Tag Archives: Helen Schucman

It Can Take A Lot Out Of A Person

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It seems to have an impact on a person’s body and mind for them to receive a message from beyond their understanding and experience.  I don’t know why this is so.  I don’t know whether or not this should be so.  I only know there are instances of this.

During the early 1940’s, American psychic Edgar Cayce received a large number of requests for “readings,” where he would address a particular person’s medical condition and recommend a treatment.  Sometimes the request was for information about a person who was missing in combat.  He said he could not refuse people who felt they needed his help, and he increased the frequency of his readings to eight per day to try to make an impression on the ever-growing pile of requests. He said this took a toll on his health as it was emotionally draining and often fatigued him. He even went so far as to say that the readings themselves scolded him for attempting too much and that he should limit his workload to just two readings a day or else they would kill him.  Edgar Cayce died of a stroke in 1945.  Was he doing the right thing to do eight readings a day?  Was it foolish of him to ignore the warnings his readings were giving him?  Or was he showing compassion for people?

Helen Schucman, the scribe of A Course in Miracles, died 9 years after receiving A Course in Miracles, 6 years after its publication.  The last two years of her life were a time of great suffering from both pancreatic cancer and deep depression.  Some people say “Well, if A Course in Miracles is so great, why didn’t it help Helen Schucman?”

I recall Marshall Vian Summers saying that in the early days of his receiving messages, it would take weeks for him to recover from receiving a message.  I don’t believe that the time it took to recover had anything to do with the particular content of a message, but from the very experience of receiving a message.  I recall Marshall saying during the Steps vigil of 2012, that receiving Steps to Knowledge in 1989 was like being a kitchen stove, as if a great deal of energy was moving through him.  I know very little details of his experience of throat cancer and recovery in 2010. He is currently 64 years old, and moved fluidly through a T’ai Chi routine when I saw him in 2012.

When I wrote about how Edgar Cayce disregarded the instructions of his readings, I thought to myself “Marshall would never do that.”  At the very least, there was an inconsistency between what Edgar Cayce was receiving, and the choices he was making.  Why didn’t A Course in Miracles help Helen Schucman during the last two years of her life?  I don’t know.  I wish I did.  I don’t know what Marshall Vian Summers did to be able to receive the message he has received, without it taking too great a toll on him.  But I’m glad he did.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Compare And Contrast: Who, Where, When, How, For Whom

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This post is continuing the thread of comparing and contrasting the books “A Course in Miracles” and “Steps to Knowledge.”  I don’t seek to prove anything in particular in this thread, I plan to put information that is kept in different places in one place.

Data points can be seen as similar or different depending on the scope in which they were viewed.  For example, both A Course in Miracles and Steps to Knowledge were written in the 20th Century, but one was published in 1976, and the other was published in 1989.  I’m going to give the data, and leave the decision about the significance to you.

I am using the ACIM website, the New Message from God website, and the introduction to Steps to Knowledge as data sources.

Who: Helen Schucman (1909-1981) was the scribe of A Course in Miracles.  Marshall Vian Summers is the messenger of Steps to Knowledge.

Where: A Course in Miracles was scribed in New York City.  Steps to Knowledge was received in Albany, New York. (What is it about New York?)

When: A Course in Miracles (the text, the workbook for students, and the manual for teachers) was scribed over a period of almost seven years (October 1965 to September 1972).  Steps to Knowledge was received over a period of 20 days (May 26, 1989 to June 14, 1989).  I find that significant.

How: Helen Schucman describes her experience:

“The Voice made no sound, but seemed to be giving me a kind of rapid, inner dictation which I took down in a shorthand notebook. The writing was never automatic. It could be interrupted at any time and later picked up again. It made obvious use of my educational background, interests and experience, but that was in matters of style rather than content. Certainly the subject matter itself was the last thing I would have expected to write about.”

The shorthand was later transcribed by William Thetford.

Steps to Knowledge was originally recorded on audio cassettes, and later transcribed.  Marshall Summers describes various days of his recording Steps:

May 27: “Felt so much pressure. Two intense sessions of recording. Felt really “out there” afterwards. It was difficult to be with people.”

June 1: “49 Steps in 4 hours with several breaks. Very powerful.”

June 8: “77 Steps today. Felt the Presence all day. I could not do much after this.”

For Whom: The voice dictating A Course in Miracles identified itself to her as the voice of Jesus.  The voice speaking through Marshall identifies itself as the voice of a group of unseen spiritual teachers who describe themselves as Teachers of the Greater Community.

I hope this helps.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.