A Course in Miracles (also referred to as ACIM) is a 1976 book by Helen Schucman. The underlying premise is that the greatest "miracle" is the act of simply gaining a full "awareness of love's presence" in a person's life. Schucman said that the book had been dictated to her, word for word, via a process of "inner dictation" from Jesus Christ. The book is considered to have borrowed from New Age movement writings. to "a Satanic seduction"
Throughout the 1980s, annual sales of the book steadily increased. According to Olav Hammer, the psychiatrist and author Gerald G. Jampolsky was among the most effective promoters of ACIM. Jampolsky's first book, Love is Letting Go of Fear, based on the principles of ACIM, was published in 1979 and, after being endorsed on Johnny Carson's show, sold over three million copies by 1990. The largest growth in sales occurred in 1992 after Marianne Williamson discussed the book on The Oprah Winfrey Show, In 1965, at a time when their weekly office meetings had become so contentious that they both dreaded them, Thetford suggested to Schucman that "[t]here must be another way". Schucman believed that this interaction acted as a stimulus, triggering a series of inner experiences that were understood by her as visions, dreams, and heightened imagery, along with an "inner voice" that she identified as Jesus (although the ACIM text itself never explicitly claims that the voice she hears speaking is that of Jesus). The next day, she explained the events of her "note-taking" to Thetford. To her surprise, Thetford encouraged her to continue the process. He also offered to assist her in typing out her notes as she read them to him. The process continued the next day and repeated regularly for many years. In 1972, the writing of the three main sections of ACIM was completed, with some additional minor writing coming after that point.
thumb|right|Kenneth Wapnick helped edit the book and founded the Foundation for A Course in Miracles.
For copyright purposes, US courts determined that the author of the text was Schucman, not Jesus. The copyright and trademarks, which had been held by two foundations, were revoked in 2004
In ACIM, it is written that "the ego's death is your life." The ego is presented as a non-entity, an illusion that ceases to exist once one lays it down: "When you have given up the illusion of the ego, you will realize that the ego never existed, and that the only thing that ever existed, and still exists, is God and His creations." Therefore, in ACIM, the ego is simply an illusion that appears to obscure one's oneness with God and his creations, not an essential part of oneself. To summarize the effects of letting go of the ego, it is written, "When the ego has been dispelled, there will be no separation, and you will be wholly real," "real" referring to being in alignment with God and how he created the reader.
Reception
Since it went on sale in 1976, the book has been translated into 27 languages. It is distributed globally, spawning a range of organized groups.
Wapnick said that "if the Bible were considered literally true, then (from a Biblical literalist's viewpoint) the Course would have to be viewed as demonically inspired". He also said, "I often taught in the context of the Bible, even though it is obvious to serious students of A Course in Miracles that it and the Bible are fundamentally incompatible." and that it has "become a spiritual menace to many". The evangelical editor Elliot Miller says that Christian terminology employed in ACIM is "thoroughly redefined" to resemble New Age teachings. Other Christian critics say that ACIM is "intensely anti-biblical" and incompatible with Christianity, blurring the distinction between creator and created and forcefully supporting an occult and New Age worldview.
Olav Hammer locates A Course in Miracles in the tradition of channeled works from those of Madam Blavatsky to Rudolf Steiner's and notes the close parallels between Christian Science and the teachings of the Course.<!-- no source has been provided for this: Alternatively, it can be seen more broadly as part of the tradition of mystical literature described in William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience and Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy.--> Hammer called it "gnosticizing beliefs". In "'Knowledge is Truth': A Course in Miracles as Neo-Gnostic Scripture" in Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies, Simon J. Joseph outlines the relationship between the Course and Gnostic thinking. Daren Kemp also considers ACIM neo-Gnostic and agrees with Hammer that it is a channeled text. The course has been viewed as a way that "integrates a psychological world view with a universal spiritual perspective" and linked to transpersonal psychology.
Joseph declared: