My Name Was Mushroom

My Life as a Teenage Runaway in the Source Family Commune

De: Wendy Baker, Brian Solon

Narrado por: Wendy Baker

At age 14, Wendy Gossard was drawn by the tranquil blue eyes and personal magnetism of a man known as Yahowah, leader of a spiritual group called the Source Family. Fleeing her own family and becoming a fugitive from justice in the state of California, Wendy followed the 1970s cult group across settlements in California and Hawaii on a quest for spiritual direction, communal harmony, and basic survival. Growing up, the teenager, called Mushroom by Yahowah, had questions about her pregnancy, relationships, and place in the universe—and about the boy who started her on her quest, the blond-haired son of the spiritual leader.

In this memoir, the author takes the listener on a journey through the 1960s and ’70s, with love-ins in Hollywood and on Sunset Blvd., hippie communal living, and survival in wilderness environments. It’s also a coming-of-age story about discerning universal wisdom and personal truth.

©2022 Think It Publishing (P)2022 Think It Publishing

Wild Story of Life in a 1970s Hippy Cult

What a wild life Wendy Baker had as a 15 year old runaway who joined a hippy cult in Los Angeles in the early 1970s!

Wonderful storytelling. Sometimes harrowing -- living in a cardboard box on the street in San Francisco with a baby. Sometimes enchanting -- living in Hawaii, swimming in the sea, meditating at dawn. Sometimes utterly shocking -- the death of the cult leader in a hang glider jumping off a cliff in Oahu. Oftentimes heartbreaking -- Wendy's tale of her brief trip through the juvenile justice system after she ran away from home.

For those interested in cults, this is a case study on what attracts young people to cults, why they stay, and why they ultimately leave. It is fascinating to listen to the author's dawning realization of how the cult leader Father Yod sexually exploited his many "wives" and cult member girlfriends.

This is the kind of book you simply cannot put down. Beautifully written and read with great honesty by the woman who lived it.

Highly recommended.