In context

When our friend related his experience, the man agreed that no amount of will power he might muster could stop his drinking for long. A spiritual experience, he conceded, was absolutely necessary, but the price seemed high upon the basis suggested. He told how he lived in constant worry about those who might find out about his alcoholism. He had, of course, the familiar alcoholic obsession that few knew of his drinking. Why, he argued, should he lose the remainder of his business, only to bring still more suffering to his family by foolishly admitting his plight to people from whom he made his livelihood? He would do anything, he said, but that. BB p.155 ¶2

Here: The passage uses spiritual experience for the vital change the Book says an alcoholic needs in order to stop drinking, something beyond will power. The man grants that it is "absolutely necessary" but balks at the price of admitting his alcoholism to the people he does business with.

In 1939 experience still carried its older sense of a thing undergone, an event that has affected one, as the Online Etymology Dictionary traces it: from Latin experientia, "a trial, proof, experiment; knowledge gained by repeated trials." Spiritual meant "of or concerning the spirit, immaterial" and, in religious use, "originating with God." Put together, the phrase named something that happened to a person, not a doctrine held or a practice kept up. The Etymonline entries are all I was given here. The material includes no Webster's entry for the phrase, so I can't say how those dictionaries defined it.

In this passage the phrase is something he "conceded" to be necessary. His objection is to the price, not to the idea. A 1939 reader would hear the experience as a real, dependable remedy, so the man's refusal is a refusal of a known cure. Today the phrase can suggest a mystical or emotional peak, or a private religious feeling. In the Book it names the change that stops the drinking, and the man's worry about his livelihood stands between him and it.

Usages

• BB p.27 ¶5 “they did not spell the necessary vital spiritual experience”
• BB p.44 ¶1 “you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer”
• BB p.158 ¶2 “He had begun to have a spiritual experience.”
• BB p.130 ¶1 “We have found nothing incompatible between a powerful spiritual experience and a life of sane and happy usefulness.”
• “knowledge gained by repeated trials” — Online Etymology Dictionary
• He knew a spiritual experience was what he needed, but he put off asking for it because of what it might cost him. illustration, written for this note
• Her church attendance never amounted to a spiritual experience, in the sense of a real change in how she met her troubles. illustration, written for this note
• After years of trying will power alone, he was ready to have a spiritual experience of his own. illustration, written for this note

Written by Claude (sonnet) from the dictionaries and passages of the lookup; every quotation in it was checked against them, and what could not be found was left out. A study aid, not a source.

In the Book 19

Alcoholics Anonymous 19

• BB p.27 ¶5 …him that while his religious convictions were very good, in his case they did not spell the necessary vital spiritual experience.
• BB p.29 enough, we find such convictions no great obstacle to a spiritual experience.
• BB p.44 ¶1 …you take, you are probably alcoholic. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer.
• BB p.56 ¶2 One night, when confined in a hospital, he was approached by an alcoholic who had known a spiritual experience. Our friend’s gorge rose as he bitterly cried out: “If there is a God, He certainly hasn’t done anything for…
• BB p.66 ¶1 …hours that might have been worthwhile. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such…
• BB p.75 ¶2 …to feel the nearness of our Creator. We may have had certain 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…
• BB p.79 ¶1 …principles which we find guiding. Reminding ourselves that we have decided to go to any lengths to find a spiritual experience, we ask that we be given strength and direction to do the right thing, no matter what the personal…
• BB p.119 be the first to say it was your devotion and care which brought him to the point where he could have a spiritual experience. Without you he would have gone to pieces long ago. When resentful thoughts come, try to pause and count…
• BB p.124 ¶3 …we know of situations in which the alcoholic or his wife have had love affairs. In the first flush of spiritual experience they forgave each other and drew closer together. The miracle of reconciliation was at hand. Then, under one…
• BB p.128 ¶1 Assume on the other hand that father has, at the outset, a stirring spiritual experience. Overnight, as it were, he is a different man. He becomes a religious enthusiast. He is unable to focus on…
• BB p.130 ¶1 …our work must be done. These are the realities for us. We have found nothing incompatible between a powerful spiritual experience and a life of sane and happy usefulness.
• BB p.131 ¶3 Alcoholics who have derided religious people will be helped by such contacts. Being possessed of a spiritual experience, the alcoholic will find he has much in common with these people, though he may
• BB p.155 ¶2 …experience, the man agreed that no amount of will power he might muster could stop his drinking for long. A spiritual experience, he conceded, was absolutely necessary, but the price seemed high upon the basis suggested. He told how he…
• BB p.157 ¶7 The two friends spoke of their spiritual experience and told him about the course of action they carried out.
• BB p.158 ¶2 …be hopeful, though she thought she saw something different about her husband already. He had begun to have a spiritual experience.
• BB p.567 ¶1 The terms “spiritual experience” and “spiritual awakening” are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the…
• BB p.568 ¶1 Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience. Our more religious members call it “God-consciousness.”

Linked from

• BB p.155 ¶2 “spiritual experience”