This is the latest version (February 2019) of a Step Study book, with some significant changes, including the addition of examples of filled-out Step 4 and 8/9 forms in the Appendix. Thanks especially to Elise K. and Cheryle T. for their helpful suggestions!

Click here to download a book-length Step Study

You are welcome to download it and reproduce it under the following revised conditions:

  1. not changed;
  2. sold on non-profit basis (except for OA group fundraising);
  3. clearly states on the cover or title page that it is not OA-approved literature;
  4. does not contain the author’s name;
  5. title or sub-title indicates that this is a personal interpretation, for compulsive eaters, of the Big Book’s directions for working the Steps.

The English version of this book is also available in a bound and printed paperback editions through Amazon in many countries. Search for Big Book Approach for OA Members. The book is sold on Amazon on a non-profit basis as part of the author’s Twelve Step work, and the cost of purchasing the book appears to be much less than the cost of reproducing it locally.

This book originated from a thirteen-week Big Book Study written and presented over the internet to OA members. It is the written equivalent of the many Big Book Studies given by the author for intergroups and regions (links to some of which are contained on this website).

The author of the book does not personally believe that the documents should be considered literature. He does not see a distinction between inviting a speaker to give their experience, strength, and hope, or listening to a recording of an OA speaker giving their experience, strength, and hope – something that is non-controversial at OA meetings – and reading something written by an OA member giving their experience, strength, and hope. He believes that the forms that he uses and the book that he has written clearly represent only his personal experience, strength, and hope.

The author does ask, however, that any OA group which is thinking about using the material on this website during a regular OA meeting consult with its intergroup before doing so. The issue of using a book like this can become controversial within OA, even though in the author’s opinion, it should not be controversial. Tradition Four clearly gives the right of decision-making to groups, with the proviso that decisions not affect OA as a whole. Since Tradition Five (combined with Steps Twelve and Two) sets out OA’s one primary purpose as carrying the message of recovery through the Twelve Steps to those who still suffer, helping compulsive eaters who still suffer to recover through the Twelve Steps by reading the experience, strength, and hope, of a recovered member, clearly can’t affect OA as a whole.

If a group decides it doesn’t want to arouse any controversy at all, here are different ways that this book and the documents on this website could be used without any controversy:

  •  A separate non-OA study group: Many OA members create closed study groups where they invite OA members to meet privately to study various aspects of the Twelve Steps. Many intergroups will allow those study groups to announce the setting-up of those groups. The groups would meet, agree to the terms of the study, but would not be listed as an OA group. A Study Group of that kind could use these documents to help their understanding of the directions of the Big Book.
  • A Big Book Study: There are many Big Book meetings in OA in which the group reads portions of the Big Book and members share on what they have learned from the Big Book. Any member who has used the documents available on this website or in this book could share on a personal level what they might have learned from any of the documents without mentioning the documents themselves. As an example, a member might say: “I learned from another member that this passage could be used in this way . . . .”
  •  Hold a Big Book Weekend Study: Persons who make presentations at retreats or special Step Studies, including Big Book Studies, are free to discuss and use documents they use to work the Steps.

For further information, to make suggestions for improving this book, please email the website administrator at info@oabigbook.info.

HEBREW VERSION: לחץ כאן להורדת התרגום בעברית של הסדנא Thanks to Sima H.!

GERMAN VERSION: Hier klicken, um zur Studie zum Blauen Buch in deutscher Sprache zu gelangen.Thanks to Martina W.!

FRENCH VERSION:Cliquez ici pour une étude du Gros Livre en français. Thanks to Gilles V.!