The whole course is geared acim towards you disassociating from the illusions of death, vulnerability, victimhood, being affected, hurt, sickness and suffering, and associating with your immortal spirit. It is only when you ACT as if you are mortal that you PRETEND to be mortal.
You can also check websites that are relevant to the person you’re looking for, such as charities they work with or religious organizations. These sites often post obituaries online.
ACIM’s view of death
The Course offers a profoundly different view of death. It teaches that death is not real, but the body’s experience of it is. The body is a vehicle that the mind uses to identify with and become attached to itself, which results in the ego’s fear of losing the body.
The course also teaches that the only way to overcome this fear is to realize that the experience of the body is a dream, and that all people share the potential to achieve immortality in a non-physical form. The enlightened state of eternal life is characterized by perfect love, oneness, freedom and peace. It is a state that cannot be compared with any experience of this world, even the most incredible ones.
Described by the New York Times as an “esoteric bible that has gone mainstream,” ACIM is an important influence on the growing movement of people who consider themselves spiritual but not religious. Its teachings have helped to change the social and religious perspective of millions of people worldwide. Despite its Christian terminology, the Course is not a religion and has no institute, churches or formal establishment to rule over it, dictate, or give verdicts. Its followers do not discuss or debate who is right or wrong, but instead focus on what they believe to be the true teaching of the Course: holy relationships and oneness.
ACIM’s view of immortality
Identified by the New York Times in 2019 as “an esoteric bible that has gone mainstream,” A Course in Miracles is a major influence on the growing number of people who call themselves “spiritual but not religious.” It is also one of the most important spiritual teachings to be published in modern times. Its heady mix of reinterpreted Christian language, contemporary psychology, and Eastern metaphysics makes it different from anything that has been presented before.
ACIM teaches that death is a misperception and that the truth is that we are immortal, invulnerable, and eternal. It also teaches that the body and its attacks are illusory, and that we can reunite with our eternal Self by disassociating from the illusions of attack, victimhood, suffering, sickness, and death.
While ACIM is not a religion, it has an extremely large following, largely because of its message that all of us share a common dream. Its pedagogy is non-dualistic, blending the beliefs of many different traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. It also incorporates elements of the New Age movement and the thought of Jesus Christ.
After the first edition of ACIM was published in 1976, a series of additional texts, or dictations, were recorded by Helen Schucman. In these dictations, Jesus instructed Helen to expand A Course in Miracles to include A Course on Love and A Course in Healing.
A Course in Healing is a companion work to A Course in Miracles, and it continues the same non-dualist philosophy of that book. It also offers tools for practicing forgiveness and compassion, and focuses on the experience of love in our everyday lives. It has been translated into 27 languages and has sold over 3 million copies.
ACIM’s view of the body
One of the most important aspects of ACIM is its view of the body. It teaches that the body is not an end, but only a means to communicate love and forgiveness. It says that when the body is used for the purpose of communicating forgiveness, healing and acceptance of God’s Atonement, it is holy and invulnerable. However, when it is used for the purposes of pride, pleasure or attack, it is sick and vulnerable.
It also says that the cause of all sickness is mental illness. It is not enough to treat the symptoms of a disease with medical treatment or other forms of magic, because these do not address the root of the problem. Instead, it is necessary to dismantle the ego’s belief in separation. In this way, the body will no longer appear to be separate from us.
The Course teaches that the ego’s primary goal is to make the illusion of separation real. The body is the ego’s tool for achieving this goal. The ego wants to use the body for both joining and attacking, but it cannot do both simultaneously. This confusion of ends and means causes sickness.
Another important aspect of ACIM is its view of the soul. It teaches that the soul is immortal, and therefore it cannot die. It also teaches that the soul is always in contact with the Creator. This is why the Course teaches that there is no death.
The New York Times described A Course in Miracles as “an esoteric bible that has gone mainstream.” It has become an important influence on the growing number of people who think of themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” The teachings of ACIM combine reinterpreted Christian language, modern psychological thought, and Eastern metaphysics to create a new kind of spirituality. Although the Course is not a religion, it has an enormous following, with millions of people around the world studying it regularly.
The Standard edition of the Course has sold over three million copies and continues to sell at a steady pace. It is available in 26 languages and is managed by the Foundation for Inner Peace. Although there are a handful of alternate editions, none has yet achieved the same level of popularity as the Standard edition.
ACIM’s view of the soul
Its heady mix of reinterpreted Christian language, modern psychological thought and Eastern metaphysics makes ACIM a profoundly different kind of spiritual teaching than the world has ever known before. Yet, despite its proclaimed goal of promoting peace through distinguishing the Real from the unreal, ACIM poses serious problems for proponents of nondual spirituality. For example, the Course presumes a soul distinct from God known as “the Christ.” This is a dualism that many in India’s philosophical/theological tradition would call qualified non-dualism.
Helen Schucman, a professional educator, claims that she “channeled” or “scribed” the Course from an inner voice identifying itself as Jesus. She then edited the manuscript into what became the first professionally printed edition of A Course in Miracles in 1975, a four-volume book-set consisting of volumes 1 & 2 of the “Text” and volumes 3 & 4 of the “Workbook” and “Teacher’s Manual.” The original publisher, Foundation for Parasensory Investigation, was later sold to Kenneth Wapnick’s FACIM group and is now the official version of ACIM.
In addition to its presumption of an immortal soul, the Course also promotes an exalting view of the human situation as a Divine Play. This is a concept found in Gnosticism and some of the more inferior kinds of mysticism, but which the best mystics of Christianity, including Meister Eckhart and John of the Cross, have always rejected.
Moreover, in its exaltation of the ego’s experience as the Divine Play, ACIM tends to discount feeling and breath and a need to participate in growing one’s capacity to serve others. As a result, persons deeply involved in ACIM may spend several years, or even decades, locked into the Course’s closed system and cut off from more mature and balanced spiritual teachings, and from the richer, fuller life that can be realized through them. This can lead to what some loved ones of such people describe as a cultic straitjacket that prevents them from responding flexibly, skillfully and with true wisdom to what happens within this Divine dream of life. This is a major source of the criticism of ACIM that it has gotten from some members of more well-balanced communities of spiritual practice.