THE WILD KINDNESS

An exuberant endorsement of the use of psychedelics as an instrument of self-discovery.

Michael Pollan’s How To Change Your Mind explores the effects of psychedelic drugs, especially LSD and psilocybin, on the damaged psyche, but “only under the supervision of a trained professional.” Nonsense, says Williams, who notes that “Pollan advocates for the use of psilocybin in a clinical setting within an established Western psychopharmocological context.” Such a provision ignores the explorations of “women, indigenous people, old-school hippies, herbalists, and even teenagers” in self-directed trips courtesy of magic mushrooms. The author’s explorations began at the age of 15 and picked up again in adulthood; not for her the old bromide that one should abandon a drug when it no longer has anything to teach. “I almost got arrested is a good answer,” she counters and then adds, “If it happened decades ago, it’s just a memory.” Offering a few useful rules for would-be psychonauts, Williams counsels not to store your drug dealer’s number on your cellphone, share that dealer’s name with friends until you’ve cleared it beforehand, and never show up with less than the amount you need to clear the transaction. Otherwise, “you deserve to be the unlucky victim in one of those scenes that happens in an abandoned dump site in Breaking Bad.” So much for peace and love. Otherwise, she writes, ingest some mushrooms and take a bus across West Texas, digging the vibes—and don’t be like Jane Fonda, who confessed to doing peyote with Lily Tomlin to prepare for a film role but didn’t enjoy the experience. Venturing into New Age territory, Williams even advises that one doesn’t need to eat a plant such as datura in order to “have a powerful relationship with it”; sometimes it’s enough just to have it on hand to dig its essence and head out into the cosmos.

An often entertaining though sometimes erratic paean to the joys of psychedelic adventuring.