obvious comparative difference to my life and the AA members’ to the fact that I engaged in a holistic recovery program that led to cure and they joined a cult. And no cult is healthy: physically, emotionally or spiritually. If AA really wants to have a significant outcome to help its members gain sobriety, they must completely transform their program from a cult to an avenue to help its members heal themselves so they can continue their now sober lives on their own. They must teach their members to regain their lives by reinventing them. But a cult is not only resistant to change, it is adamantly opposed to it. Because they are so indoctrinated with themselves, they can’t even see what they are.
And as long as this blindness remains, so will their high rates of failure.
For a tale of reinvention of Self across a 2,600 mile trek check out
John Barleycorn: taken from Jack London's memoir of his alcoholism. John Barleycorn: First published, 1913
Comments