You’re absolutely right that many people place Bill Wilson on a pedestal, almost saint-like. The truth is far more human. Bill struggled with depression throughout his life, and in the 1950s participated in medically supervised LSD sessions, believing it could help induce the kind of “spiritual awakening” he had experienced in his own recovery. This doesn’t make him less significant, but it does reveal that AA’s founder was a seeker who didn’t have all the answers — and he wrestled with his own emotions like anyone else. Seeing him in this fuller light can be freeing: the program’s wisdom doesn’t have to rest on his perfection.