We talk to God—that is prayer; God talks to us—that is inspiration

“… We talk to God—that is prayer; God talks to us—that is inspiration. <br /><br />We go apart to get still, that new life, new inspiration, new power of thought, new supply … <br /><br />may flow in; and then we come forth to shed it on those around us, that they, too, may be lifted up.”

We talk to God—that is prayer; God talks to us—that is inspiration

“… We talk to God—that is prayer; God talks to us—that is inspiration. We go apart to get still, that new life, new inspiration, new power o...

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Top Ten Practices of Enlightened Partners

1. Write down the purpose and desired results for your partnership. <br /><br />A partnership without a stated purpose and intended results is like a ship setting sail without a chart or plotted course. The purpose should be stated in a way that lifts the spirit of all partners.<br /><br /><br /><br />2. Make choices grounded in love rather than fear. <br /><br />Become aware of your automatic reactions that are based in fear and look for the love choice instead. Ask yourself, what would love do or say in this situation?<br /><br /><br /><br />3. Mutually agree upon strategies for dealing with predictable breakdowns, such as miscommunications, upsets or disagreements and use them when needed.<br /><br />Have these strategies in place *before* the inevitable breakdowns occur. It is difficult, if not impossible, to create and implement them in the middle of a breakdown.<br /><br /><br /><br />4. Commit to win/win outcomes; don't settle for anyone being the loser.<br /><br />For the partnership to win, all partners need to win. If anyone in the partnership loses, the entire partnership loses. Keep asking questions that lead you to the win/win outcome.<br /><br /><br /><br />5. Communicate honestly from the heart and practice high performance listening.<br /><br />People respond positively to the expression of heart-felt truth because it builds trust. High performance listening is listening without judgment for the concerns of the other person that may be hidden behind their words.<br /><br /><br /><br />6. Assume personal responsibility for your emotional reality and refrain from blame.<br /><br />Blame and projection will pollute the emotional climate of a partnership faster than anything.<br /><br /><br /><br />7. Take the initiative for the satisfaction of your own needs and wants and make clear requests of others that inspire their cooperation.<br /><br />Don't wait for people to guess what will make you happy. Nobody likes to endure demands or covert manipulation.<br /><br /><br /><br />8. Share power rather than struggle for it.<br /><br />Let go of the need to be right all the time. Value others ideas and perceptions as being as valid as your own. Heal your unresolved power issues from the past.<br /><br /><br /><br />9. See problems as opportunities.<br /><br />Every problem contains the gift of spiritual development within it. Learn to unwrap the package.<br /><br /><br /><br />10. Nurture a conscious relationship with your Soul.<br /><br />The more spiritually attuned you are, the more enlightened you and your partnerships will be.

Top Ten Practices of Enlightened Partners

1. Write down the purpose and desired results for your partnership. A partnership without a stated purpose and intended results is like a sh...

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“Cuando te encuentras con alguien, recuerda que se trata de un encuentro santo. Tal como lo consideres a él, así te considerarás a ti mismo. Tal como lo trates, así te tratarás a ti mismo. Tal como pienses de él, así pensarás de ti mismo. Nunca te olvides de esto, pues en tus semejantes o bien te encuentras a ti mismo o bien te pierdes a ti mismo. Cada vez que dos Hijos de Dios se encuentran, se les proporciona una nueva oportunidad para salvarse. No dejes de darle la salvación a nadie, para que así la puedas recibir tú. Yo estoy siempre contigo, en memoria tuya.” UCDM T-8.III.4:1-5<br /><br />Tejamos redes de cariño, de apoyo, de aceptación. Emitamos rayos de luz hacia todos los seres. Nos veremos todos inundados de dicha y bendiciones.

“Cuando te encuentras con alguien, recuerda que se trata de un encuentro santo. Tal como lo consideres a él, así te considerarás a ti mismo....

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Bill Wilson and the Ouija Board,Bill W. Had Warts, Just Like the Rest of Us

Ever since becoming enamored with A.A. in the early 90s (especially after really getting into AA circa 2001), I have thought of Bill W. as quite an interesting fellow.<br /><br /><span style="color: red;">Unfortunately, some AAs tend to put certain people on pedestals</span><br /> — and this almost certainly applies more to Bill W. than anyone else as far as recovery personalities go. All of us are merely human, and I suppose this post serves as a reminder of just that.Knowing about what might be considered to be weaknesses of others — particularly those who tend to be glorified — can make the person seem more real, even closer to us. None of the comments in this post are meant to be disparaging; to me, they are not. These supposed facts can be found in the books of some of the most significant Bill W. biographers, most notably Susan Cheever.I find Ouija boards to be pretty darn interesting, honestly, though I have seen too many horror movies to run out and buy one myself! And LSD? Well, I don’t think I’ll be going into much — or any — detail about possible acid experiences I may or may not have had in a previous era, but suffice to say that I agree with Bill on some aspects of the trippy hallucinogen. I believe most, if not all, of us can agree on the following: Thank God LSD did not become a standard treatment for alcoholism and addiction! You probably won’t hear too much about this in AA meetings, but Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, often used a Ouija board to contact spirits. His wife Lois said that Bill would get messages directly from the spirit world without even using the Ouija board. For a while, his participation in AA was deeply affected by his involvement with the “witchboard.” Wilson claimed that he received the twelve step method directly from a spirit without the board and wrote it down. (Source: My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson–His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, by Susan Cheever)Personally, Wilson had a lifelong attraction towards mysticism and junk religion. He was drawn — by its ritualism, not its theology — to Catholicism, and seriously contemplated converting. Later in life, Bill W. flirted with Gerald Heard’s and Aldous Huxley’s West Coast Vedanta and took LSD with the two trippy gurus. Bill was consistently a spiritualist, going through life with AA’s Big Book in one hand and a Ouija board in the other. In the basement, Bill W. had a “Spook Room” where he would communicate with the dead. (Source: My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson–His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, by Susan Cheever)<br /><span style="color: red;">Bill W. Had Warts, Just Like the Rest of Us</span><br />Cheever’s portrait of Wilson is generally reverent, although she parts company with those who, as she says, see him as a man “chosen by God to carry a message.” In the second half of her book, Cheever goes further and pastes a donkey tail or two on the minor “god” Bill Wilson. Despite his victory over alcohol, Wilson retained his addictive personality and compulsive traits. He chain-smoked himself to death, for one thing. Reportedly, even on his deathbed, Bill W. puffed away as he slowly suffocated. Although he supposedly drank no alcohol for the last thirty-seven years of his life, he always craved it. Those who were around Bill in his last moments know that as he lay dying, he repeatedly requested whiskey; but this request was steadfastly denied by his minions. (Source: My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson–His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, by Susan Cheever)<br />Bill W. and LSD<br />Bill loved LSD. He urged everyone he knew to try it, including Lois, his secretary, Nell Wing, his friend Dr. Jack Norris, the Reverend Sam Shoemaker, and even Father Ed Dowling! He even thought his own mother might benefit. (Source: My Name Is Bill; Bill Wilson — His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, by Susan Cheever, page 241.)Also see Francis Hartigan, Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson, pages 176 to 179:<br />When Bill took LSD, use of the drug was legal. He first took it as a participant in medically supervised experiments with Gerald Heard and Aldous Huxley in California in the 1950s. Lois also participated in the first LSD experiments in California. At Bill’s insistent urging, she took LSD herself but always claimed later not to have felt anything. Bill insisted that she did too feel something and that she in fact had a very pleasant time. Nell Wing, who took LSD herself during one of these sessions and was there when Lois tried it, tends to believe Lois. She explains LSD’s lack of impact on Lois by noting that she took much less than the others had. Father Ed Dowling was among the people who accepted Bill’s invitation to join him in these early experiments. Bill also invited Jack Norris, medical director for Eastman Kodak and long-serving nonalcoholic chair of AA’s General Service Board, but Norris declined.<br />It is hard to appreciate today the enthusiasm with which LSD experimentation was initially greeted. Aldous Huxley wrote Father Thomas Merton that LSD might even be the SOMA he had written about in his futuristic novel, Brave New World, and that it was deserving of the most serious and thorough scientific research. Sam Shoemaker wrote to Bill about the wholehearted endorsement of LSD experimentation by an Episcopal bishop, and Wilson wrote to Carl Jung, praising the results obtained with LSD and recommending it as a validation of Jung’s spiritual work. (Word was received of Jung’s death, and the letter was never sent.)Wilson is thought to have continued experimenting with LSD well into the 1960s. Lib S., a longtime AA member who lived in New York for many years, told me that she participated in LSD experiments with Bill in the late 1950s in New York. Marty Mann, Helen Wynn, and others participated in the New York experiments, which were supervised by a psychiatrist from Roosevelt Hospital. Lib S. said that the alcoholic participants in the New York researches were all sober. The purpose was to determine whether the drug might produce insights that would serve to remove psychic blocks that were preventing people from feeling more spiritually alive. Each participant had to agree to undergo extensive debriefing, and all were urged to make detailed notes about what they were experiencing.<br />Bill agreed with Huxley’s assessment of LSD’s power to open the “doors of perception.” He described his first experiences of the substance’s effect as being akin to what he had experienced in Towns Hospital the night his obsession with alcohol was lifted. Nell Wing told me that her own LSD experiences were something that she had always valued. Although Nell denies that Bill ever went this far, other people who knew him during this period said that his initial enthusiasm for LSD was so great that he thought it should be available to all alcoholics. (Source: Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson, by Francis Hartigan, pages 178 to 179.)<br />References: Bill Wilson and the Ouija Board

Bill Wilson and the Ouija Board,Bill W. Had Warts, Just Like the Rest of Us

Ever since becoming enamored with A.A. in the early 90s (especially after really getting into AA circa 2001), I have thought of Bill W. as q...

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larger than life figure, Wilson almost singlehandedly changed the prognosis for those suffering from alcoholism. But he was certainly no saint

Offering a fascinating look at Bill Wilson, one of Time Magazine's 100 List of The Most Important People of the 20th Century, My Name is Bill is a must read for anyone attempting to understand the broader context of Alcoholics Anonymous. Susan Cheever does a marvelous job of capturing the essence of what made this man a pioneer in treating alcoholism and, long after his death, other forms of addiction. <br /><br />A larger than life figure, Wilson almost singlehandedly changed the prognosis for those suffering from alcoholism. But he was certainly no saint, and Cheever's portrayal is nicely balanced. We learn a great deal about what drove this uncommon individual and even a bit about some of his other struggles.<br /><blockquote>Wilson's 'Twelve Steps' approach is comparable to Dr. Albert Ellis's Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a vehicle for assisting those struggling with personal demons find relief. Many (including this reader) believe Wilson's early recognition that this age-old problem requires a spiritual solution was divinely inspired. Bill's insights into the disease of alcoholism based on his own experience stirred in him an uncanny prescience. He predicted that many alcoholics would find deliverance from their debilitating condition if they could only follow a few simple steps. Included among those, and perhaps most crucial, is finding the wherewithal to get through the next 24 hours without a drink.<br /></blockquote>Truly remarkable is how the man known simply as Bill W. transformed what can only be described as a life in precipitous decline - intractable alcoholism, unemployment, financial ruin, and a disintegrating marriage - into a beacon of hope for countless human beings. Ironically, while he struggled with his own implacable inner demons, most notably chronic depression, millions of alcoholics were clawing their way back from the brink of self-destruction. And those are just the ones who were alive during his lifetime!<br /><br />Cheever writes, "Bill Wilson never held himself up as a model: he only hoped to help other people by sharing his own experience, strength and hope. He insisted again and again that he was just an ordinary man." <br />Wilson was anything but an "ordinary man."His elegantly simple prescription for battling one's way back from booze-abetted disaster reflects pure genius. Although Bill was a reluctant model of a recovering alcoholic, his presence still looms large over the many thousands of AA groups that now meet across the globe. It is difficult to imagine many enduring contributions to mankind that exceed that of Bill Wilson's. Truly an epic 20th century figure.Kudos to Susan Cheever for a well-researched, well-written biography. <br /><br /><span style="color: red;"></span><br /><blockquote><span style="color: red;">This book should be required reading for anyone who suffers from alcoholism or who seeks a path to spiritual growth.</span><br /></blockquote>

larger than life figure, Wilson almost singlehandedly changed the prognosis for those suffering from alcoholism. But he was certainly no saint

Offering a fascinating look at Bill Wilson, one of Time Magazine's 100 List of The Most Important People of the 20th Century, My Name is...

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''Clearly my job henceforth was to Let Go and Let God. Alcoholics Anonymous was safe - even from me.''

<span style="color: #20124d;"> <blockquote><span style="color: #20124d;"><em>Bill's Wilsons Yankee temperament, lanky body, great gifts as a storyteller and childhood setbacks. A novelist and a journalist, she writes clearly; however, even more important are the insights and empathy so credibly her own as a reformed drinker who attended meetings of A.A. with her father, the novelist John Cheever. As she remarked in ''Note Found in a Bottle,'' his drinking ''wasn't hidden, it was completely visible. Because it was completely visible, the drinking was a secret that we kept from ourselves.''What she has related about her own religious sensibility coincides with what she has written about Wilson's. Belief in God became important to both of them, ''but it is intensely private and truly beyond my ability to describe. I don't understand God; I just believe in God.'' When Wilson handed over the leadership of A.A. at the St. Louis national convention in 1955, having provided the program with an enduring structure, he proclaimed: ''Clearly my job henceforth was to Let Go and Let God. Alcoholics Anonymous was safe - even from me.''</em></span><br /><br /></blockquote></span><em></em>

''Clearly my job henceforth was to Let Go and Let God. Alcoholics Anonymous was safe - even from me.''

Bill's Wilsons Yankee temperament, lanky body, great gifts as a storyteller and childhood setbacks. A novelist and a journalist, she wr...

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Bill W., A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Co-Founder Bill Wilson, Francis Hartigan, 2000, page 192.

The impression that he was a ladies' man seems to have come from the way he sometimes behaved at AA gatherings. When Bill wasn't accompanied by Lois (or later, Helen), he could often be observed engaged in animated conversation with an attractive young newcomer. His interest in younger women seemed to grow more intense with age. Barry Leach, who knew Bill nearly thirty years, told me that in the 1960s he and other friends of Bill's formed what they came to refer to as the "Founder's Watch" committee. People were delegated to keep track of Bill during the socializing that usually accompanies AA functions. When they observed a certain gleam in his eye, they would tactfully steer Bill off in one direction and the dewy-eyed newcomer in another.

Bill W., A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Co-Founder Bill Wilson, Francis Hartigan, 2000, page 192.

The impression that he was a ladies' man seems to have come from the way he sometimes behaved at AA gatherings. When Bill wasn't acc...

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Bill took both women to an AA meeting. He sat between them and, all during the meeting, he had a hand on one leg of each of the women.

As the AA office staff expanded in the 1940s, Bill seemed to take an active part in its recruitment efforts. One longtime AA member told me that at first she didn't know why in 1946 Bill hired her and another young woman AA member. "Neither of us could type or take dictation," she told me. Then, one night soon after they were hired, Bill took both women to an AA meeting. He sat between them and, all during the meeting, he had a hand on one leg of each of the women.<br /><br /><br />There was also a young woman Bill had begun an affair with whom he subsequently hired for the AA office. She worked at the office from about 1948-1950. She seems to have been very much like Bill's mother, a strong-willed, stubborn woman who was very insistent about having her way. Because everyone knew she was Bill's mistress, she expected to get it. Apparently, she did not appreciate the extent to which AA is a democracy. Bill's recommendation might have gotten her the job, but her behavior became so disruptive that in 1950 the AA trustees told Bill that she could no longer work there.<br /><br />While Bill often seemed to feel free to take advantage of whatever opportunities were available to him as AA's head man, a number of people who were close to him told me that there were times when he was painfully aware of the threat his philandering posed to everything he had worked for. Barry Leach, a longtime AA member who was a close friend of Bill's for more than twenty-five years, Jack Norris, and Nell Wing all said that Bill had let them know how badly he felt about his unfaithfulness to Lois. That he nevertheless was seemingly unable to control himself filled him with despair and self-loathing at times and left him feeling unworthy to lead AA.

Bill took both women to an AA meeting. He sat between them and, all during the meeting, he had a hand on one leg of each of the women.

As the AA office staff expanded in the 1940s, Bill seemed to take an active part in its recruitment efforts. One longtime AA member told me ...

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One for the list buiders on the Costa,They had found God (as they understood Him), and as long as they stayed away from booze and aspirin, they were okay; they were in the clear. They weren't ashamed of sex; they gloried in it.

Full disclosure: I grew up with a stepmom, Wynn, who had been fully prepared to marry Bill. He disengaged himself but put her "story" in the second edition of "Alcoholics Anonymous," in which the accounts of recovering alcoholics were included for the first time. She married my dad, her fifth husband, as a sort of consolation prize. Wynn was a wonderful woman, but I saw AA then from the point of view of a prissy, still-sober teenager, watching members bicker about whether taking an aspirin for a headache constituted a "slip," listening to stories of their friendships with a Personal God — "I told God to have you call me today," my stepmother would say after I moved out of the house. (And what could I possibly say? Maybe she had, and maybe He did.) But they didn't worry much about sex. ... <br /><br /><br />So I want to say for the record (and you won't find it on "Grapevine," or any other AA publication) that early AA, at least on the West Coast, was full of raucous men and women bursting with the physical energy that drying out brings. I speak now for Wynn (the Wynn I knew), who wrote "Freedom From Bondage" in the Book, and who, though she had five husbands, considered the high point of her life her amorous connection to Bill.<br /><br />Wynn stood on our front steps one bright Christmas morning enthusiastically kissing a different handsome AA swain as others crowded past them, pushing inside to a party, where they would drink tomato juice and laugh like banshees, delirious with joy. They had found God (as they understood Him), and as long as they stayed away from booze and aspirin, they were okay; they were in the clear. They weren't ashamed of sex; they gloried in it.

One for the list buiders on the Costa,They had found God (as they understood Him), and as long as they stayed away from booze and aspirin, they were okay; they were in the clear. They weren't ashamed of sex; they gloried in it.

Full disclosure: I grew up with a stepmom, Wynn, who had been fully prepared to marry Bill. He disengaged himself but put her "story...

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Nothing changes,Thank God.early AA, at least on the West Coast, was full of raucous men and women bursting with the physical energy

Full disclosure: I grew up with a stepmom, Wynn, who had been fully prepared to marry Bill. He disengaged himself but put her "story" in the second edition of "Alcoholics Anonymous," in which the accounts of recovering alcoholics were included for the first time. She married my dad, her fifth husband, as a sort of consolation prize. Wynn was a wonderful woman, but I saw AA then from the point of view of a prissy, still-sober teenager, watching members bicker about whether taking an aspirin for a headache constituted a "slip," listening to stories of their friendships with a Personal God — "I told God to have you call me today," my stepmother would say after I moved out of the house. (And what could I possibly say? Maybe she had, and maybe He did.) But they didn't worry much about sex. ... <br /> So I want to say for the record (and you won't find it on "Grapevine," or any other AA publication) that early AA, at least on the West Coast, was full of raucous men and women bursting with the physical energy that drying out brings. I speak now for Wynn (the Wynn I knew), who wrote "Freedom From Bondage" in the Book, and who, though she had five husbands, considered the high point of her life her amorous connection to Bill.<br /> Wynn stood on our front steps one bright Christmas morning enthusiastically kissing a different handsome AA swain as others crowded past them, pushing inside to a party, where they would drink tomato juice and laugh like banshees, delirious with joy. They had found God (as they understood Him), and as long as they stayed away from booze and aspirin, they were okay; they were in the clear. They weren't ashamed of sex; they gloried in it.<br />"MY NAME IS BILL", Carolyn See, The Washington Post, February 27, 2004, page C02.

Nothing changes,Thank God.early AA, at least on the West Coast, was full of raucous men and women bursting with the physical energy

Full disclosure: I grew up with a stepmom, Wynn, who had been fully prepared to marry Bill. He disengaged himself but put her "story...

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Bill Wilson just didn't want to be bothered with the hard work of resisting temptation.

Bill Wilson just didn't want to be bothered with the hard work of resisting temptation. Like so many other phony gurus, he lived a life of hypocritical irresolute self-indulgence, preaching "spirituality", "absolute purity", "rigorous honesty", and self-sacrifice to others while indulging in all of the pleasures of the flesh himself — with the sole exception that he does appear to have finally quit drinking alcohol after it nearly killed him.

Bill Wilson just didn't want to be bothered with the hard work of resisting temptation.

Bill Wilson just didn't want to be bothered with the hard work of resisting temptation. Like so many other phony gurus, he lived a life ...

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"Founder's Watch" committee.

The impression that he was a ladies' man seems to have come from the way he sometimes behaved at AA gatherings. When Bill wasn't accompanied by Lois (or later, Helen), he could often be observed engaged in animated conversation with an attractive young newcomer. His interest in younger women seemed to grow more intense with age. Barry Leach, who knew Bill nearly thirty years, told me that in the 1960s he and other friends of Bill's formed what they came to refer to as the "Founder's Watch" committee. People were delegated to keep track of Bill during the socializing that usually accompanies AA functions. When they observed a certain gleam in his eye, they would tactfully steer Bill off in one direction and the dewy-eyed newcomer in another.

"Founder's Watch" committee.

The impression that he was a ladies' man seems to have come from the way he sometimes behaved at AA gatherings. When Bill wasn't acc...

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Bill Wilson cheated on his wife Lois with many different women, both before and after sobriety.

Bill Wilson cheated on his wife Lois with many different women, both before and after sobriety. He even cheated on her while she worked in Loesser's department store to support him. "I'm going to a meeting" was often a double-entendre when Bill Wilson said it. Bill actually invented the old A.A. tradition of Thirteenth Stepping the pretty women who come to A.A. meetings seeking help for alcoholism. (First you teach them the Twelve Steps, and then you take them to the bedroom and teach them the Thirteenth Step....)

Bill Wilson cheated on his wife Lois with many different women, both before and after sobriety.

Bill Wilson cheated on his wife Lois with many different women, both before and after sobriety. He even cheated on her while she worked in L...

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“hot flash” experience—the event resulting from his call for help to the “Great Physician” and his vision

How many times have you heard that the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is God-given, was divinely-inspired, or was accurately characterized in the article by a Chicago judge: “Why We Were Chosen?” Or that Bill Wilson was guided by God when he penned the famous “Twelve Steps?” On the other hand, how many times have you heard the expression: “A.A. is spiritual, but not religious?” Or heard that A.A. requires a belief in a “higher power?” Or heard that A.A. is about “not- god-ness?” This book doesn’t address those questions. It is not about the nature of A.A. Nor about the place of the Creator in today’s program. Nor about whether AAs are a chosen bunch. It’s an account of the many ways the Creator seems to have touched the life of Bill W. and, through him, the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Did He impact Bill W.’s life and hence A.A. itself? You will meet a Bill W. you haven’t met in the dozen or so biographies of his life. You’ll look at events in Bill’s life you’ve probably never heard of— whether inside or outside of A.A. You will see how many times Bill seemingly had a conversion or religious experience, whether he called it that or not. You will see how many times religion and church and clergy impacted on Bill’s activities, whether or not he impacted on theirs. You’ll note the details about Bill’s decision for Christ at the Calvary Rescue Mission and his belief he had been born again. You will see the many examples of conversion experiences that Bill might have run across, just following his own “hot flash” experience—the event resulting from his call for help to the “Great Physician” and his vision that he had been in the presence of “the God of the preachers.” Was Bill Wilson converted? Did Bill Wilson become a born-again Christian? Did Bill Wilson truly believe in the one, true, living God? Were all of Bill’s frequent references to Almighty God a manifestation of what he really believed? God knows the answers. They’re His special province. Not mine. But you will have the opportunity to focus on a new question about the part our Creator may really have played in the life of Bill Wilson and in the worldwide Fellowship which began in Akron in 1935 and of which Bill was co-founder.

“hot flash” experience—the event resulting from his call for help to the “Great Physician” and his vision

How many times have you heard that the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is God-given, was divinely-inspired, or was accurately characterized ...

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"The B. W. Movement."

In one dark moment I even considered calling the book "The B. W. Movement." I whispered these ideas to a few friends and promptly got slapped down. Then I saw the temptation for what it was, a shameless piece of egotism.<br />Alcoholics Anonymous Comes Of Age, William G. Wilson, (1957), pages 165-166.

"The B. W. Movement."

In one dark moment I even considered calling the book "The B. W. Movement." I whispered these ideas to a few friends and promptly ...

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Bill Wilson would like to crowd God out

Last night, Bill Van Horn & Mickey came over and got me & we picked up Bill Dotson[3], who now lives near King School, & we went out to Stow where I led the little group in a meeting — It was just like old times at T. Henry's — Every one felt they could get up and talk & you could feel that we were really gathered together in His Name & we had the real fellowship of the "Holy Spirit" that was left in the world, so we would never "be comfortless" — Bill Dotson said he had been to Albany, Georgia to speak. I told him that I had your letter & they were so glad to get news of you & spoke of you in the meeting. <br /><br />I feel very sure that God has His Guiding Hand on our works, It looked for a while as if Bill Wilson would like to crowd God out but we know that it is up to us to seek more & more of God's power to help other people to know this way of Life & our fellowship. You certainly are doing your part & thank God, all those who have glimpsed the real vision are doing theirs. The joy of it is, to me, that those who have only been offered "the stone," are so eager & grab at the "bread," that we know we have to offer — as you say, it is appalling how little they have been offered by the would be "elder statesman" — but the 12 steps & the fact that, as Stanley Jones say, wherever man opens his mind to God, He reveals himself — they have helped the groping AA's — who have been denied so much of the real "bread" — & given the "stone" of Bill Wilson's designs. <br /><br />But, Clarence, I have made one big whale of a surrender of Bill & his schemes — & all thought of him & the possibilities of what harm he could do just left me in the most amazing way. I don't have to try to "not think of him" again, I just don't — He is completely consigned to God by me & I know He can handle him — We will be closely knit — even with his taking the money & trying to take the book. I am sure he will need our pity & compassion because he has put himself apart from the real fellowship — more and more I see that the 16th Chapter of Luke that I read in answer to my asking to understand Bill & what he was doing, illuminated the situation — He has put himself with the "children of darkness" — he has his henchmen & ingratiates himself with those in the dark — Let us keep ourselves "children of the Light" & keep serving God, instead of "Mammon." Bill has made his choice — Read the chapter over. <br /><br />I heard talk in Missouri 2 years ago about his connection with Sheen[1] but I don't imagine it is so. He imagines himself all kinds of things. His hand "writes" dictation from a Catholic priest, whose name I forget, from the 1600 period who was in Barcelona Spain — again, he told Horace Crystal[2], he was completing the work that Christ didn't finish, & according to Horace he said he was a reincarnation of Christ. Perhaps he got mixed in whose reincarnation he was. It looks more like the works of the devil but I could be wrong. I don't know what is going on in the poor deluded fellow's mind. He must be wistful. He asked Bill Dotson[3] if he knew where I was & Bill said "on Park Ave" & he said "Have you seen her"? <br /><br />I learned from a Texas friend that a Chaplain in the prisons said the only way they really reached prisoners was thru Alcoholics Anonymous, even for the non alcoholic — so besides such things as that, Bill & his schemes pale into insignificance for us — I am sure. We can stand by & see him claim the "glory" if we can keep the "power" to help transform lives — Thank God, you & so many others are still doing that.

Bill Wilson would like to crowd God out

Last night, Bill Van Horn & Mickey came over and got me & we picked up Bill Dotson[3], who now lives near King School, & we went...

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Henrietta Seiberling was the woman who introduced Bill Wilson to Dr. Robert Smith

Henrietta Seiberling was the woman who introduced Bill Wilson to Dr. Robert Smith, and was directly responsible for starting the whole Alcoholics Anonymous organization. It was Henrietta who answered the phone on that fateful evening in Akron, Ohio, in the spring of 1935, when Bill Wilson was at the Mayflower Hotel and afraid that he would relapse, so he was calling around to find another alcoholic member of the Oxford Group to talk to. Bill telephoned Rev. Walter F. Tunks, who was one of the staunchest Oxford Group members in Arkon, and Tunks referred Bill to a fellow who referred Bill to Henrietta Seiberling and Dr. Robert H. Smith, two other Oxford Group members. <br /><br />Henrietta arranged an appointment for Bill to see her friend Dr. Bob the next day (because Dr. Bob was already passing-out drunk that day). Then, the next evening, Dr. Bob didn't drink while talking with Bill. Henrietta was so impressed that she arranged for Bill to stay in Akron longer and longer, just to help keep Dr. Bob sober. Bill ended up staying for all of the summer of 1935, living rent free and happily unemployed, getting free food and cigarettes and spare change from somewhere. Bill and Bob started their "Alcoholic Squad" of The Oxford Group during that time, the "anonymous bunch of alcoholics" that would eventually become Alcoholics Anonymous. <br /><br />Henrietta Seiberling really loved Bill Wilson in the summer of 1935, and considered him a "God-send" for his help in sobering up Doctor Bob. So what made her hate him so much later on? Well, Henrietta says it was Bill Wilson stealing the money, and trying to steal the book. That is, stealing the Big Book publishing fund, and the copyright of the Big Book. Henrietta Seiberling isn't alone in that opinion: Doctor Bob's daughter, Sue Smith Windows, also says that Bill Wilson took the money and set up his own company, outside of the fellowship, and fraudulently copyrighted the Big Book in his own name, as the sole author, without the knowledge or permission of Doctor Bob or any of the other Akron members, and without the permission of the book's co-authors.

Henrietta Seiberling was the woman who introduced Bill Wilson to Dr. Robert Smith

Henrietta Seiberling was the woman who introduced Bill Wilson to Dr. Robert Smith, and was directly responsible for starting the whole Alcoh...

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Bill Wilson appears to have been trapped in outer darkness from December 14, 1934, when he had his vision of God, to the very end of his life.

Now, I don't think "thrown into outer darkness" is too strong of a description of Bill's predicament. Bill Wilson appears to have been trapped in outer darkness from December 14, 1934, when he had his vision of God, to the very end of his life. Everything he wrote was insane, and he grew darker and more depressed, and more depressing to others, as he aged. Five years after he wrote the Twelve Steps, he went into a deep clinical depression that lasted for 11 years. He was so sick that all he could do was sit in his office and hold his head in his hands all day long. Lots of days, he just didn't even bother to get out of bed — he just laid in bed and stared at the ceiling all day. His ravings in his book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, which he wrote in the middle of that period of depression, 13 years after the Big Book

Bill Wilson appears to have been trapped in outer darkness from December 14, 1934, when he had his vision of God, to the very end of his life.

Now, I don't think "thrown into outer darkness" is too strong of a description of Bill's predicament. Bill Wilson appears ...

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Cigarette smoking. Bill smoked himself to death, and died of emphysema and pneumonia

After the initial rush of health that comes from quitting drinking, many people become more aware of the harm that smoking is doing to their bodies. They start to feel very depressed when they realize that they are still sick and addicted, and might die from it. But Bill wouldn't talk about that, because he was a totally addicted cigarette smoker who never quit. (Remember, we started this web page with the "spiritual" story of how Bill or one of his buddies wouldn't quit smoking.) Bill smoked himself to death, and died of emphysema and pneumonia, while telling people that smoking was okay. Bill didn't tell people to quit smoking if they felt depressed and discouraged, and wanted to feel better. He just told them to practice the Twelve Steps more. Bill was insane. <br /><br /><br />Continuing with that quote, Bill said that something bad will eventually happen in your life. I agree. It's Murphy's Law. Something bad will always happen, eventually, sooner or later. Bill said that you won't be able to handle it unless you do Bill's Twelve Steps. I disagree. There is absolutely no evidence that the Twelve Steps make you better able to handle those nasty blows and hard knocks that life can deliver, and Bill offered us no evidence of that, either. <br /><br />Then, in another verbal shell game, more slick double-talk, Bill arbitrarily declared that we surely have a chance if we switch to doing all twelve of his steps, and if we also receive the grace of God. Yes, and I surely have a chance of winning the lottery, if I buy a ticket. But how much of a chance? There is not necessarily any connection between doing Bill's Twelve Steps, and receiving grace from God, but Bill deceptively linked them together in one sentence, as if he had a special exclusive wholesale distribution arrangement with God — as if God would give you His grace only if you were willing to do all twelve of Bill Wilson's Steps. What incredible arrogance. That's Bill's insane delusions of grandeur, again. That's "The patient thinks he has a special relationship with a deity", again. <br /><br />And if you read those lines carefully, you will see that Bill was actually saying that the strength comes from receiving the grace of God — "that grace of God which can sustain and strengthen us in any catastrophe" — not from doing Bill's Twelve Steps, but Bill still wanted us to do all twelve of his Steps anyway.

Cigarette smoking. Bill smoked himself to death, and died of emphysema and pneumonia

After the initial rush of health that comes from quitting drinking, many people become more aware of the harm that smoking is doing to their...

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Bill would not let even Lois, who was dying to do so, write the chapter titled "To Wives."

Bill would not let even Lois, who was dying to do so, write the chapter titled "To Wives." After all, she was the wife who had endured Bill's drunken years and the houseful of alcoholics he was trying to wrestle into sobriety. "I have never known why he didn't want me to write about the wives, and it hurt me at first," she said.<br />Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, Nan Robertson, pages 70-71.

Bill would not let even Lois, who was dying to do so, write the chapter titled "To Wives."

Bill would not let even Lois, who was dying to do so, write the chapter titled "To Wives." After all, she was the wife who had end...

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Alexander Lowen describes the development of a narcissistic personality disorder in a way that is reminiscent of Bill Wilson's childhood:

Alexander Lowen describes the development of a narcissistic personality disorder in a way that is reminiscent of Bill Wilson's childhood: <br /><br />All of us are vulnerable to being hurt, rejected, or humiliated. Yet not all of us deny our feelings, try to project an image of invulnerability and superiority or to strive for power. The difference lies in our childhood experiences. As children, narcissists suffer what analysts describe as a severe narcissistic injury, a blow to self-esteem that scars and shapes their personalities. This injury entials humiliation, specifically the experience of being powerlessness while another person enjoys the exercise of power and control over one. I don't believe that a single experience shapes character, but when a child is constantly exposed to humiliation in one form or another, the fear of humiliation becomes structured in the body and the mind. Such a person could easily vow: "When I grow up, I'll get power, and neither you nor anyone else will be able to do this to me again." Unfortunately, as we will see, such narcissistic injuries happen to many children in our society because parents often use power to control their children for their own personal ends.<br />Narcissism, Denial of the True Self, Alexander Lowen, M.D., pages 76-77. <br />And Bill's completely unrealistic picture of the alcoholic's family life is explained by denial: <br /><br /><br />The narcissist faces the risk of being overwhelmed by feelings and going wild, crazy, or mad, should his defense of denial break down. This is especially true of anger. Every narcissist is afraid of going crazy, because the potential for insanity is in his personality. This fear reinforces the denial of feeling, creating a vicious circle.<br />Narcissism, Denial of the True Self, Alexander Lowen, M.D., page 155. <br />That also explains Bill's strange attitude about anger. Bill insisted that you couldn't be angry at all — no matter what the reason — that it was very "unspiritual" to be angry about anything: <br /><br /><br />It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us. If somebody hurts us and we are sore, we are in the wrong also. But are there no exceptions to this rule? What about "justifiable" anger? If somebody cheats us, aren't we entitled to be mad? Can't we be properly angry with self-righteous folk? For us in A.A. these are dangerous exceptions. We have found that justified anger ought to be left to those better qualified to handle it.<br />Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William Wilson, page 90. <br />And Dr. Lowen explained the suppressed anger this way: <br /><br /><br />The need to project and maintain an image forces the person to prevent any feeling from reaching consciousness that would conflict with the image.<br />Narcissism, Denial of the True Self, Alexander Lowen, M.D., page 48. <br />That also gives us one cause for Bill Wilson's chronic, crippling, and long-lasting fits of depression: <br /><br /><br />Suppressed anger is a leading cause of depression.<br />Anger, Controlling the Fireworks, www.baptisteast.com/ANG001.htm <br />And another cause for the depression is that narcissists tend become depressed whenever someone contradicts their grandiose delusions. Bill certainly had enough to be depressed over. He could see with his own eyes that his so-called "spiritual program for recovery" had almost a 100% failure rate. <br /><br /><br />Narcissistic need is tremendous. Just as sharks must continually swim to keep from drowning, Narcissists must constantly demonstrate that they are special, or they will sink like stones to the depths of depression.<br />Emotional Vampires: Dealing with People Who Drain You Dry, Albert J. Bernstein, Ph.D., page 130. <br /><br />Unless the subject of the conversation is how great they are, Narcissistic vampires will become visibly bored. One of the main reasons Narcissists wear expensive watches is so they can look at them when someone else is talking.<br /> Besides boredom, Narcissistic vampires have only two other emotional states. They're either on top of the world or on the bottom of the garbage heap. The slightest frustration can burst their balloon and send them crashing to the depths.<br />Emotional Vampires: Dealing with People Who Drain You Dry, Albert J. Bernstein, Ph.D., page 136.

Alexander Lowen describes the development of a narcissistic personality disorder in a way that is reminiscent of Bill Wilson's childhood:

Alexander Lowen describes the development of a narcissistic personality disorder in a way that is reminiscent of Bill Wilson's childhood...

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Bill having a nasty problem with delusions of grandeur. Bill Wilson's life in the period of 1930 to 1934 was like this:

His hangovers and hallucinations were becoming more frequent. He panhandled and stole from his wife's purse. He would ride the subways for hours after buying a bottle of bootleg gin, talking gibberish to frightened strangers. He threw a sewing machine at Lois and stormed around their house in Brooklyn kicking out door panels. She called him a "drunken sot." He would be sober for days and weeks and then settle into bottomless bingeing. He barely ate. He was forty pounds underweight. His dark, withdrawn periods alternated with delusions of grandeur. Once he told Lois that "men of genius" conceived their best projects when drunk.<br />Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, Nan Robertson, pages 42-43. <br />Nan Robertson implied that Bill Wilson's delusions of grandeur disappeared after he quit drinking, but Bill's writings do not show that. Neither does the rest of the literature about Alcoholics Anonymous.

Bill having a nasty problem with delusions of grandeur. Bill Wilson's life in the period of 1930 to 1934 was like this:

His hangovers and hallucinations were becoming more frequent. He panhandled and stole from his wife's purse. He would ride the subways f...

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The Big Book clearly shows that Bill Wilson was insane

The Big Book clearly shows that Bill Wilson was insane. Not just a little bit crazy, not funny crazy, but really crazy, genuinely insane, clinically diagnosable. Mr. Wilson was suffering from paranoid delusions of grandeur and a messianic complex, or a narcissistic personality disorder — or perhaps some crazy combination of all of them. <br /><br />Wilson was insane while he was drinking: he was suicidally drinking immense, almost superhuman, quantities of cheap rotgut whiskey or gin, one or two or even more fifths of it per day — "Drinking to Die" is what A.A. calls it. In the Big Book, (chapter 1, page 5, 3rd edition) either Bill Wilson or Joe Worth wrote in Bill's Story:<br /> "'Bathtub' gin, two bottles a day, and often three, got to be routine."<br /><br /><br />The Prohibition-era "Bathtub gin" was infamous for being poisonous. It was occasionally contaminated with methyl alcohol ("wood alcohol"), which is terribly poisonous, and causes immense neural damage, if not blindness and death. <br /><br />Even ordinary uncontaminated ethyl alcohol kills brain cells. Every big drunk where you wake up with a hang-over kills roughly 100,000 brain cells. Then malnutrition and thiamine deficiency can lead to a horrifying condition called Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome where you suffer such massive brain damage that you lose your short-term memory and ability to learn or remember anything new. <br /><br />The A.A. saying is, "John Barleycorn promises us insanity or death." And it's true. <br /><br />Even Bill Wilson himself reported that problem. Bill recorded a set of autobiographical tapes before his death, which the Hazelden Foundation then used as source material to write an "autobiography" of Bill Wilson. Bill quoted Dr. William D. Silkworth as saying, in midsummer 1934, that he had originally had some hope for Bill, but... <br /><br /><br />"But his habit of drinking has now turned into an obsession, one much too deep to be overcome, and the physical effect of it on him has also been very severe, for he's showing some signs of brain damage. This is true even though he hasn't been hospitalized very much. Actually I'm fearful for his sanity if he goes on drinking."<br />Bill W., My First 40 Years, Bill W., page 116.

The Big Book clearly shows that Bill Wilson was insane

The Big Book clearly shows that Bill Wilson was insane. Not just a little bit crazy, not funny crazy, but really crazy, genuinely insane, cl...

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Bill Wilson felt entitled to quite a number of mistresses over the years, and even gave ten percent of Lois Wilson's inheritance to his favorite one,

(Well, unless that part about us good old boys being able to indulge in anything we want includes the right to bed the entire Swedish bikini ski team... Maybe it is divine wisdom.) <br />{And that joke isn't so far off: Bill Wilson felt entitled to quite a number of mistresses over the years, and even gave ten percent of Lois Wilson's inheritance to his favorite one, Helen Wynn, after Lois spent so many years working to support Bill while all that he did was steal more money out of her purse to go buy more booze.}

Bill Wilson felt entitled to quite a number of mistresses over the years, and even gave ten percent of Lois Wilson's inheritance to his favorite one,

(Well, unless that part about us good old boys being able to indulge in anything we want includes the right to bed the entire Swedish bikini...

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Bill Wilson died January 24, 1971, of emphysema and pneumonia.

And Bill W. did eventually die from that "okay" vice — from emphysema and pneumonia — desperately, futilely gasping for another breath from an oxygen mask. He didn't quit smoking until it was far too late for him, and tobacco had destroyed his lungs. <br />Score another victory for the Addiction Monster. <br /><br />Francis Hartigan, Lois Wilson's private secretary, wrote: <br /><br /><br />By the time Ebby Thacher died in 1966, a victim of emphysema, Bill had been trying to quit smoking for more than twenty years. He'd also known since the early sixties that he had emphysema himself. Smoking had begun to impair his health in the 1940s, in the form of frequent colds and chronic bronchitis, and his breathing was noticeably labored from the mid-1960s onward. Yet even when his breathing became so problematic that he needed frequent doses of oxygen to get through the day, he smoked.<br /> A number of visitors to Stepping Stones during Bill's last years report witnessing scenes in which Bill would be trying to decide whether to have more oxygen or another cigarette. Inevitably, the cigarette won out. Bill was thought to have finally quit smoking early in 1969, by which time his bouts with bronchitis had become struggles with pneumonia, but several people confirm that he was still smoking even after most everyone thought he had quit. He hid cigarettes in his car, and for as long as he was still well enough to drive, he smoked.<br /> It seems beyond comprehension, but the evidence is inescapable. ... [Bill Wilson] literally smoked himself to death.<br />Bill W., A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Co-Founder Bill Wilson, Francis Hartigan, page 208. <br />Bill Wilson didn't bother to print a retraction, to warn his fellow A.A. members about tobacco, when he found out that he was dying. Bill was far too egotistical to admit that he had been wrong. <br /><br />Bill Wilson died January 24, 1971, of emphysema and pneumonia. <br /><br />In addition, there is now a lot of evidence that smoking makes all cancers worse, even if tobacco didn't cause the cancer in the first place. Tobacco smoke contains something like 50 different carcinogenic chemicals, and just the restriction of blood flow in the capillaries that tobacco causes makes it harder for the body to get blood with white blood cells and antibodies to the cancer, to attack and kill the cancer. Tobacco also cripples the immune system, which would also like to kill the cancer. <br /><br />Doctor Bob died of prostate cancer, while puffing on those cigarettes to the bitter end. <br /><br />Score another victory for the Addiction Monster.

Bill Wilson died January 24, 1971, of emphysema and pneumonia.

And Bill W. did eventually die from that "okay" vice — from emphysema and pneumonia — desperately, futilely gasping for another br...

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"anonymous" author Bill Wilson labels her "intolerant" because she "really feels there is something rather sinful about these commodities."

The man is addicted to tobacco, and is smoking himself to death. His concerned wife is trying to save him from emphysema and lung cancer, but the "anonymous" author Bill Wilson labels her "intolerant" because she "really feels there is something rather sinful about these commodities." <br /><br />Notice how the author Bill Wilson grouped coffee and tobacco in the same category, as mere "commodities", so that the wife would appear more intolerant. Bill also refused to look at the numerous health aspects of smoking, or the stink, or the second-hand smoke, or the expense; he only said that she feels that "these commodities" are "rather sinful." Bill implied that the housewife was just an intolerant uptight killjoy Puritanical nag. <br /><br />Notice the powerful hidden assumption in this sentence: "He admitted he was overdoing these things, but frankly said that he was not ready to stop."<br /><br /><br />Oh? Somebody can continue doing whatever he is doing just because he frankly says that he isn't ready to stop? <br /><br />When was the last time that you heard an A.A. recruiter accept that as a valid excuse for someone to continue drinking alcohol?

"anonymous" author Bill Wilson labels her "intolerant" because she "really feels there is something rather sinful about these commodities."

The man is addicted to tobacco, and is smoking himself to death. His concerned wife is trying to save him from emphysema and lung cancer, bu...

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Francis Hartigan, the former secretary and confidant to Wilson's wife, Lois, has exhaustively researched his subject,

When Bill Wilson, with his friend Dr. Bob Smith, founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935, his hope was that AA would become a safe haven for those who suffered from this disease. Thirty years after his death, AA continues to help millions of alcoholics recover from what had been commonly regarded as a hopeless addiction. Still, while Wilson was a visionary for millions, he was no saint. After cofounding Alcoholics Anonymous, he stayed sober for over thirty-five years, helping countless thousands rebuild their lives. But at the same time, Wilson suffered form debilitating bouts of clinical depression, was a womanizer, and experimented with LSD.<br /><br />Francis Hartigan, the former secretary and confidant to Wilson's wife, Lois, has exhaustively researched his subject, writing with a complete insider's knowledge. Drawing on extensive interviews with Lois Wilson and scores of early members of AA, he fully explores Wilson's organizational genius, his devotion to the cause, and almost martyr-like selflessness. That Wilson, like all of us, had to struggle with his own personal demons makes this biography all the more moving and inspirational. Hartigan reveals the story of Wilson's life to be as humorous, horrific, and powerful as any of the AA vignettes told daily around the world.

Francis Hartigan, the former secretary and confidant to Wilson's wife, Lois, has exhaustively researched his subject,

When Bill Wilson, with his friend Dr. Bob Smith, founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935, his hope was that AA would become a safe haven for th...

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wives were called in Japan? The Chrysanthemums. Wives were invited to open meetings - well, not invited, but tolerated, and they definitely did parti

wives were called in Japan? The Chrysanthemums. Wives were invited to open meetings - well, not invited, but tolerated, and they definitely did participate!

wives were called in Japan? The Chrysanthemums. Wives were invited to open meetings - well, not invited, but tolerated, and they definitely did parti

wives were called in Japan? The Chrysanthemums. Wives were invited to open meetings - well, not invited, but tolerated, and they definitely ...

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Dr. Bob, as a doctor, believed in being cautious and advising people how to evaluate ideas and solutions

Dr. Bob, as a doctor, believed in being cautious and advising people how to evaluate ideas and solutions, to weigh them carefully - have everyone in agreement before taking action. Bill believed in putting the goal forward and aiming for it. No matter who liked it or who didn't like it: aim for that goal. Bill always thought way ahead. Dr. Bob was the monitor, evaluator, the ground level, the supporter of Bill's ideas, even perhaps not always agreeing with the timing of an idea. Another miracle! A perfect match! A wonderful partnership, indeed. Yes, Dr. Bob was the right person to balance Bill. His view was, Keep it simple. Bill had vision; that was one of his gifts - he could see the road ahead.

Dr. Bob, as a doctor, believed in being cautious and advising people how to evaluate ideas and solutions

Dr. Bob, as a doctor, believed in being cautious and advising people how to evaluate ideas and solutions, to weigh them carefully - have eve...

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James's "The Varieties of Religious Experience" was very meaningful to him, as it was to many AAs both in those early years and since.

I always think how Bill was so much like the philosopher and writer William James. Both Bill and James were spiritual, though not necessarily deeply religious; they were also both pragmatic New Englanders. Bill had a way of talking about a deep faith inside himself the way James did. Bill liked to read about different interpretations of what God was like. He was very philosophical, and James's "The Varieties of Religious Experience" was very meaningful to him, as it was to many AAs both in those early years and since.

James's "The Varieties of Religious Experience" was very meaningful to him, as it was to many AAs both in those early years and since.

I always think how Bill was so much like the philosopher and writer William James. Both Bill and James were spiritual, though not necessaril...

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