Rating: 
Summary: Illusions, Illusions, Illusions
Review: Illusions by Richard Bach was incredible. It opened my eyes to see that you can look at the world in different ways, and it will be okay.
Richard Bach uses a world of illusions to captivate the readers mind, and to show them they're are many ways of looking at life and what you believe.
This book should be read by everyone for the simple fact it opens your eyes and says hello, look at the world today!
The story is amazing and allows you to keep your options open to a world of illusions.
Rating: 
Summary: you will love this book
Review: The world would be a much better place if everyone dropped what they were doing for a while, and read this book. Then we could remind ourselves how we can better our lives, and possibly the world. Every once in a while the reader will come across a quote from the "Messiah's handbook" that will possibly bring them to a revelation about there own lives. For instance, "You teach best what you most need to learn." what does this quote mean to you? Certainly this book will broaden your horizons, as if you were up there in the Travel Air 4,000 with the ex-messiah Don Shimoda, right there learning with the messiah-in-training. Not to mention the storyline is both humerous and magical. You will definitely appreciate the humor between the relationship between the two messiahs. So read this book, and become your own messiah.
Rating: 
Summary: Illusions
Review: For god's sake everyone, THINK!
"Every person,
all the events of your life
are there because you have
drawn them there" (p.110)
Does nobody think it would be heartless, to say the least, to try telling that to the kid in Afghanistan who got his arm blown off by a landmine because it was designed to look like a toy? Or the thirteen year old girl who was raped by her father and became pregnant by him? Or the mother in Africa who has ten kids (because she has been told she will go to hell if she uses contraception) and is slowly starving to death because there is not enough food to go round? I could go on, but to be blunt, this book is no more than "opium for the masses" in New Age guise, morphine for the consciences of the overfed, overdressed, overconsuming American public. The "Is"? How convenient, the "Is" doesn't care what you do, in fact you can do just what-all you want, because "It" has got it all worked out anyway.
Yes, it made me think, it even made me feel good for a while, but I worry that this kind of philosophy can lead to a minimizing of the sufferings of others and a self-complacency that stifles any desire to put EFFORT into making the world a better place.
Sure, read it, but think about it, don't just swallow it whole because it feels good.
Rating:
Summary: Illusions, a masterpiece
Review: "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" is a thought provoking look into life on earth and beyond. Two pilots, Don and Richard give people quick flights for three dollars a ride. Their simple career ends up being a journey into the human soul. Don, the messiah is here to teach the unknowing Richard about the ways of the world and the universe, and inform him he too is a messiah. The book portrays the events the two men go through in order to discover all of the lessons that Richard needs to learn. Every few pages or so, quotes concerning life lessons pop up and offer Richard and the reader inspiring knowledge about the world. This book encompasses spirituality, but mainly offers a glimpse into the human mind and spirit. I reccomend this book if you like novels that make you think, and not simply cheap entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: A Book of Imagination - dare to dream!
Review: Illusions is an old favorite of mine which I suddenly ran into again, much like an old friend. I read it many years ago while in college and somehow I connected with it. I am too much of a hard nosed realist and cannot suspend belief beyond a point. So I prefer to treat Don Shimoda's (and later Richard's) various fantastic deeds as metaphors. I don't claim to be right; others may have their own take. It does not matter because the worth of the book lies not in the story line (charming as it is) but rather in the lessons embedded in it. In Seagull, Richard was teaching, almost didactic. In Illusions, he and the reader are both students, discovering that the world is even more wonderful than we thought. The combination of the story line and the aphorisms in the "Messiah's Handbook" makes for a read that is both entertaining and educative. Maybe some of the aphorisms are old-hat, even simplistic, but I liked a great many of them. In a way, Illusions is itself the Messiah's Handbook! Open it to any page; you may not find the answer to your specific problem but it will certainly set you thinking.
Rating:
Summary: Great refresher course in life...
Review: You probably won't be convinced of all the ideas and philosophies in this book unless you already subscribe to them! What Bach does, though, is present them in a fun, and coherent narrative. I wasn't surprised by anything I read here, but was reminded of many beliefs I have, which had been covered with the dust of everyday life for some time now...Bach made me dust them off and reconsider them very seriously. One reviewer says this book is shallow, and that "this little book's argument utterly falls apart under any serious consideration". My response is that this isn't a book about thinking, its a book about doing! You're not supposed to consider it, you're supposed to do it! From Bach's introduction of the book, and the overall feel of the book itself, I don't think he's writing this in order to preach or teach; he's writing down his discoveries of what works best for him. Seems to have hit a chord with more than a few people...
Rating: 
Summary: Shallow, shallow, shallow...
Review: This book is a shallow amalgamation of poor theology, a fourth grade understanding of Aristotelian metaphysics, Buddhism for fun and profit, and a healthy dose of 20th century American low ball individualism. While being marginally entertaining on the most superficial of levels, this little book's argument utterly falls apart under any serious consideration. Save yourself the trouble and go read Hafiz.
Rating:
Summary: Word of mouth
Review: This is the kind of book that you will hear about eventually if you are exploring your self-awareness and the nature of your being. Illusions introduces some very complex ideas and presents them in a competely digestable format. Whenever I meet someone who is interested in delving past the surface and exploring their awareness this is usually the first book I recommend. Persons reading it will be entertained while also being challenged to think in a way that is so subtle it is almost unconscious. Illusions is similar in that regard to a movie like The Matrix or Vanilla Sky. I give it a rare (for me) 5 star rating.
Rating:
Summary: The book that keeps on giving
Review: I have read this book no less than 7 times.. the first five were back to back to back... I actually had to GIVE IT AWAY in order to stop reading the thing again. Everytime I read it I get something new and something REnewed.. The story is engaging and imaginative! The lessons in life are priceless.. I eventually bought the book again, because it is my FAVORITE book, without question, and of course I have read it again (make that 2 times).. Every spring, I look forward to revisiting Don and Richard the story never gets old.. It is a great new way to look at life.
Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking and potentially life-changing
Review: A friend recommended this book to me about a year ago, and once I started reading I couldn't put it down. What DO we really have power over? What IS real? Do our beliefs respond to the world, or does the world respond to our beliefs? Early on, and throughout life, we develop a set of unbreakable "rules" by which we consider the world to operate - laws of physics, laws of governments, laws of religions, laws created within us by beliefs we hadn't dared question. Bach (through Donald Shimoda, his reluctant messiah) raises the question - what if it's ALL what we believe it to be - if the world and those around us fulfill our expectations? What if a "Messiah" comes to show people THAT this is the case, that they can free themselves if they just choose to... but they choose instead to remain locked in their limitations and worship him as the Messiah who will himself save them all? With all the abstract ideas being presented, Bach wisely chooses to start out in the very concrete, logical world of machines... two men flying their old biplanes cross-country, barnstorming. The Reluctant Messiah himself worked oil rigs and wrenched bulldozers off and on. As a bit of a gearhead myself, broadening my horizons to other things, this formed an excellent bridge to lead from the world I know to the reality-construct Bach presents. A mere three or four years ago I probably would have rolled my eyes after the first few chapters, but when I DID read it, it was one of the best and most inspiring books I'd read in a LONG time. If you're ready to try looking at the world in a very different way, I highly recommend this book.
|
