Over 40 years ago, a psychologist from Columbia University began to channel revelations from a spiritual entity that she was convinced was Jesus himself. She and her assistants produced teachings that filled hundreds of empty pages over a period of seven years which later became “A Course In Miracles.”

The psychologist was a Jewish lady named Helen Schucman, and she told people that Jesus Christ himself was her own spirit guide for these lessons and teachings. These lessons were supposed to provide credence for people to learn that they were the only ones in control of their own feelings, attitudes, actions and destinies. The teachings took many penalties of actions out of the equation. Indeed, a hallmark of the ACIM course is that evil itself does not exist. The ACIM teachings insist that by training your mind properly, you can learn that there is no such thing as evil, and that it is just a perception or something that other people have set up to frighten and control the actions and thoughts of those who are not capable of thinking for themselves. ACIM insists that the only thing that does exist is pure love and that innocent minds and spiritually right thinking will not allow anything like evil to exist.

These ideas and beliefs angered many people who belonged to some of the major faiths because, while they espoused many of the same principles, this course also sought to have people believe that evil is not real and therefore sin is also not real. ACIM itself tries to have people believe in the sanctity of right and wise beliefs and behavior and in the fact that nothing can harm you unless you believe that it can. New Age gurus were quick to grasp onto these concepts because many of the New Age religions are based not on sin and redemption but the power of one’s own mind and spirit.