Bill Thetford’s Healing Moment & Mine

This article was inspired from reading Bill Thetford's autobiography, "William Newton Thetford, Ph.D. – Life Story."

The other day while reviewing ACIM, I became interested in delving into the life of Bill Thetford, who played an essential role along with scribe, Helen Schucman in the birthing of A Course in Miracles. William Thetford has certainly had an interesting Spiritual Path so if you’re interested in learning more, here’s a link to his free autobiography available online, however, in this article I will only have enough space to cover it briefly and then demonstrate how ACIM affected me positively as well.

William Newton Thetford was born into a poor family of coal miners in Southern Illinois. His parents were Christian Scientists. At age seven his sister, who was two years older died. Around the same time he overheard the doctor tell his mother that he (Bill) had but a 50 – 50 chance of survival, and if he did live he would probably be an invalid. Bill was very sick and confined to bed. He then made a decision that he was not going to be an invalid or die. He had to stay out of school for three years while his mother nursed and tutored him. His joints were twisted by the rheumatic fever and as a result he had a postural problem. When he was 10 years old, he learned to walk again and was then able to attend a public school. It was a difficult adjustment, however he adapted fairly well and even got a few grade promotions which allowed him to graduate from high school at age 12!

He thought, “At that time, I had a feeling of leaving one life behind and starting another. Something about my illness seemed like a death followed by a rebirth. It marked the end of my childhood; it was as if a new persona emerged.” This feeling of being 'rebirthed' was to be a recurrent theme throughout his life.

Bill's family did not put a premium on education, and because he was physically disabled Bill knew he would eventually have to find a way to support himself or, as his father feared, he might end up 'on the public dole.' Thanks to his aptitude for reading and learning Bill eventually obtained a PhD., which his ignorant father thought was simply a waste of paper. His pursuit of higher education eventually led him to meeting and working with some of the luminaries in the field of psychology and because of that he was recruited by the CIA in 1951 for special duties.

As I was reading his autobiography, somewhere about halfway through, after the ACIM had been channeled, he decided that he needed to try to apply the principles in his working life. At that time he had been working with a colleague on trying to solve some difficult problems they were having at Columbia. But no matter what Bill suggested as a solution it was always met with a negative attitude or it wasn't quite good enough. After Bill had experienced enough frustration, he decided to apply his ACIM understanding to the situation. He therefor decided he would not respond in his characteristic way, become upset, become defensive or engage in counter attacks.

This difficulty went on for some time until one morning he wasn't able to stop by his colleagues office and then later received a phone call wherein the colleague said, “aren't you coming by today, is everything ok?” After that Bill realized that something had shifted and so the next time they met, Bill started practicing Forgiveness instead of attack. Afterwards their relationship improved to the point that later when they were scheduled to attend a conference out of town; and it was customary to for them to have to share accommodations, at his point his colleague said, “there is no one I would rather share a room with than you Bill, can we do that?” This was an extraordinary healing for both of them. And I think this demonstrates how the use of ACIM can transform a negative relationship into one of joy.

This story caused me to recall a healing incident I had some years ago while I was working in the corporate arena of a Fortune 500 corporation in Chicago where I had recently been hired as an audio-visual producer. I had just graduated from college and had a lot of experience producing educational videos for the college and local cable, so I was very anxious to implement what I knew could work for this Fortune 500 as well. My boss was all for it, however there was a difficult manager a level above him who held the purse strings, and we just did not get along. No matter what I tried he just kept arguing and posed a roadblock to my ideas.

One day I went into his office, looked him straight in the eye, and said “Hey, Connie, (his name was Conrad) you know, I really enjoy arguing with you!” Then I waited a few seconds, and he came back with a big smile and said, “You know Steve, I really enjoy arguing with you too! And from that point on our relationship improved 100% and he went on to approve budgets which allowed me to travel around the country shooting video communication videos which were used to cross-pollinate upper level managers. This concept was well received because within the next year or so I was asked to produce 30 additional videos for numerous divisions!

What had happened here? It's obvious that when I stopped seeing the boss as the enemy and let him know that I enjoyed working with him, something changed. In terms of improving relationships, isn't this is what we all need to do? Take it from the Course in Miracles. When you apply the principle of Forgiveness, everything starts to flow and Life becomes joyous instead of tedious! Get Bill Thetford’s autobiography here at the Foundation For Inner Peace website. https://acim.org/

If you'd like to read a more serious in-depth overview of Bill Thetford's life, I suggest Carol Howe's review which is located HERE - The Healing of Bill Thetford.