Distilled Spirits: An Interview with Author Don Lattin ep1Distilled Spirits: An Interview with Author Don Lattin ep1
Father Bill W.
Father Bill W talks with author and recovered alcoholic Don Lattin about Bill Wilson’s mystical and psychedelic experiences, AA’s spiritual roots, and Don’s own path from addiction to a meditation-based recovery group. The conversation blends history, personal stories, and questions about how genuine spiritual experience can support sobriety.
49:00•21 Sept 2026
Distilled Spirits, LSD, and Spiritual Awakening with Don Lattin
Episode Overview
- Bill Wilson’s founding vision of AA may have involved psychoactive plants, but its significance lies in the life change it triggered.
- LSD was used legally in the 1950s with the hope of sparking spiritual experiences in alcoholics, though it did not resolve Wilson’s depression or tobacco addiction long term.
- Don Lattin shifted from scepticism about AA’s religious roots to seeing that as “contempt prior to investigation” after engaging more deeply with the programme.
- Small meditation and recovery groups can offer a mix of Buddhism and Christian mysticism that supports long-term sobriety beyond traditional meetings.
- Childhood trauma and family drinking patterns play a major role in later addiction, making honest examination of early wounds crucial in recovery.
“In my view, it doesn’t really matter whether Wilson’s experience was caused by psychoactive plants, poetic license, or the workings of the one true God.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? In this conversation between Father Bill W and author Don Lattin, you'll hear a rich mix of history, psychedelics, and very human recovery stories that speak directly to anyone curious about spirituality in 12-step life.
The chat centres on Don’s book *Distilled Spirits*, which weaves together the lives of Bill Wilson, Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard and Don’s own journey from “a long and stormy love affair with vodka and cocaine” to 20 years of sobriety. Don talks about getting out of the heavy drinking culture of newspaper journalism, his early contempt for AA’s Christian roots, and how he later realised that was “contempt prior to investigation”.
You’ll hear them talk through Bill Wilson’s famous “white light” experience at Towns Hospital and the controversial role of plant-based potions like belladonna and henbane. Don notes that in his view, “it really doesn’t matter” whether Wilson’s founding vision of AA came via drugs, delirium or direct contact with God: what matters is that “the experience… transformed this man’s life and inspired a crusade to free other alcoholics”.
The episode also digs into Bill’s later LSD sessions guided by philosopher Gerald Heard, his attempts to tackle depression and tobacco addiction, and the discomfort many AA members felt about their co-founder “taking one pill to see God and another to quiet his nerves”. Along the way, Don shares how he’s drifted from traditional AA meetings towards a small meditation-and-recovery group blending Buddhism and Christian mysticism.
Threaded through all this history is a strong emphasis on childhood wounds, family drinking patterns, and the need for genuine spiritual experience rather than just head knowledge. If you’re wondering how psychedelics, mysticism and 12-step recovery all intersect—and what that might mean for your own journey—this conversation gives you plenty to think about. How might a deeper spiritual practice reshape the way you see addiction and healing?
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