Re: Deprogramming from Alcoholics Anonymous:

[JimB...@google.com]

From: http://www.expaa.org/deprogramming.htm

Deprogramming from Alcoholics Anonymous:

- September, 2012


What is Deprogramming?

Exercising and re-training the mind with the intention of abandoning or
relieving ones self from rigid beliefs and controlled thought that were
developed from outside sources.

Why Deprogram From AA?

The main theme in AA and NA is admitting powerlessness and developing a
pattern of thinking that is adverse to self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is
critical in the perception of self in regards to the ability of changing
and becoming self-reliant and competent. These character traits are
instrumental in developing the capability of achieving and maintaining
sobriety. There are dozens more attributes of AA thought that can be
negative and are paradoxical to basic/standard psychology.

Why does AA teach negative thought control?

The shocking truth is thatAA is NOT a recovery group or treatment
program for alcoholism. The actual objective of AA is to bring
alcoholics under God control, or AA control. Only one of the infamous
12 steps concerns drinking. The rest are dogmatic rituals and merely a
process of indoctrination into a cultish religion. The Alcoholics
Anonymous text unequivocally states:

�Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to
God and the people about us�. ~ p. 77

How Did This Happen?

AA was founded by two alcoholic members of an early 20th Century
Evangelical Christian Cult called The Oxford Group. The 12 steps were
developed and based upon "principles" of this religion that taught
parishioners that they were sinful and in need of a religious
transformation. The O.G.'s mission was to bring members under their
control by offering them God's Miracles in exchange of a process in
which they surrendered their lives and confessed their sins and
weaknesses to the group.

Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA, believed that his success with quitting
drinking was a result of a miraculous religious experience after
participating in exercises he learned from the O.G. He confessed his
sins, prayed, and actually demanded that God relieve him of his alcohol
obsession. Bill W. believed (or likely pretended to believe)that any
alcoholic would become absolved and experience the miracle of sobriety
if they followed this ritual. This is the foundation of the 12 steps:

"Early AA got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgement of
character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others
straight from the Oxford Groups and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their
former leader in America, and nowhere else." ~Alcoholics Anonymous Comes
Of Age, p. 39.

The steps have virtually been unchanged since their inception in 1939.
Unless one believes that God or another Higher Power has removed their
compulsion to drink, the 12 steps are contradictory messages that can
have a negative affect. They often hinder the recovery process causing
depression, anxiety, and bring upon feelings of low self worth and self
esteem. These negative feelings and thoughts come from repetive slogans
during meetings, harmful quotes repeated from the reading material, and
from the intrusion of members (likely a sponsor or guru that has been
brainwashed themselves).

~SallyJ