A Course in Miracles Foundation for Inner Peace

A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is a universal, self-study spiritual thought system that teaches that the way to love and inner peace is through forgiveness. It uses Christian language, but is ecumenical in its approach and emphasizes that it is not a religion.

ACIM is comprised of a Text, a Workbook for Students, and a a course in miracles Manual for Teachers. The Course is available in multiple versions, with the one most widely used being version 5.

What is A Course in Miracles?

The Course in Miracles is a self-study spiritual thought system that has had an extraordinary impact on the lives of millions worldwide. It combines profound spiritual teachings with far-reaching psychological insights, and is a teaching that unifies Christian and non-Christian religious traditions. It is an ecumenical spirituality that emphasizes the healing of relationships through forgiveness.

The three-volume curriculum of the Course consists of the Text which defines its concepts, the Workbook for Students containing 365 daily lessons that focus on practical application, and the Manual for Teachers that answers questions that arise during the study of the course. The Course is not a religion, but it does use Christian terminology and it teaches that the way to universal love and peace is through undoing guilt by forgiving others. It does not claim to be the only path, but rather that it is one of "many thousands" that lead to God.

In 1965, Columbia University psychologist Helen Schucman began experiencing a series of inner visions and heightened dreams that culminated in an experience of inner dictation. The voice speaking to her said, "This is a course in miracles; please take notes." She recorded the entire three-volume curriculum, which was first published in 1976. Its author is unknown, as the voice only identifies itself as Jesus (the Christ).

Although many people find ACIM difficult to read, it can be very helpful to have an experienced teacher guide your progress through the material. This is especially true because the concepts are complex and easily misunderstood, both theoretically and in terms of their application to daily life. Kenneth Wapnick is a highly skilled teacher who has guided the progress of hundreds of students through this material.

Patrick Miller has been a writer for more than twenty years and has written articles for Yoga Journal, THE SUN, Elephant Journal online, and other publications. He has studied A Course in Miracles, the Enneagram system of personality, Jungian depth psychology, and shamanism, applying these disciplines to his own life and writing about them. He has edited and republished numerous books, including two versions of A Course in Miracles. He owns the publishing company Fearless Books and offers editing services to other authors.

The Text

The Course, which consists of three volumes—the Text, the Workbook for Students and the Manual for Teachers—teaches that the way to universal love and peace (or remembering God) is through undoing guilt through forgiveness. The course is not a religious teaching, but a universal spiritual thought system that emphasizes the healing of relationships and making them holy.

The Course teaches that every person is profoundly burdened by unconscious guilt. The guilt is the result of identification with a false self-concept, or ego, which is the root cause of most of the world’s problems. The only way to heal the ego is to forgive it, which is done by practicing the Course’s miracle principles.

Forgiveness is the key to spiritual growth and a means of healing the world. The Course says that “the most important thing that any of us can do to serve the world is to forgive everything.” It also teaches that the only true and lasting peace will come from the transformation of the mind, not the changing of the outer world.

This is an extremely sophisticated and multifaceted thought system. Hanegraaff states, "This is one of those channeled texts which refute the common opinion that channeling results in vapid spiritual platitudes."

While it echoes some insights from many traditions and disciplines—especially those of existentialism and Buddhism—the Course is unique in its own right. It regularly offers perspectives that are hard-pressed to find anywhere else.

For example, the Course explains that true perception—at its full strength—seems to be roughly equivalent to what is called extrovertive mysticism. This is a form of mysticism in which the mystic experiences the phenomenal world as suffused with and one with the divine.

The Course also argues that although the body may be healed by miracles, it is not the proper aim of healing. The aim should be to heal the mind by giving people a new perception of themselves, which can only be communicated behaviorally. It is this behavioral communication of the miracle that genuinely helps people, rather than simply changing their bodies.

Moreover, the Course emphasizes that the miracle worker should always be guided by his or her own true perception of the miracle receiver, rather than by the miracle receiver’s desire for personal gain. This is because the true perception of the miracle receiver comes from the Holy Spirit, who knows the miracle worker’s skill level, and can best guide that individual in how to give a miracle.

The Workbook

The Workbook extends and deepens the concepts found in the Text. It offers an extensive thought system which is intellectually sophisticated, blending spiritual inspiration with deep psychological understanding of such phenomena as belief and defense systems, perception and identity. It broadens the concept of miracle to include such things as guilt, forgiveness and true perception. It also incorporates a number of concepts that are not usually associated with miracles (for example, the holy instant).

The Course's teachings challenge some significant elements of contemporary Christianity, including the beliefs in sin and crucifixion. However, its metaphysics is more aligned with Eastern mysticism than with traditional Western religion. Bill Thetford once referred to it as the Christian Vedanta. It is also a very inclusive spiritual teaching; one of its basic dictums is that if the miracle worker merely allows for the experience of truth, then the Holy Spirit will engineer the rest (Text, p. 158).

A large part of the work in ACIM is applying the concepts taught by the Course to daily life. This can take the form of practicing forgiveness and letting go of judgments, as well as seeking out ways to serve others. It can also involve more concrete activities such as participating in a study group, leading workshops, or sharing the Course with family members and friends.

When first published, A Course in Miracles was a three-volume book consisting of the Text, Workbook and Manual for Teachers. The workbook is written in question-and-answer format, with answers to many of the questions a student might have about its teachings. The workbook also includes a brief introduction to the Course's theoretical framework and its terminology.

In 1984, Helen Schucman transferred copyright and trademark for A Course in Miracles to the Foundation for Inner Peace, and since then FIP has been its publisher, disseminator, and copyright/trademark holder. A Course in Miracles is currently in over one and a half million copies in circulation worldwide, and translations are available in seventeen non-English languages. The Foundation has also established an international ACIM conference, a training program for those who wish to teach the Course, and an extensive program of translations.

The Manual for Teachers

A Course in Miracles Foundation for Inner Peace (ACIM) is an organization dedicated to sharing the three-volume spiritual thought system that is A Course in Miracles. Also known as ACIM, or the Course, it is a self-study curriculum that is arranged in three books: the Text, Workbook for Students, and Manual for Teachers. The Course offers a path to love and peace by teaching how to undo guilt through forgiveness. It is also a universal spiritual teaching that emphasizes that God is all-loving and all-forgiving.

The Course has been rewritten many times, with each version including some additional material and removing other material. The most widely used edition of the book is the one published in 1976 by the Foundation for Inner Peace, and is often called simply the FIP version or the blue book. It has been translated into many different languages and is available in print, audio, video, and online.

One of the main functions of the FIP is to translate and publish the Course in other languages. There are currently twenty-seven non-English versions of the Course in existence. Another major function of the Foundation is to hold study and re-treats where individuals can come together to learn more about the spiritual principles taught in the Book.

While the Book is primarily about forgiveness, it does teach how to heal ourselves and others through healing relationships. Its curriculum is carefully conceived, at both the theoretical and practical levels, and it emphasizes application rather than theory. It is also unique in that it emphasizes that there are other versions of the universal curriculum, and that all of them lead to God.

The Manual for Teachers is sometimes referred to as the “little blue book” and is the third book in the Course series. It is frequently misunderstood, and it is not as brief a summary of the Course’s principles as is usually assumed. In fact, the Manual is meant to instruct students who are mature enough in their understanding of the Course that they are ready to extend its principles to others. This extension of forgiveness to others is how the ideas in the Course can be fully reinforced and enthroned as the dominant thought system in the mind.