Is the Set-Aside Prayer in the Big Book?

No. It appears nowhere in Alcoholics Anonymous, the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, or any conference-approved literature. Its language, though, is built from the Big Book chapter “We Agnostics,” which asks newcomers to lay aside prejudice and old certainties.

Who wrote the Set-Aside Prayer?

No author is certain. The best-documented account points to Denver in the early 1980s, where old-timer Don Pritts advised his sponsee Joe Hawk — an addictions counselor sure he already understood alcoholism — to pray for all of that to be set aside. Hawk’s Big Book workshops then carried the idea across the country.

When should I say the Set-Aside Prayer?

It is most often used before Big Book study or at the start of a new round of the steps — any moment that calls for an open mind and a new experience rather than old certainties. It suits the newcomer and the old-timer alike.

Why does the wording of the Set-Aside Prayer vary?

Because the prayer spread by voice — workshop tapes and sponsors passing it along — rather than through any printed, approved text, the wording never settled into one official version.

Set-Aside Prayer (AA)

0:000:27

God,
today help me set aside

everything I think I know about You,
everything I think I know about myself,
everything I think I know about others,
and
everything I think I know about my own recovery

so I may have an open mind
and a new experience
with all these things.

Please help me see the truth.

PDF

The History of the Set-Aside Prayer

Ask around the rooms and nearly everyone can recite this prayer. Almost no one can tell you where it came from. Unlike the other prayers on this site, it has no official pedigree — only a story, passed from sponsor to sponsee, that can mostly be traced.

Not in the Big Book — but built from it

You won’t find these words in Alcoholics Anonymous, the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, or anything AA’s General Service Conference has ever approved — a point AA groups make themselves. AA’s archives can trace the Serenity Prayer through decades of letters and clippings; for this prayer, there is no file at all. Yet it is pure Big Book in spirit. Its language draws on “We Agnostics,” the chapter that asks newcomers to “lay aside prejudice” and let go of old certainties — the very passages members point to as its raw material.

A sponsor, a counselor, and a suggestion

The most detailed origin story comes from people who knew the men involved. Joe Hawk got sober in Denver in 1982 and, six months later, asked a local old-timer named Don Pritts to sponsor him. Hawk had worked as an addictions counselor and arrived in AA already an expert on alcoholism — or so he believed. As the speaker-tape archive Stories of Recovery tells it, Pritts advised him to pray that all that expertise be set aside so something new could get in. Hawk and his workshop partner Mark Houston folded the idea into the Big Book workshops they led around the country. From there, it traveled the old-fashioned way: tape by tape, sponsee by sponsee. The West LA Men’s Group independently tells the same story. Pritts, a co-founder of Colorado’s Fellowship of the Spirit conference, died in 2005; Hawk in 2007; Houston in 2010.

From suggestion to ritual

The paper trail is really an audio trail. Hawk was crediting Pritts from the podium as early as a July 1990 talk in Nashville, and he told the story of the prayer’s origin on the first tape of a 1995 Big Book workshop in Taos, New Mexico — recordings you can still hear today. Everything earlier rests on memory. Because the prayer spread by voice rather than print, its wording never settled: the fuller version on this page now appears word for word in Overeaters Anonymous intergroup meeting sheets — though, true to form, not among OA’s suggested meeting closings. Old-timers still point out the irony. By some recollections, Pritts never meant to write a prayer at all and winced at seeing an offhand suggestion become a ritual. The fellowship adopted it anyway. No conference approval required.

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About this prayer

What is the Set-Aside Prayer?

The Set-Aside Prayer is a modern staple in the recovery community, often used by those beginning a deep study of the Big Book or starting a new round of steps. It is the ultimate prayer for "the newcomer and the old-timer alike."

Why it is essential for recovery

Combating Prejudice

Many people come to recovery with preconceived notions about "God" or "Religion." This prayer helps clear those mental blocks.

Fighting "I Know"

The most dangerous phrase in recovery is often "I know." By setting aside what we think we know, we make room for the truth to enter.

A New Experience

It shifts the focus from intellectual understanding to a spiritual experience, which is the cornerstone of the 12-step program.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Set-Aside Prayer in the Big Book?: No. It appears nowhere in Alcoholics Anonymous, the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, or any conference-approved literature. Its language, though, is built from the Big Book chapter “We Agnostics,” which asks newcomers to lay aside prejudice and old certainties.
Who wrote the Set-Aside Prayer?: No author is certain. The best-documented account points to Denver in the early 1980s, where old-timer Don Pritts advised his sponsee Joe Hawk — an addictions counselor sure he already understood alcoholism — to pray for all of that to be set aside. Hawk’s Big Book workshops then carried the idea across the country.
When should I say the Set-Aside Prayer?: It is most often used before Big Book study or at the start of a new round of the steps — any moment that calls for an open mind and a new experience rather than old certainties. It suits the newcomer and the old-timer alike.
Why does the wording of the Set-Aside Prayer vary?: Because the prayer spread by voice — workshop tapes and sponsors passing it along — rather than through any printed, approved text, the wording never settled into one official version.