Helen Schucman’s Magic Phase

Three months before Helen Schucman wrote A Course in Miracles she experienced a heightened phase of waking dreams, symbolic thoughts and psychic experiences. During this time she seemed to be bombarded with a range of mystical material in preparation for her role as Course scribe.

Helen Schucman and her waking dreams

One of the best known of the dreams in Helen’s magic phase involves her floating down a river in a boat.

Whilst feeling rather dreamy and relaxed on the boat she finds herself wondering if there is buried treasure nearby.

She feels compelled to lower the boat hook into the water and sure enough it catches hold of something.

Her excitement builds as she drags up an ancient old box.

Helen is thrilled at the thought that this old wooden treasure box might contain coins or jewellery. Pulling the box from the water she feels a surge of anticipation as she opens it up.

However the anticipation soon turns to bitter disappointment when she discovers that the only thing inside is an old book. The book looks like a black spring binder with Aesculapius (the name of the Greek god of healing) written in gold lettering on the spine.

The dream finishes with her feeling this is a great let down.

Helen remembered this dream at a much later date. It was only after she’d written ACIM that she then realised the significance of the black book. The black book with its spring binders looked identical to the black folders of the original Course manuscript.

Helen Schucman and the stork

Helen Schucman had another dream that involved a similar book. This time she saw a stork flying overhead carrying something. When she looked closely she realised that the stork wasn’t carrying a baby, it was actually carrying a book with a cross on the cover.

It was at this point that the Voice said to her, “This is your book.”

Helen Schucman and Reincarnation

Helen Schucman was particularly repelled at the thought of reincarnation. However she experienced a series of episodes where she saw herself and her colleague Bill Thetford (the ACIM co-scribe) in different eras of history. She explained these away as strictly symbolic however they obviously left her quite unsettled.

In some of these experiences she recognised both herself and Bill. In one Bill was a witch doctor and she had gone to him to get help.

In another she saw herself as a priestess in what seemed like an Egyptian temple. In this dream she once again recognised Bill. He was a slave and the leader of a revolt that had stolen a precious powerful jewel.

Helen saw herself as the priestess about to punish Bill by thrusting a spear between his eyes. However as he looked at him she found she couldn’t do it.

In the dream she realised that her death was now imminent because she hadn’t been able to kill him. Her last image is of herself as the disgraced priestess alone and wandering in the heat of the desert to her death.

Helen Schucman - psychic powers

Helen also seemed to acquire psychic powers during this ‘magic phase’ period. For example when Bill Thetford went away she found herself able to accurately describe the room he stayed in.

On another occasion when Bill was away she willed him through her mind to buy her a gold pin, which he did and presented her when he returned.

Once, just before a business trip to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Helen saw a distinct picture of a church. She was convinced they would find this church in Minnesota.

When they arrived in Minnesota they carried out a fruitless search of the town trying to find the church Helen had visualised. Helen became quite upset when she realised the church was no-where to be found.

It was only when they were at the airport returning home that the mystery was solved. Bill picked up a guide-book and showed her a picture - it was a picture of the church she’d visualised. Why hadn’t they found it? The church no longer existed - it had been torn down to make way for the Mayo Clinic.

Helen Schucman meets Hugh Lynn Cayce

Bill Thetford was fascinated when Helen described these experiences. Whilst Helen tried to brush them to one side, Bill enthusiastically researched them further.

One area of research that intrigued him was looking into psychic phenomena. It led him to read a book about Edgar Cayce the renowned American Psychic.

Edgar Cayce, who died in 1945, had during his lifetime written down a tremendous amount of channelled material that was kept in a library at the Association for Research and Enlightenment.

Bill was keen to meet the son of Edgar, Hugh Lynn Cayce, who was now the head of the A.R.E. Helen was initially so uncomfortable she refused to have anything to do with the information Bill was reading.

Over time she did relent slightly and visited Hugh Lyn Cayce with Bill at Virginia Beach. Although she found it interesting she didn’t share Bill’s enthusiasm for anything that hinted of ‘magic.’

Helen Schucman the cave and the scroll

This final section concludes with Helen’s own account of the end dream/vision that ended her ‘magic phase’. This happened just before ACIM was written.

I have taken this except from the book “Journey without Distance,” by Robert Skutch. This is Helen describing the incident in her own words.

“..My own ‘magic’ phase ended abruptly with a particularly clear picture episode in which I knew I had made an irrevocable choice. I saw myself entering a cave cut into a rock formation on a bleak, wind-swept seacoast. …”/

All I found in the cave was a large and very old parchment scroll. Its ends were attached to heavy gold-tipped poles, and the scroll was wrapped around them so that they met in the middle of the scroll and were tied tightly together.

With some difficulty I managed to unite the ends and open the scroll just enough to reveal the center panel, on which two words were written; “GOD IS”.

Then I unrolled the scroll all the way. As I did so, tiny letters began to appear on both sides of the panel. The silent Voice which I had ‘heard’ before explained the situation mentally to me:

“If you look at the left side you will be able to read the past,’ said the Voice. ‘If you look at the right side you will be able to read the future.”

The little letters on the sides of the panel were becoming clearer, but I hesitated only a moment before rolling up the scroll sufficiently to conceal everything except the center panel.

“I’m not interested in reading the past or the future,” I said with finality. “I’ll just stop with this.”

The Voice sounded both reassured and reassuring.

“You made it that time,” it said. “Thank you.”

It was soon after this that Helen Schucman started to scribe A Course in Miracles

Information and Sources

Absence from Felicity - Ken Wapnick
The Complete Story of the Course - D. Patrick Miller
Journey without distance - Robert Skutch
Foundation for Inner Peace