Nowadays it might be confusing for newbie Coursies to figure out which edition of “A Course in Miracles” to buy and why.

How to decide?  The best one to ask is your Inner Teacher, the Holy Spirit.

I grew up on the Foundation for Inner Peace’s edition, and it got me to where I needed to be.  But when I learned that there was MORE material that wasn’t in that edition, I had to get my hands on what I was missing.  And it has been to my benefit.  My understanding of the Course has deepened, and the Voice of the Course has really come alive to me.

There are 4 main editions out on the market:

  1. The Foundation for Inner Peace edition, published by the FIP. (Read online HERE)
  2. The Original edition, published by the Course in Miracles Society (Read online HERE)
  3. The Sparkle edition, published by the Thetford Foundation (Read online HERE)
  4. The Urtext Manuscripts, published by Miracles in Action Press (Read online HERE)

All of these can be read for free online. The Thetford Foundation even gives out hard copies of the Sparkle edition for FREE, and you can send a donation if you feel so moved.

My experience has been that the Original edition and the Sparkle edition (both variations of what is known as the “Hugh Lynn Cayce edition”) are easier to read (fellow students in our study group have said the same thing). The Original Edition and Sparkle Edition have about 10,000 more words included, which never made it into the FIP edition. The text of the Foundation for Inner Peace edition reads more like a textbook. The Urtext manuscripts are earlier transcriptions of the Course and the manuscripts contain a lot of material which was omitted in subsequent versions.

There are 2 articles which go into detail about the various editions, which helped my understanding of the differences. Check out these articles by the Community Miracles Center and the Course in Miracles Society.

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