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Summary: Review For Illusions - The Adventures of A Reluctant Messiah
Review: I found Richard's Bach book interesting overall. Illusions mixes both spirituality as well as a little humour as the story goes along. The story is set around the author as the main character and his aquaintance, a pilot who holds the title of messiah as well, Donald Shimoda. Donald removes himself from his messanic duties and introduces Richard to the "Messiah's Handbook" as a way of helping Richard find his spirituality.
While I found this book very interesting to read, I suppose I overall did not like the book because I have pretty mainstream thoughts on religion and spirtuality. This book brings many different views into light when thinking about religion and ones faith, and I suppose these views did not exactly work as well with me as for others. I'm certainly not saying that this is not an enjoyable book, because I know that my way of thinking is not the only way of perseiving religous thought. The book deserves a 5 for those who find the book both interesting and can relate to the message that Bach is trying to send. From my point of view, his just didn't work as well with me as I had hoped when I set out to read it.
I recommened this book because it will probably broaden your horizons on religious thought.
Rating: 
Summary: just awful
Review: Richard Bach's Illusions is without doubt the worst book I have read in decades.
The book might have played well in the 70s but even that is hard to believe.
This book is an attempt to present biblical wisdom -- a schlocky cross of zen and christianity -- but contains no coherent philosophy. Some of the assertions among the scattered rabbit ...: if you are unhappy, it's your own fault; likewise, if you are sick, poor, miserable in any way; physical limits to your world are the result of your rigid thinking, not any laws of nature; death is a trivial transition from one phase of existence to another.
I would normally stay away from this genre but a book club made me read it. We burned our copies of the book rather than reselling them to spare anyone else the misery of reading this rot.
Rating: 
Summary: A Life Altering Book
Review: This is the best book I have ever read in my life; my absolute favorite. Only once in a blue moon do you stumble upon a story that stays in your heart forever. I first discovered this book ten years ago and it altered the lense through which I view the world. I read it again, just the other day, and was charmed all over again.It's a small book (you can read it in just two to three hours), but its potency will last you a lifetime.
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Summary: I convinced myself I could be happy for the rest of my life
Review: Illusions by Richard Bach is spectacular. It brings the truly simple, yet profoundly complex theory of life, into perspective making one feel that they may be able to conquer all of their infesting insecurities by simply always being happy. But happiness seems to be one of the hardest feelings to conjure up and keep for all of us, so where do we begin? With thoughtful, and deep quotes, a beautiful story line and many images that don't really matter Bach explains the secrets of the world and then undermines them all. The day I picked up the book I was feeling extremely depressed and insecure. I was sitting by myself in the corner of the school library wishing that I could turn off all my feelings and just make my mind still. After just 2 pages I was sucked in the book and began running foolishly around the library grabbing random books-here and there-(you'll understand later), asking some teachers of my choice if they knew the book and almost preaching to other students in the library that we could all be happy for the rest of our lives if we so chose too. This book is a treasure, a small bible to me that I will consult for the rest of my life.
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Summary: A Guide to life
Review: Bach's : Illusions the adventures of a reluctant Messiah, could easily have been a self help prophecy. Through out the book by symbolism and bizarre events; Illusions has an underlying tone of self confidence and self belief. I believe in a surreal manner he is preaching his audience to have faith in ones self rather than look outwards for a Messiah to answer all the intricacies of life. To provide justice to this theme he early on states "Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and to the sickness, to riches and to poverty, to freedom and to slavery. It is we who control these and not another".
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Summary: Thoughtful Book
Review: Read this book if you want something that'll inspire you to think about your life. It really reaches into your mind, pulling out questions you've never thought about before. It also keeps you captivated with the interesting but uncomplicated plot of a messiah teaching his ways to a disbelieving man. You see the man struggle to understand the concepts this ex-messiah is bringing to him as you yourself try to find the deeper meaning of his words. The quotes of peace and thoughtful questions this book brings will leave you with a good feeling about the world around you.
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Summary: Questioning
Review: It's a book that could probably speak to everyone in one way or another. It wasn't life altering and it didn't completely change my views on everything, but it definitely made me think a lot more about my life and my world. It poses some interesting questions... Can anyone be a messiah? What exactly defines a messiah? Is everything an illusion? Do we exist in our own individual worlds? Are you in complete control of your destiny? It seems to encourage the idea of self-sufficiency and to live life in a manner in which the reader will be happy. But would this actually work? It encourages the idea of introspection and a journey to self-discovery. It is a motivator, and speaks often of free will. It mentions many ways in which the tools to lead the life that one desires are available but it depends on the ways in which one uses those tools. It mentions the idea of perspective and perhaps that the key to a happy life is approaching it in the right manner. With the expression of all of this and with all of this in mind, it seems as if Bach is trying to guide the reader to an inner peace. If everyone takes care of peace on an individual level, then the entire world will be peaceful and happy. Expressing these ideas gives the reader a sense of hope, but the last line in the novel leaves the reader with a tone of uncertainty. Nonetheless, it still leaves an optimistic view of life and illustrates the idea that peace, happiness and messiah's can be found in the most unlikely of places (maybe even within yourself.) I would recommend this novel if you would like to ponder, question things, be inspired and find some inner peace! After all, anything is possible!
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Summary: Great?
Review: I'm not sure I'm as fond of this book as so many others are. Although I know that this story is not written in concrete-that it's not to be taken totally literally, I have some views against it. Messiah is a word I have always taken to mean the blessed son of God, or the deliverer...which I deem as Jesus. I understand that messiah also carries the meaning of a leader that can deliver people from his/her problems. Because of my Christian background, I give credit to only one that can even be considered to be called something so great. So I'm not all for bettering ourselves with the intent to make ourselves perfect-it can't happen. And I'm not necessarily saying this is what Bach was trying to tell everyone to do.
I really like his idea of bettering ourselves...becoming a messiah. It can do everyone a lot of good to think this way-to gain a feeling of personal well-being, and so on. But really, in the grand scheme of things, I don't think it's going to take us anywhere. So I am not banging any sort of belief, but as for me I feel while it is good to be a good person and do good deeds, I feel those deeds alone will take us nowhere in life. Therefore I'm not wholly impressed with the emphasis of this book.
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Summary: Read it again and again
Review: Who is this reluctant messiah? What are 'illsusions?' YOU, are the reluctant messiah and illusions are reality (or lack of it), according to Richard Bach, in his novel "Illusions." According to "Illusions" we are the messiah who walks on water, who walks on 'illusions'. Throughout this book I continuously thought back to one of my favorite books by the Buddhist monk and peacemaker, Thich Nhat Hanh, entitled "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching." Both of these books are not about religion, but rather, spirituality, the realms of reality and what part we play in them. Both Hanh and Bach teach that "reality" is what we make of it. Our spirit, what is innate in all of us, is the golden compass."Illusions" is simply a fabulous book, not because of any great literary merits but because it awakens the spirit. I am sure the pages of this book will become worn and weary as I read it again and again.
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Summary: A different book
Review: The book Illusions by Richard Bach is different than all the books I've read so far. It is some sort of life lesson, but covered in a good story that makes you think.
It's easy to read and understand, but if you are opened for it, the deeper thougts can be really complicated, but interesting.
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