Bill Wilson, light & loose with the truth

Bill Wilson used two quotes in Alcoholics Anonymous. Neither is correct. "Here sleeps in peace a Hampshire grenadier, who caught his death drinking cold small beer. Soldiers be wise from his untimely fall, when ye're hot drink strong or none at all." The "contempt prior to investigation" is not Herbert Spencer's but was a misquote of a misquote that came from a book Anglo-Israel in which it was argued that the British were the lost tribes of Israel.


The point?


Mr Wilson played light and loose with the truth. At best, he was sloppy; at worst, a liar. His BRILLIANT (yet borrowed) idea was that people with irrational cravings could create societies to help each other deal with those cravings. The rest of his writings should be treated very cautiously. He never "worked" the beloved steps that he wrote. (Pass It On, pp 298-299.) Mr Wilson further claimed the steps were dictated to him by the spirit of his Ouija board (Pass It On, pp 196-197, 278-279.)