Episode 28: Mushroom Journeys with Author Bett Williams
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In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with author Bett Williams. We discussed her new book, The Wild Kindness: A Psilocybin Journey. The conversation covered her journeys and some ideas of hers that go a bit outside today’s psychedelic community norms. The book is awesome and her point of view is really refreshing.
Bett’s Website: https://www.bettwilliams.com/
Bett’s Podcast: https://www.bettwilliams.com/psychedelics-culture-podcast
We discussed:
- What do mushrooms mean to you, in your life?
- Do you tap into that when you write? Yes, resulted in this book
- So you think a solo journey without a shaman or therapist or sitter is okay, even preferred?
- You compare mushrooms to a sadistic, Jungian psychotherapist? One that kills you for a few minutes? How did you experience that?
- Like many, you started young for your first psychedelic experience, right?
- Can you share a story of transformation, how mushrooms helped your life? What lessons have the mushrooms taught you? Not to see yourself as sick? Your Alan Ginsberg-like God trip? What did you take from it?
- You’ve done up to 7g (30g?). How did you experience the different doses? (Walk with Clem, low dose)
- What else about mushrooms?
- What do you make of the psychedelic movement today?
- You don’t recommend going into a journey with a “singular” expectation — intention? — right?
- I love your conversation with Rosie…CIA. Btw, I love your PSA…everybody needs to read that, but they need to read the whole book anyway.
- Fair to ask specific questions? My book/forgot entire character’s names. “ a mushroom trip can accelerate the karma that exists between people.” What do you mean by that?
- You share stories of other peoples’ journeys. Did you see friends and partners experience life-changing trips?
- Stigma: you ended up losing a job b/c you “came out” about mushrooms. As a member of the queer community, I assume you’re used to dealing with stigma. How have you had to deal with the stigma around psychedelics? Does it seem trivial next to what you’ve had to deal with in life?
- Set and Setting?
- Is integration really necessary? [hint: no]
- Anything else?
She mentioned:
