What is “A Course in Miracles”?
It’s like asking… what is the Bible? You’ll get a different answer from about anyone you ask. But here’s the gist of The Course: It’s a self-study spiritual course that was “transcribed” by a woman named Helen Schucman and first published in 1976. The story goes that it is the direct words of an ascended master also known as Jesus Christ. While the course is quite a laborious read, it is also an amazing piece of literature written in iambic pentameter.
The promise of the course is to deliver you from illusion to truth, which is perfect peace, heaven, bliss, free from guilt, pain, worry, time, space… words that can only point to the ultimate outcome, which is our true state even as you read this… the time space continuum is all part of the illusion we made up to escape the guilt in our mind when we had the one tiny mad idea of separation from God. That we could be, or even want to be anything else but God is madness. The course is captured in two simple words:
God is.
Once you read the course and accompanying workbook with an earnest desire to learn, it becomes evident that whether you personally believe these are the words of Jesus is irrelevant (because ultimately who we think of as Jesus is another made up illusion anyway). Students will typically either identify with it and have their eyes opened in ways they never imagined, or they will toss the book aside as new age metaphysical hogwash or even possibly consider it a direct attack on Christianity by the devil. Most people are not in state of mind to embrace the truths spoken in the course because at its root, it says that most of what we value in this time and space existence is an illusion made up only in our mind and does not exist outside of our thinking and perception of it. Summing up in one phrase (one of my favorites) “There is nobody out there”. For me, and millions of others, Gary Renard’s book “The Disappearance of the Universe” is a more understandable introduction to the concepts in The Course in Miracles.
What is “The Disappearance of The Universe”?
“The Disappearance of the Universe” is a book written by Gary Renard, who until writing it was an ordinary “everyday Joe”. He tells the story of two ascended masters (spirits) who appear to him from time to time and provide words of wisdom to help understand A Course in Miracles. It’s a book written in plain, yet engaging and funny language most people will be able to identify with more readily than the cryptic wordiness of The Course. That being said, the book is not a substitute for course, they say. However they also say The Course isn’t the only path to the truth, and that we all will end up there, and in fact already have… anyway.. probably confusing at this point! He now has a whole series of books in follow up, but this first book is really all you need to understand what’s going on in The Course.
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This faq is just getting started and will be expanded to include many details and specifics that always come up as students begin their Course in Miracles journey.