A Course in Miracles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Course in Miracles (also referred to as ACIM or the Course), is a book considered by its students to be their "spiritual path".[1] It was written by Dr. Helen Schucman with clerical assistance from Dr. William Thetford. Schucman described the writing process as coming from a divine source through a form of channeling which she referred to as "inner dictation",[2] and wrote the text as if transcribing the words of Jesus Christ.[3] The teachings of the Course have been compared to the fundamental premises of Eastern religion, it utilizes, however, a traditional Christian terminology.[2] Ironically, observers note that it has been most popular among those who have been disillusioned by organized Christianity.[2] Some go so far as to call it the "most obvious choice" for the single text that is "sacred scripture" in the New Age movement.[3][2] Since it was first officially published in 1976 over 1.5 million copies have sold worldwide in sixteen different languages.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
The philosophy of the Course is monistic and contains some theological elements also found in traditional Christianity, Eastern mysticism, psychology, and New Age spirituality. It is monistic in its position that ultimate reality consists of nothing more than God's love. The Course asserts that the creative power of the human mind is causally responsible for everything that appears to us as the physical world.[1]
The Course teaches an inner awakening to "the awareness of love's presence" in both self and others.[4] The Course is a 'received' spiritual teaching, and in this sense it is similar to various sections of the Bible that were 'received' through various types of visions.[5] Schucman wrote the Course as if in the first person of Jesus Christ, speaking of his birth, miracles, apostles, experience in Gethsemane, crucifixion, resurrection, portrayal in the New Testament, and the way he has been characterized by Christianity. The Course considers itself as an inspired scripture in the lineage of the Bible, but possessing a greater authority. It demonstrates this in over eight hundred biblical allusions in which its author feels no compunction about selectively affirming certain biblical themes while freely correcting others.[1]
The Course focuses upon gaining a better understanding of 'forgiveness'. The workbook endeavors to illuminate the various aspects of forgiveness with daily lessons. It teaches that it is a student's responsibility to correct his or her understanding or perception of his or her fellows, so that a student might correctly perceive the truly holy nature of everyone he or she meets. Once correctly perceived, this frees a student from his or her mistaken belief in victimhood. How can one be a victim when one no longer perceives victimization? The Course teaches that 'Correct perception of your brother is necessary (to correct a student's misperception of his or her separation from God.)' [6]
The Course combines Freudian and Jungian psychology with traditional Christian ideology. The Course representation of the 'Holy Spirit' bears some similarities with the Jungian concept of the collective unconscious, and also with the Freudian representation of the subconscious mind in that all three concepts point to the striking subconscious commonalities of the human psyche that may come from a common source. The Course also acknowledges the human tendency to develop defense mechanisms, such as denial/projection and attack/defend, to keep from the awareness that which is feared. [1] After first laying out a system of inner dynamics that has much in common with traditional Freudian psychology, The Course then claims to offer a certain means of reconciling this system of inner tensions that typically arises from inner conflicts between conscious and subconscious goals. The Course proposes to accomplish this by fundamentally redirecting the energies of the mind towards reconciliation with one's fellows, with one's self, and with one's God via the art of forgiveness and the consequent relinquishment of guilt.
The Course has been considered the single text qualifying as "sacred scripture" in the New Age movement[citation needed], yet author Hugh Prather says it is atypical.[7] The Course has been characterized as a Christianized version of non-dualistic Vedanta where the physical world is just an illusory chimera that can only offer violence, sorrow and pain.[2] Students of the Course seek the ultimate goal of existence in a radically different mode of being than that found in this world.[3]
[edit] Key concepts
Key concepts in the Course include:
- God is neither angry nor vengeful but completely loving towards us;
- God looks upon us as a parent looks upon a sleeping child having bad dreams, knowing no harm is being done, nor can be done, and all that is needed is a gentle awakening;
- God is not the source of our trials and tribulations but we, in our fear of His "wrath," are;
- Forgiveness does not release the guilty, but rather releases guilt;
- Each and every individual has both the ability and the ultimate responsibility of accessing and learning from the Holy Spirit, directly (see "Heresy of the Free Spirit");
- Humanity has not "fallen" but has chosen to forget - and has since seriously mispercieved - the true nature of God;
- Jesus was actually a man just like us - only that he remembered God's love completely. As one who has awakened completely to the awareness of God's love, he can now help us to accomplish the same. As such he serves as our teacher and role model. This belief that Jesus was actually a man was once widespread in the first centuries of the Christian era.
[edit] Origins
The Course was originally penned by Helen Schucman, however Schucman claimed that she thought of herself as a scribe taking down the words of Jesus. Some evidence suggests that for Schucman, Jesus was a symbol of God's love, and that she did not necessarily mean that she was speaking of "Jesus of Nazareth", (i.e., the "historical Jesus" of the New Testament) when she spoke of "Jesus", [8] however the nature and tone of the "Voice" of The Course strongly implies in many cases that this "Voice" was in fact the "Voice" of the Jesus referred to in the New Testament. In 1976, the Course was distributed as a three volume set, [9]which had evolved from Schucman's original notes and comprised of the three sections of the Course: the Text, Workbook, and Manual. [8]
For the first 19 years of its circulation the book was published, printed and distributed directly by the students of the work.[citation needed] In 1995 the printing and distribution of the work was licensed to Penguin Books for five years.[10] The book remains a strong seller within a certain segment of the faith and spirituality book market.[9][not in citation given]
[edit] Drafting the Course
In 1965, Dr. Helen Schucman, an associate professor of medical psychology appointed to the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center,[10] experienced a series of particularly vivid dreams. Soon thereafter, she began to hear a "Voice"[8] she identified as Jesus[11]which would speak to her whenever she was prepared to listen.[8] Schucman reported that she heard from the Voice the words, "This is a course in miracles. Please take notes." Schucman then began to write down what she described as a form of "rapid inner dictation." Over the next seven years, she filled nearly thirty stenographic notebooks with words she received from the Voice—words that would ultimately evolve into the four sections of the Course.[10] Eventually the manuscript totaled 1,500 pages and was placed into black thesis binders. Schucman did not want her co-workers, professors in the psychology department at Columbia Medical Center, to know about the existence of the Course. She was embarrassed by her scribing and considered it her "guilty secret."[10] At the beginning of this process, however, Schucman confided in Dr. William Thetford, a faculty member at Columbia who was her superior and colleague.[8] Schucman and Thetford worked together in private offices in "an air of secrecy,"[10] as they both believed that their professional reputations at Columbia would be adversely affected if their professional peers found out about the Course.[10] Thetford was encouraging, and in their spare time at work, Thetford typed as Schucman dictated aloud from her notes, making occasional revisions. The revisions included, for example, the omission of various references to Schucman's personal life.[8] The manuscript went through two additional drafts, one edited by Schucman alone, and the subsequent one edited by both of them. In the third draft, the manuscript was split into chapters and sections, to which they added titles and headings.[8] This material eventually became the Text.
[edit] Editors
When Schucman experienced some personal difficulties and hesitance after hearing the "inner voice," Thetford, her work supervisor and friend, contacted Hugh Lynn Cayce at his Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, Virginia, to seek his advice and counsel, and Schucman met with Cayce before she began to record the Course.[10]
The earliest known draft of the original manuscript, reads more as a journal than as a study guide and contains material related to the personal lives of Schucman and Thetford (i.e., the author's application of the abstract principles to concrete events in their lives) that was later edited out prior to the work's initial publication. Some of the material edited out appears to have been some extraneous theories about sex which may have been edited out in the hope of maintaining a greater focus on the primary aim of the material (forgiveness) in the published edition. One such section of the Urtext states that "(a).. miricale worker MUST understand (the proper use of sex)."[12] The earliest known draft of the work is commonly referred to as the "Urtext".
A copy of the third draft was given to Cayce in 1970,[8] along witha draft of most of the Workbook.[8]
This more "polished" copy of the manuscript is commonly referred to either as the HLC (after Hugh Lynn Cayce) or the JCIM edition and in 2000 it was published under the title, "Jesus' Course in Miracles".
Father Benedict Groeschel, who had studied under Thetford and had worked with Schucman,[10] arranged for an introduction of Kenneth Wapnick,[10] a psychologist,[8] to Schucman and Thetford in November 1972.[10] In 1973, Schucman and Thetford presented the third draft of the complete manuscript to Wapnick[8] and Groeschel.[10] Wapnick subsequently became a teacher of the Course, co-founder and president of the Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM), and a director and executive committee member of the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP).[10]
Wapnick was a clinical psychologist, who between 1967 and 1972, directed a school for disturbed children and served as chief psychologist at Harlem Valley State Hospital. In 1972 Wapnick abandoned his Jewish faith and sought to convert to Catholicism so he could become a monk. Groeschel, who was a former priest, then a member of a Franciscan order, and who also had a doctorate in psychology, heard of Wapnick's conversion, which interested him, and so they met.[10]
Wapnick reviewed the draft and discussed with Schucman further revisions that were needed to place the book in final form. Over the next thirteen months, Wapnick and Schucman edited the manuscript again, substantially rearranging and deleting material, altering chapter and section headings to make them more consistent with the sections to which they referred, and correcting various inconsistencies in paragraph structure, punctuation, and capitalization.[8] This editing process was completed in approximately February 1975.[10]
[edit] Distribution
The Foundation for Inner Peace (or FIP), was originally called the Foundation for Para-Sensory Investigations, Inc. (FPI)., and was founded on October 21, 1971,[11] by Robert Skutch,[8] and Judith Skutch Whitson.[10] Robert Skutch and Judith Skutch Whitson were married at the time of its inception, and have since become directors.[11] Robert Skutch was a businessman and writer, who had been a writer for many years of television plays and advertising copy.[10] Judith Skutch Whitson was a teacher and lecturer at New York University on the science of the study of consciousness and parapsychology. On May 29, 1975, Dr. Douglas Dean, a physicist engineer, introduced Schucman, Thetford and Wapnick to Judith Skutch Whitson.[10] Soon thereafter, they introduced her to the Course and the four of them met regularly to study, discuss, and share their common enthusiasm for it.[8] At some point in 1975 Schucman appears to have authorized Judith Skutch and Ken Wapnick to initiate the process of copyrighting ACIM and to assume responsibility themselves for the resulting copyright.[11]
In mid-July of 1975, Skutch Whitson met briefly with her doctoral adviser, Dr. Eleanor Criswell, who had a small printing company called Freeperson's Press.[10] Dr. Criswell advised Skutch Whitson that she would be willing to assist in having the manuscript published, took responsibility for the manuscript pages and in August of 1975, they were taken to a Kopy Kat copy center in Berkeley to be reproduced.[10] In August 1975, Skutch Whitson organized a reception at 2000 Broadway in San Francisco, where Schucman and Thetford were introduced to a number of people. During this time period a number of copies were distributed, 100's, according to Skutch Whitson and Skutch.[10] The first edition of 100 copies of the Criswell edition was bound with a yellow cover with a copyright notice.[10] Robert Skutch filed the copyright for ACIM for FIP on November 24, 1975, swearing to a date of first publication as October 6, 1975 in the form of the Freeperson Press edition.[11] Zelda Suplee, director of the Erickson Educational Foundation,[13] a friend of Skutch Whitson, was given a copy of the uncopyrighted manuscript by Skutch Whitson, prior to the publication of the Criswell edition. In 1976 Reed Erickson, a wealthy transsexual philanthropist,[14] received a copy of the manuscript which he used as a basis for study by a group in Mexico. Erickson was the primary financial backer of the first hard bound edition of the Course donating $440,000 for this printing. [10] Later that year the FIP began to publish the Course in a set of three hardcover volumes. Five years later in 1981, Dr. Schucman died of complications related to pancreatic cancer.
In 1983 control of the copyright was transferred to the FACIM as headed by Wapnick. In 1985 the FIP began publishing the three volumes in a more manageable single soft-cover volume, but without any editorial content changes. In 1992 the FIP published a second hardcover edition which contained some editorial content additions and minor changes. Amongst these changes were the addition of a verse numbering system and also the addition of a "Clarification of Terms" section which had been written earlier by Schucman. It was Schucman's desire that a non-profit foundation publish the work.[15] In 1995 FIP entered a five year printing and distribution agreement with Penguin Books for $2.5 million which expired in December of 2000. Currently some copies of some of the earlier draft versions of the book are available both online and through private publishers.
[edit] Litigation
Due to a suit by Penguin, and FIP, brought against the Church of the Full Endeavor for their limited independent publication of selected portions of The Course, it was found that the contents of the FIP first edition, published from 1976 through 1992, as well as the contents of all earlier draft copies, are public domain. The evidence in this case turned on the discovery of an early recorded statement by Judith Skutch Whitson that, "(Prior to 1976) we printed hundreds of copies of (the Criswell edition of ACIM on a Xerox machine).[16] (The Urtext draft of the Course is now available online. See below.) However those parts of the FIP 2nd edition which were added in the second hard-bound edition remain under copyright. Items still under copyright include the verse numbering system and the Clarification of Terms section. Also as a result of the earlier litigation, later in 2005 the US Trademark Office canceled both the Servicemark on "A Course in Miracles" and the Trademark on the acronym, "ACIM".[17]
[edit] Terminology
A notable feature of The Course is its unique choice of language. Author Robert Perry explains: "the meaning that we assign to words grows out of the meaning we see in life--in ourselves, in others, [and] in the world," but the Course is designed to transform the student's thought system, and the lexicon it utilizes is aimed specifically toward this end.[18] "A student of the Course must relearn language," Perry says, and "eventually, all the words treated by the Course trigger and reinforce the Course's perspective in the student"[18] Some notable examples are listed below:
"Atonement"
- Atonement, as used in the Course, is not related to punishment in any way. Rather, it is the undoing of errors (along with their results), errors being those human beliefs which are opposed to God's real thoughts.[citation needed]
"Fantasy" and "ego"
- The Course broadens the application of the word, "fantasy" from a psychological process of imaginary scenarios to one responsible for existence itself: thoughts, behavior, and even the entire world. The end result is that the ego is removed from the student's understanding of language. In the Course, the ego is a false "insane" belief in a false identity; a separate mind living in a separate body. The Course considers the ego in complete opposition to God, fearing its individuality will disappear into God's Love and Oneness, therefore the ego's goal is to conquer and kill God by persuading one to constantly attack. (see also Psychological egoism)[citation needed]
"Miracle impulse"
- A "'miracle impulse" is a naturally occurring creative impulse originating in spirit, as described in The Course. Miracle impulses are experienced in the mind and manifest in phenomenal reality as expressions of love and creativity.[citation needed]
[edit] Criticism
Some Doctrinal Christian apologists have considered it heretical or counterfeit.[19] Author and Yogi, Joel Kramer, states that the Course could be considered a classic authoritarian example of programming thought to change beliefs.[20] Anton van Harskamp, a German scholar of religion, says that the Course contains, "...endless variation on some universally meant insights in life..." that, "...brings readers of the book, [or] in any case this reader, [to] a mood in which bewilderment and boredom take turns".[21] Long time teacher of the Course, Hugh Prather, notes that ACIM students often become, "far more separate and egocentric," with many ultimately, "[losing] the ability to carry on a simple conversation". He admits that he and his wife Gayle, "...had ended up less flexible, less forgiving, and less generous than we were when we first started our path!"[7]
Long time teacher of the Course, Robert Perry, has recently published an extensive analysis of the editing changes made just prior to publication, noting especially the later editors' removal of specific terms and examples originally contained in the manuscript, a fact which has substantially skewed much of the early, foundational material toward the abstract, a fact which renders the serious student far more vulnerable to an extreme detachment to the world and other people (and most likely contributing to the "bewilderment and boredom" mentioned above). [citations needed]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Perry, Robert (2004). Path of Light. Circle Publishing. ISBN 1-886602-23-9. Retrieved on 2006-08-03.
- ^ a b c d e Melton, Gordon J. (1990). New Age Encyclopedia, 1st ed.. Gale Research, Inc., pg. 93.. ISBN 0-8103-7159-6.
- ^ a b c Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (1996). New Age Religion and Western Culture. State University of New York Press, pp. 37-38.. ISBN 0-7914-3854-6.
- ^ (1992) A Course In Miracles. Foundation for Inner Peace, pg. 1. ISBN 0-9606388-9-X.
- ^ (2000) Bible- KJV- Pew version. Oxford University Press, Is-1:1,Ez-1:1. ISBN 0-8340-0346-5.
- ^ Foundation for Inner Peace. "THE INNOCENT PERCEPTION". T-3.V.9.. Robert DiIorio. Retrieved on 2007-03-14.
- ^ a b Prather, Hugh. What is the Course? Will it exist in the 21st Century?. Retrieved on 2006-11-15.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n U.S. District Court Southern District Of New York (21 Jul 2000). Opinion, Case: Civil 4126 (RWS) ruling (#00-07413) summary judgment denied (PDF). Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
- ^ a b Garrett, Lynn (7 Mar 2005). 'Disappearance' Appears Big Time. Publisher's Weekly. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v U.S. District Court Southern District Of New York (24 Oct 2003). Opinion, Case: Civil 4126 (RWS) ruling (#03-08697) dismissing complaint and granting judgment (PDF). Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
- ^ a b c d e U.S. District Court Southern District Of New York (7 May 2003). Opinion, Case: Civil 4126 (RWS) ruling (#03-04125) motion to admit evidence (PDF). Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
- ^ Schucman (ca 1968). ACIM Urtext: 2003 UPE-Ready edition (beginning pg 32, 6th full paragraph, through pg 33, 7th full paragraph.) (PDF). Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
- ^ Devor, Aaron H., Ph.D.. Reed Erickson (1912-1992): How One Transsexed Man Supported ONE. (PDF). Univerisy of Victoria, BCA. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
- ^ Devor, Aaron H., Ph.D.. Reed Erickson and The Erickson Educational Foundation. Univerisy of Victoria, BCA. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
- ^ Ellie Anderson. Copyright Case: A Course In Miracles. The Miracle Times. Retrieved on 2007-03-14.
- ^ " Michael Braunstein (December, 2004). How Jesus Got His Copyright Back (PDF). Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
- ^ U.S. District Court Southern District Of New York (27 Apr 2004). Judgment, Case: Civil 4126 (RWS) ruling (#04-03256) final judgment (PDF). Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
- ^ a b Perry, Robert (1996). A Course Glossary. The Circle of Atonement. ISBN 1-886602-06-9.
- ^ Miller, D. Patrick (Aug 1997). Complete Story of the Course. FEARLESS BOOKS, pg. 2. ISBN 0-9656809-0-8.
- ^ Kramer, Joel; Diana Alstad (2003). The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. North Atlantic Books, 126. ISBN 1-883319-00-5.
- ^ van Harskamp, Anton (17 Nov 2001). A modern Miracle. Bezinningscentrum Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Retrieved on 2006-07-18.
[edit] See also
- A Return to Love
- Association for Research and Enlightenment
- Copyright on religious works
- Endeavor Academy
- Helen Schucman
- Spiritual Counterfeits Project
- William Thetford
[edit] External links
