5/5 This is an amazing accomplishment
  by buzzkill
I almost don't know where to begin. I bought this a year ago and love it. I want to watch it again and again. As an artist and musician, I appreciate the hard work that went into this. It's a quality product and it is just astonishing. You are drawn in to an enjoyable, ecstatic experience that is alternately mystifying and breathtaking. Swirling colors spiral and form an old wooden door... a forest transforms into a temple... a Buddha statue sits serenely... a tree morphs into a double helix... alchemical symbols dance and form a Dr. John Dee merry-go-round. The production quality is excellent, and even the titles are beautiful. The ambient tracks are just as good too, as are the moving "stills". Keep an eye out for a scene we like to call "Elvish has left the building." :-) When you see it, you'll know what I mean.

4/5 Pretty and spacey
  by Anne Bird (Melbourne, Australia)
Lovely to have in the background while reading or studying, but once you look up you can't look away. Once you've seen it a couple of times, you've seen it. I don't think it's meditative, more like decorative. Sort of like a great poster or print that moves.

5/5 Enjoyed!!!
  by Richard Galbraith (Enid, OKlahoma USA)
I really enjoyed this DVD........

I recently bought the recent release of The Ritual Path after seeing some clips on Nijole Sparkis and Fritz Heede's my space pages and really enjoyed the images and music so I thought I would give the Illuminated Manuscripts a try.
I really thought it was well done and would have enjoyed it just for the music. I guess it depends on what you are looking for as to weather or not you will like it. I watched on a regular TV with a $100 DVD player and thought it was great. Someone else may watch on a $10,000 TV and system and may still not be impressed.
I looked at another DVD review that was mentioned and highly recommended by someone that didn't like this one, yet that DVD only had 2 reviews and not good.. So just a matter of taste and perhaps the digital age has made it very hard to impress a person.
I feel the DVD does what it was meant to do, provide some relaxing music with some wonderful scenes, perhaps the title Illuminated Manuscripts explains the writings and emblems that appear in the video.
Perhaps if you are able to watch some clips you will know if it's for you or even check out the more recent Ritual Path. I come from a rock music background and don't feel that I'm easily impressed but from my personal viewing I would recommend both the Illuminated Manuscripts or the Ritual Path. It's been awhile since I have seen some of the other animated clips mentioned in some of the reviews here and admit some of what I remember they were great, but these do what they were meant to do just like Chronos did years ago without the animation.....

2/5 Booooring
  by Some Guy (Redwood City, California United States)
Here is another example of where 90's-era digital animation ends up being mundane. Even with the decade or so that has passed since the brief explosion of digital animation releases, I still enjoy watching the good ones (Gate to the Mind's Eye, Televoid). This one doesn't count.

The effort that went into this work was obviously tremendous, so you can't fault the quality. It's also fairly unique in mixing animation with real imagery shot on location.

But it's just so dull. I suppose if you've had a really bad day and wanted to watch (and hear) something soothing, this would be a good choice. I, although I certainly have my share of hectic days, want my animation to be gripping, weird, and fun. Illuminated Manuscripts is just high-tech yoga.


3/5 Acid flashback
  by NY GAL (New York)
This video was a little disappointing. I got it for my son who is an illustration student. He found it kind of corny....it was not really "state of the art"...to me it was like a flashback from the sixties. Groovy!