ACIM History
The story of ACIM is a strange tale of two psychology professors, an ‘inner voice’, a reluctant author and a book that took seven years to write.
Imagine being a well respected psychologist and hearing an inner voice that identifies itself as Jesus.
Imagine you’re the only one who can hear it and it’s instructing you to write A Course in Miracles.
In 1965 that’s exactly what happened to 56 year old Helen Schucman and not surprisingly it alarmed her so much, at times she feared for her sanity.
Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford - the unlikely authors
A Course in Miracles might never have been written had it not been for Helen’s boss, 42 year old Bill Thetford. There were real tensions at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre and one day Bill declared he was tired of working like this. “There must be a better way,” he declared. This uncharacteristic speech marked the beginning of the ACIM experience.
It was following Bill’s impassioned plea that Helen experienced three months of highly symbolic dreams. Then one day she heard the Voice say, “This is a course in miracles, please take notes.”
Keeping the guilty secret quiet
Helen was an unwilling scribe; it was Bill who encouraged her to write down the inner dictation from the Voice. So began the long seven year process of writing ACIM.
Between 1965 and 1972 Helen would read out the notes dictated to her by the Voice whilst Bill typed them up. 
Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman were acutely concerned that their reputations would be shattered if their ‘guilty secret’ escaped.
Don’t forget they were both highly respected professors in a psychiatry department and they faced ridicule from their peers if found out.
Helen described herself as “Psychologist, educator, conservative in theory and atheistic in beliefs.”
When it came to ACIM her emotions swung from resentment to ambivalence to a sense of privilege. There were times she felt a deep trust and fluidity with the writing but many other times when she felt real hostility to the task.
Bill and Helen meet Kenneth Wapnick and Judith Skutch
The Course was dictated in three sections, first the Text, then the Workbook for students and finally the Manual for Teachers. In September 1972 when the Course was complete, as if on cue the next significant character, Kenneth Wapnick (a trainee monk), came onto the scene.
Bill gave Ken a copy of the Course. After reading it Ken felt compelled to comit his life to ACIM and to turn his back on a monastic existence. Ken was the driver for the next phase and masterminded the editing, punctuating and paragraphing of the raw material.
Kenneth Wapnick became fast friends with Bill and Helen and they formed a close-knit spiritual family with A Course in Miracles at the heart of their relationship. Their spiritual family was still missing a principal player and that was when Bill met Judith Skutch.
Foundation for Inner Peace publishes the Course
With an impressive contacts list and dozens of Xeroxed copies of ACIM Judy Skutch started to circulate the material.
She was well connected in the ‘new age’ community and ran an organization called “The Foundation for ParaSensory Investigation,” later to become the “Foundation for Inner Peace” (FIP).
It was Judith who found a publisher and in 1976 the first copies of A Course in Miracles rolled off the press.
A second print run came in quick succession. There are currently about one and a half million copies world-wide and it’s been translated into well over a dozen languages.
The Stages of A Course in Miracles
The Course went through several incarnations. In its original form - the Urtext - it reads more like a journal and contains a lot of material specifically for Bill and Helen. This personal material was edited out.
Hugh Lynn Cayce (the son of Edgar Cayce) was given an updated version to read. This version is known as the HLC (Hugh Lynn Cayce) version. It is also called the JCIM version (Jesus Course in Miracles).
It was this draft that Kenneth Wapnick further edited and corrected in collaboration with Helen.
What happened to Helen, Bill, Kenneth and Judith?
Helen Schucman went on to write further channelled material such as Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice and The Song of Prayer as well as a collection of poems entitled The Gifts of God. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1980 and died a year later. Unlike Bill she withdrew from teaching and popularizing ACIM. It seemed she was never comfortable with her status of channelling material.
Bill Thetford outlived Helen by seven years dying in 1988. Unlike Helen he completely embraced the Course and its principles, integrating them fully into his life. He died the day after he jubilantly told Judith he had forgiven everyone in his life. Bill died at the age of 65 from a heart attack.
Kenneth Wapnick stayed close to Helen right up until her death. He enthusiastically welcomed the chance to devote his life to teaching the Course. With his wife, Gloria Wapnick, he founded the “Foundation for A Course in Miralces (FACIM) with the sole purpose of spreading and teaching the principles of ACIM.
Judith Skutch is the President of the “Foundation for Inner Peace”. The FIP was established as trustee and publisher of the Course and is affiliated with the FACIM. It has an active translation programme and publishes other Course related works.
Information and Sources
An Introduction to a Course in Miracles - Miracles Distribution Centre
The Complete Story of the Course - D Patrick Miller
A Course in Miracles (preface) - Foundation for Inner Peace
Wikipedia
Foundation for Inner Peace
Foundation for A Course in Miracles
