Starting this morning (June 17, 2023) Lyn Johnson and Bruce Rawles will share weekly Saturday morning conversations (7:30 am Pacific Time) on ACIM Gather online radio. We’ll read from and talk about Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles by by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D. Unlike most of the brilliant books by Ken Wapnick, this book is primarily a biography, yet intersperses her personal (fascinating) account with countless insights about ACIM’s metaphysics. Helen’s story is really everyone’s story in the sense that we all have enormous resistance to accepting the Truth of our real, inclusive Identity. Helen once said (about the Course that came through her) “I know it’s true, I just don’t believe it.” Judy Skutch Whitson (the original publisher of the Course) eivdently responded to Helen upon hearing this remark that perhaps the remark should have been “I know it’s true, I just won’t believe it.” This resistance is what we’re all working through with help from our Inner Kindness Teacher.
Here is the Amazon description of the book:
“This biography of Helen Schucman—the scribe of A Course in Miracles, dictated by Jesus—focuses on the lifetime conflict between her spiritual nature and her ego, and the relationship of this conflict to her scribing of the Course. The book includes extensive excerpts from Helen’s own recollections, the personal messages she received from Jesus, and her dreams and letters—all never before in print. Presented here as well is some of the personal instructional material from Jesus. This material constituted an integral part of the original dictation of the Course, which was later removed as directed by Jesus.Absence from Felicity highlights the process of the Course’s scribing, Helen’s personal experiences of Jesus, and her relationship with William Thetford, her close friend and psychologist-colleague at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, as well as her collaborator in the scribing of A Course in Miracles. The last part of the book contains reminiscences of Helen by Kenneth Wapnick, the author, which draw upon his intimate relationship with the scribe that spanned the last eight years of her life. Finally, in the context of Helen’s experiences, there is a discussion of Jesus which focuses on the appearance and the reality of our relationship with him.”
You can listen live to our conversations on Saturday mornings here on ACIM Gather online radio. Here is the new ACIM Gather YouTube Streaming channel. Enjoy! :-)
Here is a post about our prior (three-and-a-half-year) conversations on ACIM Gather about another of Ken’s masterpiece books: The Journey Home.
Here’s a sample of our “Absence From Felicity” conversations: