

Father Bill W.
Father Bill W.
I’m an Episcopal (Anglican) priest in recovery from alcoholism since 1972. I've spent my career in addiction treatment focused on 12-Step spirituality and exploring the pioneer history of AA. In discovering the lost 11th Step practice of Two Way Prayer, my program underwent a life-changing transformation. As Bill Wilson said, “ something was lost from AA when we stopped emphasizing the morning meditation." My mission now is helping people in 12-Step Fellowships explore a deeper understanding of spiritual practice and how it connects us to the "Great Reality" within. -Fr. Bill W.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 4, 2023 • 55min
A Jungian’s Guide to the 12-Step Journey: Steps 10 to 12 A God Guided Life
Jungian analyst and clinical psychologist Dr. Ian McCabe concludes his journey through the 12 Steps from a Jungian perspective. This final episode focuses on the “Last Three Steps;” but rather than seeing these as “maintenance Steps” both Jungians and AA Pioneers might describe them as a formula for living life where the EGO aligns itself in service to the Self and follows its DIRECTIONS. It proves to be the “easier, softer Way.”
Show Notes:
Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous by Ian McCabe
Ego and Archetype by Edward Edinger
Jungian analyst John Sanford
Answer to Job by Carl Jung – pdf version
Transformation of the God-Image: An Elucidation of Jung's Answer to Job by Edward Edinger

Dec 28, 2022 • 1h 1min
A Jungian's Guide to the 12-Step Journey: Steps 4 to 9 The Great Clean-Up
Jungian analyst and clinical psychologist Dr. Ian McCabe continues leading listeners on a journey through the 12 Steps "from a Jungian perspective." Fully half of the 12 Steps are about “cleaning up” our relationships with ourselves, with others, and with the “Greater Personality” or as the Big Book calls it: the “Great Reality” within. Father Bill refers to these six Steps as the “CORRECTION PHASE” of the program and the discussion centers on facing and assimilating the Shadow part of ourselves.
Show Notes:
Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous by Ian McCabe
If this series has been helpful to you, please be sure to share it with others that may benefit from the message and consider making a donation in support of twowayprayer.org

Dec 22, 2022 • 56min
A Jungian Guide to the 12 Step Journey: Steps 2 & 3 Entering Divine Therapy
Jungian analyst, clinical psychologist and student of AA history Dr. Ian McCabe and Father Bill W. take a deep dive into the insights a Jungian approach to Steps 2 and 3 might convey.
Show Notes:
Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous by Ian McCabe
For information on Bill Wilson’s experimentation with LDS see: Distilled Spirits -- Getting High, Then Sober, With a Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher, and a Hopeless Drunk by Don Lattin. Here’s a brief outline:
Distilled Spirits blends a religion reporter's memoir with the compelling stories of three men--Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard, and Bill Wilson--who transformed the landscape of Western religion and spirituality in the twentieth century. Huxley, celebrated author of Brave New World, ignited a generation that chased utopian dreams and sought enlightenment through psychedelic drugs. Heard, an Anglo-Irish mystic, journeyed to California with Huxley in the 1930s to lay the foundations for the New Age and human potential movements. Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, joined forces with Huxley and Heard in the 1940s and 1950s, when Wilson began a series of little-known experiments to see if LSD could be used to help diehard drunks.
Their life stories are gracefully brought together by veteran journalist Don Lattin. Lattin recounts his own rocky personal journey from 1960s and 1970s counter-culture, through the fast-living, cocaine-fueled 1980s and 1990s, to his long struggle to get sober. By weaving an intimate account of his own recovery with the lives of the book's three central characters, Lattin shows us the redemptive power of storytelling, the strength of fellowship, and the power of living more
compassionately, one day at a time.

Dec 14, 2022 • 58min
A Jungian Guide to the 12-Step Journey: AA's Step One "The Ego Strikes Out"
In this episode Fr. Bill and his guest Dr. Ian McCabe explore Step One of Alcoholics Anonymous. Discussion centers on the physical, mental, and spiritual dynamics at play in addiction.
Show Notes:
Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous by Ian McCabe
Dr. Ian McCabe, contact info: ian@pips.ie
Ego and Archetype by Edward Edinger
Eric Erickson’s Eight Stages of Development
C.J. Jung’s Answer to Job, free pdf. version

Dec 7, 2022 • 56min
A Jungian's Guide to the 12 Step Journey: Encounter with the Greater Self
In this episode Fr. Bill’s guest Dr. Ian McCabe explores Bill Wilson’s spiritual experience in Towns Hospital as well as Bill’s prior spiritual encounters that Bill often referred to as an experience of “the Presence.” The discussion sheds clarity on the goal of recovery which is not the elimination of EGO but bringing the EGO into RIGHT RELATIONSHIP with the GREATER SELF.
Show Notes:
Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous by Ian McCabe
Bill W: My First 40 Years
“When (Roman Emperor) Marcus Aurelius gazed upon a bottle of the exquisite Falernian wine, therefore, he would remind himself that it was merely fermented grape juice, and that the fine meat dishes set before him were just the corpses of fish, birds, and pigs…” (Meditations, 6.13).

Nov 30, 2022 • 60min
A Jungian’s Guide to the 12-Step Journey: A Map of the Soul
Father Bill and Jungian analyst Dr. Ian McCabe continue a series of interviews exploring the aims and overlaps of the 12-Step recovery journey with Jung’s goal of individuation. Dr. McCabe hails from Dublin, Ireland holding several advanced degrees in psychology and addiction. He is the author of the book Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous that will be used to guide the discussions. In this episode Dr. McCabe explains the basic building blocks of consciousness followed by an in-depth discussion of the elements needing to undergo transformation in the soul in order to find recovery. Dr. McCabe and Fr. Bill explore Bill Wilson’s childhood traumas.
Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous by Ian McCabe
The Phenomenon of Man by French Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin
To Have or to Be by Erich Fromm
Recent NY Times article on EMDR

Nov 23, 2022 • 1h
C.J. Jung & Bill Wilson: Set Off on a Quest
A Jungian Guide to the 12-Step Journey: Father Bill and Jungian analyst Dr. Ian McCabe begin a series of interviews exploring the aims and overlaps of the 12-Step recovery journey with Jung’s goal of individuation. Dr. McCabe hails from Dublin, Ireland holding several advanced degrees in psychology, law, and addiction. He is the author of the book Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous that will be used to guide the discussions. In this episode Dr. McCabe shares his story and tells what he hopes his book might help us achieve. Additionally, the episode sets the background for linking Jung with AA.
Show Notes:
Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous by Ian McCabe
Bill Wilson’s Biography: My First Forty Years (Sadly the book transcribed from interviews covers only the early part of Bill’s story.)
Margarita Von Lüttichau: Intermediary between Jung and Bill Wilson
Robert A Johnson books mentioned:
Transformation: a study of three levels of consciousness
He: Johnson’s description of the Hero’s Journey
Inner Gold: Johnson’s description of human projection
Erich Neumann – one of Jung’s most gifted students.

Nov 16, 2022 • 59min
Spiritual AND Religious: Practice These Principles
Father Bill and Matt D. discuss the void religion fills in 12-Step programs, exploring spiritual practices absent in AA. They touch on Tom Powers' struggles with alcoholism and religion, meditation in recovery, and universal spiritual principles for personal growth.

Nov 9, 2022 • 51min
Spirtual AND Religious: The Salvation Army and AA
Father Bill explores the place of religion within 12-Step recovery. In this episode he interviews Major David Sams, Administrator of the Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center in Washington, D.C. Building on his years in recovery, David is a strong proponent of AA. The episode focuses on the Salvation Army’s long history of helping alcoholics and addicts from the mid-1800’s to the present day. You’ll learn about its founder General William Booth and how the Army integrates the 12-Steps into its 6-month residential centers. With a host of treatment centers charging thousands of dollars for short-term treatment, it’s good to know there’s a place that charges nothing and is the largest provider of services in the U.S. Think you’ll enjoy this!
Show Notes:
·William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army / Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Booth
Excellent YouTube video on the history of the Salvation Army: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M8_7X_d4Zk
Brief article on the new Methodist Connexion
Twice Born Men by Harold Bigby / Popular in the Oxford Group
In Darkest England and The Way Out / Booth’s classic assessment of the problem and solution
William James quotes S.H. Hadley in “Varieties of Religious Experiences”

Nov 2, 2022 • 50min
Spiritual AND Religious: Mystics Anonymous Anyone?
Father Bill continues a deep dive exploring the place of religion within 12-Step recovery. Worldwide, and within 12-Step Fellowships, membership in religious bodies continues a steady decline, while the hunger for spiritual connection seems to grow steadily. This episode continues to ask what religions may have to contribute to our spiritual growth and why it’s often so difficult to join the worlds of recovery and religion. Fr. Bill asks if most addicts may just be misplaced mystics!
The McGinn book referenced is The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism by Bernard McGinn:
Here’s also a good YouTube lecture by McGinn
An excellent discussion by three mystics from different faith traditions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G3Oau9Q4uQ
Books by John Dominic Crossan
Books by Marcus Borg
Books by Elaine Pagels
Phyllis Tickle: Short video on her book The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why
Carl Jung: Short video by Edward Edinger with his views on the importance of a spiritual life.