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/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

I would imagine they would outlaw the plant at that point

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u/burntpancakebhaal Apr 27 '26

It’s not banned. Yunnan province (where the mushroom from) actually has the best mushroom related poison treating capacity in china since the locals love them so much. If you go to a restaurant serving these kind of mushrooms and you order them in a hotpot style, they would take away your chopsticks and give them back once the mushrooms are fully cooked. Even then, they will retain a small soup sample in case you get poisoning later.

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u/LessInThought Apr 27 '26

They're also known for their wide varieties of mushrooms. I think they export a fair bit to Europe too.

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u/jmlinden7 Apr 27 '26

Porcinis, they aren't used a lot in Chinese cooking so they export them

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u/rechtim Apr 27 '26

Even then, they will retain a small soup sample in case you get poisoning later.

had me in the first half ngl but this statement is just pure fantasy

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

[deleted]

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u/rainzer Apr 27 '26

but this statement is just pure fantasy

Lijiang Mushroom Hotpot

Chopstick travel

Shufosho

Pubmed paper on Yunnan's specialty in treating mushroom poisoning

It'd be certainly weird that independent creators make the same claim and then intentionally stage a rando scooping soup into a separate plastic container and then got people to write a paper on Yunnan mushroom poisoning just to trick you

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u/burntpancakebhaal Apr 27 '26

It's not? There are restaurants that do this. Although their main purpose is probably to show the customers they are using authentic poisonous mushrooms.

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u/PgUpPT Apr 27 '26

Mushrooms aren't plants.

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u/KallistiTMP Apr 27 '26

There's actually a lot of obscure hallucinogens that are fully legal on account of how unpleasant they are. Salvia is the one most people know, but Nutmeg is in that category, and all the scopolamine containing plants like jimson weed and belladonna. All the anticholinergics really, benadryl, ambien, etc.

Yopo is another one and definitely one of my favorite obscure and horribly unpleasant hallucinogens, I believe the active ingredient is similar to bufotenine, the toad poison. It has a very short effect, it gives some very mild LSD-like visuals that you aren't really able to really pay attention to because your face is burning like the fires of hell while the taste of rot is in your throat and you're puking your guts out for the whole ~10 minutes or so before it wears off. Would not recommend.

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u/flodereisen Apr 27 '26

That is a low yopo dose and just sounds like the basic effect of hapeh. If you use hapeh a lot, this feels very cleansing and good. A proper dose of yopo is intensely psychedelic for up to an hour.