From the South-West

And so the Road to Recovery Plymouth cult group saga rolls on... and on ... and on......

The word is (well - considerably more than one word to be honest but we'll spare you every inconsequential detail) that the cult group (together with its participating members) has withdrawn not only from Plymouth Intergroup but from South-West region, and is proposing to set up its own Intergroup. This would comprise four Plymouth groups (? - meetings surely!), two in Bournemouth and one in Penzance (we're aware of one Bournemouth group so we'd be interested to know which one is other - and some more details on the Penzance group?). This matter is being discussed by everybody and his dog as far as we can make out - GSO, various Intergroups in the area etc - and the emerging consensus (outside of the Road to Recovery cult group) is that it's an unnecessary duplication of the service structure. However this move on the part of the R2R group is simply an extension of a well established cult strategy - if you can't gain control of an AA group then you set you up a competitor in the same area; the last concern of the cult is AA unity, despite their protestations to the contrary. It is also debatable whether the new Intergroup would be an AA Intergroup at all. Certainly it would be set up in breach of AA Traditions (nothing new there then!) and would simply be using the AA name in order to continue to feed parasitically upon the Fellowship (Note: It's interesting to observe in this connection that when members of the aacultwatch team started to conduct research on the activities of the cult a fair proportion of this was done via the internet. We rapidly encountered a whole mass of websites (forums etc) on the WWW which were extremely hostile to AA, with contributors citing examples of poor treatment (religious dogmatism, anti medication policies, intrusive conduct ie. control freaks, segregation etc - all characteristics of cults) they had received on coming into contact with the fellowship. These accounts were largely quite unrecognisable to us as members of AA, and we were initially inclined to write these complaints off as mere "resentments" on the part of those who were disenchanted with the AA approach ("disease concept", religion, powerlessness, etc). But when we examined the conduct of the cult groups we saw a clear match between their methods and the complaints being voiced on the anti AA websites. We're not going to pretend that every ill can be blamed upon the cult but there is an extraordinary correlation between the cult's dogmatic and intrusive stance and the accusations levelled at AA as a whole, certainly as evidenced by this particular medium. It is clear that the cult groups and their methods are contributing significantly towards presenting AA in an extremely poor light - to this audience at least).

Anyway to get back to Plymouth R2R cult group.... As you may recall we thought it more likely that Little Wayne et al would continue to infest AA for as long as they could get away with it, play the victim role for all it was worth but finally pull back from the brink... going it alone. But contrary to our prediction, and as can be seen from the above, Little Wayne and gang are still set upon their course - to establish their own "brand" - but remain content for the time being to purloin the AA name for as long as it serves their purpose. However in one detail we were spot on - Little Wayne has managed to reprise his favourite role and complains that nobody in Region loves them any more (our irony) but expresses the view that Plymouth Intergroup "had now managed to get rid of Road to Recovery Group" an opinion that was repudiated by the Intergroup in their response, viz: this "was not accurate. Roads members had elected to leave, and it was never the intention of Plymouth to force them out".

Finally, and whichever way it happens, the exit or removal of the R2R cult group from Plymouth Intergroup can only be good for AA. The greater the distance put between these cult groups and the Fellowship, the more this will reduce the damage that is being done to the Fellowship and its programme by these extremists.