The urtext of A Course in Miracles represents the original draft dictated to a course in miracles online Helen Schucman by Jesus. This text was later scribed and edited several times, becoming the official version of the Course.
There are many differences between the early manuscripts and the later Course. One is that a number of passages in the urtext talk about God creating the world, while the later Course talks about it not being created by God.
Text
A Course in Miracles is an ancient text containing profound spiritual teachings that have never been taught anywhere else. It is a non-dualistic thought system that has been used by thousands of people from all over the world to experience peace, healing and transformation. It is also a universal experience that can be used by anyone to discover the truth about the human condition.
The text of the course is very poetic, with many sections containing blank verse. This has led some readers to compare the Course with some of the world’s great literature. The Course’s rich language and deep psychological understanding combine to make it an intellectually sophisticated, yet profoundly spiritual teaching.
There are a few passages in the Urtext (the original typescript) that appear to talk about God creating the world in a way that is different from the later Course’s teaching, but these have been edited out of the course so that they are consistent with the Course’s teaching. This is because the Course teaches that we are not created by God, and that we are not responsible for what happens in our lives.
Another passage in the Urtext talks about time as a means to create and convince himself of his own ability to create. This is similar to the Course’s teaching that time should be used constructively, as a teaching device to facilitate learning.
It is also interesting to note that the urtext discusses the belief that space-time exists as a result of unbelief, and that this is only a necessary correction device because we are still unable to realize that we are not responsible for what happens in the world around us. It is therefore a lesson in humility and acceptance, that we are not in charge of our own destiny.
The Urtext does have several extra headers that define Miracle Principles, which were added in later edits by Helen and Bill. However, these can be ignored if you prefer the original 43 principles.
Workbook
The workbook included in the course in miracles urtext provides a systematic step-by-step approach by which one can apply the principles of the Course to everyday life. The daily lessons do not require a lot of time nor long practice periods, but they do require a willingness to question every value one holds as to what the world is all about and the willingness to see things differently-through the eyes of God.
The workbooks include various self-instructional activities, tasks, and questions designed in a worksheet form that are used to make the learners consciously think about their answers or the ideas and concepts they have learned or realized through the process of reading the book. This makes it easier for them to improve their critical thinking skills and boost their cognitive function in the long run.
Many educational firms and learning organizations use workbooks to help their students and learners in practicing what they have learned from the classroom sessions. This helps in enhancing their cognitive skills and boosting their confidence levels by exercising the new knowledge and skills acquired from their academic classes.
Moreover, these worksheets are also helpful in facilitating the lesson planning of teachers and teaching professionals as it helps them to write the lessons for their students in advance. This saves them the trouble of going through piles of textbooks and writing assignments during the course of several weeks.
Another benefit of using workbooks is that they can be opened and edited on any computer with Microsoft Excel installed. There are various templates available for users to choose from, and most of them are created by third-party providers or individual users.
It is important to ensure that the workbook that you open will be compatible with the version of Excel on your device. This will avoid any errors or issues with the data and files that you have entered in the workbook. To check the compatibility, go to File and select the workbook.
A new workbook will appear with the selected template in a preview window. You can then click Create to use the template.
Audio
This website hosts the course in miracles urtext edition, which represents the earliest draft of A Course in Miracles. It was dictated by Jesus and scribed by Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford in 1972. The urtext was later re-edited more than once to become the official edition of the Course by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
A huge amount of material was removed from the urtext by Helen and Bill (at least half as much again as was removed in the Hugh Lynn Cayce version). We know that at least 6,000 words never made it out of Helen’s original notebooks, and there may have been more than that.
The editing of this urtext is more extensive than that of the HLC, and it also includes a lot of reordering of material. This results in fewer words and less space for the same ideas. Some of these ideas are not well-suited to the compressed format of a published Course, and this can cause a lot of difficulty for people trying to listen to this text.
One of the biggest changes in the urtext is the addition of extra headers which define miracle principles (e.g. TMP1: Miracle Principle 1). The urtext preserves the original 43 principles (still identified by their reference codes) but adds 54 additional principles from other edits by Helen and Bill.
Despite these changes, the text is still accurate in terms of formatting and wording. The sentence-level images are more stylized for artistic reasons, but the words remain accurate. The audio recordings are computer-generated and speak the exact words of the urtext, although some pronunciation or emphasis may not match due to limitations in the text-to-speech software.
Videos
In the first part of this two hour video, we are introduced to Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford, the scribes of A Course in Miracles (ACIM). William is a good sport and shares with us his memory of how it all began, what he thought was the most important aspect of ACM, and how it is still relevant today.
The second part of this video consists of a series of videos that tell the story of ACIM in the most elegant manner possible. It includes the aforementioned ur-text, a few of the many witty and whimsical sayings found in the course, some beautiful art, and some interesting insights from the early teachers about fear, forgiveness, sex, money, murder and so much more.
The urtext is an early draft of the course, dictated by Jesus and typed up by Helen and Bill. This material was later re-edited more than once to become the official version of ACM, but the urtext is an impressive sight and deserves to be seen by those who want to learn more about this remarkable text. The video has a great deal of information and is a must see for anyone who has any interest in learning about the most important book of all time, A Course in Miracles.