The Origins of the Twelve Steps

By Chad Prigmore

Due to the fact that so many 12 step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery, Hunger for Healing and many others take place in and are endorsed by thousands of churches - the true origins of the 12 steps are extremely important to understand.

For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. - Zechariah 10:2

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded on June 10, 1935. AA's official biography (Pass it On) of Bill Wilson states that he and Dr. Bob, the two co-founders of AA, during the summer of 1935 were involved with practicing seances and communing with demonic spirits. In his biography, Bill Wilson explains one of their experiences with a Ouija board: "The Ouija board began moving in earnest. What followed was the fairly usual experience-it was a strange melange of Aristotle, St. Francis, diverse archangels with odd names, deceased friends-some in purgatory and others doing nicely, thank you! There were malign and mischievous ones of all descriptions."

• Leviticus 19:31, Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
• Deuteronomy 18:10-12, There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

Bill Wilson was the man that wrote the 12 steps and together with a man named Dr. Bob co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous. They were originally introduced in 1935 by a woman named Henrietta Seiberling. In a letter she wrote on July 31, 1952 she writes of Bill Wilson's communion with demonic spirits while he wrote the 12 steps, "He imagines himself all kinds of things. His hand 'writes' dictation from a Catholic priest, whose name I forget, from the 1600 period who was in Barcelona, Spain-again, he told Horace Crystal he was completing the works that Christ didn't finish, and according to Horace he said he was a reincarnation of Christ. Perhaps he got mixed in whose reincarnation he was. It looks more like the works of the devil but I could be wrong. I don't know what is going on in that poor deluded fellow's mind."

• 1 Timothy 4:1, Now the spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,..
• Galatians 1:6-8, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.​

In the book, "The Conversion of Bill W." author Dick B. writes of Bill Wilson's experiments with LSD during the 1950's. He quotes Bill Wilson as stating, "It is a generally acknowledged fact in spiritual development that ego reduction makes the influx of God's grace possible. If, therefore, under LSD we can have a temporary reduction, so we can better see where we are going-well, that might be of some help. The goal might become clearer."

• Revelation 21:8, But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." (Sorcerer, Sorcery in Greek is pharmakos or pharmakeus meaning a druggist or magician).

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​So, Bill Wilson believed that the way to God's grace was through ego reduction? The true and only way to God's grace is through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6