Here's my first essay on this topic.
Now? I'll take on how I got suckered into the whole thing in my early 20s, and escaped from its clutches within an inch of my life. Had to go through the phase, I suppose, but day-um, it was kind of ridiculous while it lasted.
Richard Bach is a huge part of this story. For those of you who have never heard of Richard Bach (is that possible?) - he is a writer. He wrote the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull, published in 1970, which has become pretty much a cult classic. Or, hell, not EVEN a cult classic - it was on the New York Times bestseller list for years. Richard Bach is seeping his way into this post before his time ... I wanted to contain my comments on him to its own post, but I can't help it.
Richard Bach has written quite a few books, but it was in the mid-80s to mid-90s that he started this whole "soulmate" thing.
Up until then, he was, yes, a kind of New Agey type, and wrote books about pushing your own limits, and daring to fly higher (like in JLS) - stuff that was very much of his time. He was also a pilot, and had kind of dropped out of regular society in the early 1970s to be a barnstormer throughout the midwest. He decided to try his hand at writing, and went freelance. All of his pieces on flying (Biplane, Stranger to the Ground and Gift of Wings) are compilations of all of those early pieces.
It would not be right to compare his stuff to Antoine de Saint-Exupery, although many people do (you know: pilot + writer = same thing) But ... St. Ex is, indeed, the much better writer. I like some of Richard Bach's stuff on flying, don't get me wrong, his enthusiasm and wonder are catching ... but St. Ex stands apart. Richard Bach has written forewards to re-issues of St.-Ex's books, etc. Bach is in that very specific genre WITH St.Ex, to be sure: People who are pilots who also can write about their experiences in truly poetic terms, and can get across to a land-bound audience what it is like to fly. The magic of it.
That is Richard Bach's deal.
But then ... he got married. In the mid-1980s. And wrote three books over the next ten years which turned him into THE soulmate guru. It's all about the search for the "perfect" woman. And then ... holy mackerel ... he finds her. They marry. All is well. Magic reigns. Soulmates exist. Let's fly through the ether together.
His 3 books about love and relationships are called Bridge Across Forever, One and Running from Safety.
Okay, I'm gonna save all of my thoughts about all of these books for my big-ass post I'm planning on Richard Bach himself. This is all just for background.
I have read all of these books, and I read them AS they were coming out. I was into the whole Richard Bach phenomena thing AS it was going on. And lemme tell ya - those books have been gathering dust on my shelf for over ten years now, I haven't picked them up, touched them, flipped through them since then (well, until yesterday ... in getting ready for this post). It is a very odd feeling. There was a good six years in my life when I NEEDED new books from Richard Bach. He wasn't prolific enough for me. I stood in line for three hours in Chicago to meet him and get him to sign my copy of Illusions, stuff like that. This man MEANT something to me.
And then ... poof ... it's like he never meant anything to me at all.
It's like it never happened. Most of my books that I once adored are STILL adored books. (Wrinkle in Time. Lion, the witch and the wardrobe. Jane Eyre.) My taste in books is pretty consistent. But Richard Bach's stuff? For a while there, his books were DOG-eared from re-readings, and now? I can barely remember a word.
Strange. It's like I was under hypnosis or something, heh heh. My views on him and those books have changed so drastically that I wonder at my old self, I wonder at her credulity, I wonder what was going on with her that she needed to believe his words so desperately ...
But whatever. I'll talk about that in a minute.
Now I'm just marveling at how much one can change. These views I had were deeply held. And now ... there's almost no remnant left of them at all. The Sheila back then would have been unable to comprehend the Sheila now who says, "If there's one phrase I wish I could STRIKE from the English language, it's "soul mate"." The Sheila then would have thought: ho-ly crap-ola ... what on EARTH happened to me that would make me say that??? The Sheila then would have looked on such a transformation as a tragedy. The Sheila now sees it as liberation.
I guess I better get down to brass tacks here, I can already tell I'm circling the plane with this topic ...
More to come ...
Consider this an intro to Richard Bach.
Posted by sheila