Introducing the Steps

Where in the Big Book? Part 1

“In the following chapter, there appears an explanation of alcoholism, as we understand it, then a chapter addressed to the agnostic. Many who were once in this class are now among our members. Surprisingly enough, we find such convictions no great obstacle to a spiritual experience.

Further on, clear-cut directions are given showing how we recovered. These are followed by forty-three personal experiences.

Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language and from his own point of view the way he established -his relationship with God.”

-Alcoholics Anonymous pp. 28-29 (“There is a Solution”)

The Twelve Steps of A.A. are found in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. In fact, the Big Book is the only place to find clear-cut directions for how to recover. I was a member of A.A. for a long time before I realized this. I also learned last spring that these same twelve steps could be worked out of the Big Book for Al-Anon program. There is always so much learning to do at each stage of my continued recovery.

I was at an Assembly many years ago where there was a vote on putting an index in the back of the Big Book so members could more readily find the Twelve Steps. There were good reasons for this: new people had no idea where to begin and would often flounder when trying to find out how to work the steps. Now, our group from Nevada and eastern California voted down this motion. The reasoning? If an index was placed in the Big Book, newcomers would try to work the steps with no help from a sponsor. As a result, he or she would remain in isolation and try to solve the problem of a sick mind with a sick mind.

I understood this position completely, as I was one of those “highly educated” people who was so smart that it almost killed me. I bought my first Big Book as well as the Twenty-Four Hours a Day book at my local Borders in the summer of 2005 and was certain I could recover on my own. Self-knowledge: that was surely my answer.

However, it was in surrendering to God through humbling myself to ask for a sponsor’s help that saved me. I had to take my life out of the hands of an idiot. I could not cure me with me. I was so horribly damaged by alcohol that my mind was completely warped. In fact, I was so sick that I could hardly read. I had zero comprehension. So much for that fine education! It did me no good when I was new. I had to be willing—I had to be teachable.

My sponsor had recently gone through her steps again with a member of the Pacific Group in the Los Angeles area. I was so completely blessed by this, because my sponsor had many years sober when she re-worked her steps; she herself entering into a new relationship with her Higher Power. And this was the very gift that was passed down to me in the fall of 2005. These “Big Book Thumpers” insisted on going through the Steps from the Big Book as directed. Nothing else would work.

So, where in the Big Book does one find these Twelve Steps? Today I begin a series on the Big Book and where to find so many of the important parts of our basic text, including the Twelve Steps, prayers for each step, promises for each step, and experience, strength, and hope shared by its primary author, Bill W., as well as Dr. Silkworth, a nonalcoholic, and other A.A.’s like Dr. Bob, Dr. Paul, and others in the back of the Big Book. My hope is that this will help your sponsorship, because, let me assure you, we need sponsors like you!

Just how is the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous laid out? Steps One and Two are the bulk of the entire book, encompassing “The Doctor’s Opinion”, “Bill’s Story”, “There is a Solution,” and all of the stories in the back of the book, including “Dr. Bob’s Nightmare.” Bill acknowledges at the very end of “Chapter 2: There is a Solution” that “In the following chapter, there appears an explanation of alcoholism, as we understand it,” meaning “Chapter 3: More about Alcoholism,” so that is technically where Step One lies according to the Big Book. However, most Big Book sponsors begin with everything at the very beginning of the book leading up to and concluding with Chapter 3, including the Preface and the Forewards to all four editions. Additionally, many sponsors encourage newcomers to read the stories in the back of the book for identification. This is a great precursor to the Step One reading. It is important to realize that Step One is not a working step. In Step One, we draw our own conclusion about alcoholism, answering the most serious question: Am I a real alcoholic?

God is mentioned only briefly in the Step One reading, primarily in Bill’s Story. However, in Chapters 2 and 3, Bill sets the reader up to draw their own conclusion about their drinking without talking to the prospect about God. This is intentional due the grave prejudice many newcomers will have against the mention of God or any seeming religiosity. Then he will hit them right between the eyes with God at the very end of Ch. 3 “More About Alcoholism”, In the final paragraph, he will forewarn of our lack of mental defense against the first drink, concluding, “His defense must come from a Higher Power.” This will introduce the entire idea of God and our own agnosticism in Step Two, Chapter Two: “We Agnostics.” Step Two is another non-working step in which the reader draws his or own conclusion about the necessity of a Higher Power in a faith that is easily accessible to all people.

“Further on, clear-cut directions are given showing how we recovered.” This statement is the first sentence in the very next paragraph. It is easy to miss but contains two very pertinent ideas: we are to follow clear-cut directions that are presented in the book, and how we recovered. Steps 3-12, contained in Chapters 5-7, will provide us a way out of alcoholism through intense action.