When Marianne Williamson (not the author of A Course in Miracles) wrote her own
book, Reflections on Love, based on the Course, Oprah Winfrey
promoted Williamson on her show, and the book skyrocketed. To
understand Marianne Williamson, one must understand A Course in
Miracles.
A
Course in Miracles
by Mike Oppenheimer
This
new Revelation began in 1965 when Helen Schucman, an Associate
professor of Medical Psychology at Columbia University in New
York, began receiving channeled messages from a speaker who would
later identify himself as Jesus Christ.
The
messages began with the words, "Please take notes," this is not
optional. So Helen Schucman a atheist Jewish psychologist began
writing and for the next ten years the voice is said to have dictated
"in an inaudible voice" over 500,000 words contained in the three
volumes. This was done through the process called automatic handwriting,
(in which a spirit entity guides the hand )and clairaudience,
(hearing from a disembodied spirit) Schucman wrote this hefty
volume, and she claims the source of the words was Jesus Himself.
The
Course is a spiritual/psychological book put in a systematic teaching
consisting in three books (altogether1,188 pages).: a 622-page
Text, a 478-page Workbook for Students, and an 88-page Manual
for Teachers.
Dr.
William Thetford, was one of her colleagues a clinical psychologist
at Columbia University. While he never heard the voice, he was
instrumental in the publication of the Course. Raised in
the Christian Science church, Thetford believed the Course was a representation of the "original teachings of Jesus"
("The Holy Encounter," Sept./Oct. 1990, p. 5).
Schucman
and Thetford met Dr. Kenneth Wapnick of the Foundation for Inner
Peace In 1972. The Copyright for the Course was turned over to
Wapnick and his organization in 1975. In September of the same
year the publication of the first edition of A Course In Miracles began. Schucman died in February 1981 and Thetford in 1988.
The
primary reason for the Course is the "Correcting of the
errors of Christianity.... To foster spiritual development through
the study and practice of A Course In Miracles, a set of
three books channeled by Jesus. ...to teach the Course's reinterpretation
of traditional Christian principles such as sin, suffering, forgiveness,
Atonement, and the meaning of the Crucifixion..." (Foundation
for A Course In Miracles, "Forgiveness," p.3- 4). from
Mike Oppenheimer, Let
Us Reason Ministries, A Course in Miracles
"Over
the past decade, Williamson has continued to champion A Course
in Miracles in the media and in her public appearances around
the country. A more recent book, Healing the Soul of America,
has enabled Williamson and the Course to make a subtle transition
into the political arena. Hoping to inspire a "new gospel"
approach to national and world problems, Williamson, along with
best selling Conversations with God author Neale Donald
Walsch, cofounded The Global Renaissance Alliance.[Now called
the Peace Alliance.] Reinventing Jesus Christ
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