This site has been set up by members of Alcoholics Anonymous who are concerned about the development of a movement in AA that we refer to as a cult.

It is our view that this cult has as its aims the control of AA in Great Britain and the promulgation of its own version of the recovery program that is both a corruption of the message and the spirit of the Fellowship.

It is our intention to describe the historical development of the cult, its diffusion within AA and an indication of its current distribution throughout Great Britain. Additionally we will be examining some of the reported features by which members may identify whether one or more of these groups is operating in their area. We will further explore some of the strategies that these cult groups use in order to promote their own agenda to the detriment of mainstream AA, the means by which they recruit new members and control their behaviour, and further seek to bolster their credibility within AA by co-opting "bleeding deacons". We will look at their subversion of the AA message that underpins their abusive sponsorship styles. It should be observed at this point that individuals should be very careful not to jump to conclusions purely on the basis of the evidence presented here. We strongly advise each member to investigate for themselves the veracity of our claims and test our assertions against their own experience and observation.

Our aim is to raise awareness of this threat and encourage members to act according to their conscience to marginalise this movement. Local members are in the best position to judge what should be done in their area but already some experience has been gained in the Fellowship on how to respond to this malign influence and some of these ideas are also presented below. 


Finally we seek to restore AA to a healthily disorganised state where no faction within the Fellowship may seek to impose its will upon the rest and that the rights of the individual are always upheld.

Some words of caution

It is very important to remember that the vast majority of members involved in these groups have little idea of what they are supporting - they are mostly newcomers with little knowledge of wider AA; the norm of these groups they assume to be the norm for AA generally. They should not be demonised but rather seen as victims; victims of a core group of members whose sole aim is not the welfare of the suffering alcoholic or that of AA as a whole but rather the pursuit of power over, and control of, the Fellowship.

Where's your evidence?

One of the responses frequently applied to any claims made by individuals opposing the spread of this cult is "Where's your evidence?" Evidence is admittedly problematic to supply on a number of grounds:-

1) the confusion of 'anonymity' with 'secrecy' - the yellow card.

2) the reluctance of individuals to (using the prison vernacular) "grass up" fellow members.

3) implicit and explicit intimidation of vulnerable members.

4) collusion.

5) denial.

In order to counter this we invite members (new and not so new) to send us their own accounts of any adverse treatment that they have suffered at the hands of these groups - absolute confidentiality will be applied.

Any contributions will need to be sent by email (preferably subscription accounts rather than free accounts such as yahoo, aol, hotmail etc) together with any corroborating evidence that you are able to supply. If you wish to send documents eg intergroup minutes, correspondence etc then it would be helpful to send them in a scanned form - this will save time at this end when we get round to adding that section. Contact details would be useful since it may be necessary to cross check to ensure accuracy. You may use an alternate name and reference need only be made to the intergroup area from which you come. You should indicate in your email whether you are willing to have this information posted on the web site.  Should you wish to have your account removed at a later date then notify us using the same email address and we will remove the information as soon as possible.

And finally a quote from Kant:

"There is in human nature a certain disingenuousness, which, like everything that comes from nature, must finally contribute to good ends, namely, a disposition to conceal our real sentiments, and to make show of certain assumed sentiments which are

regarded as good and creditable. This tendency to conceal ourselves and to assume the appearance of what contributes to our advantage, has, undoubtedly, not only civilised us, but gradually, in a certain measure, moralised us. For so long as we were not in a position to see through the outward show of respectability, honesty and modesty, we found in the seemingly genuine examples of goodness with which we were surrounded a school for self-improvement. But this disposition to represent ourselves as better than we are, and to give expression to sentiments which we do not share, serves as a merely provisional arrangement, to lead us from the state of savage rudeness, and to allow of our assuming at least the outward bearing of what we know to be good. But later, when true principles have been developed, and have become part of our way of thought, this duplicity must be more and more earnestly combated; otherwise it corrupts the heart, and checks the growth of good sentiments with the rank weeds of fair appearance."

(our emphasis)

Critique of Pure Reason, p. 600, Immanuel Kant, 1781 - trans. Norman Kemp Smith

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kant