08/16/2026: A Psychedelic Journey, The Mardi Gras Indians, The Indomitable Margaret Atwood

0:07The vets drank psilocybin, a psychoactive compound found in some mushrooms, put on blindfolds to shut out distractions and lay down. The retreat was organized and paid for by the Heroic Hearts Project, a nonprofit that's helped more than a thousand U.S. veterans with combat-related PTSD access psychedelics. Them seeking this type of unauthorized therapy is just another indication on why we need to study this further and get it to a safe and effective medical environment.

0:41Every year on Mardi Gras Day, an extraordinary sight emerges from the back streets of New Orleans. They call themselves Mardi Gras Indians or Black Masking Indians. And they roam the neighborhoods in dazzling hand-sewn suits. Tonight, we will show you the sights and sounds of one of America's last true secret societies.

1:11Here she is taking a flamethrower to her own book. Margaret Atwood was firing back at would-be book burners. Her books have been banned for content deemed overly sexual, morally corrupt, anti-Christian. The government put out an edict to all school boards saying that they couldn't have any books in the library that had either direct or indirect sex. What is indirect sex?

1:40I'm Bill Whitaker. I'm John Wertheim. I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm Leslie Stahl. Those stories tonight on 60 Minutes.

1:58In 2024, the Veterans Administration announced for the first time it would begin funding its own clinical trials to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and addiction using two psychedelic drugs, psilocybin and MDMA. Even if the trials are successful, it would be years before the VA could prescribe either drug for its patients. But as we first reported last year, thousands of veterans who are suffering are not waiting. Desperate for help, they're attending psychedelic retreats in countries where the drugs are legal to use, mostly in indigenous ceremonies. We were invited to join nine veterans who traveled to the west coast of Mexico for a psychedelic journey they hoped would finally help ease their pain.

2:44They came to Mexico from all over the United States. a group of nine veterans with invisible wounds that are hard to heal. Their destination, a remote village near Puerto Vallarta for a week-long psychedelic retreat. It was a voyage into the unknown, but a risk worth taking for T.J. Duff, a former Navy sailor. Are you optimistic? Being optimistic is hard for me because I've been through a lot of therapy, a lot of different treatments, and not a lot of success. Duff was 18 when he joined the Navy. Months into his first deployment aboard the USS Cole, he says he narrowly escaped death when two suicide bombers attacked the ship in Yemen, killing 17 sailors.

3:29Everyone around me was killed. There's bodies alive and dead being piled up in the midships. And I think that's really where I just started holding everything in. I don't have it where I'm jumping in ditches when I hear loud noises. My PTSD is kind of a self-destructive form. Randy Weaver is a police officer in New York. A former staff sergeant in the Army, he was diagnosed with PTSD in 2007 after returning home from tours in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It's the constant, you know, what if I had done this? What if we did that? Are those things you want to revisit while you're taking the psilocybin?

4:10Yeah, if I could revisit them and see them maybe from a different perspective, like not where I failed somebody. Is there a particular incident that you feel you failed somebody?

4:27Yeah, so March 18th, 20 years ago. In 2004, Weaver's platoon was caught in a firefight in an Afghan village. Two soldiers were killed, one of them his friend, Staff Sergeant Anthony Lagman. Weaver's worn this bracelet with Lagman's name on it since coming home. You've been wearing that for 20 years? Yeah, every day. Weaver says he's tried nearly every treatment for PTSD the VA offers, including talk therapy, exposure therapy, meditation, and antidepressants. You get to a point where you're so mentally exhausted, and you've created so much destruction that your demons tell yourself that your family would be better off without you.

5:14And when those demons tell you those things every day, it's something hard to ignore. Will this help with that? I hope so. The retreat was organized and paid for by the Heroic Hearts Project, a nonprofit that's helped more than 1 ,000 U.S. veterans with combat-related PTSD, access psychedelics. I came home super angry, super anxious, hypervigilant. You know, that led to a pretty nasty divorce. Ed Glover was in Afghanistan with the Marines. He's been a firefighter for 22 years. I feel like one or two traumatic events you may be able to recover from, but kind of seeing it day in, day out really takes its toll.

5:53As the vets talked, it became clear. Some of their struggles began long before they joined the military. My family life was just always this constant conflict. Navy vet Michael Giardina had an emotionally abusive father who killed himself 17 years ago. His sister died by suicide five months before he came here. My daughter asked my ex-wife if I was going to kill myself, and I'm not. I just want to get better. To qualify for this retreat, they had to work with their doctors to wean off any antidepressant or anxiety medication they might be taking because of how it could interact with the psychedelics.

6:28They also had to have a medical screening and no family history of psychosis or schizophrenia. When we were there, a local doctor was on site, but no mental health professionals. I appreciate you guys for putting the faith in me, the faith in us coming here. Jesse Gould, a former Army Ranger, founded the Heroic Hearts Project in 2017 after he tried another psychedelic, ayahuasca, at a retreat in Peru. Gould says psychedelics can help veterans revisit traumatic moments in ways they may be unable to with other therapies. The value, what we're finding with psychedelics, is it's a very individualistic journey.

7:07It comes at you, it brings up the emotions, it heightens your senses, and so you're having to face it. So that's why you see such big revelations, because it's giving you the tools to actually get there. Do you worry that some who see this as sort of the last hope may end up disappointed? I worry that we're at the situation where people are having to go to other countries for their last hope. That indicates a major flaw in the system. The orange one? Okay. Heroic hearts hire traditional healers to conduct three psychedelic ceremonies. The first two with psilocybin, a psychoactive compound found in some mushrooms.

7:41It's been used as medicine by indigenous communities in Mexico and elsewhere for centuries. You don't need to be strong. All we need for this experience and to receive the healing is humbleness. The healers stirred ground-up mushrooms into a tea. The vets drank it, put on blindfolds to shut out distractions, and lay down.

8:15At first, it seemed like the group might have traveled thousands of miles for a midday nap. But then, about an hour in, we saw Michael Giardina raise his hand for help. His foot soon started to shake, followed by his whole body.

8:43By hour three, it was clear the psilocybin had kicked in. Randy Weaver and T.J. Duff barely seemed to move, while firefighter Ed Glover appeared caught between rapture and deep sorrow. When you let God feel, the truth will appear so simple and clear.

9:09Five hours later, when the psilocybin began to wear off, the vets removed their eye masks and found the heat of the afternoon sun. The next day, the group gathered to discuss what they'd gone through. It literally felt like an exorcism. My foot was going crazy. I could kind of feel like my body was convulsing. I felt like I was taking every last breath of any victim, patient, or friend that I had lost. So I really struggled to breathe yesterday. I've never done anything like that before. Randy Weaver appeared to find some of what he traveled all this way for. One thing that I remember very vividly was flying back with the guys that we lost.

10:00Like being on that medevac, even though I wasn't there in the real world, I was there spiritually with them. TJ Duff, however, found it unsettling and at times scary. I've heard a lot of your guys' stories, and I did not get as immersive as you guys did. I'm kind of glad I didn't, honestly, because I was kind of afraid of that. That night, Duff took part in another psilocybin ceremony, but the next day he left. He later told us the whole experience caused a dangerous decline in his mental health. He's now back on antidepressant medication. The last ceremony of the retreat was with five MEO DMT, a powerful and fast-acting psychedelic secreted from a toad.

10:43After returning home, the vets had several virtual meetings with a heroic hearts project counselor. I think my biggest takeaway was making sure I make the time to take care of myself. The Veterans Administration warns against self-medicating with psychedelics or using them as part of a self-treatment program. But when we spoke to its top doctor, Sharif El-Nahal, in 2024, he was enthusiastic about their potential. Do these retreats concern you? They can concern me because there's no way to monitor, certify, make sure that they're actually safe environments. They're seeking these therapies because they do not see our current options for them to be effective enough, and they're in a state of desperation.

11:27And that in and of itself, them seeking this type of unauthorized therapy, is just another indication on why we need to study this further and get it to a safe and effective medical environment. In 2024, the FDA rejected a pharmaceutical company's application to use the psychedelic MDMA in combination with therapy as a treatment for PTSD, after an FDA advisory panel said there wasn't enough evidence it was safe or effective. The VA is now involved in 20 clinical trials using psychedelics, including MDMA and psilocybin, to treat several mental health disorders. Dr. Elnahal told us a small phase two trial by the VA using MDMA and therapy to treat PTSD, completed two years ago, showed real promise.

12:1445 % have gone into complete remission, which is essentially a normal emotional state That is unheard of with prolonged exposure, cognitive processing, and certainly SSRIs, the current standard of care options. Almost half of the people who came in with PTSD and did MDMA therapy at the VA were cured? Yes. So you have no doubt that this works. We need to do larger phase three clinical trials. That's the best way scientifically to understand what the true adverse events are and whether we can reproduce these results in larger populations of veterans. I'm very optimistic we will be able to demonstrate that.

12:54How long do you think it will be before veterans can go to the VA and get this therapy? It could be another couple of years. The incoming administration is going to take a pretty bold stance on this. What makes you optimistic that the new administration is going to be a believer in this? We've heard the nominee for HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., talk about what he thinks the potential breakthrough therapy is. We'll see what the stance is of other health officials. That's really promising. Nearly a year after that retreat in Mexico, we checked in with the nine veterans who attended. Eight of them told us their symptoms had improved and called their experience with psychedelics life-changing.

13:36Ed Glover said he felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. How are you doing? Very well. Shortly after coming home from the retreat, he decided to retire as a firefighter. Prior to the retreat, I thought about taking my life just about every day. I had a very close call. You know, the note, the gun, that is no longer the case. You haven't had thoughts of killing yourself since then? Not one. And Randy Weaver says his suicidal ideations have stopped as well. I don't have any of those thoughts since going through this journey. That's remarkable. I would say, yeah. You had told the group afterward that you had visualized people on a medevac helicopter that you had served with.

14:28Yeah. What was the impact of that? In combat, things happen quickly. One minute you're talking to your friend, and the next minute, you know, you're putting him in a body bag. That causes a gap in your psyche. So to be able to revisit those incidences, you know, seeing those helicopters come back with friends, it brings a little peace to you, yeah. In April, President Trump signed an executive order seeking to accelerate the research and approval of some psychedelic drugs as mental health treatments, including psilocybin and MDMA, by directing federal agencies to ease restrictions that have long limited scientists' ability to study them.

15:16Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart Starts Pounding Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kaylin Moore. Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends, bizarre true crime cases, chilling tales of backwoods horror, and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of the darkly curious, check out Heart Starts Pounding on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay curious.

15:51Every year on Mardi Gras morning, something extraordinary emerges from the back streets of New Orleans. Groups of Black revelers most tourists will never see. They call themselves Mardi Gras Indians or Black Masking Indians, and they roam the city's neighborhoods in dazzling hand-sewn suits. As we first told you in April, the tradition dates to the 1800s as a way to honor their ancestors and, according to Mardi Gras Indian lore, is rooted in profound respect for Native Americans said to have sheltered enslaved Africans who had escaped. It's an expression of joy, protest, and pride passed from generation to generation.

16:34Tonight, you'll meet the artists and musicians preserving the culture and take in the sights and sounds of one of America's last true secret societies.

16:52If you're lucky enough to find them, you'll discover a vibrant tapestry of African, Caribbean, and Native American threads, part of the cultural gumbo that is New Orleans.

17:08These extravagant suits, plumed, bejeweled, beaded, and sequined, are handcrafted in secret for an entire year to be unveiled on Mardi Gras Day. Chawa! That's Big Chief Daman Melanson of the Young Seminole Hunters, announcing his arrival. Chihuahua! Chihuahua, who the best? Who got the best B-work? Who got the best rhinestones? Who could sing the best? Who got the biggest tribe? Who don't? That's what it is. There are dozens of groups calling themselves tribes. The leader is known as the Big Chief, who along with his Big Queen and their crew, strut through historically black neighborhoods searching for other tribes.

17:56When Big Chief Daman meets another Big Chief, they square off in mock battle, competing to show whose suit is, in their words, the prettiest. We saw Daman face down tribes all over the city. What just happened back then? It looked like he just bowed out. But you won. Yeah, I think I did. You were the prettiest. Yeah, yeah. We on fire. We on fire.

18:29Who are you on Mardi Gras Day? When I put that suit on, I'm Big Chief DeMond Malone. Is that different from the DeMond who's sitting here in front of me now? Yes, indeed. How different? Somebody that's ready to honor everything that I was taught by my elders. And I'm ready to kill you, Dave, with the needle and thread. Needle and thread to do the work of his heart and hands. Big Chief DeMond and his wife Alicia, meticulous as surgeons, sew beads the size of chia seeds on a canvas and stitch rhinestones in place with dental floss, painting with beads, making artwork for his suit. What, to you, makes a suit pretty?

19:10The hookup. What do you mean? How it's laid out, how the velvet gets around it, how you break the feathers, how you manipulate the feathers, how many rows of rhinestones you have around the beadwork. That's the perfection of knowing your hookup, if you're that good. Oh, wow. This year's suit tells the story of the Amistad, a slave ship seized by the captive Africans in 1839, led by a man called Sin Kay. This panel shows when the Africans won their freedom in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Look at this. John Quincy Adam, he was one of the lawyers on the case. My God. So you're doing this like nonstop?

19:51I sew some 6 in the morning to 12 at night. And this is every day? Every day. Every day. Why? That's it, man. Without these beads, I couldn't breathe. And every breath is hard-earned. It can take thousands of dollars and thousands of hours to design and sew a suit. For years, Big Chief DeMond was laying concrete and cooking lobsters, pouring all his spare time and money into his creations. He now makes a living as an artist. This year's suit cost$25 ,000. But this flamboyant display is not a beauty pageant. It's the flowering of deep roots. The community is what makes me, it's my fuel, the people.

20:39Your fuel. Yeah, it fused the fire because you're doing it for them. Like, you do this for your community and your people. It is the greatest kept secret in America. Been throughout the world today is the Mardi Gras Indian culture. This culture dates back to slavery days. I have hope. Howard Miller is the president of the Mardi Gras Indian Council, a governing body for the tribes and chief of the Creole Wild West. He told us it's a culture shaped by resistance to oppression and sustained by resilience. How would you explain the Mardi Gras Indians to people who don't have a clue what they're about?

21:20Well, we wasn't allowed to go to those big parades and stuff. So this in our community was about lifting our people in a proud manner. There's no one definitive origin story, but historians have found references to the tradition dating back to the mid-1800s. According to stories passed down through generations, when enslaved people escaped New Orleans, Native Americans in the bayous gave them refuge. Today, many tribe members claim indigenous and African roots. Masking, some say, began as a way to honor those indigenous tribes while disguising or masking their African identity. Because here in America, especially here in the South, everything about Africa was forbidden.

22:06So we went behind a mass as Indians to practice our culture. Was it easy to join a tribe? No, it wasn't. In 1969, it took then-12-year-old Howard Miller six weeks just to get in the door of a big chief's house, the tribe's headquarters. I had a friend of mine. He was in it. And I would go around there with him, trying to get in. but they wouldn't let me in the gate. Wouldn't even let you in the gate? No, I had to stay outside of Yaw while he go in there. Eventually I got on the porch, and I was watching all this shit magic with the suits and what they was doing, and it started a rainstorm. Thunder, lightning, raining hard, and getting wet.

22:46And the chief said, is that boy still on the porch? And somebody said, yep, just tell that boy to come on in here. That's how I got in the house. We visited the home of Joseph Pierre Boudreaux, better known as Big Chief Monk of the Golden Eagles tribe. Big Chiefs aren't just heads of their tribes, they're mentors and community leaders, and Big Chief Monk is one of the most respected. But the working-class neighborhoods that sustain the tribes have been thinned and scattered by Hurricane Katrina and gentrification. 84-year-old Monk Boudreau is determined to hold on to the community and legacy and is preparing for his 72nd year of masking.

23:30We're going to do it. We're going to do it. Let the world know that we're here and we've been here. We ain't just got here. We've been here. We joined the Boudreaux's in a sewing circle before Mardi Gras. For decades, Big Chief Monk sewed suits for his children and grandchildren. This year, they gathered and helped him sew his. My whole family's talent, you know, by just sitting there watching me for all these years, you know, as kids. They were always right there while I was sewing, sitting right there.

24:09All those long hours of sewing inspired a song.

24:17In the 1970s, Monk was one of the first to marry Mardi Gras Indian chants to New Orleans funk. His albums earned two Grammy nominations. His son Joseph and grandson Juan often sang back up. We met them, Monk's daughter Wynoka and grandson Marwan, at one of Monk's favorite New Orleans clubs, Tipitina's. What's his impact on the culture? The impact that Michael Jordan had on basketball. Yeah, it's like that. Like, you can't mention Mardi Gras without Mop. Yeah. I never saw him take a break. Like, I never saw him say, oh, this year I'm not coming. You know, my father, he took something that was made for the culture in the streets, and he was one of the pioneers that took it global.