The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous describes spiritual awakening as the result of working the Twelve Steps. For some it arrives as a sudden moment of clarity. For most, it comes as a gradual shift — what the program calls an "educational variety" of spiritual experience. These AA speaker meetings feature members sharing what spiritual awakening has looked like in their lives.

What You'll Hear in These AA Speaker Talks

• Personal accounts of sudden and gradual spiritual awakenings in sobriety
• How members found a Higher Power that worked for them — even as atheists or agnostics
• Step 2 experiences: coming to believe after years of doubt
• Step 11 practices: prayer routines, meditation, and conscious contact
• The difference between religious belief and the spiritual experience described in the Big Book
• How spiritual awakening changed relationships, thinking patterns, and daily life

Spiritual awakening often comes through the process of working the steps — particularly the inventory and amends work of Steps 4 through 9. Many speakers also describe how surrender and acceptance opened the door to a spiritual experience they couldn't have manufactured on their own.