A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles (also referred to as ACIM) is a 1976 book by Helen Schucman. The underlying premise is that the greatest "miracle" is the act of simply gaining a full "awareness of love's presence" in a person's life. Schucman said that the book had been dictated to her, word for word, via a process of "inner dictation" from Jesus Christ. The book is considered to have borrowed from New Age movement writings. The book has been called everything from "New Age psychobabble" to "a Satanic seduction" to "The New Age Bible". Throughout the 1980s, annual sales of the book steadily increased. According to Olav Hammer, the psychiatrist and author Gerald G. Jampolsky was among the most effective promoters of ACIM. Jampolsky's first book, Love is Letting Go of Fear, based on the principles of ACIM, was published in 1979 and, after being endorsed on Johnny Carson's show, sold over three million copies by 1990. The largest growth in sales occurred in 1992 after Marianne Williamson discussed the book on The Oprah Winfrey Show, with more than two million volumes sold. A highly cited introduction to the course reads: "Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God." (ACIM, T-in.2:2-4)