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
psychologically, right, because without support, in some cases it could be destabilizing. some medical experts fear it s all moving too quickly in oregon. the one thing that does worry me is this trend where we re bypassing the fda and other safeguards to kind of determine what is a safe medicine. are we informing people of the risks? you know, do we even know the risks? another concern is that facilitators only have to have a high school degree. some people come at it from a different angle, and we re not trying to close those people out. we want those people. i m thinking about couples who might want to do a session themselves. seth mare is among those planning to offer psilocybin treatment. he happens to be a former e.r. doctor. was there a point you said to