A Course In Miracles

NOTE: Let me start out by saying, the Foundation For Inner Peace version of the Course helped me immensely in my early years. However, due to my near death experiences and awakenings through the 12 Steps I knew something was off. Something was missing. In more recent times the original manuscripts have surfaced. The new materials have made it clear to all except those in deep denial that the Course needs to be RE-STUDIED all over again from a brand new perspective. It's a good idea to approach everything as if it were new anyway. In Zen Buddhism it's called, keeping a "beginners mind." In AA they call it, "keeping it green," or you could call it plain old humility.

Over the years Bible scholar and professional editor Doug Thompson has been working diligently in an attempt to restore A Course In Miracles to a professionally edited state. In my opinion his website and ACIM Scholars Toolbox DVD is essential for a total understanding. However, if you are already able to maintain a spiritual Connection, the Holy Spirit will fill in the blanks as it did for me.

Visit the free Scholar's Toolbox website and do what you can to support Doug Thompson's endeavor. There you will find the original texts and even the hand written shorthand notes and a tutorial on how to decode Helen's shorthand. You can obtain the latest "official" copy of A Course In Miracles from the Foundation for Inner Peace.

I hope these articles help increase understanding and help reunite the Course I love with the Bible I can't deny. ASK ASK ASK ASK ASK ASK ASK ASK ASK ASK the Holy Spirit for Guidance! All I can give you is an intellectual understanding. It's up to you to accept it into your heart.

by Pastor Stephen Horrillo

An Introduction to A Course In Miracles
Isn't A Course In Miracles a course in miracles?
Common Misunderstandings of A Course In Miracles
Teachers of a Self-study Course
The Jesus of A Course In Miracles isn't the Jesus of the Bible?

An Introduction to A Course In Miracles
by Pastor Stephen Horrillo, CHt.

Do you think a course in performing miracles might help you in your everyday life? Then maybe it's time to check out A Course In Miracles. A Course In Miracles is actually five books designed to work together or independently. It starts with off with the 50 Principles of Miracles. This short section will lay a foundation and frame for you what is to come in the Text section of the course. The second book is called the Workbook. It contains 365 Lessons which are designed as a yearlong mind training/un-training course. The third book is named a Manual for Teachers. This book is for those ready to take the next step and devote their lives to living a miraculous life and to teaching the miracle minded. The fourth book is called Psychotherapy. This book is inspiration and Guidance for those who are in, or who wish to enter the healing professions. This manual addresses the issues which will inevitably arise when the student starts thinking like a Teacher. The fifth book is called The Song of Prayer. In this book the levels of prayer are explored leaving us resting finally on the highest level, a level where the true miracles can be witnessed and shared.

But be warned, this is not your traditional how-to course. To perform miracles, “as the Master did and greater” you will be surprised that you become willing to lay aside many of the things you thought you held dear. This is a course in removing the blocks to the awareness of God’s presence. That is all. The rest is under the direction of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

"The Holy Spirit opposes ANY imprisoning of the will of a Son of God, KNOWING that the will of the Son IS the Father’s. He leads you steadily along the path of freedom, teaching you how to disregard, or look beyond EVERYTHING that would hold you back.” A Course In Miracles

According to this Course all it takes is, “a little willingness” to forgive your unloving perceptions of a world which a God who loves you created. You provide the willingness, the Course will provide the means of, "Purification." Once you are born again in forgiveness you will naturally allow Jesus to work through you thus, "the power to work miracles" will be yours.

"The power to work Miracles belongs to you. I will create the right opportunities for you to do them. But you must be ready & willing to do them, since you are already able to. Doing them will bring conviction in the ability. I repeat that you will see Miracles thru your hands thru MINE.” A Course In Miracles

So there you have it. A quick rundown on A Course In Miracles. This short article is surely never going to do a Work such as this justice, but I wanted at least to give it a try. From my personal experience I can testify that this book has saved my life on many occasions.

The principles contained within A Course In Miracles as well as the original less edited documents have made my life a WHOLE lot more peaceful and easy flowing. When Jesus said, "my yoke is easy" he was telling the Truth.

“When you have learned how to decide WITH God, ALL decisions become as easy and as right as breathing. There is no effort, and you will be led as gently, as if you were being carried along a quiet path in summer.” A Course In Miracles

"Helen reminded me that they were not gurus, they didn't start a religion, and it wasn't meant to be a religion. This is a self-study course in spiritual psychotherapy." quote by, Judith Skutch Whitson, Anaheim Conference, Audio Tape#4 1.

The Course sums it up perfectly in this verse...

"Seek not outside yourself. For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls."

Isn't A Course In Miracles a course in miracles?
by Pastor Stephen Horrillo, CHt.

"I raised the dead by KNOWING that life is an eternal attribute of everything that the living God Created." URTEXT

Another major misconception is that the Course isn't really about the performing of miracles. The very first words Jesus communicated to Helen. "This is a course in miracles..." Then Jesus goes on to explain the principles on how to become "miracle-minded."

I've found the vast majority of Course students right from the get-go choose not interpret the first three words of ACIM literally. I've also seen the highly edited editions will leave the reader's ego with the perfect excuse to say, "I need do nothing" when doing so serves it's little purposes. It's not the readers fault however. This is what the edited edition says.

I encourage you to read the original versions of the Course and read what was edited out of the Course. The Course is indeed about performing miracles. Mind you, we don't perform miracles for the same reasons most faith healers do, we perform them simply as an uninhibited spontaneous Jesus directed expression of love.

Take a look at the following quote from the URTEXT version...

"The use of miracles as a spectacle to induce belief is wrong. They are really used for and by believers. (HS has some fear about 11) and doubt about 9) and 10). Probably doubt by fear of 11)" URTEXT Miracle Principle #11

The above Miracle Principle above clearly states, "Helen Shuchman {HS} has fear about 11." We can only speculate whether it was fear or just poor editing skills that caused her to edit out a VERY important concept. Miracle Principle #11 was renumbered to #10 and was edited to read...

"The use of miracles as spectacles to induce belief is a misunderstanding of their purpose." 2nd Edition Miracle Principle #10

So... "the use of miracles as a spectacle to induce belief is wrong." It would appear Jesus is telling us in no uncertain terms it's wrong to use our newly acquired Gifts to turn a non-believer in a believer. How can public displays of Love ever be wrong! Jesus in no fool. He knows how readily the ego can twist a lofty ideal into a personal agenda. Do you know anybody who does this? Can you stand it?

Miracles are used, "by believers FOR believers" URTEXT

Back in the day when I considered myself a non-believer, I SO wanted to heal the believers of their childish delusions. If I were to seek out a healer in that mindset I would be symbolically saying, "I will heal you of your mental delusions if you heal me of my real physical problems." Let's be honest. Is healing likely to occur under these circumstances?

Not to worry. The Holy Spirit will direct you to those who have that, "little willingness" the Course speaks of. Those are your, "believers." If you don't have their permission you will feel violated as they feel violated. You must feel true empathy in atmosphere of Love to be a pure channel. The voice for God known as the Holy Spirit was created to complete the Connection from God to Jesus and Jesus to you. If you look upon the ill, the ufaithful, the sinners, alone.

Jesus is our faithful Servant as we are God's. Jesus will Sanctify every relationship thereby making it Holy. Watch for the Willing, they are your invitation to Heaven. "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." Matthew 18:10

A Course In Miracles on Performing Miracles

URTEXT 8 I 7 You have begun to realize that this is a very practical course, because it means EXACTLY what it says. So does the Bible, if it is properly understood. There has been a marked tendency on the part of many of the Bible’s followers, and also its translators, to be entirely literal about fear and ITS effects, but NOT about love and ITS results. Thus, “hellfire” means burning, but raising the dead becomes allegorical. Actually, it is PARTICULARLY the references to the outcomes of love that should be taken literally because the Bible is ABOUT love, being about GOD.

Yes, there has been a marked tendency to interpret healing and miracles in the Course as allegory. We're told the references about healing and miracles should be taken literally because A Course In Miracles is ABOUT expressions of love through miracles. So was the Bible.

URTEXT T 1 B 30f. The correction lies in accepting what is true in YOURSELF, by bringing ALL that you are into light. (HS (Helen Schucman) fearful of writing next part.) Cacey45 [sic] was wrong about Possession, and he was also wrong about hurting himself. One of the major problems with miracle workers is that they are so sure that what they are doing is right, because they KNOW it stems from love, that they do not pause to let ME establish MY limits. While what he (Cacey”46[sic]) did came from Me, he could NOT be induced to ask me each time whether I wanted him to perform this PARTICULAR miracle. If he had, he would not have performed any miracles that could not get through constructively, and would thus have saved himself unnecessary strain. He burned himself out with indiscriminate miracles, and to this extent did not fulfill his own full purpose, and was also subject to the Scribal error I mentioned at the start. The Disciples were also prone to this. T(19) -19

Notice that the personal notes say Helen (HS) was fearful of writing about Edgar Casey performing miracles. It's these fears that lead to virtually all references about performing miracle to be edited out. Jesus make it clear some of Casey's miracles came from him. Casey's mistake was that he didn't ask when to perform a miracle, thus burning himself out.

T 1 B 30h. The answer is NEVER perform a miracle without asking me IF you should. This spares you from exhaustion, and because you act under direct communication the trance becomes unnecessary. Because miracles are expressions of love, it does NOT follow that they will always be effective. I am the only one who can perform miracles indiscriminately, because I AM the Atonement. You have a ROLE in Atonement, which I will dictate TO you.

Jesus is asking us not to perform miracle "indecriminately." He is in no way suggesting that it's pointless to perform miracles.

T 2 B 5. You can do ANYTHING I ask. I have asked you to perform miracles and have made it VERY clear that these are NATURAL, CORRECTIVE, HEALING, and UNIVERSAL. There is nothing good they cannot do. But they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt. Remember my own question, before you ask yours “Oh ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou DOUBT.” (Reference to Christ and the apostles walking on water.)

Can it get any clearer that Jesus is asking us to perform miracles? What does Jesus have to do, hit us over the head with it? What made the scribe so fearful that she allowed this paragraph to be edited out? I think you know this one.

T 6 F 10. To the Holy Spirit THERE IS NO ORDER OF DIFFICULTY IN MIRACLES. This is FAMILIAR enough to you by now, but it has not yet become believable. Therefore, you do not understand it and cannot USE it. We have too much to accomplish on behalf of the Kingdom to let this crucial concept slip away. It is a real foundation stone of the thought system I teach and want YOU to teach. You cannot perform miracles without believing it, because it is a belief in perfect equality.

Gifts of God 3 A 6. My call to you is that you offer help from all the dreams the holy Son of God imagines, from the time that first of dreams was given false reality until all dreaming ends forever. Could a gift be holier than this? And could the need within a world of dreams be more acute or more compelling? Give me help in this, and not one gift the world may seek to give, or one illusion held against the truth, can bind you longer. Time can have no sway upon you, nor can any laws of earth have power over you. Your hands will heal, and give the gifts that you accept of me.

"Your HANDS will heal..." If you care to write this one off as allegory I suggest you ask yourself, "what am I fearing in this concept?" "How is it serving my ego to not take this phrase literally?" What am I afraid to Demonstrate?

URTEXT T 1 A. Introduction (*N 1 4:28)

T 1 A 1. It is crucial to say first that this is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what to take when. It is just because you are not ready to do what you should elect to do that time exists at all. (You will see miracles through your hands through me. You should begin each day with the prayer “Help me to perform whatever miracles you want of me today.”)

There it is again. "Through your hands."

T 1 B 23h. Having been restored to your original state, you naturally become part of the Atonement yourself. You now share MY inability to tolerate the lack of love in yourself & in everyone else, and MUST join the GREAT CRUSADE to correct it. The slogan for this Crusade is “Listen, Learn, and DO.” This means Listen to My Voice, Learn to undo the error, and DO something to correct it. The first two are not enough. The real members of MY party are ACTIVE workers.

Oh crap! You mean I have to, "DO something"? You mean to tell me we must become, "ACTIVE workers"? I just spet $500 on that new Navel Contemplation course and you're telling me I wasted my money!

T 1 B 23k. The power to work Miracles BELONGS to you. I will create the right opportunities for you to do them. But you must be ready & willing to do them, since you are already able to. Doing them will bring conviction in the ability. I repeat that you will see Miracles through your hands through MINE.32 Conviction really comes through accomplishment. Remember that ability is the potential, Achievement is its expression, and Atonement is the Purpose.

Here we go again, "do them" and "work Miracles." I wonder which book would sell more copies? One that emphasizes that you, "need do nothing" or one that asks you to actually do some work?

2nd Edition

W 170 R5 9. Let this review be then your gift to me. For this alone I need; that you will hear the words I speak and give them to the world. You are my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands, through which I save the world.

Lesson 353 “My eyes, my tongue, my hands, my feet Today have but one purpose; to be given Christ To use to bless the world with miracles.”

Common Misunderstandings of A Course In Miracles
by Pastor Stephen Horrillo, CHt.

Defining the term "Illusion"

The spiritual bestseller A Course In Miracles is one of the most profound books I have ever studied. It is also the most easily misunderstood. The main reason for this in my opinion is that some key words that are are essential to it's message are routinely mis-defined. When reading the Course, if you come across a word that seems out of place or you don't understand the meaning of the word it very important to stop and search for a proper definition before you move on. If you don't make this effort your understanding may forever be colored. Some of the words used in the Course that have different meanings than we are used to are covered in the Clarification of Terms section.

When I first began to study the Course back in 1994 the very first word I came across that I wasn't sure of was the word, "illusion." The word was used a lot and most course students in the meetings seemed to define illusion as something that, "wasn't real," or something's that's, "not there." That didn't sit right with me. It didn't resonate with my near death experiences. It wasn't in line with the definition I learned in school. It wasn't mentioned in the Clarification of Terms section of the Course so it probably didn't have a different meaning than was commonly used. It didn't make logical sense to me either.

I could see the attraction of re-defining the term illusion. No doubt, everyone would like to believe the things that threaten them aren't really going to hurt them because, "life is but a dream." Yet the Course also spoke about the temptation to deny the body, calling it and "unworthy form of denial." I later came to learn that in reality it's the defenses which block God's presence that are, "tragic," rather than the world itself. What a relief!

Workbook: “If I defend myself I am attacked. But in defenselessness I will be strong, And I will learn what my defenses hide.... In my defenselessness my safety lies”

Instead of believing someone else's definition I decided to look it up. This is what I found according to the Miriam-Webster dictionary:

Illusion: 1 a obsolete : the action of deceiving b (1) : the state or fact of being intellectually deceived or misled : misapprehension (2) : an instance of such deception 2 a (1) : a misleading image presented to the vision (2) : something that deceives or misleads intellectually b (1) : perception of something objectively existing in such a way as to cause misinterpretation of its actual nature (2) : hallucination 1 (3) : a pattern capable of reversible perspective

I find a quote from the Special Messages section of the URTEXT is appropriate here. "if we are to deny the denial of truth we must first RECOGNIZE 'What we are denying. Remember that knowledge PRECEDES denial, and that the separation was a descent from magnitude to littleness. And so the way back is to retrace the way to magnitude."

So rather than seeing the world as unreal, thanks to Webster's definition I came to see that the Course was asking me to see the things in the world that cause me difficulty as, "a pattern capable of reversible perspective." In other words, seeing the world differently. What's great about, "reversing perspectives/perceptions" is it allows me to choose again to see the world another way and question the validity of the way I saw it previously. In that state of openness and curiosity the Holy Spirit is thus invited to Council me in how to perceive my world. I can choose to see the world through the eyes of Christ. I can choose Magnitude over littleness. This puts the world as I perceive it in Perspective. This shift in perception is what I mean when I say that I am, "born again."

Text Chapter 11 VII. The Condition of Reality

1. The world as you perceive it cannot have been created by the Father, for the world is not as you see it. 2 God created only the eternal, and everything you see is perishable. 3 Therefore, there must be another world that you do not see. 4 The Bible speaks of a new Heaven and a new earth, yet this cannot be literally true, for the eternal are not re-created. 5 To perceive anew is merely to perceive again, implying that before, or in the interval between, you were not perceiving at all. 6 What, then, is the world that awaits your perception when you see it?

Teachers of a Self-study Course
by Pastor Stephen Horrillo, CHt.

"Helen reminded me that they were not gurus, they didn't start a religion, and it wasn't meant to be a religion. This is a self-study course in spiritual psychotherapy." quote by, Judith Skutch Whitson, Anaheim Conference, Audio Tape#4 1.

Another major temptation I faced early on was to take the short cut of using, "teachers" and self-help authors to help me better understand the Course. The scribe of the Course maintained that, "this is a SELF-study course." From a Course In Miracles perspective the world is in need of learners. In reality teaching is just a method the learner uses to learn. I followed my inner guidance and avoided those who were trying to teach a, "self-study" course. However, I did come across some excellent learners who were good examples of HOW to study the Course. HOW to listen for the, "still, small, voice." A Voice I came to know personally as the Holy Spirit.

URTEXT of A Course In Miracles: "God’s Sons are as equal as learners as they are as Souls...: Most teachers have an unfortunate tendency to teach the COURSE abnormally, and many of the students are apt to suffer considerable perceptual distortion because of their own authority problem."

The Jesus of the Course isn't the Jesus of the Bible
by Pastor Stephen Horrillo, CHt.

I have no idea who started this one or the motive behind it. Many of us have come to distrust the religious and religious institutions, as well as the figures we have made idols. If we can't forgive the Jesus of the Bible let's make another one we can crucify.

Text Chapter 6 I. Message of the Crucifixion

15. These are some of the examples of upside-down thinking in the New Testament, although its gospel is really only the message of love. 2 If the Apostles had not felt guilty, they never could have quoted me as saying, "I come not to bring peace but a sword." 3 This is clearly the opposite of everything I taught. 4 Nor could they have described my reactions to Judas as they did, if they had really understood me. 5 I could not have said, "Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" unless I believed in betrayal. 6 The whole message of the crucifixion was simply that I did not. 7 The "punishment" I was said to have called forth upon Judas was a similar mistake. 8 Judas was my brother and a Son of God, as much a part of the Sonship as myself. 9 Was it likely that I would condemn him when I was ready to demonstrate that condemnation is impossible? (Pg. 95 2^nd Ed.)