March 20 in A.A. History

1960: The Catholic Hour, a weekly half-hour radio program, broadcast Part I of “Alcoholism: The Problem and the Hope” [left: first page of transcript] with Marty M. [right, 1964] and an unnamed staff member from the General Service Office.

1961: After writing to Dr. Carl G. Jung [far left, 1958–60] on 23 January and receiving his reply dated 20 January, Bill W. [near left, 1958] followed up with a second letter [right: 1st page] to Jung:

    Your observation that drinking motivations often include that of a quest for spiritual values caught our special interest.… Years ago, some of us read with great benefit your book entitled Modern Man in Search of a Soul. You observed, in effect, that most persons having arrived at age 40 and having acquired no conclusions or faith as to who they were, or where they were or where they were going next in the cosmos, would be bound to encounter increasing neurotic difficulties; and that this would be likely to occur whether their youthful aspirations for sex union, security, and a satisfactory place in society had been satisfied or not. Neither could any amount of resolution, philosophical speculation, or superficial religious conditioning save them from the dilemma in which they found themselves.

    Bill also noted that Jung's words “really carried authority, because you seemed to be neither wholly a theologian nor a pure scientist.” He observed that Jung “spoke a language of the heart that we could understand.”
    Bill further wrote about his experiences with LSD, noting that many A.A. members “have returned to the churches, almost always with fine results. But some of us have taken less orthodox paths. Along with a number of friends, I find myself among the latter.”
    Bill referenced Canadian research by Humphry Osmond [right, 1956] who had introduced Aldous Huxley to mescaline in 1953. Osmond reported that 150 severely alcoholic patients were “preconditioned by LSD and then placed in the surrounding AA groups.” Over three years, they integrated into existing Alcoholics Anonymous groups, achieved “startling results” over three years, compared to similar individuals who only participated in A.A. without psychedelic treatment. Bill told Jung, “My friends believe that LSD temporarily triggers a change in blood chemistry that inhibits or reduces ego thereby enabling more reality to be felt and seen.”
    He added, “Some of my AA friends and I have taken the material (LSD) frequently and with much benefit,” observing that the powerful psychedelic drug ignited “a great broadening and deepening and heightening of consciousness.”
    Bill informed Jung that his first LSD trip in 1956 reminded him of a mystical revelation he had experienced in the 1930s, after hitting rock bottom and ending up in a New York City hospital ward for hardcore alcoholics: “[M]y original spontaneous spiritual experience of twenty-five years before was re-enacted with wonderful splendor and conviction,” he wrote.
    Aniela Jaffé [left, late 1950s], a Jungian analyst and colleague of Jung, responded to Wilson to let him now Jung had read his letter, and “had in his mind to answer you, but then he fell ill and the doctor ordered complete rest. Feeling better he left for longer vacation, and therefore the mail is not done.” Jung had had a stroke and would die on 6 June.