If one goes by the 12 Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous, one is supposed to focus
only on the 12 Steps and NOT bring any other religious belief or political belief into it.
It is an abuse of the 12 Steps to turn them into yet another tool in a totalitarian regime's kit.
One person in my town has reported there is a 12 group all of whose members follow the same Hindu guru. Word got around the AA community quickly because group vibes were icky. They've been nicknamed the Pod People.
The focus of an AA group should be on the alcoholic who suffers and how to support recovery--
period.
Tradition 10. No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues-particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever.
Here are the 12 Traditions.
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www.aasanantonio.org]
The intention of the founders was to put a precaution in place to keep 12 Step groups from being exploited for prosyltizing.
Two, it was meant so that a 12 Step group could be a hospitable place for persons with a wide variety of beliefs or --no belief at all.
For a 12 Step group to be Landmarkian is to undermine the 12 Steps, period. Its just an extension of Landmark indoctrination and a recipe for mind fuck.
I have attended many 12 step groups and every one was well run and felt like a federation of free human persons.
It is an unfortunate truth that some persons in 12 Step programs get involved in icky stuff and then abuse their 12 step groups trying to pimp whatever guru or group they're into. Tell them firmly that this is a violation of the traditions.
BTW a solid bit of advice given to persons in recovery is to betware of HALT -- dont let yourself get Hungry Angry/Stressed/Lonely/Isolated/Tired.
This means self care and stress management because a stressed out person is at greater risk of being triggered into a craving and then a relapse.
If you are put through Landmark you will indeed become stressed -- hungry, angry, lonely, tired.
And if you slave as a volunteer and get yelled at and guilt tripped for not recruiting enough people, thats also a recipe for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.