Almost 40 years ago, Dr. Helen Schucman,
a conservative research psychologist
at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City
heard what she believed was the voice of Jesus.
The voice said, "This is a course in miracles."
What you are about to see is an extraordinary story
of how that one sentence began the decade-long
dictation of a book that would change thousands of lives
and lead to the creation of scores of non-profit organizations around the world.
Helen was ambivalent about the religious nature of the words
that came to her in a process she described as "inner dictation."
Whether or not you believe that it was actually the spirit of Jesus,
one thing is certain...the Course contains a powerful message of forgiveness.
From the moment Helen confided her secret
to her colleague, Bill Thetford,
everyone connected with the Course has been steadfast
in their commitment that it be used as a teaching device
and not the basis for another religion.
Today on The Visionaries you'll meet some of the first people
Helen and Bill trusted with their extraordinary document,
and learn how it would change their lives forever.
When A Course in Miracles was given to me
I was at a critical point in my life.
A few days before I actually had an emotional breakdown.
I realized everything in my life was really fine.
I was lucky. I was blessed with a marvelous family;
two healthy, growing children, a beautiful place to live,
a wonderful career, and I felt empty; just absolutely empty; desolate.
As I was weeping I heard myself say,
"Would Someone up there please help me?"
and I said it a few times.
"Won't Someone up there please help me?"
It was only a few days later I met Dr. Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford.
They worked together at Columbia
with a tremendous amount of tension and hostility around them.
Their own relationship reflected this.
There was a lot of sniping, backbiting;
there was heavy-duty criticism and judgment,
and it wasn't very pleasant.
One day after a particularly difficult meeting,
Bill turned to Helen and he did something very unusual.
Bill gave an impassioned speech,
in which he said that they just couldn't seem to be at peace with each other,
and he finally ended it up and he said,
"There must be another way. There must be another way,"
and he really meant it
And to his surprise, instead of ridiculing him,
Helen put out her hand and she said very sweetly,
"I don't know what the other way is, Bill,
but I'm determined to help you find it."
And that, to me, was the critical juncture
of two human beings who came together
to find another way of being in the world.
It was almost as if Helen had waited her whole life for that moment.
She had really written God off and written Jesus off.
At the point when all this happened she would have dreams
that were very, very pregnant with meaning,
and the figure of Jesus began to appear.
It was very disconcerting to her,
and the culmination of all this was an October evening.
Helen was sitting at home and she heard very clearly:
"This is a course in miracles. Please take notes."
She called Bill and he said,
"Well, why don't you get out one of your notebooks
and take down what it says?"
And she said,
"Well, what if it says something irrational or crazy?"
He said, "Bring it in the morning;
we'll lock the door and pull down the shade,
and you read it aloud to me and I'll type it up,
and if it looks crazy we'll throw it away."
And that first night, what she took down in peace and in quiet
was the introduction to A Course in Miracles.
"This is a course in miracles. It is a required course.
Only the time you take...The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love,
for that is beyond what can be taught.
The opposite of love is fear....
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."
Something struck me that it was not, not only beautifully written
but it had a very, very powerful message,
and I felt a real connection with it.
I very quickly changed all my plans.
This was my life's work.
I knew it was true for me,
and I knew that this was the help that I needed.
It spoke to me.
After the text was finished, Helen began to
scribe the workbook for students,
which has a lesson a day for 365 days
in order to practice the principles in the text of A Course in Miracles.
And after that, very quickly was dictated the manual for teachers;
not for a teacher outside to teach someone else,
but rather to turn to the inner Teacher.
It would be a big mistake if people used the Course
as a way of building another church, a cult,
a community of followers, etcetera.
Its purpose is to be a self-study course
where people develop a relationship with Jesus or the Holy Spirit
and work with them on healing their relationships.
Many of the terms in the Course are Christian...
so-called Christian terms, but what the Course does
is give a whole new understanding
and a different interpretation, you might say, to the terms.
So that the Holy Spirit in the Course would really be
the Presence in our right mind of the memory of God
and who we truly are as a part of God.
It's not...it's not the same way that like Christians would talk
about the Holy Spirit.
So it's not something outside of me;
it's something within my mind.
And so the Course makes you aware of that,
that it's your choice...
whether you want to go to your right mind
and hear the Holy Spirit and ask for help and guidance,
or if you want to stay in your wrong mind and listen to the ego.
The thrust of the Course is the healing of relationships through forgiveness.
The Course would emphasize that we would be much happier
and more peaceful if we could let go of our grievances.
And rather than harbor grudges against each other,
that we would seek to find what unites us,
rather than what divides us
And what unites us is that we all basically share the same anxieties,
the same fears, the same guilt, the same concerns,
and that we all share the same interest of being free from them.
We made the commitment that we would publish
A Course in Miracles through our not-for-profit organization
called the Foundation for Inner Peace.
We felt very keenly that there should be no central organization,
that there should be the availability of the books
to come to people as they felt they needed it.
There are about a million and a half copies
of A Course in Miracles in print,
and that would include eight language translations.
There are many paths one can take.
Helen didn't choose to use A Course in Miracles,
and that was her choice.
And I'm very glad A Course in Miracles was named
"a" course in miracles, and not "the" course in miracles,
because it indicates, as the Course itself says, that there are
many, many, many different roads
and they all lead to the same place,
which is home.