Helen Schucman
Helen Schucman, Ph.D. (
July 14,
1909â€"
February 9,
1981) was a research psychologist from New York City. Raised by
Jewish but non-religious parents, Schucman had always had an interest in religion. From 1958 through 1976 she was a professor of
medical psychology at
Columbia University in New York.
Helen Schucman is credited as co-author of
The Retarded Child from Birth to Five : A Multidisciplinary Program for the Child and Family [
1]. In his book
Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles, Kenneth Wapnick claims that
Mother Teresa once requested that Helen Schucman work with retarded children Mother Teresa's Indian foundation. Helen Schucman is quoted as not accepting the offer.
During her tenure at Columbia University, Schucman worked with
William Thetford PhD. It was while working at Columbia University with Thetford that Schucman began to write, or "
scribe", the document that would later be published as
A Course in Miracles. [
2]
The main transcription process took seven years, from
1965 through
1972, during which time she would take down the notes in shorthand, then each day read back these notes to
William Thetford, a colleague at Columbia, who would type them out while she read them. After all the ACIM material had been initially transcribed it was then edited for publication by Dr. Schucman and the other two primary editors,
Dr. William Thetford and Dr. Kenneth Wapnick.
|
Cover of Absence from Felicity, Schucman's only biography |
Schucman also
scribed two supplemental ACIM pamphlets
via this same process and took down a collection of inspired poetry later published as
The Gifts of God [ (contains 114 poems that share the spiritual content of the Course as well as the prose poem "The Gifts of God," which summarizes the teachings of the Course)]. Following the transcription and editing, Schucman began to reduce the level of her direct involvement in the ACIM related effort, and was never as heavily involved with teaching or popularizing the material, as were editors, Bill Thetford and Kenneth Wapnick.
In a manner which is highly atypical for such a prolific modern American 'scribe', Schucman did not seem to turn her experiences into any significant financial advantage, nor did she cultivate personal celebrity.
In 1980 Schucman was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. After a prolonged illness, Helen Schucman died of related complications at age 71 in 1981.
Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles is the only biography of Helen Schucman. It was written by Kenneth Wapnick, longtime friend of Schucman who aided in the editing of
A Course In Miracles. After Schucman's death, Wapnick founded the
Foundation for A Course in Miracles, the organization that holds the copyright to
A Course In Miracles.
*
Course In Miracles*
Dr. William Thetford*
Jesus Christ as source of "A Course In Miracles"* (discusses the pre-publication history of ACIM)
* (discusses Helen Schucman and the pre-publication history of ACIM)
