{"id":121006,"date":"2024-06-15T10:26:40","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T14:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/resources\/all-leaflets\/differentes-avenues-vers-la-spiritualite\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T08:34:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T12:34:49","slug":"differentes-avenues-vers-la-spiritualite","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/en\/resources\/all-leaflets\/differentes-avenues-vers-la-spiritualite\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Paths to Spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"121006\" class=\"elementor elementor-121006 elementor-119832\" data-elementor-post-type=\"page\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-4400327 elementor-section-full_width elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"4400327\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div 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src=\"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/p-84_manypathstospirituality-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-86551\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/p-84_manypathstospirituality-1.jpg 144w, https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/p-84_manypathstospirituality-1-129x300.jpg 129w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 144px) 100vw, 144px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-1ab65c3\" data-id=\"1ab65c3\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1ec79c9 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1ec79c9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><em>A<sub>lcoholics<\/sub> A<sub>nonymous<\/sub><\/em>\u00ae\u00a0is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.<\/p><ul><li style=\"list-style-type: none;\"><ul><li>The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.<\/li><li>A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes.<\/li><li>Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5354f91 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5354f91\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3><strong>Many Paths to Spirituality<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div>\n<h3>A.A. \u2014 a kinship of common suffering<\/h3>\n\u201cNewcomers are approaching A.A. at the rate of tens of thousands yearly. They represent almost every belief and attitude imaginable. We have athe- ists and agnostics. We have people of nearly every race, culture and religion. In A.A. we are supposed to be bound together in the kinship of a common suffering. Consequently, the full individual liberty to practice any creed or principle or therapy what- ever should be a first consideration for us all. Let us not, therefore, pressure anyone with our individual or even our collective views. Let us instead accord each other the respect and love that is due to every human being as he tries to make his way toward the light. Let us always try to be inclusive rather than exclusive; let us remember that each alcoholic among us is a member of A.A., so long as he or she so declares.\u201d\n\n<\/div>\n\u2014Bill W. (A.A. Grapevine, July 1965)\n\n&nbsp;\n\nA misconception about Alcoholics Anonymous is that it is a religious organization. Since A.A. groups often rent space in churches, attending an\n\nA.A. meeting in a church basement can reinforce that impression, and the possibility of hearing a prayer at the end of a meeting can further cement the idea for some.\n\nYet A.A.\u2019s pioneering members realized from the beginning that their sole purpose was to help people gain sobriety, and they went to great lengths to ensure the broadest membership among all who suffer from alcoholism. A.A. is a Fellowship, a com- munity of like-minded sufferers who have found a way out of a hopeless condition.\n\nWe came to A.A. out of desperation to stop drink<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">ing, or reeling from the consequences of our actions while drunk. A.A.\u2019s sense of community and partner- ship is strong because of our shared suffering and our shared solution. In our meetings people from all walks of life come together with a common purpose. Some members return to their religious roots, oth- ers find different spiritual paths. Some may find this \u201cGod of their understanding,\u201d yet never become in- volved with organized religion. Still others make the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">A.A. group itself their higher power.<\/span>\n\nBut one thing was sure \u2014 whatever our back- grounds, our beliefs or our lack of belief \u2014 our drinking had gotten out of hand.\n\n&nbsp;\n<h2>We needed help<\/h2>\nAlcoholism can be a lonely affair. Often, we drank to keep the pain of life at arm\u2019s length, and then, when the pain overran us, we drank to wash it away. For some of us, things didn\u2019t seem so bleak. We felt we could control our drinking \u2014 except when we couldn\u2019t. We recognized that our lives would be a lot less chaotic if we could stop drinking, but we didn\u2019t know how. We tried different strategies \u2014 drinking beer only, not drinking on an empty stomach, hav- ing just two drinks a night \u2014 but sooner or later we ended up drunk again, wondering what went wrong.\n\nAnd it wasn\u2019t just ourselves we were hurting. Our families, friends, employers and even complete strangers began to pull away from us, wary of our denials and skeptical of our many lies and pledges to stay sober.\n\n<em>\u201cI knew I was an alcoholic before I came to A.A.\u00a0\u00a0 I had attended management training courses on how to identify drug and alcohol problems in my employ- ees \u2014 and I clearly fit the description. In addition, I am trained as a scientist and an engineer. The objec- tive evidence was all around me \u2014 empty gin bottles, webs of lies, damaged relationships and self-loathing. I had also tried unsuccessfully to quit drinking on my own for several years, so I knew that I needed help.\u201d<\/em>\n\n<em>\u00a0<\/em>\n<h2>We reached out<\/h2>\nA time came when we could no longer look the oth- er way and pretend that we were in control of our drinking. Angry, defiant and suspicious as we were, something had to be done.\n\nAsking for help didn\u2019t come easily to many of us.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nWe saw it as a sign of weakness or a character flaw. But when we finally did surrender and reach out for help with our drinking, we got back far more than we expected.\n\n<em>\u201cI <\/em><em>met with <\/em><em>a doctor who specialized in addiction treatment. He encouraged me to go to A.A. meetings and listen. I did, and soon something deep inside me began shifting. The Fellowship gave me hope \u2014 hope that I didn\u2019t have to die drunk, that there was another way.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cMy<\/em> <em>world<\/em> <em>had<\/em> <em>been<\/em> <em>so dark for so long that I grabbed onto that thin strand of hope with all my might.\u201d<\/em>\n\n<em>\u00a0<\/em>\n\n<strong>We found sobriety \u2014 and some obstacles <\/strong>Having finally found something that worked in our struggle against alcohol, we clung to A.A. like a drowning person clutches onto a life raft. But some of us soon encountered some questions about spiri<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">tuality that seemed to present obstacles to our full acceptance of the A.A. program. Based on our prior beliefs \u2014 or the lack thereof \u2014 we felt at odds with what we perceived to be a religious approach to\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">A.A. or pressure to adopt certain religious or spiri- tual concepts in order to remain in A.A.<\/span>\n\n<em>\u201cWhen <\/em><em>I arrived in A.A. at age 50, broken in every way, I was immediately faced with a distressing and essential conflict. I knew almost immediately that<\/em>\n\n<em>A.A. was my only hope and I saw that the spiritual dimension of the program was unavoidable. And yet my rejection of any form of divinity was absolute; my agnostic\/atheistic view was as essential to my being as the shape of my hands or the sound of my voice.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cComing to believe in a higher power,\u00a0 however\u00a0\u00a0 I defined it, seemed wholly impossible, and yet abso- lutely essential if I was to survive my disease, which had taken me to a level of demoralization and despair I could not have imagined possible.\u201d<\/em>\n\n<em>\u00a0<\/em>\n<h2>Working the A.A. Program<\/h2>\nRecognizing, first of all, that we needed to stay so- ber, many of us began to discover that we could utilize the A.A. program without conforming to reli- gious or spiritual concepts we either disagreed with or didn\u2019t have. As we became more familiar with A.A., we began to realize the deep significance in the phrasing of A.A.\u2019s Twelve Steps, which empha- size \u201ca Power greater than ourselves,\u201d and \u201cGod, <em>as <\/em><em>we understand him<\/em>.\u201d\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThese words and A.A.\u2019s traditional commitment to inclusivity provided comfort to many of us, leaving the door to spirituality open for alcoholics of all faiths, beliefs and practices, and allowing each of us to deter- mine for himself or herself just what to believe.\n\n<em>\u201cIn trying to find something to believe in, I read books about philosophy, spirituality and eastern reli- gions. I listened to people share in meetings and tried to believe in their higher power. I even tried prayer and going back to church. But, in spite of my efforts to \u2018educate myself \u2019 into a higher power, I didn\u2019t know what I believed. But I knew that the days I prayed seemed to go better than the days I didn\u2019t, even when I thought I was praying to my bedspread.\u201d<\/em>\n\n<em>\u00a0<\/em>\n<h2>Many paths to spirituality<\/h2>\nMany of us came to rely on a \u201cHigher Power,\u201d whether it was the collective power of A.A., the A.A. group itself, or some other entity, concept or being that helped us to stay sober.\n\n<em>\u201cMy sponsor encouraged me to choose my own con- ception of a higher power. It didn\u2019t need a gender, or a name, or any human attributes \u2014 it just had to be \u2018a power greater than myself.\u2019 It was then that I real- ized that the Fellowship, though comprised of human beings, represented a power greater than anything hu- man. Even more surprisingly, by taking the Steps in my own clumsy way, supported by the unconditional love of my fellow alcoholics, I had discovered a quiet, inner voice \u2014 a God within.\u201d<\/em>\n\nThere were many other ideas and approaches, too, that helped us move forward in staying sober and understanding how the A.A. program could work best for us.\n\n<em>\u201cBy incorporating basic Buddhist practices with my A.A. practices \u2014 regular meetings, doing service, working with newcomers, living the Steps and read- ing A.A. literature \u2014 I have discovered an awesome way to improve my conscious contact with the God of my understanding and live life on life\u2019s terms in rela- tive serenity. I still have anxieties, anger and all the rest of the emotions that come with life, but, bit by bit, I am able to manage them.\u201d<\/em>\n\nMany of us come from different belief systems and cultures, yet there has always been plenty of latitude in A.A. for members to practice whatever belief works best for them.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<em>\u201cI am a Sioux\/Blackfoot woman. I have been sober in A.A. for many years. Many of us believe in the Great Spirit, and it was a great relief to find out I could believe in a higher power of my choice. I didn\u2019t have to give up any part of my beliefs when I joined<\/em>\n\n<em>A.A. I could live in the white man\u2019s world, but also retain all of my people\u2019s Native traditions, customs and ceremonies. In fact, A.A. made my beliefs stron- ger. My joining A.A. didn\u2019t restrict me, it gave me more freedom.\u201d<\/em>\n\nThe spirit of tolerance is strong in A.A., and members of all faiths and traditions find common ground in our program of recovery.\n\n<em>\u201cI\u2019m a devout, lifelong Catholic. That is an in- tegral part of my experience, strength and hope. I call my higher power God and do not feel I should have to qualify that every time I speak at a meeting. I\u2019m perfectly okay with others referring to Buddha, Mohammed, Yahweh, or whatever name they call their higher power.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cI\u2019m uncomfortable, though, with anyone citing the Bible, the Koran, the Talmud, or any non-A.A. literature as the truth in an A.A. meeting. But I cer- tainly give them the right to refer to or even quote (briefly) from any of these texts if it\u2019s part of their\u00a0<\/em><em style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">A.A. experience.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cIn my eighteen years of recovery, I have heard plenty of inappropriate talk about religion, and I probably will again\u2026. But so far I haven\u2019t found it necessary to take a drink over any of it, and more than once, it has caused me to experience unexpected spiritual growth. And that\u2019s the point, isn\u2019t it?<\/em>\n\nFor many of us, sobriety was a gift \u2014 freely given and freely received. Yet we have to do our part in maintaining it.\n\n<em>\u201cI\u2019m still an agnostic. But I have discovered that the program will work for anyone who will let it. I didn\u2019t have to find a way to make it work. It will work perfectly well on its own, provided I\u2019m willing to do some work myself.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cThe first thing I had to do was resign from the debating society. That didn\u2019t mean I started agreeing with everything I heard. It means only that I listened without arguing, used what I could use, and filed the rest for future reference.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cThe second thing I did was become an active member of my home group, which happened to be my sponsor\u2019s home group. (I\u2019d gotten a sponsor imme-<\/em>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<em>diately. <\/em><em>I already knew that was one thing I\u2019d better do right away.) I saw that whatever else spirituality might consist of, it had to include being of maximum service to my fellow alcoholics, whether or not they were still suffering.\u201d<\/em>\n\nIn working the program, we came to a better un- derstanding of spirituality and the part it plays in our recovery.\n\n<em>\u201cWhen I first came to A.A., I thought that religion and spirituality were the same thing. But I\u2019ve come to realize that religion means being committed to a practice of belief, and being spiritual means actively living life through a life-giving force. I believe this is any power greater than myself, whether I choose to call it God, Allah, Higher Power, Creative Intelligence, or the Power of Good.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cI don\u2019t have a specific religious faith that I prac- tice or church that I go to. Matter of fact, I haven\u2019t been in a sanctuary for some time. But I do try to practice the principles of the A.A. program. Through this, I believe that my higher power lives within and through me, and that is my sanctuary.\u201d<\/em>\n\nWith time, we came to recognize that we could stay sober and enjoy full membership in the Fellowship, regardless of our beliefs.\n\n<em>\u201cWhen I finally admitted I was an alcoholic and came into the program four years ago, I thought, \u2018Oh God, why me?\u2019 We Jews were supposed to be immune to alcoholism, we were the \u2018Chosen Ones\u2019 \u2014 or so my denial told me. Yet today I am doubly blessed; I am a grateful, recovering, Jewish alcoholic.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cIt took me a long time to separate Judaism from alcoholism, to accept that spirituality did not affect or change my religious beliefs, but enhanced them, that my higher power was not the same as yours, that praying and the posture I use to pray does not alter my Jewishness but is necessary for my recovery. Today I can even recite the Lord\u2019s Prayer without feeling guilty since it was pointed out to me in \u2018How it Works\u2019 that I have to go to any length to get and stay sober.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cDuring my years of alcohol abuse I alienated my- self from my family, my friends, the world, and even myself. I forgot the joy of my religion and the feeling of prayer. Now that I am recovering, I am able to accept people in my life, I can accept and love me and I am capable of rejoining the human race.\u201d<\/em>\n\nAs A.A. has grown and taken root literally around the world, cutting across lines of gender, race, lan<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">guage and religion, the Fellowship has kept its doors open to alcoholics of all beliefs, supported by two basic principles found in A.A.\u2019s Traditions: that<\/span>\n\nA.A. has but one primary purpose \u2014 that of carry- ing the message to the alcoholic who still suffers, and the recognition that the only requirement for\n\nA.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.\n\n<em>\u201cMy sponsor was well versed in A.A.\u2019s Twelve Steps, Traditions and Concepts. He had a substantial service history and talked to me about the 36 principles upon which A.A. was founded. It is these principles that I would ultimately turn my life and my will over to.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cThis God \u2014 \u2018good orderly direction\u2019 \u2014 as rep- resented by the two million or so alcoholics who are members of this global Fellowship, is what I have ac- cepted.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cLiving inside of the Steps, the ongoing efforts to promote the unity spoken of in the Traditions, and the discipline we find in applying the Concepts in the way we do business, both internally and with the world at large \u2014 these are the things that have provided me with a power greater than myself.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cA.A., I believe, is truly universal, and this con- science that has changed the lives of so many, and continues saving the lives of so many more is wor- thy of my devotion. I have never seen or felt anything more spiritual than what I witness when I see the transformation that takes place as people begin to live this way of life.\u201d<\/em>\n\n<em>\u00a0<\/em>\n<h3>A source of power<\/h3>\nSpiritual experience in A.A. is broad and varied, and for those members who struggle with spiritual con- cepts, ongoing sobriety often brings the realization that \u2014 in some remarkable and unforeseen way \u2014 they have indeed experienced a spiritual change.\n\n<em>\u201cWhen I was a newcomer, I could not understand the concepts of spirituality or faith. I had no God of my understanding. I battled to understand what spiri- tuality meant.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cIn reading Appendix II in the Big Book, <\/em>Alcoholics Anonymous, <em>I have come to understand the profound changes that come from spirituality. The appendix says, \u2018With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves. Most of us think this\u00a0<\/em><em style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">awareness\u2026 is the essence of spiritual experience.\u2019 \u201cThe appendix continues: \u2018We find that no one<\/em><em style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">need have difficulty with the spirituality of the pro- gram. <\/em><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">Willingness, honesty and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indis- pensable.\u2019\u201d<\/span>\n\nSome refer to a \u201cspiritual awakening,\u201d a phrase found in the Twelfth Step and throughout A.A. liter- ature. In <em>Twelve <\/em><em>Steps and Twelve Traditions <\/em>(page 106), Bill W. writes about spiritual awakenings:\n\n\u201cMaybe there are as many definitions of spiritual awakening as there are people who have had them. But certainly each genuine one has something in common with all the others.\u2026 When a man or a woman has a spiritual awakening, the most impor- tant meaning of it is that he has now become able to do, feel, and believe that which he could not do be- fore on his unaided strength and resources alone. He has been granted a gift which amounts to a new state of consciousness and being. He has been set on a path which tells him he is really going some- where, that life is not a dead end, not something to be endured or mastered. In a very real sense he has been transformed, because he has laid hold of a source of strength which, in one way or another, he had hitherto denied himself.\u201d\n\n<em>\u201cUsing the inner resource I have discovered in<\/em>\n\n<em>A.A. as a higher power, I have been able to do the Steps just as they are written in the Big Book. I pray to this inner resource and ask to know what it would have me do and to give me the strength to do it. I carry this message to others. It works! I am experienc- ing a spiritual awakening and I feel all the promises coming true. I feel better inside than I have in years.<\/em>\n\n<em>\u201cI am now sponsoring several men and it is a won- derful feeling to see another alcoholic get sober. I am proof that it is possible to be an atheist on matters of the supernatural but still have a spiritual awak- ening and reap the rewards\u00a0 of\u00a0 the\u00a0 A.A. program of recovery.\u201d<\/em>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<em>\u00a0<\/em>\n\n<em>\u00a0<\/em><span style=\"color: #202b5d; font-family: Cabin; font-size: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 0px;\">How do I find A.A.?<\/span>\n\nAlmost anywhere in the United States and Canada, you will find a telephone number for Alcoholics Anonymous or A.A. in the local phone book, news- paper, or on the Web.\n\nWherever an A.A. group meets, it has one pur- pose: to help alcoholics stay sober. A.A. groups meet in all kinds of places. Some meetings are held in schools or churches; some A.A. groups meet in hospitals or even office buildings. But it\u2019s important to keep in mind that an A.A. group is not connect- ed with the church, school or government office where it happens to meet.\n\nSome of us attended our first A.A. meetings in a hospital, jail or treatment center. Before we left, we found out how to contact A.A. in the place where we would be living. Some of us found our way to A.A. through school or job counseling programs. Many hear about us through their doctors or friends.\n\nIf there is no A.A. group nearby, help is still avail- able. G.S.O.\u2019s A.A. website is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aa.org\/\">www.aa.org. <\/a>You may also write to Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163. That is the mailing address of the\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">A.A. General Service Office. The A.A. members who work there will share their experience with you, and will be glad to offer suggestions for get- ting an A.A. group started.<\/span>\n\n&nbsp;\n<h3>Some additional A.A. resources<\/h3>\n<strong>related <\/strong><strong>to this topic:<\/strong>\n\n<em>Came to Believe Alcoholics Anonymous<\/em>\n\nAppendix II, \u201cSpiritual Experience\u201d Chapter Four, \u201cWe Agnostics\u201d\n\n\u201cDo You Think You\u2019re Different?\u201d From the A.A. Grapevine:\n\n<em>Spiritual Awakenings: Journeys of the Spirit Spiritual Awakenings II<\/em>\n\n&nbsp;\n<h3>THE TWELVE STEPS\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS<\/span><\/h3>\n&nbsp;\n<ol>\n \t<li>We admitted we were powerless over alco- hol\u2014that our lives had become<\/li>\n \t<li>Came to believe that a Power greater than our- selves could restore us to<\/li>\n \t<li>Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God <em>as we understood Him<\/em>.<\/li>\n \t<li>Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of<\/li>\n \t<li>Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our<\/li>\n \t<li>Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of<\/li>\n \t<li>Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcom-<\/li>\n \t<li>Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them<\/li>\n \t<li>Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or<\/li>\n \t<li>Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted<\/li>\n \t<li>Sought through prayer and meditation to im- prove our conscious contact with God, <em>as we under- stood Him, <\/em>praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that<\/li>\n \t<li>Having had a spiritual awakening as the re- sult of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>TWELVE TRADITIONS\u00a0<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px;\">OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS<\/span><\/h3>\n&nbsp;\n<ol>\n \t<li>Our common welfare should come first; per- sonal recovery depends upon A. unity.<\/li>\n \t<li>For our group purpose there is but one ulti- mate authority\u2014a loving God as He may express Himself in our group Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.<\/li>\n \t<li>The only requirement for A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.<\/li>\n \t<li>Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A. as a whole.<\/li>\n \t<li>Each group has but one primary purpose\u2014to carry its message to the alcoholic who still<\/li>\n \t<li>An A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or out- side enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.<\/li>\n \t<li>Every A. group ought to be fully self-sup- porting, declining outside contributions.<\/li>\n \t<li>Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may em- ploy special<\/li>\n \t<li>A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees di- rectly responsible to those they serve.<\/li>\n \t<li>Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.<\/li>\n \t<li>Our public relations policy is based on attrac- tion rather than promotion; we need always main- tain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nAnonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.\n<h1>A DECLARATION OF UNITY<\/h1>\nThis we owe to A.A.\u2019s future: to place our common\nwelfare first; to keep our fellowship united. For on A.A.\nunity depend our lives and the lives of those to come.\n\n&nbsp;\n<h1>I AM RESPONSIBLE&#8230;<\/h1>\nWhen anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want\nthe hand of A.A. always to be there. And for that:\nI am responsible.\n\n&nbsp;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>D\u00e9pliant en format PDF Les Alcooliques Anonymes sont une association d\u2019hommes et de femmes qui partagent entre eux leur exp\u00e9rience, leur force et leur espoir dans le but de r\u00e9soudre [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":84923,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-121006","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 12:40:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"translation_priority","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/121006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121006"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/121006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139399,"href":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/121006\/revisions\/139399"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aa87.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}