A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles
A Course in Miracles, Combined Volume, Third Edition as published by Foundation for Inner Peace.
Author(s)	Dr. Helen Schucman
Language	English
Genre(s)	Spiritual life
Publisher	New York: Viking: The Foundation for Inner Peace
Publication date	orig. 1976; 2nd ed., newly rev. 1996
Media type	Softcover, Hardcover, Paperback MME, and Kindle, Sony & Mobipocket ebooks
ISBN	978-1-883360-24-5 Soft cover
OCLC Number	190860865

A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is a self-study curriculum that aims to assist its readers in achieving spiritual transformation. The book describes a purely non-dualistic philosophy of forgiveness and includes what are meant to be practical lessons and applications for the practice of forgiveness in one's daily life. The introduction to the book contains the following summary, "Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."^[1]

No author is listed for the book, but Helen Schucman wrote it with the help of William Thetford, based on what she called an "inner voice" which she identified as Jesus.^[2][3] The 1992 edition, the most recent copyrighted one, is published by the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP), the organization chosen by Schucman for this purpose. It consists of preface, text, workbook for students, manual for teachers (including clarification of terms), and two supplements. Kenneth Wapnick and Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM) were awarded the copyright to this edition after the original copyright was overturned. This edited version earned copyright status since it derives from the original manuscript as edited by Wapnick. FIP reports that two million volumes of ACIM have been published and disseminated worldwide since it first became available for sale in 1976. Additionally, the book has been translated into nineteen different languages with eight new translations underway.^[4][5]

Background

Overview of origins

A Course in Miracles was originally written in a collaborative venture by Schucman and Thetford. In the beginning, the voice (which Schucman claimed to have identified itself earlier to her as Jesus) described them as scribes.^[2]

In 1976, A Course in Miracles was published and distributed as a three-volume set—which had evolved from the original notes—and comprised three books: Text, Workbook for Students, and Manual for Teachers.

During the first 19 years of its circulation, A Course in Miracles was published, printed and distributed directly by the students of the work. In 1995, the printing and distribution of the work was licensed to Penguin Books for five years.

Editors

Kenneth Wapnick

When Schucman experienced some personal difficulties and hesitance after hearing the voice, Bill Thetford, her work supervisor and friend, contacted Hugh Lynn Cayce (son of the celebrity psychic Edgar Cayce) at his Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, Virginia to seek his advice and counsel. Shucman later met with Cayce before she began to record the Course.

Kenneth Wapnick was a clinical psychologist who directed a school for disturbed children and served as chief psychologist at Harlem Valley State Hospital from 1967 through 1972. In 1972, Wapnick left his Jewish faith and converted to Catholicism so he could become a monk.^[6]

Fr. Benedict Groeschel was a priest with a doctorate in psychology and a member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin who studied under Thetford and worked with Schucman. Groeschel arranged an introduction of Wapnick to Schucman and Thetford in November 1972. Groeschel was given a copy of the ACIM manuscript in 1973, and testified that he was instructed by Schucman not to distribute the manuscript; however, with Schucman's permission, he made it available to Wapnick.^[7]

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 by deleting personal material intended only for Schucman and Thetford, creating chapter and section headings, and correcting various inconsistencies in paragraph structure, punctuation, and capitalization.^[8] This editing process was completed by approximately February 1975. 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).

Distribution

Yellow Criswell Version

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 by Robert Skutch and Judith Skutch Whitson. Robert Skutch and Judith Skutch Whitson were married at the time of its inception, and have since become directors. Robert Skutch was a businessman and writer, who for many years had been a writer of television plays and advertising copy. 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, Douglas Dean, a physicist engineer, introduced Schucman, Thetford, and Wapnick to Judith Skutch Whitson. 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. At some point in 1975, Schucman appears to have authorized Skutch Whitson and Ken Wapnick to initiate the process of copyrighting ACIM and to assume responsibility themselves for the resulting copyright.

In mid-July 1975, Skutch Whitson met briefly with her doctoral adviser, Eleanor Criswell, who had a small printing company called Freeperson's Press. Criswell advised Skutch Whitson that she would be willing to assist in having the manuscript published and took responsibility for the manuscript pages, and in August 1975, they were taken to a Kopy Kat copy center in Berkeley, to be reproduced. In August 1975, Skutch Whitson organized a reception at 2000 Broadway, San Francisco, where Schucman and Thetford were introduced to a number of people. During this time period, a number of copies were distributed—hundreds according to Skutch Whitson and Skutch. The first edition of 100 copies of the Criswell edition was bound with a yellow cover and a copyright notice. 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. Zelda Suplee, director of the Erickson Educational Foundation,^[9] 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,^[10] 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.^[11] Later that year the FIP began to publish the Course in a set of three hardcover volumes. Five years later, in 1981, 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. It was Schucman's desire that a non-profit foundation publish the work.^[12]

In 1995, FIP entered a five-year printing and distribution agreement, which expired in December 2000, with Penguin Books for $2.5 million. Currently some copies of some of the earlier draft versions of the book (which may or may not be complete, unadulterated or legal) are available both online and through private publishers.

Copyright litigation

Original logo of FIP, later adopted by the FACIM

Beginning in June, 1996, and ending in April, 2004, a copyright lawsuit initiated by Penguin Books and FIP was brought against the Church of the Full Endeavor (also known as the 'Endeavor Academy') for their unlimited independent publication of substantial portions of A Course in Miracles. It was found that the contents of the FIP first edition, published from 1976 through 1992, are in the public domain. However, copyright in all of the changes introduced in the Second Edition remains intact, as does the copyright for the Text Preface, "Clarification of Terms" found at the end of the Manual for Teachers, and the two supplementary pamphlets, Psychotherapy and Song of Prayer, as well as Schucman's poetry, The Gifts of God. The original unedited (urtext) manuscript of A Course in Miracles, which has been widely published on the internet, was obtained under false pretenses.^[13] This material has been copyrighted separately as The Unpublished Writings of Helen Schucman.^[14]

Post-litigation editions

Since the invalidation of the original copyright, which previously protected substantial portions of the earlier Schucman-ACIM material, various individuals, groups, and group members have worked to study and publish various versions and interpretations of this earlier material. Most notable are the Course in Miracles Society (CIMS), headed by Tom Whitmore, and various initiatives by members of Endeavor Academy, which was founded by the late Charles Buell Anderson. The Course in Miracles Society publishes an online and hard cover edition of ACIM which derives from the urtext manuscript^[15][16] and includes Matthew's Gospel.^[17]

Reception

Since it first became available for sale in 1976, over 2 million copies of A Course in Miracles have been sold worldwide and the text has been translated into sixteen different languages. A Course In Miracles (ACIM) is widely distributed globally, forming the basis of a range of organised groups.^[18] The teachings of A Course in Miracles have been supported by commentators and authors such as Eckhart Tolle.^[19] However, due to ACIM's claims to "clarify" or even supersede^[20] some of the teachings of orthodox Christianity, the book has been judged negatively by some Christians.

Although a friend of Schucman, Thetford, and Wapnik, Benedict J. Groeschel has since criticized ACIM and the related organizations. Finding some elements of the Course to be what he called, "severe and potentially dangerous distortions of Christian theology", he wrote that the Course is “a good example of a false revelation”^[21] and that “it has . . . become a spiritual menace to many.”^[22]

Other Christian authors, such as evangelical Bob Larson, have similarly criticized A Course In Miracles, saying it contradicts basic tenets of Christianity, twisting its core teachings and "deceiving people who are sincerely looking for God." Larson also criticizes ACIM popularizer Marianne Williamson personally, saying that her work on behalf of ACIM denies "essential qualities of faith" such as guilt and forgiveness, and necessitates the Biblically forbidden practice of transpossession mediumship.^[23]

Evangelical editor Elliot Miller says that Christian terminology employed in ACIM is "thoroughly redefined" to resemble New Age teachings. Other Christian critics say ACIM is "intensely anti-Biblical" and incompatible with Christianity, blurring the distinction between creator and created and forcefully supporting the occult and New Age world view.^[24]

Theologian Anton van Harskamp notes that the metaphysics of A Course in Miracles is inconsistent with that of Christianity in that its “story of creation is totally different from the Christian one.” Accordingly to van Harskamp, in looking at "the suffering in the world, 'the Course' says that this world cannot be created by a God.” In the Christian conception “creation is good” “but at the same time it is impossible to say this about everything that exists.”^[25]

Skeptic Robert T. Carroll criticizes ACIM as "a minor industry" that is overly commercialized and characterizes it as "Christianity improved", saying its teachings are not original and suggesting they are culled from "various sources, east and west".^[26]

Despite the high level of criticism that ACIM has received from many Christian theologians and authors, other theologians, both Catholics and Protestants, including Evangelicals, have given ACIM high marks and "glowing endorsements".^[27] In summary, while ACIM's teachings have been heavily denounced by most Christian theologians, the reception has not been uniform or monolithic among Christian clergy and authors. This conflict is anticipated in the Course's Introduction to Clarification of Terms. "They must, however, be willing to overlook controversy, recognizing that it is a defense against truth in the form of a delaying maneuver. Theological considerations as such are necessarily controversial, since they depend on belief and can therefore be accepted or rejected. A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this experience toward which the course is directed."

Notes

References

• Foundation for Inner Peace (1996). A Course in Miracles (2d ed., newly rev.). New York: Viking Penguin. ISBN 0-670-86975-9.
• Foundation for Inner Peace (1992). Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice (2d. ed.). Glen Ellen CA: Foundation for Inner Peace. ISBN 0-9606388-6-5.
• Foundation for Inner Peace (1992). The Song of Prayer: Prayer, Forgiveness, Healing (2d. ed.). Glen Ellen CA: Foundation for Inner Peace. ISBN 0-9606388-4-9.
• Miller, D. Patrick (2008). Understanding A Course in Miracles: The History, Message, and Legacy of a Spiritual Path for Today. Berkeley: Celestial Arts/Random House. ISBN 978-1-58761-312-8. A journalistic overview of the history, major principles, criticism, and cultural effects of ACIM.
• Skutch, Robert (1996). Journey Without Distance: The Story Behind A Course in Miracles. Mill Valley: Foundation for Inner Peace. ISBN 1-883360-02-1. Discusses the pre-publication history of ACIM.
• Vahle, Neal (2009). A Course in Miracles: The Lives of Helen Schucman and William Thetford. San Francisco: Open View Press. ISBN 978-1-61623-788-2. This book shows how Schucman and Thetford were affected by the teaching in ACIM.
• Wapnick, Kenneth (1999). Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles (2d ed.). New York: Foundation for A Course in Miracles. ISBN 0-933291-08-6. Discusses Helen Schucman and the pre-publication history of ACIM.
• Schucman, Helen (1989). The Gifts of God. Berkeley: Celestial Arts. ISBN 0-89087-585-5.  (contains 114 poems that share the spiritual content of the Course as well as the prose poem "The Gifts of God," which summarizes the teachings of the Course)
• Williamson, Marianne (1996). A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-092748-8. Widely-read adaptation of ACIM principles.
• U.S. District Court Southern District Of New York (2003-10-24). "Opinion, Case: Civil 4126 (RWS) ruling (#03-08697) dismissing complaint and granting judgment" (PDF). Archived from the original on 3 July 2006. http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb/Pdf/D02NYSC/03-08697.PDF. Retrieved 2006-07-06. 
• U.S. District Court Southern District Of New York (2000-07-21). "Opinion, Case: Civil 4126 (RWS) ruling (#00-07413) summary judgment denied" (PDF). Archived from the original on 3 July 2006. http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb/Pdf/D02NYSC/00-07413.PDF. Retrieved 2006-07-06. 
• 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). http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb/pdf/D02NYSC/03-04125.PDF. Retrieved 2006-07-06. 

External links

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