A Course of Love Study Group
with Susan Saunders and Diane McCutcheon
Tuesday evenings 6:00 to 7:30pm
beginning April 21, 2026
We want to emphasize that consistent attendance is not required, nor is it necessary to always have the material read in advance. Please come as you are able. Each gathering will stand on its own, and you will receive exactly what you’re meant to receive from whatever sessions you attend. The intention is to create a welcoming, flexible space that supports participation without pressure. - Susan & Diane
This group is a ‘Chapter a week’ exploration of a book that centers upon living from love, developing inner awareness, and learning through experience and relationship. We will discuss and explore its ideas of wholeheartedness over 32 weeks.
Each week, we’ll gather to discuss themes, questions, and personal reflections that arise from the material. Meetings will be discussion-based, allowing each participant to develop their own understanding and relationship with the text whilst learning from the perspectives and experiences of others and finding practical ways the ideas from the book can be lived in everyday life.
No prior experience with A Course of Love is necessary—only a willingness to read, then reflect, listen, and be in open, respectful, conversation with others.
The intention of this group is not to teach a doctrine or promote a belief system. Rather, the purpose is to create a welcoming space where participants can read, reflect, and discuss the themes presented in the text while exploring what meaning those ideas may hold in their own lives.
A Course of Love’s message invites readers into a heart-centered experience of unity, love, and true identity.
The Course:
Introduces heart-centered spiritual ideas.
Emphasizes “wholeheartedness”-the integration of mind and heart.
Discusses the dominance of the ego.
Duration: 32 weeks
Structure: One chapter per week
Each session will include a brief opening reflection, a short overview of the chapter, open discussion guided by thoughtful questions, and a closing reflection. The emphasis will be on conversation rather than instruction. We will serve simply as facilitators encouraging discussion, maintaining a respectful and open environment.
Susan Saunders and Diane McCutcheon are students of A Course of Love who share a deep curiosity about consciousness, personal growth, and spiritual development. Susan, a devoted seeker, brings warmth, presence, and genuine love in order to create a space where meaningful conversation and connection can grow. Diane is a professional life coach who is passionate about personal transformation, self-discovery, and helping others recognize the power within their own lives.
A Course of Love: How It Came to Be
For almost three years Mari Perron heard an inner voice, as if dictating. She transcribed what she heard. The result, unedited, is A Course of Love.
Have you ever had the experience of noticing thoughts in your mind that you did not think? Maybe you had this experience as you remembered a loved one who passed away and felt his or her words were coming to your mind. Perhaps you had a flash of inspiration or an insight that showed up unexpectedly in your mind, carrying the answer to a question when you were not thinking about it.
Scientists like Henri Poincare, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and Albert Einstein openly recognized the great role intuition played in their discoveries. And innovators often ascribe their ingenuity to intuition, as did Steve Jobs when he said,
Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.
Intuition is a way of knowing that comes to you, so the idea of us having meaningful thoughts we did not actively think is not unusual.
For millennia, religious works have been transcribed by individuals who claimed to have heard them as revelations, such as the Hindu Vedas, Moses’ Ten Commandments and the multiple texts written by Jewish prophets, Muhammad’s Quran, and Buddhist texts like the Heart Sutra.
A Course of Love (ACOL) also guides us along the way to bypassing the intellectual mind and accessing the intuitive mind from which we may receive revelation:
Questions such as, “What might this situation look like if I forgot everything I have previously known about similar situations, and looked at this in a new way?” Questions such as, “Do I really need to worry about this situation, or can I affect this situation simply by not worrying about it and allowing it to be and unfold as it will?”
One of the major benefits of questions such as these is that they can circumvent the usual thinking you would apply to these situations. They can circumvent the labeling of many situations as problems or crises. They can leave the way open for revelation.
As Mari Perron wrote in an introduction to ACOL,
Revelation is what this Course is, as well as the new way of knowing that it invites. When I received the Course I received revelation. When I thought about it, I blocked my ability to recognize what I received.
