this is an excellent thread!
I would have never gotten involved in AA or have done the 12 Steps if it weren't for the fact that Bill W took LSD. I figured anyone who took LSD fully grocked the experience of a spirtual overhaul. Under the influence of LSD it is very common to feel that you personally are a significant part of a much larger picture. It's the concept of the "larger picture" that I used to replace all the Gawd and higher power used in AA/NA
I needed a spiritual overhaul... but I had to it without the drug this time.
The turning point in my experience with the steps was discovering that I was totally self absorbed and I needed to become involved with others and stop living only in my mind. I was loaded for so long that I had forgotten how to be part of the real world. Because my parents were addicts I never learned a comfortable set of rules to live by and amazingly enough I did find them in the 12 Steps. I have a wonderful life now! I have learned another better and more thoughtful way to engage myself in my life even though I have absolutely NO belief in the general concept of any external diety or god.