STUDY GROUPS & SEMINARS

Fridays at 11:00 am to Noon on ZOOM

A Course in Miracles – often abbreviated ACIM of simply called the Course – is a complete self-study spiritual thought system. As a three-volume curriculum consisting of a Text, Workbook for Students, and Manual for Teachers, it teaches that the way to universal love and peace – or remembering God - is by undoing guilt through forgiving others. The Course thus focuses on the healing of relationships and making them holy. A Course in Miracles also emphasizes that it is but one version of the universal curriculum, of which there are “many thousands.” Consequently, even though the language of the Course is that of traditional Christianity, it expresses a non-sectarian, non-denominational spirituality. A Course in Miracles, therefore, is a universal spiritual teaching, not a religion.

The Text presents the theory of the Course and has built into its study the development of the experience of forgiveness that is the Course’s goal for the student. In this regard, A Course in Miracles states that “its goal for you is happiness and peace.” (T-13.11.7:1) The Text also explains the basis for fear and guilt, and how they can be overcome through miracles, which are defined as maximal “expressions of love.” The miracle is defined as the shift in perception from fear to love.

The Workbook for Students includes clarification of a number of terms the Course uses, explaining them within the theoretical framework of the Text and for their practical application through the Workbook.

A Course in Miracles was “scribed” by Dr. Helen Schucman through a process of inner dictation that she identified as coming from Jesus. A clinical and research psychologist and tenured Associate Professor of Medical Psychology, she was assisted by Dr. William Thetford, her department head, who was also a tenured Professor of Medical Psychology an the Medical Center where they both worked.

What exactly, then, is A Course in Miracles? The summary from its Introduction, which appears on page one of the Text, is quite succinct and brief but describes its core teaching perfectly. It reads:

“This Course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way: Nothing real can threatened. Nothing unreal exists.”