How Course in Miracles Society [CIMS] and the ‘Original Edition’ Came to Be

jcim.net

You may actually find this story, of how an ‘early version’ of this course (ACIM) was discovered in 1999, quite interesting. It was this discovery that blew the Course Community wide open! For years, students believed they were studying what the scribes (Helen Schucman and her co-scribe William Thetford) had written, but that was not so.

The story of how the scribing came about is in itself quite amazing. Story of the scribing Helen was a militant atheist. She had investigated religion and finally settled on science, believing there was no God. “Helen was a clinical and research psychologist, who held the tenured position of Associate Professor of Medical Psychology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City” (excerpt from About the Scribes ) In the summer of 1965 Helen began to have psychic experiences which  culminated in hearing these words, “This is A Course in Miracles. Please take notes.”

For 7 years, Helen and her boss, William Thetford, took down what she was hearing from an internal VOICE, which described itself as JESUS. This was embarrassing and disconcerting to Helen, but on some level she knew she would take this material down. She said she wouldn’t necessarily ‘do’ what it said, but if it made any grammatical errors she was done!

Once it was finished Helen and Bill didn’t know quite what to do with it. They gave a copy to Hugh Lynn Cayce, son of Edgar Cayce, thinking perhaps they would publish it.

Shortly after this Helen and Bill met Ken Wapnick who thought that the manuscript should be edited further which they did. In 1975 the Course was published and copyrighted, with the acknowledgment that it had been edited by only minor changes in titles, subtitles and punctuation; in other words nothing major.

In 1992 the copyright holder started to enforce the copyright stringently and a few years later entered into a multimillion dollar law suit against a spiritual community which was ‘quoting’ the Course out of context. The plaintiffs of the law suit not only included FIP and later FACIM but also included Penguin, which had purchased exclusive use of the copyright in 1995 for five years, paying $3 million dollars to FIP. [This purchase violated the Guidance that had been received by Helen which indicated that only ‘Non-profit organizations’ should handle the matters of the Course.] The spiritual community that was sued had very little funds and were represented only by the lawyers who lived in the community and who offered their services Pro Bono. It was truly a David & Goliath scenario.

The spiritual community LIVED the theories of ACIM and came from unconditional love for ALL involved -> Judge, Plaintiffs, Defendants. ALL. I don’t think the Judge or anyone in the courtroom knew what hit them. It was LOVE. The copyright was overturned in 2003!!! Copyright Timeline

The most amazing part of this whole story was that during the ‘discovery’ phase of the trial, the early version manuscript given to Hugh Lynn Cayce was located, digitized and put up on the INTERNET!!

Realizing the beauty of this material and wanting to get it out into the world, Thomas E. Whitmore,  a lawyer in Omaha, along with a few Course in Miracles students, formed a non-profit organization, Course in Miracles Society [CIMS] and published this manuscript under the name, “Jesus’ Course in Miracles” in 2000.

Of course they were immediately presented with a restraining order and entered into the litigation as well. How Jesus Got His Copyright Back <- This link tells the story of what happened next.

If the Course has crossed your Path, it’s not an accident. It’s your REALITY telling you it’s time.

Check out our website: CIMS Website.

There is something incredibly REAL behind the facade if you just take the time to peek in. 😉 Well….why am I not surprised the Huffington Post had this article. http://huff.to/LetLoveHostYourParty

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Course in Miracles Society [CIMS] is an international group of Course students and teachers organized to discover, authenticate and propagate the Divine Teachings of A Course in Miracles.

As students, we seek to increase our knowledge of Jesus’ words and to deepen our experience of His teaching.

As teachers, we work to circulate the message of A Course in Miracles throughout the world by our words, deeds and by the example of our lives.

Course in Miracles Society
7602 Pacific Street, Suite 200
Omaha, Nebraska 68114 USA
Voice: 800-771-5056

cims@jcim.net

Presently all CIMS projects are wholly supported by free will gifts of time, talent, and money. If you would like to support any of the activities of the Society in any way, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Because of the international character of CIMS, the internet is our primary means of communicating and collaborating.

CIMS is a section 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, and donations are tax deductible. http://www.jcim.net

Currently “A Course in Miracles Original Edition” is being translated into: SPANISH, DUTCH, GERMAN, KOREAN, RUSSIAN, JAPANESE and CHINESE, with other translations hopefully in the future. Our translators need your loving support very much. For more information, please visit:  CIMS TRANSLATION PROJECT