Synopsis of A Course in Miracles

The Course in Miracles was led by psychologist Dr. Helen Shuchman. She recognized the voice she heard as that of Jesus, which was the source of great conflict in her mind. In seven years, three volumes were written, a text, a workbook for students and a manual for teachers. The first publication dates back to 1976.

The course is a self-learning system under the guidance of our inner teacher, the Holy Spirit, towards the awakening of ourselves. It emphasizes the experience of healing our suffering, the source of which is the belief that we have separated ourselves from God and are in spiritual exile.

The course emphasizes the healing of our interpersonal relationships as a means of awakening, because the relationships we have are a projection of the unconscious relationship we believe we have with God.

Forgiveness is the main spiritual practice of the course.

By letting go of judgment and being willing to see things differently, the belief in the separation of our true Self and God can be healed. According to the Course, the only reality is a state of perfect union with God and Christ (God's true creation and our true identity).

We cannot understand it in our dualistic mind, but it is the entire thought system of the Course.

All our suffering comes from the 'dream of separation'. This crazy belief that we have separated ourselves from God is what the Course defines as sin or loveless perception. The consequence of sin is guilt, self-hatred, and the expectation of punishment. This is defined as the 'unholy trinity'; sin-guilt-fear. The name the a course in miracles gives to this entire illusory thought system of duality, separation, guilt, sin and fear is the ego.

The goal is to awaken from the nightmare of separation to a 'happy dream' where we perceive a deeper understanding that there is only One Mind. Through the Holy Spirit (God's response to separation) we are connected back to our true identity and the memory of God's love. The beginning of reconciliation is the destruction of the belief in separation and the reminder that everything but love is an illusion.

The course says: “The world you see is what you have given it, nothing more. But even if it is not more, it is not less. It is a witness to your state of mind. The external image of the internal state."

This passage expresses that what we see shows us what is in the unconscious. So the solution is to go to the projection in our mind to change it. There are only two projections; the ego and the holy spirit.