welcome to the whwhole story. i m anderson cooper. you ve probably heard of magic mushrooms, mushrooms which contain psilocybin, a natural substance. they became popular in the united states in the 1960s, but in the last decade, there s been an increasing amount of research into psilocybin to see if it can help treat depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. magic mushrooms are still illegal on the federal level but a few states have decriminalized them. oregon became the first state to use them in licensed therapy centers. there s still a lot we don t know about psilocybin s effect on the brain long-term. many are asking if it s too soon to offer these treatments. over the next hour, cnn s david culver takes us into this fascinating new world and takes us on a mind-altering journey of his own. embarking on a psychedelic trip thank you. requires a willingness to be vulnerable, to hold nothing back. this wasn t easy, i imagine, for any of you to say, let me jump
actually checked with my own doctor. she was fine with it. you know, she wanted to understand a bit about the setting and how it was not recreational so much as a therapeutic one. the preparation leading into this. i mean there s a lot of group therapeutic zoom calls that you re starting to get to know the other participants, starting to understand the science behind what the psilocybin might do to you and how quickly it might take effect. as far as the lingering effects, i think you could say i ve had more of a profound, maybe even a spiritual takeaway than any sort of physical impact. overall it s been just something that i ve sat with and kind of a peace of mind. that s what they call reporter involvement. david culver, thanks very much. can t wait to see the episode. really appreciate it. don t miss this new episode of the whole story with anderson cooper. it starts next only on cnn. reporting from washington, i m jim acosta. i ll see you next weekend. have a great week, everyb
and the reason i went forward with it was because of the people around me. the participants. this is a deeply personal, sbim the at journey for them. to have somebody standing there with cameras not really fully involved in the process was not comfortable for them. so they said if you re going to partake with us, then we would be comfortable going on the journey with you and sharing. wow! and that is a reporter involvement, no question about it. were you a little hesitant at first when you decided to do this? and what was the experience like? yeah. i was very hesitant at first. but the reason i did end up doing it was because, one, my doctor signed off on it and ultimately, i wanted to do it, too. i m not someone who really pushes the limits on a lot of those things. drinking for me didn t happen until it was legal to do it. i just play by the rules, right? so this was something as i navigated the process and talked to the individuals involved, i
vest for a number of police dogs in the area. this guy right here was named in honor of anderson cooper. that s a.c. thanks to spike s k-9 fund, officer mcniff s new k-9 officer has the vest that krueger did not. what s cool is he s wearing the vest that you provided for the dogs, so that bulletproof vest he wears it to work every day. jimmy somehow convinced know suit up so i could experience the power and discipline of these dogs. i got him. let s get up. feel how intimate that is? he s talking to you. and anderson joins me now. intimate, that s how they described it. yeah. it s just so surreal, you know. this dog was just nice one moment, and the dog was looking right at you. it s really intense. the dog named after you. yes, a.c. a.c. in all the years i ve known you, you take reporter involvement in these stories to a whole different level, including in this particular piece which
thanks to spike s k-9 fund, officer mcany of s new k-9 officer has the vest that krueger did not. what s cool is he s wearing the vest that you provided for the dogs, so that s bullet proof vest and he wears it to work every day. jimmy somehow convinced know suit up so i could experience the power and discipline of these dogs. i got him. let s get up. feel so intimate that is. he s talking to you. and anderson joins me now, intimate that s how they described it. yeah. it s just so surreal, you know, this dog was just nice one moment and the dog was looking right at you. it s really intense. the dog named after you. yes, a.c. a.c. in all the years i ve known you you take reporter involvement in these stories to a whole different level, including in this particular piece which we ll get to the see. jimmy was very persuasive in terms of getting you to do something you ve never done before. jimmy sky dives pretty much