Course in Miracles

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 peace—or remembering God—is 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."