Michael Mirdad | Addiction, Spiritual Recovery, and Healing the Void WithinMichael Mirdad | Addiction, Spiritual Recovery, and Healing the Void Within
Recover Your Soul: A Spiritual Path to a Happy and Healthy Life
Rev. Rachel Harrison and spiritual teacher Michael Mirdad share a perspective that views addiction as a symptom of spiritual disconnection and inner emptiness. Their conversation links recovery, spirituality and everyday life, focusing on compassion, connection with God and bringing personal change into service for others.
58:58•8 Jun 2026
Addiction, God, and Healing the Inner Void with Michael Mirdad
Episode Overview
- Addiction is framed as a symptom of an inner void created by a perceived separation from God and our true nature.
- Michael Mirdad outlines three core steps for spiritual recovery: connect more with God, let that connection change you, and bring that change to others.
- Codependency and people-pleasing are highlighted as widespread addictions, reminding people that "everybody on earth is an addict of some kind."
- Rachel Harrison describes her nine-step Recover Your Soul process as a gentle, spiritually grounded way to look at oneself with compassion rather than shame.
- Both emphasise that recovery work needs honest self-examination plus refilling the "emptied cup" with love, presence and service, not just stopping a behaviour.
“"It's a thinking problem, not a drinking problem."”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This conversation between Rev. Rachel Harrison and spiritual teacher Michael Mirdad offers a fresh take: maybe addiction isn’t the core issue at all. Instead of focusing on booze, drugs or even people-pleasing, Michael suggests that every compulsion points back to a deeper ache – the feeling of being cut off from God, our true nature, and our own wholeness.
He calls that inner emptiness "the origins of addiction," and jokes that while not everyone drinks or smokes, "everybody on earth is an addict of some kind," with codependency sitting at the top of the list. Across four decades of teaching, Michael has boiled his whole approach down to three simple steps: connect more with God, let that connection change you, and bring that change to others.
You’ll hear him weave together ideas from Buddhism, A Course in Miracles and 12‑step recovery, showing how each one really circles around the same theme: separation, fear, and the journey back to love. Rachel brings in her own experience with alcohol, codependency and her nine-step Recover Your Soul process, reflecting on how gentle self-inquiry, compassion and spiritual practice helped her stop seeing herself as "broken" and start seeing life as a soul-level hero’s journey.
The tone stays down-to-earth and often humorous, even while touching on big topics like shame, childhood wounds, spiritual psychology and what it means to "recover from planet Earth." If you’re tired of being shamed for your habits, curious about spiritual recovery, or just want a more loving way to look at addiction, this conversation might be exactly what you’ve been waiting for. So, what if your recovery isn’t about fixing a flaw, but remembering who you really are?
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