Bill Wilson genius is that he called AA a spiritual kindergarten, freeing the membership to believe in anything they liked.

Bill Wilson genius is that he called AA a spiritual kindergarten, freeing the membership to believe in anything they liked. He set us free, and now so many want to bind us up and go back to a form of religious intolerance that Bill W rejected .This simple revolutionary idea of religious freedom gave birth to this wonderful fellowship of the 12 Steps where moslem, christian, buddhist,hindu etc can sit together in harmony and celebrate the 12 Steps.
He called AA spiritual kindergarten and thought of his book, "The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions," as outlining a process to experience the essentially spiritual nature of life. In his mind it should be available to everyone.
The one thing Bill didn't do was become a megalomaniac. His letting go of leadership set AA apart from all other movements to help alcoholics. He made it a representative democracy and refused to dominate it. He also wrote into the traditions of the program that they would not proselytise but rather the public relations policy would be "attraction rather than promotion." That says a lot that a membership of millions would come solely through attraction. Read some of the articles below to get a feeling for the radical views that Bill Wilson had and which can transform us today.

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• AA The Spiritual Kindergarten: Bill Wilson's attitude about spirituality is as refreshing today as it was back in the 30's.
• Bill Wilson helped me organize the first Schizophrenic's Anonymous group in Saskatoon
• Bill Wilson didn't see B-3 as a cure for alcoholism, just a powerful aid in recovery...including his own.
• Originally AA was nutrional as well as spiritual and the steps... it was part of the program... Bill Wilson reported that about 70 percent of alcoholics who took niacin (vitamin B3) found that they felt much better
• The man who sponsored Bill Wilson
• In his last years Bill Wilson stopped going to meetings.
• In 1960 Bill Wilson found that by taking niacin (vitamin B-3) his life long battle with depression was relieved.
• Bill Wilson wished to add a step to the 12 he had produced for AA. We struggle to make that possible and fulfill his promise.
• Bill Wilson is on record for having found a solution in 1960 for treating anxiety and depression
• It is fair to say that Bill Wilson didn't write the steps; he numbered them.