Seomypassion

In 1965, Columbia University clinical psychologist Helen Schucman heard an inner voice that prompted her to start writing a course in miracles. Since then, this spiritual masterpiece has touched the lives of millions around the world.

This Original Edition includes all the original text of the Course as it was a course in miracles completed in 1972 before significant edits were made. It preserves the conversational tone and unified sequence of the original typescript.
The Story

The Course in Miracles is a modern spiritual classic that has changed the lives of millions of people. However, many people are not aware that there are actually several different versions of this book, and that some of these editions differ significantly from one another. This article will explore the history of the Course, and explain the differences between these various versions.

In 1965, Helen Schucman began receiving inner dictation that would lead to the writing of A Course in Miracles. This process of inner dictation would continue for ten years, culminating in the publication of the three-volume set of books by the Foundation for Inner Peace in 1976. Since then, the Course has spread to people from all walks of life and from every major religion. It is a profoundly transformational work that uses an easy-to-understand format, and offers an approach to finding inner peace that has become very popular with people worldwide.

After the Course was published, Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford worked with Ken Wapnick to make revisions to the manuscript. This included changing punctuation, capitalization, and section headings, as well as adding material to clarify terms. In addition, they removed some personal material from the text. This material was primarily related to Helen and Bill, such as their own relationships with Jesus, their family, friends, and co-workers. There was also some commentary on psychologists such as Freud, though the psychology in the Course deviates from that of Freud in most respects.

When the revised manuscript was complete, Helen and Bill gave it to Hugh Lynn Cayce, son of Edgar Cayce, to see if he would publish it. He declined, but he did tell them that the revisions made were very accurate and had been done with a high degree of integrity.

Several years later, the original version of the Course was discovered in the archives at the Foundation for Inner Peace. This version was then renamed the Original Edition, and was released by CIMS in November 2006, along with a new version of the Workbook and a more up-to-date Manual for Teachers.
The Text

In 1965 Columbia University clinical psychologist Helen Schucman heard an inner voice which sparked the writing of a modern spiritual classic, A Course in Miracles. The voice identified itself as Jesus and commanded her to write down what it said. She did so, although the process was startling and at times uncomfortable. It is a book that is spiritual rather than religious and whose ontology, or way of viewing the world, transcends traditional Christian beliefs. While it may at first seem startling and unbelievable, persistance and open-mindedness will reward the reader.

During the years that followed, she transcribed and typed up her handwritten notes on a daily basis and shared them with her close friend Ken Wapnick. The two worked together to bring the Course into print and acquaint it with a worldwide audience. They made major changes in the text, including chapter and section titles, and did extensive line-by-line editing. They also removed a great deal of material that seemed personal and not appropriate to the larger course.

The work was published in 1975 by the Foundation for Inner Peace and has since spread throughout the world. It is a self-study curriculum for retraining the mind in the experience of love, a change that affects the whole world. It is a spiritual classic that addresses universal themes, expresses a profound ontology, and has the capacity to enliven every human being.

This pocket edition of the Course’s Text volume is the original text as completed by Schucman and Thetford in 1972 before significant edits were made. It is the version of the Course that was first printed by the CIMS as Jesus’ Course in Miracles and distributed until it was stopped by copyright litigation in early 2006.

The reprinting of this Text volume is a major step forward for ACIM and is intended to make the Course more widely available to those who do not yet have access to a hardcopy of the Original Edition. It is designed to be a companion to the popular Pocket Edition Workbook/Manual, as it shares the same size and format.
The Workbook

In 1965, Columbia University professor Helen Schucman heard a voice within her that would spark the writing of this modern spiritual classic. The Course, which combines profound spiritual teachings with far-reaching psychological insights, has touched the lives of millions of people worldwide.

This version of the Course is a new edition that restores many deleted passages and corrects a fair number of errors that went unnoticed in previous editions. It has also been edited to be more consistent with the original manuscript, which was typed by Bill Thetford from Helen’s shorthand notes. In addition, all of the retypings of the original three books were carefully checked against the urtext, which consisted of Helen’s own retyped transcripts, as well as her original shorthand notebooks. This process was a labor of love, and one that took many months.

The reinserted material is in the form of additional footnotes. In most cases, the new footnotes clarify points that were unclear or confusing in the original text. The retyped text is otherwise unchanged, and in many cases contains the same wording as the original edition.

Some students and teachers of A Course in Miracles have never realized that there are more than one version of the book, or that the different versions contain a great deal of the same information. Others have noticed that the early parts of the Course seem to be less “stratospheric,” or more down-to-earth, than the later portions. That’s because many of the early passages were removed by Helen and Bill in order to avoid revealing personal instructions meant for them alone. This is understandable, given the controversial nature of the early explanations about sex, relationships, and the relationship between mind and consciousness that were contained in those early chapters. However, it is now clear that much of the material removed was not personal and should have remained in the Course. As a result, many students of ACIM will find the restored early passages a very useful bridge into the lofty principles of the later material. The clarity of the early passages also provides a very useful perspective in comparison with the more formal language used throughout the rest of the text.
The Manual for Teachers

Everyone familiar with the Course knows that it consists of three volumes: the Text, the Workbook for Students and the Manual for Teachers. While the Workbook and the Text are designed to be read and practiced, the Teacher’s Guide is meant to be taught. And yet, many ACIM teachers and students don’t fully understand what the Teacher’s Guide is for or how it is supposed to be used.

The question arises, how is the teacher to be trained for this role? And the answer is, of course, by reading the Teacher’s Guide. The Manual for Teachers explains how the teacher of God will be trained in the healing process and will be given the authority to teach what the Course says. The manual includes seven chapters that describe the teacher’s function in detail, based on a particular assumption: that “the patient” is someone who has projected their own mind’s illness onto their physical body (see Sections 5,6,7,8,21,22,23 of the Text). The Teacher’s Guide then guides the teacher of God to release this project and heal the individual.

When ACIM was first published, it included the 1972 manuscript of the Text along with a Workbook and a Manual for Teachers. This is the book known as the Original Edition of A Course in Miracles. A few minor changes were made to the Text and the Workbook for Students before publication. These changes were to correct typographic errors and misspellings, to standardize punctuation and capitalization, to add page numbers, and to format the material for print. The content of the Course, however, remained unchanged.

Since then, a number of different versions have been produced of A Course in Miracles. One of these, the Sparkle Edition, was produced for the purpose of allowing people to experience a reading of the Text and the Workbook for Students without purchasing the Original Edition. However, this Sparkle Edition does not include the Introduction and a few other paragraphs found in the Original Edition. It also contains additional information sourced from the URTEXT (first typings of the scribe’s notes) that did not appear in the final HLC manuscript.