How A Course in Miracles and Yoga Taught Me to Choose Love instead of Fear

Prema Posner
Jul 23
4 min read

Updated: Aug 5

My Own Journey with the Course

I discovered A Course in Miracles during my first year of college in 1992. I had always been drawn to spiritual texts, including Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, and Hinduism. I would wander through metaphysical bookstores, running my fingers along the spines of all the great books written by spiritual masters from all over the world.

One day, I spotted a book: deep blue with gold lettering—something about it whispered to me. I opened it, read a few lines, and didn’t quite understand it. But I knew I had to have it. I bought it.

For years, I danced with that book — opening it, closing it, returning to it when I needed guidance, flipping to lessons out of order. It felt sacred but dense. Then I read "A Return to Love" by Marianne Williamson, which made the teachings more accessible to me.

Marianne’s explanation was like a lamp in a dark room—it helped me see the basic premise: we can always choose love over fear. (Learn more about A Return to Love: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Return_to_Love )

Later, while living in an intentional spiritual community at Mount Madonna in Northern California, I began to study the Course alongside Yoga. The two paths met beautifully. When community living felt challenging, I would whisper to myself, See only love. That mantra became a practice.

Years later, during my divorce, I returned to the Course again for support and guidance. Forgiveness felt impossible. The pain of holding on was burning me alive. He was across the world, living freely. I was the one suffering.

I joined a local ACIM study group and began to work through the Workbook lessons — 365 spiritual mind-training exercises, one for each day. Slowly, gently, the Course rewired me. I began to forgive. I began to breathe. I began to return to love.

The Mysterious and Miraculous Origins

In the mid-1960s, Dr. Helen Schucman, a professor at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, began hearing an inner voice.

She wasn’t a mystic. She wasn’t religious. She described herself as “a stubborn and resistant atheist.” But one day, while working with her colleague and co-chair of the psychology department, Dr. William Thetford, a voice spoke clearly within her:

“This is a course in miracles. Please take notes.”

At first, she feared she was losing her mind. As a respected academic in clinical psychology, Schucman was familiar with the pathology of auditory hallucinations. Nervously, she confided in Thetford, who surprised her with a calm and open response:

“Why don’t you take notes?”

So she did.

Over the next seven years, between 1965 and 1972, Helen transcribed nearly 1,500 pages of inner dictation in shorthand. The voice, which she later identified as Jesus, spoke in poetic, deeply metaphysical language. And with Thetford’s help—he typed up her notes—they completed what became the spiritual masterpiece known as A Course in Miracles.

Learn more about Helen Schucman and the history of ACIM here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Schucmanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Course_in_Miracles

This Week’s Lesson: God is in Everything I See (Lesson 29)

At first glance, this statement might seem abstract. But let’s explore what it really means.

Lesson 29 from A Course in Miracles teaches us that the sacred is not separate from the world—it’s in it. In the eyes of a stranger, in the quiet of a tree, in a cup of tea, in a painful conversation.

"God is in everything I see."

This isn’t about a deity outside of us. This is the Divine as Presence. As Love. As the clear seeing that arises when the veil of fear is lifted.

How This Mirrors Our Yoga Practice

In yoga, we’re taught to move from separation to unity. We chant So Hum — I am That. We study Advaita — non-duality. We practice Ahimsa — non-harming, because we recognize ourselves in others.

The Course simply offers us another door into the same house.

When you come into Child’s Pose, can you feel the Divine in your breath? When you encounter discomfort in a posture or a relationship, can you soften into love?

When your thoughts swirl in judgment or fear, can you practice choosing again?

The Course and yoga are not in conflict—they are companions. One works through the body, breath, and stillness; the other through the mind, forgiveness, and inner perception. Together, they create a practice of whole-being transformation.

The Summer of Miracles Begins Now

If your heart has been longing… if you’ve been asking for clarity… if you’ve wanted to feel peace but didn’t know how to reach it… Let this be your invitation.

Let this moment be the beginning.

This summer, I’m offering a space for us to journey into the lessons of A Course in Miracles through the lens of yoga, meditation, and soulful living. It’s a chance to walk together, to deepen into trust, and to rediscover that the miracle is already here.

Sign up for my Summer of Miracles classes —and let this be the moment your miracle begins. Even reading this blog is part of it.

I look forward to walking this path with you.

With love, always,

Prema