The Resilient Mind

By Carol Roberts, MD

You may not have heard an astonishing bit of news that surfaced a few weeks ago, but you need to know this.

An elderly Japanese American woman had been locked in by Alzheimer’s Disease. She had not spoken in several years, did not react to her family’s visits, couldn’t dress or wash herself and for all intents and purposes was disconnected from life entirely. She had trouble walking and couldn’t hold her urine, day and night, for 5 years.

Then one day an experimenter administered to her a substantial (5 gram) dose of “magic mushrooms”. These are the psyloscibe species, found all over the world, that contain psylocibin, a psychedelic compound. A solid dose might be 3 grams, an “ego dissolving dose” 5 grams.

Normally the effect of these mushrooms starts “coming on” within an hour, but with her nothing happened for the first 15 hours, except the patient went into a deep sleep-like state, along with sweating and elevated body temperature. Surely the investigators must have feared she would die. In fact, no one dies from mushrooms, they may die from bad judgements made under the influence, like jumping out of a window or into a swimming pool while high. (This is why sitters should always be a part of the adventure). Then, nineteen hours after the ingestion, the woman began to talk. Not only to talk, but to make sense, to start telling stories of her life, after years of silence. She talked and talked for nearly 24 hours. The next day she recognized her family members by name. She interacted socially in ways that were previously impossible for her. Remarkably, after 5 years of urinary incontinence, she could hold her urine. These changes persisted to some degree for weeks, but eventually petered out.

Several weeks later she was given another dose, this time 3 grams. The same thing happened!

This was a single case study, published in a reputable peer reviewed journal, but what remarkable results were observed! It suggests that consciousness is always there, but the mechanism of interaction with the real world - I.e. the brain - has become corrupted to the point where the interface doesn’t work. Mushrooms may have the power to restore brain function in those who appear too far gone to reach.

These humble fungi indeed have magical powers. New neural connections and remodeling of synapses are made in the brain, making cross talk happen in a good way.

They can rewire your understanding of who you are and why you are here. What do we have to lose by offering them to our fading loved ones, to give them a portal back to the world. Why ever not?

And what about microdosing - giving such a small dose that no psychedelic effect is perceptible, perhaps for days or weeks at a time. Might that be a strategy for prevention of neurodegenerative diseases in general?

Of course further research is required, but how long do we have to wait for governmental regulations loose the stranglehold in effect since 1970? Currently there is no effective treatment for these rapidly growing disorders that reduce human beings to such a miserable state.

References:

Transient multidomain functional improvement in advanced Alzheimer's disease following high-dose psilocybin-containing mushroom administration: a case report.

Lago M, Cerveira M, Simonet JX.

Front Neurosci. 2026 May 28;20:1813281. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2026.1813281. eCollection

2026.

PMID: 42292331 Free PMC article.

Zheng S, Ma R, Yang Y, Li G. Psilocybin for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Front

Neurosci. 2024 Jul 10;18:1420601. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1420601. PMID: 39050672;

PMCID: PMC11266071.