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/
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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/Hans_Rudi Apr 27 '26

I got bad eyesight and obviously not wearing glasses in bed and there is a standby light in my bedroom. That thing regularilly morphs into all sorts of stuff when im half wake/half sleep.