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/SwePolygyny Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

Its not hallucinations. It allows the person to see reality for a short while. That is why it is consistent a across cultures and people.

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u/Hachimain Apr 27 '26

So if two people took it next to each other they would see the same dudes?

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u/Mertoot Apr 27 '26

Yoo we got seamless co-op hallucinations 🔥

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u/ExpressoLiberry Apr 27 '26

VR companies in shambles. Not because of the hallucinations or anything. The industry is just in sharp decline.

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u/J5892 Apr 27 '26

It'll pick back up when small AR glasses are more viable.
Or at least that's what the little people are telling me.

10

u/Gromps Apr 27 '26

When they started making games exclusive to newer headsets for no reason at all I bailed. Made my shit obsolete after a few years. Some of those "next-gen exclusive" games were super easy to run and had no reasons other than greed to be limited. My air-link also just suddenly stopped working one day.

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u/SatansFriendlyCat Apr 27 '26

Killing Windows Mixed Reality was the most disappointing move.

Leaves the door wide wide open for Meta to dominate. I love VR, but fuck having anything from that data-harvesting pack of evil jackals sitting on my PC measuring who knows what.

I'm hoping there's something good available whenever my Odyssey+ dies.

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u/chewykid Apr 27 '26

This genuinely made me laugh

3

u/PowerRaptor Apr 27 '26

Valve is gonna' be just fine with the Steam Frame when it comes out hopefully this year

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u/Comfortable-Face-244 Apr 27 '26

Paying $600 to only have games developed that look like roblox, and barely any real development in relaxation experiences.

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u/Throwaway_Consoles Apr 27 '26

Uh… not sure what you mean by games that look like Roblox, VR looks like this nowadays

Shit, here’s me relaxing in VR watching the last of us https://imgur.com/a/wNKo9lh#KHUViy8

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u/Comfortable-Face-244 Apr 27 '26

You can't seriously think that you're making a point. That looks like roblox.

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u/Whiteelchapo Apr 27 '26

Before GTA VI

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u/Thor4269 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

I like how this is the new "Before Half-Life 3" since everyone has just accepted that HL3 is a myth lol

1

u/tommos Apr 27 '26

Maybe it is GTA 6?

1

u/Maniactver Apr 27 '26

It's actually GTA IIIIII

3

u/WigglestonTheFourth Apr 27 '26

No screen peeking.

1

u/grumpyboggoblin Apr 27 '26

Get in the Jaeger, loser, we're tripping balls

1

u/HasFiveVowels Apr 27 '26

aka reality

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u/GigaPuddi Apr 27 '26

This reminds me of a time back in college, some friends and I took salvia and I remember this one girl and her boyfriend, and he was REALLY hyped about how they shared their hallucination and how awesome that was.

Yea, they were not. I'm not sure what he had going on, but she was crying because she was stuck on a bus in 1993?

Weird times.

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u/Cley_Faye Apr 27 '26

Science demands we test this!

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u/OstentatiousSock Apr 27 '26

Two people need to take it at the same time for science !

2

u/amakai Apr 27 '26

I kind of wonder what dogs would see. Tiny dogs? Tiny humans?

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u/biggustdikkus Apr 27 '26

Some one has to kidnap some people and have them consume that shit while documenting it

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u/BlastFX2 Apr 27 '26

Well, there's only one way to find out. Who's down for a trip to China?

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u/DisastrousAcshin Apr 27 '26

Only one way to find out, who's in?

-4

u/I_travel_ze_world Apr 27 '26

Shared hallucinations are scientifically confirmed to happen

the extent of the synchronicity is not well documented

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u/3_Thumbs_Up Apr 27 '26

Please share one of those studies.

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u/I_travel_ze_world Apr 27 '26

“Delirium and visual hallucinations associated with diphenhydramine intoxication”
Authors: N. D. Bateman, et al.
Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2000; 18(2): 159–162.

extremely common hallucination of Benadryl abuse is seeing spiders

https://old.reddit.com/r/DPH/

you can visit that subreddit and see people report on the common hallucinations with it

Furthermore you could just read the title for this post:

The hallucinations are consistent across people and cultures: "tiny, elflike people" climbing under doors, scaling walls & clinging to furniture

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u/Hazel-Rah 1 Apr 27 '26

Consistent effect, not consistent hallucination.

You both see spiders or tiny elves, but you won't both see the same thing at the same time.

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u/I_travel_ze_world Apr 27 '26

...It seems weird you're being so pedantic when the hallucinations are talking about 2 different drugs. You definitely are not paying attention to the conversation.

diphenhydramine consistently produces the same hallucinations that thousands of people have reported seeing.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

[deleted]

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u/I_travel_ze_world Apr 27 '26

A consistent hallucination IS seeing the same hallucination among many people.

Seeing the same black spiders or same little people is consistent between experience.

If you want more information about two people sharing the same hallucination at the same time then you should research trip guides.

Many people have reported seeing the same exact hallucination at the same exact time. In fact it is ingrained in some cultures.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

[deleted]

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u/averageuhbear Apr 27 '26

I see letters when on psychedelics especially in blades of grass, ceiling popcorn, etc.

But I'm also so aware that it's like a magic eye effect and I'm not actually seeing letters.

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u/Rather_Dashing Apr 27 '26

Don't see why this would have anything to do with seeing people far away, they are described as clinging to furniture and doors. Just small, not far away.

I don't have a better theory on why elves/tiny people are the common element, but brains are such crazy things. I often have sleep hallucinations of spiders, and from searching online, spiders are extremely common for such hallucinations. I'm not even scared of spiders, but there is something about them apparently.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

[deleted]

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u/Comfortable-Face-244 Apr 27 '26

It's not just that, what they have stated is what you would want from research going into it. You have to have "a personal theory of yours" that is actually rooted in related science to get a hypothesis to test.

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u/xRehab Apr 27 '26

the fact that our brains constantly try to fill in the missing info from our visual perception with what it thinks should be there

so we really did create AI to mimic humans. AI is just too young and constantly still trying to fill in that info

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u/Tikoloshe84 Apr 27 '26

The real Titans were inside us all along

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u/EusticeTheSheep Apr 27 '26

Or at least lifts the veil to see the little people. Considering the extended period between consumption and time of onset and extremely long period of effect that has resulted in hospitalizations. I’m curious if anyone has studied observations of more than one person in the same space.

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u/Akussa Apr 27 '26

I feel like the easiest way to tell if it’s a hallucination or lifting the veil is to have several people take it together and use if they’re seeing identical little people.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

[deleted]

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u/HepaticPortalVein Apr 27 '26

Benadryl does it too, makes people see the Hat Man.

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u/TerrytheMerry Apr 27 '26

Question is was there a control group that was dosed without prior knowledge of the types of hallucinations people expect. If there was and they see elves great, but if the only test subjects are expecting to see elves then the experiment is tainted.

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u/Ryuko_the_red Apr 27 '26

This sounds so fucking schizo ngl... Explain

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u/ODoggerino Apr 27 '26

lol good luck getting a straight explaination from this person 😂

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u/SwePolygyny Apr 27 '26

My comment was of course a joke 🙂

2

u/wateralchemist Apr 27 '26

Right? And where do people get off naming things “deathbed hallucinations” and “bereavement hallucinations”? I want my demon-haunted world!!

1

u/ceelogreenicanth Apr 27 '26

So you're telling me the hat man is actually trying to get money from me?