This Preface was written in 1977 in response to many requests for an introduction to A Course in Miracles. The first two parts of this Preface, How did it originate? and what is? They were written by Helen Schucman herself; the last part was written using the internal dictation process described below.
This Preface was written in 1977 in response to many requests for an introduction to A Course in Miracles. The first two parts of this Preface, How did it originate? and what is? They were written by Helen Schucman herself; the last part was written using the internal dictation process described below.
How originated?
A Course in Miracles began with the sudden decision of two people to collaborate in achieving a common goal. Those two people were Helen Schucman and William Thetford, professors of medical psychology at Columbia University School of Medicine and Surgery in New York City. It's not really important who those people were, except that what happened shows that with God all things are possible. Both could have been described as anything but spiritual people. The relationship between them was difficult, often tense, and both were highly concerned about their reputation and acceptance on both a personal and professional level.
Their lives, which for the most part were governed by mundane values, barely matched what the Course postulates. Here is how Helen, the person who received the material, describes herself:
A psychologist, educator, intellectually conservative and atheist in ideology, she was working at a highly regarded academic institution, when suddenly something happened that precipitated a chain of events that I could never have predicted. The head of my department unexpectedly announced that he was tired of the feelings of anger and aggressiveness that our attitudes reflected and concluded by saying: "there has to be another way." As if I had been waiting for that sign, I agreed to help him find it. Apparently this course is that other path.
Although their purpose was firm, they had great difficulty in beginning their common enterprise. But they had offered the Holy Spirit the "little dose of goodwill" which, as the Course itself was to stress again and again, is enough to enable the Holy Spirit to use any situation for his purposes and infuse him with his power. .
Continuing Helen's account:
An astonishing three months preceded the start of the writing itself, during which time Bill suggested that I write down the highly symbolic dreams I was having, as well as the strange images that plagued me. Although by then he had gotten me somewhat used to the unexpected, I was still in for a big surprise when I found myself writing: "This is a course in miracles." That was my first contact with the Voice. It was a voice that did not make any sound, but that presented me with a kind of rapid internal dictation that I wrote down in a shorthand notebook. The writing was never automatic. He could interrupt it at any time and then resume it. On many occasions it made me feel very uncomfortable, but I never seriously thought about stopping it. It seemed to be a special mission that somehow, somewhere, I had agreed to carry out. It ended up becoming a true collaborative venture between Bill and me, and I'm sure a lot of its importance lies in that fact. I would write down what the Voice "said," and the next day I would read it to Bill and he would type it up. I guess he also had a special mission, because without his encouragement and support I would never have been able to carry out mine. In total, the process took about seven years. First came the Text, then the Workbook, and finally the Teacher's Manual. The received material has only made a few slight changes without importance. Chapter titles and subheadings were added to the Text, and some of the personal references received at the beginning were omitted from it. Otherwise, the material has not been altered at all.
The names of the people who contributed to the transcription of the Course are not mentioned on the cover of the books because the Course can, and should, rest on its own merits. Their goal is not to lay the groundwork to start yet another cult. Its sole purpose is to offer a way for some people to find their own Inner Teacher.
What is it?
As the title itself indicates, the Course is organized from beginning to end as a teaching resource. It consists of three books: the Text, which has 754 pages, the Exercise Book, with 522, and the Teacher's Manual, which consists of 100. The order that the student must follow when using the books and the way to study them depends, in each case, on your personal needs and preferences.
The study program that the Course proposes was meticulously planned and explained step by step, both in the practical and theoretical order. The Course places more emphasis on practical application than theory, and more on experience than theology. He specifically notes that "a universal theology is impossible, while a universal experience is not only possible but necessary" (Handbook, p. 83). Although its focus is Christian, the Course addresses spiritual themes of a universal nature. It stresses that it is just one of many versions of the universal curriculum, differing from the others only in form. Ultimately, they all lead to God.
The Text is fundamentally theoretical and sets out the concepts on which the Course's system of thought is based. His ideas contain the foundation of the Workbook lessons. Without the practical application that the Workbook provides, the Text would be reduced, for the most part, to a series of abstractions that would not have the necessary force to produce the change in mentality that is the goal of the Course.
The Exercise Book consists of 365 lessons, one for each day of the year. It is not necessary, however, to do the lessons following that rhythm; You can, if you wish, spend more than one day on a given lesson. The instructions only recommend that you not attempt to do more than one lesson per day. The practical nature of the Workbook is underscored in its own introduction, where experience gained through practice is valued more than any previous commitment of a spiritual nature:
Some of the ideas that the workbook presents will be hard for you to believe, while others may seem quite surprising. None of that matters. You are simply asked to apply them as directed. You are not asked to judge them. You are only asked to use them. It is by using them that they will make sense to you, and that will show you that they are true.
Just remember this: you don't have to believe in the ideas, you don't have to accept them, and you don't even have to welcome them. You may even be vehemently opposed to some of them. None of that matters, nor does it diminish its effectiveness. But do not make exceptions when applying the ideas exposed in the workbook. Whatever your reactions to them, use them. Nothing else is required. (Exercise book, p. 2). Finally, the Teacher's Manual, written in question-and-answer form, answers some of the questions students are most likely to ask. It also includes clarifications of some of the terms that the Course uses, and explains them within the theoretical framework of the Text.
The Course does not claim to be the end of learning in and of itself, nor are the Workbook lessons intended to complete the student's learning. In the end, the reader is left in the hands of his own Internal Teacher, who will direct the rest of the learning at his discretion. Although the scope of the Course is very wide, the truth cannot be limited to any finite form, as is clearly indicated in the paragraph that ends the Workbook:
This course is a beginning, not an end. No more specific lessons will be assigned, as they are no longer needed. Hereafter hear only the Voice that speaks 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 unerring guidance and certain Word. (Exercise book, p. 521)
What does it postulate?
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
In this lies the peace of God.
Thus begins A Course in Miracles, which establishes a clear distinction between the real and the unreal, between knowledge and perception. Knowledge is the truth and is governed by a single law: the law of love or God. Truth is unchangeable, eternal and unequivocal. It is possible not to recognize it, but it is impossible to change it. This is so with respect to everything that God created, and only what He created is real. The truth is beyond learning because it is beyond time and all process. It has no opposites, no beginning or end. It simply is. The world of perception, on the other hand, is the world of time, of changes, of beginnings and endings. It is based on interpretations, not facts. It is a world of birth and death, based on our belief in scarcity, loss, separation, and death. It is a world that we learn, rather than something that is given to us; it is selective in its perceptual emphasis, unstable in its mode of operation, and inaccurate in its interpretations.
From knowledge and perception arise two different thought systems that are opposed to each other in everything. In the realm of knowledge there is no thought apart from God because God and His Creation share a single Will. The world of perception, on the other hand, is based on the belief in opposites, in separate wills and in the perpetual conflict that exists between them, and between them and God. What perception sees and hears seems real because it only admits into consciousness that which agrees with the desires of the perceiver. This gives rise to a world of illusions, a world that must be relentlessly defended, precisely because it is not real.
Once someone is trapped in the world of perception, he is trapped in a dream. He cannot escape without help, because everything his senses show him attests to the reality of the dream. God has given us the Answer, the only Means of Escape, the true Helper. The function of his Voice—His Holy Spirit of his—his is to mediate between the two worlds. The Holy Spirit can do that because, while on the one hand he knows the truth, he also recognizes our illusions, even though he does not believe in them. The goal of the Holy Spirit is to help us escape from the world of dreams, teaching us how to change our way of thinking and how to correct our mistakes. Forgiveness is the excellent learning resource that the Holy Spirit uses to bring about this change in our way of thinking. The Course, however, offers its own definition of what forgiveness really is, as well as what the world is.
The world we see simply reflects our internal frame of reference: the prevailing ideas, desires, and emotions in our minds. "Projection gives rise to perception" (Text, p. 497). First we look within and decide what kind of world we want to see; then we project that world out and make it real to us as we see it. We make it real through the interpretations we make of what we are seeing. If we use perception to justify our own mistakes, our anger, our aggressive impulses, our lack of love in whatever form it manifests, we will see a world filled with evil, destruction, malice, envy, and despair. We have to learn to forgive all of this, not because we are "good" or "charitable" in doing so, but because what we see is not real. We have distorted the world with our absurd defenses and therefore we are seeing what is not there. As we learn to recognize our misperceptions, we will also learn to ignore them, that is, to "forgive" them. At the same time, we will forgive ourselves by looking beyond the distorted concepts we have of ourselves, and seeing the Being that God created in us, as us.
Sin is defined as a "lack of love" (Text, p. 12). Since the only thing that exists is love, for the Holy Spirit sin is nothing more than an error that needs correction, instead of something evil that deserves punishment. Our feeling of being inadequate, weak and incomplete stems from the great value we have placed on the "scarcity principle" which governs the world of illusions. From this point of view, we look to others for what we consider to be lacking in ourselves. We "love" another in order to see what we can get out of him. In fact, this is what in the world of dreams is called love. There can be no greater mistake than that, because love is incapable of demanding anything.
Only minds can really unite and what God has united, no man can separate (Text, p. 396). However, true union, which was never lost, is only possible at the level of the Mind of Christ. The "little me" seeks to enlarge itself by obtaining acceptance, possessions and "love" from the external world. The Being that God created needs nothing. He is eternally safe and eternally whole, loved and loving. He seeks to share rather than to obtain; extend instead of project. He has no needs of any kind and only seeks to join others who, like him, are aware of their own abundance.
The special relationships that are established in the world are destructive, selfish and "childishly" self-centered. But if they are given to the Holy Spirit, they can become the most sacred thing on earth: the miracles that point the way back to Heaven. The world uses special relationships as a last resort in favor of exclusion and as a test of the reality of separation. The Holy Spirit transforms them into perfect forgiveness lessons and uses them as a means to wake us from sleep. Each represents an opportunity to heal our perceptions and correct our mistakes. Each one is a new opportunity to forgive ourselves by forgiving others. And each one becomes one more invitation to the Holy Spirit and to the memory of God.
Perception is a function of the body, and, therefore, supposes a limitation of consciousness. Perception sees through the body's eyes and hears through its ears. It produces the limited reactions that it has. The body appears to be largely self-motivated and independent, but in reality it only responds to the intentions of the mind. If the mind uses it to attack, in any way, the body becomes the victim of disease, old age and decrepitude. If the mind, on the other hand, accepts the purpose of the Holy Spirit, the body becomes an effective means of communication with others - invulnerable while it is needed - and then simply discarded when it is no longer needed. By itself, the body is neutral, as is everything in the world of perception. Using it for the goals of the ego or the Holy Spirit depends entirely on what the mind chooses.
The opposite of seeing with the eyes of the body is the vision of Christ, which reflects strength instead of weakness, unity instead of separation, and love instead of fear. The opposite of hearing with the ears of the body is communication through the Voice that speaks for God, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in each one of us. His Voice seems distant and difficult to hear because the ego, which speaks for the false and separate self, seems to speak loudly. However, it is quite the opposite. The Holy Spirit speaks with unmistakable clarity and exerts an irresistible attraction. No one can be deaf to his messages of liberation and hope unless they choose to identify with the body, nor can anyone help but gleefully accept Christ's vision in exchange for his miserable self-image.
The vision of Christ is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the alternative that God has given us against the illusion of separation and the belief in the reality of sin, guilt and death. It is the only correction for all misperceptions: the reconciliation of the seeming opposites on which this world is based.
Its benevolent light shows all things from another point of view, reflecting the thought system that results from knowledge and making the return to God not only possible, but inevitable. What was previously considered an injustice that someone committed against another, now becomes a request for help and unity. Sin, disease, and attack are now seen as false perceptions that cry out for the remedy that comes from tenderness and love. Defenses are abandoned because where there is no attack there is no need for them. The needs of our brothers become ours, because they are our companions on the journey back to God. Without us, they would lose their way. Without them, we could never find ours.
Forgiveness is unknown in Heaven, where it is inconceivable that it could be needed. In this world, however, forgiveness is a necessary correction for all the mistakes we have made. Forgiving others is the only way we can be forgiven ourselves, as it reflects the heavenly law that giving is the same as receiving. Heaven is the natural state of all God's Children as He created them. That is your reality forever, which has not changed because we have forgotten about it.
Forgiveness is the means that will allow us to remember. Through forgiveness we change the world's way of thinking. The forgiven world becomes the threshold of Heaven, because through his mercy we can finally forgive ourselves. By holding no one prisoner of guilt, we set ourselves free. By recognizing Christ in all our brothers, we recognize his Presence in ourselves. By letting go of all our misperceptions, and by not allowing anything from the past to hold us back, we can remember God. Learning can take us no further. When we are ready, God Himself will take the last step that will lead us back to Him.