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There is only one
edition of the Urtext
in print currently, and this is it.
It is also available on-line in PDF and HTML
(see below)
The Urtext Version
The Urtext version, at least for the Text volume, was the third
version produced by the Scribes, and the second earliest or most original for
which manuscript copies have surfaced.
Although widely believed to be the original transcript typed by Bill
Thetford, the vast majority of the Text
volume most certainly is not. It is not
a precise copy of the Shorthand Notes and
it reveals many signs of being visually copy-typed instead of orally dictated,
including having many pages labelled “retyped.”
Please see What is the
Urtext for more details.
It
certainly appears to be the Scribes’ first
attempt to edit that original transcript.
There are substantial omissions from the Notes and there is a significant amount of material which is not
found in the Notes at all and appears
to have been added after the initial transcription.
There are eight
separate manuscript collections labelled “Urtext”
in the United States Copyright Office deposit.
That deposit is “public” information and anyone who can get to
Washington D.C. and pay the appropriate fee can view the copies there.
Represented are the Text, Workbook,
Manual, Use of Terms, Psychotherapy, Song of Prayer and Gifts of God volumes along with an additional collection labelled
“Special Messages.”
The major
differences with later versions are numerous, with the most significant
occurring in the first 8 chapters where there are some 40,000 words more than
in the HLC which itself is about
10,000 words longer than the FIP version.
Where
to find free copies
Where to buy copies
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.
Urtext
Manuscript facsimile (photocopy
of manuscripts)
As noted above, there
are eight manuscripts in the Urtext
facsimile collection. The precise origin
of the copies we have is impossible to determine with certainty. Due to determined efforts by some to suppress
this material, those who have supplied it have done so anonymously. Having
advertised a request for copies far and wide, in the years 2000 and 2001,
several somewhat different copies on paper and as image files on CD arrived
anonymously on my doorstep. We all owe
an enormous debt of gratitude to those who supplied this material. I have taken the cleanest and clearest images
from all of these and assembled what is at least a complete collection of all
the pages available to me. Sequencing of
the pages was sometimes uncertain and where in doubt the sequence of the HLC was used in the Text volume. The Text consists of 1072 pages, the Workbook 620, the Manual 71, Use of Terms 14, Psychotherapy 27, Song of
Prayer 28, Gifts of God 14, and Special Messages 55 for a total of 1,846
double spaced, single sided pages. While generally very legible, the manuscript
is a rather large physical object to deal with.
Being a “photograph of text,” the text is not searchable on a computer,
although it can be displayed and printed.
(free on line in PDF format 1072 pp referenced Menu
to select volume) (1049 pp
on line at EA – 100 Mb)
Urtext
Proof transcript (machine readable
transcription with some footnoted corrections)
This document was created by copy-typing
the manuscript (above) into a word processor and then proofreading it multiple
times. The goal was to create a
keystroke for keystroke precise replica of the manuscript for reference
purposes. Its primary use is in
proofreading subsequent edited copies to ensure that every change made was in
fact intended. Unlike the HLC
transcript, this one contains some footnoted corrections of the most obvious
typing mistakes. Unlike the facsimile (image) files, these documents are
searchable for words and character strings. (free
on line in PDF format Menu to select volume)
As with the facsimile version, there are the
same eight volumes.
Urtext “Illuminati Edition” (machine-readable, printable
PDF)
Similar to the above except
with no referencing, not even to the original manuscript pages, and with some
four thousand undocumented discrepancies in the Text volume alone. Most of
those discrepancies reflect the HLC
reading rather than the Urtext
manuscript. It would appear that rather
than copy the Urtext, after chapter 8
they just used the HLC and corrected
those differences they noticed. Due to
its extreme inaccuracy, and total lack of cross-referencing, this document is
of limited utility. One can note the claim
on the cover saying “The Original Complete Unedited Manuscript” which is of
course, like the majority of claims of publishers of ACIM editions, entirely incorrect. This edition also covers only the Text and some Special Messages. (available
on line free Text only 1.6 MB)
Urtext
Seven Volume Combined Edition in print
This book includes all seven volumes generally
recognized as “canonical” (not including Special Messages) plus extensive
appendices with a wealth of background information. Some of the more obvious typos are fixed, and
spelling is standardized. Some of the
more significant deletions from the Shorthand
Notes are included in footnotes. In
addition there are a thousand or so footnotes indicating passages in ACIM which
refer to the Bible.
While we do not assert that there are
no lingering typos or inaccuracies of any kind, multiple proofing passes have
left us finding only the very occasion misplaced comma or capitalization
error. As with the HLC, the accuracy of this edition surpasses that of any other
edition of ACIM available, save for the manuscript facsimiles themselves, by
several orders of magnitude.
For convenience and ease of reference,
the HLC chapter and section breaks
are marked and each paragraph has a unique reference, which references are also
included in the Notes, for ease of
cross-referencing.
The book can be ordered at http://www.miraclesinactionpress.com
. Urtext Seven Volume Combined
Edition in
PDF
This PDF e-book is
formatted for ease of reading and searching on a computer monitor. Identical to the print version, (above) every
deviation from the manuscript is documented.
All the powerful search tools in Acrobat Reader are available, making
this a flexible and powerful research tool. (free on line in PDF format 13
Mb seven volumes)
It includes all the
footnotes and appendices.
Urtext Seven
Volume Combined Edition in HTML:
This is an HTML
version of the above e-book. It displays
any of the seven volumes of the Urtext
in your browser with a full Table of Contents in a sidebar frame on the
left. In HTML the text and frames can be
resized to your preferences and scrolling is entirely linear making it somewhat
easier and faster to navigate on a computer than the PDF. It also loads faster than the PDF
version. All the footnotes are preserved
as hyperlinks and are very easy to use.
It can of course be searched for words and character strings using your
browser’s “SEARCH BUTTON” (generally CTRL+F).
However, unlike the PDF e-book, it is not all in one file so word or
string searches are confined to the volume you’re looking at.
(free on line in HTML format
Menu )
Exhaustive Concordance to
the Seven Volume Urtext
While any serious
textual scholar knows that a concordance is indispensible, newcomers to the
tool will be pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it is to find almost
any passage with this tool.
In this exhaustive
concordance, every occurrence of every word is indexed and listed with five
words of adjacent context.
Finding any passage
for which you can recall even just one word is thus made very fast and easy.
An abridged version of the Concordance is
available on line; the exhaustive Concordance can be purchased on CD and is
included in the Scholar’s
Toolbox DVD.
It should be noted that there are a
number of sites offering what they CALL “The Urtext” on line. When
checked against the manuscript, however, we have found that most of these are
really largely the HLC and not the Urtext at all. In particular, the “Illuminati Brotherhood”
edition deviates from the Urtext
itself in several thousand places. A few
sites offer photocopies of the manuscript, but we’ve yet to find one that is
complete. These sources are therefore
not listed.
There may of course be other sources of
quality material of which we are simply unaware. Should you know of any please advise dthomp74@hotmail.com