Comments on: Pop Quiz: Answered http://stepstudy.org/2008/06/10/pop-quiz-answered/ History and practice of the Twelve Steps Sun, 13 May 2012 22:25:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: RICHARD http://stepstudy.org/2008/06/10/pop-quiz-answered/#comment-456 Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:49:04 +0000 http://stepstudy.wordpress.com/?p=76#comment-456 Insistence on abstinence has been the hallmark of the religious response to drug taking. However, it is little known but well documented that Bill Wilson, one of the founders of AA experimented with LSD starting in 1956 and continuing into the 60’s under the supervision of Dr. Sidney Cohen (White,1998).
However, due to the emphasis placed on total abstinence by AA, Wilson never publicly pursued this alternative therapy. Could it be said that Wilson remained “clean & sober” during his period of LSD use?

In fact Bill Wilson’s epiphany of “surrendering to a higher power” occurred due to an interpretation of a drug experience as a religious experience by his physician. When Bill W. was “drying out” at Towns Hospital in Manhattan in 1934, his physician Dr. William Silkworth interpreted Bills Belladonna induced hallucination– Bill’s “hot flash”—as a religious conversion experience. The interpretation of these unique drug sensations later led Bill to claim that had he simply been told his experience was an hallucination, AA may never have come into existence. Such is the power of interpretation.

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