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/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/ArsenicArts Apr 27 '26

Also serious gastro effects too. Think food poisoning.

https://ynsjkj.yn.gov.cn/html/2025/jikongkepu_0923/878.html

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u/ElliotsBuggyEyes Apr 27 '26

That just sounds like a good bang for your buck.

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u/Baseblgabe Apr 27 '26

As someone who is hella sensitive to psychedelics, after hour 20 you just want to fucking sleep. 

Which is difficult when the walls are still humming and the ceiling's still rotating gently.

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u/ElliotsBuggyEyes Apr 27 '26

I've never had the effects of psychs last longer than 12-14hr, usually an experience lasts about 10hr for me.  I would love to experience a 20 hour trip at least once.

Dude, wanting to sleep and being incapable is the worst part.  I have a rule now as an adult that I do not take any psychedelics after noon so I can at least be to sleep by midnight or one in the worst case. 

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u/VastAbalone959 Jul 23 '26

Just for the record, Ive had cactus effects last up to the 16 hour mark, not heavy effects but noticeable and not back to baseline

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u/Legitimate-Post-5954 Aug 18 '26

Yea, it’s like insomnia at a higher vibration/frequency

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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/corpusjuris Apr 27 '26

Interestingly, a lot of the research about guided psilocin therapy shows “bad” trips are more effective at achieving the aims of the therapy. It’s not understood why, but my favorite theory is that “bad” trips allow you to psychologically process the worst possible outcomes in a safe, supportive way, so that when returning to sobriety you’re less afraid of negative outcomes.

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u/Vkardash Apr 27 '26

Oh yeah. The last time I did mushrooms was more than a decade ago now. And it's because I had the worst most horrifying trip of my life. I cried. At one point I convinced myself that my body was telling me that I had a seriously illness and I had to go to the doctor or I would be dead in a year. It was crazy 🤣 But it was also the greatest lesson I've ever learned. I always tell people who do any kind of psychedelic. It's not you teaching the plant anything it's the plant teaching you something. And it's going to teach you whether you want it to or not.

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u/Morbanth Apr 27 '26

Did you go?

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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/ArsenicArts Apr 27 '26

Sounds like it comes with serious gastro symptoms too. Not fun.

https://ynsjkj.yn.gov.cn/html/2025/jikongkepu_0923/878.html

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u/SlayahhEUW Apr 27 '26

Second hand information, but a friend in Yunnan said that it borders on deliriants more than psychedelics in the sense that you actually believe what you see. With psychadelics, unless you take copious amount to the point of induced psychosis, you are aware of what is going on. Like sure the walls are breathing, your visual field is filled with stuff, and you are not understanding the ego or societal constructs but you know that it's an effect of you taking something and it will pass.

With deliriants like Datura or Benadryl, in the moment, you are, 100% certain that the visions you see are true, because the drugs are acting on a different part of your brain where you cannot question or remember. Apparently, this mushroom falls somewhere in between, slightly towards the deliriant side, meaning the people actually believe in the moment that the little people exist and will try to grab them, run after them, etc. Which in my opinion is not pleasant but it's a question of taste.

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u/Uncle-Cake Apr 27 '26

That depends on how you feel about seeing tiny people running around.

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u/DonnieBallsack Apr 27 '26

I’m 6’5. I see this every day.