🍊The Orange Papers — Digital Archive

The Truth About
Alcoholics Anonymous

A comprehensive, evidence-based series investigating A.A., twelve-step programs, real recovery science, and the hidden history of the organization that controls addiction treatment worldwide.

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance — that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”— Herbert Spencer (misquoted in the Big Book by Bill Wilson)

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428+

Letters Volumes

90+

Core Articles

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Original Content

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Years of Research

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The Effectiveness of Twelve-Step Treatment

Statistical analysis reveals AA's true success rate — the numbers you're not told.

The Lizard-Brain Addiction Monster

An alternative biological model of addiction that actually explains the science.

Propaganda & Debating Techniques

The psychological manipulation tactics used to suppress critical thinking in AA.

The Religious Roots of A.A.

How Bill Wilson lifted Alcoholics Anonymous wholesale from a fascist-era religious cult.

Every cult characteristic measured — how does AA score? The results are startling.

Rat Park & Other Children's Stories

The famous study that blew up conventional addiction mythology.

Core Critiques

39 articles

Introduction to the Orange Papers investigation of Alcoholics Anonymous

The 12 Biggest Secrets of A.A.

The Effectiveness of the Twelve-Step Treatment

Statistical analysis of AA's actual success rates

The Twelve Steps Interpreted

The Twelve Traditions Interpreted

Twelve-Step Snake Oil

A.A. Horror Stories

A.A. "No Meds" Horror Stories

The Heresy of the Twelve Steps

Propaganda and Debating Techniques

The Bait and Switch Con Game

Powerless Over Alcohol

The Funny Spirituality of Bill Wilson and A.A.

Bill and The Other Women

The "Us Stupid Drunks" Conspiracy

Recruiting Mind Games

A.A. and Religious Faith

The Hazelden Coffee War

"It's Spiritual, Not Religious"

Birth of the Big Book

Financial Analysis of the Creation of the Big Book

Boot Camps: Children's Gulags

The Killjoy Cover-Up

The 12 Biggest Lies of A.A.

The Problem With Statistics

Sentenced to A.A.

What Carl G. Jung Really Said

What's Good About A.A.?

What's Not Good About A.A.?

Stories of the Midtown Group of A.A.

Stories about Clancy Imusland's Pacific Group

A.A. "MILLIONS Saved" Stories

Accusations that Telling the Truth is Killing Alcoholics

Accusations of "You Have a Resentment"

Alternative Recovery

6 articles

The Lizard-Brain Addiction Monster

Alternative understanding of addiction biology

Rat Park and Other Children's Stories

How To Deprogram Your Own Mind

Top 10 Reading List

Sensible Evidence-based Recovery and Support Groups

Pro-AA Propaganda Analyzed

8 articles

AA-Booster Pseudo-Science: Spirituality — Key to Recovery

More AA-Booster Pseudo-Science: The Spiritual Dimension of Healing

More Big Lies — A.A. Propaganda As Usual

AA-Booster Propaganda: Cults — Faith, Healing, and Coercion

Dr. Harry Tiebout: The First Fascist Mad Scientist of A.A.

Answer to a George Vaillant Speech

The Recovery Propaganda Machine, Part 7

A Reply to Kris Best's Articles

Cult Test

4 articles

The Cult Test, and A.A. as a Cult

The Cult Test Questions

The Cult Test Answers, for A.A.

900 A.A. Slogans

Religious Roots of A.A.

34 articles

The Religious Roots of A.A. and the Twelve Steps

Bill Wilson Writes The Steps

The Religious Tenets and Doctrines of Buchmanism

The Cult Characteristics of the Oxford Groups

The "First Century Christian Fellowship" Campus Crusade

Hobnobbing With The Nabobs

My God How The Money Rolls In

Partying with the Nazi Party

The Oxford Group Morphs Into MRA

The Years Before the War: Appeasing Hitler

Invasion of Poland, WWII Starts in Europe

A Slogan a Day Keeps The Thinking Away

Pearl Harbor, The USA Is In It Now

Dodging the Draft

Sam Shoemaker Quits

What Is Fascism? How Fascist Was Frank Buchman?

The War Years: On the Road Again

Henry Ford and Anti-Semitism

After The War, Trouble With The Catholics

Frank Buchman, Anti-Communist, Union-Buster

Homophobia and Gay-Bashing

Partying in a Fairy-Tale Castle

Death of a Salesman, Peter Howard Takes Over

The Last Hurrah: Up With People

Bill Wilson Gets Religion (And Drugs) And Sees God

Bill and Dr. Bob Start A.A.

William Birney's Interview of Frank Buchman

Reinhold Niebuhr's "Hitler and Buchman" Article

Rev. Ironside's Sermon On Buchmanism

Review of Garth Lean's book, On The Tail of a Comet

Religious Roots — Footnotes

Religious Roots — Bibliography

Supporting Documents

4 articles

Links — A Zillion Links to Everything

Definitions of Some Commonly-Used A.A. Words

Posts to the A.A. Thread on Rick Ross' Web Site

Miscellaneous

5 articles

Random Thoughts

Great Moments in Religion — Jerry Falwell

A Memorial Page on Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Letters — We Get Lots of Mail...

428 volumes

Hundreds of volumes of reader correspondence — debates, testimonials, research, and dialogue.

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