A Course In Miracles

Discussion of the nature of Ultimate Reality and the path to Enlightenment.
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Mizmotown
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A Course In Miracles

Post by Mizmotown »

I did a search but I either missed it or didn't see ACIM as a topic. Does anyone else on this forum study A Course In Miracles?

"... the Course says "the world was made as an attack on God" (W-pII.3.2:1). It is a projection of the thought of attack—that we are better off outside the Love of God. Therefore we made a world the opposite of Heaven. We made a self the opposite of the Christ that we are. Heaven is abstract, meaning it is non-specific and non-dualistic, and so we make specific worlds, specific bodies, specific problems, specific needs, hearing specific voices telling us specific things—all of which make the world of specifics real. We will never get home that way. We use the specifics to lead us to the non-specific. That is different, but do not confuse symbol with source." -Ken Wapnick
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Russell Parr
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Re: A Course In Miracles

Post by Russell Parr »

I don't study it, but I've looked into it in the past. The backstory is interesting, in which the author Helen Schucman having the book depicted to her by a "voice" (who she claims to be Jesus). I've never experienced or known anyone with any sort of psychic abilities, despite all I've read about it, so I'm highly skeptical of these claims.

However it came about, from what little I've read, it seems to be a great deal more profound than traditional Christianity, and would be nice step forward if all religions adopted a similar understanding.. which is why it'll never be very popular. My criticisms would be it's overemphasis of everyone's favorite thing, love, and the overabundance of Christian language (which surely is due to her childhood background).

Is the course something you place a lot of importance on?
Mizmotown
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Re: A Course In Miracles

Post by Mizmotown »

Thank you for your response. I was curious to see if there were others in the forum who read or studied ACIM. I have to say from my own experience with it have had some miraculous results in life.

Some have issues with the Christian terminology but there are reasons that it was written this way. I was never religious whatsoever and have not had any problem with the words. The Scribe, Helen Schucman, was actually born to half Jewish parents who were non-observant. Her mother dabbled in Theosophy and Christian Science. Any religious influence actually came from their Baptist housekeeper. She claims to have had a spiritual experience in Lourdes, France when she was 12. Helen and her counterpart Bill Thetford were both highly regarded clinical and research psychologists. The inner dictation that Helen experienced was experienced as a process of clear and distinct inner dictation from a voice that identified itself to her as Jesus. As psychologists they could not get passed the gnawing conclusion that something else transcends the power of the ego in human choice. The Course's aim is to guide you in listening less and less to the voice of your ego and turning to spirit or intuition as your teacher which leads to more and more inner peace.

It's not that I would say I put great importance on ACIM specifically but it is definitely the path I have been led to over and over for the past 20 years. Even ACIM says, "Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God."

This is its purpose; that you come without a self, and make one as you go along. And by the time you reach ‘maturity' you have perfected it, to meet the world on equal terms, at one with its demands... It bears no likeness to yourself at all. It is an idol, made to take the place of your reality as Son of God..
-ACIM
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Russell Parr
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Re: A Course In Miracles

Post by Russell Parr »

I plan on reading through the material more, what you've quoted sounds good. I've watched some videos on youtube about it and my biggest critique at this point would be that it doesn't seem to do much in provoking people into challenging certain core values that are counter-productive to wisdom, namely emotional love. For example, in this video, Marianne Williamson, while providing a lot of (surprisingly) good insights in the nature of reality and self, still places heavy emphasis on "loving others" and compassion. This is quite a bit shallow as far as deep wisdom goes, and promoting these things more often then not leads to future suffering in self and/or others.

I would like it see more emphasis on the importance of reason over emotion, and the transcendent power of reason, and while it appears that the course might teach this to some degree, it is not explicit enough. Of course, this would make it even less popular. As I said, it's still a great step forward if Christianity were to somehow evolve into something more like it.

.....
Regarding the backstory of the book, my guess is that Helen, with her immense background in psychology, happened upon a savant-like sequence in which profound insight poured out of her seemingly involuntarily, triggered by the suggestion of her friend to "find a better way." The Christian language and the voice identifying itself as Jesus is due to the circumstance of living in Christian dominated western society, where you can't avoid learning about Christianity even if you're an atheist. Since the insight was of a spiritual nature, it was natural to take on a religious tone.
jufa
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Re: A Course In Miracles

Post by jufa »

If there is a true course of a miracle[s] to be studied, it is each and every individual. Coming from two different entities, merging, expanding, then expanding, and expanding, and finally multiplying to form a unit of one is the ultimate miracle.

Never give power to anything a person believes is their source of strength - jufa
http://theillusionofgod.yuku.com
Mizmotown
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Re: A Course In Miracles

Post by Mizmotown »

Russell,

Thank you again for your comments and yes maybe someday you'll be led to further teaching of ACIM. It is not a book to be intellectually understood as much as it is to applied. Application will show you it that it works whether you start out believing or not. It is said it is a simple course but it's not an easy one, and that is the truth. It's about 100% self honesty and really looking at our judgements, fears, justifications, anger, prejudices, and hatred. All those things are blocks to our truth of wholeness and innocence. Finding fault with others and ourselves is actually what arrogance is. What right do we have to do this?

Reason is what ACIM is all about. It's finding complete sanity.

"Madness is an attack on reason that drives it out of mind, and takes its place. Reason does not attack, but takes the place of madness quietly, replacing madness if it be the will of the insane to listen to it. But the insane know not their will. For they believe they see the body, and let their madness tell them it is real. Reason would be incapable of this. And if you would defend the body against your reason, you will not understand the body or yourself."

A continuous prayer is, "May I see insanity and, by so seeing, step out of it instantly."
SeekerOfWisdom
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Re: A Course In Miracles

Post by SeekerOfWisdom »

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Mizmotown
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Re: A Course In Miracles

Post by Mizmotown »

I do know what you are saying, I am referring to the ego's need to constantly find fault and mistakes within others. The ego wants to find where others are wrong. By doing this we think we proclaim our innocence. It's not to say that people don't make mistakes and yes we can learn from them from when coming from love but at the same time we need to watch our minds for wanting people to make mistakes or to find mistakes so we can use them for attack.
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Cahoot
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Re: A Course In Miracles

Post by Cahoot »

I’ve heard of A Course In Miracles but never studied it, never read much about it, so never thought about it much. Never heard or read any criticisms of it, but never looked for any.

I would say most of the people who read this, have also found the following thought, though maybe not in the same words.

*

Since by definition, a phenomenon described as a miracle requires divine intervention in human affairs, a miracle could actually be divine intervention in the human affair of perception and cognition.

But the Red Sea parting adds an additional element to human perception, and that is, physicality. People walked across the parted Red Sea. And I may be wrong, but I think they had to hurry across, because there was a time deadline and the waters would rejoin no matter who was still walking around perceiving a parted sea.

The dictionary could also be wrong. An unknown, unidentified, and unthought cause of the Red Sea parting need not be an indication of divinity. By this reasoning, a miracle is actually the dividing line between the known and unknown, and if the unknown ever became known, as has happened in the past, then knowledge increases.

Currently, human experience does not allow for knowledge of conditions under which a large body of water may suddenly develop a thick part, other than to include the divine. Perhaps the physical conditions present that caused the The Red Sea to part were perceived and noted by witnesses, and then their reporting was lost to time and the great fire at Alexandria. This would mean that the combination of conditions have not only been forgotten, but are unique to that time in which the phenomena appeared to witnesses, and this is a possibility, considering that all anyone knows of the potential of humans is limited to what one can infer about reality.

Does The Course in Miracles mention anything about this?
Mizmotown
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Re: A Course In Miracles

Post by Mizmotown »

ACIM consistently states that the world of perception is an illusion. “The world as you perceive it cannot have been created by the Father, for the world is not as you see it. God created only the eternal, and everything you see is perishable” (T-11.VII.1:1–2) But we do see reflections of spirit here. Everything we have "made" to destroy, spirit uses to heal and lead us back to the eternal. This happens as we align our wills back with spirit. Although miracles in ACIM are corrections in perception from fear to love, physical "miracles" can and do take place. One of the miracle principles is, "Miracles transcend the body. They are sudden shifts into invisibility, away from the bodily level. That is why they heal." By proper use of your mind you can actually do anything in this world. As Jesus says later on in the text, your faith can move mountains and he could mean this very literally.
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