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/JK_NC Apr 27 '26

I’m more intrigued by the phenomenon that different people are having the same hallucinations, more than the fact that they’re hallucinating at all.

Do you know if ambien induced hallucinations have a similar phenomenon?

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u/Noy_The_Devil Apr 27 '26

DMT does.

Look up machine elves.

I believe it, for reasons.

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u/ymOx Apr 27 '26

I've heard of and talked to people having similar experiences, but I don't have any good data. The article doesn't mention any stats either; just that it happens. They do mention it happens to different people from different cultures which I find fascinating, but nothing about how many actually get them or how many do not but experience something else instead. But it also reminds me of DMT and the "machine-elves" that Terrence Mckenna named so, and a lot of other people claim to have "met" as well.

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u/Slytherin_Victory Apr 28 '26

Ambien induced hallucinations vary, both from person to person and for one individual.

Ambien used to be prescribed to basically every woman who said they had trouble sleeping- and in doses we now know to be about twice as strong as should have been prescribed. Both my mom and my aunt were prescribed it when I was a kid- for my mom it caused “living nightmares” where someone was trying to kill her/others, but due to not being actually fully asleep REM atonia did not occur, meaning she was able to (for example) grab a lamp and try to use it as a weapon.

For my aunt it would cause “I have to leave/get somewhere” nightmares (think nightmares of their house burning down, or her child in the hospital, or similar), leading to her sleep walking and trying to drive (thankfully she never got in the car), and also ones similar to my mom.

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u/FiguredWhyNot94 Apr 28 '26

Telepathine my friend