03-24-2018, 09:41 PM
In December 1934, Bill Wilson, Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous had a very profound spiritual experience in Towns Hospital which 6 months later led to the founding of AA when he carried the message to AA #2, Dr. Bob Smith.
20 years later, in the Summer of 1956, a couple of Canadian psychiatrists had been experimenting with LSD on some alcoholics that had struggled with the spiritual aspects of the 12-Step program of recovery. They discovered that LSD had positive effects, allowing one to experience a degree of spirituality they had never known, and hence were able to apply their new-found spirituality to the 12-Step program and maintain long-term sobriety.
Bill Wilson, along with his wife, his secretary, his spiritual mentor (Fr. Ed Dowling) and a few others, participated in clinical LSD experiments from 1956 thru the early 1960's. This was before Timothy Leary and the "psychadelic" generation. He actually caught a lot of grief from fellow AA's, some who demanded he re-establish his sobriety date amid outcries that he had "slipped".
A very good article on Bill Wilson and the LSD Controversy:
http://www.prestongroup.org/aa_docs/LSD_by_Kurtz.pdf
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