aacultwatch forum

Extract from our forum: http://forums.delphiforums.com/aacultwatch under “Plymouth R2R infiltrating other 12-step”

"Hi ........ 

Thanks for your post. I think it is very relevant to this forum because I think all 12 step fellowships might be being targeted by the destructive cult(s). It may be that we are dealing with one international cult which at group level goes under a multitude of names and is spread across numbers of 12 step fellowships. I detect a movement operating under various descriptions and corporations targeting 12 step fellowship members with intent to amalgamate them into one evangelical neo-Oxford Group 12 step “recovery community”- a cure all for any addiction or compulsive behaviour. The movement has been powerful enough to split the national group conscience in USA/Canada, leading to AA losing official use of its Circle and Triangle trade mark to outside enterprises. A decision was taken in 1993 for AA World Services Inc. and AA Grapevine Inc. to stop using and protecting the symbol against the weight of around 170 unauthorised users. These included novelty manufacturers, publishers, and treatment centers. (Box 4-5-9 August-September 1993 ‘Letting Go' of the Circle and Triangle As A Legal Mark pp. 5-6: http://aa.org/lang/en/en_pdfs/en_box459_aug-sept93.pdf. This was also reported in AA Grapevine  December 1993, Vol. 50 No. 7: “Around AA Whatever Happened to the Circle and Triangle?”

Unfortunately there was a large enough lobby within the fellowship supporting novelty manufacturers' illegal misuse of the symbol on medallions; this combined with enough timid, complacent or apathetic conference delegates who avoided their responsibilities of leadership in concept IX, to stand firm on traditions and their duty to act as guardians of the fellowship; to actively provide the deterrent to outside entities described in the General Warranties of Conference (specifically Concept XII, Warranty Five). An alternative to letting go of the symbol according to Warranty Five would have been for conference delegates to instruct the boards of AA World Services Inc. and AA Grapevine Inc. to inform the general public of the symbol's illegal misuse, naming the publishers, treatment centers and novelty manufacturers who were using it illegally. And also, to ask Public Information committees throughout the AA world service structure, local and national, to deploy the protective action in warranty five by informing the general public also. 

I think the symbol is still copyright and used in some forms by general service boards in UK and some other countries. So let’s hope the general service boards in these countries can hold onto it before AA loses its identity completely to outside enterprises. The primary aim for cults is to gain power for their leaders, to make them money, and to recruit new members. The profits from cult study guides, sponsor guides, step guides, meeting guides, distorted AA history guides, workbooks, other pre-conference and non conference approved literature, sobriety chips, medallions and other novelty items all head up somewhere to someone's big fat wallet.

You might find it useful to read …...'s post under the “It has reached us too” thread.  Also, the  “TLM in Alanon UK?” thread by …..

I think it has helped me to learn how cults operate, which is why I put up the "Useful Resources" threads in section 3 of this forum. I think large international cults are difficult to recognise because they can have numbers of front companies and groups under different names, continue to evolve, change names, recruitment targets and sometimes locations.  They can be recognised more by their behaviour, group structures and type of language they use. The cult group in my AA intergroup was called “There is a Solution,” affiliated to the Primary Purpose Group, Dallas Texas and Dick B literature. Now that it has closed down, after much local opposition, I gather the person who started the group (and main driving force behind it) has relocated to another area. Thanks again for your post, I found the information useful to know.” 

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)