Topics Include:  A Course in Miracles Recommended Authors / Books

Ask the Author: Question and Response
 

I am a student of A Course In Miracles. Everything that I have read on your web site is similar to this course. Just wondering if you to might be a student. If not, what have you been studying ?

- Barbara, San Juan Capistrano, CA

I love A Course In Miracles. When it comes to spiritual books, it is my first love, if you will. I have been a student of the Course since 1991. I still have it in my living room and was reading it last night.

"Whenever you are with a brother, you are learning what you are because you are teaching what you are. He will respond either with pain or with joy, depending on which teacher you are following. He will be imprisoned or released according to your decision, and so will you. Never forget your responsibility to him, because it is your responsibility to yourself. Give him his place in the Kingdom and you will have yours."                               [A Course in Miracles, pg. 142]

I also highly recommend the spiritual teachings of Orin and DaBen, channeled through Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer (www.orindaben.com). The first book you may choose to read is Living with Joy, Keys to Personal Power & Spiritual Transformation.

An older book, I very highly recommend, Dialog on Awakening, Communion with a Loving Brother by Tom Carpenter.

Other authors I have enjoyed and learned from are Kahlil Gibran, Wayne Dyer, Dan Millman, Robert A. Monroe (for OBEs, Out of Body Experience), Michael Newton Ph.D (for in between life therapy), Pat Rodegast (Emmanuel books), and Marianne Williamson.

I would like to share the story from the interview section of my website, where I discuss how I came to find A Course In Miracles:

5 - What do you feel was your most transformative life event or experience which boosted your "remembering"?

In college, I remember asking myself: What is truth? Why are we here? What's the whole point of life? These along with other questions I asked myself. After about 10 minutes, when I received no satisfactory answers, I decided that the only people who probably had answers to these questions, that understood what was truth, lived somewhere in caves in the Himalayan mountains. I therefore chose to put those questions aside, and pick up the nice cold beer in front of me.

There are quite a few “transformative experiences” that I share with the reader. I will talk about one in specific. It was the month after graduating from college. I had decided to go to Europe for a few months before starting my “real life.” An uncle of mine had an apartment in Paris where I spent a few weekends of my stay. During one of those weekends, a friend of my uncle, Olaf Halverson who lived in Miami, Florida had come to Paris and stayed in that apartment. He was celebrating a second honeymoon with his wife Mirianne. One night, he invited me to dinner.

When the teacher is ready the student will appear, equally so, when the student is ready the teacher will appear. During those couple of hours, I just heard something different. I listened to and understood concepts that I had previously, in my 23 years of life, had believed where unavailable to mortal man. He spoke of concepts such as forgiveness, peace, love, religion, death, and God in such a simple and non-judgmental manner that I was truly in awe. Even though I was in awe, I somewhere within understood that everything he was saying was something I already knew. It was more of a sense of a memory re-awakening than a lesson being taught. There and then, I said to myself I don't know what this man is reading or what he is doing, but I am going to find out and copy every single thing he has done, read every single book he has read.

A month past, and I was now headed to Venezuela to start my working life. Before heading south to Venezuela, I stopped by his house in Miami, Florida. I had not really shared how grateful I had been for his presence but I just made an excuse to go and visit him. We talked in the living room for a while, and I noticed that he had been reading a big blue book; I figured it was the bible. I remember being surprised because all of my previous encounters with bible readers had felt quite judgmental, and Olaf just felt, talked and expressed himself in a very nonjudgmental manner. Again, I did not ask about what he was reading, but as soon as he went to the kitchen, I ran to the couch were he had been previously sitting, picked up the book and read the title A Course in Miracles. He had mentioned this book a couple of times.

After leaving his house, I went directly to the bookstore. I bought the book, put it in my suite case and headed for the airport. As I started my life in Venezuela, I also began to read the book. It was the first “spiritual” book I had ever read. I could not put it down; with every page I was so thankful to know that I was not alone. Every page seemed to reawaken a memory of who I really was. I was not crazy for thinking this way. After twenty-three years, I had now found a partner who agreed with me. This partner did not think me crazy, or strange, or different, or alien.

I have since read a great number of beautiful books. But A Course in Miracles will always be my first love. And now that I live in Miami, Florida, I see Olaf, at least once every two weeks.

 

View larger images of front & back cover 
of the great spiritual / self development book You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy by James Blanchard Cisneros.