Apparently, Robert Skutch was married to Judith Skutch, He talked about himself in the third person which was kind of weird. A lot of Journey Without Distance was weird to me. It seemed like an advertisement for ACIM, which I suppose would make sense because Robert Skutch once wrote advertising copy for a living. I found it to be so overly simplistic that I know had I read this before I had actually studied ACIM on my own, I would have thought of ACIM as nothing more than a cheap new age philosophy.
Here is an example from p. 120: “Judy made a short speech of thanks for all the miracles that had happened to allow the books to be born in the way they had. Starting with Helen’s images and the Voice, she went straight through the list all the way down to the miracle of how the publishing of the books had been financed. And as she held the three volumes in her hands, she – and everyone else in the room – knew without a doubt that through listening to their inner voices, A Course in Miracles had been beautifully guided to its perfect birth.
Everyone in the room knew without a doubt? Beautifully guided to its perfect birth? Blechy new age marketing.
Needless to say, I don’t exactly trust the content of this book. I was left wondering if perhaps the main players that Skutch talks about had taken serious advantage of Helen Schucman? That tends to happen to geniuses. People often exploit them or undermine them in some devious way for their own gain. I’m not saying that happened, just that I had never considered it until after reading this book.
A lot of people recommend Journey Without Distance as the perfect introduction to A Course in Miracles. Personally, I think you would be much better off studying the text on your own for a while (or with a group) before reading Skutch’s book, my blog, or anything else for that matter. I think it is very important to form your own opinion about any spiritual discipline, then compare your opinion to the opinions of others.