To listen to talks
while browsing our website, please enable Flash or HTML 5 in your browser —
click here to find out how
Talks play in the Media Player at the top of the page — you can continue to
browse our website while you listenBook Reviews
By Alan Thurley
Bridge Across Forever, by Richard Bach (Pan)
This is the story of one man’s journey from living the life of a wanderer in search of the beautiful, to the self-indulgent life of the playboy. It tells of the underlying discontent with himself, and the loss of belief in his dreams, of his rescue by a Fairy Princess, for whose sake he fights the self created dragons and impregnable defences of his playboy lifestyle. It is a story of flying, of selfishness, and of government incompetence, but above all it is about the re-discovery of a real man with some remarkable abilities, and of the gift of love. Since it is autobiographical, it is also in part the story of the Fairy Princess to whom ultimately we must owe this book.
Recommended light reading with subtle philosophical undercurrents.
One, by Richard Bach (Pan)
The old man sighed his relief. “What a blessed evening!” he said. “How rarely are we given the chance to save the world from a new religion!”
This book invites the reader to let go all preconceived ideas (“Beliefs are ferocious traps”, p. 51). It is a story of exploration in a new world of infinite possibility, where movement is by making choices. The book is a vehicle for new ideas and important insights, and of course it is about unity. It is also about changing the future; (“One way to pick a future is to believe it’s inevitable”), and about modes of awareness. Some of the ideas are difficult to swallow; (“Hatred is Love without the facts”), whereas some are not; (“Time is your name for the motion of consciousness”).
I found the book interesting and thought-provoking, with perhaps one chapter too many, but well worth reading nevertheless.
Reading books written by this author will change your mode of awareness, possibly permanently (I was driven to write the “Creation Myth” after reading his “Illusions”). His writing style is unusually simple and straightforward. Although hardly any isolated section is either remarkable or contentious in itself, each book in its wholeness bears witness to the depth of insight available to this author.