11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Charles Bufe
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Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? Quotes

Charles Bufe Quotes

In sum, the 12 steps are not a road to recovery, let alone the road to recovery. They are, instead, a road to a substitute dependency—a dependency upon AA rather than upon alcohol.
Charles Bufe
Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? Quotes
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. This is yet another step which invokes “God” and encourages dependence rather than independence. It echoes the first three steps’ declarations of personal “powerlessness” (first step), personal “[in]sanity” (second step), and the “decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God” (third step). (As an aside, it’s most interesting to speculate how those who chose doorknobs or bedpans as their “Higher Power” “work this step.”)
Charles Bufe
Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? Quotes
God would reveal “Himself to anyone who would “listen,” and that “He” had a minutely detailed plan for every human life. The sheer chutzpah of this belief is positively breathtaking. It’s the most grandiose excuse imaginable for the evasion of individual thought, responsibility, and decision making.
Charles Bufe
Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? Quotes
As Jack Trimpey, founder of Rational Recovery, has pointed out, steps 2 and 3 are a con—a classic “bait and switch.” Specifically, step 3 poses obvious problems for atheist and agnostic newcomers who have chosen, for example, a doorknob as their “Power greater than [themselves].” How does one turn one’s life over to a doorknob?
Charles Bufe
Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? Quotes
As well, the very religiosity of step 2 is a major problem for many persons. Like steps 3, 5, 6, 7 and 11, step 2 refers to “God,” “Him,” or “a Power greater than ourselves.” (Note the capitalization.) This poses obvious problems for those who believe that the existence of God is no more likely than the existence of Mother Goose.
Charles Bufe
Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? Quotes
In short, the first step leads to low self-esteem, learned helplessness, personal irresponsibility, and binge drinking. The first step is a step toward disaster; it has no redeeming features.
Charles Bufe
Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? Quotes
There’s a huge difference between stating that you have a problem and are going to do something about it, and stating that you have a problem and are “powerless” to do anything about it.
Charles Bufe
Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? Quotes
On December 11,1934, Wilson’s drinking came to a screeching halt. On that day he was readmitted to Towns Hospital, sedated, and subjected to Dr. Silkworth’s “belladonna cure,” a treatment regimen which included morphine and other psychoactive drugs in addition to belladonna (which in large doses is a powerful hallucinogen).5 While under the influence of the “cure,” Bill Wilson experienced his “spiritual awakening.
Charles Bufe
Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? Quotes
INCEST, n. In many parts of the Bible Belt, the most popular form of dating
Charles Bufe
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