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The Foundation for Inner Peace Version

First Edition Raincoast Reprint Second Edition Third Edition EA Edition

First published in 1976 as a three volume set, this is the shortest and most heavily edited version of A Course in Miracles. Until the year 2000 it was widely believed to be the only version there was and to be “virtually unchanged” from the original dictation. That was believed because for decades, that’s what the advertising said.

Having a 25 year head start over other versions in marketing, and depending heavily on the false advertising found in the continuing claim that it is “virtually unchanged” from the original diction, it is by far the most common and now the most commonly reprinted version of the Course.

This version represents the culmination of the decade long editing process. Assigned by Jesus to Bill Thetford, in the end it was Kenneth Wapnick and Helen Schucman who took over the editing, turning it into a re-writing and abridgement process. Beginning with the HLC, between 1973 and 1975 when Wapnick was himself a Course neophyte, he and Schucman removed a further 10,000 words from the 40,000 or so already removed in the HLC.

Although the First Edition is out of print, so many copies were printed originally, that it is generally easy to find in the used book marketplace. Raincoast press is currently reprinting the Text volume of the FIP First Edition.

The Foundation for Inner Peace now publishes this version with volumes 5 and 6, Psychotherapy and Song of Prayer. They call it the “Combined Volume.”

While the later chapters of the Text along with the other volumes are mostly very similar to the original dictation, the early chapters of the Text are massively abridged, re-written and in the view of many, rather badly distorted. So much material was removed as to make the early chapters choppy, disjointed, and difficult to read, especially for beginners. This is one reason many who have obtained the book never got through the first chapter. The HLC is slightly better but the Urtext early chapters provide a vastly clearer and more thorough introduction to the basic themes of the Course.

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Note: all PDF files that you can display in Acrobat Reader can be “Downloaded” by pressing “Save” (or the floppy disk icon) and then giving it a local filename. That way you can avoid having to wait for these large files to download in the future.

FIP First Edition