The Wild Kindness

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

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.

Like a trip, the book builds and plateaus but never settles down...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 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