I know it's hard to tell how mixed up you feel
Hoping what you need is behind every door
Each time you get hurt, I don't want you to change
Because everyone has hopes, you're human after all

The feeling sometimes wishing you were someone else
Feeling as though you never belong
This feeling is not sadness, this feeling is not joy
I truly understand, please don't cry now

Please don't go, I want you to stay
I'm begging you, please, please don't leave here
I don't want you to hate for all the hurt that you feel
The world is just illusion trying to change you

Being like you are, well, this is something else
Who would comprehend? But some that do lay claim
Divine purpose blesses them, that's not what I believe
And it doesn't matter anyway

A part of your soul ties you to the next world
Or maybe to the last but I'm still not sure
But what I do know is to us the world is different
As we are to the world, I guess you would know that

Please don't go, I want you to stay
I'm begging you, please, please don't leave here
I don't want you to hate for all the hurt that you feel
The world is just illusion trying to change you

Please don't go, I want you to stay
I'm begging you, please, oh please don't leave here
I don't want you to change for all the hurt that you feel
This world is just illusion always trying to change you

Please don't go, I want you to stay
I'm begging you, please, please don't leave here
I don't want you to hate for all the hurt that you feel
This world is just illusion, trying to change you

Please don't go, I want you to stay
I'm begging you, please, oh please don't leave here
I don't want you to change for all the hurt that you feel
This world is just illusion always trying to change you


Lyrics submitted by interface2x, edited by glh5, Nonny

Illusion Lyrics as written by Simon Anthony James Finnegan Marcus Harris

Lyrics © Raleigh Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Downtown Music Publishing

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Illusion song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

53 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +14
    General Comment

    This song legitimately kept me from killing myself.

    I was in an incredibly depressed state. I listened to this song over 1,000 times. Now that I'm not suicidal this song always makes me smile, because it convinced me to keep my life, which was definitely worth living.

    DAnonon September 17, 2010   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    hi just joined.

    This song? well i feel a bit different about it.

    I feel its a song about me and my wife. I met her 30 years ago. it was heaven on earth in the beginning. Then she got ill. a terrible disease on the brain afflicted her. Now in the present she is in and out of Psychic hospitals fighting her schizophrenia. Thats what i feel when i hear this song, my love for her and the things that goes around in her head.

    Twisted? maybe but we all hear differnt things.

    robarthon April 20, 2007   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    This song actually makes me cry. It means so much to me. It's almost as if they're singing to me in the sense that I do feel like I don't belong, and I am a bitter person because of how I've been hurt over the years. It makes me feel comforted that someone else I've never met knows how I feel and how to make me feel less alone. It also makes me feel vindicated in that I do feel spiritually Im on a different level, and that I see and understand things others don't. This makes me feel out of place often and like I can never open up or attach to anyone else.

    It also makes me think of my first love, whom I lost five and a half years ago and still grieve over. What i wish I could've said, could've shown her. Thank you Ronan, for making me cry, for release, and for feeling loved and understood.

    Morglithon December 23, 2007   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    To me this song holds the meaning of all humanity. The lyrics tie us together in ways that are indescribable, and yet we all know how unique we each are. There are so many different meanings listed here, each one is personal and different.

    "This feeling is not sadness, this feeling is not joy, I truly understand, please don't cry now."

    How often have any of us felt that way? Not happy, not sad...just like we are here and we are not good enough for some unexplainable reason. Deep down inside we all understand, and here is this song...telling us that we all understand each other. There is someone out there who wrote this song, and sang it, to all of us, to the world. Everyone that hears this song understands it in some special and unique way.

    This song is happiness, and sadness, it causes people to cry tears of joy, tears of pain. It causes people to reflect on all their emotions, their lives, their friendships. It makes people think, not about themselves...but about everyone around them.

    When I first heard this song one of the people I thought about was my late grandmother, it made me cry very hard. Then I thought about my friends who are described by these lyrics perfectly. Then I thought about my mother, and her whole life. I thought about relationships I've had, lost, am still in. I thought of so many people that eventually I felt like I was holding the world in my mind.

    To me, this song brings me closer to all of you.

    That's what it means to me. This world is a messed up place and if we aren't true to ourselves we lose ourselves in that mess. So much of us are filled with hate, anger, despair, rage, and depression. So many of us feel like we have no control over our own lives, or that no one understands us or no one cares. So many of us live inside our minds afraid of the world outside, and yet so many of us are unwilling to admit that very fact.

    This song to me is love, pure and simple love. Not greed, not love of things or stuff or anything in particular...just love. The love we are supposed to feel for everyone and ourselves...regardless of our little flaws and imperfections, religious differences, racial differences, cultural differences, differences in morals and values...we're still supposed to love each other and not change ourselves for any reason.

    kittiemon July 25, 2008   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    What does this song mean to me? It means everything to me. Since the very first time, the very first second I heard the first line the first time I heard the snippet, I felt attached to this song, every word (especially the second verse), and I can't stop listening to it. It's not a 'sad' song, it's a comforting song, and it has the most personal meaning to me out of all other VNV songs. I can't wait to hear/see it live. Tell Ronan to bring a mop, to clean up my tears. :)

    _faye_on April 05, 2007   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    This is a great song. I stumbled upon it mostly by accident.

    Everyone has a desire to kind of fit in. Being kind of shy, lonely introvert, I've had this feeling a lot in my life, a kind of frustration to simply fit in like everyone else. It truly helps to have friends who encourage you to be yourself, like the narrator sings in this song.

    This song is also so great to me because it's simple. There's no definite rhyme scheme or colorful language. It's just one simple man pouring out his heart with the best words he can.

    New Era Orchestraon January 25, 2008   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Actually Ronan dedicated to Sophie Lancaster, she was killed for being different. Her and her boyfriend were waking through Stubbylee park in Lancashire and a group of five boys attacked her boyfriend and her for being different. They first started the attack on her boyfriend, Rob and was kicking and stomping on his head, Sophie sat by his side cradling his head and told them to stop then they attacked her too, they were jumping, stomping and kicking her in the head, both were left in comas and sadly Sophie never regained consciousness then died thirteen days later. Nobody should have to ever go through that for being different.

    Murderdollson January 23, 2014   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    no matter how hard life hits you, you have to get back up and keep going. Sometimes it sucks, and you really dont want to. You want to hate everyone, kill as many as possible before they take you down. But you cant, you gotta keep moving, keep being true to who you are, and hopefully one day someone will realize how perfect you are.

    h8todayon June 25, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    RIP Sophie Lancaster!

    dchion September 03, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I don't feel that I am attached to this song. I feel like, this song is attached to me...

    Madvilon December 19, 2007   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Album art
Holiday
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday". I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Album art
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Album art
No Surprises
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Album art
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example: "'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/