Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

I have bought this book many times to give us gifts. I find it uplifting and inspirational. My favorite quote from the book "what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."

A great read for that young teenager starting to ask the biggest questions of all: Why are we here? It is not a manual instead it opens the imagination to possibilities. It is for any age but I first read it in high school and it had a positive effect on my life direction.

Great book, no one should miss this read. It is a classic and its rather low key presentation has a tendency to disguise the true wisdom in its pages.

I read this one when I was younger, and it impacted me so much that I used to carry around quotes from the book in my wallet. I suggest giving this to any boy or a girl in their late teens, as my father gave it to me when I was 17 and it really did impact me. In a good way.

I have always been familiar with Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and I only picked this up during a Kindle sale wanting to check out some of the pilot-writer's other work. Without much surprise, Illusions is another philosophical deep dive into the transitory difficulty navigation of a world we make much too complicated. The germ for this story is in the title. Donald Shimoda is a messiah who has given up on the messiah lifestyle to become an anonymous pilot that gives rides to people in small farming communities for a few bucks. When he meets up with a writer-pilot named... Well, Richard Bach. The book becomes a simple fairy tale of a mentor-mentee relationship that transpires in the skies above, the water upon, and the earth below Illinois. As with Seagull, Bach’s breezy and optimistic prose carries us through their developing relationship, the curious nature of the enigmatic Shimoda, and the Siddarthan journey upon which we come to many conclusions about the true nature of the illusion of life itself. I enjoyed this book for the sheer joy and easygoing pace of a story told well and simply – something Bach and other writers of the nineteen-seventies were well known for. I certainly didn’t feel like I wasted my time on it, and while some aspects of the novel (much like Seagull) can be perhaps distilled down into core maxims and slogans that can be considered a bit too cheesy for some tastes, the many lessons that can be taken from his simple, impactful, deliberate prose can be quite striking if you’re able to scrape the saccharine glaze from... well... the cynicism that we all carry that his work effortlessly attempts to unburden us from. In this case, as is the case of Seagull, I think he is quite successful.

This is my all time favorite Richard Bach book. The book is written in such a way that when you are reading it, you can see yourself in situations where you have to make choices ,and if you believe in yourself you can make GREAT achievements.

I've read Illusions easily 30 or more times. It's a book that should be on everyone's list. And, unless you are a religious zealot, you will surely find the book entertaining and stimulating. First of all, regardless of the message, the book is very well written and enjoyable. Moreover, it was written long before the "new age" trend and "dime-a-dozen" inspirational stories, so it's not written with the intent to sell you on a new self-help plan. In this story (as in most of his stories), Bach tries to enlighten readers that maybe life is not as complicated as is often thought. Everyday, from religion to politics, we are constantly presented with the message that life is difficult and you had better follow the highly complex set of rules that governs what you are, where you will go and how you had better get there. In Bach's story, however, the reluctant messiah learns a new perspective. Maybe, he comes to find, he already has the answers to his life, or at least the answers to how to pursue a good life... if he would just stop listening to his pre-conceived ideas of limit and complication. I highly suggest reading the book. I also highly suggest remembering the book is fiction! Think about the message and concepts. Instead of trying to "vaporize clouds," try maybe to vaporize some of your problems. And, instead of walking the world professing a new faith or perspective on "God" after being inspired by Bach's ideas, try instead to overcome one of your own, preconceived limits, or re-examine what you've been taught about the Having met Mr. Bach, hearing him speak and reading every one of his books multiple times, I can assure you he is a real person with real ideas. Moreover, I feel sure that he would agree, that he writes "stories" to help people expand their minds. Too often, his work is misinterpreted to be a "gospel." Instead, in my impression, he simply wants to share new ideas, or as he said, "when he get's an idea, it bothers him until he writes it an let's it go..." We as humans evolve not from one or two ideas, but from a lifetime of learning. Mr. Bach, in my opinion, is one of those highly insightful individuals who has inspired millions to look at life through a slightly different lens. Mr. Bach's Illusions is a fantastic journey - one of many - on the lifelong road of growing as a person. I hope you enjoy it!

Read it in High School, on the advice of a pretty girl. We went our separate ways. But as this story re-entered my life, so did she. Maybe we are each capable of our own miracles…