In biblical terms, each person has been born into sin and are “spiritually dead.” It is not categorized by “waking up,” but as a resurrection from spiritual death. In the morning, he’d been flooded with a sense of “uninterrupted deep peace and bliss” that has never left him since. Guru Eckhart Tolle’s spiritual experience came when he was a 29 year old near-suicidal graduate student and underwent a cataclysmic and terrifying spiritual experience that erased his former identity. The ascetic sage, Gautama Buddha, more commonly known as “ The Buddha” described his awakening when ignorance was destroyed knowledge arose darkness was destroyed and light arose, which happens in one who is heedful, ardent, and resolute. In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, the definition a spiritual awakening is a “personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism.” This experience can be spontaneous, but they can also be triggered by major life changes like traumas, tragedies, addictions, life-threatening illnesses, car accidents, divorces, war, midlife crises, etc. It can happen at any moment or period in your life. Of course, each person has a different outlook on life and defines things differently.

What actually is a Spiritual Awakening?Ī spiritual awakening can generally be defined as a newfound awareness of a spiritual reality. No person can fully define a spiritual awakening for another. Different shapes, sizes and evidence can categorize the experience. For many, sudden changes happen overtime, which is what psychologist William James likes to call the “educational variety.” That’s definitely what happened to me. However, I had no idea that while pursuing sobriety, the daily process of pursuing humility, honestly, and practicing my newfound principles of life turned into a spiritual experience itself. During my own search for sobriety, I characterized a spiritual awakening as someone who had a white-light experience, turned water into wine (at the time I wouldn’t have minded that), and was forever changed in an instant. If you’re in recovery, there’s no doubt that you’ve heard the term “spiritual experience” among peers, acquaintances and mentors as a vital step in the recovery process.

These terms have often been described as a change within – defined as a greater purpose for one’s own being. Spiritual Awakening? Spiritual Experience? Enlightenment? Psychic Change? Rebirth?Īll of these terms have been used to describe different things.They are used freely among the masses in search of something bigger than oneself for centuries. | By Tim Stoddart What Does It Mean To Have A Spiritual Awakening? Spirituality

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