Overview

Praise

Advance Praise

"I have always felt it is Perry who guides the Course student to the next step. He is one of our most brilliant teachers of the principles of the Course. Path of Light is more than a book, it is a blessing."
—from the Foreword by Marianne Williamson, author of A Return to Love

"Robert honors the sophistication of the Course's thought system, yet never loses sight of the fact that the Course is above all an eminently practical path to awakening."
—from the Preface by Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., author of Essential Spirituality: The Seven Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind

"A much-needed, penetrating, and practical journey to the core of A Course in Miracles. Robert Perry offers unique insight that can help us make the Course real and meaningful in our lives. Living these masterful principles will change your life in wondrous ways."
—Alan Cohen, author of I Had It All the Time

"Robert Perry is a first rate A Course in Miracles scholar. I like the simple, 'easy' way in which he clarifies seemingly difficult Course concepts. Reading Path of Light brings renewed excitement and interest to this modern spiritual classic."
—Jon Mundy, Ph.D., author of Missouri Mystic and Awaken to Your Own Call

"I felt a sense of peace and trust as I read Robert Perry's superb introduction to A Course in Miracles. 'Here,' I thought, 'is a book worthy to rest beside the Course on anyone's night stand.' In many ways it resonates with the same friendliness and blessing, the same lovely quietness, that one feels when opening the Course itself. It is a softly illuminated portal that ushers us into the boundless room of light that is A Course in Miracles."
—Hugh Prather, author of How to Live in the World and Still Be Happy

"A superb introduction to the beautiful and enigmatic work that is A Course in Miracles. Highly recommended both for beginners and for old hands at the Course."
—Richard Smoley, author of Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition

"Path of Light is a skillful and elegantly understated presentation from the warm heart and brilliant mind of one of the most respected teachers of A Course in Miracles. Like a master storyteller, he uses simple words to relay the deep truth of a lengthy and complex spiritual teaching, organizing it in a logical and accessible way that makes the Course available to everyone. In Path of Light, Robert Perry serves as our guide for A Course in Miracles. With his help, we find the path much clearer, the teaching more relevant, the lessons and practices more accessible. Path of Light will deservingly rise to the top of the reading list of all sincere students of A Course in Miracles."
—Robert Ferre, One Heart, St. Louis, Missouri

"A thoughtful approach to the Course that presents the key teachings very clearly. An important guide for anyone wanting to understand the Course."
—Peter Russell, author of From Science to God

"Robert Perry is simply the best Course scholar writing today. He thoroughly and accurately represents what the whole Course says and doesn't just focus on certain 'pet' passages which he believes represent the 'central' teaching while disregarding the rest. However, even his scholarship takes a back seat to his own teaching insights. When he relates our tendency to project blame and guilt to how we would 'instinctively' spit a scorpion out of our mouth, I get the teaching viscerally. Bravo!"
—Rev. Tony Ponticello, Co-founder, Community Miracles Center, San Francisco

"Robert Perry's new book, Path of Light, presents a fresh appreciation of A Course in Miracles, as not only a map of consciousness, but also a vehicle of personal transformation. His fine book, useful to anyone interested in learning about A Course in Miracles, offers practical demonstrations of how the Course is directed not only at self help, but also at the much more lofty goal of self realization."
—Russell Targ, author of Miracles of Mind: Exploring Nonlocal Consciousness and Spiritual Healing

"Path of Light is just that; a step by step guide, brilliantly and systematically assembled by Robert Perry. What else would you expect from this teacher? You who would take the Course journey all the way will welcome the chart Robert Perry has drafted. Bon voyage!"
—Howard Westin, author of Love Letter to Humanity

"Path of Light, an exceptional book on spirituality, is sure not only to intellectually engage its readers, but also to inspire and transform them. Even for long-time students of A Course in Miracles, Perry sheds new light on this extraordinary teaching, and reawakens and reminds us of the exquisite possibility available to each of us in every moment."<
—Robin Casarjian, author of Forgiveness: A Bold Choice for a Peaceful Heart

"Robert Perry's Path of Light is a masterpiece that will illumine the way to a life of true peace and love for any sincere seeker of truth. With the depth that can only come from a lifetime's dedication to truly understanding and applying the mighty teachings of the Course, Robert breaks down powerful spiritual insights into pragmatic steps using straightforward language. Readers will gain all they need to live the transformative message of A Course in Miracles."
—Robert Holden, author of Shift Happens,
and Miranda Holden, author of Boundless Love

"Hang on to your seat belts—Robert brings a wonderful overdue sense of adventure to A Course in Miracles. Extremely helpful."
—Duane O'Kane, Founder, Clearmind International Institute, Langley, British Columbia

"I am so grateful for this book. I find in it the essence and the spirit of the Course in a way that reaches deeply into my mind. Path of Light is a true blessing, not only for Course students, but also for those of the general public who are wanting a clearer view of what the Course is really all about."
—Mirkalice Gore, Founder, A Place for Miracles, Las Vegas, Nevada

"Robert Perry's dedication to thorough and scholarly examination of the message of A Course in Miracles, and his commitment to practicing its principles, are commendable and sincere. These qualities are embodied in this in-depth but eminently readable and practical overview. A book of this nature has been long overdue."
—Ian Patrick, Director, Miracle Network, UK

"I am so excited about this book. It is stunning, brilliant, an awesome read. I really believe that it is going to make a very significant contribution to the world."
—Sarah Huemmert, Founder, Edmonton Miracles Center, Canada

TOC

Table of Contents

A Course in Miracles by Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D

Acknowledgements

Introduction by Robert Perry

Part I: How it Came and What it is

• Introduction to Part I
• One: The Genesis of A Course in Miracles
• Two: What Is A Course in Miracles?

Part II: The Teaching

• Introduction to Part II
• Three: The Problem
• Four: Reality and Illusion
• Five: The Answer

Part III: The Program

• Introduction to Part III
• Six: The Text: Reconstructing Our Worldview
• Seven: The Workbook: The Practice of Salvation
• Eight: The Manual for Teachers: Teach Only Love

Part IV: Living the Course

• Introduction to Part IV
• Nine: Setting out and Continuing on the Path
• Ten: The Promise of A Course in Miracles
• Notes
• Glossary of Course Terms
• Index

Introduction

Introduction by Robert Perry

What is A Course in Miracles?⁽¹⁾ You may have friends who study it. You yourself may be a student of it. You may have heard Marianne Williamson or Wayne Dyer or Deepak Chopra quote from it. You may have seen it in the New Age section of your bookstore, or heard that it teaches forgiveness. You may also have heard some very strange things about it-that it was channeled from Jesus, or that it says the world is only a dream.

On the surface, A Course in Miracles is a book consisting of twelve hundred pages and three volumes: Text, Workbook for Students, and Manual for Teachers. It was not authored in the conventional sense, but rather channeled or "scribed" by Helen Schucman, a research psychologist at Columbia University. Since its publication in 1976, it has become a modern spiritual classic, selling over a million and a half copies and attracting a devoted following of tens of thousands of students.

These bare facts, however, do not really tell us what A Course in Miracles is. It is difficult, in fact, to ascertain exactly what it is. The Course does not fit conventional molds, and its author did not explain how it relates to our traditional academic or literary categories. In a manner of speaking, it just dropped out of the sky, leaving us with the task of figuring out what it is. For this reason, it has been given many public faces, depending on who is portraying it. And, as Richard Smoley notes in Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition, there is often a wide gap between how the Course is represented and what it really is:

The fact remains that the Course, as thousands of people have found, is a powerful means of spiritual transformation. Although it is sometimes misrepresented as a compendium of feel-good nostrums, actually it teaches a rigorous form of mental discipline that, if scrupulously observed, would lead one to exclude all thoughts of hate and negativity. Anyone who carried out its teachings in full would be a saint.⁽²⁾

The purpose of this book is to present, as accurately as possible, the Course as it really is, underneath its various public faces. It is my firm belief that neither Course students nor the world as a whole has begun to tap the real power of the Course, largely because we are still trying to get a handle on what it is. As the above quote suggests, beneath its public faces lies a potent, transformative spiritual path, one which employs practical means to lead us, step by step, toward the goal of complete awakening. This book attempts to demystify the Course, clearly explaining its origin, its nature, its teachings, and its program. In particular, it aims to clarify what it means to walk this path. This, in fact, is the focus of the second half of the book, which explains what must be done to move forward on this path, answers the questions that come up at different points along the way, and describes the benefits gained from traveling this road.

For this reason, the book is primarily aimed at people who are open to exploring the Course as a spiritual path. This includes those who know little about the Course but are interested in incorporating more spirituality into their lives. This also includes people who are already students of the Course or have been in the past. For new students, this book attempts to supply them with everything they will need to begin working with the Course. For more experienced students, the value of this book is that it lays out a new vision of the Course, in both theory and practice, one that makes the most of the Course's practical nature.

There exists a single overall framework underpinning both the portrayal of the Course to the general public and the way it is perceived within its community of students-a single lens through which people tend to see it. This framework is that the Course is a spiritual teaching. In my experience, it is primarily seen as a collection of insightful, inspirational ideas, to be read, quoted, and discussed. We can see this reflected in the wise quotations from it that pepper various popular spiritual books. We can also see it in books written for Course students, books that often focus on the Course's metaphysical ideas while scarcely mentioning the practical discipline contained in the Workbook. I admit that this is not the only way the Course is perceived; most students do hold some of the other view which I will describe shortly. Yet, having said that, I still think that the vast majority primarily relate to it as a teaching.

Relating to the Course mainly as a teaching has been a fateful move, in my opinion, for it has automatically dictated an overall relationship with it. As a teaching, our main response to the Course is to try to understand its ideas. We especially seek to understand its basic orienting concepts-about God and the Holy Spirit, about the illusory nature of the world, about the details of the original separation from God. As a result, discussion of these concepts tends to fill Course books, study groups, and online chat rooms. Discussions of how to live the Course also fill these forums, but such discussions tend to be rather speculative. If the Course is mainly there to teach us its concepts, then we will probably have to figure out on our own how to apply it. The Course itself is often seen as so aloof from practical concerns that it is common to hear that once we have ingested its ideas, we need to set the book down so that we can go out and live it.

The problem with this notion is that the Course has set a very lofty goal for us. As the quote from Richard Smoley said, to embody its teaching is to be a saint. Yet if the Course is only a teaching, then it provides no way for us to achieve that goal. It merely points to a distant summit, tells us to arrive there, but then provides us with no path-no roadmap-for reaching that summit. At that point, we start hoping that we will be magically whisked there, perhaps in some earth-shattering mystical experience, or perhaps just by reading and discussing the book. But what a hollow hope that is! According to integral philosopher Ken Wilber, this dilemma is rampant in contemporary spirituality.

You really have to have an understanding of the development of consciousness. Otherwise, just exhorting people to adopt new paradigms is pretty worthless. It's a goal without a path….What we're short on are actual paths for interior development that would deliver that goal.⁽³⁾

That is exactly how A Course in Miracles portrays itself. It does not present itself as a spiritual teaching, but rather as a spiritual path. It always depicts itself as trying to move us along a journey of inner development toward a goal of total realization. It is filled with imagery of traveling along a pathway; it urges us to walk swiftly along "the road this course sets forth."⁽⁴⁾ It calls itself "an easy path, so clearly marked it is impossible to lose the way."(5) It calls itself "an organized, well-structured and carefully planned program." ⁽⁶⁾ What it most often calls itself is merely a "course"-a word which means a program of instruction, and which also means a path along which something moves. In the following passage, we see all of these things; we see the Course leading us one step at a time along a path to the goal of waking up to Who we really are:

This course was sent to open up the path of light to us, and teach us, step by step, how to return to the eternal Self we thought we lost.⁽⁷⁾

This distinction between viewing the Course as a path versus as a teaching may seem to be a subtle one, but it makes a world of difference. It determines, in fact, our basic relationship with the Course. When we view it as a path, a different relationship with it arises than when we view it as a teaching. If the Course is a path, then our main response to it is to seek to progress along the path toward the goal. With this main response comes its own set of questions and priorities: What does the Course tell me to do in order to make progress? Am I doing those things? What results am I experiencing? In this mode, we still try to understand the teaching, but as a means to making progress on the path, not as an end in itself.

The whole concept of a path, of course, is that it offers a way to reach the goal, and that is exactly what the Course provides. It is filled with practical exercises. It tells us what to do and what results will obtain. It claims, in fact, to provide us with everything we need along the way, so that all that is left to us is to pay attention: "You need offer only undivided attention. Everything else will be given you."⁽⁸⁾ We can see this in all three volumes, but it is perhaps easiest to see in the Workbook, which gives minute instruction in exactly how and when to practice the Course - including how to hold our mind while practicing and how to deal with those inevitable extraneous thoughts. Thus, we do not have to set the book down in order to live it; the book is what tells us how to live it. That is its whole purpose. It is a manual in how to progressively realize its teaching.

Viewing the Course as a path opens up a world of benefits, benefits that seem frustratingly out of reach when we view it as a teaching. Now, under the Course's guidance, when we get upset, we know how to dispel our negative feelings. When we face a difficult decision, we know how to listen to the Holy Spirit. When we are mired in interpersonal conflict, we know how to resolve it. When we are afraid, we know how to calm our fears. When we yearn to feel closer to God, we know how to experience that closeness. We know exactly what to do to put one foot in front of the other on this path. As a result, we get somewhere. In the midst of the same trials as before, we experience more peace, and this peace spreads to everyone we encounter.

The model of the Course that I will present in this book is grounded in careful scholarship. It is a purist model, in that it aims for complete fidelity to the words of the Course. Because such fidelity is only an ideal, details of this model will at times shift around; yet I have a great deal of confidence in the model's basic outlines. Normally, we assume that such devotion to "the letter of the law" kills the spirit, leading to a stale and rigid spiritual life. This is not true with the Course. Its words are soaked through and through with practicality. Thus, the deeper we go into those words, the more we contact the Course's urge to set us free and its very sensible counsel in how that freedom can be realized. As a result, this model has much greater practical relevance than we might expect from a scholarly-based model. It has transformed my own spiritual life, and I have seen it bring wonderful results into the lives of students, who now relate to the Course as a set of transformative tools, rather than a mere collection of ideas.

I write this book both as a student of the Course and as a teacher. I have been a student since 1981. It took me a few years, but I eventually fell in love with the Course, and that love has only deepened with time. For my first ten years with it, I too related to the Course primarily as a teaching. Only slowly, through close study of the book, did I come to realize that it is a "clearly marked" path. Once I came to this realization, I gradually began to treat it as such, attempting to incorporate all the aspects of the path into my life. As I did, the benefits the Course was able to give me mushroomed. I cannot even imagine my life now without the daily activity of walking this path.

I have taught the Course publicly since 1986. Initially, I quite naturally taught it within the Course-as-teaching framework I described above. I was thus mainly concerned that students understand its ideas. I also wanted them to apply it, but I acted as if each individual had to devise his or her own ways of doing that. Over time, though, my conception of my role has changed. I now see my job as helping students walk "the road this course sets forth." It has been extremely gratifying to watch students use the Course's practical measures and receive the benefits from doing so.

Those benefits, combined with my own personal experience with the Course and my scholarly investigations into it, have only caused my estimate of its stature to grow. A passion has arisen in me to spread the word about this remarkable path. For years the urge has grown in me to compress my overall vision of the Course-a vision I share with my colleagues at the Circle of Atonement-into a single book that could reach a large number of potential and actual students.

The purpose of this book is to present the Course as a spiritual path. It is a new spiritual path, one that, in my view, breaks significant new ground. It is bursting with fresh insights into the human condition and the way to God. Yet in many ways it is quite traditional. Many of its methods are ones that have been working for spiritual aspirants for thousands of years. Further, it is not shy about spiritual authority nor about good old-fashioned discipline. Though it shines with originality, there is nothing trendy about it. Its only concern is to propel us toward that ancient and most noble of all goals, the transcending of egocentricity. And for that, it is an extremely effective means.

A Course in Miracles is unconventional; it is on the fringe. But so was every spiritual tradition when it first began. The Course, in my view, has the potential to become an enduring spiritual tradition. Its ideas reach to the sky, but it manages to bring them down to earth and guide us in concretely applying them. In the end, the Course provides a complete framework in which we can conduct our whole journey to God. Many of us are hungry for such a framework. We have left conventional frameworks behind, and this has deposited us in a kind of no-man's land, saddled with an independence that is bewildering rather than liberating. We do not want to go back to the old structures that we discovered to be so deeply flawed, yet we want some kind of structure. We just want one that sets us free, rather than imprisons us. We want a structure in which we can truly feel at home. The more deeply I have gone into the Course, the more convinced I am that here is a path in which seekers from a wide variety of backgrounds can find a home. Here is a path on which countless people can experience accelerated progress on the only journey that counts.

1. A Course in Miracles is published by the Foundation for Inner Peace, P.O. Box 598, Mill Valley, California, 94942-0598.

2. Richard Smoley, Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2002), p. 44.

3. "The Guru and the Pandit-Exploring the Future of Religion: Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber in Dialogue," What Is Enlightenment? Spring/Summer 2003, p. 87.

4. W-pI.rV.In.1:5.

5. T-29.II.1:3.

6. T-12.II.10:1.

7. W-pI.rV.In.5:4.

8. T-12.V.9:4-5.

Excerpts

Foreword
“...more than a book, it is a blessing.”

Because I am a student of A Course in Miracles, any book that illumines its teaching more deeply is a gift to me. Today, however, with a plethora of commentary on the Course, it is important not just for me but for all who care about its wisdom to discern whose work presents the most powerful insight.

I have always felt that Robert Perry is a writer and thinker whose understanding of A Course in Miracles is a teaching in its own right. As someone who wrote one of the earliest popular treatises on the Course, A Return to Love, I have always felt it is Perry who guides the Course student to the next step. He is one of our most brilliant teachers of the principles of the Course, and for those of us who consider ourselves serious students, his understanding impacts our own.

For those who feel that for them, A Course in Miracles is not to be missed, then I would venture to say that neither should Path of Light. Some gifts, though exciting, come with instruction manuals that are important to read. A Course in Miracles is such a gift, and Path of Light is such a manual.

Excerpts: Chapter 1
The Genesis of A Course in Miracles

Even though the Course is often associated with the New Age and is laced with themes reminiscent of Eastern spirituality, its story looks more like something straight out of the Bible. We all know the classic biblical pattern. Into an unlikely, even inhospitable situation, God comes. He speaks to a reluctant nobody who cannot for the life of him fathom why God would choose him. This person balks and resists, but in the end accepts the difficult assignment of being God's mouthpiece. Initially, God may speak to this person in private, but the words are always meant for a wider audience. Eventually, what God says through this one person causes waves that reach far beyond that person's little sphere, and may in the end reach even beyond his culture and time period. For, from the beginning, God's eye is on the entire world.

The story of the Course, then, is reminiscent of the stories of the Hebrew prophets. Just as Moses asked God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?…I am not eloquent…but I am slow of speech,"⁽²⁷⁾. So Helen had a strikingly similar reaction when the voice first began dictating to her:

"Why me?" I asked. "I'm not even religious. I don't understand the things that have been happening to me and I don't even like them….I'm just about as poor a choice as you could make."

"On the contrary," I was assured. "You are an excellent choice, and for a very simple reason. You will do if.⁽²⁸⁾.

And so we see that the history of the Course's genesis echoes the familiar biblical pattern, but in a fresh way, and in a distinctly nonreligious setting. If we accept the Course at face value, instead of God coming to believing Jews, in this case He came to agnostic university professors.

What I find particularly striking about the story is that it does not just reflect the ancient spiritual theme of God working through chosen human vessels; it also reflects the particular teachings of A Course in Miracles, including the holy instant, the split mind, the special function, and the importance of human relationships. The Course's emphasis on interpersonal joining, for instance, is reflected in the fact that the Course had two scribes, as opposed to one solitary prophet. Somehow, woven into the events surrounding the Course's genesis were specific themes central to the Course itself. This gives the distinct impression that while the author was dictating the Course's ideas onto paper, he was also painting these same ideas on the canvas of Helen and Bill's lives. In fact, we can see him working on three levels, for Helen's inner visions, as we saw, also reflected Course themes. Thus, it is as if the author's message was being imprinted on the situation in multiple ways—in the form of the words that Helen took down, the inner pictures she saw, and the events of the Course's scribing and publication. All three carried the same themes; all three bore the unique stamp of the same author.

If, in fact, the Course's story is a parable of its teaching, what does this parable say? What meaning does it communicate to us? Before we consider the Course's teaching in more depth later in the book, I'll attempt here to take the various Course themes we've already seen highlighted in the Course's story and weave them together into a cohesive message for our lives.

Life in this world, as it is normally conducted, does not work. Our blind pursuit of our own self-interest inevitably entangles us in conflict with those around us. And since everyone else is caught in the same struggle, we find ourselves standing in the middle of ever-widening circles of interpersonal discord.

Yet all this can be changed in a single miraculous instant. For just a moment, we can choose to step outside our habitual patterns of thinking and relating. We can reach outside the bubble of our self-interest and join hands with another. In this moment, the two of us can forget our differences and unite in a common purpose. This instant is what the Course calls a holy instant. By momentarily stepping outside our egocentric ways, we allow something new to come in, something holy, and our lives will never be the same again.

27. Exodus 3:11, 4:10, RSV.

28. From Helen Schucman's unpublished autobiography, quoted in The Complete Story of the Course, p. 12.

An Interview with Robert Perry

Without getting too specific, what would you say usually gets in the way of people's happiness and success? Most of us would place the blame on the difficult external circumstances of our lives—all those unpleasant events and conditions, from terrorism to traffic jams, that seem utterly beyond our control.

But author and spiritual teacher Robert Perry suggests that "difficult circumstances" is a polite way of stating the problem, compared to how it really feels to us. "Circumstances are more than just difficult," he writes; in fact they "appear to be attacking us. A hundred times a day, they peck at us; occasionally, they try to crush us.... In the midst of the world's insane obstacle course, we are quite simply doing our best. Our intentions are good. We may occasionally lash out or inadvertently hurt someone, but whenever we do, there are pressures on us that, if recognized, make our actions perfectly understandable. We do get blamed, but only by those who do not see the whole picture. In truth, we are just trying to make the best of a difficult situation."

Sounds like a fair estimation of the human condition, right? The only problem is, says Perry, is that it's "utterly false—at least according to the modern psychospiritual teaching known as A Course in Miracles (ACIM), which Perry has been teaching and writing about since the mid-1980s. As ACIM suggests, the person who constantly feels besieged by circumstances is putting on a "face of innocence" masking a deep, existential rage—a rage which can only be healed through unstinting self-confrontation and the consistent practice of a transcendent forgiveness.

Founder of an ACIM teaching center in Sedona, Arizona, called the Circle of Atonement, Perry writes and teaches with an exceptional clarity that has made him one of the most popular teachers of ACIM. His brief Introduction to A Course in Miracles, published by Miracle Distribution Center, has sold well over 200,000 copies and he has authored eighteen other books and pamphlets in wide circulation. While he has had doctrinal differences and legal wranglings with Kenneth Wapnick, the most historically prominent of Course teachers, he takes a similar tack in reminding students that ACIM is not a therapeutic quick fix for anyone's problems, requiring a lifelong dedication to fully understand and realize the potential of the teaching. While Path of Light: Stepping into Peace with A Course in Miracles is not Perry's "big book" on ACIM that was held up in a copyright dispute with Wapnick and the Foundation for A Course in Miracles, it is his first substantial title in five years.

Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" is now in the public eye, presenting a pretty grisly portrayal of the sacrificial ethos at the heart of conventional Christianity. I think it's safe to say that A Course in Miracles has a radically different view on the crucifixion and its meaning. How would you explain the difference in these perspectives?

PERRY: The Course has a wonderfully refreshing view of the crucifixion. Traditionally, of course, we've been taught that it was all about Jesus undergoing very real suffering and death, that this paid for our sins and allowed God to forgive us. The Course's view couldn't be more different. Its view is that the crucifixion was not about the physical events that Jesus passed through, but how he saw those events. It says that he saw himself as literally unable to be hurt or killed—even if his body could be—and that this invulnerability is what enabled him to respond defenselessly and without anger. By responding this way, says the Course, he was trying to send us a message about how we can respond to our little daily crucifixions. He wanted us to come away saying, "If he could know he was invulnerable under those circumstances, then perhaps I can remember that I'm invulnerable when my co-worker gives me a dirty look." In other words, the crucifixion was a teaching demonstration for us, rather than some kind of transaction with God. To feel indebted to him because of what he suffered for our sake, or to feel angry at those who did this to him, is to miss the whole point.

In your chapter on "The Problem" you write that we are all tempted to see ourselves as "enraged victims" of the world we see around us. Could you go into why this happens and what we can do about it?

PERRY: To continue with the theme from the previous question, the world is full of attack, full of crucifixion. We frequently feel misperceived, unfairly treated, and taken advantage of, even by those who are supposed to love and protect us. This is the universal human experience. So what do we do? The Course begins by saying that the situation is not what it seems. It says that we don't have to feel attacked, because in truth we are invulnerable. And it says that we only choose to feel attacked in order to give ourselves a justification for doing our own attacking. It's as if we slash ourselves with a knife and then place the knife in someone else's hand and shout, "Look what you did to me!" Just realizing this can bring release. If you think of a recent episode where you felt attacked, and then think, "I only chose to feel wounded by what he did so that I could manufacture grounds for attacking him," then the anger and woundedness tend to dry up.

This change in perception is an example of how the Course sees forgiveness, which it defines as the realization that my anger was never justified in the first place. This, in the long run, is the real solution to feeling like "enraged victims." Not to get even, not to protect our boundaries—though that may be an interim necessity—but to learn a profound kindness in the face of even the most mean-spirited assaults, a kindness made possible by the recognition of our inherent invulnerability. This, in the Course's view, is what will lead to our own resurrection, our own awakening to unlimited life.

Many Course students have been driven up the wall by its seemingly harsh appraisal of the so-called "special relationship." How would you explain the problem, and its solution, to someone who was unfamiliar with ACIM?

PERRY: Even though I too find the Course's teaching on special relationships challenging, I don't think it1s any harsher than what we ourselves realize at the bitter end of a romantic relationship. At that point, we understand that the other person was not really giving to us, that this person was just using us to get his or her own needs met, needs which have to do with him or her feeling special. It finally dawns on us that it wasn't really love at all. If we could only turn this around and apply it to ourselves, then we would be exactly where the Course wants us to be. Instead, though, we assume that the problem lay in that particular person and the solution lies in finding the right person, rather than realizing that the problem lay in the "game of love" itself and the solution lies in uprooting the lovelessness in our own hearts.

What's new about Path of Light in terms of the Course teaching books that have come before it? What would you like to put out there that may not have been said before?

PERRY: I actually think there are quite a number of things that are new about Path of Light. First, I see it as a truly comprehensive introduction, one which covers the whole spectrum, from how the Course was written and what the Course is, to what it teaches and how to "take" this course, how to live it. A reader could start out having never heard of A Course in Miracles and end up having a fair grasp of the Course "in the round."

Second, I try to present a more complete vision of what the Course teaches, one that emphasizes both the dark and the light, both the metaphysical and the practical. My experience is that most treatments of the Course tend to "hang out" in one particular area of the Course's thought system while overlooking the rest—which is very easy to do, given how truly vast that thought system is.

Third, I present the Course primarily as a path, rather than as merely a teaching. I personally believe this is the most neglected aspect of A Course in Miracles. Whereas a teaching merely tells you about the goal, a path is a road by which you can actually reach the goal. I think that Course students have been so fixated on the Course's lofty ideas that they have tended to neglect the very concrete and practical things the Course asks us to do in order to reach the goal. In my view, these things boil down to three activities: study, practice, and extension, all of which Path of Light discusses at length. Doing these three things is how we go beyond merely talking about the Course's teachings to actually living them.

Fourth, the book tries to combine both fidelity to the Course and practicality for the reader. It seems to me that Course-based books have by and large opted for one of these at the expense of the other. Either they try to be really faithful to the Course, and sound rather dry, lofty, and impractical, or they try to be really practical and user-friendly, yet tend to leave out the more radical elements of the Course. I don't believe we ever need to choose between these two values, because the Course itself is extremely practical. Thus, fidelity to it means being practical, and that is the approach I have taken with this book.

At one point in "The Program" section of your book you advise the serious Course student to "keep your head down." What do you mean by that?

PERRY: At that point I am talking about how to read the Course. My experience is that most Course students engage in what I call "reading by projection." In this mode, when you come upon a puzzling passage, you lift your head up, mentally consult your overall understanding of the Course, and ask yourself, "What must this passage mean in light of my overall understanding?" This results in just projecting your old understanding onto this new passage; there's little room for anything new to enter in. Instead, I urge students to keep their heads down and look around in the sentences immediately before and after the puzzling passage. That surrounding material holds the clues to what the author was really trying to say with that puzzling sentence. And what he was trying to say is usually far more mind-bending, challenging, practical, and transformative than what reading by projection would ever say.

You also advise that students should take the Course "personally." What is your method for doing that, and why is it important?

PERRY: Students sometimes complain that the Course's ideas are a "head trip," but I find that they are only that if you don't apply them to yourself. You can take the same idea that others have used as an intellectual escape and use it to transform your experience of the world—if you take it personally. My main method for doing so is very simple, but it's also very effective. I simply insert my name in about every other sentence, virtually wherever I see the word "you." It's the oddest thing—it makes seemingly dry sentences come to life, it causes new understandings to emerge, it makes reading the Course a highly personal experience, rather than a jumble of abstract, spiritual-sounding words.

Could you briefly summarize what you describe in the book as "a day in the life of the mature Course student"?

PERRY: Most of our days are really about taking care of our bodies and our egos, keeping them safe and looking after their various needs and drives. The Course is slowly training us to have a very different kind of day. It is a day in which we still take care of our bodies and our earthly responsibilities, but in our mind the day is really about the goal of God. That is what we are focused on. So we begin the day with Course study—just a couple of pages is enough—and with Course-based meditation. Then all through the day we do the kind of practice taught to us in the Workbook, which lifts our minds to a place of serenity and joy, and clears out our frequent upsets. We also see ourselves as being on a kind of quiet mission to give miracles to others, not through spewing "Course-speak" at them, but through demonstrating real love and forgiveness in concrete and unassuming ways. And then we end our day as we started, with God.

This all sounds rather extreme, and it really takes years to move into this different sort of day, but it is more than worth it. I believe that having one day like this after another is what will bring real progress. It will move us closer and closer to genuine egolessness, and the fruits of that will show in our lives and in the life of everyone we meet.

You've been intimately involved, whether you wanted to be or not, in the ACIM copyright controversy. Although the issue is not yet settled definitively, the most recent court decision has reversed the previous trend toward preservation of the copyright. Apart from the politics of the moment, what do you see as the larger process that's been going on in this long conflict? What lessons can Course students draw from this process for their own development?

PERRY: My lens through which to see the copyright controversy has come from looking back into the Course's own story. If we look at the story of how the Course was written, we see that its original custodians were fallible human beings, with all the usual foibles, who didn't really understand the nature of the divine story they were part of. They planned to keep the Course mostly to themselves, locked up in their closet, so to speak. Yet whatever unseen presence was really in charge of the show had other ideas. This presence worked through serendipitous, unforeseen events to liberate the Course from their closet, for from the beginning this book was meant as a gift to the world.

Without giving a lengthy explanation, I'll just say that it is not hard to see this very same pattern in what has played out with the copyright controversy. I think history has repeated itself.

What lessons can we take away from this for our own development? I'll just share the things that have been most helpful for me in the midst of my long journey with the copyright controversy. First, don't be surprised at how things can go wrong. As the author of the Course once said to Helen and Bill about some botched events in their lives: "There is nothing of special interest about the events... except their typical nature." This kind of messiness is simply the way things go down here. Why did we think the Course would be exempt from that? Did we really believe that Course students are different from everyone else? Second, forgive. If the Course is our guide, then forgiveness is our response to the insanity of how things go down here. And forgiveness must be worked at; it must be practiced. Third, trust. Trust that, no matter how crazy we humans are, there is an unseen Presence working behind the scenes to bring all situations to an eventual happy ending.

Reprinted with the permission of Fearless Books.

This interview originally appeared on the Fearless Books

Reviews

Reviewer: Fred Davis

06/10/2009 01:48pm

The Course Made Fresh

This is simply a wonderful book, a real breath of fresh air amid some of the arid commentary out there.

If you're interested in the Course, but unsure if it's for you, this is a great place to find out. Or, if you're like I have been in the past, and are something of a wayward student, then you'll find big doses of both inspiration and insight to get you safely back on your Way.

Long-term, faithful students will get "extra credit" for this read. Truly there's something here for everybody. As of this writing I've dug into this book three times and I'm sure there's still gold I have yet to mine. Spend the money, spend the time, get the value.

My experience with Circle Publishing's books is that they are consistently well written, contain great wisdom and are delightful not only to the mind, but also to hand and eye. They are quality productions. This book is no exception and showcases Robert Perry as a gifted communicator and excellent interpreter of A Course in Miracles.

Peace to you.
Fred Davis
Henry Dickens & Co
Member, Antiquarian Book Dealers Association of South Carolina

Reviewer: Dave Stalker

06/10/2009 12:00am

"Thank you for such a beautiful introduction to ACIM with your new book. It has thoroughly convinced me to try the Course out for myself, as well as given me the confidence of knowing how to best approach the material to get the most benefit. I've already turned some friends onto the book, and everyone agrees that it is incredibly inspirational and an excellent primer for the Course. Thank you for that."
—Dave Stalker

Reviewer: Steve Templin

06/10/2009 12:00am

"As a serious Course student for nearly nine years, I found Robert Perry's Path of Light to be helpful to beginners and advanced students alike. Robert organizes the major themes of ACIM in an easy, well-written manner that provides a clear understanding of 'The Course' that is true to its teachings. Robert brings insight to 'walking the path' with his focus on the three necessary facets of experiencing the benefits promised through ACIM: study, practice, and extension . Path of Light is a book that all Course students are sure to treasure."
—Steve Templin

Reviewer: P.B.

06/10/2009 12:00am

"I have just read Path of Light"

"Feels like you have met the need for a clear, accessible, non-daunting answer to the question:'What is A Course in Miracles?'"

"I'm enormously grateful. Should any of my friends and acquaintance ever seek to understand more about the path I follow, and why, I now know where to point them in the first instance."

"And—making my gratitude deeper still—this is the book I will offer my children, at the appropriate time, should they express an interest in getting their minds round 'that weird stuff you and Mum believe.'"

"Thank you, Robert, from the bottom of my heart."
—P.B.

Reviewer: K.S.

06/10/2009 12:00am

"I will first say I am glad to be able to express some thoughts about this book."

"In my opinion the greatest literary work of all time is A Course in Miracles."

"Having stated that, this is quite probably the second most important work. To say I would recommend this book to all students/teachers (and on the fence students) of the course is an understatement. It is indeed the 'blessing' Marianne Williamson was talking about."

"I am a teacher/student of the Course here in South Carolina. I have a group here and I am buying 20 copies to hand out to them. It seems like the map to the Course I was seeking."

"The writing in this book is what a true teacher does. I find myself using metaphor and all types of analogy to explain the Course to members of groups. I also need these metaphors and relations to help me understand. Robert Perry does that brilliantly on Jesus' work."

"Now let me say, anyone who writes about the Course is actually just basing their work on Jesus' words. So the content is already handled. I always find it imperative to seek the Course directly on all matters. But this book gave me new insight, from human/soul to human/soul that I have not uncovered elsewhere. I also knew it to be truth in my heart, the same filter I used to know the truth of the Course. Many writers of the Course tend to make personal judgments in their books; Robert kept true to the Course at every step under a watchful eye."

"Do not hesitate to obtain this book. It is the shoe horn that allows you to slide easily into the Course, and it is a light bulb for longtime Course students and teachers alike."

"God bless..."
—K.S.

Reviewer: Ron Rasmussen

06/10/2009 12:00am

"It is not too often that a book comes along that I feel is truly important at least to students of A Course in Miracles, but one has and I suggest that this book be read by all students of the Course those just starting and those that have been at for a while. Perhaps nothing really new is presented in the book, but what is written is so clearly understandable, it is almost as if I had forgotten some of what I had read previously. Robert does a fantastic job relating to the history of the Course, something we should always have in the back of our minds perhaps. He also does a very thorough job at discussing the three books of the Course and how we should approach them. Again, perhaps nothing new, but a great review for all of us. I will certainly recommend this book to all students of my classes. If I would have had this book when I first started the Course, I just might have had an easier time of itÖbut then again, where I was and how I was, was precisely where and how I was supposed to be. This book is available from Circle of Atonement."
—Ron Rasmussen, Grand Rapids, Minnesota

Reviewer: Frank Redden

06/10/2009 12:00am

"For me this book presents the Course in a more down to earth manner. Many authors and teachers of the Course I have read appear to me to be so heavenly minded about the Course that I go away feeling like I can never measure up."
—Frank Redden, Ft. Thomas, Kentucky

Reviewer: M.K.

06/10/2009 12:00am

"Path of Light I literally had a hard time putting down this book to 'do my daily life.' Thank you, Robert thank you all for your collaborative adventure willingness!"
—M.K.

Reviewer: T.G.

06/10/2009 12:00am

"I received your book yesterday and I was up late last night reading it. (Quite something for this ol' farmer!). You have done a masterful job, Robert. First, I like the way the book is set up. I like the cover and the looks of the print, the color of the pages and its softness. The softness of the form carries on to the content as you beautifully describe this phenomenal path called A Course in Miracles. To be honest with you, your description of the beginnings of the Course made my eyes go misty, it was so beautifully done. You definitely wrote from your heart in each and every section. And along with your clear and sensitive explanations of some the toughest areas of the Course, you write with a sense of deep understanding and good humor."

"I liked your explanations of the Course metaphysics and the creative illustrations, my favorite being the masks of the ego. Your Course interpretations are backed up with sound and practical spiritual and psychological information. Finally, I love he way you ended the book with a call for all Course students to extend love, compassion and forgiveness (extension) to all brothers and sisters in our world."

"Marianne Williamson was right on when she called this book a blessing!"

"I am going to reread it many times."
—T.G.

Reviewer: J.B.

06/10/2009 12:00am

"This book of Robert's is absolutely the best I have read regarding the Course and gives the reader a much deeper vision of ACIM. It is a heart expanding experience to read and I agree with Marianne Williamson's comments. Thank you, Robert, for giving us this book."
—J.B.

Reviewer: J.P.

06/10/2009 12:00am

"I have just finished reading the book—the first of many readings."

"What you have done for the Course is immeasurable. New students will find inspiration to continue, and we who have been on the path for years will be encouraged to seek even deeper depths, thanks to you."

"You are a blessing."
—J.P.

Reviewer: S.G.

06/10/2009 12:00am

"I have just finished reading Path of Light which I enjoyed tremendously. It captures all the essence of the principles of the Course. It seems to me that this beautiful book is the answer to the many confusions that can arise in the mind of Course students. I found amazing how Robert managed to smoothly take the reader through his points and I thank him for illustrating each one of them with vivid examples. This ensured a clear understanding. For one thing (among many), Path of Light has convinced me to read the Course again which I have been avoiding for a long time now. I completely relied on the Circle writings, which of course is a very helpful way and one that has allowed me to find my way back on track. Somehow though, I believed I was unable to understand the Text but thanks to Robert's suggestions on reading the Text, I will attempt it."
—S.G.

Reviewer: G.H.

06/10/2009 12:00am

"The best yet. Path of Light is a classic and we will use it constantly in our teaching."
—G.H and L.H.

Reviewer: Maren Springsteen

06/10/2009 12:00am

"I received your book Path of Light three days ago and have already read quite a bit and just wanted to say a big 'thank you'! I studied the Course for 4 years, with big, miraculous changes in my life since, and had recently gotten off track a little, searching outside myself again, which was clearly not becoming me."

"I had viewed the Course primarily as a teaching without being aware of doing so, sort of like Joan Borysenko describes in her book A Woman's journey to God, in which she elaborates that women tend to have a circular spirituality, sometimes very close to the core or center, sometimes removing ourselves again from it, whereas men tend to climb up 'Jacob's ladder' step by step. Your approach to treat the Course as a path gave me a whole new set of possibilities. I feel like I have come home to the Course again, with more discipline and renewed commitment, and more forgiveness when I make mistakes. Viewing it this way, I find it much easier to step onto it again. I find it quite amazing, really, that I never figured the obvious out myself and can only say, 'Hats off to you' for your guidance in this matter. Thank you very much."
—Maren Springsteen

Reviewer: Lylian

06/10/2009 12:00am

Dear Robert,

I said giving this book to me is already adding wings to my process, but your book is the real gift. I am a bit amazed about what you have filtered out from the Course. How you have structured all the essential things. And although many things are not new for me, there is such a clearification from the crucial points, that is is like a guiding book.

I hope for myself to write a guidingbook too, but in a very very different way. It is the personal en poetic way.

Whatever happens in my life, I know now that God is on my side. Deeply into myself I can feel the glimpses of real innocense. And the Christ in me is shining its light.

Thanks,
and God bless you and your partner en beloved ones!
—Lylian

Reviewer: Michelle

06/10/2009 12:00am

Path of Light: Stepping into Peace with A Course in Miracles by Robert Perry One of my top 5 favorite books on A Course in Miracles

I've always felt that Robert Perry's books offer user-friendly Course teachings, without watering down or compromising the Course's metaphysics.

This book highlights Robert Perry's gift. It's one of the most accessible books summarizing key principles to A Course in Miracles I've ever read.

Robert Perry's ability to build a bridge between deep Course metaphysics and the everyday lives of his audience is no easy feat of engineering. But he pulls it off in this book and even manages to make it look easy.

Pathways of Light is a book for all students of A Course in Miracles, whether a new or long-time student. I purchased two copies—one to highlight and scribble in & the other to share!

—Michelle

Reviewer: Rev. Tony Ponticello

06/10/2009 12:00am

I have gone on the record before as saying that Robert Perry is the best scholar we have writing about A Course in Miracles today and this new book only confirmed that for me. I believe his scholarship is unmatched. Robert finds quotations to illustrate his points that sweep through the entire Course and Robert doesn't make the mistake, I believe some teachers make, of deciding which parts of the Course are the central teaching diminishing other parts as personal (to Helen Schucman) or poetic imagery not to be taken literally. Robert has always viewed the entire Course as equally important and looks for multiple passages with recurrent messages as signifying central Course teachings. Robert continually surprises me with passages I have overlooked as demonstrations of important teachings stated again. As such, I find reinforcement for teachings that, I too, need to see again.

Robert introduces us to the idea of always looking around the sentences preceding certain passages, and perhaps the sentences following them, in order to truly see what the passage in question actually means. To read Robert do this is an impressive display of his scholarship. I will direct readers to page 145. Robert first states the popular Course passage, "The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself" (T-2.V.5.1) In the next two pages Robert explores the surrounding material for conceptual tie-ins and then restates the passage fleshed out in such as way as to add such depth of meaning as to make the passage almost completely different. If Robert has approached the whole Course in this way his conceptual interpretations are indeed something that will inspire us all.

Path Of Light is first and foremost, Robert's own personal story and path. As we read in the A Course in Miracles, "There is one major difference in the role of Heaven's messengers, which sets them off from those the world appoints. The messages that they deliver are intended first for them." (W-pI.154.6.1-2) Robert used to see the Course as a teaching to be learned and he taught it that way for many years. However, now, at the age of 44 with over fifteen books under his belt, having taught innumerable workshops/lectures and after a recent transformation in his own personal life (I'll leave this to your own imagination—if curious, ask Robert.) Robert has found his own perspective has shifted. Robert now sees: living the Course's forgiveness message day to day, daily Text study, daily Workbook lesson practice and joining with the Holy Spirit in everything as the way to achieve the promise of miracles. Unlike many other teachers who may appear to be scholarly, Robert has gotten the message that the Course is training us all to be teacher/healers and he fully encourages students to embrace this direction with a totally open mind. Not one of us will know what this looks like for us and it may indeed be a more formal teacher/pupil relationship. I was happy to see this stressed as it is a long held belief of my own.

The book is very readable and moves smoothly. Robert has included four beautifully rendered and annotated illustrations All four illustrations graphically teach us profound Course concepts and would in and of themselves justify the cost of this book.

In some ways, Path Of Light is a major upgrade and expansion of Robert's previously published pamphlet, The Workbook As A Spiritual Practice (1996). There is a strong emphasis on repeated Workbook practice until a firmly establish daily discipline has become second nature. Robert feels that the failure of students to do this is one of the reasons why the promise in the Course of healing and joy has not been realized by many. When the Course appears to not deliver students drop away from practice. Robert feels that this unfortunate consequence would be easily prevented if we just did what the Course proposes and practice the Workbook lessons as the Course directs us to. "At this point, most students begin drifting away from the Course, either by exploring new paths or simply by opening their books less often. All of this, in my opinion, is the inevitable result of not delving into the inexhaustible goldmine of Course practice." (pg. 154)

Robert thoroughly explores the question, "Is A Course in Miracles to be your personal path?" If indeed, the Course is first and foremost a spiritual path to be walked and not merely an inspirational teaching to be understood, how would we know that it is our spiritual path. Robert then shares his own process of the six reasons he used to answer this question for himself. Readers can then attempt to answer this question for themselves using the same criterion. If readers of this review are trying to decide if this book is a worthy read perhaps they can look at a copy and turn to page 201 where Robert explores this question for himself subtitled "Deciding whether or not the Course is your spiritual path." As we answer these questions for ourselves we will be able to discern whether Path of Light will be a valuable read for us.

Ultimately, this is the audience Path Of Light will appeal to most, those who have already made the decision to see A Course in Miracles as their own spiritual discipline. The rest will, most likely, not be that interested. Although, I see that Robert is hoping to engage those still on the fence to conceptualize the Course in this new way, I think that this book's major benefit will for those who have already accepted the Course as their spiritual path. It will give them scholarly research from the material itself that will justify their own decision. This is a great thing. Doubt is something we all have to cope with. After accepting the Course as one's path we can all expect to doubt that decision from time to time, "Forget not once this journey is begun the end is certain. Doubt along the way will come and go and go to come again. Yet is the ending sure." (C-ep.1.1-3) Path may be just the thing we need to get us over these humps and keep us practicing and walking the path. As such, it is invaluable. While it may seem to be like "preaching to the choir" to some—as a minister who has many times given talks designed to inspire new people to an audience primarily of old diehards, I can attest that even the choir needs a consistent cheerleader. Perhaps they need it even more than we all realize. I have thought of the Course as my spiritual path for many years and I too, as apparently Robert has, have seen many people drop out of practice because they were not able to understand the importance of pushing through these periods of doubt and fear. "You are severely tempted to abandon Him at the outside ring of fear, but He would lead you safely through and far beyond." (T-18.IX.3.9)

I believe the upgrade to Perry_4.0 to be most significant in that his teaching is now an important tool in dealing with these severe temptations when they occur. This seems, to me, to be Robert's new mature approach. Along with expertly, and with impeccable scholarship, teaching us the Course's thought system, Robert wants to become our companion on a spiritual path that with take constant effort and guidance. Robert, in Path of Light, is dedicating the next phase of his teaching/healing life to being this companion and reminder.

While the next passage obviously refers to the Holy Spirit I believe Robert is challenging himself to be the voice for the Holy Spirit in the world for this cause. He has dedicated his life to providing the "constant, clear-cut direction" mentioned in the following. "You have learning handicaps in a very literal sense. There are areas in your learning skills that are so impaired that you can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction, provided by a Teacher Who can transcend your limited resources." (T-12.V.5.1-2) Robert's resources of scholarship may indeed be better than our own limited abilities, and perhaps this is his own special function. As such, I intend to use him and be glad. I accept this new upgrade and intend to upgrade my own hardware, operating system and processor to be able to handle the increase in power demanded.

Reviewer: Beatrice Theodorou

06/10/2009 12:00am

(This article first appeared in Miracles Monthly, July, 2004 / Vol. 18, No. 5, published by Community Miracles Center, San Francisco, CA. (415)621-2556 / miracles@earthlink. It is used here by advanced permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.)

What is A Course in Miracles®? This is a question that I am asked over and over, on a regular basis. I answer to the best of my ability and in accord with my growing understanding and relationship with the Course. Sometimes I end up feeling, however, that my answer is not quite good enough. Well Robert Perry has just made my job a whole lot easier. I now need only refer the inquirer to Chapter Two in Robert Perry's newest book Path of Light—Stepping Into Peace With A Course in Miracles, an expertly thought—out, deeply thorough and comprehensive introduction to the Course, as well as a much needed map which brilliantly navigates us through seemingly uncharted waters.

It is not uncommon for students of the Course to struggle with its use of language, writing style, as well as the unique concepts it puts forth. In Chapter Six, Robert presents us with a system for reading the Course in a manner which offers maximum comprehension and affords the student the ability to reap the bountiful harvest which the Course is offering us, "Enlightenment involves untangling a knot in the mind, and study of spiritual truths is an essential process. ... We must approach it [the Course] not as if we are learning a new batch of information, but as if we are being taught a new way of thinking, a new way of seeing the world." (p.131) He then goes on to say that, "... while we may think normal language is understandable and the Course is incoherent, the reverse is actually true: We will never be able to make sense of our world, yet one day the Course will make perfect sense to us. Its teaching is our true native tongue." (p.134) Then, as is the case throughout the book, Robert presents us with material from the Course which supports what was just read, except now, through Robert's singular talent, a quote which may have previously been confusing, shines forth brilliantly with greater meaning and understanding. This is one of Robert's gifts to us. The man has sincerely immersed himself, body and soul into the rich and complex waters of the Course and has emerged with all manner of treasure, which he graciously and masterfully offers to us in this wonderful new book.

Path of Light is written by a man who has obviously awoken to his "special function", and is fulfilling it with the insight, grace and respect that can only come from a life surrendered to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I myself have never quite absorbed the concept of the special function, nor believed I had one until I read what Robert had to say about it.

"In my experience, the special function is absolutely for real (that is as real as anything is in this unreal world). There really is a specific role that has been assigned to each one of us. This role lies there silently waiting for us, almost like some kind of electronic mechanism in sleep mode, waiting for a signal to set it in motion. That signal is usually sent by some critical shift or breakthrough in our inner development, some new plateau we've reached in our journey up the mountain. At that point the mechanism comes to life, and starts to exert a pressure on our lives, pushing us to take certain paths instead of others, nudging us into meeting certain people, awakening new interests in us. All the while it is sending us hints about what our function will be. Some of these hints will be actual snapshots of that function, though even while looking directly at them, we'll probably not appreciate their significance. The time will come, though, when we begin to mentally link one snapshot to another. It then occurs to us, that Someone has been sending us a series of pictures of the same thing, and that this thing is no small matter; it is our destiny. Now we can start to actively pursue this destiny. Part of what spurs us on is our recognition that the function we're glimpsing suits us perfectly. It is as if some Mind that knows us better than we know ourselves has locked into us and unerringly seen the best in us—our talents and abilities, our buried aspirations and dreams, our deepest yearnings for the sublime—and wrapped it all into a package that is the perfect vehicle for expressing the best in us." (p.179)

Is that good or what? I know that I've practically lifted this whole section, but I just can't help it! In fact the entire book is chock filled with beautifully descriptive passages which display a profound understanding of the Course concepts, many of which are coming to life for me for the first time. This guy really gets it! More importantly, he knows how to help us get it.

Another favorite section of mine is the section on Heaven, where Robert first starts off describing what seems to be the nature of our dilemma here in what we call the world.

"Heaven is the complete absence of all the painful and limiting elements we experience here on earth. We spend our lives trying to avoid suffering here, yet our suffering is an automatic consequence of the basic nature of space and time. Space involves finite objects that are separate from each other, that often clash and collide, and that are vulnerable and eventually disintegrate. So what? you might ask. The problem is that in space we are one of those objects, which means that we experience ourselves as tiny, alone, in conflict, easily damaged, and doomed to die. Time means change. Time is a churning river in which objects constantly arise, change and pass away. While we ride this river, we are at its mercy. We arise and change and pass away, and we see everything around us do the same. Nothing is stable, nothing can be counted on. We see friends turn into enemies, we see loved ones disappear, and we see our own body begin to crumble, before the river's current drags it down and it vanishes. The very nature of space and time chews us up and spits us out. How can we be happy in such a realm?" (p.74)

Good question Robert, no wonder I have been having such a hard time.

I met Robert Perry only once, at Miracle Experience #19 (September 2002), at which he was our guest speaker. What came through loud and clear for me, even before he uttered his first words, was his love, respect and appreciation for the awesome gift that is A Course in Miracles. There are people who teach the Course and then there are those who are Teachers of the Course. Robert clearly falls into the latter category—so when I found out that he was coming out with a new book which focused on the Course as a path to be walked rather than merely a teaching to be studied, was I interested? You bet I was. Ready to take my practice to the next level, it was my hope that Path would provide me with the tools I felt I needed. I was not disappointed. Path of Light, a work of art in its own right, confirmed my initial take on Robert Perry and his complete and utter dedication to understanding the Course, practicing it, and helping others to do the same. Robert, I sure am glad you woke up to your special function. We are all the better off for it.

"The Course speaks of Great Rays streaming out from behind each body, 'so unlimited that they reach to God.' When we see this we are actually seeing a piece of reality, a little part of Heaven." (p.93) In Path of Light, Robert Perry helps us to come a little bit closer to seeing that "little part of Heaven." Thank you Robert.

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