William Thetford

William N. Thetford, Ph.D. (April 23, 1923–July 4, 1988) was one of the three primary transcriber-editors of the work known as A Course In Miracles (or ACIM). He was trained as a psychologist, and remained professionally active in this field throughout his life. He directly assisted Dr. Helen Shucman in the initial transcription of the ACIM material, and also with its initial edits. He died in 1988, aged 65, in Tiburon, California, after having made his involvement with the ACIM material and its study the most central focus of his l ...

Including:

• William Thetford - Early childhood
• William Thetford - University education
• William Thetford - Career and hiring of Dr. Helen Schucman
• William Thetford - Thetford's Invitation for ACIM
• William Thetford - The years of ACIM transcription
• William Thetford - Move to California
• William Thetford - Anecdotal accounts of Thetford's California life
• William Thetford - Related Links

Read more here: » William Thetford: Encyclopedia - William Thetford

Finally in October of that year, the transcriptions of what is now known as ACIM first began. According to both Thetford and Schucman, due to Schucman’s intensely divided feelings about the work of the transcription, Schucman would at times require a great deal of reassurance from Thetford in order to complete the process that eventually resulted in the first typewritten copy of ACIM, (which later became known as the Urtext). According to Thetford, Schucman was sitting at home on the night of October 21st, when she heard an internal ...

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William Thetford, William Thetford - Early childhood, William Thetford - University education, William Thetford - Career and hiring of Dr. Helen Schucman, William Thetford - Thetford's Invitation for ACIM, William Thetford - The years of ACIM transcription, William Thetford - Move to California, William Thetford - Anecdotal accounts of Thetford's California life, William Thetford - Related Links

Read more here: » William Thetford: Encyclopedia II - William Thetford - The years of ACIM transcription

In 1982, Kenneth Wapnick entered into his second marriage with Gloria Wapnick, whom he met as a result of an encounter at an ACIM related event. The following year, Kenneth and Gloria Wapnick founded the Foundation for A Course in Miracles (or FACIM) in New York state. The foundation served initially as a residential teaching organization, but with the 2001 move to Temecula, California, the foundation evolved into a daytime teaching institute with an Electronic Outreach program. Also during the years after the initial publicati ...

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Kenneth Wapnick, Kenneth Wapnick - Childhood, Kenneth Wapnick - Higher education and early career, Kenneth Wapnick - Consideration of a Roman Catholic monastic vocation, Kenneth Wapnick - Introduction to Schucman and Thetford, Kenneth Wapnick - Initial impression of the ACIM manuscript, Kenneth Wapnick - Early involvement in editing and publishing of ACIM, Kenneth Wapnick - Subsequent involvement in publication and teaching of ACIM, Kenneth Wapnick - Related links, Kenneth Wapnick - Footnote references

Read more here: » Kenneth Wapnick: Encyclopedia II - Kenneth Wapnick - Subsequent involvement in publication and teaching of ACIM

Kenneth was born to a culturally Jewish family that was only semi-observant in Jewish religious practice. His upbringing continued in Brooklyn during which he attended a traditional Jewish elementary school, or Yeshiva, for the first eight grades of his education. After his completion of the Yeshiva training, much to his relief, Kenneth was permitted to attend public schools. By this point, Kenneth considered himself to be an agnostic, sensing numerous points of personal incompatibility between his own temperament and the overall temper ...

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Kenneth Wapnick, Kenneth Wapnick - Childhood, Kenneth Wapnick - Higher education and early career, Kenneth Wapnick - Consideration of a Roman Catholic monastic vocation, Kenneth Wapnick - Introduction to Schucman and Thetford, Kenneth Wapnick - Initial impression of the ACIM manuscript, Kenneth Wapnick - Early involvement in editing and publishing of ACIM, Kenneth Wapnick - Subsequent involvement in publication and teaching of ACIM, Kenneth Wapnick - Related links, Kenneth Wapnick - Footnote references

Read more here: » Kenneth Wapnick: Encyclopedia II - Kenneth Wapnick - Childhood

During the course of the many transitions that were required for Wapnick’s planned entrance into the monastic life, Wapnick was introduced to a few different priests and related circles of friends. Amongst these new introductions were two psychologists who stood out in particular. These two psychologists were introduced to him as a result of some of their shared interests in the psychology of religious experience. These were Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford of the Columbia University School of Medicine, to whom Wapnick was first ...

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Kenneth Wapnick, Kenneth Wapnick - Childhood, Kenneth Wapnick - Higher education and early career, Kenneth Wapnick - Consideration of a Roman Catholic monastic vocation, Kenneth Wapnick - Introduction to Schucman and Thetford, Kenneth Wapnick - Initial impression of the ACIM manuscript, Kenneth Wapnick - Early involvement in editing and publishing of ACIM, Kenneth Wapnick - Subsequent involvement in publication and teaching of ACIM, Kenneth Wapnick - Related links, Kenneth Wapnick - Footnote references

Read more here: » Kenneth Wapnick: Encyclopedia II - Kenneth Wapnick - Introduction to Schucman and Thetford

Continuing with his strong interest in Beethoven and Mozart, and also with new interests developing in various religious literatures, Wapnick enrolled in college in 1960 and majored in psychology. He received his bachelor's degree in 1965, and continued on in a Ph.D. program in clinical psychology. For his doctoral thesis, Wapnick chose the topic of St. Teresa of Avila, the famous sixteenth century Spanish mystic. Thus perhaps he made the first practical ...

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Kenneth Wapnick, Kenneth Wapnick - Childhood, Kenneth Wapnick - Higher education and early career, Kenneth Wapnick - Consideration of a Roman Catholic monastic vocation, Kenneth Wapnick - Introduction to Schucman and Thetford, Kenneth Wapnick - Initial impression of the ACIM manuscript, Kenneth Wapnick - Early involvement in editing and publishing of ACIM, Kenneth Wapnick - Subsequent involvement in publication and teaching of ACIM, Kenneth Wapnick - Related links, Kenneth Wapnick - Footnote references

Read more here: » Kenneth Wapnick: Encyclopedia II - Kenneth Wapnick - Higher education and early career

Recognizing his personal fondness for the simplicity of the monastic lifestyle, he began to develop an interest in doing personal research into monasticism. This interest eventually led him to visit the Roman Catholic Trappist monastery of Gethsemani in Kentucky (the same monastery in which the famous monk and author, Thomas Merton had once lived). At the Gethsemani monastery he felt a sense of deep tranquility and belonging come over himself. His experience at the Gethsemani monastery was so profound, that it convinced him then and t ...

See also:

Kenneth Wapnick, Kenneth Wapnick - Childhood, Kenneth Wapnick - Higher education and early career, Kenneth Wapnick - Consideration of a Roman Catholic monastic vocation, Kenneth Wapnick - Introduction to Schucman and Thetford, Kenneth Wapnick - Initial impression of the ACIM manuscript, Kenneth Wapnick - Early involvement in editing and publishing of ACIM, Kenneth Wapnick - Subsequent involvement in publication and teaching of ACIM, Kenneth Wapnick - Related links, Kenneth Wapnick - Footnote references

Read more here: » Kenneth Wapnick: Encyclopedia II - Kenneth Wapnick - Consideration of a Roman Catholic monastic vocation

In 1978 Thetford resigned from his positions at both Columbia University and at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. In 1980 he packed up his household, and at the apparent invitation of Judith Skutch Whitson, moved to Tiburon California, where Whitson was by now employed full time in the publication and distribution of ACIM. Now at age 57, in Tiburon Thetford transitioned into a sort of semi-retirement, no longer accepting any demanding positions of heavy responsibility in either his professional life, or in his involvement with the ever ...

See also:

William Thetford, William Thetford - Early childhood, William Thetford - University education, William Thetford - Career and hiring of Dr. Helen Schucman, William Thetford - Thetford's Invitation for ACIM, William Thetford - The years of ACIM transcription, William Thetford - Move to California, William Thetford - Anecdotal accounts of Thetford's California life, William Thetford - Related Links

Read more here: » William Thetford: Encyclopedia II - William Thetford - Move to California

During one such interchange with his friend Judith Skutch Whitson, Whitson describes calling Thetford during a moment of extremely high tension in her relationship with Jampolski. In the phone conversation Whitson went on at length, describing what she perceived to be Jampolski’s many faults. Thetford listened intently until Whitson finally ran out of breath. He then quietly said, "Judy, the Course (ACIM) can be summed up in the question, 'Are you willing to see your brother sinless?' " "No!" Whitson screamed. "Well, dea ...

See also:

William Thetford, William Thetford - Early childhood, William Thetford - University education, William Thetford - Career and hiring of Dr. Helen Schucman, William Thetford - Thetford's Invitation for ACIM, William Thetford - The years of ACIM transcription, William Thetford - Move to California, William Thetford - Anecdotal accounts of Thetford's California life, William Thetford - Related Links

Read more here: » William Thetford: Encyclopedia II - William Thetford - Anecdotal accounts of Thetford's California life

Thetford was born on April 23, 1923 in Chicago, Illinois to John R. and Mabel K. Thetford as the youngest of three children. At the time of his birth and early childhood, his parents were both regular members of the Christian Science Church. At the age of seven, the untimely death of his older sister caused his parents to disavow their affiliation with the Church of Christian Science. Afterwards, for the next few years, Thet ...

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William Thetford, William Thetford - Early childhood, William Thetford - University education, William Thetford - Career and hiring of Dr. Helen Schucman, William Thetford - Thetford's Invitation for ACIM, William Thetford - The years of ACIM transcription, William Thetford - Move to California, William Thetford - Anecdotal accounts of Thetford's California life, William Thetford - Related Links

Read more here: » William Thetford: Encyclopedia II - William Thetford - Early childhood

Following graduation from high school, he was awarded a four-year scholarship to DePauw University in Indiana where he graduated with majors in psychology and pre-medicine in 1944. During the course of his university studies, Thetford eventually settled on the idea of specializing in psychology, and in 1949 he received his Ph.D. in this field from the University of Chicago. While he was a student during the early 1940s he served for a time as an administrative assistant for the Manhattan Project, the WWII atom bomb development project ...

See also:

William Thetford, William Thetford - Early childhood, William Thetford - University education, William Thetford - Career and hiring of Dr. Helen Schucman, William Thetford - Thetford's Invitation for ACIM, William Thetford - The years of ACIM transcription, William Thetford - Move to California, William Thetford - Anecdotal accounts of Thetford's California life, William Thetford - Related Links

Read more here: » William Thetford: Encyclopedia II - William Thetford - University education

For the next five years after his graduation in 1949, Thetford worked as a research psychologist in both Chicago, and later in Washington, DC. He spent 1954 and 1955 as the director of clinical psychology at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. From 1955 to 1957 he was an assistant professor of psychology at Cornell University. In 1958 he accepted an assistant professorship, which later developed into a full professorship, at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. During a portion of this same period ...

See also:

William Thetford, William Thetford - Early childhood, William Thetford - University education, William Thetford - Career and hiring of Dr. Helen Schucman, William Thetford - Thetford's Invitation for ACIM, William Thetford - The years of ACIM transcription, William Thetford - Move to California, William Thetford - Anecdotal accounts of Thetford's California life, William Thetford - Related Links

Read more here: » William Thetford: Encyclopedia II - William Thetford - Career and hiring of Dr. Helen Schucman

The working relationship between Thetford and Schucman was apparently often somewhat strained, yet throughout these difficulties they would always maintain a certain level of professional courtesy and respect for one another. The story is often retold that it was into this environment of inter-relational strain between Thetford and Schucman that the ACIM material was in a sense first “invited” into this world. This “invitation” came in the form of an exclamation by Thetford one day, in the midst of one of their periodic difficulties, ...

See also:

William Thetford, William Thetford - Early childhood, William Thetford - University education, William Thetford - Career and hiring of Dr. Helen Schucman, William Thetford - Thetford's Invitation for ACIM, William Thetford - The years of ACIM transcription, William Thetford - Move to California, William Thetford - Anecdotal accounts of Thetford's California life, William Thetford - Related Links

Read more here: » William Thetford: Encyclopedia II - William Thetford - Thetford's Invitation for ACIM