AA Manuscript
- Admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care and direction of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely willing that God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly, on our knees, asked Him to remove our shortcomings – holding nothing back.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make complete amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual experience as the result of this course of action, we tried to carry this message to others, especially alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Free Download ~ the Original Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous
We use this version as a companion for the book, “The Magic Words and the 12 Steps – We Are All Recovering From Something.”
This original manuscript is the “Big Book” I used to get sober in 1994. My good friend Steve offered to walk me through the steps using this version. In it, right after listing the 12 steps, is the following:
“If you are not convinced on these vital issues, you ought to re-read the book to this point or else throw it away!”
That spoke to me – if I am not going to take this seriously, then why bother? I finally decided to take it seriously after 12 years of quitting, starting, quitting again. Twenty-seven years later I am still sober.
There have been over 400 changes to this edition; some minor typographic/grammar changes and some that in my opinion, changed the context of the program. We make note of them as they relate to the steps themselves in The Magic Words and the 12 Steps – We Are All Recovering From Something.
The best resource we have found for these comparisons is “e-AA – a reference to Alcoholics Anonymous,” from The Anonymous Press. There is a free lite version, but $15 for the full version is well worth it!
Regardless of what version of the Big Book you use, the principles are sound and have proven so for over 80 years helping millions of people change their lives for the better. In The Magic Words and the 12 Steps – We Are All Recovering From Something, we show how to apply these principles in anyone’s everyday life. Substitute the alcohol with whatever affliction you are struggling with and you will find the principles apply across the board, regardless of whether you consider yourself addicted to anything or not. Just to say, we do not have to be addicted to anything for these principles to work magic in our lives. Learn to live them and watch your life change before your very eyes!
Please enter your name and email for your free download. Thank you.