Illusions

Rating:
Summary: Relaxing book on the Illusions of Life
Review: "Illusions" by Richard Bach was a great story. I really enjoyed reading it, and couldn't put it down once I started. It explores a totally new way of looking at life--as seen in the eyes of an automobile mechanic Messiah.

This Messiah, Donald, finds Richard. The two of them fly planes for a living and share many ideas on life. Their conversations are thought provoking, because Donald says that life is an illusion. Donald works miracles--he can heal, make things levitate, make objects appear, etc--and he tries to teach Richard how to do the same things, by simply changing his thought process. If Richard believes it is possible, than it is.

Donald does not want to be a Messiah anymore, and he is making Richard his replacement without Richard realizing it. Donald knows the future, and knows what he has to do to preserve the future. He gives Richard the "Messiah's Handbook," which Richard refers to many times throughout the story. This handbooks is filled with many meaningful quotes and ideas that help Richard when he needs it.

The book, "Illusions" portrays a new way of looking at life. It's the same world, yet different, because the Messiah is a normal automobile mechanic, who heals people and teaches Richard about the Illusions of life, and how he can overcome them.

This is a book that should be read by everyone. It will make the reader think and reflect on their own lives, and gives the reader a sense that there is no true end to anything. There are only new beginnings from endings in this world of Illusions.

Rating:
Summary: Trekking into the Self
Review: Bach is back again with a retelling of his Jonathan Livingston Seagull, this time in the form of a human. The inspiration to be strong, the motivation to be different comes through with even more power. This book is a great permission slip to do what you want to do, be what you want to be. To give yourself the license to follow what may seem to others to be a wild path, but to you seems linear and worthwhile.
It gives me power. Bach gives me flight in Illusions.

Rating:
Summary: Magic
Review: Well this may not have been one of my favorite books I have read but it is a very interesting book! You had to read a couple of pages to actually get into the book. If you are into magic and flying planes then it would be a very good selection to read. I got a little confused everyknow and then but i had to go back and read the page again then i got to the point. But considering it was a book for an educational assignment it was about the best a teacher has ever assigned. Girls would enjoey this book a little more than guys from my point of view.

Rating:
Summary: It May Just Blow Your Mind
Review: This book will strain the intelectual borders of your mind. Some may find it disdurbing, or too fantastic to be believable, but none will walk away without a new view on life.

Rating:
Summary: poo
Review: give me a break. oooooh....squirt, splat. spiritual poo. inspirational...blah, blah, blah, and gab, gab. disIllusions. Come and find me. I'll poo you. The best self-improvement: to get over self-improvement.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific, Consise, Profound and Captivating
Review: A small book Illusions is a beautiful expression of economy. This book is perfect as it. It flows effortlessly and is packed with wisdom. The story will keep you glued and the ending is powerful. This book is inspirational as are Bach's other books. No this book is not technical, it doesn't give you practical techniques. There are a million other books that do that. This book, as well as JLS, lifts your spirit out of the human dumpster of repetitiveness and connects you to a place where you believe, if only for a moment, that God might exist, that there is a higher purpose for our lives that our lives have some meaning. So me a technical book that can accomplish that.

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Summary: Don't forget to breathe or you'll die laughing.
Review: Most people who discuss this book with me mention"spiritual" in the first sentence. Those of you who arelikely to cringe, whenever anyone utters the word"spiritual": relax...

This book is HILARIOUS. I meanroll-on-the-floor, laugh-til-you-die FUNNY. The humor is so profoundthat your cheeks will be wracked with pain. I've heard the phrase "too true to be funny" bandied about all my life, but this genius, Richard Bach, creates a story that is so filled with insight from the opening parable to the last message that it's "so true, its hysterical."

So grab this book, get a blue feather, scrape the bugs off your windshield (those of you who still need to), and go swimming in the earth or walking on the sky with Richard Bach's "Illusions".

Rating:
Summary: Best book I've ever read. Changed my life.
Review: I've recommended this book to many of my friends, as it has changed my life. The problem with doing so, however, is that they inevitably ask a lot of questions about it.

The thing is, you need to take a very special approach to this book. You need to approach it as if it's some kind of precious stone you found on a beach, amid the sand and driftwood, a small treasure with untold secrets awaiting you. You need to make it yours. If I were to tell you the plot, or the theme, or the lessons learned, I would take it away from you, it wouldn't be yours.

This book has the power to change your life in the best possible ways. So read it. But read it as if I didn't tell you to.

Rating:
Summary: Green Eggs and ham as Life Philosophy (emphasis on ham)
Review: Perusing the 200 odd reviews of this book -- 98.9999% of which award a Five-Star rating -- I am compelled to admit... never in my life have I seen the phrase "tears of joy" used by so many people in so many ways.

But I am also compelled to admit that Richard Bach's "Illusion" is as others claim: it is a simple and easy read. But so was Robert Munsch's book "The Mud Puddle" and Dr. Suess' "Green Eggs and Ham". And while I enjoyed both of these books at seven, neither, I think, changed my life in fundamental ways. I just got a kick out of the rhymes and the pictures. Unfortunately for Bach, his philosophy is so simple that his pictures can't help. Oh. And he doesn't rhyme either.

People complain that philosophy is usually presented in "dull and complex" ways. The reason for this, is that philosophy includes COMPLEX IDEAS. And complex ideas, regardless of literary approach and style will remain complex. Stephan Hawkings' "A Brief History of Time" proves this. Sure, we can all read about wormholes and envision Asimov-esque time machines. But can we place these ideas into their proper context of complex astro-physical calculations? Unless you sign with S-A-G-A-N, I wish you good luck.

Truth is, Bach's "Illusions" is simple because the philosophy is simple. In a line: "You can do what you want!" He's taken the story of Christ (the misunderstood, persecuted Messiah - Don) sprinkled on some quasi Buddhist ideas (Illusions / Renunciation - Don "quits" because no one listens) added one part Nietzsche (Be creative! Take control!) and topped it off with miracles to hold the interest of those already bored with the ideas and the pictures.

What this books amounts to is philosophical windowshopping -- pluck all the fuzzy happy ideas from some major historical schools of thought and put them into a fuzzy happy feel-good-about-myself story. Be sure to avoid the darker areas of life. Write safely. Take no risks. Cross no lines.

It would be nice if we could all walk on water. It would be nice that anyone not born into privilege could "create" the same opportunities for themselves through "hard work" and "will". But this is often not the case. (See HISTORY 1000 B.C. -- circa NOW). Read Herman Hesse's "Siddhartha" for a better literary rendering of the life of the *real* Buddha. And read "Ecce Homo" or "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Nietzsche for a truly stylish account of joyish affirmation.

In the end, this is a book is simplistic borderline boring. Its for cozy people without a whole lot of real problems. And if you're wondering what I mean by this -- If you can turn to any page of this book and there's a quote there to solve your life's problems, then you really don't have any problems.

You probably just forgot your cell phone near the cappucino machine back at the condo.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most important books that I have ever read.
Review: I first came across this book as a teenager. I am now 30, and I can honestly say that it still stands out in my mind as having had the most profound impact of all.

Illusions is basically the story of the author's fictional experiences with a modern day messiah. During their adventures, this messiah teaches the author about the truths of life, the universe, or whatever.

The message is fairly clear: we can make whatever we want out of this life. Life is like a movie, and we are the director, writer, cameraman, actor, producer, etc.

Read this book. It is beautifully written, can be read in one day, and will provide lessons that will stay with you forever.