William Thetford was Helen Schucman’s partner in the material that has come to be known as A Course in Miracles. I am excerpting parts of this interview from 1984 that I’d like to comment on in terms of my own experience. I posted the first installment under Other Spiritual Messages, but I think this perhaps belongs here under Spiritual Journey. To read more of my spiritual journey, please visit www.heavenletters.org and click on The Story of Heavenletters.
Q: It must have been somewhat trying during that period, living a dual life in receiving and dealing with the miracles' material coming through and continuing your normal academic life.
WT: Yes, in a way it was like living in two different worlds. The material made perfect sense, but there was a feeling of having plunged into something that was way over our heads and for which we were unprepared.
Gloria:
All my life I have felt I was living in two worlds.
Q: Did Helen ever consider medication so she wouldn’t hear the voices?
WT: It wasn't a voice in that sense at all. Helen was not pursued by voices; it was a very specific sense of channeled communication that would come to her from time to time, she would be aware that there was material to be transcribed, and she could do it when we chose. There was no pressure to immediately drop anything she was doing in order to take notes. Rather, the material was there almost as if it had been pre-recorded and was waiting for her attention. It presented itself to her in a very separate and distinct part of her mind, she did not experience it as an external voice at all.
Gloria:
I do feel a pressure to write down. It is a strong impulse, like an itch you have to scratch. I also feel, although God is always available, that a particular message can only come now.
For me, the switch from ordinary thought and the flow from God is just such a tiny switch of the dial. Almost imperceptible. Just the tiniest switch.
And I never ever would want to be without this sweet exchange with God. Oh, please let me have it always.
Q: Given your agnostic outlook at the time, was there anything you
were involved with that might have set the stage for your being the
catalyst for A Course In Miracles?
WT: I was one of Carl Rogers' firstgraduate students after he came to the University of Chicago in 1945. I now realize what Rogers was really emphasizing was that total acceptance in our relationships meant expressing perfect love.
Gloria:
I was getting the eternal and universal truths from great literature.
I also studied Carl Rogers and loved his non-directive approach. To this day I do not quite grasp the distinction between agnostic and atheist.
WT: Actually, I always thought that a Higher Authority must have goofed
in selecting Helen and me for this assignment. When Helen asked the
voice once why she was chosen for this role, the answer she got
was, "You're obviously the right person because you're doing it."
Gloria:
Every day I wonder how all this can be coming through me. I too have asked God if He might have made a mistake. He says He doesn’t make mistakes. I also have the question: Did God choose me or did I choose myself?
Q: What's so curious is that both of you – Helen the atheist and
Bill the agnostic – would entertain the notion of doing something
like this. How do you reconcile that? Surely something must have
been triggered within you.
WT: Helen had great difficulty with the Course regarding her
own personal beliefs. She continued to question what was happening
to her through the time she was transcribing the Course, and I'm
not sure she was ever able to reconcile what she was doing with who
she was.
Gloria: I do not know how to reconcile the Human and the Divine altogether. Ordinary person through whom God flows -- it beats me!
In terms of my own personal beliefs, I can’t say I had any. In any case, whatever I hear God say, I agree with it!
“Your heart is a bright red amaryllis. It is so big and bountiful.
And beautiful too. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger
until It bursts and all hearts burst into the Oneness
they already are. “
www.heavenletters.org