"Spiritual Experience"-- Give Me a Break!

Simple, but not easy; a price had to be paid. It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all.

 

It is a blunt blasphemy for this guy to go on and on about "Father of Light". This phrase is one of many references out of the Bible, taken out of context, of course:

 

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1: 17)

 

This Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and give us His life. No greater gift could come our way:

 

"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 31-32)

 

These were revolutionary and drastic proposals, but the moment I fully accepted them, the effect was electric. There was a sense of victory, followed by such a peace and serenity as I had never known. There was utter confidence. I felt lifted up, as though the great clean wind of a mountain top blew through and through. God comes to most men gradually, but His impact on me was sudden and profound.(Big Book, pg. 14)

 

So, this is the "spiritual experience" of Bill W.?

 

Other sources suggest otherwise, based on the affronts which he endured from the pre-AA "Oxford Group" (From "The Orange Papers"):

 

"Bill supposedly vowed to resist such an anti-intellectual program to the bitter end, but within two weeks, under the influence of alcohol withdrawal, delirium tremens, and the hallucinogen belladonna and other drugs, Bill Wilson gave up his "innate, inquiring, rational mind", and "surrendered", and was "changed" into an irrational true-believer Oxford Group cult member who then went on to insist that all other alcoholics must also give up their reason, logic, and rational thinking."

 

He was coerced into believing all that he was told from these people. Following all the drugs and coercions, Bill W. gave into the Oxford Group. Like a true believer, he then pursued this program into a secular religion, with himself and the "Steps" in the center.

 

Bill W. used drugs then and he continued to smoke until he died from complications from Emphysema.

 

"Spiritual experience"? -- Give me a break!