I sought enlightenment when I first read this book at age 17. I received megalomania, which can be contagious. Lying on a sun-baked rooftop and achieving oneness with a somewhat skeptical lizard goes only so far. Don't get me wrong, though. This book served to sanction many lunacies in my youth. For that, I think that two stars is probably all too meager a tribute. In the end, however, the tedium becomes all-embracing. "I have died many times," Leary serenely confides. You will too, if you last for all 353 pages. ( )

Because of this book I quit my high-paying suit-wearing lining-the-pockets-of-white-men-in-ties job at an American bank and go back to University, where I successfully completed a degree in psychology and now am practicing existential psychology. ( )