Description: A
Course in Miracles/Attitudinal Therapy is the alleged regulation or
maintenance of physical, mental, and/or spiritual "health" by learning
"proper" mental attitudes. For example, A Course in Miracles is a
daily, one-year New Age occult devotional, allegedly revealed by Jesus
Christ Himself who claims He will personally, divinely inspire readers
to "complete the atonement." The main purpose here is to help readers
live daily "miracles," i. e., to experience daily spiritual growth
toward the restructuring of one’s perceptions about one’s self and the
world. This involves revising one’s worldview into conformity with a New
Age, Hindu belief, and the simultaneous unlearning and undermining of
the "evil" beliefs of orthodox Christianity.
Founder: The examples
cited in [The Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs] were received
through spiritistic revelations by the late atheistic psychologist Helen
Schucman and the late well-known channeler Jane Roberts.
How does it claim to work?
Because the spirit, mind, and body are interrelated, "proper" mental
attitudes may influence the entire person toward desired spiritual,
psychological, and/or physical goals.
Scientific evaluation:
The claims of New Age Attitudinal Therapy have never been demonstrated.
Examples of occult potential:
Adopting New Age philosophy; altered states of consciousness;
encountering spiritistic revelations and contacts.
Major problem: Mental
attitudes are gradually restructured to harmonize with a New Age/spiritistic
worldview.
Biblical/Christian
evaluation: The forms of Attitudinal Therapy examined in [The
Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs] are from medium Jane Roberts’
The Nature of Personal Reality, and the three-volume text, A
Course in Miracles. These materials comprise occult revelations, and
were produced by means that the Bible forbids. (Deuteronomy 18:9-12)
Cultivating occult or unbiblical attitudes toward life is not in harmony
with scriptural purposes but is spiritually dangerous.
For example, the Bible
teaches the opposite of what the Course teaches on almost every
subject. To illustrate, Scripture teaches, "All are not workers of
miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healings, do they?" (1
Corinthians 12:29-30, NASB) But the Course teaches that everyone
is a worker of miracles and a spiritual healer. However, the basic
purpose of these "miracles" is to unlearn orthodox Christianity,
especially the belief in Christ’s atonement for sin. When Course
users "participate in the atonement" they learn they are not separate
from God, but one essence with Him. The introduction and chapter 1 of
Course declare, "This is a course in miracles. It is a required
course….Miracles are everyone’s right….Each day should be devoted to
miracles….Miracles rearrange perception….Miracles enable you to heal the
sick and raise the dead because you made sickness and death yourself,
and can therefore abolish both….This places you under the atonement
principle where perception is healed. Until this has occurred, knowledge
of the Divine Order is impossible….When the Atonement has been
completed…every member of the family of God [all humanity] must return
[into God]….A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really
need to correct….This is a course in mind training" (pages 1-13)
Potential dangers: The
adopting of occult philosophy and practice in the guise of physical,
mental, and spiritual enlightenment or health, leading to physical,
psychological or spiritual problems.
