The Wild Kindness: A Psilocybin Odyssey is the lyrical, unforgettable memoir of Bett Williams’s relationship with psilocybin mushrooms, otherwise known as magic mushrooms. In pursuit of self-healing, she begins experimenting with mushrooms in solitary ceremonies by the fire. Word soon gets out about her New Mexican desert mushroom farm, though, and people arrive in droves. Not long after, the police read her her Miranda Rights, her relationships fall out of whack, and her dog Rosie just might be CIA. On a quest to find help through the psychedelic community, Bett is led to Cleveland to meet Kai Wingo, an African American leader within a high-dose psilocybin community, and to Huautla de Jimenez, home of well-known, well-respected curandera Maria Sabina. Back home, Bett begins a solid ritual practice with the help of her partner and friends, bearing in mind the medicine’s indigenous roots and power to transform one’s life. Amidst the mainstream flood of New Age practices and products, The Wild Kindness: A Psilocybin Odyssey is a dreamlike reminder that psilocybin mushrooms are a medicine of the people, not to be neatly packaged, marketed, or appropriated.
A hot lesbian living in the American Southwest decides to grow her own psychoactive mushrooms. “You'll never guess what happens next!”...In general, this is a balm. It is the polar opposite of that Michael Pollan book. —GOSSAMER An exuberant endorsement of the use of psychedelics as an instrument of self-discovery. —KIRKUS Bett Williams brings to the table one of the best overviews of contemporary psychedelic culture in a long time. —THE EROWID REVIEW You don't need to be interested in doing psychedelic drugs to find yourself in deep with Williams' chronicle of finding meaning and healing through mycelium. You might start by merely appreciating the book's colorfully shroomy cover and compact, ride-along size before you dip a toe into the pleasant warmth of the free-flowing narrative. —SANTA FE REPORTER Like any good memoirist, Williams performs surgery on herself and holds up each organ for inspection...This is a book that requires you to “go with the flow,” but the flow is awfully inviting. —MOLLY YOUNG, Vulture Like a trip, the book builds and plateaus but never settles down...Williams can be brainy, funny, wounded, macho, nurturing, self-absorbed, reverent, and absurd...For the sake of all those newbies seeking psychedelic transformation out there, I almost hope she becomes a guru. But she’d hate it, and that’s why she’s awesome. —ERIK DAVIS, The Burning Shore Bett Williams is a renegade...this book is a useful tool. —THE ROGUE LITERARY SOCIETY The Wild Kindness is absolutely electric. It's not only the subject matter, which is mystical and fascinating. Bett William's voice is untamed and inspired, full of gonzo humor, ambitious daring and high-vibrating heart. The personal, the political, the spiritual and the unknown come together into a mesmerizing read that is full-on literary fireworks. —MICHELLE TEA, author of Valencia, Black Wave, Astro Baby, and more On the surface, a book about mycology. Immediately beneath this, a safe trip facilitated by a guide who places herself between heaven and earth, between the fight for love and the fight itself; wholly engaged by both magic and the material plane. —KRISTIN HERSH, singer-songwriter Bett’s writing has brains, charisma, beauty and wit. —DENNIS COOPER, author of the George Miles cycle
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