Helen Schucman, Ph.D. (July 14, 1909–February 9, 1981) is one of the three primary transcriber-editors of the work known as A Course In Miracles (or ACIM). Though some refer to Schucman as having "channeled" A Course In Miracles, Schucman herself preferred to describe herself as the "scribe" of the work.

From 1958 through 1976 she was a professor of medical psychology at Columbia University in New York. It was during her years at Columbia University that she began to perform what she referred to as the scribing of ACIM. Schucman described her experience of receiving the Course as being the result of hearing "a voice that made no sound" . This "inner voice" instructed her, "This is a course

The main transcription process took seven years, from 1965 through 1972, during which time she would take down the notes in shorthand, then each day read back these notes to William Thetford, a colleague at Columbia, who would type them out while she read them.

After all the ACIM material had been initially transcribed it was then edited for publication by Dr. Schucman and the other two primary editors, Dr. William Thetford and Dr. Kenneth Wapnick. The full extent of textual revision which they carried out has only in recent years come to light with the dissemination on the web of the Urtext (earliest version). The revelation of extensive textual revision, far from exposing the fingerprints of a meticulously polished hoax, has only deepened the enigma of the

The 'Jesus' of the Urtext makes often highly personal remarks relating to Schucman and Thetford, offers suggestive comments on such figures as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Edgar Cayce and engages in specialized discourse on academic and clinical psychology (including sometimes explicit discussion of human sexuality). The omission of these types of materials in the standard published editions, while making the text a less formidable and more fluent read, has also rendered the authorial voice more impersonal, distant, gender-biased and abstract.

Schucman also scribed two supplemental ACIM pamphlets via this same process. Following the transcription and editing, Schucman began to reduce the level of her direct involvement in the ACIM related effort, and was never as heavily involved with teaching or popularizing the material, as were the other two principal transcriber-editors, Bill Thetford and Kenneth Wapnick.

In a manner which is highly atypical for such a prolific modern American 'scribe', Schucman did not seem to turn her experiences into any significant financial advantage, nor did she cultivate personal celebrity.

In 1980 Schucman was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. After a prolonged illness, Helen Schucman died of related complications at age 71 in 1981.

See also

• A Course In Miracles
• Dr. William Thetford
• Dr. Kenneth Wapnick
• Jesus Christ as source of "A Course In Miracles"

External references

• (discusses the pre-publication history of ACIM)
• (discusses Helen Schucman and the pre-publication history of ACIM)