A Course in
Miracles is a complete self-study spiritual thought system. As a
three-volume curriculum consisting of a
Text,
Workbook for
Students, and
Manual for Teachers, it teaches that the way
to universal love and peaceor remembering Godis by undoing
guilt through forgiving others. The Course thus focuses on the healing
of relationships and making them holy.
A Course in Miracles also
emphasizes that it is but one version of the universal curriculum, of
which there are "many thousands." Consequently, even though
the language of the Course is that of traditional Christianity, it expresses
a non-sectarian, non-denominational spirituality.
A Course in Miracles therefore is a universal spiritual teaching, not a religion.
The "Text"
presents the theory of the Course and has built into its study the development
of the
experience of forgiveness that is the Course's goal for
the student. In this regard,
A Course in Miracles states that "its
goal for you is happiness and peace." (Text, p. 241) (T-13.II.7:1)
The Text also explains the basis for fear and guilt, and how they can
be overcome through miracles, which are defined as maximal "expressions
of love." Miracles are also defined as the shift in perception from
fear to love.
The "Workbook
for Students" consists of 365 lessons, an exercise for each day
of the year. This one-year training program begins the process
of changing the student's mind and perception, though it is not intended
to bring one's learning to completion. As stated in the Preface to the
Course, "At the end, the reader is left in the hands of his or
her own Internal Teacher, Who will direct all subsequent learning as
He sees fit." (Preface: ix)
The "Manual
for Teachers" is written in question-and-answer form and provides
answers to some of the more likely questions a student might ask. It
also includes clarification of a number of terms the Course uses, explaining
them within the theoretical framework of the Text and for their practical
application through the Workbook.
A Course in
Miracles was "scribed" by Dr. Helen Schucman through a
process of inner dictation she identified as coming from Jesus. A clinical
and research psychologist and tenured Associate Professor of Medical
Psychology, she was assisted by Dr. William Thetford, her department
head, who was also a tenured Professor of Medical Psychology at the
Medical Center where they both worked.
A Course in
Miracles was first published in 1975, the year Dr. Schucman assigned
copyright of the Course to the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP). Since
the beginning and as designated, this Foundation has been its publisher,
disseminator, and copyright/trademark holder, although in 1999 it assigned
the copyright and trademark to the Foundation for A Course in Miracles
(FACIM). There are currently about one and a half million copies of
the Course in circulation worldwide. Translations in Chinese, Dutch,
German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish are also available,
with twelve other translations now in progress.
What exactly,
then, is A Course in Miracles? The summary introduction, which
appears in its Text, is quite succinct and brief. It reads:
"This is
a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take
it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the
curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take
at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of
love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however,
at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which
is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what
is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
This course
can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:
Nothing real
can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies
the peace of God."
