The original foundations of the 12-step method
Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, recalls the fateful encounter that changed his life and planted the seeds for the 12 steps of the “Big Book of A.A.”:
“My thoughts were interrupted by the telephone. The cheerful voice of an old school friend asked me if this could happen. He was sober. It had been years since I remembered him arriving in New York City in that condition. I was amazed. Rumor had it that he had been committed for alcoholic insanity. I wondered how he had escaped. “
But the only thing Edwin “Ebby” Thacher had escaped was the slow strangulation of the mind that alcoholism had imposed on him. Ebby, in fact, was a member of the Oxford Group, a Christian organization founded by Frank Buchman who believed that “the root of all problems was the personal problems of fear and selfishness (and) that the solution to living with fear and selfishness was to surrender one’s life to God’s plan.”
An American missionary, Buchman had a life-changing experience at the 1908 Keswick Evangelical Christian Convention in England; in 1921 he founded A First Century Christian Fellowship, which evolved over the next decade into the Oxford Group.
At the time, the concepts adopted by the Oxford Group were revolutionary: “no hierarchy, no temples, no endowments, its workers no salaries, no plans but God’s plan.” It was “simply a group of people from all walks of life who (had) surrendered their lives to God. Their effort was to live a spiritual life under God’s direction, and their goal was to carry their message so that others could do the same.
The lack of leadership (members believed that ultimate leadership resided in the Holy Spirit and strove to embrace God’s will rather than their own, the piety of its members, and the emphasis on bringing its message of hope to others were the forerunners of the 12 Steps. A 1936 Good Housekeeping article about the group, moreover, describes it as “having no members, no dues, no paid officers, no new theological beliefs, no regular meetings; it was simply an association of people who wanted to follow a way of life, a determination, not a denomination.” The group recommended meditation and adherence to Christian principles and listed the sexual principles necessary for a spiritual revolution:
- Men are sinners;
- Men can be changed;
- Confession is a prerequisite for change;
- The changed soul has direct access to God;
- The age of miracles has returned;
- Those who have changed must change others;
The Oxford Group attracted the attention of those working in the fields of psychiatry, psychology and philosophy at the time. In the early 1930s, Rowland Hazard, a native of Rhode Island, sought the help of the famous Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung to treat his alcoholism; Jung referred him to the Oxford Group, believing that Rowland’s case could not be treated by traditional medical means and that a spiritual revitalization was necessary.
Rowland was Ebby’s introduction to the Oxford Group, and together the two men adopted its principles as a path to sobriety. It was a sober and transformed Ebby who appeared at Wilson’s home in November 1934, with a smile on his face and his soul freed from the bondage of the bottle.
THE THERAPEUTIC CONCEPT OF THE HOUSE OF THE 12 STEPS
The therapeutic concept adopted by the House of the 12 Steps – Local 3340 (CPMDQ) is the same revolutionary model as that of the Oxford Group: “No hierarchy, no temple, no intervention plan or therapeutic approach in psychoanalysis, but only God’s plan”.
House of the 12 Steps – Local 3340 (CPMDQ) is a union chapter of the CPMDQ, whose members adopt a lifestyle based on the Word of God, with the aim of achieving physical, mental and spiritual well-being, and accompanying people in distress to discover the divine power of self-healing.
Members of the House of the 12 Steps – Local 3340 (CPMDQ) are collectively committed to promoting the body’s self-healing through natural and holistic methods in order to achieve physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.
House of the 12 Steps – Local 3340 (CPMDQ) offers its members a purely natural therapeutic method designed to guide its members towards a healthy and lasting relationship with God.