Updates on cult groups: Essex - Chelmsford

ESSEX

Chelmsford: Recovery
Friday 19.00 Chelmsford Cathedral Learning Centre, The Cathedral Office, New St.

Chelmsford: Broomfield Hospital
Thursday 20.00 Medical Academic Unit, Broomfield Hospital, Court Rd

It's somewhat worrying to see that a cult group has set up in a medical unit - in some respects this might be an entirely appropriate location for this particular gang - but given their stance on the use of prescribed medication, and on counselling generally (ie. anti) we wonder if the hospital is aware of their activities. Maybe someone should have a word....

The Fellas
(usual thanks extended)

Updates on cult groups: Essex, Cambridge, Ealing

ESSEX

Witham: Big Book Recovery
Sunday 18.00 Methodist Church Hall, Guithavon St.

Plus there's appears to be yet another Primary Purpose outbreak in Cambridge - there is already one included in our existing Cult: Where to Find - though there seems to be some dispute as to which of these is the real thing??

CAMBRIDGESHIRE

Cambridge: Cambridge Primary Purpose
Monday 19.00 Abbey College, Station Rd

LONDON (West)

Finally we've been told that there's a nasty outbreak in the Ealing area of West London - we quote:

"In Ealing, West London, where I live we have a number of regular long established meetings at 7.30 in the evening. Now we find the numbers at these meetings are falling because other new meetings are being opened nearby, but at 6.00. This "other AA" is centred around one individual - he even prints up his own literature on pink cards with the "six suggestions" and all his meeting times.

I don't know what to do about all this - it's like there's two AA's in Ealing. It just creates division where there should be unity. I went along to one or two of "their" meetings and there were people there I had never ever seen before, even though I have been in recovery for nearly five years. These people would never dream of coming to one of our meetings."

Over to you

Cheerio

The Fellas
(our usual thanks extended)

Sponsorship - is it necessary?

Join the debate at:

http://forums.delphiforums.com/aacultwatch

The cult within a "cult"?

An interesting study on the notion of AA as a cult - and which sheds some light on the dangers presently threatening the fellowship.

Click here for pdf download

Cheers

The Fellas

(our usual thanks to the AA member who drew our attention to this article)

Fundamentalism

“Trysh Travis gives an account of the growth of the fundamentalists’ resistance to what they saw (and see!) as the dilution of AA’s message by liberals in her book “The Language of the Heart: A cultural history of the Recovery Movement from Alcoholics Anonymous to Oprah Winfrey” (University of North Carolina Press; 2009) viz: “Probably the largest body of traditionalist literature in circulation today takes the form of what might best be called sobriety guides – books and workbooks intended to move readers through the Steps, to deepen their understanding of the Big Book, and, above all, to increase the quality and durability of sobriety by aiding them in the surrendered life. … Their publications typically derive from or are intended to work in concert with talks by seasoned members, who travel (the United States) offering workshops on how to implement the insights they have committed to print; audiotapes of their talks form an important complement to their printed works. Sobriety guides are not monolithic – some, for example, make an explicit case for Bible study while others are more ecumenical – but their authors generally share the characteristics associated with the mid-western, mid-century version of AA, and incorporate reprinted pamphlet material from that place and time alongside original writing, charts and diagrams”. (Here her footnote says: “Joe McQ, of Little Rock, and Charlie P, of Maysville, Arkansas, who began to travel and promote their ‘Joe and Charlie Curriculum’ in the mid-1980s, are perhaps the best known of the traditionalist sobriety guide-authors [other authors named are Searcy W, Wally P, Clifford B, Myers R, Paul O and the born-again evangelist Dick B] ). She adds, “The audience (for this literature etc) has grown since the late 1990s, when the internet began to provide traditionalist authors and their partisans an efficient means of communication and a highly visible platform. Websites like Silkworth.net, The Primary Purpose Group, AA Big Book Study Group and GSO Watch (!) to name only a few, promote traditionalist authors alongside The Little Red Book and 24 Hours a Day. While such sites differ in the degree of vitriol (sic) that they hurl at the dominant AA culture, all of them tout amateur publications as counterweights to a cultural mo(ve)ment in which ‘the Language of the Heart has gotten all tangled up with drugs, pop psychology, clinical terminology, and emotionalism’. (Jim H) … According to Mitchell K, during the 1990s they (the fundamentalists) also helped support the creation of a growing movement [of] ‘underground’ meetings. As in early mid-western AA, admission is carefully controlled: ‘they are not advertised; and attendance at them is by invitation only. One has to be ‘sponsored’ into them … [and they] are open for alcoholics and their families only’. This rigor, Mitchell K argues, counteracts official AA’s misplaced ‘desire to help the greater number of people,’ which has ‘led to lower expectations and to diluting of the message to make it more palatable’.”

As I wrote in “Share” magazine (July 2007), these extra-mural, by invitation only workshops, Step weekends etc are a pestilential nuisance, setting member against member and sowing conflict among groups.”

LAURIE A.

(our thanks as usual to this AA member for their contribution)

Purley cult group

There's an absolutely scurrilous rumour doing the rounds that the Purley group has finally been given the old heave-ho by North East Surrey Intergroup. Apparently they have become such a right royal pain in the you-know-what that all patience has expired. But never mind! They can always transfer their efforts to promoting that other side-line: the circuit speaker business. They now run a website advertising such notables as Bob D (whoever he is?) amongst others. And the blurb:

"Theme: Surrender

Acessing [sic] the power, spiritual principals [sic] in relationships, our primary purpose as the the way to freedom, how to survive the battle between ego and spirit, making amends and the mending of our separation"

Do we detect the faintest beginnings of psycho-babble here, or is it just our natural paranoia surfacing again!! Anyway for a tenner you can get two days worth of Bob holding forth on the above themes - well not really two days - more like a day and a bit - but never mind - if you can't get enough of Bob you can always click on the link to an audio file site and listen to Bob absolutely gratis. But if even Bob can't get your juices flowing then fear not for help is at hand! There's a whole procession of these worthies queueing up here, each one apparently quite desperate to impart their wisdom to us heathens. So following up on Bob's insight we'll be treated to Karl M (details to be announced), Mari G (tba) and finally, the crème de la crème, that well known import from the States, the venerable Myers R. Now if that lot can't get you sobered up then nothing will.

Cheerio

The Fellas

PS One thing that is particularly amusing about the site is the countdown meter - as of today it's only 106 days (or three months and fourteen days) before Bob regales us with his erudition. Can we hold out that long!! We think so - but only just!!

Birchington Mini Convention (East Kent)

The word is that the convenor for this year's Birchington Mini Convention is a cult member - a regular at both cult groups - Tankerton Tuesday and Kearsney Wednesday. Still it should greatly simplify the choice of speakers for the event - we predict contributions from the local cult groups, maybe a showing or two from the Medway (Strood Thursday et al) gang, and perhaps even an import from the "smoke", with perhaps a suitably "co-opted" local "bleeding deacon" whose ego has been suitably massaged in advance, just to lend the occasion that touch of AA authenticity. Or then again perhaps it would just be easier to play a few CDs from the "fly-in" circuit speaker brigade and maybe abandon the convention altogether. Whatever happens we hope that the attendees at the event have a strong stomach - and an inordinate capacity to listen to prolonged, identical sharing as clone after clone rehearses those well known cult tag lines, demonstrating thereby an almost complete eradication of independent thought: "My sponsor says.....", "....happy, joyous and free....", "misery is optional" blah blah blah ad nauseam. That's all it takes to recover folks! - the ability to string a few clichés together, and play the part to the bitter end!!

Enjoy

Cheerio

The Fellas