Illusions is one of those rare books that teaches us about what ’REALITY’ is all about & how we concieve it to be.
To understand the message of this book one first needs to understand the concept of reality(although no definite answer exists for this). For this I have taken the help of a famous Plato fable of the three men chained in the cave. This was designed to demonstrate what reality is, or can be depending on perspective. There were three men chained in a cave, with their backs to a wall. Behind and above them was an opening, and it shined light in against the wall that the men were facing. This wall served as a screen for them, showing them the wall shadows of those things that passed before the cave entrance. The men accepted these shadows as the only reality that they could know..
One day one of the men got loose from his bonds, and ventured outside the walls of the cave, discovering the sunshine, the grass, trees, animals and all of the life that this planet has to offer. He was amazed that his entire previous world consisted of the shadows of those things, passing before the mouth of the cave. After he began to adjust, he went back to the cave and told his former mates of what he had found, he loosed their bonds, and they refused to come with him, claiming him to be mad. The only reality that they could accept was only a mere shadow of the possible reality available. That shows that we accept reality as it is presented to us. We never dare to question it. In strictest terms, if you fail to recognize the solidity or validity of a piece of reality, then you could put your foot right into a wall, or somehow mistakenly walk on water. If you did manage to recognize a different reality then you might fly in the face of convention, you might separate yourself from the huddled masses. There is a time in all of our lives when we can recognize those things that we believe in and hold true.
That is what Richard Bach does here. He invites us to move into a broader sense of the reality of our own world. Illusions is about his meeting up with a modern day Messiah, named Donald Shimoda. Here ’Illusions’ is the name of the ’Holy Book’ that Donald shares with the author. They call it the ’Messiah’s Handbook’.
In the the handbook it is said that all of the people and events of our lives are brought there by us, drawn them to us. The next steps and what we do with them is up to us as well. Life is about learning, laughing and continuing to grow. When we stop doing that then we are really in the wrong film. It is always possible to change your circumstances, you need merely believe that it is so and act on that belief. Some people like scary movies; they learn how to fear or how to not fear. It is all a matter of how we see our circumstances. All this is possible by creating ’ILLUSIONS’ of such circumstances.It is all a matter of envisioning what we want, and then going after the goals. See it, say it, see it – see the vision, speak it and act on your words and you will see it in the end. That is the message that the author wants to convey to us.
The book is about 200 pages starting & ending with the same topic(Allegory).The start of this book is about ten pages of handwritten notes, verses from the scripture of Richard Bach. The book too ends with same scriptures. Bach has given some remarkable Quotes in this book that make you think about REALITY. A really great way of looking at Life.