Never Forget To Laugh: Personal Recollections of Bill Thetford, Co-Scribe of A Course In Miracles

by Carol M. Howe

This comprehensive biography integrates the facts of Bill Thetford’s life with Course teachings and the personal reflections of more than thirty friends, presenting an intimate portrait of his life and spiritual journey. As a brilliant and accomplished psychologist, he became one of the world’s foremost authorities on how the ego develops, then served as a conduit for A Course in Miracles , which provides a way to dissolve that ego. Bill’s own path to awakening provides a proven, timeless guide to successfully replacing grievances with grace and peace of mind.

Genres: Spirituality, Biography

352 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2009

Reviews

[Aalif]

One of the basic rules one is taught in writing is 'Show, Don't Tell'. This seems to elude the author of this book unfortunately. Bill comes across as an affable, down-to-earth, sincere seeker of Truth thanks mainly to many people saying this again and again. Yet, there are few anecdotes or incidents that capture this. One of the few incidents repeated is this popular ACIM anecdote:

'One of Judy’s favorite stories is about a time when she was utterly furious with Jerry and caught in the grip of her own anger. Not to put too fine a point on it, she was having a fit! She called Bill and ranted to him about Jerry’s various shortcomings. Bill’s calm response was, “Are you willing to see your brother sinless?” She shouted that no, she was not! He said to her, “When you’re ready to do just that, you will feel much better,” and hung up.'

What is interesting though are the urText selections (which were deleted from the ACIM final book because they were too personal) offering a razor-sharp insight into Bill's foibles. This section addresses both his assessment of his unworthiness and the defenses he employed to cope with it.

But finally, the entire price of the book was worth it for me to read this one sentence: 'Bill often said that his major prayer was “Help!” or the expanded version, “Help me do this!” It was no more specific than that, regarding either the subject or object of his prayer.'

[Raina Casarez]

As a first year ACIM student, after many years of circling it, I was compelled to purchase this book. I absolutely loved it. It's one thing to study the Course and another to read about someone who committed himself to living it daily. That's my goal. To integrate ACIM into everything I do, think, say.

Also, it seemed to give me a glimpse of what I still have left to give up to wake up. I recommend this to everyone who wants to see integrity allowed to transform your life.

[Christopher Miller]

If you want to be free of the prison of your body in this three dimentional world, you could not do better than to emulate the life of Bill Thetford. A truly inspired book about his life. Blessings.

[Ruki]

It's great to get to know Bill but I came away feeling that the book didn't exactly convey the essence of who he was. We keep being told over and over that he was all of these things, but to me the essence of the man didn't come through except at the very end, in the description of his last two days in human form.

It's a very important chronicle of the life of one of the two main people responsible for being ACIM into existence and the author has drawn on a number of sources to attempt to give as full a picture as possible of Bill Thetford
.

[Kevin Orth]

I imagine a common assumption is that people like Bill Thetford and Helen Shucman walked around in rarified air all the time once they started working on A Course in Miracles. It is refreshing to see chronicled that they remained very human, with flaws, issues, shadow emotions, uncertainties, and challenges through the process of writing this masterpiece and after.

What is also remarkable is how little 'ownership' they took of the work. They labored over it for many years but still had the depth of character and wisdom to know they were the conduits through which it was communicated and not something that came out of their imaginative minds or personal insight.

[Phil Mullen]

This surprised me by being much *better* than I'd anticipated:
better-researched & annotated;
better, in that it's franker & disclosed more;
better, in that it lifts Bill Thetford out of relative obscurity (compared to Helen S.), &
makes him a rounded character, engaged in his own practice of the Course.

Carol Howe herself is a responsible author, careful to state delicate matters delicately.

This I recommend!