Illusions (Bach novel)

Last updated
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Illusions Richard Bach.jpg
First edition cover
Author Richard Bach
LanguageEnglish
Genre Philosophical novel
Spiritual
PublisherDell Publishing Co., Inc.
Publication date
1977
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Paperback) & AudioBook (Cassette)
Pages143 pages
ISBN 0-440-04318-2
OCLC 2870699

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah is a novel by writer and pilot Richard Bach. First published in 1977, the story questions the reader's view of reality, proposing that what we call reality is merely an illusion we create for learning and enjoyment. Illusions was the author's follow-up to 1970's Jonathan Livingston Seagull .

Contents

Plot

Illusions revolves around two barnstorming pilots who meet in a field in the Midwestern United States. The two main characters enter into a teacher-student relationship that explains the concept that the world that we inhabit is illusory, as well as the underlying reality behind it:

'What if somebody came along who could teach me how my world works and how to control it? ... What if a Siddhartha came to our time, with power over the illusions of the world because he knew the reality behind them? And what if I could meet him in person, if he was flying a biplane, for instance, and landed in the same meadow with me?'

Donald William Shimoda is a messiah who quits his job after deciding that people value the showbiz-like performance of miracles and want to be entertained by those miracles more than to understand the message behind them. He meets Richard, a fellow barn-storming pilot. Both are in the business of providing short rides—for a few dollars each—in vintage biplanes to passengers from farmers' fields they find during their travels. Donald initially captures Richard's attention when a grandfather and granddaughter pair arrive at the makeshift airstrip. Ordinarily it is elders who are cautious and the youngsters who are keen to fly. In this case, however, the grandfather wants to fly but the granddaughter is afraid of flying. Donald explains to the granddaughter that her fear of flying comes from a traumatic experience in a past life, and this calms her fears and she is ready to fly. Observing this greatly intrigues Richard, so Donald begins to pass on his knowledge to him, even teaching Richard to perform "miracles" of his own.

The novel features quotes from the Messiah's Handbook, owned by Shimoda, which Richard later takes as his own. An unusual aspect of this handbook is that it has no page numbers. The reason for this, as Shimoda explains to Richard, is that the book will open to the page on which the reader may find guidance or the answers to doubts and questions in his mind. It is not a magical book; Shimoda explains that one can do this with any sort of text. The Messiah's Handbook was released as its own title by Hampton Roads Publishing Company. It mimics the one described in Illusions, with new quotes based on the philosophies in the novel. [1]

Adaptations

An adaptation of Illusions was serialized in the comic strip Best Sellers Showcase running June 19 through July 30, 1978. [2]

Director Zack Snyder has cited the book as a major influence on his 2011 film Sucker Punch and his 2021 film Army of the Dead .

2014 sequel

In 2014, Bach published Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student after surviving a serious plane crash.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Bach</span> American spiritual writer (born 1936)

Richard David Bach is an American writer. He has written numerous flight-related works of fiction and non-fiction. His works include Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970) and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977), both of which were among the 1970s' biggest sellers.

<i>Jonathan Livingston Seagull</i> 1970 novella by Richard Bach

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is an allegorical fable in novella form written by American author Richard Bach and illustrated with black-and-white photographs shot by Russell Munson. It is about a seagull who is trying to learn about flying, personal reflection, freedom, and self-realization. It was first published in book form in 1970 with little advertising or expectations; by the end of 1972, over a million copies were in print, the book having reached the number-one spot on bestseller lists mostly through word of mouth recommendations.

An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnstorming</span> Aircraft pilots performing stunts to entertain

Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in the United States during the Roaring Twenties.

In the philosophy of mind, the user illusion is a metaphor for a proposed description of consciousness that argues that conscious experience does not directly expose objective reality, but instead provides a simplified version of reality that allows humans to make decisions and act in their environment, akin to a computer desktop. According to this picture, our experience of the world is not immediate, as all sensation requires processing time. It follows that our conscious experience is less a perfect reflection of what is occurring, and more a simulation produced subconsciously by the brain. Therefore, there may be phenomena that exist beyond our peripheries, beyond what consciousness could create to isolate or reduce them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catch-22 (logic)</span> Situation in which one cannot avoid a problem because of contradictory constraints

A catch-22 is a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations. The term was coined by Joseph Heller, who used it in his 1961 novel Catch-22.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waldo Waterman</span>

Waldo Dean Waterman was an inventor and aviation pioneer from San Diego, California. He developed a series of tailless swept-wing aircraft incorporating tricycle landing gear, culminating in a low-cost and simple-to-fly flying car.

The evaporating cloud is one of the six thinking processes in the theory of constraints (TOC). The evaporating cloud (EC) – also referred to in the literature as "the cloud", or as a "conflict resolution diagram" – is a logical diagram representing a problem that has no obvious satisfactory solution.

Synthetic intelligence (SI) is an alternative/opposite term for artificial intelligence emphasizing that the intelligence of machines need not be an imitation or in any way artificial; it can be a genuine form of intelligence. John Haugeland proposes an analogy with simulated diamonds and synthetic diamonds—only the synthetic diamond is truly a diamond. Synthetic means that which is produced by synthesis, combining parts to form a whole; colloquially, a human-made version of that which has arisen naturally. A "synthetic intelligence" would therefore be or appear human-made, but not a simulation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln Beachey</span> American aviator

Lincoln Beachey was a pioneer American aviator and barnstormer. He became famous and wealthy from flying exhibitions, staging aerial stunts, helping invent aerobatics, and setting aviation records.

This is a list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1970s, as determined by Publishers Weekly. The list features the most popular novels of each year from 1970 through 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Progressive Aerodyne SeaRey</span> American amphibious aircraft

The Progressive Aerodyne SeaRey is an American two-seat, single-engine, amphibious flying boat designed and manufactured by Progressive Aerodyne originally in Orlando, Florida, and now in Tavares, Florida. It was first flown in November 1992 and is sold as a kit aircraft for amateur construction as well as a light-sport aircraft.

Moye Wicks Stephens was an American aviator and businessman. He was a pioneer in aviation, circumnavigating the globe with adventure writer Richard Halliburton in 1931, and co-founding Northrop Aircraft, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smith Miniplane</span> American homebuilt biplane

The Smith DSA-1 Miniplane is a single-seat, single-engine sport aircraft designed in the United States in the 1950s and marketed for home building.

<i>Eagle in the Sky</i> 1974 novel by Wilbur Smith

Eagle in the Sky is a novel by Wilbur Smith, published in 1974.

Filip Mitrovic a.k.a. The Elkcloner is a Serbian-American composer and producer from Los Angeles, California. In 2012, he was nominated for Daytime Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series, and in 2015, Mitrovic was nominated for Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Mitrovic's music was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2010.

<i>Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student</i> 2014 novel by Richard Bach

Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student is the 2014 novel by writer and pilot Richard Bach. The first Illusions book was published in 1977 and was an international best-seller, telling the story of a pilot who encounters a messiah who has absconded from the "job" of being a messiah. The sequel is in author Bach's own voice, as his "imaginary" literary characters help him in his recovery from his real-life plane crash in August 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One (Bach novel)</span> 1988 novel by Richard Bach

One is a 1988 novel by Richard Bach about what could happen in an alternate world. The characters are based on Bach and his wife, Leslie Parrish.

<i>Nothing by Chance</i> 1975 American film

Nothing by Chance is a 1975 American documentary film based on the 1969 book by Richard Bach, Nothing by Chance: A Gypsy Pilot's Adventures in Modern America. The film centers on modern barnstorming around the United States in the 1970s. One of the driving forces behind the production, star Richard Bach, is a pilot in real life, and recruited a group of his friends who were also pilots to recreate the era of the barnstormer.

The Ferret Chronicles is a series of short novels set in a fantasy world mostly similar to the real world except in which intelligent animals live alongside humans. It primarily focuses on ferret characters with only occasional references to humans or other intelligent animal species. The author and illustrator of the series is Richard Bach, and the five novels were originally published by Scribner Publishing. Condensed versions of the novels have since been republished first by Hampton Roads Publishing Company. and more recently by Jaico Publishing House. The first two novels share the same publication date leading to Amazon and GoodReads disagreeing on the numbering of the novels. The books themselves do not explicitly state a sequence.

References