Bookstore
These are the authentic, genuine, “Original Editions” or versions of A Course in Miracles. These are the Urtext Manuscripts and the HLC Manuscript. We are working on bringing you the most original of them all, the Shorthand Notes Manuscripts. Most of the HLC proofing and correction was completed in early 2006. The seven volumes of the Urtext were completed in 2009. The work began in late 1999 when I received a photocopy, on paper, of the Hugh Lynn Cayce manuscript. The two books represent nearly ten years of work, involving tens of thousands of hours of proofreading, checking and double checking thousands of footnotes, writing exhaustive and extensive documentation, and the result is worth every minute of effort. I would never claim perfection for the work of a human, but they are far and away the best of the best and I have no hesitation in saying that. I know what these are, and I know what went into them, they are worthy of their Author and I am pleased to present them to the Sonship. Yes, in coming years we will do even better, but this is a very gratifying “giant step” toward the ultimate goal of a fully restored copy of the Original Dictation.
The Bookstore is not how we make our living. There are quite a few people involved in publishing editions of ACIM and I’m only aware of two who give away everything. That would be us and Teddy Poppe and the Thetford Foundation in Australia. They actually give away printed books (Blue Sparkly). I’d like to do that too but haven’t found a way to pay the printers. I can, however, at very very modest cost, give away e-books, and that includes e-books of competitor’s editions they insist you pay for.
Your book purchases and donations put food on the table and pay the rent for the people who put this material together and make it available, for free in on-line versions. But only rarely has it been the case that revenues from donations and book sales have not had to be supplemented with commercial employment.
Back in 2006 I set out to self-publish the Corrected HLC and that was not a very good experience. Between having no aptitude for business and preferring to spend my time on scholarship, not to mention precisely zero budget for advertising, being a publisher was a stressful distraction which cost me more money than I generated in sales revenue. Every book order was an expense.
I prayed for help in publishing and Doug Monkton and his Miracles in Action Press showed up and bingo, things started to roll.
Doug Monkton takes care of publishing details, printing and shipping books and most of the advertising and Doug Thompson (me) takes care of making sure that what’s between the covers of the books is worthy of its Source and Author, Jesus of Nazareth and the very best and most accurate and most honest that can be produced. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, that means it’s the best we can do. And anything less than that won’t go out the door, never mind be put between the covers of a book.
Donations this year reached a level such that I have been able to work for several months full time on this project. That’s a first. The previous ten years I had to maintain at least part time employment to pay the rent and pay the necessary expenses of doing this job.
That also doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done with a lot of help, both human and divine, in the quest to make it always better, always more accurate, always more reliable, tracing down every misplaced comma so that we can say truthfully “this is the best.”
Urtext
The Urtext Manuscripts are the oldest available scribal typed manuscript copies. While mostly an accurate transcript of the original Shorthand Notes, these are not entirely identical. This edition includes the seven volumes widely (but not universally) recognized as canonical, or authentically scribed from the Author’s original dictation.
Since its first publication in August of 2000, the Urtext has appeared in print and on the net in a variety of forms. Most of those are available on this website. We do not include items such as the Illuminati edition or others whose accuracy is so bad as to make them somewhat worse than useless.
HLC
The Hugh Lynn Cayce version is an edited and abridged redaction of the Urtext which is itself a redaction of the Shorthand Notes with some additional material. This version consists only of the Text volume of A Course in Miracles. It is the first version to include chapter and section breaks.
Since its first publication on January 6, 2000, the HLC has appeared in print and on the net in a variety of forms. Most of those are available on this website.
Coming soon: the Annotated HLC for your ebook reader.
The Scholar’s Toolbox DVD
Email Doug Thompson to find out how you can purchase the Scholars Toolbox DVD