It is indeed a Broad Highway upon which the AA beginner sets out. The way is as wide as the eye can see. No restriction of any sort in sight. AA requires no beliefs, not even in God. One can pick one's own Higher Power. It can be God, the group, anything. One man even stayed sober with a doorknob for a Higher Power.

Members don't have to do anything. No one has to get a sponsor. No one has to work the steps. They are only suggestions. Membership is so easy that it is only necessary to want to stop drinking. You can even drink and be a member. For the new or prospective member, there is only the suggestion to make a commitment to 90 meetings in 90 days.

Information control is essential to cult indoctrination. The group must become the sole source of information about oneself. Communal cults like the Moonies, Hari Krishna and The Way * manage this through physical separation from other sources of information. The Moonies do this initially at three day workshops held ostensibly for “world peace” or some other good cause. During the “workshops,” members use the influence of a unanimous majority and hypnotic techniques to create confusion and distrust of the self in order to get a commitment from the prospective member to stay for an even longer indoctrination period.

In non-communal cults like AA, and the Oxford Group before them, physical isolation may be used. Oxford Group had their “hospital work” and AA has the alcohol and drug abuse treatment center where contact with friends and family is extremely limited. This degree of separation, however,