A Course in Miracles

“This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.

This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:

Nothing real can be threatened. 
Nothing unreal exists. 

Herein lies the peace of God.”

You are not asked to believe; you are asked only to remove the blocks to awareness of the love which is already yours.

A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is a self-study programme of spiritual psychotherapy consisting of a Text, a Workbook with 365 daily lessons, and a Manual for Teachers, offering a systematic method for shifting your perception from fear to your true nature as Love. Dr Helen Schucman, a clinical psychologist, received the work through inner dictation beginning in 1965. First published in 1975, it has since been translated into 27 languages, with Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love bringing it to a wider readership in the early 1990s. While using Christian terminology, it is non-denominational in nature, teaching that separation from God is an illusion and that miracles — shifts in perception — occur naturally when we choose forgiveness over judgement. The Workbook provides practical daily exercises to train the mind alongside the Text, which establishes the thought system: we live in a dream of separation, and awakening requires recognising that what we thought our siblings in humanity did to us has not occurred. Through forgiveness and the guidance of the Holy Spirit — your internal teacher — A Course in Miracles invites you to discover love in every facet of your life, methodically dismantling every illusion that obscures your inner peace.

Through daily practice, dedicated study, and a willingness to forgive, A Course in Miracles offers a complete transformation of perception. It teaches that awakening is not the acquisition of new knowledge but the undoing of false perception — a journey that, in its own words, “is merely the reawakening of the knowledge of where you are always, and what you are forever. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed.”

The 365 Workbook lessons train the mind systematically, beginning with exercises that strip away the meanings we've imposed on the world. Early lessons include “Nothing I see means anything” and “I have given everything I see… all the meaning that it has for me.” These practices clear the mind to see things as they are, free from past associations. The Workbook emphasises that “You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.”

Forgiveness is, throughout, the inspired practice through which you heal. In this teaching, forgiveness means recognising that what you thought others did to you has not actually occurred. Every grievance, every judgement, every perception of attack is a barrier we have erected. Forgiveness removes these blocks by showing us that only love is real.  “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

In the Course, relationships become the primary classroom for the work. It teaches that “special relationships” — those based on seeking completion outside ourselves — must be transformed into holy relationships, with the Holy Spirit as your internal teacher guiding you back to your true identity. “The special relationships of the world are destructive, selfish and childishly egocentric. Yet, if given to the Holy Spirit, these relationships can become the holiest things on earth – the miracles that point the way to the return to Heaven.” In other words, we need not necessarily avoid or end our “special relationships”; we can bring them to the Holy Spirit for healing.

In time and with practice, there will come a moment when you choose to see differently – this is considered the holy instant: “In the holy instant no one is special, for your personal needs intrude on no one to make your brothers seem different. Without the values from the past, you would see them all the same and like yourself.” This instant is always available to you — it requires only willingness to release judgement and choose peace instead of conflict.

The sustained work via A Course in Miracles — lesson by lesson, forgiveness by forgiveness — lets the real world come into view: a state where only loving thoughts are recognised, visible once we let go of the ego's dream of separation. “When you have seen this real world, as you will surely do, you will remember Us. Yet you must learn the cost of sleeping, and refuse to pay it. Only then will you decide to awaken.” This is not passive spirituality but active intentional choice in every moment: Will you choose fear or love? Judgement or forgiveness? Separation or union? The answer you give determines the world you see.

The Foundation for Inner Peace is the original, scribe-authorised publisher of A Course in Miracles and offers free resources to support your practice, including daily lessons, monthly webinars,  and study groups.