A Course in Miracles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Course in Miracles (ACIM or the Course), refers to itself as a course of "spiritual psychotherapy" and of spiritual transformation, and is considered by some who study it to be their "spiritual path". ^[1] The earliest public version of the Course, known as the "Urtext", was co-written by Dr. Helen Schucman and 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 Course is based heavily on the premises of eastern religion, but utilizes 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 circulated in 1973, over 1.5 million copies have sold worldwide in sixteen different languages. There are multiple variations of the Course both written and online. ^[4]

Contents 1 Course material 2 Origins 2.1 Drafting the Course 2.2 Editors 2.3 Distribution 2.4 Litigation 3 Terminology 4 Criticism 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Course material

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 one's mind is causally responsible for everything that appears to one as the physical world. ^[1]

The Course teaches an inner turning toward God through the meditation of Jesus Christ. ^[5]. The Course is a 'received' spiritual teaching, and in this sense it is not unlike various sections of the Christian Bible that were 'received' through various types of visions^[6]. 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 characterization 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 on the mastery of the art of 'forgiveness', the primary object being the correction of one's misperceptions so that one no longer perceives one's self as separate from one's brother or from God. Accordingly, The Course teaches that 'Correct perception of your brother is necessary (to correct one's misperception of one's separation from God).' ^[7] Some Doctrinal Christian apologists have considered it heretical or counterfeit. ^[8]

The Course builds upon the original system of Freudian psychology. The Course fully accepts the Freudian concepts of the conscious mind, the unconscious mind. It also acknowledges the human tendency to develop defense mechanisms, such as denial and projection, in an effort to screen off from one's awareness, what one may fear could be inconvenient or uncomfortable truths. After first acknowledging this Freudian system of inner dynamics, The Course then proceeds to propose what it claims to be a way of reconciling this typical system of inner conscious and subconscious tensions, by essentially 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.^[1]

The Course has been considered the single text qualifying as "sacred scripture" in the New Age movement, yet author Hugh Prather says it is atypical.^[9] 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] This is very rare in the New Age movement.^{[citation needed]} Students of the Course seek the ultimate goal of existence in a radically different mode of being than that found in this world.^{[citation needed] [3]}

[edit] Origins

The book or three volume set called A Course in Miracles, ^[10]was originally written by Helen Schucman, ^[11] and licensed to Penguin Books to publish for five years. ^[12] The work is divided into three sections: the Text, Workbook for Students, and the Manual for Teachers. ^[11] It became a spiritual curriculum for many individuals and study groups, ^[10] well over a million copies have been printed and multiple foreign-language editions exist, ^[11]. The book remains a strong seller within a certain segment of the faith and spirituality book market^[10].

[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, ^[12] experienced a series of particularly vivid dreams. Soon thereafter, she began to hear a "Voice" ^[11] she identified as Jesus ^[13]which would speak to her whenever she was prepared to listen. ^[11] 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 three sections of A Course in Miracles. ^[12] 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." ^[12] At the beginning of this process, however, Schucman confided in Dr. William Thetford, a faculty member at Columbia who was her superior and colleague. ^[11] Schucman and Thetford worked together in private offices in "an air of secrecy,"^[12] as they both believed that their professional reputations at Columbia would be adversely affected if their professional peers found out about the Course. ^[12] 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. ^[11] 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. ^[11] This material eventually became the Text.

[edit] Editors

When Schucman experienced some personal difficulties and hesitance after hearing the "inner voice," Thetford 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. ^[12] A copy of the third draft was given to Cayce in 1970, ^[11] along with most of a draft of the Workbook. ^[11] Father Benedict Groeschel, who had studied under Thetford and had worked with Schucman, ^[12] arranged for an introduction of Dr. Kenneth Wapnick,^[12] a psychologist,^[11] to Schucman and Thetford in November 1972.^[12] In 1973, Schucman and Thetford presented the third draft of the complete manuscript to Wapnick ^[11] and Groeschel.^[12] 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). ^[12]

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.^[12]

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, 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. ^[11] This editing process was completed in approximately February 1975. ^[12]

[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, ^[13] by Robert Skutch, ^[11] and Judith Skutch Whitson ^[12]. Skutch and Skutch Whitson were married at the time of its inception, and have since become directors. ^[13] Skutch was a businessman and writer, who had been a writer for many years of television plays and advertising copy. ^[12] 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. ^[12] 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. ^[11] Skutch Whitson and/or FIP received an alleged oral assignment of the right of Helen Schucman to the copyright to A Course in Miracles sometime in 1975. ^[13] No written assignment was ever made, nor does written evidence exist of the oral assignment. ^[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. ^[12] 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. ^[12] a friend of Skutch Whitson, was given a copy of the uncopyrighted manuscript by Skutch Whitson, prior to the publication of the Criswell edition. ^[12] received a copy of the manuscript from Suplee which he used as a basis for study by a group in Mexico. Erickson was the backer of the first bound version of the Course where he donated $440,000 for the first printing.^[12] FPI changed its name to FIP on June 9, 1976 ^[13] due to Schucman's distaste for parasensory investigations. ^[12] In 1976, FIP itself began to publish A Course in Miracles in a set of three hardcover volumes. ^[12]

Five years later, Dr. Schucman died in 1981. ^{[citation needed]}

Two years later control of the alleged copyright was essentially transferred to the FACIM in 1983 when it was organized by Wapnick, the Board of Directors being himself, Judy Skutch Whitson, and her husband Robert Skutch. In 1985 FIP began a second edition, single softcover volume. The third edition (or second hardcover edition) began publishing as a single hardcover volume. Although it was Schucman's directive that only a non-profit foundation publish the work, in 1995 FIP entered a five year licensing agreement with Penguin Books for $2.5 million which expired in December of 2000. Due to a suit by Penguin, and FIP, brought against the Church of the Full Endeavor for teaching students with the manuscript they had obtained, it was found that because of preliminary distribution of the work that the contents of the book are considered public domain.

[edit] Litigation

In 1996, Penguin Books, FIP, and FACIM, sued The New Christian Church of Full Endeavor, and Endeavor Academy, for copyright infringement, asking for one million dollars in damages.

In its response, Endeavor argued that the author is a divine being, and hence The Course is uncopyrightable per the regulations of the US Copyright Office. ^{[citation needed]} In response, the plaintiffs maintained that Helen Schucman was the author.

Penguin and FACIM denied that The Course contains the words of Jesus, is a divine revelation, or is a modern day scripture. Helen Schucman is described as the author of the Course, not its scribe, and Jesus is not mentioned as having a role in the origin of the Course.

The case came to court in 2000 in front of Federal judge Robert Sweet. Oral arguments were heard on cross-motions for partial summary judgment. In its motion, the Church claimed that fraud was committed by not informing the Copyright Office of the true authorship; they also invoked estoppel, based on the claim that for many years Jesus had been presented as the author, and prepublication, distributing copies without notice of copyright prior to any attempt to obtain a copyright.

Sweet rejected the first two claims, which went to the question of authorship, but ruled in favor of the last, which invalidated the copyright. This case has been cited as an example of "holding that copyrighted work entered public domain where it was 'published without notice of copyright prior to copyright registration'", ^[14]and was discussed briefly in a 2002 discussion of issues surrounding representation of overseas litigants in US courts.^[15]

In 2003, the copyright was voided on these earlier versions which placed them in the public domain. ^[11] The US Trademark Office canceled both the Servicemark on "A Course in Miracles" and the Trademark on the acronym, "ACIM" in 2005. ^[16] In a second edition from FIP, additional material and an outline numbering system was added that remain under copyright. ^[17]

[edit] Terminology

A notable feature of The Course is its distinct and very precise 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 of 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:

"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.

"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.

[edit] Criticism

• Joel Kramer states that the Course could be considered a classic authoritarian example of programming thought to change beliefs. ^[19]

• Anton van Harskamp 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." ^[20]

• Long time Course teacher, Hugh Prather, observes 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!".^[9]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Perry, Robert (2004). Path of Light. Circle Publishing. ISBN 1-886602-23-9. Retrieved on 2006-08-03.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Melton, Gordon J. (1990). New Age Encyclopedia, 1st ed.. Gale Research, Inc., pg. 93.. ISBN 0-8103-7159-6.
3. ^ ^{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.
4. ^ Foundation for Inner Peace. About Foundation for Inner Peace. Foundation for Inner Peace. Retrieved on 2006-07-10.
5. ^ Smoley, Richard, Kinney, Jay (1999). Hidden wisdom. Arkana, London, England, pg. 66. ISBN 0-14-019582-3.
6. ^ (2000) Bible- KJV- Pew version. Oxford University Press, Is-1:1,Ez-1:1. ISBN 0-8340-0346-5.
7. ^ Helen Schucman/ (Anonymous). "Beyond Perception" ACIM Text 3:9:2. Foundation for Inner Peace. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.
8. ^ Miller, D. Patrick (Aug 1997). Complete Story of the Course. FEARLESS BOOKS, pg. 2. ISBN 0-9656809-0-8.
9. ^ ^{a b} Prather, Hugh. What is the Course? Will it exist in the 21st Century?. Retrieved on 2006-11-15.
10. ^ ^{a b c} Garrett, Lynn (7 Mar 2005). 'Disappearance' Appears Big Time. Publisher's Weekly. Retrieved on 2006-07-01.
11. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q} 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.
12. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w} 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.
13. ^ ^{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.
14. ^ Sorenson, Amy F.. GROKLAW. Jones, Pamela. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
15. ^ Committee on Professional Responsibility. Proposals to Modify New York Court Rules.... The Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
16. ^ US Government. US Patent and Trademark Office. US Government. Retrieved on 2006-10-15.
17. ^ Perry, Robert. The Earlier Versions and the Editing of A Course in Miracles. Circle of Atonement. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
18. ^ ^{a b} Perry, Robert (1996). A Course Glossary. The Circle of Atonement. ISBN 1-886602-06-9.
19. ^ Kramer, Joel, Diana Alstad (2003). The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. North Atlantic Books, 126. ISBN 1-883319-00-5.
20. ^ source unknown

[edit] See also

• Helen Schucman
• William Thetford
• Forgiveness
• Endeavor Academy
• A Return to Love
• Disappearance of the Universe
• Penguin Books
• Association for Research and Enlightenment
• Copyright on religious works

[edit] External links

• Circle of Atonement
• Foundation for A Course in Miracles
• The Endeavor litigation
• Translations by Foundation for Inner Peace
• Religious Movements, hosted by the University of Virginia
• re. Cayce: Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE)
• re. Groeschel: Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR
• re. Litigation: New Christian Church of Full Endeavor (NCCFE)
• 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 2006-07-06.