In Reply to: the right side of the brain posted by MV on December 10, 2002 at 08:06:03:
Interesting information, but what do you suggest I do with this dormant gift which I might awaken? What am I supposed to do? After a while, when the ego is sufficuíently boosted, just proving to yourself tou can tell people what they already know about themselves looses it's charm. They want guidance, what am I supposed to tell them? To see things exactly like me? Everybody has to find their own truth. It's not like I can go help the FBI track down serial killers with this talent. It seems to serve nothing more than entertainment value. At the nost it proves that psychic powers are real, but I hate to think my mission is to prove that the spirit world is real. I can use it to g´further my own cause, like see here, I can read your palm, I'm a guru, now give me your money, and that's about it.
I found these reviews on the internet, and the book hs 5 star ratings everywhere.
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 Larry 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.
Richard Bach's classic is one of the very first self-development/spiritual books I ever read, and 15 years later it still compares very favourably with the best of the rest. There is profound truth and subtle humour on nearly every page, and I strongly recommend this beautifully written book to anyone who has not come across it yet.
The author meets stranger and fellow pilot Donald Shimoda and the story unfolds. About a third of the way through Richard starts reading the "Messiah's Handbook" which is quoted liberally from then on. It contains various pearls of wisdom.... "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours" and (one of my favourites) "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it however".
The chapter where Shimoda and Richard visit the cinema to discover the meaning of life is a high point and the twist at the end of the book is absolutely brilliant. Enlightenment! --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Illusions is inspirational as well as thought-provoking, for Richard Bach has presented messages which illuminate aspects of our lives. Scattered throughout the story of the Messiah and his student are humor, sadness, complexity, and simplicity, all combined to create a book that will lead you to question your limits in life. The quotes in the book are numerous and applicable; I found "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts" to be very insightful for me, for it presents advice that I can apply to my every-day life. Some of the lessons are controversial and some are frustrating, but this nature of the book creates an opportunity for debate and creative thinking. In this way Bach has let us, as readers, become our own teachers as we discover things about ourselves and the world in which we live.