The Delicious Grace of Moving One's Hand: Intelligence is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac [Paperback]

Timothy Leary (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 1999

Timothy Leary (1920-1997) was one of the most controversial figures of the 1960s, the man who urged a generation to turn on, tune in, and drop out. Now, nearly two years after his death, this manuscript has emerged comprising his best writings about sexuality. Beginning with an account of his first sexual encounter -- his own conception -- Leary takes readers on an exploration of the link between sexuality and the mind. Each short chapter contains either a traditional or novel approach to what Leary called "improving your navigational control over your pleasure cruises," including Hindu methods for stimulation via hypnogogic yantras, chemical aphrodisiacs, and neurolingual tricks for arousal.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Written over 30 years and collected by the high priest of the 1960s counterculture before his death in 1997, these spirited meditations, musings and rants highlight the centerpiece of Leary's famous mantra, "Tune in, Turn on, Drop Out." Leary constantly sounds his theme--"If it FEELS good, it probably IS good"--but his interests are far-ranging: sexual repression, clitoridectomy, the sexual politics of the cold war, cybersex, pornography, tantric sex, Jungian synchronicity and, of course, LSD. That most of these pieces are transcribed lectures (more than half the book is devoted to his famous series of talks at the Free University at Berkeley in 1969) may account for their breezily compelling tone. Although the writing and ideas are clearly bound to their cultural moment (the collection is rife with 1960s psychobabble), much here remains fresh and relevant. "Sexy Centerfolds" is a sprightly and on-target analysis of right-wing politics, fundamentalism and sexual repression that targets "scornographers" Edwin Meese, Ronald Reagan and the Ayatollah Khomeini, while "Psychedelic Psychology" neatly delineates how the creation of the disdained "other" functions in U.S. politics. Although Leary fans will not be deterred by the lack of footnoting and annotations, the collection may leave younger readers who are curious about Leary's legacy wishing for more context than Daniel Weizmann provides in his brief introduction. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A posthumous autobiographical collection of wildly effusive claptrap about sex and drugs from the clown prince of `60s drug culture who ended his career as a stand-up comedian before he died at 77 in 1997. Yes, it's a great title, but, like much from Leary (Chaos & Cyber Culture, 1994, etc.), it wilts under scrutiny. In a nostalgic memoir called ``Discovering the Source of All Pleasure,'' Leary recalls how beautiful it was in 1962, when he was a Harvard research psychologist who gobbled psilocybin at the home of jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson and began to learn the ``sensual possibility'' inherent in waving his hand in front of his face. Soon Leary was having sex with a female guest of the Fergusons. After ``maneuvering the limbs, tentacles and delightful protuberances with which we were miraculously equipped,'' he agreed with Ferguson's wife Flora Lu that ``it's all Sex, don't you see?'' Fortified by this experience, Leary instructed an entire generation to ``turn on, tune in, and drop out,'' assuring them that sex, drugs, and rejecting mainstream life were a sure path to heightened spirituality. These and other examples of blissful ignorance (``The aim of all Eastern religion, like the aim of LSD, is basically to get high. . . . Like it or not, you're God'') in this bundle of speeches, articles (from Playboy and Hustler), and book excerpts have not aged well. Learys cheerfully irresponsible endorsements of promiscuity, pornography, and the ``southern botanicals''cocaine, opium, and the hallucinogenics, as opposed to the alcohol, nicotine, and tranquilizers of the ``smokestack-assembly-line Factory culture''seem harrowing in light of the social damage the abuse of these intoxicants has caused. Ever the optimist, Leary maintained that a new and better age was coming, even when history proved otherwise. Charming nonsense from a bygone era that becomes shocking when you realize how many took it so seriously. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 275 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 1st edition (October 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560251816
• ISBN-13: 978-1560251811
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,099,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Food for thought, October 28, 2003

By 

Douglas King (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Delicious Grace of Moving One's Hand: Intelligence is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac (Paperback)

I read this book a few years ago (knowing almost nothing about Timothy Leary, except his status as a 60's icon) and really enjoyed it. It helped me to redefine the way I think about pleasure and society's relationship to it. I was raised with such a puritanical "if it feels good, it must be evil" way of thinking that Leary's point of view - "if it feels good, it's probably good for you" - was downright liberating for me. Although I don't subscribe to everything Leary says in the book (for example, I don't think doing LSD once a week is a good idea), his essays are always provocative and full of food for thought. Even if you're put off by Leary's associations with hippie and drug cultures, I'd still recommend reading this book. Leary was an intelligent man with ideas worth listening to.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trippy tome, June 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Delicious Grace of Moving One's Hand: Intelligence is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac (Paperback)

"Turn on, tune in, drop out" the trinity of tripping, the credo of the sixties' psychedelic revolution, was coined by the "High Priest" of LSD, Dr. Timothy Leary. Though his Harvard research into the consciousness-raising possibilities of psychedelic drugs might have ended with his, and Richard Alpert's, dismissal from the school-the first faculty to be sent packing since Ralph Waldo Emerson-Leary went on through private funding to research mind-expanding drugs, especially as related to sexual ecstasy.

The Delicious Grace of Moving One's Hand: The Collected Sex Writings, compiled by Leary before his death in 1997, includes lectures, interviews, essays, and personal history that reveal this man's remarkable wit and brilliant scientific mind. The words here are just as often gorgeous prose as they are lucid scientific postulations. He writes of his "first sexual experience"-his own conception-in gorgeously erotic terms: "I was eased into this soft, creamy home, my slim serpent body sputtering with pleasure."

Accessible even to Leary novices-including those of us under 40, many likely born long after Leary's escape from prison in 1970-Delicious Grace will tune you in and turn you on to one our country's most ingenious, controversial minds.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!!!, December 2, 2009

By 

Carol (Texas) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Delicious Grace of Moving One's Hand: Intelligence is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac (Paperback)

This book is wonderful! Its very honest in understanding Timothy Leary's mind. If you can get your male partner to read this one, you will have made great strides in what we need and desire from them!