Twelve Steps Towards Hell

 

"Hi. My name is Tom, and I'm an alcoholic." The room responds, "We love you, Tom!" This is how someone is introduced in the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) program. Their Twelve Steps have become synonymous with recovery from alcoholism. Rather than a moral failure, all addictions are reclassified as "sicknesses." In this way, people can escape moral responsibility. No one who hasn't had alcohol wakes up one day and decides to drink a bottle of whiskey. It starts slowly. Getting drunk is a sin. To do it habitually is to invite problems in; and they will answer your call.

There are Twelve Step programs for a multitude of things now; here's a small sample: CA – Cocaine Anonymous, CMA – Crystal Meth Anonymous, FAA – Food Addicts Anonymous, GA – Gamblers Anonymous, RA – Racists Anonymous, and SA – Sexaholics Anonymous. 

No one is a coke-head, drug fiend, glutton, degenerate high-roller, bigot, or pervert. They "had to do it" because they have an "illness." Twelve Steps are not as effective as people may think. AA gave a green light to sin and tell people to feel no shame/guilt. AA describes itself as follows:

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

(See aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-56_ThisisAA_largeprint.pdf). 

Seems benevolent enough until you dig beneath the surface. While AA may have helped some people stop drinking, it does far more harm than good. As a matter of fact, the origins and purpose of AA are quite disturbing. Most people are unaware of the occult origin of AA and its (rather successful) campaign to promote religious indifferentism and eliminate the sense of sin.

The Nefarious Origin of AA

 AA started when businessman William (Bill)Wilson (1895-1971) and colorectal surgeon Dr. Robert (Bob) Smith (1879-1950) met in 1935. Both men were alcoholics who met at the Oxford Group,a non-denominational group allegedly modeled on early Christianity.  The Oxford group literature defines the group as not being a religion, for it had no hierarchy, no Church, and "no plans but God's plan." Their chief aim was "A new world order for Christ, the King." (See F. Buchman, Remaking the World. [1961]). Due to this affiliation, people have tried to paint AA as "Christian," yet the facts speak for themselves. AA denies any religious affiliation, and the Oxford Group denied being a religion, yet claims to build a "new world order" for "Christ the King." They knew "God's plan" through some "personal experience." The Group called it, "Listening for God's guidance, and carrying it out."

 The official AA biography of Bill Wilson, entitled Pass it On, details Wilson and Smith practicing seances and communing with demonic spirits while writing the program of AA and the Twelve Steps. Bill Wilson explains one of their experiences with a Ouija board:

The Ouija board began moving in earnest. What followed was the fairly usual experience-it was a strange mélange of Aristotle, St. Francis, diverse archangels with odd names, deceased friends–some in purgatory and others doing nicely, thank you! There were malign and mischievous ones of all descriptions telling of vices quite beyond my ken, even as former alcoholics. Then, the seemingly virtuous entities would elbow them out with messages of comfort, information, advice—and sometimes just sheer nonsense. (See Pass It On, pg. 278). 

Wilson's wife, Lois, was raised in the Swedenborgian Church, also known as The New Church, the Church of New Jerusalem. Emanuel Swedenborg was born on January 29, 1688 (died 1772) in Stockholm. His father was a Lutheran minister. Emanuel was very bright and had an inquisitive mind. He was particularly interested in science and religion. In the former, he was recognized as an expert in geology and he also studied astronomy, cosmology, and physics. In 1744 he was stricken with a severe delirium which seems to have affected his mind for the rest of his life since many trance states were attributed to him as his life progressed.

In 1745 he had a vision where loathsome creatures seemed to crawl on the walls of his room. Then a man appeared who claimed to be God. This apparition said that Emanuel was to be the one who would communicate the teachings of the unseen realm to the people of the world. He would be the means by which God would further reveal Himself to the world. Swedenborgism denies the Trinity and teaches all religions lead to God, though all are not equally enlightened. One of its goals is to bring the world together under a new religious understanding. (See swedenborg.org).

The New Church was notorious for occult practices, and her husband most probably got his start in the occult from her. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith were originally introduced to each other in 1935 by a woman named Henrietta Seiberling. In a letter she wrote on July 31 1952, she tells of Bill Wilson’s communion with demonic spirits during the time he was writing the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Step program,

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 he was completing the works that Christ didn’t finish, and 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 that poor deluded fellow’s mind.

(See https://web.archive.org/web/20131113235051/http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-Henrietta_Seiberling.html). 

Wilson used "automatic writing," an occult practice, to receive instructions from a "Catholic priest,"

and was "completing the works Christ didn't finish." Wilson and Smith also believed in reincarnation.

AA, therefore, has its origin in the demonic. The triangle within a circle (symbol of AA) has its origin in secret societies. The Rosicrucians (a secret society tied to Masonry) uses it to impart and convey its teachings to initiates.  According to Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (published by AA), Wilson says of the symbol:

That we have chosen this symbol [for A.A.] is perhaps no mere accident. The priests and seers of antiquity regarded the circle enclosing the triangle as a means of warding off spirits of evil, and AA’s circle of Recovery, Unity, and Service has certainly meant all that to us and much more. (pg. 139; Emphasis mine.) 

It is an abomination to attempt to contact the dead. As I've written before, necromancy (attempting to contact the dead) is condemned by both the Bible and Church teaching. "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you." (See Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Emphasis mine.) According to theologian Jone, "Spiritism claims to be able to communicate with the spirit world and endeavors to establish such commerce with it. Although spiritism is for the most part fraud, still the intention alone to enter into communication with spirits is gravely sinful. Therefore, it is mortally sinful to conduct a spiritistic seance or to act as a medium." (See Moral Theology, pg. 100; Emphasis mine). 

Twelve Steps To Losing The Faith

 The Twelve Step Program is little more than an exaltation of positive Indifferentism (the belief that all religions are more or less equally good). 

Step Two states: "[We] Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

What "Power" is that? It could mean God, an impersonal "god" of the deists, or the "Great Architect of the Universe" of the Masonic Lodge.

Step Three states: " [We] Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him." 

"...as we understood Him." Any understanding of  "God" as some higher "Power" are all equally good and praiseworthy.

Step Eleven states, [We] Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out."

 To whom do they pray, and how do they meditate? "Conscious contact with God"? What does that mean? Contact by some direct communication as the Oxford Group claimed? 

Step Twelve states, [We] ... had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

A "spiritual awakening"? It certainly is not to the One True Church of Christ. They are further instructed to "practice these principles in all our affairs." 

AA even has chapters for atheists and agnostics but will not allow proselytism, or for anyone to pray in the Holy Name of Jesus. They do not "tolerate" the idea that any person's religious beliefs are superior to another's, nor that anyone's "spiritual beliefs" may be wrong. Despite AA's protestations that it is "not allied with any sect, denomination..." the New York State Court of Appeals (the highest court in the state) determined that AA is  religious in the broad sense of the term. (See Matter of Griffin v. Coughlin 88 N.Y.2d 674 (1996)). A religion of indifferentism that can tolerate anything except the Truth--much like the Vatican II sect. 

People in these Twelve Step programs will begin to imbibe something worse than alcohol; the idea that any "Higher Power" worshiped by anyone is just as good as any other. It matters not if you are Hindu, Moslem, Protestant, Vatican II sect, or Traditionalist. Any religious belief can help you in life, and (by implication) the afterlife. After enough exposure, you're on the road to believing it and rejecting the idea of a One True Church. 

Scientific Studies Dispute AA's Effectiveness

In 2006, the Cochrane Collaboration, a health-care research group, reviewed studies going back to the 1960s and found that "no experimental studies unequivocally demonstrated the effectiveness of AA or [12-step] approaches for reducing alcohol dependence or problems."

AA claims a 75% success rate, yet in his recent book, The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry, Lance Dodes, a retired psychiatry professor from Harvard Medical School, looked at Alcoholics Anonymous’s retention rates along with studies on sobriety and rates of active involvement (attending meetings regularly and working the program) among AA members. Based on these data, he put AA’s actual success rate somewhere between 5 and 8 percent. 

Even more frightening, There is no mandatory national certification exam for addiction counselors. The 2012 Columbia University report on addiction medicine found that only six states required alcohol- and substance-abuse counselors to have at least a bachelor’s degree and that only one state, Vermont, required a master’s degree. Fourteen states had no license requirements whatsoever—not even a GED or an introductory training course was necessary—and yet counselors are often called on by the judicial system and medical boards to give expert opinions on their clients’ prospects for recovery. These same mostly unqualified people will be teaching the occult ideology intrinsic to AA.

 (Information on scientific studies culled from the work of Gabrielle Glasser located at theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-irrationality-of-alcoholics-anonymous/386255/).

Conclusion

There are many more effective methods of treating alcoholism (or any other problem) than organizations using the occult Twelve Step method. If you or someone you love suffers from a problem considered "an addiction," consult with a doctor you trust, shop around, and find treatment from a person or group unaffiliated with the Twelve Steps. Most important to your recovery, is your spiritual health in the One True Church. Christ and His Mother will help you through your sins.  Otherwise you'll put your soul in peril as the demonic inspired "cure" is worse than the so-called "disease" it purports to fight.