The Foundation for Inner Peace

In 1972 Judith and Robert Skutch founded and chartered under the State of New York's nonprofit organization laws, the Foundation for Inner Peace. It was initially called the Foundation for ParaSensory Investigation. This early name reflected the Foundation's educational interest and support of parapsychological research in academia at the time.

In 1975, Judith Skutch met with Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford in their office at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. After exploring many common interests, Helen and Bill revealed to Judith their well-kept secret regarding a document they had scribed called A Course in Miracles. Bound by common enthusiasm for this remarkable spiritual teaching, the group began meeting regularly. Within months the decision was made to publish A Course in Miracles. The Foundation for Inner Peace was established as trustee and publisher of the Course. The Foundation for Inner Peace published the first edition of A Course in Miracles in 1975, and the rest is a bit of wonderful history.

Early History

The 1st edition of A Course in Miracles was published in 1975 as a 4-volume set of books. Vol. 1 contains Chapters 1-14 of the "Text" section of the Course, Vol. 2 contains Chapters 15-30 of the "Text" section of the Course, Vol. 3 contains the "Workbook" section of the Course, and Vol. 4 contains the "Teacher's Manual" section of the Course. The Foundation for Parasensory Investigation - founded and run by Judith Skutch and her husband Robert E. Skutch - was the publisher of the 1st edition of the Course, and also held the 1975 Copyright to the work. The Freeperson Press, a small privately owned printing/publishing company located at 325 Ninth Street in San Francisco, California, did the actual printing and binding of the 1st edition of the Course. The edition published by the Foundation for Inner Peace claims that the course "was published in three volumes in June 1976". The 1st edition of the Course consisted, in total, of 300 sets of the 4-volume Course. These 300 sets of the 4-volumeCourse were printed and bound - over a period of several months in 1975 - by the Freeperson Press. Eleanor Camp Criswell, owner/manager of the Freeperson Press, was in charge of the printing and binding of the 1st edition of the Course. Consequently, it has become customary to refer to the 1st edition of the Course either as the "Criswell edition" or the "Freeperson Press edition." Criswell only printed 100 sets of the 4-volumeCourse at a time - as they were needed for sale and distribution - so the 1st edition of the Course is actually three separate "printings" of the books. The "first printing" of the "1st edition," consisting of the first 100 4-volume sets of the Course printed by Criswell, were bound in yellow covers. The "second printing" of the "1st edition," consisting of the next 100 4-volume sets of the Course printed by Criswell, were bound in white covers. The "third printing" of the "1st edition," consisting of the final 100 4-volume sets of the Course printed by Criswell, were bound in blue covers. By February 1976, all 300 4-volume sets of the "Criswell edition" of the Course had been sold and/or distributed.

In 1975, Dr. Schucman assigned copyright of the Course to the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP). In 1996 FIP assigned the copyright and trademark to our affiliated organization, the Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM). Currently there are nearly three million copies of the Course in circulation worldwide including translations in Afrikaans, Bulgarian, Chinese-Simplified, Chinese-Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovene, Spanish, and Swedish with more to come.

Our affiliated organization, the Foundation for A Course in Miracles is an Academy and Retreat Center for A Course in Miracles located in Temecula, CA. It was founded in 1983 by Dr. Kenneth Wapnick and Gloria Wapnick. As a teaching center, it was conceived and has always functioned as a school for A Course in Miracles under the direction of Kenneth and Gloria Wapnick—husband and wife—who served as both administrators and faculty members until the passing of Dr. Kenneth Wapnick in December 2013. The Foundation for A Course in Miracles continues the work of Dr. Kenneth Wapnick under the guidance of Gloria Wapnick.

On June 13, 2014, the copyright to the book, A Course in Miracles, and trademarks of A Course in Miracles were transferred from the Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM) back to the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) through a joint agreement.