"We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience (AA, p. 75)"

We were reading in Chapter 6 "Into Action" in Alcoholics Anonymous and I was struck by the fact thast the book suggests that the spiritual awakening, the goal of the Steps, referenced in Step 12 and particularly well described on p. 106 in the Twelve and Twelve begins as early as Step 5.  Jeff pointed out that the whole paragraph is a sort of "mini-promises" description, "Once we have taken this step, withholding nothing, we are delightened. We can look the world in the eye.  We can be alone at perfect peace and ease.  Our fears fall from us.  We begin to feel the nearness of our creator.  We may have had certasin spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience.  The feeling that the drink problem has disappeared will often come strongly.  We feel we are on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe."  I noted that the Steps are a set of tools to create spiritual experiences  I guess its obvious but its so easy to forget what we are trying to do and to forget also that there are many paths to  spiritual experience.