This book illustrates the relationship between our protagonist, Richard, and his teacher; or, as we come to know him, the reluctant messiah Don. The backdrop for these two vagabonds is flying biplanes in the midwest for three dollars a ride, and as their journey unfolds, Richard learns more about flying than he ever thought possible. 

The book starts off with a parable: a Messiah born in the holy lands in Indiana, a public-school-educated mechanic. As he becomes thronged by the masses, the messiah is obligated to teach, to heal, and to save. And as he tries to amalgamate the thoughts of the multitude, he uses an allegory to punctuate his understanding.  

He speaks of little creatures living at the bottom of a great flowing river, clinging to rocks. It’s all they know and all they can manage to do. Just destined to live that life. Then one day, one little creature, exhausted from clinging, decides to let go. The others ridicule him for being so outrageous. 

“‘Fool!’ Let go and that river you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom.” 

But he let go anyway, and the river  tossed him around a little, but eventually it began to lift him up and carry him along. The other creatures watch in astonishment, calling this free creature messiah. And as he drifts along he explains,

“I am no more messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.”

To let go.  Bach’s messiah speaks nonchalantly about unshackling our perceived sense of self from the vice of materiality. As if it were as easy as flowing down a river. It mimics the same type of detachment all great spiritual teachers exhibit. And if we take a look across all major religions, this is the primary tenant. Let go of ego, and flow with divinity. 

But even after the messiah gives us the answer, as all messiahs do, the masses still don't get it. Save us. Heal us. Fix us. It speaks again, to the way the ego looks out instead of in to find the answer to being. Bach uses the messiah, saying, 

“...and he said unto them ‘within each of us lies the power of our 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’.” 

It’s such a hard pill to swallow, but it’s not like it’s an original idea. Those who are aware of the law of attraction know this to be true. And it’s this tenet that points to Bach’s roots in the somewhat obscure religion of Christian Science. 

Christian Science came out of the late 1800’s, and absolutely radical for its time. Discover and founder, Mary Baker Eddy, paved the way for many of the “enlightened” thinkers of today. A free thinker, demonstrator, and overall badass feminist, Mrs. Eddy spent her life devoted to overcoming the illusion of materiality.

Outlining the understanding that it is our egos, or “mortal mind” as she calls it, that gives sin, disease, and death agency in our mortal experience. She proclaimed the scientific statement of being (what a heavy hitter) as such: 

"There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."

How fucking lit is that? MBE disbands the thought that there is anything outside of consciousness, and you have to look past mirage of materialy to connect with divinity. God, being consciousness. What Dr. Joe Dispenza, lecturer, author, and quantum researcher (bless his soul) would call the unified field of consciousness. 

Dr. Dispenza writes in his books, Becoming Supernatural, You are the Placebo, and Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, about the idea that, “if your thoughts can make you sick, your thoughts can make you well.” It would sound concise and fresh if he wasn’t a hundred years late, haha.

And that is not to knock the amazing work he's doing. I would venture to say that Dr. Joe has put the science in Christain Science (despite being completely unaware such a “religion” is in existence) by understanding the fact that quantum physics rules the make up of being, and Newtonian physics governs the material world. Both are valid. And both are at work. Gravity doesn’t stop because of my enlightenment. 

But it is this duality that books like Illusions deconstruct and examine. And it’s the duality of the mind that keeps us trapped, vacillating between what IS and what IS not. 

And I capitalize IS because in Illusions, Bach uses IS to personify divinity in a similar way to how Mrs. Eddy uses the phrase “I AM”. He writes, 

Infinite Radiant Is, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me, let me lay aside this impossible task. I cannot live the life of one other soul, yet ten thousand cry to me for life. I'm sorry I allowed it all to happen. It if be thy will, let me go back to my engines and my tool and let me live as other men. 

The question being, “Am I allowed to stop this bullshit?!…... Cuz people aren’t getting it.” Which to me is hilarious. That dude Jesus must have been one hell of a guy to keep telling people the same thing over and over again.  And the infinite Is responds “Not my will, but thine be done. For what is thy will is mine for thee. Go thy way and be as other men, and be thou happy on earth.” Go be happy, because you are the one who gives yourself purpose.