A Course in Miracles
The author is Jesus, the scribe was Helen Schucman and along with Bill Thetford they birthed into the world a way out of fear and into love, Perfect Love. ACIM provides a roadmap to true spiritual teachings and a path to find the right mind of peace and love.
About ACIM
It was in the late 1990s that I first came upon the big blue book as I like to call it. A few years prior I had had a near-death experience, and my perception had become heightened. I found myself to be an open channel afterward and offered free mediumship readings to people from different corners of the globe.
With one sentence written by Louise Hay, I discovered the spiritual-psychology that is A Course in Miracles. With absolute clarity, I knew it was the way for me. I put down what I was reading of Louise's and went in search of the path to peace I was born to follow.
From the moment I held the thick masterpiece that consists of the Text, Workbook and Manual for Teachers in my hands, it was a coming home. Whilst I did not understand what it was saying consciously, something within did. I could feel the love between the words and a peace that I had only felt sporadically at that time. I began to turn to the Course. It soothed and stilled from within. What did it say? I honestly could not tell you.
If you do not have yourself a copy of this, I highly recommend that you get yourself one. If you love The Treasure Map, you will love the Course. And it is T3M that will help you to know what the Course says, as it must be read from the right mind from where it was written. Which is where The Treasure Map takes you.
A Course in Miracles is a complete course in itself, and if you do the work, it will change your perception of the illusion of form. It, however, does not teach you how to 'forgive within' and find where the ego has hidden the belief in separation, which is what the Course speaks of.
1. Jesus
Helen Schucman, the scribe of the Course, states that the author of the Course is Jesus. However, he is not the Jesus that religion speaks of. To be honest, I have always felt drawn to Jesus. He was the perfect older brother that I looked to. Yet, there was no separation in my mind. He was no different from any of us. He was the same, just more advanced was how I often thought of it.
When I came across the Jesus that is spoken of in ACIM, everything fell into place. I knew it was true. Jesus did not die to save our sins. He did, however, offer the way that leads out of the dream and into awakening to our true Self. The path that Jesus teaches is Forgiveness.
Do not allow the Christian terminology of the Course to stop you from understanding its nature. Personally, I enjoy the words, but if they engender fear for you, this is where you have hidden your guilt of sin. Begin to truly forgive the words that make you feel uncomfortable and the path to peace will become clear for you.
Jesus represents the right mind that can be accessed through the subconscious, where the belief in separation has been undone and the truth of sameness (Perfect Love) has been remembered. Allow Jesus to lead you back to God (Oneness). He did for me, so I know that it is possible.
2. The People
If you are new to A Course in Miracles, I would suggest you look up the official publishers, as appointed by the scribe Helen Schucman, the Foundation for Inner Peace. There is so much content on this site that it will get you moving in the right direction. As well as to guide you to the official version you need to read. You see, there are two versions, and as I can testify, when you are scribing from the right mind, as Helen did, often there will be extra information given to help to assist the ego-personality to understand what is being granted. It has occurred with the material of The Treasure Map. So please get yourself a copy of the official publication.
If you are looking for a teacher to lead you through the Course, other than The Treasure Map and myself, then you could look towards Dr. Ken Wapnick. He was involved with Helen and Bill in the early years. You can access his incredible work at the Foundation for A Course in Miracles. There is much on offer here as well.
Please note, if you are wanting some assistance to understand the true teachings of the Course, there is The Mastership, a one-year online course that takes you through the Text, Workbook and Manual for Teachers, as seen through the spiritual sight of The Treasure Map. This is how I came to understand the truth of what Jesus teaches, and not what the ego offers.
Finally, if you are interested in reading about the birth of the Course, how it came to be in the world of form, Dr. Ken Wapnick details this in Absence From Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles.
3. What It Says
"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."
If you can understand this statement, you know what the Course is teaching. It means that Perfect Love cannot be hurt or harmed. If something is hurt or harmed it is not true. It does not exist in the Mind of God and is the dream that you must wake from. Learn to undo your illusions of sin, guilt, and fear to return thinking to the right mind of peace and love and God will be revealed to you. Nothing surpasses the peace of God. I have experienced this myself. When you have peace, you have everything, for peace and Perfect Love are the same.
Many teachers overlook the true meaning of the Course. The function of the student is to forgive every barrier to the awareness of love's presence within. Forgiveness as the ego teaches does not offer this, for it makes the belief in separation to be true. One is a saint (the forgiver) and the other a sinner (the forgiven). This is why it can be called Forgiveness-to-Destroy. As it keeps you bound to ego thinking. Remember, every pain/problem stems from some aspect of the belief in separation. The more you undo this misperception, the happier and healthier you shall become, as you move from wrong-minded thinking to right-mindedness, which leads to One-mindedness (awakening).
It is the ego that makes all misery we seem to experience in the illusion of time. This is why when you concentrate on undoing it, which is what Truforgiveness grants, you remove the barriers that keep the truth of Perfect Love from your awareness. By doing this you extend love outwards and witness to the happy dream that precedes spiritual awakening.
4. The Miracle of ACIM
A miracle is a shift in perception from fear to love. But what does this mean and how do you do it? Until I discovered the contents of The Treasure Map of Truforgiveness, FAITH & the 'I Forgive' Principle it was hard to know how to do this. You see, when you follow the path of FAITH that God has granted (Forgiveness - Authenticity - Introspection - Trust - Honesty) it takes you from fear to love. By the time you draw up your treasure map (mentally or by journaling), the thought has been corrected. Now, by changing the thoughts you think within, it corrects the picture painted in time that you were set to experience.
You see, what is within projects outwards. What you are moving through stems from what you have hidden within. This is why there is no blame, for the dark shadows you confront come from this unconscious call for punishment from the belief you are sinful of separating from Source. When you remove the veil of guilt from your mind that distorts the truth, you begin to see with the innocent eyes of a Child, which is what Jesus meant.
To enter the kingdom of Heaven, you must know the truth of innocence for All. It is judgment that seeks the belief in separation and sin, so when you undo it, by forgiving within, miracles happen. You swap the nightmare for the happy dream that precedes spiritual awakening. Innocence belongs to Perfect Love, the Oneness of wholeness, which is what Heaven is. It is not the place you go when you die, it is your eternal truth when you have awoken from the dream in duality that death is possible. This is why those that reclaim the right mind of peace and love do not experience death, as they know that the body might be laid aside, but it is not who they are. They are the being of Perfect Love that must awaken. One path to do this is to follow the path of Jesus and continue to truly forgive everything, no matter what the dream offers. As he did. Only, the way the ego teaches Forgiveness will not get you Home. This is why Truforgiveness is so important, it leads away from ego-identification and to the right mind that leads to One-Mindedness.
Remember, if you want a miracle, it is first the shift in awareness from fear to love. This corrects the thoughts you think deep within (not the conscious mind) and has the power to change what you were set to experience in the dream of time.
5. Whom It Is For
ACIM is for anyone that wants to know the truth of God. God did not make the world of form, the split-mind has. And yet, in truth, it does not exist. As part of the Mind of the Son has split off (split-mind) and dreams that they are something they are not.
Why did part of the Mind split? The Child had the thought that they no longer wanted to be the Son, that they wanted to be God. This idea, whilst impossible in truth for what God creates as One cannot be sinful or separated, is the true cause of the world of form that you believe to be true. Yet, this sinful thought, only a thought, a mistake in truth, has now become a sin to be punished. Which is what we do with the shadows in the dream.
In order to awaken, this misperception of sin must be looked at and truly forgiven to be forgotten. To look at the cause in its entirety, would be terrifying. So, a gentle path to awakening has been granted. One by one, each shadow of the sin of separation is withdrawn. Slowly, the truth of Perfect Love dawns on the sleeping Son. You see, those identified with the ego have become afraid of Perfect Love. I can vouch for this. The fear that I confronted as my ego-mind began to crack open to reveal the right mind of perfect peace and luscious love was terrifying.
Whilst the Course speaks with Christian terminology it is for all religions and for none. As the Course comes from the place of wholeness within, which does not seek to separate, which is what religion does. I have no qualms with religion. I could as easily forgive in a church, as I would a temple or a mosque.
It is for those that are seeking self-awareness, not content to accept what the ego tells them that they are, and to find a way out of fear and into love.
The Course is a year-long, self-study program that guides the student to find the inner teacher. However, the ego is very deceptive at interpreting the Course in its own light. I discovered this myself when I was once at a student study group. I could clearly hear the inner voice telling me the true meaning of the passage, yet before me were two people that concluded - in ego interpretation - what it was saying. This is why T3M is so important, she will teach you via revelation to what it means, which is not open to ego substitution. So, what did I do at this moment? I truly forgave it and got myself out. Remember, everything you seem to experience stems from within. You are not the weak little self the ego tells you that you are. You are the perfect, peaceful, powerful Self that was created as an extension of the Perfect Love of God. Find the right mind, which is what The Treasure Map delivers, and you will remember who you are and the truth of innocence for All that you are dying to remember.
If you are ready to forget fear to remember love, Perfect Love, then the Course is for you. You can still hold the hand of your chosen religion, for ACIM undoes the belief in lack, limitation, and lovelessness and the labels the ego uses to separate.
6. The Birth of ACIM Forgiveness
It was in the early noughties and I was at a weekend workshop on Forgiveness. When I had the strangest thought, 'Why am I here?' Yet, I then answered my own question, 'For I am here to teach ACIM Forgiveness.' Heck, I didn't even know what ACIM was saying and it certainly did not teach you how to practice the type of Forgiveness that it mentions. At this stage, I had been a student for a few years.
Yet, looking back, I was born to do this work for God. You see, Helen Schucman scribed the Course from 1965 - 1972. I was born in 1974 and it was in 1982 when God came to me to reveal, "My Precious Child. Please do not be afraid, for one day in your twenties you will understand." It has taken almost four decades for me to understand, but my function was to bring the true teachings of Forgiveness to the world. ACIM Forgiveness, God's Forgiveness, Truforgiveness. In the twenties!
I have spent much of my life hidden in the house. From a young age, I had a psychic vision, in it, I was in an all-white room, sitting at a desk studying. Behind me, I had a great man. He too was in all white. From a small window, I could see the children having fun and playing outside. I wanted to join in. Yet, I was trapped in the room. I would often ask this great man that stood behind me if I could go out and join them. He would tell me no, that I had to study. I have spent much of my life trapped in the bedroom. From a little girl too afraid to go out to an adult that moved from one illness to the next. But, it was for a purpose. I have been studying all this time. And it wasn't too long ago that I heard my guide say, "It is time for you to not be hidden."
As I mentioned, I struggled to comprehend what the Course was talking about. When you read it from the wrong mind of judgment and attack, which is ego-identification, it will not be comprehensible to you. Luckily for me, in the early noughties when I suffered through chronic fatigue syndrome and spent an 18-month period almost in bed, I had a chance to begin to forgive within. I was that exhausted that as I lay, eyes closed, I would drift to sleep but begin to mentally fall through layers in the subconscious mind. I began to become aware that a pattern was forming. I might forgive my partner who cheated recently, but then as I would fall deeper within, along with the same themes my awareness would follow. I might stumble upon cheating in an exam, or on my past boyfriend. Then him cheating on me, etc. Deeper I would dive and I might remember cheating on my parents. Telling them that I did something, yet I did not. Each shadow that projects follows the same theme. I was yet to discover that the ego has hidden the belief in separation at the base of each of these shadows if you follow it correctly. In this case, it would be some aspect of the belief that I cheated on God, by throwing all He had given me away for the ego belief in specialness.
On one occasion, as I lay in bed, Jesus came to me and stated, "You are smart to understand the Course by forgiving within." To be honest, I did not know that this was what I was doing. But he was right. I was beginning to learn. All by undoing the ego to remember the right mind of peace and love. As I moved through the subconscious I could see the passages that I had read from the ego thinking and had no idea of what it meant. Yet deep within, there was a mind that communicated without words, via revelation, and I knew with certainty what Jesus meant. On another occasion, he came and told me that I was 50-years in front of the teachings of the Course and that in the future, others would be learning in the same manner that I was at present. I do not say this from the place of specialness, only to know, that one day in the future, many will be learning the Course by the miracle of The Treasure Map of Truforgiveness, FAITH & the 'I Forgive' Principle.
During these early years of treasure map meditation, I would find myself being taken through what I could describe as a big black hole. It seemed that I was taken to different times in the future. At this time, I was still identified with the wrong mind of ego separation. I am not now. But then, I was. I remember on one occasion, there was a man in a fishing boat out at sea and he was repeating phrases that started with 'I forgive...'. It sounded extremely weird to me at the time. Then another one. I was in a hospital room and a lady was sitting beside her father, who was dying. I could hear her thoughts and she too was repeating these strange, 'I forgive...' statements. It was then that my guide, who was behind me, as He has always been whispered into my ear. "She is extending her love to her Dad, in the only way she can, to help to ease his suffering." I would say that the year was 2003 when I was first introduced to what would later be called, the 'I Forgive' principle.
I did not know at the time, that another decade later that I would have the contents of what these two were repeating, as they drew up their treasure maps. I never gave much thought to what I had seen in this meditation, for in the early years of my spiritual growth, it was often that I was taken out of my body. I would be shown things from the past that I had overlooked and visions of the future. Even one year, I was shown my partner cheating, prior to it happening. I saw the woman and what unfolded and that it would be an emotional connection for him. You can imagine my anguish at this. At the time, I often thought that it was a punishment. In hindsight, they were trying to teach me that this world is a dream that must be undone, not to be made true. Otherwise, how would I see it before it happened?
Many years ago now, as I woke one morning, the guide that guided me back to God, Jesus, came and spoke to me. He simply said, "Your message to teach is that this world is a dream." Was he crazy, I thought? You see, I was not there yet. I was still associated with the ego. I was not going to teach that. Yet, as I began to awaken, I could see this truth so clearly that it would become the central focus of my teaching.
The world of form is the illusion you must awaken from, not be defined by. Truly forgive each shadow as it appears, by forgiving within and you will move from the wrong mind of judgment and attack to the right mind of peace and love. This shift in perception is the miracle that the Course speaks of yet it is the gift of The Treasure Map that makes it so.
7. The Duration of ACIM Forgiveness
In 2007, it seemed that I was thrown from a mountain to my death below. For many years, I believed that I would die in the ravine that would be called my dark decade of the soul.
I did not die. The ego did. I still have my days when I am back in ego-identification, but this is not to be judged, for it is my chance to choose again. To undo the belief in sin, guilt, and fear to move thinking to the right mind of peace and love.
It has taken 14-years of constant dedication to get The Treasure Map out into the world. I have had her for numerous years before I was willing to share her. I became the overprotective mum of the Holy Child that I birthed with God. I kept her hidden for good reason. I had to anchor her firmly into the world of form, build my own belief in her so that when the shadows of sin appeared to destroy her, I would be strong enough to withhold the attack. This is what I have done. I have truly forgiven each shadow that appeared to discount her until I was strong enough in Perfect Love to not recognize an attack.
The ego will discount the miracle of The Treasure Map, for her sole function is to undo ego-identification and return thinking to the right mind of peace and love.
I have experienced the miracle of the true healing that she grants. What the ego sends to destroy is what she will use to heal. One Truforgiveness opportunity at a time. She will also teach you A Course in Miracles via revelation and not ego interpretation. She will save you years of suffering. My own true healing is unbelievable.
As God once said to me, after I found my way back to him, under the guidance of my perfect, peaceful, powerful older brother Jesus, who I would still be lost without (thank you!), "Your brothers almost destroyed you with their projections." It is true. I was almost destroyed. My mind completely collapsed. But I found my way out of hell and into Heaven - a state of Oneness with All.
It is a miracle that I am here to tell you this tale, such was the brokenness that I became. If I can overcome ego-identification, you can too. What I have learned, the deeper you are thrown into the valley of the shadow of death, the greater the chance you have for inner illumination. Utilize what came to harm to truly heal and you too will become a guide for God.
Finally, when I was putting this material together, I was going to omit my name from the work, when I received an important message. I was told to put my name on it, as it was my gift from God for all of the work that I had done. God grants special gifts to those that are here to be His guide. Mine is The Treasure Map of Truforgiveness, FAITH & the 'I Forgive' Principle. A love so sweet that I could not have dreamed up anything prettier. What will your gift be that you receive from Him? Make sure you 'forgive within' to find it.
Please note: The Foundation for Inner Peace has not approved The Treasure Map as the practical application of ACIM Forgiveness. However, its relation to the Course cannot be denied, for it does teach the Course from the right mind where ACIM was written. As God once said to me, let The Treasure Map stand alone, and to teach those interested in true healing. And so, you do not need to be a student of the Course, but you will come to know ACIM via revelation if you do follow The Treasure Map.