Bill Thetford - Better Way Speech

Bill Thetford and his ‘better way’ speech has become legendary in the A Course in Miracles Community.

It triggered in Helen Schucman a series of waking dreams and visions that eventually led her to scribe ACIM.

So what actually happened?

Bill Thetford found the hardest part of his job at the Presbyterian Medical Center was dealing with the back-biting amongst the staff. The departmental meetings were a hot bed of in-fighting and savage competition that often left Bill demoralized and exhausted.

Before one of these meetings in 1965, he went to Helen Schucman’s office with a resolve to do things differently. Robert Skutch takes up the story in his book Journey Without Distance

“Bill went into Helen’s office and obviously wanted to say something which he evidently found hard to talk about. At last, he took a deep breath, grew slightly red-face and delivered a speech.

He admitted later that the words sounded trite and sentimental, and he hardly expected a favourable response from Helen. He had been thinking things over and had concluded that their approach was wrong.

“There must,” he said, “Be another way, our attitudes are so negative that we can’t work anything out.”

The ACIM journey begins

Much to his surprise, Helen readily agreed and she and Bill resolved to take a different approach, one that involved listening and co-operation and Helen Schucman said she’d follow his lead.

This commitment drew them together and signalled a change in their lives.

Following the speech Helen was bombarded with three months of visions and psychic experiences. These eventually led her to listen to the Voice and to start the long process of scribing ACIM.