“A COURSE IN MIRACLES”
CATHOLIC PAPERS
A Course in Brainwashing
http://www.ewtn.com/library/newage/brainwas.txt
By Tracy Moran, June 2, 1996 issue of Our Sunday Visitor
Catholics across the country are alarmed at the increasing popularity of a New Age phenomenon known as "A Course in
Miracles," a system of spirituality that proponents claim is the "Third Testament" of God to His people.
Even more alarming, critics say, is that the movement is gaining a foothold among some Catholics.
"A Course in Miracles," a 1,249-page study manual, was authored by the "inner voice" of research psychologist Helen Schucman between 1965 and 1972. Schucman, a professor at Columbia University and a self-described atheist at the time, claims the "voice" was that of Jesus Christ.
In 1977, New Age guru and best-selling author Marianne Williamson discovered "A Course in Miracles" and helped spread its message internationally, reeling in stars such as Oprah Winfrey and Shirley MacLaine along the way.
Today, the course has sold more than 1 million copies, and more than 2,000 groups in the United States meet to study the course, which Williamson calls "a self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy."
But a former disciple of "A Course in Miracles" who returned to the Catholic Church calls it a course in brainwashing. Moira Noonan, once a New Age minister and psychic, was introduced to the course 20 years ago. Upon returning to the Church, she was shocked to find that "A Course in Miracles" is sold in some Catholic bookstores and that many fellow believers are studying it. "They say in the course that the Holy Spirit wants us to have these new thoughts, a new reality," Noonan explained. "It says right in the beginning of the course to question everything ... The course is Satan's mock bible," she said, adding that its disciples "want people to think it's a religion, but it's not."
The Foundation for "A Course in Miracles," based in Roscoe, N.Y., is not affiliated with any church or denomination. Dr.
Kenneth Wapnick, the foundation's director, was a Catholic seminarian about to enter the monastery when he met Schucman and read the manuscript for the course. A clinical psychologist, Wapnick claims the course teaches that the way to recover one's buried knowledge and memories of God is by "undoing" guilt through forgiving others. It aims to remove "the blocks to one's awareness of love's presence," which is every person's natural state of mind.
Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa, who has written on New Age religions, sees how such language can resonate with Catholics, luring them to study the course. "The key problem is the [course's] pseudo - Christian vocabulary and ideas," said Father Pacwa. "People don't know the Catechism; they don't know their faith ... The course strongly rejects the use of reason and thinking ... This is precisely what makes the course feasible. Once you get rid of reason, you get rid of discussion."
Noonan explained the course's attraction to Catholics by noting that "in our culture, we want a quick fix. [The course] teaches that you can claim a miracle. It's part of the individualistic attitude we have in this society."
Noonan said some Catholics pick up the course thinking: "I never really liked or understood the Bible anyway, so why don't I read this? The language is easier for me to understand."
Led astray
Critics of "A Course in Miracles" warn that Catholics who try to incorporate its principles into their faith will severely compromise their beliefs because the two theologies are completely incompatible.
Father Pacwa said the course repeatedly misquotes the Bible and "presents a false Jesus." Even though Jesus supposedly dictated the course to Schucman, the course's Jesus "does not like the Crucifixion," Father Pacwa said. "One of the things said repeatedly and forcefully in the course is that sacrifice has nothing to do with love-they are incompatible."
The "Jesus" of "A Course in Miracles" is not really the Son of God, never really had a physical body, and hence never really suffered on the cross. He even rephrases the Lord's Prayer, replacing "hallowed be thy name" with "Our holiness is Yours," Father Pacwa pointed out.
With such glaring differences between Christianity and the course, it is no wonder Father Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., another critic, said the movement "has become something of a sophisticated cult."
And he should know, having studied at Columbia University under Schucman.
In his book, "A Still, Small Voice," Father Groeschel recounts his "utter astonishment" when he was told in 1969 about Schucman's alleged encounter with "the Son of God." According to Father Groeschel, the course that resulted from this encounter is "centered on a Son of God who at times seems to be the Christ of orthodox Christianity and sometimes an avatar of an Eastern religion."
Father Groeschel said that among clergy and Religious, "There's a lot of suspicion about the course right now." And suspicion seems warranted, considering that the course denies the existence of suffering and sin, claims the Holy Spirit's main purpose is to heal people's unconscious thoughts, and reinterprets the word "miracle" into psychological terms.
According to a recent book promoting the course, the "purpose of this system . . . is to draw our minds into a completely different way of thinking.... Education on this level is clearly re-education, which demands, first of all, unlearning."
Moreover, "A Course in Miracles" purports to be a "purifier of Christianity," as explained in the book: "Echoing the Bible, [the course] thus presents the image of a contemporary revealed scripture, a modern-day message from God to mankind."
Yet, ironically, perhaps the strongest argument against wedding Christianity with the course comes from Wapnick himself. In the book "A Course in Miracles and Christianity: A Dialogue," published by his foundation, Wapnick and Jesuit Father W. Norris Clarke map out the sharp differences of the two theologies, defining them as "mutually exclusive."
Wapnick writes that "to attempt reconciliation between [the two] must inevitably lead to frustration at best and severe distortion at worst.... 'A Course in Miracles' directly refutes the very basis of the Christian faith, leaving nothing on which Christians can base their beliefs."
Whatever the course's true intention, however, Father Pacwa warns that the course "presents a false Jesus, false Spirit and false Gospel, and therefore it deserves simple rejection."
And even if the course does attempt to "purify" the Gospel, its effort is fruitless, as Father Clarke points out in the
"Dialogue": "Traditional Christianity maintains that human beings have really sinned and turned away from God, hence [they] have the burden of a genuine (not merely neurotic) guilt.... Then Jesus took on the burden of our own sins and truly suffered and died on the cross to make reparation for them. He then truly rose from the dead, with a real, though transformed or glorified body, and is forever united with His Father now in glory."
Moran writes from San Diego, Calif. For more information on "A Course in Miracles," contact Moira Noonan at: P.O. Box 232716, Encinitas, CA 92023
A Course In Miracles
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/CATHOLIC%20ASHRAMS.doc EXTRACT
By Michael Prabhu, October 2005
During my investigation of the seditious -- and New Age -- Catholic Ashrams movement in December 2004, I had stayed for a week at the Camaldoli Benedictine Saccidananda Ashram, Shantivanam at Thannirpalli.
I noted that "A Course in Miracles" -- one of many New Age titles in the Ashram library -- was one of the more popular reads among the visitors according to library records. An excerpt from my Report:
A COURSE IN MIRACLES
A New Age classic, in 3 volumes, Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975
This thoroughly New Age classic is one of the most frequently drawn books from the library. I give selected extracts from its 'Idea for today' [with the lesson no. in brackets]. They are to be continuously repeated as affirmations or mantras so as to spiritually benefit the user. [They are not much different from the New Age teachings of Bro. John Martin Sahajananda, the de facto guru of Shantivanam, as we shall see shortly when examining his satsanghs and his books.]
[10] My thoughts do not mean anything...This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe.
[25] I do not know what anything [this chair, this hand] is for.
[29] God is in everything I see. God is in this waste basket.
[35] My mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.
[36] My holiness envelops everything I see… You are holy because your mind is part of God’s… If your mind is part of God’s you must be sinless, or part of His Mind would be sinful.
[38] There is nothing my holiness cannot do… Your holiness is totally unlimited in its power because it establishes you as a Son of God.
[39] My holiness is my salvation… Your holiness means the end of guilt and therefore the end of hell.
[61] I am the light of the world… How holy am I who have been given the function of lighting up the world! Let me be still before my holiness.
[70] My salvation comes from me… All temptation is nothing more than some form of the basic temptation not to believe the idea for today… When you realize that all guilt is solely an invention of your mind, you also realize that guilt and salvation must be in the same place. In understanding this you are saved. Today I will recognize where my salvation is. It is in me… It is not found outside.
[77] I am entitled to miracles. You will offer miracles because you are one with God… You state a fact that cannot be denied. The Holy Spirit cannot but assure you that your request is granted.
[93] Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Over and over this must be repeated until it is accepted… The self you made, evil and full of sin, is meaningless.
[95] I am one Self, united with my Creator.
[96] Salvation comes from my one Self.
[101] If sin is real, salvation has become your bitter enemy, the curse of God upon you who has crucified His Son. You need the practice periods today. The exercises teach that sin is not real, and all that you believe must come from sin will not happen… You have made a devil of God’s son. There is no sin.
[124] Let me remember I am one with God.
[163] There is no death. The Son of God is free… The idea of the death of God is so preposterous that even the insane have difficulty in believing in it. For it implies that God was once alive and somehow perished… And with the Father died the Son as well… There is no death and we renounce it now in every form… God made not death. Whatever form it takes must therefore be an illusion.
[183] I call upon God’s name and on my own. God’s name is holy but no holier than yours. To call upon His name is but to call upon your own.
[191] I AM THE HOLY SON OF GOD HIMSELF.
[253] My Self is ruler of the universe… It is I who rule my destiny.
[259] LET ME REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO SIN.
[300] Christ’s Second Coming… is merely the correction of mistakes and the return of sanity.
A Course In Miracles
http://www.ewtn.com/library/NEWAGE/COURSE.TXT, http://www.catholicreason.com/shtml/course.shtml
By Edward R Hryczyk
The text of the book "A Course in Miracles" is the product of seven years of trance spirit channeling of a Mrs. Helen Schucman. The spirit that channeled a "new gospel" to Mrs. Schucman claimed to be Jesus Christ. The "spirit" made contact with her to correct errors in Sacred Scripture, and the teachings of the Church. The "spirit" that channeled through Mrs. Schucman wrote that Sacred Scripture was in error in teaching us that sin separates us from God, and that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross for our sins. The book "A Course in Miracles" contains a Text (the dictations of Mrs. Schucman), a Student Workbook, and an Instructor’s Manual. (1)
Mrs. Schucman, a Columbia University professor and psychologist, was an acquaintance of Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R. (seen on EWTN)
Fr. Groeschel gave a eulogy at her funeral. Fr. Groeschel wrote (2), "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." Fr. Groeschel is a holy, practical, wise, no nonsense priest, and psychologist. During an October 1994 lecture on "Discernment" given at Holy Cross Church, Rumson, N.J., Fr. Groeschel stated that he believed that Helen Schucman's experience with the channeled "spirit" was possibly a true diabolic manifestation.
Fr. Groeschel's experience as a psychologist and priest included being called upon by his Bishop to investigate reported diabolic manifestations in his New York City diocese. In the lecture Fr. Groeschel described one experience - called as an exorcist - where he witnessed objects unexplainably being thrown about a room. At the end of a lengthy discussion he attributed that particular experience to paranormal manifestations - but not diabolic in nature (3).
Fr. Groeschel is not easily inclined to attribute any experience to the diabolic. The possible diabolic origin in the spirit channeling of Helen Schucman was one exception given by Fr. Groeschel. Fr. Groeschel's suspicions find support in Sacred Scripture. Helen Schucman's "channeled spirit" denies that our Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth in the flesh.