Ever since we started importing the books and producing Miracle Link in 1981, we have been receiving calls from intending students of the Course. During that time we have observed, particularly over recent years, that the first question people ask is "Where can I go to learn "A Course in Miracles®" not "How can I start on "A Course in Miracles®"
Our response is to tell them firstly, that A Course in Miracles® is not something you go to do in a class but a set of three books, the most popular version of which is now bound in one single publication. We inform them that it is primarily a self-study Course which is extremely personal and which requires deep, soul searching inner work. We tell them it is not for the half hearted, nor is it easy. We do not tell them that by its study all will be rosy and they will float through life without a care getting everything they always wanted. Sure, there is an initial period of joy when we discover all our worries stem from our unforgivenesses and we learn that we can do something about those problems now. It is a great relief to realize that this world is meaningless and "Nothing I see means anything" and everything does seem to go better during this 'honeymoon period'. However our blocks, like everybody else's in this world, are all carefully hidden. They are more self serving and seemingly awful than we could possibly imagine, but the practicing of this incredibly powerful mind changing process will surely bring them up for us to see.
YOU WILL NOT LIKE IT, but with the Holy Spirit and Jesus' help you will look at these and eventually let them go. You will find that the person you think you are has nothing to do with who you really are: A loved Son of God who is total light and love and in no need of any healing at all.

Is there a role for groups?

The possibility of discussion groups occurring never entered the heads of the original Foundation for Inner Peace board members when getting ready to publish the books. Nor did Jesus suggest that this would happen. But happen it did, starting from the initial board members who you could say made up the first discussion group. This was followed soon after, when the staff at the printers of the books, at their own instigation, formed a group within the printing company. Almost immediately in the New York area and in California then extending throughout the US, Canada, Australia and all over the world, discussion groups began to form mostly in student's homes with 7 or 8 people attending. The Foundation noted this trend, and since it was happening, felt it must have been needed, at least initially in those formative early years. They also did not think it was their role to advocate any procedures for running such groups. In the late seventies and even more so the early eighties, Miracle discussion groups propagated all over the US and Australia and other places. Some were dedicated to the Course while others were a mishmash of other pathways and new age concepts mixed in with the teachings of the Course (which is absolutely nothing like anything else.)
We learned all about groups on the job by running one ourselves for 9 consecutive years together with several intensive classes. We also had the opportunity of attending over 50 groups in the US in 1985 and almost as many in Australia. It has been my observation that discussion groups were primarily social events and as such, they are usually very nice experiences. But sometimes they are not, as tempers can get strained when egos differ with another's interpretation. Why should they be any different to the rest of this ego world?

Teaching love is the only aim.

We can often learn and teach more by demonstrating to others in the group how we deal with differing opinions than we can by forcing our interpretation on to them. We must also keep in mind that the second hand information we receive from others or give to others in group situations may, or may not be, correct for other students in different stages of their understanding. We can never know on our own what is right for each individual. Only Jesus and the Holy Spirit are aware of each individual's requirements that may be different in form although never in content.
"There is, however, no set pattern, since training is always highly individualized." Man p. 26/27
Some feel so comfortable being with people discussing these concepts of love and forgiveness, that all they want to do is to be with Course students forever which is just another subtle form of spiritual specialness. The main risk is that we may believe that we can learn the course by going to a group, thereby avoiding the all important and often painful personal inner work. It would not be a very profound course if to learn it required that we live somewhere where we could gain access to a group nearby and those who didn't, would be denied salvation.
No one can fail to learn this Course if they have a little willingness to ask for help from within. I knew nothing of groups for the first nine months and often agonized over passages I could not understand. Sometimes I could not grasp the meaning of what I was reading but because of what I sensed I had in my hands and I hoped I was right, I pressed on regardless, feeling that I would understand those difficult passages at a later date when I was ready to accept them. There were many times when I asked for help to understand certain statements and often maybe the next day, while in the shower not even thinking about the Course, I would receive the explanation in my head that would totally satisfy me as the truth for at least that particular time in my mind training program. I found out later that the Course seems to grow as we grow and becomes deeper and deeper as we become more willing to accept its teaching.
"Of all the messages you have received and failed to understand, this course alone is open to your understanding and can be understood" Text p. 437 /469
Like everything we do, the main question we should truly ask is "What for" If our sole aim is to help our brother and by doing so, learn the Course ourselves there is no reason it should not be a rewarding pursuit. If on the other hand we form or go to a group for ego reasons in an atmosphere of specialness, then most likely it will not satisfy us for long and could in fact delay our progress.
This is not to say people should not start groups or attend them. That nine years in which we ran a discussion group in our home was invaluable in our own learning and a most rewarding time for us both. In a teaching role we often learn more than we teach.
If we take the Course to its ultimate abstractness, there isn't anybody to teach except myself.

The Skilled Facilitator

The longer we work with the Course the more abstract the thought system becomes and the harder it is to talk about it to the uninitiated. This is particularly noticeable in groups where more experienced students are trying to force feed new students with advanced concepts for which they are not ready, often ending in conflict, at least in the mind of the new student. It sometimes seems there is little common meeting ground between the new and advanced student and it takes a skilled Facilitator to remember that once, he too was a beginner who possibly held some ideas about the Course which he no longer holds. He must walk what seems like an impossible tightrope. As a teacher at that time he must not compromise on what he believes the Course to be saying. He owes that much to Jesus. On the other hand his job is to only express love by not attacking the magic thoughts of his brothers. Only with the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit can he successfully achieve this balance.
Being imperfect, the Facilitator will sometimes fail to accept the magic thoughts of others and will attack instead. He then has the perfect opportunity of choosing love instead of fear once again, in itself a useful teaching example to others. Even if the Facilitator is skilled at working with new students, problems can arise from the more experienced students in the group who object to going over the same ground when anybody new arrives at the meeting as they are wanting to go deeper into the more advanced subjects.
Discussion groups soon become aware of this problem and deal with it in several ways. Some split up into beginner's and advanced groups or allocate a special beginners night every month or so when the story of its origins and the basic concepts can be discussed and the new students are requested to attend these before joining the main group.
I remember well in the early days there was so much to discuss and so many changed perceptions to correct. We were then all at about the same level of understanding and each one's progress were shared with others in the group. Magic was the order of the day and to varying degrees many believed (and still do to some extent) that Holy Spirit worked with us in form altering illusions in the world. From reading Ken Wapnick's book 'Absence from Felicity', even Helen Schucman was not immune, believing for example that Jesus would help her with her many shopping expeditions. Ken Wapnick conducted a complete workshop on this subject which has been edited into a set of 7 tapes called Making the Holy Spirit Special (see book list)
Stories abounded about Holy Spirit magically finding parking places and bringing people into our lives. The word 'guidance' was bandied around everywhere by well meaning and sincere Miracle students who believed they were told to go places, or change jobs or even relationships. Their egos wanted to do these things and they merely provided these wishes with a holy source. There is nothing 'wrong ' with this in the initial stages and the Course is so beautifully crafted that it does not seem to challenge these ego beliefs nor make you feel guilty for believing in these magic ideas. These remarkable books seem to provide the answers we are prepared to accept at any one time and take us beyond that to the next level when we are ready.
Egos want enlightenment too but they want the instant variety. The Course cautions us in the text on page 30 /34: " Just as the separation occurred over millions of years, the Last Judgment will extend over a similarly long period, and perhaps an even longer one." It does suggest that with Miracles this time can be "shortened considerably" but it does not promise instant salvation.
The mere attending discussion groups, festivals, workshops or academies, while they can be helpful, can never be a substitute for at least a year's study of the workbook and possibly several years of working with the text and the manual during which we learn to listen to and rely on the Voice for God.
The final decision to give up all our specialness and individuality is so difficult even to imagine and if we are honest with ourselves the following paragraph fills us with considerable fear.

"And thus our minds are changed about the aim for which we came, and which we seek to serve. We bring glad tidings to the Son of God, who thought he suffered. Now is he redeemed. And as he sees the gate of Heaven stand open before him, he will enter in and disappear into the Heart of God." Workbook p.469/479

It may seem like a long haul and most likely will be but without this deep inner work and the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit it will not be possible to master this course. Bill McDonald May 95