What is A Course In Miracles?

A Course In Miracles is self-study system of guidance for the psycho-spiritual journey

A Course In Miracles is a self-study system of spiritual psychology contained in a three-volume book:

• The Text (T)
• The Workbook(W)
• The Manual For Teachers(M).

ACIM is the abbreviation.

The Course contains a synthesis of the teachings that lie at the core of the world’s great religions, together with sophisticated psychological insight.

It emphasises the practical application of its principles, which focus on forgiveness and, thus, the transformational potential of the mind. It has touched the lives of millions of people around the world.

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What A Course In Miracles says:

There is no separation between God and ourselves, or, therefore, between us.

God is love, eternal and infinite, and all there is.

We are God’s one creation.

God only creates like Himself, so we remain as God created us, innocent and whole.

Only what God created is real. God did not create pain, death, guilt or fear, so although they exist in our experience, they are not real.

The Course aims at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence.

You can buy A Course In Miracles in your local Amazon store.

Rather than trying to change external circumstances, the Course teaches us to change our perceptions about the world.

The peace of God is reached through the practice of forgiveness.

The above paragraphs are taken with permission from Miracle Worker magazine, published by the Miracle Network, a UK-registered charity supporting students of ACIM in the UK. It has a very slight addition.

My additional thoughts on 'What is ACIM?'

“This course can... be summed up very simply in this way:
Nothing real can be threatened
Nothing unreal exists
Herein lies the peace of God”
(The Introduction, A Course In Miracles)

• The Course is not a religion. It is designed as a system of self-study.
• The Course uses a great deal of Bible and Christian language such as 'God', 'Holy Spirit', 'trinity'. It frequently quotes the Bible, sometimes offering a tweak or an interpretation.
  Many A Course In Miracle's students regard the book as a correction of the Bible. For myself, its interpretations of the Bible are no more radical and challenging than many interpretations offered by those who still consider themselves to be Christian.

• ACIM is helpful to many who are disillusioned in their religion of origin, but retain the knowledge of God. In my case, the Course in Miracles has led me back to Christianity. I would guess this is unusual, although I do hear of other Christians who are students of the Course.

• ACIM recognises all paths to God and can be practised alongside many different religious and spiritual beliefs. (Some of its most established teachers have been from the Jewish tradition.) The Course does not claim or aim to be the path to God for everyone. In common with the Bible, ACIM critiques the way in which religion can be used.

• People who read and apply the Course to their lives are called Course students. Once you have studied the workbook, you also become a teacher, since to teach is to demonstrate.
  
• ACIM very much gives the message that we are already Innocent because we share in the Innocence of God who created us in his image.  Our belief that we (and others) are other than innocent is a belief that the Course helps us to change. It says we cannot fail to remember that we are aspects of God.
  This is the Course's version of the Bible's insistence that salvation is not earned by any of our actions. It is chosen.

“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 Introduction, ACIM)

What are the origins of A Course in Miracles?

A Course in Miracles was received through a process of inner dictation in English by Helen Schucman, an American psychologist.

Helen worked closely with her colleague Bill Thetford. Their relationship had become strained, and in 1965 Bill voiced the thought, “There must be another way.” Helen agreed, and shortly afterwards the dictation of the Course began. It was received over a period of seven years.

At first, only a few copies were shared privately among friends. Helen and Bill assumed that might be as far as the material would go. Yet over time, the Course grew into a global spiritual community.

How popular is A Course in Miracles?

Has a Course in Miracles been translated into other languages?

The last figure I heard was that around 40,000 copies of the book ACIM were being bought each year. How many people read it is another question!

The originators of ACIM were slow to allow translations, preferring to wait until a committed student of the Course volunteered, so the translation could be guided by the Holy Spirit. Over time, many translations have been completed.

A Course in Miracles is now studied internationally. If you are visiting from another country, you may know the book by one of these names:

• Un Curso de Milagros (UCDM) — Spanish
• Un Cours en Miracles (UCEM) — French
• Ein Kurs in Wundern (EKIW) — German
• Un Corso in Miracoli (UCIM) — Italian
• Um Curso em Milagres (UCEM) — Portuguese
• Een Cursus in Wonderen (ECIW) — Dutch
• En Kurs i Mirakler (EKIM) — Swedish

Translations are also available in the following languages: Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Russian and Polish.

As an English speaker, and given how many people speak English so well, I am blessed through online talks to have received teachings from German, Dutch, and Spanish teachers of the Course.

Whatever language we use, the message is the same: a path of choosing love over fear, and remembering the Christ within.

Notation for ACIM:

Does A Course in Miracles relate to Christ consciousness? 

A Course In Miracles doesn’t use the phrase Christ consciousness, but it is a path of Christ consciousness. It asks us in every moment to make the choice between choosing with the ego or choosing with what it calls our Self.

(It uses the word Christ 273 times.)

The Self equates to the Christ self.

In the workbook of 365 lessons, many lessons include the words “I am”, and serve as an affirmation of spiritual identity. We claim the Self who has never entered the body, and as such is able to say in truth “I am as God created me”.

The course is asking us to train our minds to have a relationship with, and ultimately identify with — and as — this Self.

In my own (Katherine Owen's) self talk method, I use the language of my Free Self. After having named it, I found within the course the words,

“Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world.” (W-97)

This is our Christ Self. The cultivation of awareness of this Self in ourselves and others is the path of Christ consciousness.

You might choose to move to read my Christ consciousness poem: Who I Am.

The poem is a meditation on “I am” statements based on Bible quotes and claiming our Christ Self as who we are.

Is A Course in Miracles a non‑dual teaching?

A Course in Miracles doesn’t use the words non‑dual or non‑duality. Nevertheless, it couldn’t be more of a non‑dual teaching.

“There is no world.” This is the central teaching of Workbook Lesson 132.

Over and over again, the Course tells us that choosing to believe in this world is choosing against God — choosing to seek happiness where it cannot be found.

(As well as a student of ACIM, I consider myself a non‑duality Christian.)

The Course expresses its non‑dualism with great clarity in Lesson 132:

“The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning. And what you behold upon it are your wishes, acted out so you can look on them and think them real.

…There is no world!
This is the central thought the course attempts to teach." 

(W‑132, A non duality quote from ACIM)

The lesson goes on to say... "Healing comes to those who are prepared to learn that “there is no world,” and can accept the lesson now."

Articles related to the spiritual text, A Course In Miracles

To know more on the subject of What is A Course In Miracles? you may be interested in the following spirituality articles:

• Prayer for a terrorist - we receive Love and sense of belonging on behalf of another whose sense of alienation might otherwise lead them to attack another.
  
• Resistance to the change of letting God in – includes quotes from ACIM
• We are Spiritual not physical beings
• Spiritual strength quotes
  
• Christmas quotes from ACIM
  

Thank you for reading this article.
And thank you for being here.

With the Love we are,

Katherine

Katherine T Owen, webmaster at
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