Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah Mass Market Paperback – October 10, 1989

It's not what you are looking for that matters. It's what you find. Don Shimoda has been an inspiration for me many years now. Less bugs on the windshield, check. Still working on the not burning oil though.

So I guess I like it. Words to live by. Forest Gump had a feather also. Liked that as well. The story helps to make me a better person I think...

and repeated ad infinitum. Most rewarding, AND challenging work I ever read - or, most … book I ever read (you can fill in the blank!). This is one of those that inspires superlatives to just cascade from normally reserved reviewers, folks that are sparse with their words. It just happens. I swear it.

I won't return it because I just wanted a spare copy to lend out, but I'm very unhappy about the damage the copy I received.This book is fantastic, it put words to how I've viewed the world around me. How people let themselves fall into violence due to a sense of misguided devotion. About how most things are possible if you can imagine it. And how to slow down when going through life.

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.

Illusions: The Adventures of A Reluctant Messiah. Definition of Messiah: A professed or accepted leader of some hope or cause. Donald Shimoda and Richard are both pilots of antique planes who fly around small agricultural communities of Illinois about 1969. They don't fly to spray crops, they fly to give locals an experience as passengers at the cost of $3 for 10 minutes of fly time. It is thrilling experience for those who have never flown in a small plane before. They meet up together in Ferris, Illinois and enjoy each other. Richard soon discovers that Donald is a messiah, who disliked the work, having people constantly following him who just wanted miracles, which he can perform. But he gives it up to follow the paths of his choosing. His plane is a classic Travel Air 4000, gold and white. He's made several flights this day, however, his plane is perfectly clean, like it's never been flown before and just had materialized out of thin air in the field. During their evening discussions over the campfire, Richard expresses his belief in the theory of mankind eventually learning to fly without machines or airplanes, maybe even fly to different planets. Don was called the Mechanic Messiah, sometimes the American Avatar, who disappeared in front of 25,000 people. They constantly banter back and forth, Richard saying there is no way Don can truly run away from his assigned mission. Don knows that if one wants freedom and joy, it found within the person. Therefore, Richard is to become the Reluctant Messiah, and learns much. There are several lessons here for Richard to learn from a book Tom gives to Richard: 1) You are never given a wish without being given the power to make it true. 2) Like attracts like, we shine who we are; some reject or turn away, while others are drawn to us as a magnet. Well written with thoughts to ponder. It's a story you may want to re-read from time to time.

Illusions, the Messiah Handbook, Bridge Across Forever, and One, have deeply impacted my philosophy of life. I have given out more than 30 copies of Illusions. The photo is of my ring I had made. My personal philosophy of Triadism easily fits the symbolism using the Feather, Möbius, and Infinity. Illusions is a fun read, just as a short novel, in case you aren’t looking for a philosophical ride. But, then again, you might enjoy its Inspirational flavors as well.

Such a great story! I gift this book to others and always here back that they liked it too.