A Course In Miracles: Key Concepts and How it Came to Be
WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
A Course in Miracles was channeled beginning in 1965 and continuing for seven years until 1972 through a clinical and research psychologist from Columbia University by the name of Helen Schucman. For many years, Helen worked beside colleague and fellow research psychologist William Thetford, in which they had difficulty within the department, as well as personally. In a conversation shortly before A Course in Miracles was written, Bill expressed his deep concern that there must be another way to live, work, and find peace in this world. It has often been said that the Course came through Helen to answer this very question, not only between the two of them, but for the rest of the world.
Shortly afterward, Helen had a series of visions and very vivid dreams followed by hearing a deep inner voice. She felt instructed, almost required to write down what was being dictated. She collaborated with her colleague William Thetford on what was coming through her. Each day she would bring in the writing that came through the previous day, and Bill would type it out. Together they made sure that every word written was recorded and protected in the way that it was received. It was very clear to both of them that the words and the information provided was beyond anything Helen could have possibly written herself.
Shortly after the Course was completed, they met a man named Kenneth Wapnick, with a doctorate in psychology, who was planning to begin his life as a monk. Upon meeting Helen and Bill and reading portions of the text, Ken knew immediately the information was beyond anything any person could have written. The words were so beautifully written and deeply spiritual in meaning, that he felt its Divine inspiration. He committed to help them edit the book and abolished his plans to live as a monk.
Together the three of them, Helen, Bill, and Ken went through every word making sure nothing was altered and that the content was kept in tact. Soon after they met Judith Skutch, who became the official publisher of A Course in Miracles. Judy’s job was to publish and distribute the Course throughout the world. Ken became the primary teacher, as Helen wanted nothing to do with this aspect. Her mission was to simply record it, and she did just that. These four individuals, whom are no longer living, came together inspired by the Holy Spirit, to deliver a most extraordinary book to the world, and to help those who are ready remove the obstacles to the presence of Real Love.
KEY CONCEPTS - THE DREAM
A Course in Miracles has a very different interpretation of this world than most spiritual or religious texts. It fundamentally opposes most of what religion is teaching. For this reason alone, A Course in Miracles threatens the very foundation of what most of us have been led to believe about this world. In the introduction of the text, the entire Course is summed up in these few simple sentences.
“Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God. “
(ACIM, Preface x., and Introduction)
Essentially, God is the only thing that is real. God is the only thing that exists. Everything else is not real. That means that the world, the entire universe for that matter, and all individual identities are simply illusions. They are all made up in the mind. The Course refers to the world as a dream and that each and every one of us is the dreamer of our own dream. The idea that this world is an illusion, that has no fundamental basis in Reality, which is God, is difficult for most people to accept. Religion has long taught and believed that God is the creator of this world and the entire cosmos for that matter. The Course is saying something profoundly different. It is saying that this entire universe was not made by God, for God is all that exists. This universe was made up by a decision in the mind, which it refers to as the ego thought system. Even if you oppose its teaching, you cannot deny it is a vastly different concept and a thought-provoking metaphysical idea.
RIGHT MIND VERSUS WRONG MIND
The Course identifies the mind as split and refers to these opposing systems throughout the entire book. There is the wrong mind, which is the ego thought system. And, there is the right mind, which is the Holy Spirit’s thought system. The ego mind, the creator of this world and our own personal identity and specialness, is a false belief. Our belief in this system of a world, and our devotion to our separate identities makes this attachment to the ego seem very real. We do not recognize this is the case because we have become so invested in it. We believe the ego thought system to be true. A Course in Miracles explains that the right mind, or Holy Spirit, is the representative of Truth and is here to wake us up from the dream state and a belief in separation from God. The Holy Spirit is here to remind us that nothing we think we see in the world is true and that our Real Home in God, or Reality, has never been harmed, never been touched, and will always be.
THE TINY MAD IDEA
The tiny mad idea, a concept within the text, is simply that AN IDEA. The course explains before there was an illusory world, the collective mind had a tiny mad idea, which means there was a thought to separate from God, fragment out in billions of different directions, create a world of form, and individual bodies. According to the Course, this is not so, it was simply our collective belief in this “idea” that seemingly projected out a world that is simply not true. The following passage states just that.
“Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh.
In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea, and possible of both accomplishment and real effects.
(ACIM Text - Ch. 27, VIII. 6:2-3)
Simply put, we took the idea of a separated world seriously, and believed the effects which is what we call this world we are living in. Before the thought became a projection outward into the world, the amount of guilt experienced in the mind from this idea of leaving God became enormous. The fear of what God would do to us was overwhelming.
From the Course’s perspective this is where the belief in sin originates. The thought of killing God, the guilt and fear of what would happen if we returned was too extreme, so the tiny mad idea became a belief, and a world was supposedly formed. This is what science considers the Big Bang theory. However, as seen in the excerpt above, according to the Course this is simply not true. It was only a tiny mad idea, and essentially it never happened. This metaphysical principle is extremely difficult for us to understand given we are living in a world we believe to be real. The thought of this being something that one, is not real, and two, never happened, is inconceivable to the ego thought system within us.
MIRACLES
The Course uses “miracles” within the world as actions and reminders that we do to remember the Holy Spirit as our Teacher. The miracle shows us that we are the dreamer of the dream. The principle of the miracle is to show us that this world is all made up. The miracle brings us out of the world of bodies and back into the mind, where we can rise above the battleground and choose again. We can look with the ego mind, or with the Holy Spirit, it is a choice we get to make. Miracles give us back the power of our own minds to see clearly and bring falsehoods to Truth. We use miracles to join with another in our mind, to recognize we are all equally believing in the dream, and we can just as easily shift our perception to seeing the spirit and love within everyone. No one is outside of this place of peace in our right mind. The Holy Spirit uses the world, our relationships, and other difficulties to see the miracle within ourselves, and joins with others in the mind. There can be confusion about needing miracles to become behaviors in the world. This is not so. The Course is always speaking to us on the level of the mind. That is all that is required. The following verse exemplifies this gentle reminder.
“The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. He recognizes both God’s creations and your illusions.
He separates the true from the false by His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively.”
(ACIM Text - Ch. 1, I:38)
THE ATONEMENT
The Atonement is referenced throughout the Course’s entirety, which is the correction for the belief in separation. The belief in the ego’s world of separation is established as an error in the mind, and the Atonement is simply the correction for that error. There is only one problem, the belief in separation, and there is only one solution, the Atonement, which says the separation never happened. It holds the memory of our Reality in God, or our oneness in God, but in and of itself it is not total oneness. The Atonement shows us that we all share the same belief in separation in our minds, and that is the only oneness we share in the dual world. Complete, total, and eternal oneness is only possible in God. It is not possible in this world.
Atonement can also be considered the undoing of everything we thought to be true on a personal level, as well as the collective level. When we begin to recognize we are the dreamer of the dream, many misconceptions, beliefs, traditions, and ideas start to unravel within us. We start experiencing the complete undoing of the ego thought system, which is a painful process. The Atonement removes the blocks within and eventually brings us to revelation, where the true essence of Love in God is shown to us.
FORGIVENESS
Finally, the main them of A Course in Miracles that spreads throughout the text is the practice of forgiveness. This is the mechanism to bring us into our right mind with the Holy Spirit, to use the miracle, arrive at the Atonement, which heals us from the belief in the dream, and the ego’s world of separation, and returns us to Reality with God. Forgiveness is the place we meet the Holy Spirit, the place to observe our thoughts without any judgment whatsoever. All that is asked is that we look at the error we believed to be true and understand that it is not so. Forgiving others and ourselves for this tremendous sin, guilt, and fear that the ego created is an essential part of returning to the Love that we really are. Going to our right mind and seeing with the Holy Spirit, will show us that there is nothing to forgive. This world is simply not true. It isn’t good or evil, right or wrong, or this or that, it’s simply not true. All we are asked to do is look at the ego. We don’t have to judge it, change it, get rid of it, or transcend it, we only need to look at it.
“Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing. It offends no aspect of reality,
nor seeks to twist it to appearances it likes. It merely looks, and waits, and judges not.”
(ACIM Workbook For Students, Part II.1.4:1-3)
Being kind and gentle not only with others, but with ourselves is the message the Course is speaking to us. The moment we allow something, or someone else to make us mad, to steal our peace, is making the error, or the tiny-mad idea real. Anytime we believe what we are seeing in front of as true, we are believing in illusions.
Forgiveness is our way out of the dream. Forgiveness allows us to realize that nothing has ever left God. Nothing has ever changed. When we see another in pain and misery, we will recognize this as a call for Love, and we have the opportunity to extend forgiveness to them, extend this love, and join with the Holy Spirit in our mind. Practicing this in our daily life will lift us out of a life of continued pain, destruction, and misery, into a mindful life with the Holy Spirit in which we experience peace. A Course in Miracles has come to help guide us out of the world of insanity, and back to the sane, loving world, and our true Home in God. This will only be done when all blocks to Love’s presence have been removed and we have truly forgiven the world we thought to be true. The final revelation is done by God Himself, where He, and He alone, reaches down and pulls us Home.