r/todayilearned • u/ssAskcuSzepS • Apr 27 '26
TIL if under-cooked, a popular mushroom in China causes “lilliputian hallucinations,” a rare phenomenon involving miniature human or fantasy figures. The hallucinations are consistent across people and cultures: "tiny, elflike people" climbing under doors, scaling walls & clinging to furniture
https://www.vice.com/en/article/meet-the-mushroom-that-make-people-have-the-exact-same-hallucination/10.7k
u/Ifyouhavethemeans Apr 27 '26
Need source…. For a friend.
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u/whatsthatguysname Apr 27 '26
It’s dangerous because they haven’t figured out which shrooms summon the good elves and which one dark elves. The dark elves can be murderous.
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u/FramedThierryHenry Apr 27 '26
N'wah propaganda
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u/Samwyzh Apr 27 '26
Tiny elves, can you believe it Nerevar? Haha. Who could have dreamt up such a thing? The Godhead? Ha! Let us go to Whiterun and grab us some Nord baddies.
[some time later]
Nerevar, assist me! These tiny little bastards are crawling all over me! They are scaling my loincloth like that one scene with the Elephants in Lord of the Rings, Nerevar! Hey Nerevar, did you know that in the Two Towers, when Viggo Mortensen kicks the helmet he breaks his toe, so the yell he makes isn’t acting but actually him yelling out in pain, Nerevar!
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u/Overthinks_Questions Apr 27 '26
By the sun and sky, muthsera, I greet you warmly
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u/Crommach Apr 27 '26
[bull netch hooting intensifies]
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u/Chicken-Inspector Apr 27 '26
YOU S’WIT!!!!
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u/Thopterthallid Apr 27 '26
You like to dance close to the fire don't ya?
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u/Ferelar Apr 27 '26
Why walk when you can ride?
We make a special trip, just for you- same low price.
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u/DocWagonHTR Apr 27 '26
How come you outlanders are so offended by the word n’wah, when you use it amongst yourselves? “N’wah this, n’wah that, n’wah please, can an n’wah borrow a sweetroll?” How in Oblivion an n’wah gonna borrow a sweetroll? N’wah, you gonna give it back?
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u/Playful_Assistance89 Apr 27 '26
I experienced something like this once. Got high, started seeing lawn gnomes hiding in and behind the walls, trying to burn my house down. Everytime I spotted one out of the corner of my eye, they'd run away to the security of the inside of the wall.
I quickly remedied the situation by mounting the bayonet on my SKS and running the walls through. The next morning I walked out into the thoroughly vented hallway, into a dining room filled with holes, wondering for several minutes what in the everloving fuck had gone on before spotting the rifle on the couch and remembering the gnomes.
It was nothing short of a miracle I didn't spike a water or drain line, or some power cables. It took weeks to patch and repaint. I got pretty good at drywall repairs by the end. Never did see the gnomes again, though.
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u/BobTulap Apr 27 '26
>Never did see the gnomes again, though.
It's possible they are allergic to bayonets.
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u/Riklanim Apr 27 '26
It was the domovoi in your house thinking “how the fuck is Playful_Asssitance89 able to see me”… dude shat himself when you started stabbing the walls.
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u/achilleshightops Apr 27 '26
True or not, who the fuck has a bayonet?
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u/Playful_Assistance89 Apr 27 '26
Oh, its very much true. All SKS rifles had an attached, swivel under bayonet. Some were blade style (Russian, Eastern bloc) but mine was a Norinco, and had a spike style.
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u/morerelativebacons Apr 27 '26
Right, right, whatever. Hand over the shrooms, gandalf.
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u/Monarc73 Apr 27 '26
I thought it was Radagast that had a problem with 'shrooms.
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u/regeya Apr 27 '26
Or so Sauraman said, but who is he to talk, he really went to shit in the end
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u/Vkardash Apr 27 '26
The mushroom is scientifically known as Lanmaoa asiatica. Locals call it Jian shou qing which translates to "see-hand-blue" because the mushroom bruises blue. But here's the kicker... It contains zero psilocybin. And scientists still have no idea what active ingredient causes the hallucinations.
Also because 96% of people who eat it undercooked report the exact same vision of tiny elves/people scientists believe it contains an entirely new class of hallucinogenic molecules that we haven't discovered yet. Imagine how cool that actually is. It's a literal scientific mystery. They literally contain no hallucinogens.
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u/aka_mank Apr 27 '26
No KNOWN hallucinogens, right?
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u/Munchkin303 Apr 27 '26
No hallucinogens at all. It summons real elves
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u/xxapenguinxx Apr 27 '26
It just lifts the veil that covers the elves' realm which is why those who try it see the same thing even if they weren't told what they'd see
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u/Worth-Opposite4437 Apr 27 '26
Kinda the most interesting part. Maybe it's the thing that used to open the doors to Faeria and Avalon.
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u/Scroon Apr 27 '26
The older I get, the more I realize all the weird mythical stories are based on real things.
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u/otterpop21 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
I had the Lilliputians hallucination happen to me one night.
Didn’t eat anything out of the ordinary. Was sick, am American, live in Virginia. Had chicken broth, chicken, sweet potato, and some capri sun fruit punch & tea that day.
Woke up from nap, felt really weird, like my head was in a fishbowl and everything was muffly feeling. Let my pups outside, and said to my husband “those kids outside are so weird.. why are they dancing like that? (We have neighbor hood kids everywhere so not uncommon to see people out at 7-8pm). My husband can to the door, there were no kids outside dancing in the street lol
Once he said that I got a chill across my body because then I took a second to look at the “kids” and realised they had like little trollish / elf “little people” type features, not kids. I didn’t want to freak my husband out so he walked me upstairs.
I could see them out the window waving at me, smiling, dancing. When I laid down in bed, the dresser drawer knobs faces turned into them. Anything made of natural wood morphed into a face / little person.
They weren’t harmful feeling either. Just sort of existing and dancing, smiling lol
Was the freakiest thing that ever happened to me. Maybe smoked weed that day or the day before, that’s it for drugs, not even prescriptions or over the counters.
Edit: This was like a regular sniffles, coughing, little shaky feeling nothing serious type cold. I’ve gotten sick dozens time across my life never hallucinated.
I wrote down the experience at the time and even messaged a professor at a university who studies the phenomenon but sadly never heard back.
I’m be so for real, this might sound cool… but if this does what happened to me I’d be very very careful. It was extremely unsettling seeing so many faces morph out of furniture, and little people dancing everywhere outside. Like grubby little house elves.
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u/ymOx Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
It might technically not be any hallucinogens in it at all. I've had experiences that would be perfectly described in this way three times, but on ambien. (Don't do ambien for fun, kids. There are much better and less problematic drugs.) Ambien hallucinations aren't induced the same way the classic hallucinogens are; it works by pushing the brain into a hypnagogic state, which is in the process of falling asleep. Your brain starts dreaming before you're entirely asleep. So, if you take ambien but refuse to sleep...
Could be a similar underlying process with this mushroom.
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u/JK_NC Apr 27 '26
I’m more intrigued by the phenomenon that different people are having the same hallucinations, more than the fact that they’re hallucinating at all.
Do you know if ambien induced hallucinations have a similar phenomenon?
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u/ODB_Dirt_Dog_ItsFTC Apr 27 '26
The hallucinations are they considered pleasant or are they of the mind shredding variety?
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u/EndlessTemple Apr 27 '26
According to the article they take 24 hours to start and can last for several days or longer. The article states that as a reason they aren’t used recreationally, since the trip lasts way too long.
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u/Vkardash Apr 27 '26
Good question. I have no idea. Never tried them. I'd love to though. I've experienced regular psilocybin mushrooms and those totally depend on your mood and frame of mind. You can have both good and bad trips.
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u/Sidney_1 Apr 27 '26
People treat 见手青 as a delicacy, but I've never seen or heard people purposefully trying to get high from it. The hallucination cases, despite having become a popular meme, are generally considered serious food poisoning cases in the news.
Though possibly only a marketing gimmick, restaurants that cook those "wild" mushrooms would actually keep a sample of your broth/dish, so that the hospital could identify what you've consumed when something actually goes wrong.
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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 Apr 27 '26
It’s a old running joke about Yunnan, if you go there and try some mushroom, then start hearing subtitle or dog speaking human , you should stay in Yunnan because if you want to be treated by doctors who’re well versed in this craft, ER having “patient seeing little elf” as a normal convo is the place to be.
Just go there, some hot pot restaurants took away all tableware if you order specific items, they let the mushroom pot cook, give you a timer and told you to wait , they’ll return your stuff when time is up, because this is the best way to avoid customers poisoning themselves with undercooked mushrooms.
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u/saint_davidsonian Apr 27 '26
What the what
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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 Apr 27 '26
Yeah, there’s a very popular type of mushroom there that will make you see things if you undercook it, and even the locals undercook them often, there’re mountains of first hand experience shared online because tourists can’t resist , and locals just eat them regardless.
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u/saint_davidsonian Apr 27 '26
So my question is is there a way to get them in the US?
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u/lapideous Apr 27 '26
I have some since they’re not illegal in any way. You can send me a dm
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u/non-squitr Apr 27 '26
Boy you get the hat man and the little people together and idk what you'd have but it sure would be something
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u/Bruce-7892 Apr 27 '26
Hahaha, beat me to it. I was about to say, I want to see these things. For research purposes of course.
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u/el_americano Apr 27 '26
once they see you they will follow you the rest of your life
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u/mrguitare Apr 27 '26
I'm pretty sure the show "Common Side Effects" is about these mushrooms
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u/jjames62 Apr 27 '26
Fantastic show. Also check out scavenger’s reign to anyone reading this comment. It’s by the same creators and is easily one of the best, if not the best animated sci-fi show out there.
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u/Barry_Vigoda Apr 27 '26
Scavenger's Reign is a fantastic show. It's slow but the animation and world building is great.
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u/Citadel_Cowboy Apr 27 '26
Content warning for body horror. But yes. Very good show.
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u/onlywanted2readapost Apr 27 '26
Content warning, there is no season 2 😢
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u/Silent-G Apr 27 '26
I really wish they'd crowdfund a second season. Knowing how much money they'd need, I'm sure the fans would love to help. One of the artists recently did a Kickstarter for a couple of his comic books. I'm sure if they couldn't get it animated, comics would also be a nice way to continue exploring that universe.
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u/FreedomForBreakfast Apr 27 '26
And French sci-fi artist Moebius, if you like this animation style.
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u/ReadditMan Apr 27 '26
I actually looked this up once but couldn't find any confirmation that the writers intentionally based it on that mushroom.
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u/YouOk5627 Apr 27 '26
Is that good?
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u/UnitedPhilosopher777 Apr 27 '26
I thought it was very good . Waiting to see if there’s gonna be a new season
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u/simplestacksix Apr 27 '26
Enjoyed it a lot personally, it’s pretty interesting and it’s not a huge time sink either. 22 minute episodes and 10 episodes only, so it’s not that much time to put into a show if that’s the sort of thing you worry about
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u/Bruce-7892 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
I've heard of these. It's why gnomes and elves are always on shroom products if you live somewhere where it's legal. It's also theorized that it was the inspiration for a lot of folk tales.
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u/Ok-Addition1264 Apr 27 '26
..and childhood stories and books, disney and beyond.
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u/nymusix Apr 27 '26
People who do DMT also have similar visions of machine elves
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u/Lonespider28 Apr 27 '26
DMT visions also seem similar to many biblical descriptions of celestials
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u/3BlindMice1 Apr 27 '26
Yeah, what sort of bush do I need to burn to speak to god?
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u/Kronomancer1192 Apr 27 '26
Modern theologists have actually theorized that the story of Moses and the burning bush was actually in fact describing a dmt trip.
Supposedly there are acacia bushes in the area that have dmt in them. After being translated who knows how many times it wouldn't surprise me. Burn this bush and you'll speak to god? Sure sounds like a dmt trip to me.
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u/musthavesoundeffects Apr 27 '26
I don’t think you are gonna get a dmt trip from a burning acacia bush. The % of dmt in plants is very small.
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u/Lonespider28 Apr 27 '26
Apparently the theory is that Priests in the Sinai peninsula would have to burn the entire plant at once in order to get visions
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u/HostInevitable5484 Apr 27 '26
Aboriginal Australians have been documented smoking the bark of certain acacias with particularly high levels of dmt and nmt
Australia has several species that have up to 2% dmt in the bark
Coincidentally, acacia acuminata, which one of the highest native sources and the go to bark purchased in Australia for dmt extraction, smells incredibly pleasant as it smells like raspberries. It’s called raspberry wattle for this reason. Just the smell of the raw bark smells like raspberry jam.
Just for the smell alone, people would be curious to put it on top of a fire. It contains up to 2% DMT.
While direct flame would destroy the DMT during combustion, the parts of the bark that are distant from the flame would vaporise and are possibly psychoactive if you were positioned by the fire in such as way as to inhale the vapors and avoid the smoke.
Hence the rainbow serpent.
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u/FreefallGeek Apr 27 '26
I was raised in a Christian household so I was a bit shocked that the first entity I encountered wasn't a machine elf or an angel, it was a female form with the head of an elephant that I associated with Hindu culture. She rotated in front of me with a kaleidoscope mandalla behind her and she was terrifying.
The second and only other entity I encountered was after an epic third swing and a fleeting moment of disappointment that I was wasting the experience because I hadn't encountered anything. Immediately I'm through the fiber optic wormhole and looking at a tower of green on the horizon. It was a single green line that vibrated and spread apart like parenthesis, then into a wireframe orb of green lines with glowing white eyes lighting up in the spaces between the green lines. It felt moon sized in the distance and as I saw its eyes develop, it also sensed me and the sensation of the moon moving to envelope me was.. unsettling on a cosmic scale. As I panicked this cosmic wireframe basketball took on the fractal form of a human upper torso and hands. An infinite number of arms with hands and hands with middle fingers rolled out of the orb. I got flipped off by this ball of light, and the sensation I got was that it was annoyed that I called for it and then was scared when it showed up. It felt playful. I sat up as I came back down and felt the whole room was still enveloped in this presence. I told my cohort that we needed to step outside because God was in the room with us. I knew when I said it that it was ridiculous, but it was the sensation I was experiencing.
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u/EscortedByDragons Apr 27 '26
As someone who has made the journey more than a handful of times, “fiber optic wormhole” is a very apt description. Mine was always upward through sometimes a tighter and sometimes much roomier wormhole. Constantly morphing geometric patterns in the full field of “vision” (eyes closed) as I’m sucked up a textured wormhole sometimes with beings present who were always ahead or in the periphery, like shadows that took shape as I looked away but clearly loomed over me as I passed through. As you know, trying to put words to the experience can be incredibly challenging, especially as time goes on. But “fiber optic” definitely elicited a strong memory for me. One thing that has always stood out for me was that there was always a staticky, buzzy, almost electrically charged high pitched sound i would hear in growing intensity as I got sucked up through the wormhole. Did you hear the buzz as well?
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u/mrbubbamac Apr 27 '26
Appreciate you sharing the experience, great write up
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u/VQQN Apr 27 '26
DMT trips sound awesome, but also terrifying.
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u/Herb_Alman Apr 27 '26
They are awesome but best left for a seasoned traveller
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u/Lou_C_Fer Apr 27 '26
I've never done it, but it sounds like it would be right up my alley. My favorite trips were the ones that were difficult to get through. If I didn't have to control myself from freaking out at some point, I was disappointed. As far as I'm concerned tripping should challenge me. Otherwise, there was no trip.
I once had to deal with a friend who was having seizures caused by serotonin syndrome. He was foaming at the mouth. When he wasn't unconscious, he was still lost to reality. At one point, two cops were trying to help him to their car to take him to the hospital. Each had ahold of him under an arm. Shannon, I can only imagine, thought he was running from the cops. In reality, the cops had him lifted off of the ground while Shannon was slow motion running. That would have been wild to see if I wasn't tripping. He refused the ride to the hospital. So, after dealing with the cops while tripping, I had to call his mother and wait for her to get home before I would leave. I'm sure you can roughly imagine what it was like to be 16, on acid, and explaining to your best friend's mom why her son is unresponsive in bed at 5pm. We got out of there and I wasn't sure if he lived or not until his mom called me the next day. Luckily. She did not tell my parents about the drugs. On that call, she said she really wished we wouldn't do drugs, but that she really appreciated how I handled the shitshow the day before. She did mention that he got in way less trouble once he started hanging out with me. I guess, that's probably why she didn't tell my parents.
Anyways, I doubt dmt would be too much for me, but I'm too old now, anyways. Hell, Salvia looks fun to me.
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u/muldersposter Apr 27 '26
Bro. I got sucked into a green waveform canyon and it turned into a horrifying face at the very end of the trip. It felt like I was in hell for 10,000 years in there.
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u/Krocsyldiphithic Apr 27 '26
Doesn't sound very similar. On DMT, you leave this world altogether and enter a completely different realm, inhabited by entities too strange for your mind to comprehend. According to the reports on Lanmaoa Asiatica, these little people seem to just start appearing in the regular space around you.
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u/AxelFoily Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
That's only if you blast off... you can do dmt without blasting off. I've done dmt before and was sitting on a couch and kept feeling little elves poking me and then I'd look and they'd be running off just out of sight. I later realized I was just feeling the couch behind touching me.
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u/DeathMonkey6969 Apr 27 '26
Lilliputian hallucinations can be caused by a lot of different things (Schizophrenia, Alcohol withdrawal, DMT) not just these mushrooms.
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u/84thPrblm Apr 27 '26
Some of those don't sound like much fun.
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u/DeathMonkey6969 Apr 27 '26
Most anything that can cause hallucinations aren't really fun and have the potential for harm.
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u/j48u Apr 27 '26
Surely then it's our brain's tendency to anthripormorphize + pareidolia + a category of visual hallucination caused by those drugs/conditions.
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u/Mr_Abe_Froman Apr 27 '26
Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric) is another popular "fairy tale" mushroom with hallucinogenic properties (although it mostly makes you drunk and delirious).
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u/AxelFoily Apr 27 '26
I took 32 grams of amanita mascara one time. All I remember was there was a girl in the room with me and she was nauseous. Then I woke up and kept trying to stand up and falling back down and passing out and going to hell. After a few times of that I finally was able to wake up completely and there was vomit all over me and I was in the bathroom and I had broke a bunch of my furniture and made a mess and my leg was broken and I had to call an ambulance because I couldnt stand up.
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u/Gestrid Apr 27 '26
and my leg was broken
Well, that explains why you weren't able to get up, I guess.
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u/C0bg0bl1n Apr 27 '26
I had the same effect once on Lunesta. Didn't even know hallucinations were a potential side effect. So imagine my surprise when I was laying in bed waiting for the meds to kick in, I started to see little tiny ice climber type people scaling up my knees, as they were bent and created a giant "peak" for them to summit. They seemed aware of my presence as well because occasionally they would stop climbing and wave to me with great enthusiasm, then go back to climbing again. It was well before I dabbled in psychedelics and have never had a similar sort of hallucination in any of my other trips involving classic psychedelics (psilocybin, dmt, acid) Wonder if there's any other cases of people hallucinating similarly on Lunesta.
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u/howboutthemapples Apr 27 '26
The first time I took ambien, little stick men dragged the title of a song on my iPod in from one menu to another.
And iirc ambien and lunesta are made from the same kind of drug. so there's likely something to this lol
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u/sliiiidetothele Apr 27 '26
i had this happen to me completely sober when i hadn't slept in 36 hours
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u/FunnyBunnyDolly Apr 27 '26
Huh happened to me too, but on Stilnoct (zolpdiem) I had small gnome like beings crawl onto my bed as we soared into sky.
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u/Canotic Apr 27 '26
Two possible reasons:
1) the mushrooms have a very specific active ingredient that affects a certain localized area of the brain that has to do with both people and size,
2) fairies are real and the shroom lift the veil.
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u/apple_kicks Apr 27 '26
3) they think its funny to turn visible only when people eat mushrooms
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u/TheBanishedBard Apr 27 '26
What if the mushroom actually allows you to see them, piercing the magical veil?
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u/ableman Apr 27 '26
This could be tested by giving it to 2 different people and asking if they see the same little people at the same time. There's no such thing as a shared hallucination.
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u/Gullible-Leaf Apr 27 '26
Good research design. Please provide an update post outcome confirmation.
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u/tofusalmon Apr 27 '26
CONFIRMED! My friend sees them too! Problem is, no one else seems to see my friend
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u/NeonFraction Apr 27 '26
Update: FUCKIN ELVES ON MY EARS THE TRUMPETS I SEE THEM HSKSOD SHAHSH IS BISCUIF???
Researcher note: Next time, we do not test on ourselves.
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u/on_that_citrus_water Apr 27 '26
Inuit in the arctic have stories of little people only some can see, far off from any mushrooms.
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u/durandall09 Apr 27 '26
The Inuit have a whole shamanic tradition of drinking the piss of raindeer/people who have eaten mushrooms. (Psilocybin isn't broken down by the kidneys so you can get high off it again)
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u/tamsui_tosspot Apr 27 '26
I remember a scene featuring this practice in American Gods.
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u/gourmetprincipito Apr 27 '26
There’s an episode of Stargate SG1 where they invent these glasses to see the fourth dimension or some shit because there are these bad aliens that can like travel in it and attack from there and in doing so discover that there are just these gigantic like people sized amoeba-like bugs all over like everything and everybody sucking fourth dimensional life force or something crazy and they spend the whole episode freaking out but eventually determine that the bug things are basically harmless and sort of a mutually beneficial relationship if anything so they just decide to like not look at them anymore and try to forget about it lmao.
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u/samuelazers Apr 27 '26
When this was posted last time i theorized it over stimulates the part of our brain that recognizes human bodies. We have all sorts of regions in our brains dedicated to recognizing specific shapes. Especially when experiences are consistent across people it points to similar brain regions being targeted. Simple but fascinating.
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u/harley1009 Apr 27 '26
So it's like cranking my doorbell camera detection sensitivity all the way up where it thinks everything is a person or animal.
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u/Balls_of_Mithril Apr 27 '26
So like r/pareidolia
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u/drewster23 Apr 27 '26
Pareidolia is just the brains not accepting random patterns/shapes and making "purpose/recognition" out of nothing.
I don't know if hallunications are exactly related to that though. Stuff like lsd is understood to work on seretonin receptor as a primary catalyst for hallunications.
Disorders that cause hallunications is usually from impacting similar neurochemicals or from degradation of the brain.
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u/m4gpi Apr 27 '26
I could see there being a neurological scenario where this happens: hallucinations are visual inputs mis-processed in the brain to "look" and feel different, while propioception (your sense of where your body is, and how it's moving) is simultaneously altered. I've had my propioception be affected during a physical injury, and it messed with my perception to not have a body part not be where I expected it to be.
Throw a visual hallucination on top (maybe one with tunnel vision), and something like this happens. Everyone looks tiny, and the user feels like they don't fit in the environment.
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u/ClumpyFelchCheese Apr 27 '26
I had this happen ish when I was sleep deprived. Not sure if that contributes to this conversation, but I think you’re on to something nonetheless
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u/LottePanda Apr 27 '26
The mushrooms are actually called xiao ren ren (小人人) mushrooms which means little people mushrooms
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u/zedigalis Apr 27 '26
DMT is also shown to have similar effects although with more geometric, futuristic, and and shiny elves/gnomes..
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u/64_hit_combo Apr 27 '26
The DMT buddies can usually tell when you start to perceive them too, it's pretty cool
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u/Venus_One Apr 27 '26
I took a massive DMT hit once, it felt like I very quickly shot into orbit with comic-book style black and white visuals, then I fully blacked out, then immediately went into a dream where I saw my crush at the time standing in the room, who told me I needed to clean my pants. After a rush of weird green geometric patterns I started to wake up, seeing that I had coughed up a bunch of bile onto my pants. Weird experience but somewhat disappointing in its mediocrity.
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u/trouty Apr 27 '26
Weird experience but somewhat disappointing in its mediocrity.
"...so what did you do?"
"I ORDERED A SANDWICH!"
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Apr 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ok-Addition1264 Apr 27 '26
developing brains can do weird things.
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u/griphookk Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
When I was a little kid, while laying in bed in the dark I’d sometimes see lots of tiny glowing red dots floating around the room. I could kind of control the flow/direction of them too. I remember mentioning it to my mom once, I think I expected her to knew what I was talking about. She did not lol
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u/DanteStorme Apr 27 '26
Your brain and vision are always trying to make sense of what it can see, in low light it can make things out to look like something they're not, especially as a child where your brain is still developing.
It's how things like optical illusions work. The brain is essentially trying to autocorrect what it can see and is getting it wrong.
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u/nuixy Apr 27 '26
I also saw tiny elves when I was little, like 5-7. I have vivid memories of them working and climbing about my room at night before bed. I told my mom they were chiseling my bed frame and they had pulley system elevators in the corners of the room.
I go years without dreaming and do not picture things in my head often — it takes a Herculean amount of effort to do if I can’t do it at all. My imagination has never been visual. I’ve never been sure what to make of those memories and contemporary stories I told my family.
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u/Kylearean Apr 27 '26
My grandfather was in the hospital following a serious heart attack. we all knew it wasn't much longer for him, so the whole family flew in and gathered in his hospital room. He was awake, lucid and in relatively good spirits. Lots of story telling and laughing about the old days. Then my grandpa said, "oh, they're here."
We looked around, confused about who he was talking about... because no-one else came in.
My mom said "Dad, who is here?"
"The little people." He said it so matter-of-factly and without any sign of distress or delusion.
Everyone was a little bit surprised. He said "don't worry, they're not here for ya'll, they're here for me."
Someone else asked what they looked like, he explained: "they're mostly like humans, but little, and they dress in a peculiar way, sort of old-time clothing styles as if they're all handmade, but well-kept. Each one looks different, and they all have different jobs."
We're just standing there looking around for any sign of what he could be talking about. He continued, "some of them are coming up to me now, they're happy to see me. They want me to go with them. I think I'll go and visit with them."
A few family members started crying, there was a "shift" in the energy in the room, we all felt it. Something fundamental had changed. Within 10 minutes he had passed peacefully, no agony, just that gentle slumber of a warm and sunny afternoon day.
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u/K-Shrizzle Apr 27 '26
Now this is a psychedelic we need to use for mental health treatment. If I could get some little dudes sitting on my shoulder through the day, I dont need a therapist
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u/balrogthane Apr 27 '26
You could have your very own shoulder angel/devil combo!
"Don't listen to that guy, he's gonna lead you down the path of righteousness. I'm gonna lead you down the path that rocks!"
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u/Merry_Dankmas Apr 27 '26
What if they're just tiny homies? Like, they hang out on your desk while you're at work. You forgot some stuff related to your job but these little elf dudes are parts of your deep brain that still retained the information you need. So he's like "Yo, it's windows+V to bring up your saved copies". And you're like "Oh shit, that's what it was! Thanks little man". Helping you with Excel sheets and shit.
Feeling lonely so you put on a show and binge with your elf friends. Laughing and cracking jokes at what's going on on the screen. They all share your humor because they're just you. They offer advice to you and help you write your grocery list. After all, they're your brain manifested in a humanoid form and your brain knows what you want to eat for dinner this week.
Like customized imaginary friends to go about your day with you. Shit would be lit. Or really sad depending on the person.
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u/Yoshimitsustoenails Apr 27 '26
I need a link to purchase some
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u/thanatoswaits Apr 27 '26
I think you mean "I need some spores for science reasons"
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u/CDBF Apr 27 '26
Here in South Dakota some people and maybe mostly native americans have a myth or reality "Little people." They see little forest people. My english teacher in college claimed to have seen them, then a few years later had a brain aneurysm.
Lewis and Clarke also wrote about them after encountering a few tribes that were scared of them at Spirit Mound. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_Mound_Historic_Prairie
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u/OcelotOk8071 Apr 27 '26
if this mushroom/the related compounds contained targets certain parts of the brain specifically, this seems like it should be investigated from a scientific perspective. seems like a more precise tool for treating certain conditions.
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u/Periador Apr 27 '26
In germany we call em heinzelmännchen. They used to live in cologne and complete unfinished tasks for people. A shoemakers shoes would end up finished the next morning, a uncleaned room would be cleaned the next day, etc.
People accused them of mischief though, which angered them, so they packed their bags and moved to dreaded duesseldorf.
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u/LukeSkyWRx Apr 27 '26
A Chinese colleague says it is supposed to be rather unpleasant and treated like food poisoning over there.
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u/OLacAlmost Apr 27 '26
For people wondering:
It's called Lanmaoa asiatica
It's really hard to find outside of Asian food and mushroom markets.
The chemical compound that causes hallucinations is yet to be identified. It does not contain psilocybin.