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For those of you who have read Illusions by Richard Bach I want to ask you: Did it change your way of thought? Perhaps just for one day, many years, or indeed for the rest of your life? Did you try to create an illusion of your own? Did you feel stupid trying or still believe there's more to life than this physical form we hold now?

The book is full of fantastic quotes, and the principle is compelling, something a friend and I have discussed before I picked up the book.

For those that have not read the book, I wont spoil it (anymore) and just ask that you read it to understand.

I am searching for the path with answers beyond this illusion, if anyone knows the way I'd be grateful if you shared

look up advaita-vedanta

oh! and this physical form we hold now IS the illusion.

and! in this specific search, you will find MANY things you will NOT like. just a word of warning, but not of discouragment

the big question is... where does reality end and the illusion begin? they are both one and the same. if you seek to live beyond illusion, simply be, accept it all as truth, or the manifestation of god, or that which is defined by nothing, etc etc.

Thank you for your help, I'll look into that website at home.

you are most definitely welcome. you will find what youve always been

check out:

stephen wolinsky
dennis waite
alan watts
"oneness" by rasha

along with advaita, id suggest zen buddhism.

theres so much to this! well... its everything! hahaha

read it.

Like most staples of pop spirituality, it made a blip in my world view and then disapeared again. Problem? Applying the ideas if one is a non-sorceror is a bit hard, eh? No real step by step method is given.

This is why most useful religions have set rituals, holy documents, and levels of instructors. One must actually COMMIT heart and soul to learn to think in a given way. Even Zen people usually go a monastery, even if in theory they don't 'get' it until a Master almost cracks their head open. If its not your head they almost crack open, reading Zen literature won't get you far either, though you might be inspired enough to actually travel to a real monastery and begin the journey.

Not Richard Bach's fault, just the way it is.

you must swing to get the hit

seek and ye shall find

etc etc

zen gets you nowhere and everywhere at the same time. and one most certainly doesnt need a monastary to learn it. "zen" isnt "zen." the "master" is all around you, at every point. we can learn directly from life. the difference between a "master" and a "student" is that the "master" realizes there is no difference.

Sounds like you don't need a master, but it helps.

the concept of a "master" is a paradox, as are all truths. living such a paradox consistently will definitely aid that particular journey.

let's just say that i point people to this book whenever they ask what i believe in, spiritually. i love the last line in the book, it is a great revelation indeed. you won't find that kind of thing in any other spititual book you read, or i have yet to find. i intend to take this on my travels, until i find someone to pass it onto that is. what will happen will happen. just looking for my own field to land on.

what book is that?

Yes, I LOVE that book!

And the quote: "Every dream is given to us with the power to make it come true." became kind of my life's philosophy, and the motto to my own book as well...
Even though I followed it long before I read 'Illusions'.

In Tibetan Buddhism they speak of the 'relative' and 'ultimate' truths, the 'relative' being the visible samsaric world, the 'ultimate' being illusory, 'like a dream, like a magical illusion', beyond the sorts of dualistic judgements that we make at every moment. Part of the goal of meditation (maybe the ultimate goal) is to see the ultimate in the relative so as to go beyond judgement(this is the view of Tantra), ultimately to go beyond the physical,relative world completely and become one with the ultimate truth, hence the final sign of accomplishment in Dzogchen(Great Perfection) meditation, the rainbow body, where the practitioner meditates through death and his/her body disappears, leaving only hair, nails and rainbow light. At least this is my rudimentary understanding of it-ask a lama for details...:-)