my name was mushroom: My Life as a Teenage Runaway in The Source Family Commune

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 reader 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.