Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student 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. ("Illusions" was the author's followup to 1970's "Jonathan Livingston Seagull".) The sequel is in author Richard Bach's voice, as his "imaginary" literary characters help him in his recovery from his real-life plane crash. After decades of flying without incident, author Richard
Jonathan Livingston Seagull abilities as he leads a peaceful and happy life. One day, Jonathan meets two gulls who take him to a "higher plane of existence" in which there is no heaven but a better world found through perfection of knowledge. There he meets another seagull who loves to fly. He discovers that his sheer tenacity and desire to learn make him "pretty well a one-in-a-million bird." In this new place, Jonathan befriends the wisest gull, Chiang, who takes him beyond his previous learning, teaching him how to move instantaneously to anywhere else in the Universe. The secret, Chiang says, is to