This book and the worldview it promotes resulted from a mutual decision between two Professors of Medical Psychology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City: Helen Schucman and William Thetford. They were professionals, working together in a highly academic setting, but by their own admission, their relationship was strained, full of anger and marred by aggressiveness. One day, William, the head of the department, announced that there must be a better way. Together, they then proceeded to discover it.

Though at one time a professed atheist, Helen began receiving symbolic dreams and perceiving strange images. She felt compelled after several months to write down her impressions, feeling guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit in her task. Over a course of seven years, Helen Schucman dictated to William what she felt the ‘Voice’ communicated to her and he typed it, making it a collaborative effort. The book, A Course in Miracles, was published in 1975 by the Foundation for Inner Peace.

Doctrinal Stance on the Seven Pillars of Wisdom

The Nature of Salvation, Liberation or Enlightenment

Helen Schucman (A Course in Miracles): “Salvation is nothing more than right-mindedness.”¹ “Never forget that the Sonship is your salvation, for the Sonship is your Self…Your Self does not need salvation, but your mind needs to learn what salvation is. You are not saved from anything, but you are saved for glory.”²

“When you realize that all guilt is solely an invention of your mind, you also realize that guilt and salvation must be in the same place. In understanding this you are saved.”³ “My salvation comes from me. It cannot come from anywhere else…Within me is the world’s salvation and my own.”⁴

Referencing Christian doctrine, Schucman insists “the crucifixion had no part in the Atonement.”⁵ Instead, when we forgive ourselves, when we receive forgiveness from fellow human beings, or when we extend forgiveness to others, we are participating in, and perpetuating, ‘the Atonement.’ “Forgiveness is for God and toward God, but not of Him. It is impossible to think of anything He created that could need forgiveness. Forgiveness then is an illusion…a kind of happy fiction, a way in which the unknowing bridge the gap between their perception and the truth.”⁶

1 Helen Schucman and William Thetford, A Course in Miracles (Tiburon, California: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1976) “Text,” p. 53.

2 Ibid., “Text,” p. 186.

3 Ibid., “Workbook for Students,” p. 118.

4 Ibid., “Workbook for Students,” p. 119.

5 Ibid., “Text,” p. 264.

6 Ibid., “Manual For Teachers,” p. 79.

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