According to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), there are numerous variables that make up a spiritual awakening, distinguishing it from a spiritual experience.
On page 567 of Alcoholics Anonymous, the textbook for the program, both of these episodes represent the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism which is manifested in various forms.
A spiritual awakening would be when a woman goes into treatment for alcoholism, for example, and realizes she cannot fight her disease alone. (Source: Charter Hospital).
A spiritual experience could be when an alcoholic is wanting to drink badly and he sees something or someone that makes him think twice. (Source: Central Office, AA).
In the first printing of the textbook of AA, also nicknamed “The Big Book” by members, many newcomers to the fellowship thought that they had to have “the burning bush” to have a spiritual awakening necessary to stay sober. (Source: General Service Office of AA).
A woman in AA named Kelly who had three years sober spoke once about hitting a telephone pole with her car and it just rolling off her roof, not hurting her or her vehicle. When the EMT, fire department, and police department got there she learned that they had just replaced all the poles on that road except for the one she hit which was rotted out through and through. Had she hit any of the new poles her car would’ve caught on fire, one fireman speculated. This was one of her spiritual experiences, she said.
Another lady in AA named Rebecca had a spiritual awakening when she came to out of a blackout and saw herself getting sick at her stomach in the nude while laying in her apartment. She told me this was her wakeup call. (Source: JABA Club).
I had an episode once when I had writer’s block and had to take a writing test for a local newspaper which also happened to be the place where I once worked temporarily and where a friend of mine in AA had worked before he passed away. I only had so long to write a paragarph on my hometown and I was stumped and panicked. Suddenly my fingers just started moving across the keyboard and the words came to me effortlessly. This was a spiritual experience.
I know someone named Catherine who was arrested with five years sober because she had bounced checks. Sitting in jail in her pajamas all day and not able to open her business for the morning, she had a spiritual awakening by talking to other inmates and she never bounced another check again. She later shared this part of her story when she spoke at the podium at a meeting one night. (Source: San Marco Club).
“The Big Book” refers to many lightbulb moments, big and small and everyone’s experience is different.
Page 568 of the book states that: “We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program.”
