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Is "bring the body and the mind will follow" in the Big Book?

In short:

  • No. The saying isn't in the Big Book or anywhere else in our sources.
  • What the 1939 program text asks of a newcomer to begin with is a state of mind, willingness: "Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?" (p. 47), and of a doubter, to lay aside prejudice (p. 46). "If he is to find God, the desire must come from within." (p. 95).
  • The text does let action come before full belief: starting from a limited conception of God, members later found themselves "accepting many things which then seemed entirely out of reach" (p. 47). The 1939 meeting in Chapter 11 is a place where many a newcomer found his answer (p. 160). One fourth-edition story comes close to the saying: "after some weeks of just showing up, I began to believe that this program could work for me" (p. 474).

What the search found

All our sources were searched for "bring the body," "bring your body," "mind will follow," "will follow," "body and the mind," "the body," "body will," "the mind will," "show up," "showing up," "keep coming back" and "hang around," with page breaks joined. The saying isn't there in any form. The nearest hits are in fourth-edition stories: "after some weeks of just showing up" ("Twice Gifted," p. 474), "suiting up, and showing up for life every day" ("Crossing the River of Denial," p. 337), and, in "Because I'm an Alcoholic," members who "said keep coming back" (p. 344), after which the writer sat silent in the back of meetings for weeks (p. 344).

What the program text asks of a beginner

Chapter 4, "We Agnostics," is written to the reader who can't believe. It asks for a state of mind, and very little of it:

  • "We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results" (p. 46).
  • "We needed to ask ourselves but one short question." (p. 47). "As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way." (p. 47).
  • Obstinacy, sensitiveness and unreasoning prejudice: "This sort of thinking had to be abandoned." (p. 48). "Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions." (p. 48).

Bill says the same of his own start: "It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning." (p. 12). Appendix II, added in 1955, sums it up: "Willingness, honesty and open mindedness are the essentials of recovery." (p. 568).

Chapter 5's starting line is also about the inside: "If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it—then you are ready to take certain steps." (p. 58). And Chapter 7 warns the helper not to push: a newcomer "should not be pushed or prodded by you, his wife, or his friends. If he is to find God, the desire must come from within." (p. 95).

Where the text lets action lead

The saying's real point, that doing comes before understanding, does have support in the 1939 text, as long as willingness is there first:

  • Starting from their own conception of God, "however limited it was" (p. 47), was enough "to commence spiritual growth" (p. 47). "Afterward, we found ourselves accepting many things which then seemed entirely out of reach." (p. 47).
  • Members describe the change as following belief, an attitude and doing: since they came "to believe in a Power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward that Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking" (p. 50).
  • Chapter 7's advice to a newcomer who balks at parts of the program is to tell him "you doubt whether you would have made much progress had you not taken action" (p. 94).
  • Bill's beginning was willingness, then a decision and work: "Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw in my friend." (p. 12). At the hospital he offered himself to God, and with his friend made a list of people he had hurt (p. 13).

Going to the meeting, in 1939

Chapter 11 does show that being there mattered. The Akron weekly meeting was for "anyone or everyone interested in a spiritual way of life" (pp. 159–160), and its prime object was "to provide a time and place where new people might bring their problems" (p. 160). Many a man still dazed from the hospital "has stepped over the threshold of that home into freedom" (p. 160). Already impressed by the members who had visited him, he "capitulated entirely" when he heard a story that matched his own (p. 160).

So the book does picture a newcomer walking in and being changed by what he finds there. But in its telling he comes from the hospital, where members had already visited him and impressed him (p. 160), and the turn is a capitulation, which is a change of mind. Chapter 11 also says plainly that "life among Alcoholics Anonymous is more than attending gatherings and visiting hospitals" (p. 161). See: Is "meeting makers make it" in the Big Book?

A member's story

"Twice Gifted" (Part III, fourth edition) is the closest any book here comes to the saying. The writer had been to meetings before, but after she was referred to a liver-transplant clinic and told that if she wanted to live she would have to prove alcohol was no longer part of her life (p. 473), she writes: "I found myself willing, and after some weeks of just showing up, I began to believe that this program could work for me." (p. 474). She then went to meetings every day for six months and worked the Steps with a sponsor (p. 474). In her sentence, willingness comes first and belief follows the weeks of showing up. This is one member's experience, not the program text.

What this means

The Big Book doesn't say "bring the body." It says bring willingness, an open mind and a desire that comes from within (pp. 46–48, 95, 568), and then act on it; belief and a changed way of thinking come after (pp. 47, 50). Where the saying means "come even if you doubt, and keep acting while belief catches up," the text agrees, provided the doubter is at least willing. Where it means attendance alone does the work, the text doesn't say that. See: Does the Big Book say "fake it till you make it"?

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
All our sources (searched): Big Book, pamphlets, history, stories, service — various
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapters 1, 4–5, 7, 11 12, 46–50, 58, 94–95, 159–161 1939
Appendix II, "Spiritual Experience" 568 added 1955 (second edition, p. xi)
"Twice Gifted," Part III; "Crossing the River of Denial" and "Because I'm an Alcoholic," Part II 473–474, 337, 344 fourth edition (2001)

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.