A Course in Miracles: The Book for Our Time

The New York Times Styles section had this great article on the growing hunger for spirituality as the new obsession for New York's Carrie Bradshaws. Sure, the pop culture reference is fun, but spirituality is a lot more than visualizing your perfect husband or landing an article in the Style's section. It's seeing love--God--in all situations, in yourself, in everyone you meet, something that takes serious practice, study, and dedication--especially in this city.

The best thing about this growing movement--yes, I've seen my friends replace retail therapy with meditation--is that it's introducing more and more people to A Course in Miracles (ACIM). Marianne Williamson and Eckhart Tolle, spiritual advisors on Oprah, derive their books and teachings from this life-changing course.

As someone who studies the written word, I've never seen writing like ACIM, and I studied psychology and intellectual history in college. The best way to describe it is thought-level writing. This is not a book written by man, "written down" yes...

In New York in the 1960s, Helen Schucman and William Thetford, Professors of Medical Psychology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, worked in a stressful office and had a lot of tension between them. Think of your most annoying co-worker drama--theirs was like that. Thetford finally said to her, in an impassioned speech: there must be a better way. To which Schucman surprised him by responding: "I agree with you, Bill, and I will help you find it." In that moment, they chose peace instead of attack and all of heaven rushed to help them in strengthening that choice, as ACIM, the book they went on to produce, would explain.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-chalupa/a-course-in-miracles-the_b_293142.htmAnd that's when the voice came to her, saying simply: This is a course in miracles. Please take notes.

Schucman then had a series of vivid dreams leading up to hearing a voice that told her: "This is a course in miracles. Please take notes." She knew she had to work with her colleague and make peace with him.  She did, and at first they kept it secret as they worked as scribes for The Voice, afraid their colleagues in academia would be appalled. Over the years, writing down the teachings of The Voice, they produced the door-stopper sized text, which is Jesus Christ clarifying his original teachings, which, as we know, have been lost and twisted from their original meaning for many.  

Though it's a huge book, which I like to use as my magic eight ball of answers, ACIM has a simple message it gently teaches in a coaching, loving Voice, in the Voice of Christ: you have two choices when it comes to your freedom of choice--fear and love. That's it--that's what every "problem" in the world boils down to. And fear cannot exist since it is not a part of God, because anything outside of God is death. Then you simply have one choice--and that is love. Love is life and peace, and a mind at peace communicates with God. Communication with God is life, creativity, limitless power. Anything that makes you feel small, jealous, angry, guilty, vengeful springs from fear, products of the ego that just want to destroy you. That is the only temptation, to resist attack in all its many forms. Because when you attack, you're attacking yourself and cutting off communication with God.

When people ask, how can there be a God when there's so much pain and suffering in the world, God didn't create that, we did. But the current darkness is falling away like eroded cliffs under the deluge of spiritual hunger. And this is one trend that will win out.

If you want to study more on ACIM, I recommend this helpful site: http://www.circleofa.org/index.php

Special thanks to: http://www.fromoutoftheblue.com/

 

 

 

 

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Comments

[Alban Fenle]

Yes, Andrea, I totally agree and experienced it, too. There is no other work or book that comes close to what A Course In Miracles is. It is great to see it getting attention here. Have you seen the documentary film, A Course In Miracles Unleashed, which was released last year in September? You might want to check it out: http://acourseinmiraclesmovie.com/

[DrD]

Thanks for writing about A Course in Miracles. I've been studying, practicing and teaching A Course in Miracles for 29 years. It's still the foundation of my spiritual practice. It's thought system is unparalleled in any other tradition or practice I've studied. It simply says that there are two ways to see the world: either through the eyes of fear or the eyes of love. Although this idea is simple, it's not easy in practice. The Course focused on healing relationships and taking responsibility for all our fearful past choices that were based on a limited understanding of who we are. The course says we are spritual beings and nothing we have ever done or that has been done to us has changed that. I have a course podcast and a relationship blog that are all based on The Course. 29 years ago, the course saved my life and it is still the frame through which I picture life. The longer I've worked with it, the more profound the teachings have become.

[InPursuitofJoy]

I enjoyed this article very much. I have not read ACIM but I want to. The idea that love and fear are mutually exclusive emotional states makes a great deal of sense to me. I am a recovering alcoholic and former depressed person. In my recovery I learned that the way to push fear out of the way of my recovery was through love--either mine or someone else's. I wrote about this in my book "In Pursuit of Joy" and in my blog http://inpursuitofjoy.com/. I learned in my recovery that we are spiritual beings and the way to connect with that spirituality is through unconditional love and acceptance of ourself and others.

[ACIM-Speaks]

Hello, thanks for the article on A Course in Miracles. One paragraph could use some correction though.

The paragraph beginning with "In New York in the 1970's..." is inaccurate. The event referred to, and the scribing of the Course, started in the 1960's. To say that Helen and Bill hated each other is quite an exaggeration. They worked together in what we might call a stressful environment and they had their own personal difficulties with each other. It was after a particularly difficult meeting, that they both attended, that Bill said, after a little speech, "There must be a better way." And Helen replied, "I agree with you, Bill, and I will help you find it." Both of these declarations surprised both Helen and Bill. This took place in the spring of 1965 and the scribing began in the fall of 1965. The Course was published in the 1970's.

I write about A Course in Miracles on http://www.fromoutoftheblue.com

[c-lupa]

Very cool! I read a general account that described it the way I did, so thanks for the info--will update!

[cktirumalai]

My own approach is something like this, not that I apply it consciously all the time. Do I feel at least as fresh today as I did yesterday, most of the time? If not what is it that I can change or put right? As the years go by, the Law of Entropy, which decrees that there is less personal energy to go around begins to exert its grip. Small daily miracles can hold Entropy in check.

[bokiluis]

I am a big proponent of "A Course in Miracles". It is not an easy book to read. In fact, it took me a few years to finally absorb it. It is the type of book that sometimes you need to reread a section several times before you fully retain it. In San Francisco, there is an actual center based on the book. I keep promising myself that I will look further into it, but, still haven't cross that cavern as of yet. You have inspired me to pick it up again though since I keep it by my bedside in replace of a bible. I am a recovering ex-Catholic (is that a double negative?) and lost faith after my parents transitioned on. I think your assessment of "fear and love", and since fear is not of God, leaving only love is probably the easiest synopsis of this wonderful book. Diana Ross once shared that she wakes up in the morning and ask herself "am I holding on to faith or fear" each day.....which is a good way to represent myself when anxiety strikes. By the way, Diana has followed the spiritual teachings of Marianne Williamson and similar other leaders. And so do I.