Alisa Amor ~ Music

Music of Alisa Amor 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[as it appeared in the November 2011 Newsletter ]

Hi, My name is Alisa Amor. I am a singer/songerwriter with a deep interest in healing and matters of the heart. I just finished my new CD, Comfort, when there can be no comfort!

I’ve been working on this for a long time now and I’m so happy to be able to present this to you!
Since it’s sooooo important to me that everyone have my music no matter what their situation, I have decided to offer it by donation.

My last project was a set of musical mediations based on lessons from “A Course in Miracles”, some of my favorite spirtual writings.

I live in Westchester County, NY, about 30 miles north of Manhattan. I am available to perform throughout the NYC area; contact me for details.

~ Alisa Amor

afranklin7@hotmail.com

IN EVERY HEARTBEAT


click picture for more CD information

This album is composed of musical settings of lessons from the workbook of A Course in Miracles. The lessons are unchanged except for adding small repetitions. This album is a lively and hip introduction to “A Course in Miracles” If you are a new student, it will help you understand and integrate the material by making it accessible and fun. If you’re a veteran of the Course, this enjoyable music provides new perspectives on the lessons and emotional experiences that are conducive to love, joy, peace, and power. It also comes in handy when you don’t have enough time to do your workbook lesson!

In Every Heartbeat, Lessons from A Course in Miracles

1 God in His mercy wills that I be saved (Lesson 235)
2 I rule my mind which I alone must rule (Lesson 236)
3 Now would I be as God created me (Lesson 237)
4 On my decision all salvation rests (Lesson 238)
5 This holy instant is salvation come (Lesson 241)
6 Without forgiveness I will still be blind (Lesson 247)
7 I am in need of nothing but the truth (Lesson 251)
8 My self is ruler of the universe (Lesson 235)
9 My heart is beating in the peace of God (Lesson 267)
10 Let all things be exactly as they are (Lesson 268)
11 Only an instant does this world endure (Lesson 300)

TWO SELECTIONS from “IN EVERYHEARTBEAT” CD

_________________________________________________________

(1) Musical setting of a Lesson from the A Course in Miracles workbook

LESSON 247
“Without forgiveness I will still be blind”

Sin is the symbol of attack. Behold it anywhere, and I will suffer. For forgiveness is the only means whereby Christ’s vision comes to me. Let me accept what His sight shows me as the simple truth, and I am healed completely. Brother, come and let me look on you. Your loveliness reflects my own. Your sinlessness is mine. You stand forgiven, and I stand with you.

So would I look on everyone today. My brothers are Your Sons. Your Fatherhood created them, and gave them all to me as part of You, and my own Self as well. Today I honor You through them, and thus I hope this day to recognize my Self.

♪♫ LESSON 247 “WITHOUT FORGIVENESS I WILL STILL BE BLIND ♫♪
[Right click, choose SAVE TARGET AS]

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(2) Musical setting of a Lesson from the A Course in Miracles workbook.

LESSON 238
On my decision all salvation rests.”

Father, Your trust in me has been so great, I must be worthy. You created me, and know me as I am. And yet You placed Your Son’s salvation in my hands, and let it rest on my decision. I must be beloved of You indeed. And I must be steadfast in holiness as well, that You would give Your Son to me in certainty that he is safe Who still is part of You, and yet is mine, because He is my Self.

And so, again today, we pause to think how much our Father loves us. And how dear His Son, created by His Love, remains to Him Whose Love is made complete in him.

♪♫ LESSON 238 “ON MY DECISION ALL SALVATION RESTS” ♫♪
[Right click, choose SAVE TARGET AS]

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COMFORT


click picture for more CD information

This album is about my search to find comfort in a world that often seems horribly un-comfortable. I want to take you on a healing journey through the terrain of a soul in difficult times. Through inner and outer deserts, oceans and forests. I’m hoping that you will feel that you have a friend and experience a small taste of comfort…..when there can be no comfort.–Alisa Amor

Comfort, when there can be no comfort

1 Intro
2 Explain
3 Child of the desert
4 Sick and Tired
5 NASA
6 This child
7 The mill
8 Star Dive
9 Fear
10 Legend
11 Comfort, when there can be no comfort

TWO SELECTIONS from the “COMFORT” CD

_________________________________________________________

(1)”Child of the Desert” from Alisa Amor’s “Comfort, When There Can Be No Comfort”

♪♫ CHILD OF THE DESSERT♫♪
[Right click, choose SAVE TARGET AS]

This album is about my search to find comfort in a world that often seems horribly un-comfortable. I want to take you on a healing journey through the terrain of a soul in difficult times. Through inner and outer deserts, oceans and forests. I’m hoping that you will feel that you have a friend and experience a small taste of comfort…..when there can be no comfort.–Alisa Amor

_________________________________________________________

(2) Hypnotic music perfect to fall asleep to. “Sweet sleep” by Alisa Amor

♪♫ SWEET SLEEP”♫♪
[Right click, choose SAVE TARGET AS]

This new age track was engineered to guide you gently from an awake state to a deep state of healing sleep.

~*~

*EXCERPT FROM WEBSITE: Alisa Amor has been writing, singing music and poetry, and creating stories about how the universe began as long as she can remember. As a child, her audiences were often forests and lakes. A desire to learn music composition took her to Oberlin College, then a desire for something completely different took her to PuertoVallarta, Mexico. There she spent 15 years, living in the city and later a jungle home, working as a landscape artist and muralist, and playing music in bars and around campfires. Wanting to reconnect with her roots, she headed back to her birthplace in New York’s Westchester county where she now lives and creates.

Her new album “Comfort, when there can be no comfort” represents and presents metaphorically inner tools that came out of a long series of health challenges. She is one of the few people who have had PET, a rare ear disease and overcome it completely. During and after years of limited speaking and hearing, she has composed, performed and produced this album. She hopes it will be useful to others who feel like there can be no comfort or cure for them. It is about a long journey out of despair to being more fully human and resourceful. It captures the depths and heights, the deep doubts and the gentle knowing of that process.

Lately her interests have turned to hypnosis for healing and recreation and her songs are beginning to reflect that in new exploratory ways.

Her study of “A Course in Miracles” over the past 10 years has led her to set the lessons to music so that they can be easily assimilated, memorized and enjoyed. She continues to write original poetry and music both in Spanish and in English.”

http://www.alisaamor.com

 

Scott Kalechstein Grace ~ Teach Me How To Love

Teach Me How To Love

A True Story  that Touches Hearts and
Helps with the Laundry

[Song on YouTube]

TeachMeHowToLove

[For more information on this book, just CLICK the picture above]

Oh my! What an experience. There I am on my  porch-deck, crying – then laughing – then laughing – then crying. There was so  much I resonated with in Scott Kalechstein Grace’s book “Teach Me HOW TO  LOVE” Teach Me How to Love: A True Story That Touches Hearts & Helps With The Laundry.  I absolutely loved it!!

Not only did I also live in New York City around the same time as Scott did,
but I also went through a very similar search for meaning. I bookmarked some places that intrigued me like when Scott “focused like a laser beam on the here and now”. It was during that time when Scott was a struggling artist
selling laundry bags on the street’s of the NYC boroughs and had to vigilantly be on the watch for the police. Scott wrote, “Perhaps the finest moments of connection happen when we are willing to abandon the popular script and improvise our own”, speaking of when he handed a funny permission slip from his Mom to the police who came back later and wanted a copy of it since their cronies hadn’t believe them.

Scott wrote of his laundry bag performance as a “ministry” which it
truly was. Throughout the book we witness Scott’s ability to be HERE and NOW no matter what he is doing and to transform day to day interactions into moments of “connection”. My husband is a mainframe programmer and works in various cities but he always sees it truly as a venue to extend his love. My husband goes to work, much as Scott describes his work in this book:

“excited and eager to make a small difference in people’s lives, to bring a little levity to their gravity.” People end up realizing that there’s
been a shift in their lives and they are just not the same as before and that’s because their hearts have been touched by the extension of Love.

That’s the gift Scott has and it’s a gift he has now developed to the point of being able to transform his connection with others into an instant “Song Portrait”.[He shared this talent recently on Facebook!]

AH, and Scott shared so many synchronicities in his book! I love synchronicities! They are incredible, like when Scott “heard” to play
“AMAZING GRACE” in the airport and a man in the crowd shared that he had just buried his Mom and that song was her favorite and how he felt it was a message from her. The man said, with tears in his eyes: “I felt her presence. I heard her telling me she was quite all right, and that she would always be with me.”

Another time Scott was guided to pick up a little pamphlet at a workshop, just after asking for guidance in healing the relationship between himself and his mother and discovered that the pamphlet contained a conversation between the workshop leader and an unidentified person which was actually SCOTT! The conversation had occurred four years earlier at another workshop in which Scott was working out his relationship with his Mom!! Afterwards Scott got a chance to share the pamphlet with his Mom which began the healing of their relationship.

Throughout the book Scott shares his breakthroughs which are incredibly genuine and heartfelt. There was the time Scott got his white pants dirty just before having to stand up and give a talk and he was quite upset until he finally realized, “Is there ever a moment or place where the opportunity to express love doesn’t exist?” NO!! Now is the only time there is and LOVE can always be expressed. Love waits on welcome, not on time.

Regarding Soulmates, Scott wrote: “I imagine if Jesus were preaching to today’s crowd on the Soulmate subject that he might say: ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of your own soul, and your Soulmate will be added unto you.'” That was my experience. I had finally given up and said, OK God. I am here only to be truly helpful. If that means I will be alone, so be it. I am here only to heal, to be healed and to love. I decided to stay in NE and shortly afterwards met and married my Soulmate!!

Scott wrote: “Music had always been a source of great joy for me, but it was beginning to show up as something I never knew it could be: a delivery system for guidance, healing and transformation.”

That’s what this book is. It’s a delivery system for Guidance, Healing and Transformation. It gives us a wonderful glimpse into Scott’s journey, which is our own, as he opens up his heart and lets himself be Guided. I’m blessed to  have read it and now I’m blessed to be sharing it with you. As the sub-title says: It’s “A True Story that touches hearts and Helps with the Laundry”!!

Reja Janaki Joy Green
Omaha, NE
[More of Scott’s music in CIMS October Newsletter]

*Scott Kalechstein Grace lives in Marin California with his lovely partner Venus, and their darling daughter Aysia. He is a Writer / Coach / Comedian / Speaker, as well as a Singer / Songwriter / Recording Artist / Minister and Workshop Leader.

 

Donna Marie Cary ~ Music

Music of
Donna Marie Cary


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[as it appeared in the  August 2011 Newsletter]

“Throughout the years of studying A Course In Miracles, I have come to more honesty about looking at the unhealed places in my mind. I continue with the process of learning how to forgive myself and others from past beliefs that block the awareness of the Truth; the Truth that we are all the sinless Children of God. The world seems to be in greater distress than ever before. I hope the message of Real Love, which is offered through my songs,
brings comfort to tired hearts and peace to fearful minds.”
~ Donna Marie Cary[Presenter at 2013 ACIM CONFERENCE]

REAL LOVE

PREVIEW Songs [Folk Genre]

In this ALBUM, Donna Marie Cary sings one of her songs acapella which means, as you may know, ‘without instrumental accompaniment’. It’s called, “Echoes of Silence” and it’s incredibly exquisite. Here is a short clip of that song.

♪ ♫ ACAPELLA -> ECHOES IN THE SILENCE [clip] ♪ ♫

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The No Solid Ground

PREVIEW Songs [Folk Genre]

The No Solid Ground album has one song after another of soulful expression of angnst and courage and resolution resulting in a very moving montage. “There is no Solid Ground but the one my hearts stands on…”; “Everything is really ok, it’s just changin’ again….”; “Hands of love will pick me up out of the deep dark night”; One song that always brings tears to many eyes is “I’m Ready”. The following is a short clip of that song.

♪ ♫ I’M READY [clip] ♪ ♫

_________________________________________________________

Eye of the Hurricane

PREVIEW Songs [Rock Genre]

The No Solid Ground album has one song after another of soulful expression of angst and courage and resolution resulting in a very moving montage. “There is no Solid Ground but the one my hearts stands on…”; “Everything is really ok, it’s just changin’ again….”; “Hands of love will pick me up out of the deep dark night”; One song that always brings tears to many eyes is “I’m Ready”. The following is a short clip of that song.

♪ ♫ OUR FATHER [clip] ♪ ♫

~*~

*EXCERPT: “Not only is Donna Marie Cary a singer/songwriter, but also a minister, teacher and messenger of love. Her inspirational music and lyrics have uplifted and deeply moved thousands at retreats, churches, prisons and schools for over twenty years. Her innate gift of bringing people together in love, peace and forgiveness, through her dynamic voice and presence, is truly an unforgettable and most joyful experience.”

http://www.miraclescircle.org/donna/index.html

What Exactly IS the ‘Original Edition’?

We were asked recently to clearly explain what exactly is the ‘Original Edition’ and how does it compare to the early xeroxed copies of the manuscript made before formal publication.
 WATCH Video
 In 1969 the scribing of the Text and Workbook was finished by Helen Schucman and co-scribe Bill Thetford. This resulted in what is referred to as the ‘Urtext’. The pages stand about 2 feet high when placed in a stack. At this time a lengthy process of retyping the Course began. Bill Thetford was adamant that no changes be made other than correcting the typing errors and removing specifically personal material. Jesus designated Bill to be the one in charge of all changes.

In the Spring of 1972 the dictation of the third volume, Manual for Teachers, began. In September 1972 the retyping of the text was completed. The transcribing of the third and final volume, the Manual for Teachers, was completed.

When Helen and Bill finished the manuscript in 1972, they made about 12 copies and put them in their closet. [Bill Thetford mentions this in one of the Course videos]. The movie implies, however, that these copies were the copies created when all of the edits were finished in 1975, but they are not, as you will see in this discussion.

The copies in their closet were actually of the ‘original edition’ which has now been published by Course in Miracles Society [CIMS]. Helen Schucman and Bill allegedly gave unrestricted copies of their finished work to a few people. The ones we know of are: Cal Thatcher, a close friend of Helen’s; Fr. Benedict Groeshel, CFR, student of Helen’s; Hugh Lynn Cayce, son of psychic Edgar Cayce and Kenneth Wapnick, a clinical psychologist, who had recently converted to Catholicism and is informed of Bill and Helen through Father Groeshel. [It should be noted that it had been sent to Hugh Lynn Cayce in the hopes that his association might publish it, according to letters between Hugh Lynn Cayce and the scribes.]

As noted, Ken Wapnick was included in the group of six people receiving one of the 12 copies of the 1972 manuscript. We know from his statements on various Course videos that he was thoroughly intrigued by this manuscript when he had heard about it from his friend Father Groeshel. When Ken returned from Israel in the early part of 1973 he came to see Helen and asked to see the manuscript. In approximately six months, after becoming a close friend of Helen’s, at the end of 1973, Ken encouraged her to work with him to edit the document in order to make it more ‘printer ready’. Ken describes, in his own words what transpired at this time:

“I commented to Helen and Bill that I thought the manuscript needed some additional editing. Some of the personal and professional material still remained, and seemed inappropriate for a published edition.” Absence From Felicity” CH 12 “The Editing”.

This was the editing project which Ken and Helen finished in a little over a year, i.e. in the spring of 1975. Full copyright timeline is here: Copyright TimeLine

Therefore, the xerox copies that Judith Skutch Whitson made and distributed were not the ‘original edition’. Judith Skutch met Helen, Bill and Ken in 1975, after the editing project had been completed. The manuscript was typed one final time by an elderly Maryknoll Sister and was ready for its journey into the public arena as a trimmed down and publication ready A COURSE IN MIRACLES.

However, the 1972 manuscript was only ever seen by those few people mentioned earlier. As many of you may know, eventually in 1996 there was a law suit brought against Endeavor Academy by the copyright holders of ACIM. The Endeavor Academy lawyers needed to prove pre-copyright distribution. No one knew that the ‘original edition’ existed until it was located at the Association for Research and Enlightenment [A.R.E.] Library during the ‘discovery phase’ of the litigation, in 1999. As we mentioned previously, by some miracle, Helen and Bill had sent Hugh Lynn Cayce a copy of the manuscript when it was finished in 1972, before meeting Ken Wapnick. Some say the manuscript was stolen from the A.R.E. Library and some say they were given permission to make a copy. [This copy of the early 1972 manuscript has been named the Hugh Lynn Cayce or HLC manuscript.]

In any case, after the HLC manuscript was discovered it essentially blew everyone’s mind! That was in 1999. The Course community was previously told for 24 years that only minor changes in punctuation and title headings had been made during the editing project in 1975. They had no idea, until this discovery, that 25% of the first 5 chapters were removed when Helen and Ken edited the manuscript in 1973; most of all the capitalized words were changed to lower case, and replaced  with italicized in only a few cases; 53 principles went to 50; sections were rearranged and major portions were deleted. 127 references to “Soul” were changed to 12. The word “Soul” was either deleted or changed to another word such as: creations, you, spirit. Here is a side by side comparison of the changes: http://bit.ly/n0gNgh

It should also be noted that the Urtext [rough, original typing from shorthand notes] was obtained legally from the Library of Congress by the parties being sued: Endeavor Academy and CIMS. A copy was illegally leaked from Endeavor Academy.

COPYRIGHT LITIGATION OUTCOME http://www.enotes.com/topic/A_Course_in_Miracles

“Beginning in June, 1996, and ending in April, 2003, a copyright lawsuit initiated by Penguin Books and FIP* was brought against the New Christian Church of Full Endeavor for their unlimited independent publication of substantial portions of A Course in Miracles. It was found that the contents of the FIP first edition, published from 1976 through 1992, are in the public domain. However, copyright in all of the changes introduced in the Second Edition remains intact, as does the copyright for the Text Preface and the two supplementary pamphlets, Psychotherapy and Song of Prayer, as well as Schucman’s poetry, The Gifts of God.” [end of excerpt]

We are just happy that we have the freedom NOW to read any version that we choose. When “Absence from Felicity” was published by Kenneth Wapnick we longed to read the special messages and the original manuscript and the Urtext [very first typing before HLC] and now we can!

We hope that this answers a lot of your questions and if you have any further questions, please post them here. ♥

~ Course in Miracles Society

*FIP – Foundation for Inner Peace

COMPARISON of Various Versions of the Course: https://www.jcim.net/acim-comparison-of-versions/ 

  LISTEN to 23 min MP3        WATCH Video

ACIM Lesson 100 ~ Iambic Pentameter ~ Listen

SonShip Radio Logo

Recitation of Lesson 100 in ‘blank verse’

www.acimradio.net/IP_100/100_IP_ACIMRadio_meter_IP_dyn.wma

IP formatting by Lee Flynn, voice&music: maz

~oOo~

 

Lesson 100“My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.”

Just as God’s Son completes his Father, so
your part in it completes your Father’s plan.
Salvation must reverse the mad belief
in separate thoughts and separate bodies which
lead separate lives and go their separate ways.
One function shared by separate minds unites
them in one purpose, for each one of them
is equally essential to them all.

God’s Will for you is perfect happiness.
Why should you choose to go against His Will?
The part that He has saved for you to take
in working out His plan is given you
that you might be restored to what He wills.
This part is as essential to His plan
as to your happiness. Your joy must be
complete to make His plan be understood
by those to whom He sends you. They will see
their function in your shining face, and hear
God calling to them in your happy laugh.

You are indeed essential to God’s plan.
Without your joy His joy is incomplete.
Without your smile the world cannot be saved.
While you are sad the light which God Himself
appointed as the means to save the world
is dim and lusterless. And no-one laughs
because all laughter can but echo yours.
You are indeed essential to God’s plan.
Just as your light increases every light
that shines in Heaven, so your joy on earth
calls to all minds to let their sorrows go,
and take their place beside you in God’s plan.
God’s messengers are joyous, and their joy
heals sorrow and despair. They are the proof
that God wills perfect happiness for all
who will accept their Father’s gifts as theirs.

We will not let ourselves be sad today.
For if we do, we fail to take the part
that is essential to God’s plan, as well
as to our vision. Sadness is the sign
that you would play another part, instead
of what has been assigned to you by God.
Thus do you fail to show the world how great
the happiness He wills for you. And so
you do not recognize that it is yours.

Today we will attempt to understand
joy is our function here. If you are sad
your part is unfulfilled, and all the world
is thus deprived of joy, along with you.
God asks that you be happy, so the world
can see how much He loves His Son, and wills
no sorrow rises to abate his joy;
no fear besets him to disturb his peace.
You are God’s messenger today. You bring
His happiness to all you look upon;
His peace to everyone who looks on you,
and sees His message in your happy face.
We will prepare ourselves for this today
in our five minute practice periods,
by feeling happiness arise in us
according to our Father’s will and ours.
Begin the exercises with the thought
today’s idea contains. Then realize
your part is to be happy. Only this
is asked of you or anyone who wants
to take his place among God’s messengers.
Think what this means. You have indeed been wrong
in your belief that sacrifice is asked.
You but receive according to God’s plan,
and never lose or sacrifice or die.

Now let us try to find that joy which proves
to us and all the world God’s Will for us.
It is your function that you find it here,
and that you find it now. For this you came.
Let this one be the day that you succeed!
Look deep within you, undismayed by all
the little thoughts and foolish goals you pass
as you ascend to meet the Christ in you.

He will be there. And you will reach Him now.
What could you rather look upon in place
of Him who waits that you may look on Him?
What little thought has power to hold you back?
What foolish goal can keep you from success
when He Who calls to you is God Himself?
He will be there. You are essential to
His plan. You are His messenger today.
And you must find what He would have you give.

Do not forget the idea for today
between your longer practice periods.
It is your Self who calls to you today.
And it is Him you answer every time
you tell yourself you are essential to
God’s plan for the salvation of the world.  “

ACIM in Iambic Pentameter

 
 

In Lesson 100, the full transition to blank verse in the Transmission from Whole Mind to human mind has been accomplished. From here on, the entire workbook has been dictated in fluent iambic pentameter.

The following article is an adaptation from the MIRACLES HEALING CENTER FULL Article “The Rhythm & Reason of Reality ~ Prose and Poetry in A Course in Miracles

THE RHYTHM AND REASON OF REALITY

Those of you who have discovered the unearthly masterpiece,
A Course in Miracles, will no doubt be aware of, and grateful
for, its divine message of the remembrance of God and reality
through love and forgiveness, that are only made possible in
the realization that this world is a dream of your own making.
You may remember reading, amongst the literature concerning the
scribing of the Course, references to the use of a poetic form
called iambic pentameter.

The purpose of this volume is to present the poetry of the
Course in a totally accessible manner. You need know nothing
about poetic forms and meters to begin enjoying immediately.
You may, however, wish to read this introduction, as a search
to ascertain the extent of the poetic form within the Course
reveals another astounding dimension in its structural
integrity.

Iambic pentameter is usually described as “lines consisting of
five iambs”, which in turn are described as “metric feet of two
syllables each, the second syllable being the stronger”. Put
simply, a line of iambic pentameter sounds like this:

|Da-DUM |Da-DUM |Da-DUM |Da-DUM| Da-DUM | — |

This form is also called “blank verse”, a more general term
denoting even rhythm without rhyming. Because the Course is
presented entirely as prose the extent to which this form is
used is a surprising and exciting discovery.

The Text of A Course In Miracles can be seen as three distinct
parts, two of twelve chapters each, and the last of seven
chapters, each differentiated from the other by the use of
meter. Within this structure, a gradual transition is made
from prose to blank verse.

The first twelve chapters of the Course are written in a
rhythmic prose, and the portrait of the human condition given
is prosaic indeed. The very last sentence of Chapter 12 is the
first glimpse of what, metrically speaking, is to come: “Your
Father could not cease to love His Son. (a line of iambic
pentameter)

The second part begins with the first seven sections of Chapter
13 becoming increasingly iambic, until in section seven, “The
Attainment of the Real World”, each paragraph contains on
average only three of four arhythmic lines, non-iambic lines.
This is the metric characteristic of the second twelve chapters.
Occasionally, paragraphs begin with emphatic statements of
light reality, given in iambic pentameter: “There is a light
that this world cannot give;” is the first such occurrence. “You
do not really want the world you see;” “We cannot sing
redemption’s hymn alone;” “Your faith in nothing is deceiving
you.” These glorious statements are each elucidated
conceptually in the paragraphs that follow from them, but each
also offers an opportunity to enter into real communication….
You are being prepared for a new mode of data
transmission.

Deeper into the second part, increasingly strong “insertions”
of iambic pentameter occur; longer passages that persist
further into the paragraphs. For instance, in Chapter 21:

Thus they define their life and where they live,
adjusting to it as they think they must,
afraid to lose the little that they have.
And so it is with all who see the body
as all they have and all their brothers have.
and fail again.

Coincident with the approach of total iambic pentameter, (the
last seven chapters), Jesus makes this statement (in Chapter
22): “This is a crucial period in this course, for here the
separation of you and the ego must be made complete.”
And this:

This course will be believed entirely
or not at all.
For it is wholly true or wholly false,
and cannot be but partially believed.

Chapter 25 is the beginning of the final part. In Chapters 25
and 26 the final transition is made into perfect iambic
pentameter, making feasible the presentation as poetry in the
two same manner as the works of Shakespeare are presented,
with columns of the short blank verse lines to a page. It is at
this final part that this volume of transformative rhythm and
poetry takes up the Text. Encoded into the ongoing
presentation of conceptual ideas is the true communication the
Course aims to teach. Each line is a perfectly whole package
of information.

Some parts of these two chapters are still not regular enough
to allow breakdown into lines of iambic pentameter and so are
presented (in Russell’s book) as prose. Also, the regular
iambic pentameter in these two chapters and early in Chapter
27, often contains idiosyncrasies, such as lines that contain
one extra syllable, or short lines of only four or six
syllables. These discrepancies are used to emphasize ideas in
the same manner that the iambic pentameter was used in the
middle chapters of the text, only rather than lifting you into
communication, they drop you out momentarily, the aim being
to teach you to recognize the difference.

In the last five chapters of the text the iambic pentameter is
perfect. Jesus never abbreviates words to achieve this, but it
does account for what seemed to be occasionally unusual syntax
– but which now makes perfect sense, read as poetry.

A transition from prose to poetry also occurs in the Workbook,
but it is much simpler, and quicker. The first ninety lessons
are plain prose, with the exception of Lesson 78, which is
totally poetic (iambic pentameter). The transition occurs
entirely with ten lessons. Lesson 91 is prose. The following
lessons have increasing percentages of verse, but the
distinction is kept very clear. Any paragraph will either be
entirely prose, or entirely poetry. It is astonishing to
discover that everything in the Workbook from lesson 100 on is
in iambic pentameter ~ the introductions to Reviews, the
“instructions on themes of special relevance,” such as ‘What is
Forgiveness’, the prayers and the Epilogue.

Attempts to read the poetic form directly from the original
prose layout often result in diminished comprehension.
Conversely, the presentation as blank verse guarantees placing
correct emphasis for understanding, (though not understanding
itself), and the elegance and eloquence of Jesus’ poetry and
the regular rhythmic lope offer an expanded experience of the
Course to the musical mind.

The magnitude and beauty of the Course, simply as a work of
literature and without regard to its miraculous content,
adequately belie any notion of its human authorship. The
divinity of the ideas expressed is beyond question. Certainly
the poetic and prosaic forms contained in A Course in Miracles
are there because that was necessary for the healing of God’s
Son, since this is the Holy Spirit’s only purpose.

 

In Gratitude and Appreciation

Dearest Mr. Weber-Caspers:

I am writing to offer my deepest thanks and to send love to you this and every day for the gift of hearing your voice read to me, and make clear and true, the daily lessons in ACIM.  I stumbled on to your reading in early September, and have since listened every morning as an introduction to my meditation practice.  Your voice and music deepen my soul and lighten my day.  For all that you are and for the gifts of Divine Spirit that you give, I am forever grateful.  I look forward to a day when you are in the United States, or I am in The Netherlands, when i can thank you in person.

Eternally blessings, deep thanks and love,

Susan Boatright
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Registered Mediator
244 North College Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana  46202

*NOTE:  maz is the incredible musician who has recorded A Course in Miracles Lessons and set them to his music. A link to his recordings is sent out every day from The Course in Miracles Society in the DAILY LESSONS an TEXT READINGS. Click here to signup to receive them here: https://www.jcim.net/free-daily-lessons-and-text-mailing/

AUDIO of Lessons and Text available here:  https://www.jcim.net/acim-soundcloud-playlists/