Blue Sparkly
Text, Workbook, Manual for Teachers, Use of Terms
Thetford Foundation: www.thetfordfoundation.org/index.html
Combining four of the six volumes of the
ACIM canon, this is the most inclusive print edition of ACIM to date. It
uses the HLC text from Endeavor, also used in CIMS(1) with
a modest amount of additional proofreading. The Workbook, Manual and
Use of Terms volumes are based on the Urtext documents filed
at the USCO as “Urtext to a Course in Miracles”
First published in Australia in 2002,
the Blue Sparkly was hit with a court injunction like so many
others publishing ACIM in that era. In a very curious twist, just before
the copyright was overturned they made an out-of-court settlement with Ken
Wapnick in which he dropped the suit and they agreed to two astonishing
things: 1) to not distribute books beyond Australia and New Zealand and
2) to give the books away for free! The most astonishing thing of all is
that after the copyright was overturned they didn’t re-organize their
publishing efforts so as to leave those two absurd restrictions, agreed to only
under duress, behind.
Of all the odd twists and turns in the
copyright controversy this must surely be the single most exceptionally bizarre
one. Until the publication of the Corrected HLC in 2006, Blue
Sparkly has been by far the most accurate and highest quality edition
of ACIM in print and for almost as many years, its publishers refuse to ship
copies to most of the world!
Well so far they haven’t so, while
getting a copy of this book is quite straightforward and economical down under,
if you live elsewhere you’re facing a challenge.
While there is room for improvement in
the typography, the problem is only visible to pros for the most part. We could
wish the people responsible would do some more proofing to bring the accuracy
of the material up to a higher standard. The fact that it ranks as the
second most accurate is more a reflection on the catastrophically sloppy
undertakings by others than on the care and attention to detail on the part of Blue
Sparkly. It is not an extremely accurate edition. It does
not show signs of any systematic proofreading. Even a single thorough
pass at proofreading would catch 90% of the mistakes present. They didn’t
catch anywhere near that many. In our spot-checking they caught maybe
30%. Once again, ACIM publishers find money for printers but not for
proofers and another sadly inaccurate edition goes out the door. There
are hundreds of errors in Blue Sparkly. It’s just that all
but one of the other editions have even more, which gives it a relatively
good score … but relative to a mostly pathetic lot.