A Course in Miracles Review

'A Course in Miracles,' or ACIM as it is sometimes abbreviated, is a three-volume spiritual thought system consisting of a 669-page Text, a 466-page Workbook for Students, and a 92-page Manual for Teachers. The work is based on inner dictation that Helen Schucman, a Columbia University clinical psychologist, received from an "inner voice" she identified as Jesus Christ. The book has become a worldwide phenomenon, with millions of copies sold, without paid advertising, to men and women from all walks of life and every major religion.

The Course is based on the principle that the only true reality is love. It views the world as one of unity, abundance and harmony. Sin and evil are viewed as misperceptions that can be corrected through forgiveness. It teaches that everything in the universe has been created from the mind of God and reflects his thought, so the world consists only of what is truly real. The ego-self, with its illusions of fear and separation, is seen as an enemy that must be forgiven.

It is an integrated curriculum whose goal is to help the student remember his or her true Self, which is one with God and part of creation. Its central theme is that miracles can be worked through the process of undoing guilt, which is accomplished through forgiving others. The Workbook contains 365 daily lessons for practicing forgiveness, and the Manual offers a detailed discussion of the principles and methodology of the Course.

In 1975, the Course was published by the Acim Foundation for Parasensory Investigation, later renamed the Foundation for Inner Peace, which has since been its publisher and copyright/trademark holder. Several hundred study-circles for the Course have been formed in the USA and other countries, and there are now translations of the Workbook into Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish.

During the 1990s the course began to experience more criticism than earlier in its history, especially because of trademark infringement and issues surrounding copyright. For instance, a CompuServe forum on the Course that was moderated by two current members of CIMS was closed for a short time and re-opened under another name because of copyright infringement. A number of authors were asked to pay royalties for using the name of the Course in their works.

In response to this increased controversy, Ken Wapnick, a longtime member of CIMS and former president of FIP, and some other Course students started the Circle of Atonement, a non-profit organization. This group was organized to discover, authenticate and propagate the divine teachings of the Course. Initially this was done on the Internet, but in 1997 a physical community was founded in Florida with the intention of spreading the Course to all who want it. As of this writing, CIMS is still working on the distribution and publishing of the Course in both its original form as well as its revised versions. Also, a new online resource for learning more about the original version of the Course is available at www.HughLynnVersionOfACIM.