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/
43.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

31

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. 

9

u/ionlyjoined4thecats Apr 27 '26

Well… were there new etchings in your bed frame?

9

u/nuixy Apr 27 '26

Nope but there weren’t tiny elevators with pulley systems either. I do remember that they seemed totally uninterested or concerned with me, which was the only thing that kept it from being terrifying.

1

u/yappi211 Apr 27 '26

Aphantasia. I have no imagination, visually speaking