Only a handful of individuals were aware of A Course in Miracles® when Bill Whitson and Judy Skutch, President of The Foundation for Inner Peace launched the Course in Australia at a series of lectures in May 1980. They told the fascinating story of the scribe Helen Schucman and her collaborator Bill Thetford and the incredible events leading up to and during the scribing of the Course. It seemed to us in those early days that the strange manner the Course was received and Helen's unwillingness to have her name associated with A Course in Miracles® seemed to give it a mystical nature and add credibility to the material. While Bill Thetford was quiet, reserved and reticent to talk about the Course, his gentle nature appealed to most who met him. However most of the stories about Helen told by subsequent teachers of the Course in the early days were of a negative nature, suggesting that she was a very unlikable person who could not bear fools easily and who was coerced into scribing the Course by Jesus almost against her will.

In 1985 Pam and I were visiting Judy Skutch at her home in Tiburon while some of the filming of "The Story of A Course in Miracles®" was being shot. (See insert right showing Bill.Judy & Ken) the movie's Producer, Bridget Winter on leave from the BBC was feeling very frustrated at the differing perceptions of Helen held by people who had known her well, such was the complicated nature of her personality. In a way, Helen represented a larger than life version of each one of us. She experienced both a very powerful ego wishing for recognition of her academic achievements and yet she had a firm commitment to do the job she had agreed to do for Jesus while insisting that her being a scribe of A Course in Miracles® be kept a secret, lest it would jeopardize her prestigious position at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Stories about her militant atheism (which was a remark she once made about herself) just didn't seem to fit with her poignant poems later published in "The Gifts of God.

This new book by Ken Wapnick attempts at last to put the record straight with a balanced biography on the life of Helen Schucman. Ken concentrates mainly on the events prior to the completion and final editing of the Course and does not dwell much on the events following Judy Skutch's entry to the scene. These events have been chronicled more fully in the video "The Story of A Course in Miracles®" and in the popular book by Bob Skutch "A Journey without Distance"

Many Miracle students have known for some time about the existence of Helen's writings and messages from Jesus other than published in A Course in Miracles® but because of their personal nature it was also known that publication could not be possible while the co-scribe, Bill Thetford was still alive. Apart from the helpful advice Helen received about their individual spiritual pathways there are many suggestions to how their own difficult relationship with each other could be healed. This is the first time these writings have been published and they give an insight into the minds of the two scribes. The advice given them by Jesus over this period was always totally loving and at the same time practical.

While much in this book deals with Ken's respect and love for Helen and his fond memories of their time together, he does not fall into the trap of painting her as a saint. Nor does he attempt to hide the fears and anxieties both Helen and Bill experienced or gloss over the fact that despite their efforts they were unable to completely heal their very difficult relationship with each other. Despite this apparent failure on the surface, there seemed to be a much stronger 'attraction of Love for Love' on a deeper level that consistently drew them to each other. The letters and messages quoted in the book showed a deep caring for each other's welfare and acknowledgment of the importance for the work they had committed themselves to do together. They had the utmost respect for each other's role and persisted in completing the painstakingly long job of giving birth to A Course in Miracles®. It seemed as though Jesus could both see the full extent of their difficult special relationship problems and yet at the same time see them as they truly were.

Insert (Ken and Gloria Wapnick on their visit to Australia)

"You do not realize how much you hate each other. You will not get rid of this until you do realize it, for until then, you will think you want to get rid of each other and keep the hatred. Yet if you are each other's salvation, what can this mean except that you prefer attack to salvation? Be glad that neither your reality nor your salvation is a matter of your preference, for you have much cause for joy, But that cause is not of your making is surely obvious. You do hate and fear each other, and your love which is very real is obscured by it. How can you know the meaning of love unless it is total." Special message from Jesus to Helen "Absence From Felicity" p. 309

I was particularly interested in advice from Jesus on living their daily lives. He reminded them (and us) that even though this entire world is an illusion we all have worldly responsibilities in this lifetime to which we should be faithful. This is the classroom we have chosen to learn the lessons of forgiveness. It was also interesting that most of Helen's predictions she believed she received from Jesus never eventuated. This is not really surprising since we were given our free will by God and as the Course says the time we take to wake up is up to us.

This book answers many questions about the scribing and the personalities of the two scribes involved. The advice they received to the specific events going on at that time is equally applicable to us all. All in all, it is a most important book which I am sure will become 'required reading' for most enthusiastic Miracle students.

Helen and I shared a deep love for one another, and for Jesus in whose love we knew we were joined, and on behalf of whose Course we had come together. It is my prayer that I am able to convey that love in these pages. In the words that Beethoven inscribed over the opening measures of his choral masterpiece Missa Solemnis: 'From the heart, may it go to the heart."

From the rear cover of 'Absence from Felicity' by the Author

Bill McDonald