A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles (also referred to as ACIM) is a 1976 book by Helen Schucman. The underlying premise is that the greatest "miracle" is the act of simply gaining a full "awareness of love's presence" in a person's life.<ref>A Course in Miracles. Foundation for Inner Peace. Introduction, p. 1. Retrieved December 29, 2017.</ref> Schucman said that the book had been dictated to her, word for word, via a process of "inner dictation" from Jesus Christ.<ref name="scribes">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ACIMPrefaceHowItCame">Template:Cite book</ref> The book is considered to have borrowed from New Age movement writings.<ref name="Newport" /><ref name="Carroll" />

ACIM has three sections: "Text", "Workbook for Students", and "Manual for Teachers". Written from 1965 to 1972, some distribution occurred via photocopies before the Foundation for Inner Peace published a hardcover edition in 1976.<ref name="Miller2011">Template:Cite book</ref> The copyright and trademarks, which had been held by two foundations, were revoked in 2004<ref name="Miller2011"/> after lengthy litigation because the earliest versions had been circulated without a copyright notice.<ref name="Beverley2009">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Throughout the 1980s, annual sales of the book steadily increased each year; the largest growth in sales occurred in 1992 after Marianne Williamson discussed the book on The Oprah Winfrey Show,<ref name="Miller2011"/> with more than two million volumes sold.<ref name="Miller2011"/> The book has been called everything from "New Age psychobabble"<ref name="BoaBowman1997">Template:Cite book</ref> to "a Satanic seduction"<ref name="Miller2011"/> to "The New Age Bible".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Olav Hammer, the psychiatrist and author Gerald G. Jampolsky was among the most effective promoters of ACIM. Jampolsky's first book, Love is Letting Go of Fear, based on the principles of ACIM, was published in 1979 and, after being endorsed on Johnny Carson's show, sold over three million copies by 1990.<ref>Hammer (2021: p. 450)</ref>

Origins

A Course in Miracles was written as a collaborative venture between Schucman and William ("Bill") Thetford. In 1958, Schucman began her professional career at Columbia–Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City as Thetford's research associate.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1965, at a time when their weekly office meetings had become so contentious that they both dreaded them, Thetford suggested to Schucman that "[t]here must be another way".<ref name="Collaboration">Template:Cite book</ref> Schucman believed that this interaction acted as a stimulus, triggering a series of inner experiences that were understood by her as visions, dreams, and heightened imagery, along with an "inner voice" that she identified as Jesus (although the ACIM text itself never explicitly claims that the voice she hears speaking is that of Jesus).<ref name="Hammer 2021 p. 153"/><ref name="Clarke2004"/> She said that on October 21, 1965, an "inner voice" told her: "This is a Course in Miracles, please take notes."

Schucman said the writing made her very uncomfortable, though it never seriously occurred to her to stop.<ref>Skutch, Robert. Journey Without Distance: The Story Behind A Course in Miracles. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA, 1984, p. 58.</ref> The next day, she explained the events of her "note-taking" to Thetford. To her surprise, Thetford encouraged her to continue the process. He also offered to assist her in typing out her notes as she read them to him. The process continued the next day and repeated regularly for many years. In 1972, the writing of the three main sections of ACIM was completed, with some additional minor writing coming after that point.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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Kenneth Wapnick helped edit the book and founded the Foundation for A Course in Miracles.

For copyright purposes, US courts determined that the author of the text was Schucman, not Jesus.<ref name="Joseph pp. 94–125"/> Kenneth Wapnick, psychologist, devotee and teacher of the ACIM, believed that Schucman did not channel Jesus, but was describing her "own mental experience of divine 'loveTemplate:'".<ref name="Joseph pp. 94–125"/>

Reception

Since it went on sale in 1976, the book has been translated into 27 languages.<ref name="translations">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is distributed globally, spawning a range of organized groups.<ref name="Cosgrove Cox Kuhling 2010 p. ">Template:Cite book</ref>

Wapnick said that "if the Bible were considered literally true, then (from a Biblical literalist's viewpoint) the Course would have to be viewed as demonically inspired".<ref>Dean C. Halverson, "Seeing Yourself as Sinless", SCP Journal 7, no. 1 (1987): 23.</ref> He also said, "I often taught in the context of the Bible, even though it is obvious to serious students of A Course in Miracles that it and the Bible are fundamentally incompatible."<ref name="Joseph pp. 94–125"/> "Course-teachers Robert Perry, Greg Mackie, and Allen Watson" disagreed about that.<ref name="Joseph pp. 94–125"/> Though a friend of Schucman, Thetford, and Wapnick, Catholic priest Benedict Groeschel criticized ACIM and related organizations. Finding some elements of ACIM to be "severe and potentially dangerous distortions of Christian theology", he wrote that it is "a good example of a false revelation"<ref>Groeschel, Benedict J., A Still Small Voice (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993) p. 80</ref> and that it has "become a spiritual menace to many".<ref>Groeschel, Benedict J., A Still Small Voice (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993) p. 82.</ref> The evangelical editor Elliot Miller says that Christian terminology employed in ACIM is "thoroughly redefined" to resemble New Age teachings. Other Christian critics say that ACIM is "intensely anti-biblical" and incompatible with Christianity, blurring the distinction between creator and created and forcefully supporting an occult and New Age worldview.<ref name="Newport">Template:Cite book</ref>

Olav Hammer locates A Course in Miracles in the tradition of channeled works from those of Madam Blavatsky to Rudolf Steiner's<ref name="Hammer 2021 p. 153">Template:Cite book</ref> and notes the close parallels between Christian Science and the teachings of the Course.<ref>Hammer (2021: 444)</ref> Hammer called it "gnosticizing beliefs".<ref>Hammer (2021: 55)</ref> In "'Knowledge is Truth': A Course in Miracles as Neo-Gnostic Scripture" in Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies, Simon J. Joseph outlines the relationship between the Course and Gnostic thinking.<ref name="Joseph pp. 94–125">Template:Cite journal</ref> Daren Kemp also considers ACIM neo-Gnostic and agrees with Hammer that it is a channeled text.<ref name="Clarke2004">Template:Cite book</ref> The course has been viewed as a way that "integrates a psychological world view with a universal spiritual perspective" and linked to transpersonal psychology.<ref name=ACIM>Miracles with Counselors, David Aldrich Osgood, University of Massachusetts Amherst (1991), Transpersonal Psychology and A Course in Miracles P.43 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5794&context=dissertations_1</ref>

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Another dismissal of ACIM and claim for its subversiveness comes from some on the political left, who note that William Thetford, who encouraged and helped bring Schucman's work to press, was a CIA operative and psychologist. In Harper's Magazine, Sheila Heti quotes a post asserting the CIA sought "to infiltrate and dilute the American left with New Age ideas and inwardly-focused, anti-rational religious movements".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The Skeptic's Dictionary describes ACIM as "a minor industry" that is overly commercialized and characterizes it as "Christianity improved". Robert T. Carroll wrote that the teachings are not original but culled from "various sources, east, and west". He adds that it has gained increased popularity as New Age spirituality writer Marianne Williamson promoted a variant.<ref name="Carroll">Template:Cite book</ref>

Associated works

Two works have been described as extensions of A Course in Miracles, Gary Renard's 2003 The Disappearance of the Universe and Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love published in 1992.<ref name="Miller2011"/><ref>Butler-Bowdon, Tom.50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom From 50 Great Books of Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose. Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2010. p. 223.</ref><ref>Butler-Bowdon, Tom. The Literature of Possibility. Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2013. p. 223.</ref><ref>Coburn, Lorri. Breaking Free: How Forgiveness and A Course in Miracles Can Set You Free. Balboa Press, 2011. p. 193.</ref> The Disappearance of the Universe, published in 2003 by Fearless Books, was republished by Hay House in 2004.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Publishers Weekly reported that Renard's examination of A Course in Miracles influenced his book.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Portal

External links

• Editions in public domain:
  • Urtext Edition – Published by Miracles in Action Press
  • Sparkly Edition – Published by Diamond Clear Vision
• Why A Course in Miracles Is Not Good For You, or Those You Love – An open letter from Matthew Remski, investigative journalist on spirituality and cult