Alcoholics Anonymous and Bill Wilson's Remarks about the Great Physician & Born Again

[dickb]

Alcoholics Anonymous and
Bill Wilson’s Remarks about the Great Physician and Being Born Again
Fragment Number Seven
By Dick B.
© 2009 Dick B. All rights reserved

At the time of Bill Wilson’s third visit as a patient at Towns Hospital, Bill had a discussion with his psychiatrist and treating physician, Dr. William D. Silkworth on the subject of the “Great Physician.” Several sources, including Norman Vincent Peale in his book The Positive Power of Jesus Christ, that it was Dr. Silkworth who used the term “the Great Physician” to explain the need in recovery for a relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact, Dr. Silkworth’s biographer points out:

In the formation of AA, Wilson initially insisted on references to God and Jesus, as well as the Great Physician. [Dale Mitchel, Silkworth: The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks: The Biography of William Duncan Silkworth, M.D. (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2002), page 50.]

Silkworth and Norman Vincent Peale became very good friends. Dr. Silkworth and his wife once held their membership at Marble Collegiate Church in New York where Peale was the lead pastor. And Dr. Peale set forth at great length the account of how Dr. Silkworth had specifically informed one of Dr. Peale’s parishioners named Charles that Charles could be cured of alcoholism by the Great Physician, Jesus Christ. [See Mitchell, Silkworth, pages 50-51; Norman Vincent Peale, The Positive Power of Jesus Christ: Life-Changing Adventures in Faith (Pauling, NY: Foundation for Christian Living, 1980), pages 59-63; Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator’s Role in Early A.A. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), pages 50-71.]

Bill Wilson himself made several very important statements confirming that he had heard and heeded Dr. Silkworth’s advice that the Great Physician could cure him. Thus Bill stated in his own autobiography that he had had long talks at Towns Hospital with Dr. Silkworth. [See Bill W.: My First 40 Years: An Autobiography by the Cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2000), pages 107-112.] Then, prior to his final visit to Towns Hospital and his discussions with Dr. Silkworth there, he concluded:

Yes, if there was any great physician that could cure the alcohol sickness, I’d better seek him now, at once. . . . If getting well required me to pray at high noon in the public square with the other sufferers, would I swallow my pride and do that? . . . Anyhow, I’d better start for the hospital right now. [See Wilson, Bill W., page 139.]

Then, at his final Towns Hospital visit as a patient, Bill proclaimed:

The terrifying darkness had become complete. In agony of spirit, I again thought of the cancer of alcoholism which had now consumed me in mind and spirit, and soon the body. But what of the Great Physician? . . . I remember saying to myself, “I’ll do anything, anything at all. If there be a Great Physician, I’ll call on him.”

Bill then cried out for help and had what he often called his “white light” and “hot flash” experience. [See Wilson, Bill W., page 145.] As Bill analyzed his experiences, he stated:

“For sure, I’d been born again.” [See Wilson, Bill W., page 147.]

Bill called Dr. Silkworth. Bill asked the doctor, “Doctor, is this real? Am I perfectly sane?” [See Wilson, Bill W., page 147.] Bill stated that Silkworth’s reply contained, “Words which were to make AA history.” [See Wilson, Bill W., page 148.] Silkworth said:

Yes, my boy, you were sane. Perfectly sane in my judgment. . . . You have had some kind of conversion experience. I’m a man of science and don’t pretend to understand these things at all, but I know they do happen and they sometimes cure alcoholics. [See Wilson, Bill W., page 148.]

Bill was soon to write an affirmation of his cure in two statements published in A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature. In each, Bill stated:

The Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people. [See Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. (New York, NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001), page 191; DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (New York, NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), page 83; Dick B., When Early AAs Were Cured and Why, 3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), pages 111-13; and Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2008), page 110-11.]

Gloria Deo