High Priest

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.

This was probably the 1st Leary bk I read. I liked it alot when I read it. Strangely, though, I had little or no motivation to read anymore by him afterwards. I think I read "Jail Notes" later - but that was probably b/c I was interested in the jail break itself given that I figured I might need some inspiration along those lines someday. "High Priest" is uttterly brilliant w/ an interesting layout of multiple parallel texts & great drawings. It's bursting w/ inspiration.

Why did I have so little interest in reading further? Maybe b/c Leary covered the territory so thoroughly, so insightfully, so painstakingly that there was a feeling of completion to it. Dunno. Maybe parts of it didn't completely jive in a practical way w/ my own show more circumstances. More than anything else, I think I was too motivated to move on w/ my own philosophical development to immerse myself any further in Leary's. Even now I feel little motivation to read any more. It might be b/c I intuit that I'd have to give great concentration to fully appreciating the genius of it & I don't want to spend my energy that way. The holy ceiling light 'knows' that doesn't always stop me. Maybe some of it just seemed too 'hippie' for me, too New Age. Whatever the 'reason', I still have the utmost respect for this bk & for Leary. show less

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.