Publisher's Synopsis
New Edited Edition: The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous is an incredible book. Since 1939 millions have read it to find a path to sobriety and more. The history of where the 12 steps came from will help give a deeper understanding to all that this book has to offer. After thousands of hours in Big Book studies and walking dozens of others through its pages, I am offering a history reference to where the spiritual steps came from that will hopefully help you see more of what this process involves. I welcome your feedback and look forward to the many promises this book holds for those of us who have used it and those just beginning to. An excerpt from Bill W: "My depression deepened unbearably and finally it seemed to me as though I were at the very bottom of the pit. I still gagged badly at the notion of a Power greater than myself, but finally, just for the moment, the last vestige of my proud obstinacy was crushed. All at once I found myself crying out, If there is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to do anything, anything! Suddenly, the room lit up with a great white light. I was caught up into an ecstasy, which there are no words to describe. It seemed to me, in the mind's eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind not of air but of spirit was blowing. And then it burst upon me that I was a free man. Slowly the ecstasy subsided. I lay on the bed, but now for a time I was in another world, a new world of consciousness. All about me and through me there was a wonderful feeling of Presence, and I thought to myself, 'So this is the God of the preachers! A great peace stole over me and I thought, No matter how wrong this seems to be, they are still all right. Things are all right with God and His world."
