Dear Readers, It has been recently brought to my attention that the “Queen of Prime time TV”, Oprah Winfrey, has unleashed a writing that IMHO is an Anti-Scripture. “A Course in Miracles” is a work that I taught from 1981 to 1983 in Dallas. The point of this material is to totally and completely brainwash all vestiges of traditional Christian thought from a persons mind. I view this as the most dangerous New Age material in circulation today. Catholics must know what this is when they see it or hear others applaud its “work”.
The Anti-Bible
As Catholic Christians we often come across speculations about the nature and personae of the Anti-Christ. Many have speculated about his appearances in the forms of a Nero or a Hitler. Much ink has been spent writing on his exact nature. Yet, no one ventures to suggest that if one day we shall see an Anti Christ, does it not stand to reason that we shall also be subjected to an Anti-Bible?
In January of 2008, on the hallowed Oprah Winfrey show, one such Anti-Scripture called ,”A Course in Miracles” (ACIM), has been released into mainstream America.
This work is one of the deadliest Anti-Scriptures that the New Age Movement has to offer. In these channeled writings, Dr. Schucman, a noted psychologist and medical advisor at Columbia University, claims that Jesus told her to set out the “New Gospel” to the world. She claims that the Word Made Flesh, channeled this “Course of Miracles” to her so that she, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, could give the “Word to the World”. (ACIM)
So who is this writer?
(miraclestudies.net)Dr. Schucman was raised by Jewish/Lutheran parents. Neither of them was particularly “religious” by her own admission; however, her mother dabbled in Theosophy and Spiritualism for a brief time. She was raised by a Roman Catholic governess and a Baptist maid. The maid christened Helen when she was a young child.
(work cited miraclestudies.net)While growing up Helen was always fascinated by Catholic rituals but never converted to the faith. She is quoted as stating that she could never rectify a belief in religion with her belief in Science.
At the age of 12, while with her family at Lourdes, France, Dr. Schucman experienced a “vision- a sign from God” in answer to her request. In later years, she claimed that this phenomenon with an appearance of comets. Her mystical experiences often conflicted with her belief that everything had to have a scientific explanation.
According to the time line of events, Helen began to “channel Jesus” in October of 1965. This period of history is familiar to Catholics, as it coincides with the close of Vatican II
(ACIM).A Course in Miracles was "scribed" by Dr. Schucman between 1965 and 1972 through a process of inner dictation. She experienced the process as one of a distinct and clear dictation from an inner voice, which earlier had identified itself to her as Jesus. (quote) (acim.org) Helen claims that Jesus gave her this “new gospel ” in order to “correct errors in the writings of Sacred Scriptures”.
Before we delve into these “corrections” it’s important to understand that in all NAM writings, there is NO distinction between the material and the spiritual worlds. Those of us who claim that such a distinction even exists, are guilty of “the sin of separation”, which to a New Ager-who doesn’t believe that sin is real-is THE ONLY real sin. Dr. Schucman claims that the ACIM will help all humans recover from the “sin of separation”, which keeps us from realizing that we are actually sons of god too. According to ACIM, we are all Jesus
. (themiracletimes.com)“You are the Holy Son of God Himself! You need only remember who you are. It is our purpose to Inspire
Now we will look at a few concepts that the Course in Miracles supposedly corrects: forgiveness, sin, salvation and suffering.
According to Dr. Schucman’s Jesus,
(ACIM Ch 28).“The dream of healing in forgiveness lies, and gently shows you that you never sinned….”
You see, since everything is an illusion, your need to forgive, or be forgiven is a lie. You never did anything wrong in the first place and neither did anyone else. All is simply a false illusion. The ACIM addresses the concept of the realities that we see by claiming that everything is illusion. This Eastern Mystic concept permeates the entire writing.
Now, let’s look at Jesus suffering on the cross and the idea that sin is not real:
(ACIM blogwww.facim.org/acim/description.htm)God's Will for me is perfect happiness
Today we will continue with the theme of happiness. This is a key idea in understanding what salvation means. You still believe it asks for suffering as penance for your "sins." This is not so. Yet you must think it so while you believe that sin is real, and that God's Son can sin. If sin is real, then punishment is just and cannot be escaped. Salvation thus cannot be purchased but through suffering. If sin is real, then happiness must be illusion, for they cannot both be true. The sinful warrant only death and pain, and it is this they ask for. For they know it waits for them, and it will seek them out and find them somewhere, sometime, in some form that evens the account they owe to God. They would escape Him in their fear. And yet He will pursue, and they can not escape. If sin is real, salvation must be pain. Pain is the cost of sin, and suffering can never be escaped, if sin is real. Salvation must be feared, for it will kill, but slowly, taking everything away before it grants the welcome boon of death to victims who are little more than bones before salvation is appeased. Its wrath is boundless, merciless, but wholly just. Who would seek out such savage punishment? Who would not flee salvation, and attempt in every way he can to drown the Voice Which offers it to him? Why would he try to listen and accept Its offering? If sin is real, its offering is death, and meted out in cruel form to match the vicious wishes in which sin is born. If sin is real, salvation has become your bitter enemy, the curse of God upon you who have crucified His Son”.
In Chapter Three, part III, of ACIM, we read about Jesus’ atonement for sin being terribly misunderstood by the “Christians”.
(courseinmiracles.com)The Crucifixion did NOT establish the Atonement. The Resurrection did. This is a point which many very sincere Christians have misunderstood. Nobody who was free of the scarcity-fallacy could POSSIBLY have made this mistake. If the Crucifixion is seen from an upside down point of view, it certainly does appear AS IF God permitted, and even encouraged, one of his Sons to suffer BECAUSE he was good. Many very devoted ministers preach this every day. This particularly unfortunate interpretation, which actually arose out of the combined misprojection of a large number of my own would-be followers, has led many people to be bitterly afraid of God.
Also, in Chapter 6 part I, we read:
Ibid.The message which the crucifixion was intended to teach was that it is not necessary to perceive ANY form of assault in persecution because you cannot BE persecuted. If you respond with anger, you MUST be equating yourself with the destructible, and are therefore regarding yourself insanely. I have made it perfectly clear that I am like you, and you are like me. But our fundamental equality can be demonstrated only through joint decision… … … The message of the crucifixion is very simple and perfectly clear; "teach ONLY love, for that is what you ARE." If you interpret it in any other way, you are using it as a weapon for assault rather than as the call to peace for which it was intended. The Apostles often misunderstood it, and always for the same reason that makes anyone misunderstand anything. Their own imperfect love made them vulnerable to **projection, and out of their own fear they spoke of the wrath of God as His RETALIATORY weapon. They also could not speak of the crucifixion entirely without anger, because their own sense of guilt had made them angry.
** Here I would like to explain the NAM/Psychobabble term of “projection”. This term is based on psychology and it is used extensively in ACIM to explain away all negative human emotion and all negative consequences to immoral behavior. For example, because I view the Scourging at the Pillar in the same way that, say, Mel Gibson portrays it in The Passion, then I am guilty of unresolved anger and hate in my own life and I don’t see it “correctly” therefore, I PROJECT my anger, guilt, or whatever into the Passion and that’s what makes it……bad, or painful or hurtful. In short, Jesus didn’t really suffer and die, we all, in mass "mind thought”, projected that idea into the Passion.It doesn’t take much for a Mass-going Catholic to see a gross and terrible deception in these lines of the “Course”. Claiming that salvation is something we would run away from; claiming that the Passion and Crucifixion was a “misconception”; and finally claiming that the Apostles got it all wrong, would benefit only who? The devil. Claiming that evil is illusion; that the salvation offered to us through Jesus’ suffering is OUR BITTER ENEMY benefits only the devil and his works. By the mere reading of these passages, we can see their deceptions. But why do so many former Catholics and Christians find these teaching “compatible” with Christianity? I believe the answer lies in the cleaver why the ACIM is scribed.When I taught “A Course in Miracles” at a New Age center in Dallas, Texas, I was struck by the way it was worded. The lessons came across as if they were plucked right out of the Suma or the Confessions of St. Augustine. Take for example this quote:
(thecourseinmiracles.com)Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lays the peace of God
At a quick first glance one might think that this is a writing of Aquinas, St. Francis or even Aristotle. In the Suma, St.Thomas talks of essence and existence; that a thing “is” (existence) and what a thing “is” (essence). He even backs up beyond that to contemplate the idea of a thing existing at all. What he finds fascinating to contemplate is, “That a thing ‘is’.” (a paraphrase of parts of the Suma) The metaphysical works of these great thinkers have a sound premise based on God’s creation and the Natural law. The NAM metaphysics is based on Eastern mystics and whatever person is writing and channeling at any given time. It is a house built on marshmallows. In addition to the way the course is scribed, the material made inroads into many Catholic retreat centers and seminaries.(catholicinsight.com) ACIM came into these establishments on the roads paved by the writings of others, specifically: Matthew Fox, Hans Kung, Teilhard D’Chardine and latter writings of Raymond Brown, all of which have become a steady diet in seminaries. With these teachings as a foundation, “A Course in Miracles” found an opportunity to take root. The Course then offers to “bridge the gap” between the teaching of The Sacred Scriptures, The Didache, Teilhard and Kung by offering the newest of gods; NAM psychology, with a full bouquet order of pseudo-divine revelations for Jesus…. enter the pagan god of personal relativity.
When writing in this forum and speaking to groups I find myself saying over and over again, “stay away from these books”. However, with the likes of Ophra Winfrey, taking “The Course in Miracles” mainstream; staying away from the books may be more difficult than imagined. Since Winfrey’s exposure of this work on American TV, ACIM jumped up to the number one spot on the NY Times Best Seller list. It stayed there for 39 weeks. This means that there are a great many copies of the ACIM in the hands of Americans in all walks of life.As Catholics we have The Holy Mass, The Sacred Scriptures, prayer, and the Sacraments as our weapons in this battle against evil.
It is my personal belief that, like Hosea 4:6 reminds us, we also need knowledge to shield our way though the spiritual minefields of our times. It is to that end that I write this piece on the “Course in Miracles”. I hope to somehow enlighten, warn, and educate those of us who take Our Lord at His word when He says in Matthew 24, “See that no one deceive you.”
In conclusion, I would like to share with you a cruel irony about the death of the writer of ACIM, Dr. Helen Schucman. A good portion of “The Course in Miracles” spends much time convincing the student that there is no such thing as real suffering. It teaches that suffering is but a mere illusion of our ego, created because we believe we are not gods. Students spend countless hours repeating manta-like chants in order to “reprogram” their thinking about suffering.Yet, this poor doctor of psychology, this unfortunate soul, experienced slow death by pancreatic and liver cancer. As many well know, this is a painfully real suffering to endure.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, an acquaintance of Dr. Schucman’s (in their common field of psychology) said it best when he wrote,
answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071202013258AA3qNjJ"This woman who had written so eloquently that suffering really did not exist spent the last two years of her life in the blackest psychotic depression I have ever witnessed."
In the same article, it states that during an October 1994 lecture on "Discernment" given at Holy Cross Church, Rumson, N.J., Fr. Groeschel told those in attendance that he believed Helen Schucman's experience with the channeled "spirit" was possibly a true diabolic manifestation. If Fr. Groeschel is correct, and the channeled writings of Dr. Schucman in “The Course in Miracles” was written by a demon; and this work is out in our mainstream public as “self-help”; then we have demonic messages in the hands and MINDS of thousands of unprotected souls. Can one even begin to imagine what the cultural impact of this will be?
In closing I’d like to quote a great teacher for our times, Fr. John Corapi, when he says,
(910am radio discourse Fr. John Coropi Feb. 2008)“This current generation is lazy! They don’t fast, they are lax at prayer, they are utterly unwilling to self-sacrifice, but! (dramatic pause)…… they are battling the devil… unchained.”
Blessed Mother Mary, St. Michael, Pray for Us.
Pax Christi,
Marguerite
moderator, Dangers of the New Age
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