How are your fluids since this started happening? Humor me.

If the engine's rear main seal or the input shaft seal on the transmission is bad, then your clutch could be soaked with oil. You'd be able to see it leaking from the clutch cover near the bell housing... and either your engine oil or or gear oil level will gradually drop. If it's the input shaft bearing that's failing on your transmission, it's likely that's the cause, unless your clutch is already worn out.

You have a manual transmission, so the only thing that can cause your engine to rev and you don't accelerate-is the clutch. Unless your car sounds like it's chewing up glass and sparks are flying from the transmission that's the case. You'd notice that.

Forget paying $1500 for a tranny job. Follow Westcoast's DIY in the civic resources thread for changing a clutch. Buy a used tranny for like $250-350 and swap it yourself. It's no different than doing a clutch job. You just put a different tranny back in when you're done.

Edit: Cheaper/easier to swap than to replace.