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What were the "six steps" used before the Twelve Steps?

In short:

  • Before the Twelve Steps were written in 1938, the first members passed the program on by word of mouth. Bill W. later summed it up as six steps: admit you are licked, take a moral inventory, confess your defects to another person, make restitution, help other alcoholics without reward, and pray to whatever God you think there is for the power to do these things.
  • That list is Bill's own summary, written in 1957. He said it was "approximately" what they were telling newcomers by the fall of 1938. The 1939 Big Book doesn't print any "six steps."
  • An Akron member's story, written after the Big Book came out, gives a different six-step list that Dr. Bob took him through in 1937. The two lists don't match word for word or in order.
  • Our sources don't confirm that the six steps came from the Oxford Group as a set. Pass It On (1984) says there is no evidence the Oxford Group had such a program.

What the 1939 Big Book shows instead

The 1939 text never uses the phrase "six steps." What it does give is the program as Bill received it in late 1934. In "Bill's Story," his old school friend tells him to choose his own conception of God (p. 12). In the hospital Bill offered himself to God, faced his sins, and became willing to have them taken away (p. 13). His friend came back; they made a list of people Bill had hurt, and Bill became willing to go to them and admit his wrongs (p. 13). He was to sit quietly when in doubt, asking only for direction (p. 13), and to work with others as his friend had worked with him: "Faith without works was dead, he said." (p. 14).

The 1955 Foreword to the Second Edition puts the same ideas in a list, still not called steps: the broker "was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God." (p. xvi).

Bill's six steps (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)

In A.A. Comes of Age, Bill describes the night he wrote the Twelve Steps. Since Ebby's visit in the fall of 1934, he says, they had evolved a word-of-mouth program, with most of its basic ideas taken from the Oxford Groups, William James and Dr. Silkworth (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Though it varied a good deal, it boiled down to a procedure that "comprised six steps" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). "These were approximately as follows:" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)

  1. "We admitted that we were licked, that we were powerless over alcohol." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)
  2. We made a moral inventory of our defects or sins.
  3. We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence.
  4. We made restitution to all those we had harmed by our drinking.
  5. We tried to help other alcoholics, with no thought of reward in money or prestige.
  6. "We prayed to whatever God we thought there was for power to practice these precepts." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)

"This was the substance of what, by the fall of 1938, we were telling newcomers." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill wanted something more explicit for readers he would never meet, so he set out to break these "six chunks of truth" into smaller pieces, and the result was twelve (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See How were the Twelve Steps written?

The same book has Ebby giving Bill nearly the same points in 1934: admit you are licked, get honest with yourself, talk it out with somebody else, make restitution, give of yourself without stint, and pray to whatever God you think there is, even as an experiment (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

The Akron version (a Big Book story, written after 1939)

"He Sold Himself Short," a story in Part I of today's Big Book, was written after the book was printed (it mentions the spring of 1939, p. 265) and describes Akron in 1937 (p. 260). The day before the writer went home to Chicago, Dr. Bob spent three or four hours "formally going through the Six-Step program as it was at that time" (p. 263):

  1. Complete deflation.
  2. Dependence and guidance from a Higher Power.
  3. Moral inventory.
  4. Confession.
  5. Restitution.
  6. Continued work with other alcoholics. (p. 263)

At the inventory, Dr. Bob named the man's defects, asked if he wanted them removed, and the two knelt and prayed (p. 263). The writer says Dr. Bob "always emphasized the religious angle very strongly" (p. 263).

Other early descriptions (later books, dated)

  • Frank Amos, February 1938. A report written for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., quoted in Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980), describes the Akron "Program" in seven points: realize you are an incurable alcoholic and never drink again; surrender absolutely to God; remove other sins from your life; daily morning devotions; be willing to help other alcoholics; meeting with other members is important "but not vital"; and attending a religious service weekly, also not vital (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
  • Dr. Bob, 1948. In his last major talk, printed in P-53, Dr. Bob said: "When we started in on Bill D., we had no Twelve Steps, either; we had no Traditions." (P-53). He called the Oxford Group's Four Absolutes "the only yardsticks we had in the early days, before the Steps" (P-53). See What were the "Four Absolutes"? Are they in the Big Book?
  • Pass It On (1984) repeats Bill's six steps and adds: "There is no evidence that the Oxford Group had such a specific program" (Pass It On, 1984). A footnote says some members later called them the six tenets of the Oxford Group, and quotes a longtime Oxford Group staff member who had never heard of any such tenets (Pass It On, 1984).

Where the sources differ

  • The lists. Bill's 1957 list ends with prayer and has no separate step about a Higher Power at the start; the Akron story's list puts "Dependence and guidance from a Higher Power" second and ends with work with other alcoholics (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957; p. 263). Amos's 1938 report has seven points, not six (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
  • What the yardstick was. Bill speaks of six steps; Dr. Bob, in 1948, said the Four Absolutes were the only yardsticks before the Steps (P-53). Our sources don't explain whether these were two ways of describing the same practice.
  • Where they came from. Bill credits the Oxford Groups, William James and Dr. Silkworth for most of the basic ideas (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The saying that the six steps were an Oxford Group program isn't confirmed by our sources, and Pass It On (1984) says there is no evidence for it.

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, "Bill's Story" 12–14 1939
Foreword to the Second Edition xvi 1955
"He Sold Himself Short," Personal Stories Part I 260–265 written after spring 1939; describes 1937
P-53, Dr. Bob's last major talk — talk December 1948; pamphlet © 2017
A.A. Comes of Age — 1957
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (Amos report, February 1938) — 1980
Pass It On — 1984

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-53, A.A. Comes of Age, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers and Pass It On are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; Dr. Bob's 1948 talk in P-53 is © AA Grapevine, 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.