The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator's Role in Early A.A.
This is the 30th title by the acclaimed A.A. historian and  scholar Dick B.--writer, historian, retired attorney, Bible student, and  recovered AA. Dick speaks as a hands-on member who has sponsored over 100  men in recovery. Having spent 17 years researching the much distorted,  misreported, and omitted early history, Dick has now turned to Bill W. What  intrigued Dick was that so many biographers, historians, and AAs themselves  have overlooked Bill's own dramatic introduction to conversion as a cure  for alcoholism. At page 191 of the last three editions of the Big Book,  Bill declared that the Lord had been so wonderful to him curing him of the  terrible disease that he just wanted to keep telling others about it. He  told Dr. Bob and he and Bob told A.A. Number Three Bill Dotson that cure  was available; and Dotson said Bill's statement contained the Golden Text  of A.A. And then the facts vanished from accounts. This book provides the  real explanaation of Bill's experience and views: (a) Carl Jung had told  Bill's mentors that alcoholism could be cured by conversion. (b)Bill had  long ago known that his own grandfather Willie Wilson had been converted in  Vermont and cured of alcoholism. (c)Bill's mentors Rowland Hazard and Ebby  Thacher acquainted Bill with Carl Jung's solution. (d)Dr. Silkworth advised  Bill that Bill could be cured by the Great Physician. (e) Ebby Thacher had  gone to Calvary Rescue Mission, been converted, and was delivered for a  time. (f) Bill went to Calvary Mission and the altar, made a decision for  Christ, concluded that he had "got religion" and "been born again." With  that, the still drunken Bill went to Towns Hospital, met with Ebby and  reviewed Oxford Group surrender principles and life-changing practices, and  then decided to call on the Great Physician for help. This Bill did in his  often described "hot flash" experience where he felt the presence of the  Creator, had the same feelings his grandfather had described, and said he  had found "the God of the preachers." Bill studied the William James book  which told of the many conversions and healings that had taken place  through the ages and particularly in the missions. Bill asked Dr. Silkworth  for his opinion. Silkworth had read the James book and was familiar with  Jung's views; and he told Bill he had had a genuine conversion  experience--a view that was shared by Bill's wife. Bill tried to carry this  message with great fervor and excitement; and, though he never drank again,  he apparently convinced no one else that the "Lord had cured" him and could  cure them too. Bill went to Akron, met Bob, and the Akron program actually  required conversion as part of the spiritual program that Christian  Fellowship developed. The publisher believe you have not seen all these  details, had them verified by careful research such as Dick B. conducts,  and realized that CONVERSION was, until the Big Book was published four  years after A.A. was founded in 1935, the solution shared by Bill, Bob, and  A.A. Number Three. These details are here displayed fully for the first  time and for the blessing of recovery seekers.