what is a spiritual awakening
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Michigan
Posts: 1,945
Originally Posted by TSDD 
I can tell you this, people who have had it don't brag about it and don't preach. You'll see it in their actions.
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Posts: 367
Originally Posted by dsmaxis10
Your right I have not had one I just found the definition.
Chase a day of sobriety, being of service, and doing the next right thing and your spirit will take care of itself... not on your schedule, but when it's supposed to.
And just like realizing you have a problem, when it happens you'll likely be the last one to notice.
If you're not drinking, you're OK even if you don't feel OK. Hang in there.
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 25,373
Right. I agree. Just don't drink, keep doing the next right thing. Read and study, pray and meditate on it.
Just know that you are exactly where you are supposed to be right now in your spiritual development. It can't be rushed nor explained.
Just know that you are exactly where you are supposed to be right now in your spiritual development. It can't be rushed nor explained.
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
It was a change of personaltiy sufficient to overcome alcoholism, brought about, at least in my case, through taking the twelve steps and adopting them as a way of life.
Once I realised that the spritual awakening was in fact AAs solution to alcoholism, the means of gaining a defence against the first drink, I concentrated on the steps, only one of which even mentions alcohol. As a result, and almost as a side benefit, the drink problem was removed. The main benefit has been a life so satisfying that ther has been no need to drink.
I question whether it is a free gift. The basic text tells me a price has to be paid, the destruction of self centredness, which means in part, a certain amount of inconveniece and disrutpion to my life in order to carry this message to others.
I don't know what happens to all those unwilling to pay the price, but I know from experience and even research, that those that actively help others seem to stay sober long term.
Come to think of it, as a drinking alcoholic I was never interested in helping anyone but my self. My entire existence was based around selfishness. Yet now I gain immense pleasure from helping someone else. Working with others is not a chore. Perhaps that is part of spiritual awakening. It sure is a huge change in my attitude, a change that would never have occured to me to make on my own.
Once I realised that the spritual awakening was in fact AAs solution to alcoholism, the means of gaining a defence against the first drink, I concentrated on the steps, only one of which even mentions alcohol. As a result, and almost as a side benefit, the drink problem was removed. The main benefit has been a life so satisfying that ther has been no need to drink.
I question whether it is a free gift. The basic text tells me a price has to be paid, the destruction of self centredness, which means in part, a certain amount of inconveniece and disrutpion to my life in order to carry this message to others.
I don't know what happens to all those unwilling to pay the price, but I know from experience and even research, that those that actively help others seem to stay sober long term.
Come to think of it, as a drinking alcoholic I was never interested in helping anyone but my self. My entire existence was based around selfishness. Yet now I gain immense pleasure from helping someone else. Working with others is not a chore. Perhaps that is part of spiritual awakening. It sure is a huge change in my attitude, a change that would never have occured to me to make on my own.
Life the gift of recovery!
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Home is where the heart is
Posts: 7,061
Often in AA the terms "Spiritual Experience" and "Spiritual Awakening" are used synonymously because one often leads to the other but not everyone has to have a spiritual experience to have a spiritual awakening. Maybe that is why even though in the 1st edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, which was published in 1939, the term "Spiritual Experience" was used in Step 12 but in later editions that was changed to the term to "Spiritual Awakening."
An explanation of the spiritual experience/awakening can be found where Dr. Jung carefully described the concept to Rowland H. on page 27 in Chapter 2 - There Is A Solution.
as well as in the APPENDIX II
Now for my two cents. What I have found is that the spiritual experience is an event whereas the awakening is a change within a person in how they react to life and to the world around them. Not everyone will have a spiritual experience but almost anyone can have a spiritual awakening through the process of working and applying the 12 Steps to their lives. The spiritual awakening is often an ongoing process as we continue to apply the Steps and program to our lives because we continue to grow and awaken spiritually.
An explanation of the spiritual experience/awakening can be found where Dr. Jung carefully described the concept to Rowland H. on page 27 in Chapter 2 - There Is A Solution.
He said to the doctor, "Is there no exception?"
"Yes," replied the doctor, "there is. Exceptions to cases such as yours have been occurring since early times. Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me these occurrences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them. In fact, I have been trying to produce such emotional rearrangement within you. With many individuals the methods which I employed are successful, but I have never been successful with an alcoholic of your description."
"Yes," replied the doctor, "there is. Exceptions to cases such as yours have been occurring since early times. Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me these occurrences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them. In fact, I have been trying to produce such emotional rearrangement within you. With many individuals the methods which I employed are successful, but I have never been successful with an alcoholic of your description."
...the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism...
...Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James calls the 'educational variety' because they develop slowly over a period of time. Quite often friends of the newcomer are aware of the difference long before he himself. He finally realizes that he has undergone a profound alteration in his reaction to life; that such a change could hardly have been brought about by himself alone. What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self discipline. With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves.
Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience.
...Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James calls the 'educational variety' because they develop slowly over a period of time. Quite often friends of the newcomer are aware of the difference long before he himself. He finally realizes that he has undergone a profound alteration in his reaction to life; that such a change could hardly have been brought about by himself alone. What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self discipline. With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves.
Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience.
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: UK
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It's a change in perception which, for most, will come from education about alcoholism through AA and starting a relationship with yourself and a higher power of your understanding through working the steps with a sponsor who has had a spiritual awakening themselves.
Don't listen to opinions on this one speak to someone who has experienced it or else the only thing you will gain is confusion!
Don't listen to opinions on this one speak to someone who has experienced it or else the only thing you will gain is confusion!
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