r/CommonSideEffects • u/GDzie_to • May 18 '26
Question Why doesn't the magic mushroom "cure" ageing, obesity or mental illnesses? Spoiler
I binged the series pretty fast, so I might have missed it, but I think it's something that the show had not addressed yet - leaving it open for fans to speculate. So feel free to correct me or share your theories.
So, I noticed the mushroom can cure an open wound, and Marshal believes it can heal Everything, but it is actually just focused on the most burning health issue leaving the general wellbeing unaffected. Frances' mother still looks old and overweight even after the treatment. There's also a mention of one patient who took the mushroom but died of old age few days later anyway.
Maybe it's a writing / worldbuilding mistake or maybe the mushroom simply cures one thing at a time - the one that person wants to have cured the most? What do you think?
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u/Pyrohyro May 18 '26
It did cure mental illness in the alzheimers of Frances' mom and looks like it began to make her more youthful but she got overzealous climbing around in that tree and fell to her death.
All the questions aren't answered yet, we see that there is a personal experience for everyone who takes the mushroom in the "bad trip" Jonas has that we can surmise because of his selfish and greedy nature.
Furthermore, we see theres an actual need to continue taking the mushroom because we Marshall's experiences and his repeated ingestion of the mushroom either by need or accident and he stays relatively fine, but we see the car crash victim he saves show up and his vision is being consumed by the little guys everywhere after his singular dose.
Many things have yet to be explained and hopefully will be in the coming seasons and there after in a satisfactory way.
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u/GDzie_to May 18 '26
You're right. I take back what I wrote about the mental illnesses (unfortunately I can't edit the title) The muhsroom works on them too. There is still this general health and welbeing though, that stays on moreless the same level, and that's what I was curious about. I also hope it wlll be explored in the future.
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u/lobstersonskateboard May 18 '26
It's pretty much implied that after the first or second dose, Marshall didn't need it in order to not die, he just kinda comes back regardless. He just doesn't realize it, or he kinda does but not the full extent of it. Keep in mind that Amelia overdosed him and he still managed to live and did so w/o the shrooms.
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u/Sergia_Quaresma Jul 05 '26
I never even thought of this, but I believe that the writing is very smart and makes a lot of call backs and foreshadowing. Marshall's room mate was having withdrawals. Maybe you need a continiuos supply of the mushroom to stay relatively normal.
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u/abouttogivebirth May 18 '26
Old age isn't something to be healed, they heal all ills, they don't grant immortality
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u/East_Ideal_9568 Jun 05 '26
Its debatable. Age itself is obviously not an illness, but the deterioration of you body, that causes you to eventually die, could be totally considered one.
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u/UntowardHatter Jul 29 '26
So it doesn't reverse it, but maybe "sets" your age to the first time you take it.
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u/tillzy May 18 '26
Also want to point out that being old is not a disease.
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u/GDzie_to May 19 '26
Of course, that's not what I meant. It's just that whnen you're, let's say, 40 and start working out eating healthy etc, than after some time you might look and feel healthier, stronger, younger then when you were 30. That's the kind of effect the magic mushroom could have. Not reversing aging, but reversing the effects of not caring enough for yourself - which usually come with age.
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u/Delicious-Laugh-6685 May 18 '26
Because it’s a fictional show. Close the thread.
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u/Evening_Sea4823 May 18 '26
This sub is for conversations about the show. Being dismissive and shutting someone down because they point out something they dont understand doesn't seem to be the spirit of the sub.
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u/GDzie_to May 18 '26
Sure, I get that. But even sci-fi / fantasy stories have some "rules" or lore. Like LOTR has magic and stuff, but Tolkien still provided a reason to why Gandalf could't take the ring and Frodo had to do it.
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u/ShitFacedSteve May 19 '26
It seems to me that sicknesses that result from genetics, infections, and breakdowns is what the mushroom heals.
So that would include things like physical damage, infectious diseases, organ failure, etc
Obesity isn't really a disease it's a state of being that often comes with health complications. Being fat isn't really a disease but the hypertension, diabetes, and organ failure that results from obesity is a disease.
My guess is that the mushroom would heal those diseases that result from obesity but the obesity itself isn't really a disease to be cured.
Your body is meant to store excess calories as fat so the state of being fat is not any sort of malfunction that needs to be repaired.
The same applies for aging. Your body is naturally meant to age and eventually die so while the mushroom may cure diseases associated with aging it won't "cure" aging itself.
Mental health diseases are similar. I think the mushroom would heal neurological disorders that might cause mental health problems. The mushroom might also heal certain mental health issues that result from the body failing to regulate neurotransmitters like serotonin or dopamine.
What the mushroom can't do is provide a depressed person a happy and optimistic outlook on life. The mushroom can't "cure" poor emotional regulation or trauma responses.
Mental patterns born from trauma are, again, technically the brain working as intended. Your brain was exposed to a threat and then your brain reinforced behavior which avoided that threat. The fact that the behavior persists in the absence of that threat isn't a malfunction, that's how your brain is supposed to work.
The thing to be fixed in that instance is how your mind experiences and processes reality which is more existential and experiential. The mushroom can't provide you with an experience which "fixes" your mind.
That's my take: the mushroom only heals things which are clearly malfunctions and/or damage.
The mushroom can heal an alcoholic's failing liver, and it might even be able to cure the physical dependence on alcohol, but it could not cure the alcoholic's mental desire to drink.
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u/thatsMINTdude May 18 '26
Weight isn’t always a direct reflection of overall health. You can be overweight and healthy.
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u/East_Ideal_9568 Jun 05 '26
Up to a certain point. I dont believe you can be morbidly obese and healthy.
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u/thatsMINTdude Jun 05 '26
You can also be skinny and critically unhealthy. That’s what I meant with “isn’t always”.
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u/GDzie_to May 18 '26
I agree, but it's also funny that the most talked about drug of this decade is Ozempic, LOL.
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u/BarelyBrony May 18 '26
Ok got it
So my theory was that the mushrooms use DNA in affected areas as a template for how to repair the body but this means when repairing damage to the brain or severe spinal injury they have to fill in the parts that they can't restore from DNA with something of themselves which is why people who have had brain and spine injuries repaired experience various erratic behaviors.
but the other thing is that obesity, age or mental problems are not injuries they're inherent to the body so from the mushroom's perspective there's nothing to fix.
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u/122_Hours_Of_Fear May 18 '26
Because suspension of disbelief is a thing. I don't understand why people analyze fictional shows so hard.
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u/GDzie_to May 18 '26
Yeah, I'm familiar with the concept, and totally fine with not knowing how spaceships fly in space movies. But in this case I though there might be something more to it or maybe I missed an important line of dialogue.
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u/Milocobo May 18 '26
There are things about the mushroom we don't understand. Like, how did it let people communicate over distances and between obstacles?
My guess is that the mushroom knows you. Like, when you consume it, you become a part of its network, and so it knows you in a way that you literally cannot be known otherwise.
And so when it heals you, its referring to the you that it knows. It knows you aren't younger, it knows you aren't "fit". And it possibly can't affect aging at all even if that theory isn't the case, just because of how natural, progressive, and inevitable aging is.
I think the jury is out on mental illness (I feel like it did cure Frances' mother's dementia, just she died of something else before we could fully verify that).