Comments on: The Twelve Steps of AA: Code of the Beast

by: Tricia Mensch

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:37:32 +0000

My problem with AA is now the problem I have with the views published here by Jack Trimpey. I believe that this need to mock, belittle, and undermine another persons path to recovery is unjustified whether or not it is called AA or Rational Recovery. Noone needs to utilize either program to manage their addiction or recovery but why the need to attack this choice? Rational Recovery has some very empowering messages Jack and it seems you do your own program a disservice by being so aggressive and vehement.

by: Jim

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:11:53 +0000

Yes, the Klingons will probably view me as a Romulan now. Funny you should make this si-fi reference. I visualize my drinking beast as looking like the monster that Luke Skywalker had to fight in Empire Strikes Back.
When he appears I beat him back with my imaginary light saber.

Jim,

Sounds like you drink some pretty strong stuff. What is your plan for the future use of alcohol and other drugs? Are you going to use again in this lifetime, or are you not?

Jack Trimpey

by: Jim

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:30:59 +0000

I stopped drinking last spring and at the suggestion of my family started to attend AA meetings. I read the Big Book and got a sponsor. While meetings were a help for a few weeks I have reached a point where I am not getting much out of them. They seem very hesitant to answer questions that I ask in meetings. For instance when I expressed doubt that I was powerless over drinking I was told that the question itself was proof of my disease.

Last week I was talking to my sponsor. I asked him to explain the disease theory. He was very quick to say that it was not a theory, but a proven medical fact. As we spoke some more and I continued to raise questions about the disease issue he told me that my questions were a sign that I was still toxic and I might cosider going to a detox facility for some intense education. I think I know enough to say that after a few months without a drink that I am past the time that I might need medical attention for withdrawal symptoms. My sponsor is a decent fellow who just got his ten year chip. I hesitate to tell him about what I have learned from reading this site, but I know at some point I will need to level with him about my leaving AA. Not sure how he will receive this information, but from talking to other AA members I get the impression that they will see this as somehow worse than going back to drinking which they seem to predict for people who don’t work the steps for the rest of their life.

Thanks for creating this site and giving some hope to those of us who do not fit the AA mold.

Jim,

You may be in the process of discovering that relationships formed in recovery groups cannot survive one party leaving the group. That is because the recovery groups are primary groups which require attachment and loyalty stronger than family bonds. The common deity is a one-dimensional, “love-only” God-as-you-understand-him which, as this article illustrates, is the Beast of addiction itself. Nothing is more anti-family than addiction, so to think that a mere friendship between fellows in recovery can survive the exit of one is a sad mistake.

The good news, of course, is that by leaving the recovery group you are rejoining the human family where you choose your friends based upon common interests, mutual interests, and deep respect for each other’s beliefs and values. You can now return to your original family willing to accept full responsibility for your personal conduct, and you’ll be free of the dependent Klingons you’ve left behind.
Jack Trimpey

by: Sandy

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:01:50 +0000

You are one scary person! I would personally find being around you quite a problem, as you seem to want to force your views on other people irrespective of whether they make sense or not and whether they want them or not. I have an academic interest in AA - not an alcoholic or addicted to anything that I can think of, not bothered one way or another how people recover from their addictions, but interested to see what choices they have when they do decide to do something. I would definitely rather give AA a try than your way! I think you try to intimidate and upset people so that they bend to your will - narcisistic and power hungry.

Sandy, You are certainly free to sell your soul to a recovery group in exchange for the privilege of having yummy relapses any time you like. Why you would rather live according to the rules of addiction than by your original family values I cannot imagine, but, hey, it’s America, and you’re free to squander your days any way you choose. However, I must be frank with you. I get the funny suspicion you actually are a 12-stepper playing a role here. Whether I’m right or wrong on this is completely irrelevant because my point is that when I receive bizarre, hateful nonsense like yours, it is always from people who have lost their way in 12-step recoveryism. For example, your interest is clearly not academic because you show no signs of academic or intellectual ability. You have not read the RR website with any interest at all, and have written your response based purely upon reflexive hatred for anyone who criticizes AA/NA. That is always a sign of the emotional fragility which typifies persons in recovery. You really do believe that addiction recovery is a buffet of philosophical hors d'oeuvres and psychological delicacies. Yes, the feeeeeelings of addicts are reeeeely important, and we should be very careful and polite with so-called “alcoholics,” because these sacred ones might get upset and have relapses and others will be to blame. If you aren’t in recovery, then your message suggests major deficits, the nature and extent of which I will not even suggest. You have visited an Internet resource of major importance, a national treasure for the millions of men and women from whom informed consent is systematically withheld by the recovery group movement and its business arm, the addiction treatment industry. That information in presented here, not for you, Sandy, but for the rest who come this way and find our little collision worth exploring further. For the record: Sandy has no concept of the suffering and desperation of addiction and endless recoveryism. She cannot fathom that more lives are destroyed by recoveryism than by addiction itself, and she senses only the clash of battle between the animal and human sides of homo sapiens brought to the surface by AVRT®. Such violence, she deems coarse, and wishes peace on Earth for all, and a curse upon those who speak with strong conviction and logic against the innocence of self-intoxication by addicted people. During the silly ‘60’s, when the cultural revolution was at its apex, I attended an opera in Detroit during which a “streaker” dashed in the aisles like a goat in the house. “Peace! Peace! Peace, everybody! Peace!” he yelled, drawing the orchestra to audible distraction. When I hear from vapid peace-mongers like Sandy, I always recall the Streaker of the Opera, rising skyward on a column of hot air. Poof! Up, up, and away! Nothing personal, Sandy, but ’bye now. Jack Trimpey

by: Nina Smith

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:23:31 +0000

Oh Jack you are quit interesting. Not sure what your point here is? seem pretty negative if others don’t agree with you. Shouldn’t you be happy if people are just staying clean? And why is it such a concern of yours what others do to quit using drugs or what ever their addiction is? Reading your page reminds me of a cult, you are pretty demanding and kinda odd. whatever works works!:)

by: Sarah C.

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:08:10 +0000

I‘m grinning, almost can’t believe I’ve found a site that condenses, distills and expresses all I believe about AA, ideas I’ve tried to explain to friends ”in recovery” who were dragging me to meetings for ’support’. …I can’t wait to spread the word. Thank you!

by: Marianne

Thu, 29 May 2008 03:39:32 +0000

Used the COMPLETELY LOGICAL rhetoric in “The Small Book” to quit smoking after 30 years of indulgent puffing. The moment came on Bastille Day 3 years ago and that was that. As Jack says, NOT without some discomfort, but you know, nicotine withdrawal isn’t really up there with having hot lead poured on you either. I think “withdrawal” is a highly overrated form of torture. I know many “alcoholics” smoking themselves to the same early grave shared by their spiritual leader. They show off their shiny coins and ask for major ass kissing for their enormous accomplishment. I don’t give a rat’s ass about shiny coins and pats on the back from strangers. For all the talk of self will and turning to God, the alkies do love the spotlight. Smoking sucked and I’m glad to be rid of it. It exemplified everything about a Beast - it was the nicotine making me irritable and craving a reprieve from the very drug causing the problems. Once I realized that, it lost a lot of its “dramatic appeal.” Boo hoo. No thanks. Adios. True, no one sends me icky congratulatory cards on my Bastille Day nonsmokers “birthday.” It would creep me out if they did.

Marianne,

Although The Small Book has the basic material for AVRT-based recovery, others wanting to quit smoking will find Smokey the Beast is a Wimp directly focused on ciggie smoking. I also recommend it for crack addicts and others who inhale preciousss sssstuff for the buzz.

You’ve done yourself and others a great favor by stomping the Beast.

Jack Trimpey

by: Julian Paioff

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:01:53 +0000

“If your not looking for a solution to addiction, you can just assume the worst about me and move along.”

The issue now is to me is one, you don’t care to comment on these issues because you will end up putting your foot in your mouth.

You, in my opinion are like the character in the movie Amadues. The composer who spent all his life in a jealous rage of Mozart. Bill Wilson is your Mozart. Now I never accused you of being any kind of racial extremist/paranoid nut, but I simply wanted to give you a snapshot of the crazy theorys and real fears of reality. Now I’m not a paranoid Jew like the depictions the very funny Woody Allen created. But at the same time, what in Gods name are you creating. What wierd pseudo religion are you promoting, reading between the lines. How can you criticize Bill W. for promoting a Higher Power according to your understanding, when even within the Christian faith that is what each sect, denomination, individual is doing anyway. For example Some white rascist Christians believe that slavery is from the bible. Sick, but true. While on the other hand the very devout Black Christians do not adhere to that at all, (and with good sense)

So I ask you what is wrong with a higher power according to our understanding. If you know the correct higher power, I suggest you start marketing your personal idea to One The UN, The Vatican etc…

But all this insanity that I am spelling out could have all been avoided if you had kept your sinful nature in check.

The sin- Envy Thank You for your time,Julian Paioff

Julian,

You didn’t move along, so I’ll assume you’re interested in Rational Recovery for personal reasons. Fine.

AVRT-based recovery is based upon each addicted person’s native beliefs and values, which for the most part are based upon one’s original family values, whatever they may be. AVRT® is just a working model of the human, moral conscience, the foundation of free will found in most of the great religions.
This article, Code of the Beast, merely points out that addicted people are incapable of conceiving of God because their thought processes are fully contained within the idiom of the Addictive Voice. Instead, they create a god in the image of their addictions, based upon the distorted perceptions of addiction, and according to the survival logic of the Addictive Voice. This God-as-you-understand-him (the Beast) demands total loyalty, first before family, before self, before any deity of one’s ancestral heritage. The Beast is truly a jealous god.
Bill W was a failed Christian still seeking salvation when he reached conscious contact with his own Addictive Voice, which appeared to him as the voice of God. It gave Bill W’s eloquence to his own addictive mandate, setting forth a simple, religious-sounding creed that is literally the Code of the Beast. The 12-step program is the doctrinal form of the Addictive Voice, transforming problem drinking into chronic, lifetime addiction in one sitting.

Whatever God a tentatively sober person may create, it will be infinitely tolerant of the act of self-intoxication, and absolve any guilt or regrets stemming from that vile act. A.A.’s “loving God,” which it claims as its only source of guidance is none other than the Beast of addiction occupying the throne of human consciousness. Addicted people are extremely susceptible to 12-step social cultism because the 12-step program speaks directly to the Beast, issuing a reprieve a the very moment when newcomers attend their first meeting.

Let’s face it — until one quits drinking/using and forsakes the option to resume, that next drink/fix will cast a shadow over each day until it is taken. One-day-at-a-time “sobriety” is the curse of AA, the sweet venom that paralyzes one’s natural defense against fatal self-indulgence — one’s own moral judgment that naturally condemns self-intoxication as immoral conduct.

All addicted people have the intuition that eventually they’ll have to quit getting high altogether, but not just now. Finally, when nothing they do is working, they follow society’s collective advice, “Get help!” meaning go to AA. They go to AA expecting to learn how to quit drinking/using, but are met with bewildering steptalk about addictive disease and they are admonished against summarily quitting. After facing the dreaded moral injunction, “I will never drink again,” AA’s one-day-at-a-time sobriety is experienced by the newcomer’s Beast as a reprieve from death row. Thus, the grateful, recovering alcoholic.

Newcomers are responding to a breakdown of their Addictive Voice. When they fall into the bad company of AA, the Addictive Voice is repaired and fortified by a highly sophisticated version, somewhat like getting a software upgrade. The 12-step program is an example of evil, i.e., a persistent, predictable source of harm, suffering, and death. While religions based upon free will, especially Judeo-Christian religions, are quite useful in defeating addictions, the false religion of AA, which is based upon false science, is worse than worthless. More lives and families are destroyed by 12-step recoveryism than by addiction itself, yet it remains as the de facto state religion of the United States of America.

Jack Trimpey

by: Julian Paioff

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:16:28 +0000

Bill W.s biggest mistake was to adopt the 12 steps from the Oxford Group which was Buchmans idea of a fascist style Christianity movement, a man who was in praise of Hitler because he thought he could force God on mankind. Of course Hitler, was not interested in Christianity like the KKK, because of its Jewish roots. Instead he opted for Norse mythology and Black Magic. Please comment on these issues so we know where you stand. I am a non religious man half Jewish and half Scotch Engligh.

Julian,

I suggest you study AVRT® first, and, if it seems fitting, apply it to yourself. Then, you should decide whether your worst assumptions about me are yours or the perceptions of your Beast.

If you’re not looking for a solution to addiction, you can just assume the worst about me and move along.

Jack Trimpey

by: Dave

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:14:03 +0000

Hello Jack, interesting reading your views.
I attended AA for a while and have read the Big Book a couple of times, and even though i liked the people there it didn’t sit comfortably with me.
If i could have gone and sat on the fringes that might have been okay but it was clear that a lot more is expected. With big doubts i felt that it had to be all or nothing for me and therefore i pulled out.
Firstly i am not helpless and secondly i believe strongly in free will. Since i stopped last year, there was no bottom( i ignored all those) just a sense that i had had enough. I find some of the slogans such as “Dry Drunk” an insult as i am living a good life in which alcohol plays no part.Maybe those who are working these programmes are not doing as well as they think they are. When i raised a few questions i was asked if i was really an alcoholic, been there and done it all for nearly 30 years- i think i know.
I have a full life and i don’t need to constantly meet up with a group of people to talk about these issues.
With regard to the meetings, the share meetings were quite interesting but the Big Book meetings were weird. Analyzing every word as though it were Gospel. It seemed to me like a Bible meeting and the people there believed every line and had tunnel vision and were not in any way accepting of genuine questions.