Lunatics Anoymous started after doing research on the Oxford Group. The Oxford Group was an Episcopalian Christian Fellowship organization founded by American Christian missionary Dr. Franklin Nathaniel Daniel Buchman. Buchman was an American Lutheran minister of Swiss descent who in 1908 had a conversion experience in a chapel in Keswick, England and as a result of that experience he would later found a movement called A First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921, which eventually became known as the Oxford Group by 1931. The Group believed in the practice of meditation, a belief in God of the believers understanding, and following the six tenets.

The Six Tenets were:

1. Men are sinners.

2. Men can be changed.

3. Confession is a prerequisite of change.

4. The changed soul had direct access to God.

5. The age of miracles has returned.

6. Those who have been changed must change others.

The Five Procedures included:

1. Giving in to God,
2. Listening to God's directions,
3. Checking guidance,
4. Making restitution, and
5. Sharing one's sins openly.

Its beliefs included other elements added as the movement grew and became more popular. Examples are as the belief that an experience of Christ would transform a believer, IF he truly believed - beyond anything he had dreamed possible. The belief that an adherent could and should make prompt restitution for personal wrongs revealed to him by his life changing experience. And the belief that adherents should be part of a sort of "chain-reaction" of life changing experiences by sharing the experience of what Christ had done for them with others.

The Oxford Group believed one must surrender to God, not only to be "converted" from sin, but to have his entire life controlled by God. They believed in "Quiet Time," or meditation, during which a believer would get guidance of what to do or in as to the direction he should take. They believed in open confession of sin, one-to-another, following James 5:16 in the scriptures. They believed in the healing of the soul and in carrying the message of personal and world-wide redemption through the sharing of members' testimony by witnessing.

Frank Buchman, and his followers believed that people had sick souls, most of which was caused by "self-centeredness." Oxford Group members believed that people were powerless over this human condition, this defect of the soul. To recover one had to admit he was separated from God and his fellow man, and that God could manage their lives. Then they made a decision to turn their lives over to the care and direction of God. They had to make an inventory of their lives and of their sins, and to make full restitution to others, those they had hurt by their sins, or shortcomings.

They also had to witness to others as to their own conversion from sin and be available to convert others from sin. Oxford group members believed and were taught that the only way you could keep what you had been given by God, was to give it away to another. They did not try to force anyone into their path. They were to live their lives as an example, which would inspire others to want to follow.

The Oxford Group called its conversion process "soul surgery."Its so-called surgical procedure broiled down to five concepts:

1. CONFIDENCE
2. CONFESSSION
3. CONVICTION
4. CONVERSION
5. CONSERVATION

Oxford Group people also believed that their followers should have a formula for checking their motives in following this path. Part of the checking procedure involved the Four Absolutes;

1. HONESTY
2. UNSELFISHNESS
3. PURITY
4. LOVE

Oxford Group people believed these were the four absolute standards of Jesus. A.A. members knew that no one could ever hope to attain the perfection of absolute anything. They instead were told to strive for perfection, as their guide for progress, knowing that they would never fully attain it. Bill Wilson was visited by Ebby T., an Oxford Group follower (who never really attained sobriety, and died destitute). Bill was told by Ebby, "I got religion." Bill went to Calvary Mission in New York City with Ebby and later surrendered to Christ, making open confession of his alcoholism at the mission which was run by Calvary Episcopal Church.

The Oxford Group influenced the structure of Alcoholics Anonymous and many of the ideas that formed the foundation of AAs suggested twelve-step program.

Twenty-eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A.

1. God - Biblical descriptions of Him as Creator, Maker, Father, Spirit, Love, Living God.

2. God has a plan - His will for man-and provides definite, accurate information for the individual who wants the plan fulfilled.

3. Man's chief end - To do God's Will, thereby receiving the blessings God promises to those who align their lives with His Will.  

4. Belief - We must start with the belief that God IS.

Sin-Estrangement from God-The Barrier of Self.

5. Sin is a reality - The selfishness and self-centeredness that blocks man from God and from others.

6. Surrender - The turning point which makes it possible for man to have a relationship with God by surrendering his will, ego, and sins to God.

7. Soul - Surgery- The "art" or way which enables man through the steps of Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, and Conservation (the Five C's) to have the sin or spiritual disease cured.  

8. Life-change - The result in which man, through a spiritual experience, becomes God-centered instead of self-centered and focuses on helping others.  

The Path They Followed to Establish a Relationship with God.

9. Decision - The action by which man verbalizes his surrender and gives in to God, saying, essentially, "Thy will be done."  

10. Self-examination - A "moral" inventory in which man takes stock of his sins and their consequences.  

11. Confession - Sharing with God and another person the inventory results.  

12. Conviction - Readiness to change resulting from man's conviction that he has sinned and that Christ miraculously can cure.

13. Conversion - The New Birth, Change, namely, that which occurs when man gives himself to God, is regenerated, has part of God's nature imparted to him, and finds the barrier of sin gone.

14. Restitution - Righting the wrongs and enabling man to cut the cord of sin that binds him to the past.

Jesus Christ

15. Jesus Christ - The source of power as the Divine Redeemer and Way-Shower by whose transforming power man can be changed.  

Spiritual Growth-Continuance.

16. Conservation - Continuance as an idea, by which man maintains and grows in his life of grace.  

17. Daily Surrender - A process in which man engages in daily self-examination and surrender to get rid of newly accumulated sin and selfishness.

18. Guidance - The walk by faith in which the Holy Spirit gives Divine Guidance to a life that is changed from sin to God.

19. The Four Absolutes - Christ's standards, the standards of absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love, by which man's life can be tested for harmony with God's will.

20. Quiet Time - A period in which man can receive Divine Guidance and be sensitive to the sway of the Spirit.

21. Bible study - Meditation which enables man daily to feed his soul on God's revelation of His Universal Will in the written Word.

22. Prayer - Talking to God.

23. Listening to God for Leading Thoughts and Writing down Guidance Received - The means of receiving revelation of God's Particular or Private Will for a man.

24. Checking-Testing thoughts to be sure they represent God's Guidance and not just self-deception.

The Spiritual Experience or a wakening.

25. Knowledge of God's will - Attaining, with the Guidance of the Holy Spirit, knowledge of God's Universal Will as revealed in the Bible, and receiving knowledge of His particular Will through obedience to His Universal Will.

26. God-consciousness - The total change resulting from the experience of God when His will is known, lived, and witnessed.

Fellowship with God and Believers and Witness by Life and Word.

27. Fellowship - The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit in which believers maintain fellowship with God and mutually sacrifice to win others to the fellowship of the love of God revealed by Jesus Christ.

28. Witness by Life and Word - Sharing with others by personal evangelism the fruits of the life changed and the proof of God's forgiveness and power.