| >>Illusions<< by Richard Bach Why is the sky blue and the grass green? Why is temperature hot, then cold? Why are we here? Scientists have spent thousands of years trying to answer these questions. But it seems the more answers we come up with, the more questions are raised. Questions about the unknown. Illusions is about the unknown. Donald Shimoda was an ordinary laid back guy who happened to understand how the world works. He believes that he has the power to help himself and all of mankind. With his power he helps so many people that there were coming from miles away to worship him, the new Messiah. So he tried to teach the others around him. He told them: �Within each of us lies the power of consent to health and to sickness, to riches and to poverty, to freedom and to slavery. It is we who control these, and not another.� But Don Shimoda�s words fell on deaf ears. The people were unwilling to learn. They would rather pray to the one who knows than know themselves. So, one day, he quits his job as a messiah and he disappears in front of twenty-five thousand witnesses. That�s when he meets Richard, another ordinary laid back guy, because they both sell rides with their airplanes. Richard was willing to listen, and to learn. For Don Shimoda the whole world and life itself is an illusion. �This world? And everything in it? Illusions, Richard! Every bit of it illusions! Do you understand that? He suggests that since life is illusionary you have control over the reality that you see, and you choose by yourself how to react to the things in your life. His main point is that what we see for ourselves is what we are getting in the end. There would exist many more things in life if we would look for them. We all think we know what does exist and what does not exist and what reality is and what isn�t. It is not very easy to understand for us, but it is all illusions. Bach believes that we can create our future realities by believing that they exist and looking for them to happen. The mechanic in the book Illusions believes in his power to help him and all people, and he thinks that everyone of us has the duty to do so. (�look at the text-extract above) But I think, naturally there comes up the question if we really can consent to these things.? In my opinion he is right, in some ways. You have, for example, to consent to stay in poverty. If you choose not to accept poverty then you work your way out of it. You may work all your life to get out of it but how you feel about how you are living also depends on your idea of what poverty is for you personally. You can choose to focus on the things you have and you may realise that you are not living in poverty after all. (It really can be as simple as that.) You can create your own reality. It all depends on your imagination about it, what the following passage of Illusions tells us: �Perspective- Use It or Lose It. If you turned to this page, you� re forgetting that what is really going on around you is not reality. Think about that.� What Richard starts to learn from Shimoda is how to be a �Messiah�. Part of being a messiah is realising that everything around you is an illusion and therefore can be manipulated. Shimoda, as a messiah, is able to do things which are actually impossible, �miracles� like walking on water, moving clouds in the sky and sinking into the dirt, just by believing he can. And he teaches these things to Richard. The ultimative questions in human lives are: Why are we here? What is the purpose behind our lives? Also Richard asks Shimoda these questions and Shimoda explains it in a strange way to him. His answer is movies. If we think about the last movie we watched. It was all illusions but we got lost in the story anyhow(in a way). If someone would ask you why you had watched the movie, all answers would fit into one of two categories; or both together: fun or education. A movie is like a lifetime. Only that in the movies of our lifetimes, we are the director, the writer, the actor and the producer of our own movies! We are here to learn and to have fun doing it. Some people like comedies or love-stories, others prefer horror movies. We are all free to choose what we want to see. So why are some people unhappy? �They are unhappy because they have chosen to be unhappy ... We can believe we are victims, killed and killing, shuddered around by good luck and bad luck.� It is easy to see how we can effect our lives by what we dream of achieving in them and by the future we see for ourselves. �You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it however.� I think, this is a very good statement and I like it very much, because it is a good way to look at your dreams. You have to believe in your dreams to reach them. �It is hard to think of ourselves making our own story for our lives, but if we think about it, we really do. We make our stories by choosing to react to the things that happen to us. �Every person, all the events of your live are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.� That really makes sense to me, that we have that much control over our destinies. We also choose our kind of view of our life. �How we see ourselves is how we are and how we will be, and we become what we expect ourselves to be. Richard Bach is a talented writer who only writes because something needs to be said and if he doesn�t put it on paper it will eat away at him. His main passion is flying, which is what most of his books are based upon. His other popular books include �Jonathan Livington Seagull�, �Nothing By Chance�, and �One�. �Opinion: I find Richard Bach�s Illusions very special! It gives me a way of looking at the world that is inspiring. I like philosophical books at all. Bach�s view of life is a mixture of positive thinking and a kind of keeping you in uncertainty that I find very interesting and that let me read on and on. Although it was very hard to read, for me, because the book�s theme is quite complicated and Bach uses sometimes very difficult vocabulary!! For me, Illusions shows that there are still many things to notice and to discover in our lives and in our attitudes to things. It really makes you think about how you live your life. We all should be more open to new views and perspectives; Bach shows that very well! �Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you�re alive, it isn�t.� |