Book Description
This presentation of the basic ideas of "A Course in Miracles" serves both as an introduction for those new to the Course, as well as offering its long-time students a unique approach to the Course's teaching of "not making the error real." This important principle cautions the student against using pseudo-problems as a defense against the true problem: separation. Beginning with an original cosmological myth, Awaken from the Dream emphasizes the application of this central teaching -- the foundation of forgiveness -- to our everyday lives, in a spirit of non-opposition and love.


About the Author
Gloria Wapnick has a Masters degree in History from Hunter College. From 1963-65, she lived in Tehran, Iran, where she taught English to Iranian students at the Iran-American Institute, and Social Studies at the American High School. Returning to the States in 1965, she taught Social Studies in the New York City Junior High and High Schools until 1984, and was Dean of Students for the last four years. Gloria has been working with "A Course in Miracles" since 1977, and had run her own group for several years. She is Vice-President and co-founder with her husband Kenneth of the Foundation for "A Course in Miracles" in Roscoe, New York. Gloria has also co-authored two books on the Course with Kenneth. Kenneth Wapnick has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and has been working with "A Course in Miracles" since 1973, when he joined Helen Schucman, scribe of the Course, and William Thetford at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. In addition, he worked closely with Helen preparing the final manuscript of the Course. Since that time he has lectured widely on "A Course in Miracles", as well as conducted a practice in psychotherapy. He has written many books on the Course and he has also produced numerous tape sets explaining and discussing the principles of the Course. He is President and co-founder with his wife Gloria of the Foundation for "A Course in Miracles" in Roscoe, New York, which is the copyright holder of the Course, as well as being its teaching center. Together they have travelled nationally and internationally giving workshops on the Course.


Excerpted from Awaken from the Dream by Kenneth Wapnick and Gloria Wapnick. Copyright © 1995. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
From page 3: Come with us on a journey of discovery to the remembrance of who we are. Sink back into your mind, and let yourself be carried out of time and out of this world into another dimension, whose glorious splendor language cannot express. Yet must we use words to reflect the ineffable Reality that is beyond all words, in order to recall to our minds the radiant abstraction of Heaven which has been replaced by our world of concrete specifics. From pages 19-20 - Gloria's vision: Despite this involvement in the world I was aware, sometimes dimly, sometimes clearly, that a light in the form of a Voice had remained with me in some region of my mind. It was the Voice of the Holy Spirit that always comforted and assured me that what seemed to be occurring had not really occurred at all; in fact, the seeming separation was already over. At those times, the Holy Spirit was like a soothing balm that quieted the pain in my mind. Over seeming aeons, that sweet, loving Voice continued to call to me, patiently informing me that there was a better way of reintegration than the path I had chosen. This Voice of Wisdom said: "My dearest child, there is no need to atone for your guilt by inflicting such pain upon yourself. Accept the idea into your most holy mind that all you are perceiving is an illusion that is over and finished, and has been undone through our loving Source. Let me shine away these serial nightmare dreams, and awaken once again the memory of our loving Creator Whom you have never left. You still remain as He created you, a perfect Thought and loving extension of Himself. Forget these brutal dreams of unworthiness and accept the truth that you have been forgiven all your mistaken beliefs which have never truly occurred. Our path back to the memory of God is the undoing of your belief in the value of your method of reintegration. You must release all judgment of yourself and others, forgiving what you still perceive as substitute for Reality. Give over to me the decision you had made before entering the dream." I knew exactly what the Holy Spirit was referring to. It was a decision I had made that I would go to any lengths, regardless of the suffering entailed, to enter into this dream....That is what I had to let go. Instead of doing it my way, I had to allow the Holy Spirit to replace my nightmares with His happy dreams. Almost as if I had changed a cassette in a tape recorder in my mind, I was able finally to let the Holy Spirit decide for me. The voice of hurt and judgment faded, and in its place was the Voice of Heaven and Its message of a different vision. I now know that Help is within me, and if at any time I am tempted to react to anyone or anything in this dream as if it were real, I can call on the Help of Heaven instantly. Looking at the world, I can smile at the silly unreality of what I beheld as the substitute for Heaven. I have remembered my Source and who I am, and know that everything else, coming from my unworthiness and self-hatred, was but my own weird imaginings of a separation from God that could never be. I share my experiences with you, my friends, so that you can avoid the mind's mistaken and illusory beliefs that gave rise to a world we apprehend through our consciousness. To believe in any portion of the world, to give credence to one single thought that the world upholds, or to fight against it, is to become trapped, singing the dirge of homage to this false system of thinking we call the ego. It is to become ensnared in an ignorance so all-encompassing that we can only liken it to a state of total oblivion and non-being. It does not feel nor appear this way, but that is the effect of the hypnotism, the hallucination within this nightmare dream that we have made to take the place of Heaven. Above all, never forget that our loving Source has provided His holy Voice within our minds to comfort us in all seeming tribulation, to awaken us from this dream, and lead us gently back to the Home we never truly left.