Rating: 
Summary: Best quick fix of renewed spiritual energy
Review: Jonathan Livingston Seagull speaks to us all, if we listen. It can be a story aobut a seagull, but one doesn't have to look far to see it's deeper message. We are all free to soar in our own directions in life. Jonathan Livingston Seagull discovered the secret to his happiness, and that's what we are here to do! This book sneaks it's message in with a clever story. You won't finish this book without dreaming of new beginnings in your own life
Rating:
Summary: Share it, and help make a better world!
Review: I congratulatulate you, dear friend.
I heard the audio-tape on Jonathan's when I was about 10,I think. And the story has kept flying in my mind untill I get the audio-tape from my brother, some years later. So, I have duplicated several copies and share with other people. That was quit interesting because each person has created a particular idea of JLS. Now, I understand why, I suppose. JLS is an history of our growing process, and it, this way, relates to universal thruth. As a consequence according to your knowlegde basis or your spiritual "level" you have your picture of what JLS was about!
And my dear friend, the story is about, I think, just the supreme energy that has created us and all that in 3D(material world) and energy universe.
I will send you more, next time I take a time for that!
I have a video-media and it stays at my office I frequently play it. It sometimes feels just as a God's love music.
I thank you for sharing what JLS is about, and I hope for you a nice and wonderfull 1997.
God's energy be always in your live! See you!
Rating:
Summary: It's a useful, short read.
Review: I read this book quite some time back, and still feel that
I should have read it even earlier. There are really two
aspects to the book. You could take it as a story and you
could take it as a search for the basis of everyhthing one
does. It kindles one to think about life and its struggles.
Every parent should encourage his children to read this, early in adolescence.
Rating:
Summary: Free as a bird ...
Review: This is not the story of a seagull. This is a vision of freedom, captured within the pages of a book. It is the storyof every living being in this universe that yearns to be free. It is a cry of freedom, bursting out of the souls of every one of its readers. Everytime I read the book, I learnt something new. And all that I learnt from the book was essentially just one thing - that we are all free. And that it takes most of us a lifetime to realize it. It's portrayal of the seagull community is a saddening but true portrayal of the real world. This book is a triumph if ever there was one.
Rating:
Summary: Rare, unique, must-read book
Review: All I can say about this book is what it has done for me.
I read this book when I was 11 years old (I am now 29)and it definitely changed my way of viewing the world, the afterlife,
and why we are here and born to this earth. Jonathon Livingston Seagull is a philosophy,
and, as simple as it is, it is very profound. To this day and as long as I live, I am still learning, I am still reading spiritual books, I can still read Jonathon
and get something out of it and I still recommend it to people.
That, I think says a lot for this book!!
Rating: 
Summary: Read it a long time ago and got sucked in!
Review: I read this as a teenager, and I have to admit it, I got sucked in. O.K., let's get something out of the way: this isn't great literature, nor is it a great story. This is a sermon, a parable, a mildly entertaining allegory about seeking a higher purpose in life, not simply living for food (or money or job or survival or routine -- whatever else Bach and you might substitute here). For young adolescents this is an easy read with a good message. As simple and easy to read as it is, it really doesn't surprise me that it sold so many copies. I have no idea what kind of editorial reviews this received when first published, but I suspect they were mostly critical of the message's simplemindedness. Bach isn't subtle, nor is he morally ambiguous. But then, I'm sure this really hit the spot for the idealistic flower power children at the time. I only wonder what Bach thinks of it now.
Rating:
Summary: THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK EVER WRITTEN!
Review: Of all the countless, thousands of books I have read, "Johathan Livingston Seagull" is my number one favourite book. It is so much more than a simple story about a seagull who learns to spread his wings and fly. The book can have many individual interpretations, depending on how you relate to it, and to me that is the magical wonder of this beautiful, inspirational book. For each one of us, the book has its own personal meaning. To me, it is about personal freedom and having the courage to be the person you want to be; the freedom to become all that you were meant to be, not what someone else expects you to be. It is about spiritual freedom and how our fate on this Earth, and in whatever worlds may follow, is determined by the choices we make. As a parent, it is about learning to let go, for giving your children "wings," is the greatest gift they will ever receive. By setting them free, when they are no longer yours to hold, you are giving them the freedom to grow and the dauntless courage, strength and independence to fly on their own in an uncertain world. I have read this book so many times throughout the years that the pages are dog-eared and worn. The book is short, but the powerful lesson and message contained in these few pages is one many people never learn in an entire lifetime, no matter how many lifetimes they may live.
Rating: 
Summary: DON'T ABANDON YOUR DREAMS ...
Review: "Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight--how to get from shore to food and back again". "For most gulls it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight." That is what the author of this book says about the "hero" of this story, a seagull named Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is different to the other gulls in his flock. He doesn't live to eat, but eats to live and pursue his passion: flight. But his search for perfection and speed doesn't endear him to the other seagulls, that eventually expel him from the flock for daring to be different. To know what happens afterwards, you will need to read this book, because I don't want to spoil the ending.
The real question here, I guess, is whether you want to read a story about gulls... I mean, there are so many good books out there, why read a book about a bird?. The answer is simple: the story in "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" is a metaphor about things that can happen to you in real life. Have you ever felt tempted to do the same that everybody else, just for the sake of conformism?. Have you often felt like given up when something you really want to do demands too much work?. Just think about it...
I believe that many of us are sometimes like most of the gulls in this book, and we need to learn the lessons that "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" gives us: the most important thing is to believe in ourselves, and always do our best without giving up.
I would like to point out that some people say that this book is full of New Age ideas. I really don't think so. Okay, I certainly don't know much about those ideas, and I'm not interested enough to learn more about them. But in my opinion, we often find in a book what we want to find in it.
For me, this is only a charming allegory with a very pertinent message: DON'T ABANDON YOUR DREAMS... For that reason, I recommend this book to you. And whether you read "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" (English edition) or "Juan Salvador Gaviota" (Spanish edition), enjoy it !!!
Belen Alcat
Rating:
Summary: Timeless, inspiring, for the rebel inside each of us.
Review: Timeless, inspiring, for the rebel inside each of us.
I honestly understand why many people give this book a bad review. I would suggest them to keep it near their deathbed at old age, and read before the last breath!
One could see the whole life lived as a "seagull from the flock", struggling just in order to eat, procreate, fly around dead fish.
Written decades ago, it is timeless. Jonathan is Neo, the flock is "plugged" to the matrix, and deluded in a life they don't have a clue about. One doesn't know where he comes from, what he is doing here and why, or where he is going. And most don't even bother to know. Most "believe" in what the preachers, the politicians, and the kleptocrats from the corporations say it's best for them and go on satisfied with titbits on the beach. Jonathan is the rebel that lives inside all of us (but quite sleepy in most), aspiring for something higher, deeper and more meaningful about life. Richard Bach wrote as a "channeller" who sits down and get inspired by higher beings, who call us to reassess what we are doing, what kind of life we are living. As in the phrase: whose life are you living today? Most probably not a unique life. Whatever your profession, you are likely to be substituted in a week if you die now in a car crash, you are very replaceable, in your job, family, as a friend. There is almost nothing UNIQUE among all of you. Jonathan is searching for the uniqueness each of us potentially has. He can't be satisfied in the everyday fast food, TV, going back and forth to the office, as most do. The flock of seagulls allegorically shows that. The moment you start to look and search for deeper truths, beyond the Bibles, Korans and Talmuds, beyond CNN, beyond the poisonous cheeseburger in the next mac-something restaurant, you are bound to be an outcast. By not compromising and accepting the loneliness of the rebellious spirit, one will eventually taste the "eagle's flight", where bitter loneliness turns into peaceful and grateful aloneness. The "perfect speed is just being there".
I heard about this book first time in a meeting of friends, where we would discuss which interesting books we had been reading lately. One of the friends commented the book, "just for the record", as he said. He was one of the "half star judges" we see here. After leaving, another friend joined me and gave "his" view about Jonathan Livingston Seagull. His comment drove me to the next bookstore the day after. A short text, I didn't read it in 30 minutes, as others. I had to feel and wonder during the slow read. I have given a copy as a present to many friends. I asked my two daughters to read it as teenagers. If you like Donald duck, buy some more comics. If you are looking for more than Disney world to life, if you are questioning and longing for answers to everything you see on your TV news, if you feel you are "plugged" to some controlling hidden agendas that keep you flying around small dead fish, then take the jump into your heart, close your eyes and ask for the answers. Richard's book is about that quest. There is plenty of hot dog, coke, Mickey mouse and "dubya" for all who feel satisfied with crap. The Jonathans of today read Noam Chomsky, research about Inedia, read Karmabanque's and Greenpeace websites, paid attention to the metaphoric Matrix trilogy, and know what the mega corporations are after. They know the so called "democracy" is nowadays just about electing the best in the art of campaigning rather than choosing the wisest men to govern. They do not follow the flock. They know there is an "eagle's flight" for all human Jonathans to discover.
Rating:
Summary: Jonathan, Paul Twitchell and Eckankar
Review: I remember when Jonathan came out. I think Paul Twitchell had just died, or was just about to. I found it a tribute to his life. Being at multiple places at the same time. Using Paul's 'Soul Travel' to rise above time and space. Leaving the body, learning one's own lessons on one's own path. The lower planes where so many dwell and exist is death to those who starve for more. Even at the risk of death it's hell going back so why not go forward.
Like Paul Twitchell. It's his life and his story. Right out of 1970.
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