A Course in Miracles by The Foundation for Inner Peace

[Micheal Jack]

A Course in Miracles is a set of self-study materials published by the Foundation for Inner Peace. The book's content is metaphysical, and explains forgiveness as placed on daily life. Curiously, nowhere does the book have an author (and it is so listed without an author's name by the U.S. Library of Congress). However, the writing was compiled by Helen Schucman (deceased) and William Thetford; Schucman has related that the book's material is founded on communications to her from an "inner voice" she claimed was Jesus. The initial version of the book was published in 1976, with a revised edition published in 1996. The main content is a teaching manual, and students workbook. Since the initial edition, the book has sold several million copies, with translations into nearly two-dozen languages.

 

The book's origins may be traced back to the early 1970s; Helen Schucman first experiences with the "inner voice" led to her then supervisor, William Thetford, to make contact with Hugh Cayce at the Association for Research and Enlightenment. Consequently, an introduction to Kenneth Wapnick (later the book's editor) occurred. At the time of the introduction, Wapnick was clinical psychologist david hoffmeister books. After meeting, Schucman and Wapnik spent over annually editing and revising the material. Another introduction, now of Schucman, Wapnik, and Thetford to Robert Skutch and Judith Skutch Whitson, of the Foundation for Inner Peace. The initial printings of the book for distribution were in 1975. Since then, copyright litigation by the Foundation for Inner Peace, and Penguin Books, has established that this content of the initial edition is in the public domain.

 

A Course in Miracles is a teaching device; the course has 3 books, a 622-page text, a 478-page student workbook, and an 88-page teachers manual. The materials may be studied in the order chosen by readers. This content of A Course in Miracles addresses both theoretical and the practical, although application of the book's material is emphasized. The writing is mainly theoretical, and is a basis for the workbook's lessons, which are practical applications. The workbook has 365 lessons, one for every single day of the entire year, though they don't have to be done at a rate of just one lesson per day. Perhaps most just like the workbooks that are familiar to the average reader from previous experience, you are asked to use the material as directed. However, in a departure from the "normal", the reader isn't required to believe what's in the workbook, as well as accept it. Neither the workbook nor the Course in Miracles is meant to complete the reader's learning; simply, the materials really are a start.

A Course in Miracles distinguishes between knowledge and perception; truth is unalterable and eternal, while perception is the world of time, change, and interpretation. The entire world of perception reinforces the dominant ideas inside our minds, and keeps us separate from the facts, and separate from God. Perception is restricted by the body's limitations in the physical world, thus limiting awareness. A lot of the knowledge of the world reinforces the ego, and the individual's separation from God. But, by accepting the vision of Christ, and the voice of the Holy Spirit, one learns forgiveness, both for oneself and others.