Page:Penguin Books v. New Christian Church of Full Endeavor.pdf/29

 the head of her department at Columbia and had she not agreed that "there must be another way." In other words, if indeed it was Jesus who spoke to Schucman, it was only because she had opened herself up to the possibility of receiving this vision. Nor is there any doubt that the form of the Course reflects many of Schucman's personal interests and tastes. Again, even if the Course came from Jesus, significant aspects of it are the direct result of it having come Schucman. In this way, Schucman is as much an author as the members of the Contact Commission in, since even Defendants in this action have essentially conceded that had the Course been channeled through any other individual, its form would have been different. Indeed, that is apparently one of the messages of the Course.

In addition, even if Schucman had not made herself available to receive this revelation, and even if the original material did not reflect her personal tastes, it is undisputed that the dictated material was subsequently edited: personal references were removed, punctuation was added, chapter and section headings were created, and other work was done to shape the material into the final form it took in the published Course. Even if all of these editorial changes and additions were "approved of" by Jesus, it is undisputed that many of them were by Schucman, Thetford, or Wapnick -- i.e., many changes were not simply