Schucman, Helen

(born Helen Cohn, 1909-1981)

   A professor of medical psychology at Columbia University, New York, who for seven consecutive years experienced an 'inner voice' which claimed to belong to Jesus Christ. The voice dictated to her a 669-page text (which was subsequently published as A Course in Miracles), two supplemental pamphlets, and a collection ofpoems which were published under the title TheGiftofGod. Judging by Schucman's own accounts, her 'inner voice' may perhaps be best designated as an " internal verbal auditory hallucination. Allegedly, she was also familiar with " visual hallucinations, more specifically " scenic hallucinations depicting people and places. Although the coherence, scope, and depth of Schucman's texts are hardly indicative of pathology, it has been suggested that they may have been produced under the influence of cryptomnesia and that Schucman herself may have suffered from " schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder. How disorders such as these might allow for a professional career at one of the world's top medical institutions remains unexplained.

   References

   [No author] (1985). A course in miracles. Combined volume. Second edition. Glen Ellen, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace.

   Wapnick, K. (1991). Absence from felicity: The story ofHelen Schucman and her scribing of A Course in Miracles. Roscoe, NY: Foundation for 'A Course in Miracles'.