A Course In Miracles

Shifting our perceptions to heal

If you know me well, you know I enjoy long romantic walks through the bookstore.

At Christmas when I’m asked by my in-laws if there’s anything I’d like all I can usually come up with is an Indigo gift card.

I have read thousands of books in my adult life and I can say that I’ve never loved nor loathed a book more than this one. This dense navy blue hardcover book with gold writing has revealed MORE epiphanies to me than ANY other.

But whatever you do, please don’t run out and buy it until you read this because I think it should come with a warning. If knowledge is your sole motivation for learning about it don’t buy it.

If peace is your objective, then please do.

This book is about having a felt experience and it won’t happen if you intellectually ingest it the way we do most books on our bookshelves. The goal of this book is the attainment of inner peace. I know, I know right? No big deal. Does it sound too much like something Bill Murray in Caddyshack would say?

Maybe. I’m not sure I’d believe it either if I hadn’t experienced this book first hand for myself.

It delivers on this promise of peace of mind.

In fact, for me it was the best anti-depressant on the market because it offers lasting peace, not just temporary relief. And like any medication, it works best by taking a consistent proper daily dose of it.

It’s hard to describe, and so today is about me giving my best shot of helping you see what’s potential for you if you choose to read it in your lifetime.

To me, it’s like a gentle authority or an “unauthored” book by a voice that has lived at least 1000 lives more than any of us. Today I will tell you exactly what I mean by that and how this book came to be, but first let me just give you a bit of a general overview.

You may have never heard of it because it’s newer on the spiritual scene, in fact, we were both born right around the same time in the 1970’s so we are about the same age, but it wasn’t until I was in my early 20s that I first held it in my arms. I felt a bit of a zing or tingle of promise with it in my hands.

It was shortly after I read Marianne Williamson’s book “A Return to Love” in the early 1990s. Her book was based on the principles in the Course. It wasn’t in bookstores and the internet was just about to take off but there was no online back then so I ordered it through the mail.

I confess it sat dusty for a couple of decades and moved from my bedside table back to my bookshelf and came with me when I moved about 9 times before I even read it through once, but I couldn’t let it go. I knew someday I would need it and I was right.

I sometimes recommend that others read Marianne’s book first to see if the concepts resonate before buying the giant blue book.

I can remember liking the title and the introduction and I was intrigued but every time I picked it up, I still couldn’t bring myself to read it. Even as an avid reader I really struggled to get through the 1,200 pages and 500,000 words not just on my first try but on several consecutive attempts.

I’m probably scaring you away from it, but I have always appreciated when people are real with me, so please hear me out.

I knew others loved it, but I just didn’t get it. I think because it’s written in an Old Style of English and mixed with heady prose, spiritual poetry, powerful aphorisms, and beautiful prayers. The language felt a bit too flowery and Christian for my taste at first. It reminded me of Shakespeare and it felt to me like I needed some Coles notes because the words would be read, but it felt ot me like nothing was sinking in. I’d read a page and I had no idea what in fact I had just read or what it meant.

I later learned that much of it is written in the poetic cadence of iambic pentameter which is probably why I’ve wanted to throw it across the room some days AND worship it on others.

It’s both inspiring and imposing. Big, wordy and too complex.

So why bother reading it if it’s such a slog?

Because it’s a mental get-out-of-jail-free card for all of us.

It has taken me a decade to truly understand its potential power, but even when things were confusing or hazy and I innocently misinterpreted the teachings, the people that I heard speak about them so passionately compelled me to try again one more time and I finally completed every single lesson in the daily workbook (imperfectly) one year.

Game. Changer.

I am living proof that it can help a destructive, selfish or childishly egocentric (ok don’t judge!) person find freedom. It can help us shift our anger, our resentment, our impulses to attack others, our lack of love, our laser focus on what’s wrong, our materialization, envy and despair to finally recognise a deeper truth that WE are the ones making all of that real in our own experience.

It teaches that it’s OUR distorted self concept that is the illusion or part of the problem.

“Miracles are examples of right thinking, aligning your perception with truth as God created it” would be a typical example of a line in the text. We experience a miracle - a shift in perception- when we are willing to be still and to let our thinking be guided by a great love or the Source of our being. “The miracle comes quietly into the mind that stops an instant and is still”, says the Course.

It’s Christian flavored in statement and it deals with universal spiritual themes and it stresses that it’s one version of a universal curriculum that can help you find and connect with your own internal teacher.

So needless to say, it was the beginning of experiencing a palpable shift in my own life.

As far as the nuts and bolts of it, ACIM was published in 1976.

There are three sections:

1. The Text (669 pages and it’s theoretical and abstract)

2. The Workbook for Students (488 pages - experience through application)

3. The Manual for Teachers (98 pages in a Q&A format - helpful for clarifying terms)

After these 3 sections were completed, there were two final smaller sections “dictated” to Helen (more on that in a minute):

1. “Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice”

2. “The Song of Prayer”

The publisher and copyright holder for all of it is The Foundation for Inner Peace. It’s been spreading to millions of people without any promotion, marketing, or advertising and has already been translated into 27 languages globally through this 501(c)(3) public charity and non-profit organization.

The Foundation describes this blue book as a “unique spiritual self-study program designed to awaken us to the truth of our oneness with God and love”. It is pure otherworldly spiritual genius that every year seems to offer more for me to see.

This book when understood and applied correctly I believe it has the power to free anyone. All we need to do is show up daily and do the work. I’m writing this today just to bring it to your awareness.

It may not be for you.

But maybe it is, and you’ve just never even heard of it or have been open to it.

It’s difficult to summarize, but if I had to give it my best shot I’d say that the Course teaches that there are two basic states of mind: love and fear.

Love is our natural state and fear is learned.

The miracle is basically when we choose love instead of fear.

Most importantly it helps us distinguish between what’s Real (unalterable, eternal and unambiguous) and what’s not (our projections, ideas, beliefs, wishes and emotions).

What is Truth and what is perception (or illusion). We can be asleep to what is true our whole lives with our undisciplined minds and our awakening can go completely unrecognized by us if we live our lives with our own interpretations and justifications.

To me this book stands on it’s own but I appreciate that it stresses that it’s just one version of a Universal Curriculum that can be complimented by others. I think all of us realize that “a Universal theology” for mankind is impossible, but “a universal experience is not only possible, but necessary” (Manual for Teachers, p. 77) As they say, all roads lead to God in the end.

One key thing i’ve learned is that we experience fear when we try to do life by ourselves. “If you are trusting in your own strength you have every reason to be apprehensive, anxious, and fearful”, says the Course. Fear is a sign we are relying on our own ego or our separate sense of self. “If you knew Who walks beside you on the way you have chosen, fear would be impossible”, says the Course.

It teaches that although it appears like our lives are full of different and unique challenges, there really is only one problem and one solution. “A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need-correct”. In other words, ALL of our difficulties arise from our perceived sense of separation from our Source, from God.” This is not exclusive to the Course, it’s at the very heart of great Theology, Philosophy, and even Physics.

It’s a self-study course and there is very little direction - you can start anywhere, but it does suggest just doing one workbook lesson a day and no more. You can stay on a lesson for several days but I like starting with lesson #1 on January 1st and making my way through all 365 methodically and not getting too hung up on one in particular.

The workbook to me is the crux of the course and if you make it to day 365 you’ll get to experience an inner shift that you will feel mystified about how you didn’t ever see it sooner. It’s amazing what can happen inside our own minds in one year.

The first half of the book is about undoing this fearful thought system and the second half of the year and book helps us identify fully with love or our natural essence. It cleverly helps free us from the tyranny of our thinking minds and ego and I supose that is why it’s spreading around the world like wildfire without any advertisement budget or profit plan even though it’s a challenging read.

It’s pure genius.

It’s like a blue door or portal that opens us up to the infinite. Even the most closed minded secular atheist or agnositc like the scribe of the course herself. I can’t think of a better way to describe it than a spiritual masterpiece.

Dr. Helen Shucman was the perfect person to bring this into the world.

I suppose what turns many people off at first is what turned Helen off, the Christian terminology. The language or the poetic way it’s written can also trigger our egos and make us feel fidgety like we have something more important and pressing to do. It will not just tempt you to run for the hills, or straighten your sock drawer, it will quite literally compel you to finish the other 16 books on your bedside table or watch paint dry first. The key is to be aware of the subterfuge and simply keep reading with an open mind and your egos days will be numbered.

It can geniously make us feel inadequate which can either help us realize something deeper because we are trying to understand it on a surface level, that is rationally or intellectually and it’s not that kind of book.

Best of all there is no judgment, you can keep your faith traditions, your belief systems intact as well as study this course because it is for people from all religions and no religions.

We only need to be willing to try and the energy of the course helps do the rest.

Allan Cohen, who wrote a book called “A Course In Miracles Made Easy”, appropriately refers to it as “a map out of hell”.

It’s been called by Dr. Kenneth Wapnick “the world's most psychologically sophisticated account of the mind's subterranean warfare, along with teaching the means for undoing this war through forgiveness”.

I’ve heard one of my teachers and mentors Marianne Williamson joke that she’s heard others call it “God for smart people” and “The course doesn’t claim to be for everyone, but you’ll know if the Course is for you”. If I’m being honest, I’m not that smart, and with the confusing Chrisitan terminology and talk about the “Holy Spirit” or “Father”, I wasn’t sure it was for me, but I definitely needed it because I was suffering. It was the kind of painful depression that no Doctor or therapy could help me get out of, it needed to come from me. I didn’t want to just medicate myself forever, I wanted to heal and I was attracted and open to the possibility of experiencing a miracle.

In fact, looking back it wasn’t the book alone, it was others that helped me in study groups to better understand it.

Speaking of being with others, this week I went to the most magical evening hosted by a local friend at her home who owns a yoga studio in our town and has a network of beautiful friends. She and her sister who had about 20 of us sitting on cushions on the floor around beautifully set and decorated long coffee tables with skewers of roasted sweet potato, beef kabobs with raita and mint and chocolate-covered strawberries. There were wildberry drinks with sprigs of fresh herbs and tall white pillared candles that made the room glow with soft light and soft music. It was a magazine-worthy spread. Every detail was perfect. Even our host’s husband helped to valet park our cars off the road into the neighbor’s driveways so we wouldn’t get ticketed.

All of the women were friendly, several knew one another and I knew a few but they all mixed openly. We had a nice meal, then a short meditation and a powerful inner inquiry, and then the women in the room shared what they were trying to shed and what they were becoming.

It was moving.

What struck me and why I’m telling this story is because I could relate to what everyone shared. We struggle with similar personal challenges in our love relationships, family, children, health, money and with ourselves. We experience anxiety, depression, addiction, or disordered eating and we grieve the loss of our loved ones.

It’s ALL a part of our collective human experience.

As I sat and listened a wave of gratitude swept over me because I was just a bit older than most of them and my own life had been changed by seeing things differently. The Metaphysical teachings presented in this book can only be experienced led me to a deep realization of inner peace.

Today, I am free.

It feels like the end of my seeking.

I also appreciate that this book is not saying it’s the only way.

However, I will say that it surprised me to read in the introduction: “This is a required course”.

Who dares to say it’s required reading like it’s some pre-requisite for inner peace?

There isn’t even an author listed on the book cover.

I was mystified.

There is also no “belief system”, doctrine to follow, or dogma around it. I think because of that to me it felt safe, and I felt compelled to give it thorough reading even though my ego resisted every step of the way.

As mentioned before, ACIM or “the Course” uses traditional Christian terms in non-traditional ways and, well, how do I put this without sounding like a crackpot… it was purportedly directly from a higher dimensional being who identified himself to Helen on several occasions as “Jesus”.

Are you still sitting in your chair? I know, I know, that one was a bit hard for me to swallow too. Jesus? As in Jeshua the prophet from Nazareth that lived 2000 years ago…THAT Jesus Christ? Or is this some kind of divine social memory complex coming through Helen Shucman as her higher consciousness or self?

Who really knows?

At her request, Helen Schucman’s role as the scribe was not revealed to the general public until after her death. You can imagine how that went over with the old-school Christian Fundamentalists to have a total atheist channel, Jesus. Why her? I’m sure “new age heresy” might have been one of the more polite criticisms.

What is anyone supposed to do with that claim? I’m not even sure it matters who the voice was, or where it came from.

It’s what the voice is saying that is so compelling to me.

It’s why I recommend reading it or experiencing it before you judge it.

This is not heresy or a New Age nonsense book and anyone with a modicum of intelligence that says that I assure you has not read or studied the material so let’s put down our pitchforks, judgements and accusations and be more interested in what is being said and how it can help us in practical ways.

I’ll be sharing more about the contents of the book over time so you can make up your own mind about it. It seems like common sense or it stands to reason that any rational person would want to inform themselves by allowing themselves to become familiar with what is being said, try to understand it, and then trust their own experience with it before they accept or reject it.

The two people who were involved and responsible for bringing this book to the world were two very unlikely and resistant candidates. They were tenured atheistic Professors of Medical Psychology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City: Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford. William worked under the famous American psychologist Dr. Carl Rogers and well, both of them were anything but spiritual.

That all changed.

At the beginning of working together, Helen and Bill’s relationship with each other was described as difficult and often strained, and they were concerned with personal and professional acceptance and status. In general, they had considerable investment in the values of the world. Their lives were hardly in accord with anything that the Course advocates.

Helen, the one who received the material, describes herself:

“Psychologist, educator, conservative in theory, and atheistic in belief, I was working in a prestigious and highly academic setting. And then something happened that triggered a chain of events I could never have predicted. The head of my department (Dr. William Thetford) unexpectedly announced that he was tired of the angry and aggressive feelings our attitudes reflected, and concluded that “there must be another way.” As if on cue, I agreed to help him find it.”

Apparently, this Course is the other way.

(ACIM, Preface.1:4–2:5)

Not long after this declaration Helen began to hear a voice.

It was a compelling “inner voice” and a series of inner experiences that came as visions, dreams, and heightened imagery. She tried to ignore it, but it persisted. She described that the book had been given to her, word for word, via a process of “inner dictation”.

She essentially heard an imprinted voice inside her mind that kept repeating the phrase: “This is A Course In Miracles, please take notes”. The voice was persistent and made her very uncomfortable. She eventually shared what was happening with Bill and she was surprised that he encouraged her to take notes and continue the process and he offered to assist her in typing out her shorthand notes as she read them aloud to him. Bill wrote them out verbatim. She claims it never seriously even occurred to her to stop her note-taking.

This is her first-person account:

Three startling months preceded the actual writing, during which time Bill suggested that I write down the highly symbolic dreams and descriptions of the strange images that were coming to me. Although I had grown more accustomed to the unexpected by that time, I was still very surprised when I wrote, “This is a course in miracles.” That was my introduction to the Voice. It made no sound, but seemed to be giving me a kind of rapid, inner dictation which I took down in a shorthand notebook.

The writing was never automatic. It could be interrupted at any time and later picked up again. It made me very uncomfortable, but it never seriously occurred to me to stop.

It seemed to be a special assignment I had somehow, somewhere agreed to complete. It represented a truly collaborative venture between Bill and myself, and much of its significance, I am sure, lies in that. I would take down what the Voice “said” and read it to him the next day, and he typed it from my dictation. I expect he had his special assignment, too. Without his encouragement and support I would never have been able to fulfill mine. The whole process took about seven years. The Text came first, then the Workbook for Students, and finally the Manual for Teachers. Only a few minor changes have been made. Chapter titles and subheadings have been inserted in the Text, and some of the more personal references that occurred at the beginning have been omitted. Otherwise the material is substantially unchanged.

(ACIM, Preface.4:1–5:17)

It was what was being shared that compelled them to continue. It seemed otherworldly, loving, and intelligent to their well-educated, and discerning minds so they continued for many years.

SEVEN, in fact.

From October 1965 through September 1972, Helen "heard" the voice of a divine or loving voice that introduced himself as Jesus dictating to her the three volumes that comprise one of the most significant spiritual messages of our time.

It’s more of a non-dual teaching system the way Jesus attempted to teach with his parables and stories and seems to brilliantly integrate a psychological worldview with a universal spiritual perspective. To me, it almost feels like Jesus wanted to clarify things we’ve gotten wrong with our misinterpretations of his teachings for centuries.

I notably felt a new clarity and attraction to the Bible and Christianity as a whole where it felt repulsive to me for awhile with the news, residential schools and the fundamental human aspect of the religion of Christianity like judgment and hatred. The better I understand its concepts myself I see that it’s VERY aligned with the Bible and not the distorted Christian Theology that many have assumed it to be on the surface or at first glance.

It WAS good news after all and even my judgement of Christianity softened for good, I can see exactly why a few of Jesus final words were about asking God to forgive us because we really have no clue what we’re doing.

I’m so glad that Christian terms are used now. It feels to me like I’ve made peace with it all.

I think the best way to pick it up is with an open mind and ideally with a guide to help you get through it at least once before you judge it in any way.

I think it’s also important to say at this point, that it’s just a book.

A thick blue book, nothing to be afraid of or to judge. They are just words to help us find peace of mind and then extend that love out into the world.

It explicitly says that i’s “A” Course in Miracles…not THE one and only course, but the reason I love to read it daily and want to share it with others or give lectures in my community is that it was the application of the teachings along with other aligned spiritual teachings and my shift in perception that caused me to experience an awakening and peace that I can barely describe with words.

I have been a seeker most of my life and I have read and studied many spiritual texts over my lifetime from the Bible, the Yoga Sutras, the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, The Talmud, and the Tao Te Ching and they all taught me so much and were so intelligent in their own unique ways, but it was ACIM and also Paul Selig’s work with the Guides that finally helped me FEEL it experientially. I felt lifted energetically. It was like I was existing on a higher frequency and my entire experience of life shifted.

Putting aside who wrote it or where it came from, it’s the content that curled my toes.

I understand now on some level that these teachings are coming from a higher dimension or a more highly evolved version of us. It’s highly intelligent and non-dual in nature and like the Bible can easily be confused by our human ego if reading it dualisitically it’s will be misunderstood.

It reminds me a bit of the Bible in the sense that it’s the kind of book that you can study for a lifetime and keep learning new things about yourself the more devoted you become or surrender to it and it becomes impossible not to be impressed with its content. It took a long time for Helen and Bill to begin to experience less subconscious resistance to it, in the same way it did for me and many readers to reduce our ego’s resistance to even begin to understand the book’s contents but trust me, it’s worth it.

I can only say I was intrigued at first and Marianne Williamson’s lectures on ACIM kept me coming back. She’s Jewish but she talked about the course’s concepts and helped people in the audience by answering their questions intelligently and they worked through difficulties in their lives practically using course concepts or with prayer and IN REAL time I saw the lights go on for them.

To me, its universal message is unsurpassed in its power to heal.

As an ACIM student, I like the idea of taking the Big Picture ideas of the Course and bringing them down to earth in practical, easy-to-understand lessons with plenty of real-life examples and applications to help render the Course relatable; and, most importantly, generate practical, healing results.

"Written from the heart, may it go to the heart."

Beethoven

There are so many wonderful ways to find our way “home” and this is just one. But trust me, it’s a doozer. One single line or aphorisms in the course like “Giving is proof of having”, “Love holds no grievances”, “Infinite patience produces immediate results”, or “Only what you are not giving can be lacking in any situation” are the kinds of intelligent lines that have much more to offer us than it seems the first time your read them or sit with them and allow the deeper meaning to seep into you throughout your day.

The thinking of the world is predominantly based on a thought system created in fear and lack or by our egos and this book is the antidote to that mindset. I have found myself entranced by the beauty of the Course and I’ve made it a part of my spiritual practice every day.

When you are in pain, stuck, afraid, lost and not sure what to do next, it’s a cue for us to ask for a miracle. When we ask it’s like affirming we’re ready to shift our own thinking and we become open to inspiration and solutions. We listen and when we ask we receive 100% of the time. “The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it, or not”, says the Course. We can become open to our intuition or the tutor inside of us, the Divine inspiration so we can allow ourselves to find freedom that is there now waiting to be claimed.

To me, it’s like having a wise friend in your back pocket so that in the midst of our lives, it offers us loving guidance and counsel all throughout the day. I turn to it for support in self-care, to help me raise my family, and to deal with life’s challenges.

Hope today has helped to give you a better sense of this big blue book and spiritual thought system that teaches the way out of fear and pain to love and forgiveness.

I dream of bringing its wisdom to others in more palatable and even fun ways to help make the wisdom more accessible. To be the support I wish I had when I read it the first time and to help others see that no matter how stuck they feel they are capable of a total transformation.

To those seeking to acquaint themselves with the book consider walking through it with me day by day in 2024. As a guide on the side, I will deliver short personal daily video reflections, a monthly master classes to help respond to your questions and to help be a guide on the side for anyone interested in the transformation that has kept millions of students coming back for more.

To me this book and course is only the beginning, not the end.

May you feel the love that holds, guides, and knows you whether you decide to read it or not.

With love,

Rev Nona