M. William Wythe holds an M.A. in Transpersonal Psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Communication from Summit University of Louisiana and a professional degree in gemology from the Gemological Institute of America. He has authored magazine articles for New Frontier and The Futurist, in addition to a screenplay adaptation of One Hand Clapping. My goal in writing OHC was to produce a novel that would work on several levels. It's also a journey of spiritual rebirth by a disturbed young man struggling to heal a split personality. On the level of allegory, however, OHC is all about transcendence.
Sex serves as a metaphor for self knowledge.
Protagonist Mauris Wangler's quest for the perfect orgasm symbolizes his attempt to transcend a narrow self-identity. In accepting the notion that nobody knows reality, Mauris succeeds in transcending a conventional or conformist view of the world. The question of reality is the book's main theme. If we're not mindful about how we form our beliefs and how they affect others, then we can end up with a distorted view of the world, one that tends to make 'bad guys' out of the people with whom we don't agree. This leads to the kind of intolerance which breeds violence.