This is the text of an old
preamble that used to be used at AA Meetings in the 1940s. It was found floating
around USENET. From what we can tell it was never "official" AA
literature. If anyone can give us a better idea of where it came
from, please write and we will pass it along to the other readers.
In order to form a habit of
depending upon and referring all we do to that Power, we must at
first apply ourselves with some diligence. By often repeating these
acts, they become habitual and the help rendered becomes natural to
us. We have all come to know that as
alcoholics we are suffering from a serious illness for which medicine
has no cure. Our condition may be the result of an allergy which
makes us different from other people. It has never been by any
treatment with which we are familiar, permanently cured. The only
relief we have to offer is absolute abstinence, the second meaning of
A.A. There are no dues or fees. The
only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Each
member squares his debt by helping others to recover. An Alcoholics Anonymous is an
alcoholic who through application and adherence to the A.A. program
has forsworn the use of any and all alcoholic beverage in any form.
The moment he takes so much as one drop of beer, wine, spirits or any
other alcoholic beverage he automatically loses all status as a
member of Alcoholics Anonymous. A.A. is not interested in sobering up
drunks who are not sincere in their desire to remain sober for all
time. Not being reformers, we offer our experience only to those who
want it. We have a way out on which we can
absolutely agree and on which we can join in harmonious action.
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our
program. Those who do not recover are people who will not or simply
cannot give themselves to this simple program. Now you may like this
program or you may not, but the fact remains, it works. It is our
only chance to recover. There is a vast amount of fun in
the A.A. fellowship. Some people might be shocked at our seeming
worldliness and levity but just underneath there lies a deadly
earnestness and a full realization that we must put first things
first and with each of us the first thing is our alcoholic problem.
To drink is to die. Faith must work twenty-four hours a day in and
through us or we perish. In order to set our tone for this
meeting I ask that we bow our heads in a few moments of silent prayer
and meditation. I wish to remind you that whatever
is said at this meeting expresses our own individual opinion as of
today and as of up to this moment. We do not speak for A.A. as a
whole and you are free to agree or disagree as you see fit, in fact,
it is suggested that you pay no attention to anything which might not
be reconciled with what is in the A.A. Big Book. If you don't have a Big Book, it's
time you bought you one. Read it, study it, live with it, loan it,
scatter it, and then learn from it what it means to be an
A.A.
We are gathered here
because we are faced with the fact that we are powerless over alcohol
and unable to do anything about it without the help of a Power
greater than ourselves. We feel that each person's religious views,
if any, are his own affair. The simple purpose of the program of
Alcoholics Anonymous is to show what may be done to enlist the aid of
a Power greater than ourselves regardless of what our individual
conception of that Power may be.