Published anonymously in 1976, A Course in Miracles is a work we believe to have been channeled from Jesus Christ by Psychologists Helen Schucman, Ph.D. and William Thetford, Ph.D., who were then on the faculty of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. It offers a Text, a Workbook for Students containing 365 daily lessons, a Glossary and a Manual for Teachers, and is accompanied by pamphlets on the subjects of psychotherapy (Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice) and prayer (The Ladder of Prayer). This extraordinary series of self-study documents was initially made available to the public by the Foundation for Inner Peace that was established for that purpose. By the author’s instructions, the books were never to be advertised. They were to be sold at cost and provided free to anyone who wanted them but could not afford them. The Course is presently available in bookstores everywhere, and has been translated into many languages. We particularly recommend the Complete and Annotated Edition published by the Circle of Atonement.
A Course in Miracles begins with the following Introduction:
This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
For further information about A Course in Miracles visit the website of the North West Foundation for A Course in Miracles: nwffacim.org or and circleofa.org.
For discussion of the Course in Portuguese visit Barbara Gielan's sites harmoniaepaz.blogspot.com and milagresdamente.blogspot.com.