Books by Kristy Sweetland
Stark Raving Zen: A Memoir of Coming Alive
Stark Raving Zen is available everywhere books are sold. If you’d prefer to support your local independent book seller please ask them to order it for you if you can’t find it on the shelves. And if you’d like to purchase a signed copy, please contact me directly and I’d be happy to send one your way.
“Sensing her mental well-being unraveling, a woman embarks on a road trip that proves to be a mind-expanding voyage of spiritual discovery in this memoir… those open to ideas of mediums and the existence of higher dimensions should find this book enthralling.
A bold, if occasionally terrifying, personal account of spiritual transformation.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Sweetland recounts in this gripping memoir the
‘spontaneous shamanic initiation’ she experienced during a road trip… her writing conveys the joy and terror of mystical experience.
Sweetland’s surrender to unbidden visions will appeal to believers in mediums and channeled wisdom.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Nothing short of profound.”
“A journey like no other.”
“Begs for a sequel.”
“This story will change your life.”
“A beautifully written, captivating story.”
Stark Raving Zen is the story of how one woman came home to her soul on a road trip from Minnesota to California, a journey both terrifying and beautiful.
Her only physical companion through each stage of this sudden awakening was her dog, Arya, who kept her grounded through shocking revelations, heavenly and hellish visionary experiences, and an intuitive opening including a voice in her left ear that guided her, working to keep her safe as her mind unraveled.
This heroine’s journey is also the story of Kristy Sweetland’s life, including a childhood and young adulthood of trying to desperately control a chaotic family history filled with a parental legacy of addiction and mental illness that kept her psyche locked in a perpetual state of survival.
After an outwardly successful career in the field of veterinary medicine, (while inwardly falling apart), she finally hit the wall, left her twenty-year profession, loaded Arya into her car and headed southwest on what she thought was a trip to see a mentor and counselor in California.
As it turns out her soul had wildly different plans.
This riveting true story of a road trip filled with benevolent ghosts and gods, angels, demons, monsters, mythology, and guiding voices will keep the reader glued to the page for the duration. Through the volcanic gift of those ten days on the road in January of 2009, Kristy broke through her own chains forged of trauma, and finally came alive.
“The ultimate hero’s journey experienced in Odyssian proportions, and the ultimate road trip to spiritual salvation.”
– Timothy
“Kristy’s vivid life experiences and her deft ability to express them with vulnerability, insight and a mastery of language is a raw and beneficent revelation that leaves the reader awed, shell-shocked, and renewed.
The words on these pages are completely transporting, and Kristy expertly mingles academic analysis, deep emotion, and self-awareness with fantastic, if reluctant, self-acceptance. [Stark Raving Zen] calls us to break through the barriers that constrain our lives and to live according to our own truth.”
– Stephanie
“Storytelling evokes an ancient and powerful medicine, and this memoir is like balm for the human spirit.”
– Chelsye
Also by Kristy
The Fascinated Observer: A Guide to Embodying S.T.A.R. Philosophy
Kristy Sweetland and Nina Brown
The Fascinated Observer provides simple strategies for engaging in acts of fascination to transform even the most tenacious patterns of anger or complacency.
By observing with fascination our physical reactions to fear, for example, it becomes possible to transform them into expressions of passion and purpose to help manifest our dreams.
Shaping our lives in this way, free of judgment and criticism, rests on implementing the principles of S.T.A.R. wisdom—surrender, trust, allow, and receive—as set forth by Kristy Sweetland and Nina Brown in their book S.T.A.R. Philosophy. Attaining liberation through fascination empowers us to create new possibilities in our lives.
New book coming Fall 2024!
Join the waitlist for pre-order.
Media Bio
Kristy Sweetland is a transformational coach for high-achieving Highly Sensitive People and the creator of Coaching to Come Alive. With equal parts science and spirit, she teaches HSPs to build resilience, amplify their intuition, and reconnect with themselves.
With a master’s in Transpersonal Psychology, Sweetland is the author of The Fascinated Observer and the award-winning memoir, Stark Raving Zen – as well as a third yet-to-be-titled book coming fall 2024.
Sweetland lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband and two cats and can usually be found in the desert, in the Rockies, or by any water she can find.
