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A Course in Miracles was “scribed” by Dr Helen Schucman through a procedure of inner dictation that she identified as via Jesus. A medical and research psychologist and tenured Associate Professor of Medical Psychology, she was assisted by Dr William Thetford, her department head, who had been also a tenured Professor of Medical Psychology at the Medical Center where they both worked. Just what, then, is A Course in Miracles? The summary from its Introduction, which appears on page one of many Text, is quite succinct and brief but describes its core teaching perfectly. It reads:

Anyone at all can take advantage of A Course in Miracles. One doesn't have to be an intellectual to learn as a result and use it as a spiritual path. Nonetheless, it is written on a high intellectual level with sophisticated metaphysical, theological, and psychological concepts integrated into the teaching through the three books. A lot of it's written in blank verse.

Thus, a reader/student who's not intellectually inclined and has no background in these areas might have difficulty understanding a great deal of the material. This does not mean, though, that such a person couldn't be helped by read­ing through it and doing the exercises in the workbook. If the individual comes from the Course being kinder, more loving and reassured of God's Love, and less angry, depressed, and fearful, then its purpose has been fulfilled. On the other hand, there has been many highly educated people have been incapable of relate genuinely to the Course at all. They'll find another path considerably better to their needs and inclinations.

The Course says of itself that it's only one amongst many tens and thousands of other kinds of the universal course (M.1.4). It doesn't need to be for everyone. Some religions have claimed that theirs is the only real true religion, the only way to be reconciled with God. A Course in Miracles isn't among them. Rather, the clear implication through the entire Course is that people could eventually locate a path that will lead them to God. It doesn't need to be this one.

Finally, the structure and flow of the writing can be likened more to a symphony with themes introduced, reserve, reintroduced, and developed than to the linear progression of ideas usually present in an aca­demic textbook, which systematically increases in complexity. This results in a interlocking matrix in which all is integral and necessary to the entire, while implicitly containing that whole within itself.

Thus, the same material consistently recurs, both within the Course as a thought system in addition to in the educational opportunities in our personal lives. The procedure of learning, therefore, resembles the ascent up a spiral staircase, with the reader led in a circular pattern, each revolution leading higher until the the top of spiral is reached, which opens unto God. The lovely rhythm of blank verse in a lot of the text enhances the impact of recurring themes.