For more than 30 years Dr. Joseph Gerstein has been collecting stories from SMART participants about powerful emotional experiences related to their recovery journey. He has now written a captivating essay about the nature of these occurances that includes examples and analysis of what he calls "secular conversion experiences." His insight into the value of these experiences and the common elements found paints a picture of how our cognitive functions connect with the more emotive features of our lives.

Dr. Gerstein is SMART's Founding President and a retired professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has been instrumental in the growth of SMART in the U.S. and across the globe and has personally facilitated over 4,000 SMART meetings over 34 years.