THE ULTIMATE AIM OF HUMAN LIFE PORTRAYED IN THE NOVELS OF RICHARD BACH A MINOR RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED TO UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION, WESTERN REGIONAL OFFICE, PUNE BY SHRI. TULSHIKATTI DEVAL CHENBASU ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH PROF. DR. N.D. PATIL MAHAVIDYALAYA, MALAKAPUR, TAL. SHAHUWADI, DIST. KOLHAPUR (MS) 2013 1 AKNOWLEDGEMENT A minor research project work is both interesting and demanding. The project would not be completed without the help of some people. I am fortunate enough to have received the support and motivation from many people in achieving my task. I would like to thank Dr. Dilip Kuralapkar, Principal, Dr.N.D.Patil , College, Malkapur, Prin.Dr. Ajit Magdum . I also express my thank to my friends Dr.R.P.Lokhande,Head,Dept. of English,R.C.Shahu College,Kolhapur. I would like to place on record my deep felt appreciation to Mr.Shakil Shaikh,Dr,Rajendra Kumbhar, Mr,Prakash Chougule, Mr.Rajendra Dethe,Dr, Kakasaheb Bhosale,Mr.Babasaheb Nadaf. My special thanks to Librarian of Prof. Dr. N.D.Patil College,Malkapur. and their staff.I also thank to library of Barrister Balasaheb Khardekar Library, Shivaji University Kolhpaur. I must express my heartily feeling to my beloved family my wife Mrs. Pratibha and my daughters Pranoti and Manali. I must express my heartily feeling to my friends and colleagues. Mr. D.C.Tulshikatti 2 Contents Chapter I Introduction 2 Chapter II Ultimate Aim of Life: Theoretical Background 14 Chapter III The Ultimate Aim of Life Portrayed in Jonathan Livingston Seagull 53 Chapter IV The Ultimate Aim of Life Portrayed inIllusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah 73 Chapter V Conclusion 85 Bibliography: 97 3 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Choice of the Topic with Reasoning The idea of the ultimate aim of life is a philosophical and spiritual conception of the significance of living or existence in general. The question seeking the ultimate aim of life can also be expressed in different forms, such as "What should I do?", "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", and "What is the purpose of existence?" or even "Does life exist at all?" There have been a large number of proposed answers to these questions from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds. The search for life's ultimate aim of life has produced much philosophical, scientific, and theological speculation throughout history. People are pursuing material life and they confused to understand the aim od life. So I have selected this topic for minor research project. The ultimate aim of life as we perceive it is derived from our philosophical and religious contemplation of, and scientific inquiries about existence, social ties, consciousness, and happiness. Many other issues are also involved, such as symbolic, ontology, value, purpose, ethics, good and evil, free will, the existence of one or multiple gods, conceptions of God, the soul, and the afterlife. Scientific contributions focus primarily on describing related empirical facts about the universe, exploring the context and parameters concerning the 'how' of life. Science also studies and can provide recommendations for the pursuit of well-being and a related conception of morality. An alternative, humanistic approach poses the question "What is the ultimate aim of my life?" Researchers in positive psychology study empirical factors that lead to life satisfaction, full engagement in activities, making a fuller contribution by utilizing one's personal strengths, and ultimate aim of life based on investing in something larger than the self. Large-data studies 4 of flow experiences have consistently suggested that humans experience ultimate aim of life and fulfillment when mastering challenging tasks, and that the experience comes from the way tasks are approached and performed rather than the particular choice of task. For example, flow experiences can be obtained by prisoners in concentration camps with minimal facilities, and occur only slightly more often in billionaires. A classic example is of two workers on an apparently boring production line in a factory. One treats the work as a tedious chore while the other turns it into a game to see how fast she can make each unit, and achieves flow in the process. Neuroscience describes reward, pleasure, and motivation in terms of neurotransmitter activity, especially in the limbic system and the ventral tegmental area in particular. If one believes that the ultimate aim of life is to maximize pleasure and to ease general life, then this allows normative predictions about how to act to achieve this. Likewise, some ethical naturalists advocate a science of morality – the empirical pursuit of flourishing for all conscious creatures. Experimental philosophy and neuroethics research collects data about human ethical decisions in controlled scenarios such as trolley problems. It has shown that many types of ethical judgment are universal across cultures, suggesting that they may be innate, whilst others are culture specific. The findings show actual human ethical reasoning to be at odds with most logical philosophical theories, for example consistently showing distinctions between action by cause and action by omission which would be absent from utility based theories. Cognitive science has theorized about differences between conservative and liberal ethics and how they may be based on different metaphors from family life such as strong fathersvs nurturing mother models. 5 Neurotheology is a controversial field which tries to find neural correlates and mechanisms of religious experience. Some researchers have suggested that the human brain has innate mechanisms for such experiences and that living without using them for their evolved purposes may be a cause of imbalance. Studies have reported conflicted results on correlating happiness with religious belief and it is difficult to find unbiased meta-analyses. Sociology examines value at a social level using theoretical constructs such as value theory, norms, anomie, etc. One value system suggested by social psychologists, broadly called Terror Management Theory, states that human ultimate aim of life is derived from a fundamental fear of death, and values are selected when they allow us to escape the mental reminder of death. Emerging research shows that ultimate aim in life predicts better physical health outcomes. Greater ultimate aim of life has been associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, reduced risk of heart attack among individuals with coronary heart disease, reduced risk of stroke, and increased longevity in both American and Japanese samples. In , the British National Health Service began recommending a five step plan for mental well-being based on ultimate aim of lifeful lives, whose steps are: (1) Connect with community and family; (2) Physical exercise; (3) Lifelong learning; (4) Giving to others; (5) Mindfulness of the world around you. Richard Bach, the American novelist introduced the weight of one's mortality and the complexities of life and death in the novels Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. The Life and Works of the writer Richard David Bach was born on June 23, 1936. He is widely known as the author of the hugely popular 1970s best-sellers Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of 6 a Reluctant Messiah, among others. Bach's books espouse his philosophy that our apparent physical limits and mortality are merely appearance. Bach is noted for his love of flying and for his books related to air flight and flying in a metaphorical context. He has pursued flying as a hobby since the age of 17. In late August 2012 Bach was badly injured when on approach to landing at Friday Harbor, Washington his aircraft clipped some power lines and crashed upside down in a field. Bach was born in Oak Park, Illinois. He attended Long Beach State College in 1955. He has authored numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, including Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), Illusions (1977), One (1989), and Out of My Mind (1999). Most of his books have been semi-autobiographical, using actual or fictionalized events from his life to illustrate his philosophy. Bach's first airplane flight occurred at age 15, when his mother was campaigning for a seat on the council of Long Beach, California. Her campaign manager, Paul Marcus, mentioned that he flew airplanes, and invited Richard on a flight in his Globe Swift. Bach served in the United States Navy Reserve, then in the New Jersey Air National Guard's 108th Fighter Wing, 141st Fighter Squadron (USAF) as a F-84F pilot. He then worked at a variety of jobs, including as a technical writer for Douglas Aircraft and as a contributing editor for Flying magazine. He served in the USAF reserve, deployed in France in 1960. He later became a barnstormer. Most of his books involve flight in some way, from the early stories which are straightforwardly about flying aircraft, to Stranger to the Ground, his first book, to his later works, in which he used flight as a philosophical metaphor. In 1970, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a story about a seagull who flew for the love of flying rather than merely to catch food, was published by Macmillan Publishers after the 7 manuscript was turned down by several other publishers. The book, which included unique photos of seagulls in flight by photographer Russell Munson, became a number-one bestseller. The book contained fewer than 10,000 words, yet it broke all hardcover sales records since Gone with the Wind. It sold more than 1,000,000 copies in 1972 alone. The surprise success of the book was widely reported in the media in the early 1970s. During the summer of 1970, Bach and his friend Chris Cagle traveled to Ireland, where they participated in flying sequences supporting Roger Corman's film Von Richthofen and Brown. They flew a variety of World War I aircraft of the Blue Max collection owned by ex- RCAF pilot Lynn Garrison. Bach and Garrison first met when Bach wrote articles for AVIAN, Garrison's aviation publication. In 1973, the book was turned into a movie, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, produced by Paramount Pictures Corporation. The movie included a soundtrack by Neil Diamond.A second book, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, published in 1977, tells of an encounter with a modern-day messiah who has decided to quit. Bach has retained a dedicated fan base through the years. During the 1990s, he appeared online at Compuserve, where he answered e-mails personally. Bach was interviewed on April 1, 2005 on Conscious Talk Radio, and this interview was replayed a few times in 2006. Bach had six children with his first wife, Bette. Bette typed and edited most of Richard's aviation writings. They divorced in 1970. Bette Bach Fineman, who remarried, is also a pilot, and the author of Patterns, about her life as a pilot and single mother. Their son Jonathan is a software engineer and journalist, who wrote Above the Clouds about growing up without knowing his father, Richard, and then later meeting him as a college student. (Richard gave his approval, although he noted that it included some personal history he'd "rather not see in print"). 8 Other children are Robert, a commercial airline pilot; Kristel; James Marcus Bach, a computer expert and writer; and Erika. His youngest daughter, Bethany, was killed in an accident at age fifteen in 1985. In 1977 Bach married actress Leslie Parrish, whom he met during the making of the Jonathan Livingston Seagull movie. She was a major element in two of his subsequent books— The Bridge Across Forever and One—which primarily focused on their relationship and Bach's concept of soulmates. They divorced in 1997. Bach married his third wife, Sabryna Nelson- Alexopoulos in April 1999. On August 31, 2012, Bach was injured in an aircraft landing accident on San Juan Island in Washington. He was landing his aircraft, N346PE, a 2008 Easton Gilbert G SEAREY that he nicknamed "Puff", at a private airport when the landing gear clipped some power lines and crashed upside down in a field about two miles from Friday Harbor, taking down two poles and sparking a small grass fire. The day after the accident, he was reported to be in serious but stable condition with a head injury and broken shoulder. Bach was hospitalized for four months. He reported that his near-death experience inspired him to finish the fourth part of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which had been originally published in three parts. In December 2012, Publishers Weekly reported that Travels with Puff, the book Bach wrote about crossing the United States in "Puff", was sent to his publisher the day before his accident. Travels with Puff was released on March 19, 2013. In 2009 Bach published his long-awaited sequel to Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, which he called Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student. The story incorporates Bach's real-life plane crash, and the author imagines being visited by the 9 "messiah" Don Shimoda, who helps him through his difficult medical recovery. Other fictional characters and references also appear. Jonathan Livingston Seagull Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a fable in novella form about a seagull learning about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection. It was first published in 1970 as "Jonathan Livingston Seagull — a story." By the end of 1972, over a million copies were in print, Reader's Digest had published a condensed version, and the book had reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, where it remained for 38 weeks. In 1972 and 1973, the book topped the Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States. In 2014 the book was reissued as Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition, which added a 17-page fourth part to the story. Several early commentators, emphasizing the first part of the book, see it as part of the US self-help and positive thinking culture, epitomised by Norman Vincent Peale and by the New Thought movement. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that the book was "banal" and shallow in comparison to a children's book. The book is listed as one of 50 "timeless spiritual classics" in a book by Tom Butler- Bowdon, who noted that "it is easy now, 35 years on, to overlook the originality of the book's concept, and though some find it rather naïve, in fact it expresses timeless ideas about human potential." John Clute, for The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, wrote: "an animal fantasy about a philosophical gull who is profoundly affected by flying, but who demands too much of his community and is cast out by it. He becomes an extremely well behaved accursed wanderer, then dies, and in posthumous FANTASY sequences — though he is too wise really to question the 10