Journey Without Distance : The Story Behind a Course in Miracles

Rating:
Summary: For those who use the Course, this tells the story.
Review: Having used A Course in Miracles for close to two years, I was glad to find a book which detailed the story of how it was written. If you find the Course any where near as life changing as I have, you wonder how it came about. This book, by one close to the people who actually wrote it down, takes the process out of the realm of fantasy and puts real flesh and blood into the mix. It also makes the Course even more credible. I highly recommend this as a companion to A Course in Miracles.

Rating:
Summary: The background story of The Course
Review: I had heard vague information about "A Course in Miracles" some 18 years ago. I was curious but never really followed up on it. Then, I came across this book a few years ago and it is an amazing miraculous story. The odd thing is that Dr. Helen Schucman experienced a life long struggle with faith in God and never truly believed in what she had received from this inner voice. Yet The Course has changed countless lives. If you are at all curious about The Course, I suggest you read this book before starting any study. It is not only inspiring but it gives so much credibility to the whole thing.

Rating:
Summary: A very easy and pleasant read
Review: I like this book because it is very "user-friendly." Anyone familiar with Course theory will know that the Course can often be very "heady." The Course is not an easy thought system to grasp, even for those of us who have been studying it for years (I'm in my fifth year of study, now). The story behind A COURSE IN MIRACLES, how it was "scribed" and published, may be as startling as the Course theory itself (the Course is founded on the teaching that the world is an illusion made by the ego as an attack on God).

And that's why I love this book: it breaks down the story of A COURSE IN MIRACLES into a very understandable and simple history. The other book about the story behind the Course is ABSENCE FROM FELICITY by Kenneth Wapnick, and it is a wonderful book. But it is also very challenging and raises many spiritual, psychological, and theological themes in its retelling, so it is therefore a bit of "work" to get through. It, like all of Mr. Wapnick's book, is challenging. This book, JOURNEY WITHOUT DISTANCE, is purely linear and non-technical in its retelling. And is therefore not as "intimidating" as some of the other books on this fascinating subject.

For those who do not know, the title of this book is taken from the passage in A COURSE IN MIRACLES that refers to the journey to God as being, "a journey without distance to a goal that has never change." (Text of A COURSE IN MIRACLES, Ch. 8, paragraph 9, sentence 7)