A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles is a three-volume work comprising over 1,100 pages: a 622-page Text, which lays the theoretical foundation; a 478-page Workbook for Students, which includes 365 lessons, one for each day; and an 87-page manual for Teachers. `

Though written in Christian terminology for a contemporary audience, the material espouses no single religion, but has a broad mystical foundation of eternal truths. It is closely related to the Hindu Vedas. The Course is Zen-like in its approach to “holy instants,” moment to- moment experiences of truth achieved through love, forgiveness, and atonement. Like mainstream Christianity it denies reincarnation.

The basic message of the Course is that all human beings share a oneness of love and the capacity for compassion, forgiveness, and peace. It instructs in ageless lessons, such as love thy neighbor, love thyself, and forgive and forget. It stresses that rather than trying to reform the world, one must change oneself and one’s view of the world. It defines miracles as shifts in perception that remove the blocks to one’s awareness of love’s presence, which are inherent in humankind. The opposite of love is not hate but fear.

The Course does not claim to be the only path to enlightenment. The Manual states that “Christ takes many forms with different names until their oneness can be recognized. ”

The Course was dictated by a clear inner voice to Helen Cohen Schucman, a psychologist at Presbyterian Hospital in New York and an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Schucman was born in the early 1900s to a Jewish family, but later became an atheist. For years she had experienced visions she called “mental pictures,” which came to her like black-and-white still photographs. In the 1960s the visions began to appear in color and motion, and in meaningful sequences. The same changes occurred in her dreams. Schucman kept hearing a silent inner voice, which she called simply the “Voice.” She feared she was going insane.

At the same time, she was undergoing stress at work. Schucman shared her visions and fears with William Thetford, her supervisor, who thought she might be having psychic experiences.

In September 1965 she felt she was about to begin something very unusual. A month later the Voice began dictating the Course with the opening words, “This is a course in miracles. Please take notes.”

Frightened, Schucman wanted nothing to do with the Voice, but felt compelled to continue. She took the dictation in shorthand from the Voice almost daily, sometimes several times a day. It always resumed dictation precisely where it had left off, no matter how much time elapsed between sessions. Courteously, it never intruded during her work or social activities. The Voice never identified itself. It was clear but silent. Schucman never entered a trance or wrote automatically.

Schucman shared the material with Thetford. He encouraged her to continue, though the experiences greatly upset her.

Some of the material was dictated in prose, some was dictated in blank verse or iambic pentameter. Occasionally, Schucman was tempted to change the words that were dictated, but always restored them to their original dictation. Until almost the end of the project, she was fearful of the content of the material, and repeatedly expressed no interest in reading what the Voice had given her.

Beginning in 1971 Schucman and Thetford arranged the Text into chapters and subsections. By September 1972 the Manual was finished, completing the entire work. The Voice predicted that a woman would come along who would know what to do with it.

That woman was Judith R. Skutch, president of the Foundation for ParaSensory Investigation. In 1975 she met Thetford and Schucman, who gave her a copy of the Course. Skutch and her husband, Robert, changed the name of their foundation to the Foundation for Inner Peace. In 1976 they dedicated it to publishing and distributing the Course. Information spread solely through word-of-mouth. Schucman and Thetford chose to remain anonymous, but acted as advisers to the Foundation. Study groups, independent of the foundation, have been started around the world.

The Voice continued to speak to Schucman, who wrote down a collection 2 of poems. According to her wishes, her name was not revealed until after her death in February 1981. The Foundation for Inner Peace published her poems as The Gifts of God.

SEE ALSO:

• Channeling

Sources and Further Reading:

• A Course in Miracles:Manual for Teachers. Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975;
• “Interview: Judith R. Skutch.” New Realities 1, no. 1 (1977): 17-25;
• Robert Skutch. Journey without Distance: The Story behind a Course in Miracles. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 1984;
• Robert Skutch. “The Incredible Untold Story Behind A Course in Miracles.” New Realities 6, no. 1 (July/August 1984): 17-27;
• Brian Van der Horst. “Simple, Dumb, Boring Truths and A Course in Miracles.” New Realities 1, no. 1 (1977): 8-15+;
• Brian Van der Horst. “Miracles Come of Age.” New Realities 3, no. 1 (August 1979): 48-55.

SOURCE:

Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience – Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley Copyright © 1991 by Rosemary Ellen Guiley.