AKRON MANUAL

Definition of Manual:
A book giving instructions or information.

Synonyms of Manual:
handbook, instruction book, guidebook, companion, reference book, etc.

These notes are from recovery in AA and related 12 step programs.
Readers are encouraged to click the external link for more detail.
We hope you find them helpful

Love in fellowship / BB

Q: How did the Pioneers stay sober without the Big Book?
A: They used the Oxford Group’s six steps (which are similar to ours) and the four absolutes; and The Akron Manual

The Oxford Group’s six steps:

A Complete deflation.
Dependence on God.
A Moral inventory.
Confession.
Restitution.
Continued work with others in need.

The four absolutes:

Honesty
Unselfishness
Love
Purity

The Akron Manual was written and being distributed within one year of the publication of the Big Book, which dates it to 1940. The pamphlet says The following literature has helped many members of Alcoholics Anonymous:

The Holy Bible.
The Greatest Thing in the World, Henry Drummond.
The Unchanging Friend, a series (Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee).
As a Man Thinketh, James Allen.
The Sermon on the Mount, Emmet Fox (Harper Bros.).
The Self You Have to Live With, Winfred Rhoades.
Psychology of Christian Personality, Ernest M. Ligon (Macmillan Co.).
Abundant Living, E. Stanley Jones.
The Man Nobody Knows, Bruce Barton.

Akron A.A. in 1940 was obtaining a 75% success rate in teaching alcoholics to get sober and stay sober. The techniques, strategies, and principles set out in this manual must be taken very seriously by modern A.A.’s, particularly if your own success rate with newcomers is nowhere near that high. –Barefoot Bob/AA Manual | More…