Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

This chapter opens with an excerpt from the handbook that states everyone has the power to make their wishes come true, but this requires work.

On their day off, Don walks on water and invites Richard to join him. Richard walks on water and remarks on how easily he has gotten used to miracles. Then, Don explains to Richard that the land can also be liquid if he believes it to be. Don swims blissfully in the field, but Richard steps onto the land and immediately sinks in. Richard feels like he is drowning in dirt and calls to Don for help; Don tells him to help himself. Richard stops panicking, imagines the land as a solid, and climbs out.

He is covered in dirt and washing himself in the water, then goes to change out of his wet clothes. Don laughs at him, and Richard realizes there must be an easier way to have cleaned off. Don tells Richard not to forget their experience: It was neither a miracle nor a dream. Even though reality is an illusion, the beauty of their experience is real. A final passage from the handbook says that even though the world is an illusion, one can express reality there.