A
Course
in Miracles
1- How It Came About
2- What It Is
3 - What It Says
In
1977 in response to many requests for a brief introduction to A Course
in Miracles, Helen Schucman wrote the following, which appears as the
Preface to the Course in the Text.
The first two parts: "How It Came"
and "What It Is," Helen wrote
herself.
The final part, "What It Says,"
she scribed through the process of inner dictation.
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1- How It Came About
A Course in Miracles began with the sudden
decision of two people to join in a common goal. Their names were Helen
Schucman and William Thetford, Professors of Medical Psychology at
Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York
City. They were anything but spiritual. Their relationship with each
other was difficult and often strained, and they were concerned with
personal and professional acceptance and status. In general, they had
considerable investment in the values of the world. Their lives were
hardly in accord with anything that the Course advocates. Helen, the
one who received the material, describes herself:
Psychologist,
educator, conservative in theory and atheistic in belief, I was working
in a prestigious and highly academic setting. And then something
happened that triggered a chain of events I could never have predicted.
The head of my department unexpectedly announced that he was tired of
the angry and aggressive feelings our attitudes reflected, and
concluded that, "there must be another way." As if on cue I agreed to
help him find it. Apparently this Course is the other way.
Although their intention was serious,
they had great difficulty in starting out on their joint venture. But
they had given the Holy Spirit the "little willingness" that, as the
Course itself was to emphasize again and again, is sufficient to enable
Him to use any situation for His purposes and provide it with His power.
To continue Helen's first-person
account:
Three startling
months preceded the actual writing, during which time Bill suggested
that I write down the highly symbolic dreams and descriptions of the
strange images that were coming to me. Although I had grown more
accustomed to the unexpected by that time, I was still very surprised
when I wrote, "This is a course in miracles." That was my introduction
to the Voice. It made no sound, but seemed to be giving me a kind of
rapid, inner dictation which I took down in a shorthand notebook. The
writing was never automatic. It could be interrupted at any time and
later picked up again. It made me very uncomfortable, but it never
seriously occurred to me to stop. It seemed to be a special assignment
I had somehow, somewhere agreed to complete. It represented a truly
collaborative venture between Bill and myself, and much of its
significance, I am sure, lies in that. I would take down what the Voice
"said" and read it to him the next day, and he typed it from my
dictation. I expect he had his special assignment, too. Without his
encouragement and support I would never have been able to fulfill mine.
The whole process took about seven years. The Text came first, then the
Workbook for Students, and finally the Manual for Teachers. Only a few
minor changes have been made. Chapter titles and subheadings have been
inserted in the Text, and some of the more personal references that
occurred at the beginning have been omitted. Otherwise the material is
substantially unchanged.
The names of the collaborators in the recording of the
Course do not appear on the cover because the Course can and should
stand on its own. It is not intended to become the basis for another
cult. Its only purpose is to provide a way in which some people will be
able to find their own Internal Teacher.
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2-
What It Is
As its title implies, the Course is arranged throughout as a
teaching device. It consists of three books: a 622-page Text, a
478-page Workbook for Students, and an 88-page Manual for Teachers. The
order in which students choose to use the books, and the ways in which
they study them, depend on their particular needs and preferences.
The curriculum the Course proposes is carefully conceived and
is explained, step by step, at both the theoretical and practical
levels. It emphasizes application rather than theory, and experience
rather than theology. It specifically states that "a universal theology
is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but
necessary." (Manual, p. 77) Although Christian in statement, the Course
deals with universal spiritual themes. It emphasizes that it is but one
version of the universal curriculum. There are many others, this one
differing from them only in form. They all lead to God in the end.
The Text is largely theoretical, and sets forth the concepts
on which the Course's thought system is based. Its ideas contain the
foundation for the Workbook's lessons. Without the practical
application the Workbook provides, the Text would remain largely a
series of abstractions which would hardly suffice to bring about the
thought reversal at which the Course aims.
The Workbook includes 365 lessons, one for each day of the
year. It is not necessary, however, to do the lessons at that tempo,
and one might want to remain with a particularly appealing lesson for
more than one day. The instructions urge only that not more than one
lesson a day should be attempted. The practical nature of the Workbook
is underscored by the introduction to its lessons, which emphasizes
experience through application rather than a prior commitment to a
spiritual goal:
Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to
believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not
matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to
do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use
them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show
you that they are true.
Remember only this; you need not
believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even
welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will
matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make
exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever
your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is
required (Workbook, p. 2).
Finally, the Manual for Teachers, which is written in
question and answer form, provides answers to some of the more likely
questions a student might ask. It also includes a clarification of a
number of the terms the Course uses, explaining them within the
theoretical framework of the Text.
The Course makes no claim to finality, nor are the Workbook
lessons intended to bring the student's learning to completion. 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. While
the Course is comprehensive in scope, truth cannot be limited to any
finite form, as is clearly recognized in the statement at the end of
the Workbook:
This
Course is a beginning, not an end...No more specific lessons are
assigned, for there is no more need of them. Henceforth, hear but the
Voice for God...He will direct your efforts, telling you exactly what
to do, how to direct your mind, and when to come to Him in silence,
asking for His sure direction and His certain Word (Workbook, p. 487).
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3
- What It Says
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
This is how A Course in Miracles
begins. It makes a
fundamental distinction between the real and the unreal; between
knowledge and perception. Knowledge is truth, under one law, the law of
love or God. Truth is unalterable, eternal, and unambiguous. It can be
unrecognized, but it cannot be changed. It applies to everything that
God created, and only what He created is real. It is beyond learning
because it is beyond time and process. It has no opposite; no beginning
and no end. It merely is.
The world of perception, on the other
hand, is the world of
time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is based on
interpretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and death,
founded on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation, and death. It is
learned rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases,
unstable in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations.
From knowledge and perception
respectively, two distinct
thought systems arise which are opposite in every respect. In the realm
of knowledge no thoughts exist apart from God, because God and His
Creation share one Will. The world of perception, however, is made by
the belief in opposites and separate wills, in perpetual conflict with
each other and with God. What perception sees and hears appears to be
real because it permits into awareness only what conforms to the wishes
of the perceiver. This leads to a world of illusions, a world which
needs constant defense precisely because it is not real.
When you have been caught in the
world of perception you are
caught in a dream. You cannot escape without help, because everything
your senses show merely witnesses to the reality of the dream. God has
provided the Answer, the only Way out, the true Helper. It is the
function of His Voice, His Holy Spirit, to mediate between the two
worlds. He can do this because, while on the one hand He knows the
truth, on the other He also recognizes our illusions, but without
believing in them. It is the Holy Spirit's goal to help us escape from
the dream world by teaching us how to reverse our thinking and unlearn
our mistakes. Forgiveness is the Holy Spirit's great learning aid in
bringing this thought reversal about. However, the Course has its own
definition of what forgiveness really is just as it defines the world
in its own way.
The world we see merely reflects our
own internal frame of
reference—the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds.
"Projection makes perception" (Text, p. 445). We look inside first,
decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world
outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by
our interpretations of what it is we are seeing. If we are using
perception to justify our own mistakes—our anger, our impulses to
attack, our lack of love in whatever form it may take—we will see a
world of evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair. All this we must
learn to forgive, not because we are being "good" and "charitable," but
because what we are seeing is not true. We have distorted the world by
our twisted defenses, and are therefore seeing what is not there. As we
learn to recognize our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past
them or "forgive." At the same time we are forgiving ourselves, looking
past our distorted self-concepts to the Self That God created in us and
as us.
Sin is defined as "lack of love"
(Text, p. 11). Since love
is all there is, sin in the sight of the Holy Spirit is a mistake to be
corrected, rather than an evil to be punished. Our sense of inadequacy,
weakness, and incompletion comes from the strong investment in the
"scarcity principle" that governs the whole world of illusions. From
that point of view, we seek in others what we feel is wanting in
ourselves. We "love" another in order to get something ourselves. That,
in fact, is what passes for love in the dream world. There can be no
greater mistake than that, for love is incapable of asking for anything.
Only minds can really join, and whom
God has joined no man
can put asunder (Text, p. 356). It is, however, only at the level of
Christ Mind that true union is possible, and has, in fact, never been
lost. The "little I" seeks to enhance itself by external approval,
external possessions, and external "love." The Self That God created
needs nothing. It is forever complete, safe, loved, and loving. It
seeks to share rather than to get; to extend rather than project. It
has no needs and wants to join with others out of their mutual
awareness of abundance.
The special relationships of the
world are destructive,
selfish, and childishly egocentric. Yet, if given to the Holy Spirit,
these relationships can become the holiest things on earth—the miracles
that point the way to the return to Heaven. The world uses its special
relationships as a final weapon of exclusion and a demonstration of
separateness. The Holy Spirit transforms them into perfect lessons in
forgiveness and in awakening from the dream. Each one is an opportunity
to let perceptions be healed and errors corrected. Each one is another
chance to forgive oneself by forgiving the other. And each one becomes
still another invitation to the Holy Spirit and to the remembrance of
God.
Perception is a function of the body,
and therefore
represents a limit on awareness. Perception sees through the body's
eyes and hears through the body's ears. It evokes the limited responses
which the body makes. The body appears to be largely self-motivated and
independent, yet it actually responds only to the intentions of the
mind. If the mind wants to use it for attack in any form, it becomes
prey to sickness, age, and decay. If the mind accepts the Holy Spirit's
purpose for it instead, it becomes a useful way of communicating with
others, invulnerable as long as it is needed, and to be gently laid by
when its use is over. Of itself it is neutral, as is everything in the
world of perception. Whether it is used for the goals of the ego or the
Holy Spirit depends entirely on what the mind wants.
The opposite of seeing through the
body's eyes is the vision
of Christ, which reflects strength rather than weakness, unity rather
than separation, and love rather than fear. The opposite of hearing
through the body's ears is communication through the Voice for God, the
Holy Spirit, which abides in each of us. His Voice seems distant and
difficult to hear because the ego, which speaks for the little,
separated self, seems to be much louder. This is actually reversed. The
Holy Spirit speaks with unmistakable clarity and overwhelming appeal.
No one who does not choose to identify with the body could possibly be
deaf to His messages of release and hope, nor could he fail to accept
joyously the vision of Christ in glad exchange for his miserable
picture of himself.
Christ's vision is the Holy Spirit's
gift, God's alternative
to the illusion of separation and to the belief in the reality of sin,
guilt, and death. It is the one correction for all errors of
perception; the reconciliation of the seeming opposites on which this
world is based. Its kindly light shows all things from another point of
view, reflecting the thought system that arises from knowledge and
making return to God not only possible but inevitable. What was
regarded as injustices done to one by someone else, now becomes a call
for help and for union. Sin, sickness, and attack are seen as
misperceptions calling for remedy through gentleness and love. Defenses
are laid down because where there is no attack there is no need for
them. Our brothers' needs become our own, because they are taking the
journey with us as we go to God. Without us they would lose their way.
Without them we could never find our own.
Forgiveness is unknown in Heaven,
where the need for it
would be inconceivable. However, in this world, forgiveness is a
necessary correction for all the mistakes that we have made. To offer
forgiveness is the only way for us to have it, for it reflects the law
of Heaven that giving and receiving are the same. Heaven is the natural
state of all the Sons of God as He created them. Such is their reality
forever. It has not changed because it has been forgotten.
Forgiveness is the means by which we
will remember. Through
forgiveness the thinking of the world is reversed. The forgiven world
becomes the gate of Heaven, because by its mercy we can at last forgive
ourselves. Holding no one prisoner to guilt, we become free.
Acknowledging Christ in all our brothers, we recognize His Presence in
ourselves. Forgetting all our misperceptions, and with nothing from the
past to hold us back, we can remember God. Beyond this, learning cannot
go. When we are ready, God Himself will take the final step in our
return to Him.
A
Course in Miracles
Perpetual
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& Journal
with
365
Daily Lesson
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1999-2008
Ananda and John McIntosh.
