Learning how to operate a soul figures to take time.

Leary’s line treats the “soul” less as a fixed essence than as something with procedures—an inner system that must be learned, practiced, and calibrated. The phrasing borrows from the language of technology (“operate”), implying that consciousness, emotion, and ethical self-governance require skill rather than mere sincerity. Read this way, the quote pushes back against quick spiritual fixes: insight may be sudden, but integrating it into daily behavior is slow work. It also echoes Leary’s broader interest in self-experimentation and altered states, suggesting that expanded awareness brings responsibility—one must learn how to handle what one discovers about the mind.