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Helen Schucman

Helen Cohn Schucman (born Helen Dora Cohn, July 14, 1909 – February 9, 1981) was an American clinical psychologist and research psychologist. She was a professor of medical psychology at Columbia University in New York from 1958 until her retirement in 1976. Schucman is best known for having "scribed" with the help of colleague William Thetford the book A Course in Miracles (first edition, 1975),[1][2] the contents of which she claimed had been given to her by an inner voice she identified as Jesus. At her request, her role as its "writer" was not revealed to the general public until after her death.[3]

Helen Cohn Schucman
Born
Helen Dora Cohn

(1909-07-14)July 14, 1909
New York City, US
DiedFebruary 9, 1981(1981-02-09) (aged 71)
New York City, US
Occupation(s)Professor of medical psychology, Columbia University
Known forA Course In Miracles (ACIM)
SpouseLouis Schucman

Early life and education

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Schucman was born Helen Dora Cohn in 1909 to Sigmund Cohn,[4] a prosperous metallurgical chemist, and Rose Black, the daughter of a former rabbi from Germany. [5] They married on October 18, 1896, in Manhattan, and Schucman had an elder brother, Adolph Cohn,[6] who was almost 12 years her senior. Though her parents were both half-Jewish, they were non-observant. Schucman's mother Rose had an interest in Theosophy and various expressions of Christianity such as Christian Science and the Unity School of Christianity.

The family housekeeper, Idabel,[7] a Baptist, had the deepest religious influence on Schucman while she was growing up. In 1921, when she was 12, Schucman visited Lourdes, France, where she had a spiritual experience, and in 1922 she was baptized as a Baptist.[8] Later in life, she considered herself an atheist.[9]

She received her B.A. from New York University, where she met fellow student Louis Schucman in 1932. They married in a 10-minute ceremony at a local rabbi's office, on May 26, 1933. Louis owned one or more bookstores on "Book Row" in Manhattan,[10] and during the early years of their marriage Schucman worked at his main store. Growing restless in her early forties, she returned to NYU to study psychology. She received her M.A. in 1952, followed by her Ph.D. in 1957.[3][11]

Career

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A Course In Miracles (ACIM) Combined Volume

Schucman was a clinical and research psychologist, who held the tenured position of Associate Professor of Medical Psychology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. During her tenure at Columbia University, Schucman worked with William Thetford,[12] whom she first met in early 1958.

A Course in Miracles (ACIM) was "scribed" by Schucman between 1965 and 1972 through a process of inner dictation.[13] She experienced the process as one of a distinct and clear dictation from an inner voice, which earlier had identified itself to her as Jesus.[14] Her scribing of A Course in Miracles began with these words: "This is a course in miracles. Please take notes."[15]

Wouter Hanegraaff[16] distinguishes Schucman's process as a type of channeling that articulates revelation, clarifying that "in cases of inner dictation in which the medium hears a voice dictating messages, (s)he writes down [these messages] in a fully conscious state." Hanegraaff continues by specifically characterizing Schucman's case as spontaneous channeling, indicating that "[o]ver the years the voice proved to be remarkably consistent, stopping the dictation when interrupted [by Schucman's daily activities] and continuing at the next opportunity."[17] Hanegraaff also references specific dialogue between Schucman and William Thetford, citing author Robert E. Skutch,[18] among other authors, including Kenneth Wapnick, whom Hanegraaff cites as a good source for discussion of this subject.

During this time, Schucman worked in a collaborative venture with William Thetford in scribing A Course In Miracles (ACIM) and also with its initial edits.[15] The main transcription process took seven years, from 1965 to 1972, during which she took notes in shorthand, then each day read these notes to Thetford, who typed them out while she read them. After all the ACIM material had been initially transcribed it was edited for publication by Schucman and the other two primary editors, Thetford and Wapnick.

 
Cover of Absence from Felicity, Schucman's only biography

Schucman also wrote two supplemental ACIM pamphlets[19] by the same process as well as a collection of poetry later published as The Gifts of God. Following the transcription and editing, Schucman began to reduce the level of her direct involvement in ACIM and was never as heavily involved with teaching or popularizing the material as Thetford and Wapnick.

Death

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In 1980 Schucman was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. After a prolonged illness, she died of related complications at age 71 in 1981.[3]

Legacy

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A collection of her poems, The Gifts of God, was posthumously published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.[3]

Absence From Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles is the only biography of Schucman. It was written by her longtime friend, Kenneth Wapnick.

Wapnick later founded the Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM), an organization that claimed to hold a copyright to A Course In Miracles. Upon Wapnick's death in 2013, the purported copyright to A Course In Miracles reverted to the Foundation For Inner Peace (FIP).

Writings

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  • Schucman, Helen (1960). Evaluating the educability of the severely mentally retarded child. American Psychological Association. OCLC 62427139.
  • Schucman, Helen (June 1972). The Retarded Child from Birth to Five: A Multidisciplinary Program for the Child and Family. John Day Co. ISBN 978-0-381-98127-3. OCLC 303564.
  • Schucman, Helen (1989). The Gifts of God. Berkeley: Celestial Arts. ISBN 0-89087-585-5. (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)

Notes

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  1. ^ The first edition of A Course in Miracles was published in 1975 as a 4-volume set of books. Vol. 1 contains Chapters 1-14 of the "Text" section of the Course, Vol. 2 contains Chapters 15-30 of the "Text" section, Vol. 3 contains the "Workbook" section, and Vol. 4 contains the "Teacher's Manual" section. The Foundation for Parasensory Investigation, founded and run by Judith Skutch and her second husband, Robert E. Skutch, published the first edition of the Course and also held the 1975 copyright to the work. The Freeperson Press, a small, privately owned printing/publishing company at 325 Ninth Street in San Francisco, California, did the actual printing and binding of the first edition. The edition published by the Foundation for Inner Peace claims that the course "was published in three volumes in June 1976". The first edition consisted of 300 sets of the four-volume Course. These 300 sets were printed and bound over several months in 1975 by the Freeperson Press. Eleanor Camp Criswell, the press's owner/manager, was in charge of the printing and binding, and it has become customary to call the first edition the "Criswell edition" or the "Freeperson Press edition". Criswell printed only 100 sets of Course at a time as they were needed for sale and distribution, so the first edition is actually three separate printings of the books. The "first printing" of the first edition, consisting of the first 100 four-volume sets Criswell printed, were bound in yellow covers. The "second printing", consisting of the next 100 sets she printed, were bound in white covers. The "third printing", consisting of the final 100 sets she printed, were bound in blue covers. By February 1976, all 300 sets of the Criswell edition had been sold and/or distributed. Judith (born Judith M. Rothstein) married Robert Edward Skutch in 1966 (it was Judith's second marriage), but they divorced (on friendly terms) in 1980. Later in the 1980s, Judith Skutch married William Wallace "Whit" Whitson and became known as Judith Skutch Whitson. Eleanor Camp Criswell became known as Eleanor Criswell Hanna [Wikidata] after her marriage to philosopher Thomas Louis Hanna in 1974. Thomas L. Hanna was the originator of Hanna Somatics, aka Hanna Somatic Education. In 1975 Thomas and Eleanor co-founded the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training in Novato, California.
  2. ^ A complete copy of the first edition of the Course is online at http://openacim.org
  3. ^ a b c d "Biography". Archived from the original on 2011-09-05. Retrieved 2011-07-29.
  4. ^ Sigmund Cohn was a prosperous metallurgical chemist, born in New York City. He died in February 1951, and was cremated on February 4 at the Ferncliff Crematorium on the grounds of the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum (Hartsdale, Westchester County, New York). Sigmund Cohn began his business career by partnering with David Belais in 1901 to form Belais & Cohn, at 13 Dutch Street, near the Financial District in lower Manhattan. When Belais & Cohn dissolved in 1917, Belais remained at 13 Dutch Street and, partnering with his brother Henry Belais, resumed business under the name Belais Brothers. Belais Brothers went out of business in 1929. Shortly after the dissolution of Belais & Cohn in 1917, Cohn moved to 44 Gold Street (about 2 blocks east of 13 Dutch Street) and resumed his business under the name Sigmund Cohn Manufacturing Company Inc. Over the years this company (whose main office was at 44 Gold Street at least from 1919 to 1950) became very successful and expanded to become several different companies, in different states. The parent company, which relocated to Mount Vernon, New York, now operates under the name the Sigmund Cohn Corporation. From the beginning of his career in 1901, Cohn was engaged primarily in the business of platinum refining and in the manufacture of precious metal platinum alloys for the jewelry industry. In the 1900-1925 period, the jewelry industry was by far the largest consumer of platinum alloys. As of 2013, the corporation, via its several companies, specializes in manufacturing precious and base metal products, and supplies approximately 20 different industries, including aerospace, defense, medical devices, semiconductors, temperature measurement and control, automotive components, jewelry, and electronics. After Sigmund Cohn's death, his son Adolph Cohn became President and Director of Research of the Sigmund Cohn Corporation. The current President and CEO of Sigmund Cohn Corporation is Thomas A. Cohn, a great-grandson of Sigmund. For additional documentation on the history of Belais & Cohn and the Sigmund Cohn Manufacturing Company Inc., see http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?page=1&xmldoc=19478716gztcm865_1664.xml&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-1985&SizeDisp=7 - Cohn v. Commissioner 6 T.C.M. 865 (1947) (Sigmund Cohn v. Commissioner. Docket No. 9659. United States Tax Court. Entered July 18, 1947)
  5. ^ Rose (or Rosa) Black was born in Cairo, Illinois, to Simon Black (Block) and Amelia ("Minna" or "Minnie") Holzstein (Holdstein, Holstein or Hollstin). She was cremated on April 4, 1944, at the Ferncliff Crematorium on the grounds of the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum (Hartsdale, Westchester County, New York). According to U. S. Census records, Simon Black was born in Germany in August 1827/1828, and immigrated to the United States in 1861. He and Minna Holzstein married in New York City. Minna died on January 30, 1897, in Manhattan. Simon Black was trained as a rabbi, and it is known that he acted in that capacity while living in England.
  6. ^ Adolph Cohn was cremated on October 31, 1984, at Ferncliff Crematorium.
  7. ^ For a detailed account of the relationship between Schucman and Idabel, see Journey Without Distance - The Story Behind A Course in Miracles (Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 1984), by Robert Skutch, pp. 19-21.
  8. ^ com/helen-schucman Helen Schucman – the reluctant author of ACIM[permanent dead link‍]
  9. ^ "MARIANne's FAITHFUL | Vanity Fair | June 1991".
  10. ^ Louis Schucman specialized in selling Americana and used and/or rare books. After 1935 he maintained several bookstores on "Book Row" in Manhattan, both upstairs and on the street level. "Book Row" was an area of Manhattan consisting of a certain part of Broadway and the section of Fourth Avenue between 9th and 14th Streets. Louis was a member of the Fourth Avenue Booksellers Association, whose membership in its heyday included 21 booksellers. In 1953 his main bookstore, Louis Schucman Bookseller, was at 77 Fourth Avenue. Louis retired from the bookselling business in 1993, at which time he sold his entire inventory to Pennsylvania State University. See Marvin Mondlin, Roy Meador & Madeleine B. Stern - Book Row: An Anecdotal and Pictorial History of the Antiquarian Book Trade (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2004; [Berkeley, CA]: Distributed by Publishers Group West) for information on Louis Schucman and his various bookstores in Manhattan.
  11. ^ The Scribe
  12. ^ William Newton Thetford (April 25, 1923 - July 4, 1988)
  13. ^ Wapnick, Kenneth (1991). Absence from Felicity
  14. ^ Wapnick, Kenneth (1991). Absence from Felicity, pp. 97-131.
  15. ^ a b "The Scribing of "A Course in Miracles"". Foundation for Inner Peace. Retrieved 2010-01-27.
  16. ^ Wouter Jacobus Hanegraaff (born on April 10, 1961) - Full professor of the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and President of ESSWE (European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism). He is the editor of Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, and is the author of several books, including New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought (Leiden: Brill, 1996).
  17. ^ Hanegraaff, WJ. (1996). New Age Religion and Western Culture. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. 24, 30. ISBN 0-7914-3854-6.
  18. ^ Skutch, Robert (2001) [1984]. Journey Without Distance: the story behind "A Course in Miracles". Celestial Arts. ISBN 978-1-58761-108-7.
  19. ^ Supplements to A Course in Miracles: 1. Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice 2. The Song of Prayer. Viking Adult. 1996. ISBN 0-670-86994-5.

References

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  • Robert Skutch (1996). Journey Without Distance: the story behind "A Course in Miracles". Mill Valley: Foundation for Inner Peace. ISBN 1-883360-02-1. (discusses the pre-publication history of ACIM)
  • Kenneth Wapnick (1999). Absence from Felicity: the story of Helen Schucman and her scribing of "A Course in Miracles" (2nd ed.). New York: Foundation for A Course in Miracles. ISBN 0-933291-08-6. (discusses Helen Schucman and the pre-publication history of ACIM)
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