For My Friends in the Recovery World, I hope I've humbly and hopefully used words that resonate, for My Friends in the World please know The Universe is Your Greatest Lover ~ and Greatest Good for You & Our Shared Human Experience is to be a Conduit channeling that Universal Love into Our Shared Human Experience.
Another more profound concept comes from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince: "On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux," meaning "One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye".
Two Foundational Influences Associated with Alcoholics Anonymous ~ but open and Applicable to Any Soul with the Willingness to Make Ammends for, and Desire to Change and address Past foibles or Human Shortcomings, which leads to Self Forgiveness. Which opens a Pathway to the Universal Intelligence that Beats my Heart, Raises My Eyes, when in Despair and Provides a Unshakable Truth that Resonates and Animates Every, Atom, Molecule both within and without.
Bill W. considered W illiam James a "Co-founder' of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) because he found validation and a framework for his own spiritual expe- rience in James's Varieties of Religious Experience. Bill W. used James's work, which documented various religious experiences, to un- derstand and explain the sudden spiritual awakening he had that helped cure his alcoholism. He even described AA's foundational ideas as a "wholesale" application of James's insights to the problem of alcoholism, a process detailed in the AA Big Book.
Bill W. viewed Carl Jung's contribution to Alcoholics Anonymous as foundational, particularly for his insight that alcoholism was a spiritual "craving for whole- ness" that could not be cured by medical means alone, but required a spiritual experience or connection to a higher power.
Bill specifically thanked Jung in a letter for his role in conveying this necessary spiritual dimension to Roland H, a story that eventually reached Bill and influ- enced his own recovery.
Jung's Role in AA's Founding Spiritual "Thirst":
Spiritual Thirst
Jung believed that the alcoholic's intense desire for alcohol was a manifestation of a deeper spiritual "thirst" for meaning and wholeness, which he famously summarized as "spiritus contra spiritum" (spirit against spirit).
Hopelessness in Medicine:
Jung's candid admission to Roland H. that medical and psychiatric treatments offered no hope for a chronic alcoholic was a critical first step for H. to seek a spiritual solution, a concept Bill W. came to understand as essential for recovery.
Passing on the Message:
Roland H., having been treated by Jung, later conveyed this spiritual message to his alcoholic friend, Ebby Thacher, who then passed it to Bill W. This chain of events directly linked Jung's insights to the origins of AA.
Bill W.'s Appreciation
Direct Communication:
Bill W. wrote to Jung in 1961, months before the psychiatrist's death, to express profound gratitude for his significant, though indirect, role in the founding of AA.
Humility and Deep Perception:
Bill acknowledged Jung's deep perception and humility in identifying the spiritual need behind alcoholism, seeing it as the starting point for AA's spiritual approach to recovery.
Enduring Influence:
Bill W. recognized that Jung's work provided a vital foundation for the spiritual dimension of AA, distinguishing it from purely intellectual or chemical understandings of life and recovery.
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