Around the time I came into this world, a book called A Course in Miracles was also gestating. In the mid 60s a woman named Helen Shucman started hearing a voice telling her to write some things down. Although she was an agnostic, the voice claimed to be that of Jesus Christ, so she started writing, and the book was published a few years after I was born.
I didn’t find out about the book until my late twenties. After I had left the religion of Christianity, I still had an affinity for Jesus, and just as I was curious to read the Gnostic Gospels to hear about his other adventures and what else he had to say, I also started looking into A Course in Miracles as well. It took several years, but I finally made it through the whole thing.
The greatest challenge with A Course in Miracles for me, besides the intrepid wordiness, was the workbook. The course challenges the reader to contemplate one message a day, every hour for the full day. Finding the discipline to contemplate a single thought every hour for 5 minutes was never something I could do, but I did read through all of them.
I cannot say for sure whether or not the ideas in A Course in Miracles are actually from the Jesus Christ I was told about as a Christian, but it is written in iambic pentameter, and even to read it as mere poetry, it is beautiful language. There is the possibility that Helen Shucman was either crazy or a genius. However, I have found that the words I explored in the book seem to resonate with the essence of Jesus Christ that I most connected with, through both his compassion and his way of teaching through parables to open the mind for free thought, even more so than many of the Christian doctrines drawn from the works of Paul, grounded in judgment and legalism.
Considering all of the ideas that are floating throughout our collective consciousness at this stage of our civilizational evolution, I thought that the ideas proposed in A Course in Miracles might be a healthy addition to our collective mental diet, especially those looking for a deeper spiritual experience beyond the pews. Earlier this year, I recorded each of the main messages from each of the daily lessons of the workbook in A Course in Miracles and laid them against seven pieces of music my friend Paul Shuler had created years ago based on the tonal vibrations of the seven chakras. Months later, after using the recordings for personal meditation and as auditory riding companions, I had the idea to make the words visual against the background of video I had captured on last year’s cross country motorcycle tour, and A Crash Course in Miracles came into existence.
A Crash Course in Miracles consists of seven grand lessons with the many lessons of the original A Course in Miracles scattered throughout. It is also broken down into daily short videos with one message each. Whether a person wishes to consume the main seven videos in the 70 minutes required, or watch the various videos on a daily basis, or go to the source material and read A Course in Miracles for themselves, I think the world would benefit by thinking on these things.
The ideas in A Course in Miracles are just that. They are ideas. For those who are miracle-minded, they may just be the key to opening their perception to their true power, and for those who are not miracle-minded, they may see only words.
There are some who may have issues with the Christian terminology used throughout the lessons. Christians may begrudge the text for sapping from their monopoly on Christ. Non-Christians may find the nomenclature dissatisfying. The woke brigade may have issues with the upliftment of the patriarchy.
There are certainly plenty of issues to be had with the ideas in A Course In Miracles, and I invite issue enthusiasts to take up as many issues as they like. My main issue is wondering whether or not it will help those who wish to follow Christ to actually act like Christ. After all of the issues that have been fabricated around the story of Christ for the last two millennia, my only issue is with whether or not it works.
I happen to agree with the idea that we are entering a fifth spiritual paradigm of human civilization. The first spiritual paradigm recognized God as all that is. The second spiritual paradigm saw the goddess as the great mother, while the third spiritual paradigm saw multiple gods. The fourth spiritual paradigm, which has lasted for the last 2,000 years and which most of us are most familiar with, recognizes God as a male. And the fifth spiritual paradigm we are entering has us recognizing the creative power that has come through the masculine attributes of God while balancing it with the power of wisdom that comes through the feminine, balancing our godhood like the yin and yang, just as were balancing Eastern and Western thought.
Although I have also taken issue with the masculine use of Christian terms in A Course in Miracles, I also feel that it is approached with a feminine sensibility that has not been fully embraced in the traditional Judeo-Christian heritage. While I, like many, have recognized how patriarchal society has shaped our civilization, I do not think that the way forward would have us necessarily destroy the patriarchy and cancel the majority of recorded human history and, but rather recognize how it has contributed to our development while also embracing the greater feminine energies that may guide us forward.
While the comforts of the doctrines and dogmas created in the fourth paradigm still appeal to many, many more are recognizing that there is more to God than the agreements of the Roman Catholic Church and the other fourth paradigm organizations have allowed us to recognize. I am of the hope that A Course in Miracles could help us bridge the gap, and that A Crash Course in Miracles may help us get over the first hump.
Although A Course in Miracles is printed on the same type of paper that bibles are printed on due to the richness of the text and the number of words that are used, I do not consider A Course in Miracles to be scripture. I think that A Course in Miracles is a course. Some people take courses and gain a lot from them, and some people take courses and don’t gain anything.
If you feel that you might be miracle-minded, I encourage you to take the Crash Course, and if it resonates with you, engage with the entire three volumes of A Course in Miracles to your liking. Take what you can, leave what you like. They are just ideas, and the hope is that they will inspire greater ideas with which to fill the 1440 minutes you have to spend every day than the ideas that are being manufactured through the mainstream.
Those of the Judeo/Islamic/Christian tradition are encouraged to take the crash course or the full course as well. Some ideas in A Course in Miracles may butt up against the parameters set by your religious forefathers, but you are free to dismiss them as merely ideas and continue holding true to your traditions. However, for those with ears to hear and eyes to see, I believe A Course in Miracles could help the religiously minded to more fully ingratiate themselves into their tradition and more fully exemplify the example set forth by their spiritual heroes.
Whether A Crash Course in Miracles or the original A Course in Miracles will actually give you the ability to perform miracles I do not know. But I believe that the ideas are worth considering, and I hope that they help people change to a more comfortable and prosperous perspective than what we have become accustomed to as of late. I hope that you take the journey, and I look forward to hearing how it made you feel on the other end.