Stickman2:
One day Mr Tolle is a miserable unenlightened guy, next day he wakes up transformed for no apparent reason.
What happened ?
He did self-enquiry spontaneously and realized the I AM. Same situation with Ramana Maharshi who had a spontaneous awakening through self-enquiry at the age of 16.
Also see John Tan (Thusness)'s account, who awakened to I AM at the age of 17: http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2007/03/thusnesss-six-stages-of-experience.html