Spiritual Transformations in Conjunction with Non-12 Step Mutual Aid Group
Twelve-Step programs seek and encourage "spiritual transformations" as an essential element of the recovery process. Unexpectedly, I began detecting such events in SMART Recovery mutual aid meetings. The SMART program is evidence-based and secular. These epiphanies occur mainly in two forms. The first is "AHA!" moments of intense intellectual clarity. The second is a secular conversion experience, which can be ecstatic and rapturous and, at times, frightening. I have accumulated 143 of the former and 48 of the latter over my 34-year facilitator career. The cardinal evidence of these events is a total absence of urges, subsequently. Some have a clear predicate, while others "just happened." In this presentation, I will present several examples of each of these types of events and speculate on the underlying neurobiological mechanisms, using medical events for analogies.
Virtual
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