The origins of A Class in Miracles can be traced back once again to the cooperation between two people, Helen Schucman and William Thetford, both of whom were prominent psychologists and researchers. The course's inception happened in the early 1960s when Schucman, who had been a clinical and study psychologist at Columbia University's University of Physicians and Surgeons, started to have a series of internal dictations. She identified these dictations as coming from an interior voice that discovered itself as Jesus Christ. Schucman initially resisted these experiences, but with Thetford's encouragement, she started transcribing the messages she received.
Over a period of seven decades, Schucman transcribed what would become A Class in Wonders, amounting to three quantities: the Text, the Book for Students, and the Handbook for Teachers. The Text sits out the theoretical foundation of the course, elaborating on the primary concepts and principles. The Workbook for Pupils includes 365 classes, one for every day of the year, made to guide the audience by way of a daily practice of applying the course's teachings. The Manual for Educators gives further advice on how best to understand and train the rules of A Program in Miracles to others.
One of many central styles of A Course in Miracles is the idea of forgiveness. The course shows that correct forgiveness is the key to internal peace and awareness to one's heavenly nature. In accordance with their teachings, forgiveness is not merely a moral or honest practice but a elementary shift in perception. It requires allowing go of judgments, issues, and the perception of crime, and as an alternative, a course in miracles the entire world and oneself through the lens of enjoy and acceptance. A Program in Miracles highlights that correct forgiveness leads to the acceptance that people are interconnected and that divorce from one another is an illusion.
Yet another substantial aspect of A Program in Wonders is its metaphysical foundation. The program gift suggestions a dualistic see of fact, unique between the ego, which shows divorce, anxiety, and illusions, and the Sacred Heart, which symbolizes love, reality, and religious guidance. It implies that the pride is the origin of suffering and conflict, whilst the Holy Nature supplies a pathway to healing and awakening. The target of the program is to greatly help people transcend the ego's restricted perception and align with the Holy Spirit's guidance.