Living a Course in Miracles

About the Study Group

Our 18-month A Course in Miracles study group offers a gentle, structured journey through the Text, working through its teachings in manageable weekly units. We meet every Sunday evening from 7.30 to 9.00 pm (UK time) to read, reflect, and share insights in a supportive and contemplative space. Whether you're new to the Course or returning to it with fresh eyes, this group provides a steady rhythm for deepening your understanding and practice. Once you register, you’ll receive the full reading schedule so you can follow along at your own pace and prepare for each session.

We use the Complete and Annotated Edition (CE)—available in print or as a free app—which is ideally suited for an intensive study of the Course. This edition includes expansions, additional essays, and extensive footnotes that enrich the text’s meaning and help to explain the more challenging aspects. You can learn more about the Complete and Annotated Edition here.

You are welcome to join the study group at any point in our 18-month cycle. While A Course in Miracles does progress through its ideas, each section we study together forms a complete movement from problem to solution. The Course is a holographic and hyperlinked text—it reveals itself more fully over time, through repeated engagement and reflection. No single reading is ever final, and each return brings new insights. Whether you’re just beginning or have been studying for years, you’ll find that the discussions remain accessible and enriching, no matter when you start.

Practicalities

• We will begin each meeting at 7:30 pm UK time (please double-check the time zone conversion for your location). You’re welcome to join a little early for some quiet preparation or meditation time, and you will be let in from the waiting room at 7.30 pm. If you arrive after we’ve started, please enter with your microphone muted.
• To support a sense of presence and connection, please keep your video on whenever possible. If you’re moving around or in a distracting environment, feel free to switch it off temporarily.
• During the discussion, we encourage you to use Zoom’s ‘raise hand’ feature. This allows you to stay fully present with the person speaking without worrying about when or how to join the conversation.
• Please be mindful of how much airtime you take. If you tend to share often, you might pause and ask, ‘What is this for?’ Is it serving your own needs or supporting the learning of the group? Is it on topic and aligned with our shared purpose?
• Out of respect for others, please be fully present during the meeting. Avoid multitasking, and keep your microphone muted when not speaking—especially if there’s background noise.

How to Study the Course

A Course in Miracles is a modern spiritual classic, originally scribed by Helen Schucman and later expanded in the Complete and Annotated Edition (CE) by the Circle of Atonement. The Course is a path of inner transformation based on the principle that ‘Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.’

Studying the Course is less about mastering content and more about undergoing a transformation in perception. The material works on multiple levels—cognitive, emotional, and spiritual—and its impact deepens over time. Below are some suggestions to help you engage meaningfully with the Course:

1. Keep a Guidance Journal

Treat your journal as a sacred companion to your study. Use it to track both intellectual and emotional responses:

• Capture key insights that arise while reading the assigned Text portion. Often, a single phrase will strike a chord—write it down and explore why.
• Notice resistance. Record moments when you feel frustrated, sceptical, or confused. These are often openings for deep inner work.
• Write dialogue. Consider using your journal as a space to write letters to your Inner Teacher or to ‘listen’ for internal guidance.
• Track transformation. Over time, you may begin to notice shifts in how you think, relate, or respond to others. These subtle changes are worth noting and celebrating.

2. Read with Receptivity

Approach the Course not as a textbook, but as a living transmission:

• Let go of urgency. The Course is dense and sometimes paradoxical. If a passage feels impenetrable, read it slowly, and let its meaning unfold naturally.
• Suspend disbelief. You don't need to agree with every word to benefit from the process. Simply reading with openness allows the ideas to work subtly on the mind.
• Practice presence. Try reading aloud or subvocalizing, bringing full awareness to each sentence. The cadence of the language is part of its effect.

3. Contemplate Rather Than Analyse

The Course is aimed at the heart as much as the intellect. Its teachings are experiential and often meant to bypass habitual thought structures:

• Pause often. When something resonates, stop. Let it echo inside you. Re-read it. Let it become a point of meditation.
• Let go of needing to ‘understand’. The Course speaks frequently of unlearning. Rather than interpreting everything conceptually, notice how it makes you feel or what it reveals in your current state of mind.
• Try sitting with paradox. Many of the Course’s teachings seem contradictory at first (e.g., “I need do nothing” vs. daily practice). Let the tension between opposites work within you.

4. Apply the Teachings in Daily Life

This is not a theoretical course—it is a training in the art of perception, to be practised moment by moment:

• Watch your mind. Notice when you feel irritated, afraid, or defensive. These are moments the Course calls opportunities for healing.
• Ask for a new interpretation. When confronted by conflict or judgment, pause and ask internally: How would the Holy Spirit have me see this?
• Make it practical. You can bring a single idea into your day—“I am never upset for the reason I think,” for example—and let it guide your responses.
• Remember the core principle: choose love over fear. Every situation becomes a chance to return to this choice, however quietly and inwardly.

5. Honour Your Own Pace

The Course is not meant to be rushed:

• Let yourself digest. Some students spend years on a single pass through the Workbook; others return to it again and again. Trust the rhythm that feels right for you.
• Don’t compare. Everyone’s journey with the Course is unique. What matters is your willingness, not your progress.
• Allow rest and integration. Sometimes you may feel like stepping back from the text for a while. This can be part of the process. The Course works in unseen ways even when it’s not being actively read.

Ultimately, A Course in Miracles is about undoing the thought system of fear and reclaiming the inner peace that has always been yours. Study it gently, with curiosity and humility. Its teaching is not something you master—it is something that meets you where you are and leads you, step by step, to a deeper experience of love.