The cult (per)version of Step One

Our correspondent writes: 

“David B and Step 1. 

In the 1990's I attended the Vision For You cult group held in Eaton Square, London. This was when David B, founder of the cult movement in the UK, was still alive and holding court with his harem of young male sponsees (not for nothing was he called the Queen of Chelsea, but I digress). One thing I learned was that David B's definition of step one of the AA program was different from what is to be found in AA literature, and totally confusing to newcomers and others. 

David B emphatically said many times that (I quote) “if you don't do everything your sponsor says you do not have step 1.” He taught that “doing what you are told by a sponsor” is what step 1 was all about. Part of that blind obedience was doing 6 or more Daily Suggestions which he had printed out on a small card of similar size to the Just For Today Card. Note: he was making group fellowship depend upon a card he had made up himself without any consultation with other groups or AA as a whole: thus breaking the AA Traditions (Tradition 4 in particular), which still to this day is a continuing source of disunity and confusion within the fellowship. I recall a young man who attended the Visions cult back then who was given the nickname “6 Things” because he always shared he did the so-called 6 things on the Daily Suggestion card every day and that is what he thought kept him sober. One evening he failed to turn up for the regular cult meeting and returning some weeks later he informed us that he had been drinking and the excuse he gave was that he had forgotten to do one of the 6 things. A number of the more experienced members in the meeting smiled when they heard him say that. They smiled because they knew it was a pretty lame excuse of the kind alcoholics make when they really just want to carry on drinking anyway. As it says in the Big Book (page 132) “Outsiders are sometimes shocked when we bust into merriment over a seemingly tragic experience out of the past... “ “Mr. 6 Things” stayed sober for a short while longer, then he disappeared altogether. Sadly we heard he was drinking again. It's a shame I cannot remember his real name, just his cult nickname “6 Things”. Clearly this poor confused young man had no idea what AA's step 1 really was, other than the obedience nonsense David B had made up. One of the 6 things was to ring your sponsor every day and do everything he tells you. I'm 100% certain David B didn't do 6 things every day. He didn't have a sponsor, so how could he? So by his own definition he did not have step 1 himself. The irony of that did not seem to dawn on him. However many of his followers eventually woke up to his dishonesty and hypocrisy and left the Visions cult, went into mainstream AA, and grew up. But Mr. 6 Things came to AA and never really heard the true authentic message of Step 1 as described in AA literature where there is no mention of blindly obeying sponsors or following made up suggestion cards. Instead Mr. 6 Things was just another human guinea pig for David B's colossal ego. David B thought he knew better than AA and could concoct his own literature on a whim and dishonestly pass it off as AA to the newcomer. To this day the fraud continues within the cult groups that are descended from his sponsorship. His bad example with regard to breaking the Traditions by composing his own literature is now being copied and continued. The card itself mutates, getting ever more complicated, I saw one recently that had over 20 daily tasks for the newcomer to worry about. No more pretence of “six things”, it was a neurotics charter for imprisoning newcomers in the author's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Not so much relax, take it easy, and easy does it (sayings to be found in the Big Book pages 86 & 135), and, of course “Keep it Simple” - but rather “Make it More Complicated and fret about it”. I feel sorry for newcomers who stumble in on these lawless cult groups. What they are encountering is not AA at all, but a dangerous warped mutation founded upon lies.

I doubt David B had step 1 at all in any real sense. It is known that he invited newcomers and sponsees to have dinner with him at his flat in Chelsea. Guests at these dinners noticed that there was always a bottle of red wine in his kitchen. He freely boasted that he added red wine to his recipes “to give it that extra something” in his words. Well, it certainly gave his dishes something extra - it's called alcohol. It is a scientific fact that in spite of cooking, even for a long time, a significant percentage of alcohol still remains after cooking.......

Alcohol content after cooking – see highlighted column
Source: USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors 

….....Remembering that alcoholism is an illness of physical allergy and mental obsession, one has to consider how a man, who was an alcoholic himself, was not only experimenting with wine in his own food at the very least, but also feeding it to other alcoholics who came to him for help and trusted him. This, combined with his nonsensical and unfounded claims that step 1 was all about obeying sponsors (i.e. him) and doing tasks on a card he made up himself in defiance of AA Tradition and protocol, It seems conclusive to me that not only did he have delusions of grandeur, and was a selfish narcissist who did not truly care at all for the welfare of others (all symptoms of alcoholism), but, as a compulsive alcoholic, what really mattered to him was feeding and playing around with the prime object of his obsession, namely alcohol. And this was the founder of the AA cult movement in the UK.” 

Comment: There is NO safe level of alcohol for an alcoholic .. 100% abstinence is what AA is about ….. So much for the recovery 'experts'!! They'll end up killing you!

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS Thanks to our correspondent 

See also A new campaign