The Wild Kindness bookcover

The Wild Kindness

A Psilocybin Odyssey
4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
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Description

**FEATURED ON COMEDY CENTRAL'S "TALES FROM THE TRIP" YOUTUBE SERIES**

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 Jiménez, home of well-known, well-respected curandera María 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.

Bett Williams brings to the table one of the best overviews of contemporary psychedelic culture in a long time. --THE EROWID REVIEW

In general, this is a balm. It is the polar opposite of that Michael Pollan book. --GOSSAMER

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

Product Details

PublisherDottir Press
Publish DateSeptember 01, 2020
Pages280
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconPaperback / softback
EAN/UPC9781948340311
Dimensions7.0 X 5.0 X 0.8 inches | 0.7 pounds

About the Author

BETT WILLIAMS is the author of the novel Girl Walking Backwards and the memoir The Wrestling Party. She and her partner, Beth Hill, produce No Cures, Only Alchemy, a podcast about psychedelics and culture, for which they received a Kindle Foundation Maker's Muse Award in 2018. Bett lives in New Mexico, where she supports writers, artists, and others through hosting private retreats, residencies, and events in keeping with the spirit of mycelium.

Reviews

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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