Index to The Most Commonly asked Questions about

A Course in Miracles®


By Kenneth and Gloria Wapnick
 
 

In Addition to this Site, Visit the FACIM Electronic Outreach Question-Answer Service
 

Click here for PREFACE to The Most Commonly Asked Questions

(NOTE: ALL REFERENCES IN THE DISCUSSIONS UTILIZE THE NOTATIONAL SYSTEM
OF THE SECOND EDITION OF THE COURSE. FOR AN EXPLANATION OF THAT SYSTEM, SEE:

 http://www.facim.org/acim/annote.htm)



 

Chapter I:  THE NATURE OF HEAVEN

 
1.  What is the nature of God?

2.  What is the nature of reality?

3.  What is the nature of life?

4.  Is the God in A Course in Miracles the same as the God in the Bible?

5. If God is not a person, why does Jesus portray Him that way? This is confusing

6.  What does A Course in Miracles mean by creation?

7.  What does A Course in Miracles mean by creation as a process?

8.  What are the creations spoken of in A Course in Miracles?

9.  If God has one Son, why does A Course in Miracles use the term Sons of God?

10.  Why does A Course in Miracles use masculine language in denoting the Trinity?  Is Jesus a sexist?
 
 

Chapter 2:  THE NATURE OF THE SEPARATION


11.  How did the ego originate, and what is to prevent the separation from happening again?

12.  If God did not create the world or the body, who did? Moreover, who are we and how did we get here?

13.  Does A Course in Miracles really mean that God did not create the entire physical universe?

14.  What about the beauty and goodness in the world?

15.  Since we have made ourselves separate, how come we all seem to perceive the same attributes of matter, and agree on its basic characteristics and experience its laws?

16.  What is A Course in Miracles' view of time?   (Page 1 of  two pages)

17.  Can the ego mind be equated with the human brain?

18.  Where is the mind?

19.  How can one access the mind so that the mind can be changed?

20.  What is meant by the Sonship, and who or what is included?

21.  A Course in Miracles teaches that there is no death. Can this be taken to mean that physical immortality is possible?

22.  What happens when we die, and where do we go? Are the near-death experiences that many people report relevant to students of A Course in Miracles?

23.  Does enlightenment or resurrection mean freedom from the body?
 
 

Chapter 3: APPLICATION AND PRACTICE OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES

 
24.  If all this is a dream or an illusion, or a script which is already written, what difference does it make what I do with my life?

25.  If all this is a dream or an illusion, does that mean that the abuse I suffered as a child is unreal and should be denied or ignored?

26.  What about congenital defects or infant deaths?  Are these chosen also?

27.  Are babies born innocent?

28.  Does A Course in Miracles have a morality, or a code of ethics?

29.  Since all sickness is a projection of the mind's guilt, does this mean that it is wrong to take medicine for physical pain?

30.  Does being defenseless mean I should let someone kill or rape me, or stand by while violence is committed against loved ones or others'?

31.  Can one be a student of A Course in Miracles and serve on a jury (be a doctor, lawyer, etc.) or remain with a partner who is not a student of the Course? Or should one be with a partner at all?  Isn't that simply a form of specialness?

32.  A Course in Miracles teaches that anger is never justified. Does this mean I should never get angry, and that if I do, I am not being a good Course student or am not being spiritual enough?

33.  Is learning cumulative? That is, do I take what I have learned with me when I die, so that when I "come back" I do not have to begin all over again?

34.  If all life here is an illusion, why does A Course in Miracles refer to "living things"?

35.  A Course in Miracles teaches that all has already happened. Isn't this the same as predestination?

36.  Is there such a thing as free will, and what is it anyway?

37.  How free are we in our everyday lives to act in our own best interests, especially if, as A Course in Miracles says, we are all hallucinating?

38.  A Course in Miracles says that there is no love without ambivalence. Does this mean that I never come from a loving space, and that all my thoughts and actions are from my ego?

39.  What is the role of meditation in practicing A Course in Miracles?

40.  What is the "holy instant," and what is its role in the Atonement?

41.  What does A Course in Miracles mean by "releasing your brother"? How can I save him if the world is an hallucination in my mind?

42.  What does A Course in Miracles mean by forgiving your brother?  What if he does not accept the forgiveness, or is no longer physically present? Does this mean I can no longer forgive him?

43.  How does one tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and the ego?

44.  Is it a bad sign if I do not "hear" an inner Voice?  Does that mean that I am not being a good student of A Course in Miracles?

45.  Do Jesus or the Holy Spirit send me my lessons?

46.  If God does not even know about us or the world, what is the meaning or purpose of prayer?

47.  It seems as if things are becoming worse since I began working with A Course in Miracles. Is this common? Am I doing something wrong?

48.  If I practice A Course in Miracles faithfully, will I disappear?
 
 

Chapter 4: JESUS

 
49.  Where does it say in A Course in Miracles that Jesus is the author, and why is there no author's name given in the book?  Moreover, why are there sections on Jesus in the manual for teachers written in the third person? Is there another voice dictating here?

50.  If Jesus is the first to have accepted the Atonement for himself, as A Course in Miracles states, what about people like the Buddha?

51. If, as A Course in Miracles suggests, the world totally misunderstood Jesus' message two thousand years ago, why did he wait so long to correct it?

52.  Is the Jesus of A Course in Miracles the same Jesus written about in the Bible, and the same person who walked the earth in Palestine two thousand years ago?

53.  Is there a difference between Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and does it matter to whom I go for help?

54.  Why does Jesus repeatedly say in A Course in Miracles that I need to forgive him?  What for?
 
 

Chapter 5:  THE CURRICULUM OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES

 
55. Who gave the title A Course in Miracles, and why?

56.  What is the relationship of A Course in Miracles to other spiritual paths, and specifically to the Bible?

57.  Does the concept of the circle of Atonement relate to the "hundredth monkey" idea? And should "teachers of God" go out to teach A Course in Miracles or proselytize others?

58.  Can A Course in Miracles be completed in one year, as the workbook seems to suggest?

59.  Is there a wrong or right way to practice the workbook?

60.  Is it necessary to do the workbook more than once?

61.  Why do the text and workbook have different focuses, and at times seem to be saying different things?

62.  Does A Course in Miracles have to be studied, or is it enough just to do the workbook and read the text randomly, in whatever way I feel guided to do?

63.  Should children be taught A Course in Miracles?

64.  According to A Course in Miracles, how should children be reared?

65.  What about groups that meet on A Course in Miracles?

66. I have need for a psychotherapist, but I only want a therapist who is a student of A Course in Miracles, or at least is familiar with it and sympathetic to its teachings. What should I do?

67.  If A Course in Miracles is a universal teaching, why did it come in such sectarian (i.e., Christian) terms. Doesn't that limit its worldwide applicability?

68.  Why is the language of A Course in Miracles so difficult to read and understand?  Why couldn't Jesus have written it more simply?

69.  Can A Course in Miracles be done by myself, or do I need to have a partner?

70.  Is A Course in Miracles best practiced in seclusion, without worldly distractions?

71.  Have there been people who have successfully completed A Course in Miracles (and are in the real world), and who are they?

72.  What should one say to a stranger, family member, or friend who asks what A Course in Miracles is?
 
 

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