II SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE

1 IISPIRITUAL EXPERIENCEThe terms SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE and SPIRITUAL awaken-ing are used many times in this book which, upon carefulreading, shows that the personality change sufficient tobring about recovery from alcoholism has manifesteditself among us in many different it is true that our first printing gave many readersthe impression that these personality changes, or reli -gious experiences, must be in the nature of sudden and spectacular upheavals.

2 Happily for everyone, this con -clusion is the first few chapters a number of sudden revolu-tionary changes are described. Though it was not our intention to create such an impression, many alcoholicshave nevertheless concluded that in order to recoverthey must acquire an immediate and overwhelming God-consciousness followed at once by a vast change infeeling and our rapidly growing membership of thousandsof alcoholics such transformations, though frequent, areby no means the rule.

3 Most of our experiences are whatthe psychologist William James calls the educational vari-ety because they develop slowly over a period of time. Quiteoften friends of the newcomer are aware of the differencelong before he is himself. He finally realizes that he has un-dergone a profound alteration inhis reaction to life; that such a change could hardly havebeen brought about by himself alone. What often takesplace in a few months could seldom have been accom -plished by years of self-discipline.

4 With few exceptionsour members find that they have tapped an 11/20/13 3:41 PM Page 567inner resource which they presently identify with theirown conception of a Power greater than of us think this awareness of a Power greater thanourselves is the essence of SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE . Our more religious members call it God-consciousness. Most emphatically we wish to say that any alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light ofour EXPERIENCE can recover, provided he does not closehis mind to all SPIRITUAL concepts.

5 He can only be de-feated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Willingness, honesty and openmindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable. There is a principle which is a bar against all informa -tion, which is proof against all arguments and which can-not fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance that principle is contempt prior to investigation.

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