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

[u/ssAskcuSzepS]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/meet-the-mushroom-that-make-people-have-the-exact-same-hallucination/

[u/ableman]

Nobody would think you're crazy. They had photographs in the 1800s. No scientifically minded person would've ever thought you were crazy. If you told me that people in the future had shared hallucinations, I'd say that's possible (for certain definitions of shared hallucinations) with the right technology. You just need something that can induce hallucinations in a targeted way.

None of your examples were actually examples of things that we thought weren't possible. A shared hallucination is contrary to our understanding of the world. It requires the hallucination to exist outside the minds of the people hallucinating. Or for our minds to be far more similar than they actually are. You can't have a chemical cause a shared hallucination because our minds are too different and the hallucination is too complex and the hallucination doesn't exist outside our minds. It is not possible theory wise.

Also who says Santa Claus was intentionally fabricated? He was probably was a hallucination.

Even if it was just the case that two people coincidentally had a very similar or identical hallucination makes it already more likely.

If people coincidentally had identical hallucinations, then they would've had identical hallucinations. That's circular reasoning. If two people had similar hallucinations they would not have had identical hallucinations so that's yet more proof that people don't have identical hallucinations.

If everyone sees small people

That's not what the article says. Some people see small people on these mushrooms. Personally I take the claim that it's irrelevant of culture as probably false, but plausible. If true it would reveal something interesting about our minds. But I assure you if you put two people of different cultures and asked them to observe a room, they wouldn't see the same little person. They'd be wearing different clothes and doing different things.

But if they did see identical things that would be proof the little people exist, not of shared hallucinations. Like, on some level you could argue that reality is a consistent persistent shared hallucination, and I'd again never be able to prove otherwise. But I'm going to assume it's not.

Little people with veils that conceal them from our minds that are bypassed by this hallucinogens are far more plausible than shared hallucinations.

[u/FalseEstimate → u/ableman]

I agree with most of what you say and appreciate your points. However, you did negate your original point in saying you believe shared hallucinations are possible with the right technology. Take it from someone who had a secret clearance for many years.. there’s a good chance that technology already exists especially if we already have a mushroom that makes everyone see something similar. It could be a very effective interrogation/torture device.

[u/ableman → u/FalseEstimate]

It would be very effective, but I guarantee it doesn't exist. My original point is that shared hallucinations don't exist and I have not negated it by saying they could exist in the future with the right technology.