Illusions is not your typical novel. With very little action and drama, the storyline follows the protagonist Richard as he drifts from town to town selling rides in his biplane. On the way, Richard meets his new mentor, Donald William Shimoda. Shimoda calls himself a messiah, able to perform miracles right before Richard’s very eyes. The story has a dreamlike quality to it, the soft peaceful setting contrasted by the absurd antics of Shimoda. His plane is always squeaky clean inside and out and he somehow never has to refuel his plane. Despite the large size of his plane he can land it perfectly no matter how small the landing space. And of course, he can walk on water and levitate objects with his mind. However, Illusions is less about Shimoda’s ability to perform miracles, and more about Richard’s ability to learn how to imitate Shimoda’s abilities. Richard learns from both Shimoda and the Messiah’s Handbook, a guide to being a messiah. It contains not only instructions on how to walk on water, or how to move objects with your mind, but also philosophical lessons on one’s perception of the world. The title of the book encapsulates Shimoda's philosophy which he so desperately tries to get Richard to understand. His many lessons essentially explain to Richard that everything that one perceives is an illusion, no single person in the world is seeing the world in actuality. Shimoda draws a parallel between life and movies: “the world’s best movie is still an illusion, is it not? The pictures aren’t even moving; they only appear to move. Changing light that seems to move across a flat screen set up in the dark?” (79). Everyone’s perception of their reality is different, caked in biases and the limitations of their senses and minds. Of course, the miracles Shimoda performs are not realistic, but they demonstrate to the reader that the rules that people follow in their daily lives are simply limitations they have created for themselves. It teaches the reader to rethink their own perception of the world, to realize that there is much untapped potential within each individual. Shimoda loves to tell Richard that, “You’re like everybody else. You already know this stuff, you’re just not aware that you know it, yet” (70). Shimoda shows Richard that he has always had the potential in him to perform miracles and has always known that his perception of the world is not reality.

Despite using his power to heal the disabled and make others happy, Shimoda argues that the best way of life is to live selfishly, to think only of your own interests. While it seems contradictory at first, Shimoda again uses the argument that one only sees the world through their own illusion. He argues that one’s own desires never align with others, and it is impossible to ever know what another person truly wants. On a radio show he says, “anybody who’s ever been happy… has been a divinely selfish soul, living for his own best interest” (129). He is answered by a flood of angry people calling into the radio show. It seems that he is purposely agitating his listeners, and in fact he is. In spreading his philosophy, Shimoda is demonstrating an example of it at the same time. Each of his actions is a deliberate choice for his own benefit, including angering the public with his controversial truths: “he could have said the same things differently and ruffled no feathers at all” (130). Even at his own death, he tells Richard that it was a deliberate choice. All the miracles, the flying, the walking on water is a casual everyday task to Shimoda. It seems that he is an all-knowing being, that he has taught Richard the true nature of the world. Yet before he dies, he says of his knowledge, “I don’t know they’re true… I believe them because it’s fun to believe them” (128). Even Shimoda, a so-called Messiah, lives within an illusion.