Calendar
Introduction to A Course in Miracles- Workbook for Students
Editorial Forward to the ACIM Workbook Section
I've been a student of A Course in Miracles (ACIM) since 1989. Still, the many unexpected and astonishing ways that The Course works in my life, never cease to amaze me.
Reasons for Uploading This Edition of ACIM. I was first motivated to HTML-ize and upload this version of ACIM onto the internet for three reasons, one very selfish reason, one legal reason, and one very practical reason. The selfish reason was that modern technology had finally bestowed upon me a cell phone that could actually browse the web. The legal reason is that the the Criswell edition of ACIM was finally released into the public domain ca: October of 2003. The practical reason was because as of January 1, 2005, it appeared that the only other person (or people) to have done this so far was Chuck Anderson of Endeavor Academy of Wisconsin.
Where the Graphics Came From. Sometime in February I noticed that some others had also started the same project, namely Tom Fox and Carmen Cameron who posted their uploaded version at http://acim.home.att.net, which I will refer to as the Criswell/ ATT Site. I am calling it this due to the fact that they used the Criswell edition of ACIM as their source material. You may notice that my site is quite similar to their site. This is because I liked their header graphic and angel graphic so much that I asked them if I could use them here, to which they most graciously agreed. You may also notice that there are some significant differences between the Criswell/ ATT site and this site as well.
Copyright Considerations. In so far as the workbook is concerned, it appears that all significant copyright restrictions have been removed from this, thus, this was my first project at uploading ACIM. There appears to be almost no difference between the Criswell edition and the Standard 2nd edition, but that is a matter that I have yet to study further.
Study Planning Guides, Notes, Bolding and Links Added. In order to make my own study easier, I have made some minor formatting modifications to the Criswell edition of ACIM. As could only be expected, no changes to the original text, whatsoever have been made. As such, in order to distinguish the edition of the Workbook found on this site from the original Criswell edition, from this point onwards I will refer to the edition found on this site as the Criswell/ Miracle Vision Online edition with Study Planning Guides. Bolding and italicizing have been added wherever it seemed that they might be most helpful. Just as in the original Criswell edition, the Criswell/ Miracle Vision Online edition does not have the complete numbering system as found in the standard printed edition of the Workbook. Some more significant additions found in the Criswell/ Miracle Vision Online edition are as follows:
- A Calendarized Link Page Added. A 'calendarized'-index of all lessons and related texts was made. See the 2005 Calendar Index of Days. In laying out this calendar, all portions of the Workbook were assigned to one study day or another. These assignments were made based on the most logical study pattern that seemed apparent in the intention of the author. Hopefully this calendar will be updated each year and future Course Students in future years will always have a handy online calendar to reference, if they happen to be studying the Course on a calendar year basis.
- Beginning of Day Notes, End of Day Notes, and Connector Links Added. As a result of assigning study days for each of the various parts of the Workbook, one further study aid was decided upon. While on the majority of the study days, a student of the Course can normally find the correct reading material for the day by simply looking up the lesson with a lesson number for the given day, this is not always the case. If a student of the Course were to find all of his or her day's reading material only by doing this, that student would then arbitrarily skip over all of the Introductions, which accounts for nearly 5% of the study material. Also, by skipping the introductions, such a student would not be able to properly study Part II of the Workbook as instructed in the Introduction to Part II of the Workbook. In order to make it easier for students to assure that the entire Workbook is studied, and no introductions skipped over, three more things were added to the workbook material. These were:
- A brief notice was inserted at the beginning of each study day's material that reads: (beginning day N), where N is the number of the calendar day for that day's lesson.
- At the end of each day's study material, a second notice was inserted that reads: (end day N).
- On any days where more study material than simply that day's lesson must be studied, connecting links have been strategically inserted between all sections that are recommended for study on that given day.
The goal of these additions is to make the study of the ACIM Workbook simpler and more intuitive, and to assure that by following these simple notices and links, no section of the Workbook might accidentally be skipped over by a student.
- Study Planning Guides Added. Twenty-two 'Study Planning Guides' have been added directly ahead of every Introduction section, forewarning the student to budget his or her time accordingly on the following day. For a sample of a typical 'Study Planning Guide', you can see the First Review - Preparation 'Study Planning Guide'. These are intended to enable students to more easily budget for, and schedule, their study periods in advance. These 'Study Planning Guides' make the logical assumption that the original intention of the author was that the Introductions to the various sections are best read on the days that those sections are first begun, rather than on some other day.
- 'Special Thought' Cross-Links Added. In Part II of the Workbook, certain cross-links were added wherever it seemed that these might enable the student to more easily follow the study pattern recommended by the author. These 'Special Thought' cross links refer the student back to the various earlier 'Special Thoughts' that the Course has recommended for students to review throughout this part of the Workbook. For more information about this, see Workbook- Part II- Study Guide.
All Study Planning Guide Additions Clearly Marked as Such. All such additions as listed above are clearly annotated as editorial editions, in order to make absolutely certain that no confusion might occur about which portions come from which sources or editors. It is my belief that since the 2003 release of the Criswell edition of ACIM into the public domain, it becomes a solemn responsibility and duty of anyone who would seek to add to this extraordinary text in any way, to make certain that any such additions are always and everywhere clearly noted as such.
One inescapable correction of grammar was made in lesson #130. The correction changed the sentence: "Who can desire what he does not want to have reality?" to the sentence:
"Who can desire that he does not want to have reality?"
For more information about the recent release of The Criswell edition into the public domain, you can visit the Foundation for Inner Peace.All comments, suggestions, typo errors found, or offers to help with any of this work, getting ACIM onto the Internet, are gratefully accepted at acimwebmasters@miraclevision.com.
Scott Perry 6/20/05
