Extract from old aacultwatch forum:
“Hello again.
There have been various versions of the so-called "six suggestions" or "six things".
As they existed around the early 1980's (when I came into the fellowship) they were as follows:
1) Pray for obsession with alcohol to be lifted.
2) Get to a meeting today
3) Ring another alcoholic if you feel
like a drink.
4) Write a "Thank You" Gratitude
List
5) Read the Just for Today Card
6) Say Serenity Prayer - if feeling
anxious, afraid or wanting to drink.
I have these written in abbreviated form at the back in my first London "Where to Find" (from 1984) together with a few telephone numbers from my first meeting. The "Where to Find" in those days was much thinner compared to what it is now. Also it was printed on glossy paper.
When AA first came to the UK in there was no literature and no Big Book available here, so the members at that time had to improvise. There were various lists of "Things to do" for the newcomer circulating at the time.
Some of these recommended reading the just for today card and cultivating an "attitude of Gratitude" by writing a Gratitude List. I once heard a chair by Dartmoor Bill, one of the founders of AA in this country and 47 years sober at time I heard him. He used to share that his "Big Book" was the Just For Today card, as there were no Big Books around when he was a newcomer. Incidently he was an atheist and did not believe in the Big Book at all. He died 52 years sober.
The "Six Suggestions" underwent revision and change throughout the 1980's and 1990's and became more complicated and elaborate, until they became six paragraphs of suggestions, or rules. The Wednesday Vision for You meeting at Eaton Square started printing these elaborated suggestions on small cards. I attended that meeting around the time this started to happen. A number of people left the Vision group because they felt David B (founder of the Vision cult) was violating Traditions by printing his own literature and presenting it to Newcomers as AA. The original "six things" were not good enough for David, so he substantially changed them- for example he added that people should have 2 home groups, and ring 2 newcomers, pray on their knees, and other modifications. He also added the non-AA slogan "misery is optional" and the hype "if you do these you will never have a bad day" to the cards.
There were plenty of perfectly good AA meetings around London at the time this was going on. Most people got sober, and still get sober, in the mainstream of AA.
I have these written in abbreviated form at the back in my first London "Where to Find" (from 1984) together with a few telephone numbers from my first meeting. The "Where to Find" in those days was much thinner compared to what it is now. Also it was printed on glossy paper.
When AA first came to the UK in there was no literature and no Big Book available here, so the members at that time had to improvise. There were various lists of "Things to do" for the newcomer circulating at the time.
Some of these recommended reading the just for today card and cultivating an "attitude of Gratitude" by writing a Gratitude List. I once heard a chair by Dartmoor Bill, one of the founders of AA in this country and 47 years sober at time I heard him. He used to share that his "Big Book" was the Just For Today card, as there were no Big Books around when he was a newcomer. Incidently he was an atheist and did not believe in the Big Book at all. He died 52 years sober.
The "Six Suggestions" underwent revision and change throughout the 1980's and 1990's and became more complicated and elaborate, until they became six paragraphs of suggestions, or rules. The Wednesday Vision for You meeting at Eaton Square started printing these elaborated suggestions on small cards. I attended that meeting around the time this started to happen. A number of people left the Vision group because they felt David B (founder of the Vision cult) was violating Traditions by printing his own literature and presenting it to Newcomers as AA. The original "six things" were not good enough for David, so he substantially changed them- for example he added that people should have 2 home groups, and ring 2 newcomers, pray on their knees, and other modifications. He also added the non-AA slogan "misery is optional" and the hype "if you do these you will never have a bad day" to the cards.
There were plenty of perfectly good AA meetings around London at the time this was going on. Most people got sober, and still get sober, in the mainstream of AA.
In hindsight, it is obvious that
David B was really cultivating power and prestige - attractive,
yes, but, as the Traditions tell us, deadly
dangerous for the alcoholic and the fellowship. Thus he
set up his competitive cult group ( the Vision), and
he denigrated the mainstream of AA as "sick" labelling
them "the walking wounded" He called his Vision
cult the"real" AA, exhorting attendees to "go for
Gold".
He gradually isolated himself and his cult within AA. The focus of recovery and sharing at Vision shifted from working 12 steps, to doing 6 things; and from talking about God or Higher Power, to promoting sponsors and sponsorship. I remember there was a young man who attended the Vision around that time who earned the nickname "6 things" because that is all he shared about - doing the six things. He drank again, by the way, and I haven't seen him since.
I used to consciously do the six things ( the simpler version) up until about 11 or 12 years ago. I eventually found them a pointless burden to be honest. Reading the Just For Today card every day became a meaningless ritual. Around 1999 I stopped doing them altogether because my conscience didn't sit well with them, and I felt some of them were just plain superstition, and I was doing them out of fear, rather than Faith. If you practice fear, in whatever form, you cultivate it within yourself.
Today I am of a strong …..... Faith, and my Higher Powers don't want me on my knees, so the first of the "David B-amended" six suggestions is definitely out of the question for me. The original six suggestions never mentioned kneeling. Nor did they mention "never having a bad day" if you did them.
In my experience the "never have a bad day" prestige spin-phrase clouds the primary purpose of AA as contained in the Preamble, and puts unnecessary pressure on members to share that they "feel good all the time" even if they don't.
My primary purpose today is not about "not having a bad day", it is about not having a DRINK today. That keeps AA simple for me, and for the newcomer. Also my Program and sharing today should be about honesty, not about presentation and spin. It is my capacity to be honest that will keep me sober, not my ability to put on a prestige performance in a meeting. Again that keeps it nice and simple for me.
It also keeps me humble. I have learned over the years that true humility is not a morning "pose" or body posture (easily feigned), but it is about how I interact with others and how true I am to my Higher Powers and myself.
Why complicate a simple Program ?
If you take the steps then you have everything you need to stay sober. My focus today is on practising the steps in my daily life according to my understanding of God and my understanding of spiritual expressions. This gives me far more freedom and flexibility of action, and unburdens me of an arbitrary list daily tasks and quotas largely invented by an AA personality who really had no authority to impose them on anyone else in the first place.”
Cheers
The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
He gradually isolated himself and his cult within AA. The focus of recovery and sharing at Vision shifted from working 12 steps, to doing 6 things; and from talking about God or Higher Power, to promoting sponsors and sponsorship. I remember there was a young man who attended the Vision around that time who earned the nickname "6 things" because that is all he shared about - doing the six things. He drank again, by the way, and I haven't seen him since.
I used to consciously do the six things ( the simpler version) up until about 11 or 12 years ago. I eventually found them a pointless burden to be honest. Reading the Just For Today card every day became a meaningless ritual. Around 1999 I stopped doing them altogether because my conscience didn't sit well with them, and I felt some of them were just plain superstition, and I was doing them out of fear, rather than Faith. If you practice fear, in whatever form, you cultivate it within yourself.
Today I am of a strong …..... Faith, and my Higher Powers don't want me on my knees, so the first of the "David B-amended" six suggestions is definitely out of the question for me. The original six suggestions never mentioned kneeling. Nor did they mention "never having a bad day" if you did them.
In my experience the "never have a bad day" prestige spin-phrase clouds the primary purpose of AA as contained in the Preamble, and puts unnecessary pressure on members to share that they "feel good all the time" even if they don't.
My primary purpose today is not about "not having a bad day", it is about not having a DRINK today. That keeps AA simple for me, and for the newcomer. Also my Program and sharing today should be about honesty, not about presentation and spin. It is my capacity to be honest that will keep me sober, not my ability to put on a prestige performance in a meeting. Again that keeps it nice and simple for me.
It also keeps me humble. I have learned over the years that true humility is not a morning "pose" or body posture (easily feigned), but it is about how I interact with others and how true I am to my Higher Powers and myself.
Why complicate a simple Program ?
If you take the steps then you have everything you need to stay sober. My focus today is on practising the steps in my daily life according to my understanding of God and my understanding of spiritual expressions. This gives me far more freedom and flexibility of action, and unburdens me of an arbitrary list daily tasks and quotas largely invented by an AA personality who really had no authority to impose them on anyone else in the first place.”
Cheers
The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
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