Alcoholics Anonymous, now today = new Date(); var todayy=today.getYear(); var difference=(Math.round(todayy-1935)); document.write(difference); 72 years old, is the non-organization that has provided the template for every 12-step recovery program that has followed. But there is something different about A.A. meetings now than they were originally ... They have gone soft ... They have forgotten the Basics of Recovery in large measure. (see Gresham's Law & Alcoholics Anonymous - Why Alcoholics Anonymous is not as effective now as it was in prior years.)

A radical return to A.A.'s founding spirit and methods is beginning with Back to Basics meetings across the nation, and internationally, with strict adherence to the A.A. principles engendered in the steps and traditions.

A.A., it may be observed, has drifted away from its original purpose by allowing alcoholics to take too long to complete the 12 steps, to shy away from spirituality as they try to recover, and to devise their own methods of staying sober. In short, A.A. has gotten wimpy.

In Back to Basics meetings, attendees are expected to go through all 12 steps in four one-hour sessions, and they're expected to stick to them. In the meetings there is little talk about the problem and the individual's drinking career. The talk is about God, Spirituality and The Steps. The Steps are begun immediately with none of the one step a year procrastination, with none of the psychobabble inherited from the treatment centers.

In most current A.A. meetings, the primary A.A. format is open discussion, where people talk about anything, the "My Dog Died, My Car Wouldn't Start, But I Didn't Drink Over It" meetings. That's about all they talk about. No God. No Steps, and as a result the recovery rates have plummeted from the 75% recovery in early A.A. documented many times, (See Philadelphia Statistics 1941) and noted in the BigBook, down to a 5 to 10% recovery rate today.

With the return to Back to Basics and the original A.A. program of the 1940s identical results as noted in the BigBook, are being seen today in these meetings, with three out of four members achieving permanent sobriety.

In the forward to the Alcoholics Anonymous book, the second edition from 1955, there is an estimate that of alcoholics who came and really tried, 50 percent got sober, 25 percent got sober with some relapses, and 25 percent showed improvement.

Back to Basics members say the program works for them because it gives them practical ways to stay sober and fewer excuses for failing.

"I went drinking and relapsed four times in the last couple of years," said one member, "I just didn't catch on in the regular A.A. meetings. In Back to Basics meetings everything is much more clear than at the other meetings, where people just sit around bitching, whining, crying and sniveling.

The difference is in bringing people back to the Spiritual Solution, not the psychological solution. In many A.A. meetings today they don't talk about God. They now conduct group therapy meetings, not A.A. meetings.

Of course, any individual is free to pursue the principles of A.A. however they want. There really isn't any doctrine that A.A. members need to follow.

Back to Basics members are people who would like to present the original program to the newcomer, versus the people who have been through treatment centers and want a godless A.A. The treatment center version "I am the center of the universe, and I can overcome alcoholism based on self will," is directly opposed to the original A.A. concept that we surrender our lives to God, not necessarily a "Religious" God of any religion or philosophy, but "God as you understand God."

One Back to Basics group is surrounded by the typical meeting signs, one with the 12 steps, one the 12 traditions, and two that are unique to this meeting. One, nailed to a log says, "Alcoholism is the 2x4 God used to get our attention." The other says, "The Big Book was designed to change the alcoholic, not the other way around." Another group has this sign, "If you are too busy for A.A., perhaps you are too busy."

The Big Book is the basic text of A.A.   It outlines A.A.'s philosophy, methods and the 12 steps. It continues to be the basis of all A.A. meetings including Back to Basics meetings where the principles of A.A., the 12 Steps, are more emphatic.

Back to Basics meetings lay out the steps of the program in "beginners" meetings as was done in the original meetings of A.A.  In these sessions new members go through the 12 steps in four weeks.

In the first meeting, people admit they have alcohol or drug addictions. In the following three, they complete the remaining 11 steps by doing "homework." By the end of the fourth meeting, recovering alcoholics are ready to sponsor newcomers at their fifth meeting.

In Back to Basics meetings, the sessions are perfunctory. There is little idle chatter or spontaneous sharing. The two meeting leaders at the front table read from the BigBook and the Steps. When they're finished, there is a short discussion of the practical application of the reading to attain the solution, and the meeting ends.

"I have two months of sobriety," one member said, explaining that she has attended three meetings a day, both Back to Basics meetings and regular discussion meetings, since she decided to become sober nine weeks ago. Getting Back to Basics has given her the blueprint and the understanding for getting sober more quickly. "I don't want to wait four years to unload all this baggage."

Back to Basics is still all about, "Changing the world -- one life at a time," providing once again the message of hope to countless, still-suffering alcoholics, both inside and outside the rooms of A.A.

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditations to improve our conscious contracts with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs