People in Papua New Guinea, southwestern China and the northern Philippines have independently described seeing tiny human-like figures after eating certain wild mushrooms. The visions are unusually consistent: miniature figures appear to move through the real world, walk around obstacles, climb surfaces and interact with objects. New research from the University of Utah links two of these reports to the same mushroom species, Lanmaoa asiatica, and suggests that an unknown psychoactive compound—not shared cultural expectations—may be responsible.
A century-old mystery
These experiences are known as Lilliputian hallucinations, a reference to the six-inch-tall inhabitants of Gulliver’s Travels. Researchers have long questioned whether similar reports from distant regions reflected cultural beliefs and folklore or a common biological cause.
The mystery dates to 1934, when Western researchers learned that people in Papua New Guinea sometimes saw vivid visions of miniature humans after eating wild mushrooms. The phenomenon became known as “mushroom madness.”
During the 1950s and 1960s, anthropologists and mycologists traveled to Papua New Guinea and proposed that several species in the Boletaceae family might be responsible. However, chemical tests failed to find substances that could explain the hallucinations. Samples were even examined by Albert Hoffman, the scientist who first isolated psilocybin and discovered LSD, but he could not identify an active ingredient.
Without a chemical explanation, some researchers began to question whether mushrooms were responsible at all. They suggested that cultural expectations and traditional beliefs might produce the visions. Scientific investigation of the phenomenon had largely ended by the close of the 1960s.
The mystery resurfaced in the 1990s, when people in China’s Yunnan province reported similar hallucinations after eating mushrooms known as “porte.” Although the exact species was initially unclear, researchers now believe the mushroom was the recently described species Lanmaoa asiatica.
Researchers link reports from China and the Philippines
Another important clue emerged in 2024, when Colin Domnauer, a doctoral student at the University of Utah, learned of similar experiences among Indigenous communities in the remote northern Cordillera region of the Philippines.
Community members described an edible wild mushroom called “sedesdem” that could sometimes make people see a miniature human. Similar mushrooms were known locally as “Nonda” in Papua New Guinea and “Jian Shouqing” in Yunnan.
The mushrooms are part of local food traditions, but eating them when they are inadequately cooked can cause unusual hallucinations. The Philippine account was the third independent report of wild mushrooms producing visions that closely resemble tiny humans.
Domnauer traveled to Yunnan and the Philippines to interview local residents and collect specimens of L. asiatica and other mushrooms in the genus Lanmaoa. This fieldwork included the first scientific investigation of fungi in the northern Philippines.
The researchers analyzed the mushrooms’ DNA to establish their identities and evolutionary relationships. The results showed that the mushrooms called “Jian Shou Qing” in China and “sedesdem” in the Philippines were both L. asiatica. Scientists had previously believed that the species existed only in China.
Bryn Dentinger, a University of Utah mycologist affiliated with the Utah Museum of Natural History, also traveled to Papua New Guinea in hopes of collecting specimens from the location where the mystery began. Unusually dry weather prevented the team from obtaining samples for genetic comparison.
The Papua New Guinea mushroom therefore remains unidentified. Even so, the evidence from China and the Philippines points to a compelling connection: the same highly specific hallucinations have been reported in three geographically separated cultures, and DNA testing has linked two of those reports to a single mushroom species.
That consistency supports a shared chemical and neurological explanation rather than unrelated cultural influences. The findings by Domnauer and Dentinger were published in Mycologia.
Detailed visions of miniature people
The hallucinations are notable for the striking similarity of the accounts. People commonly report seeing dozens or even hundreds of miniature figures, measuring between 3 and 30 centimeters tall. The figures can appear as clear and solid as real people.
Domnauer said that about 90 percent of people who experience the visions describe figures resembling elves, clowns or other fairy-like characters, often dressed in brightly colored clothing.
The figures also appear to obey familiar physical rules. Rather than passing through walls or ignoring their surroundings, they walk around obstacles, move across ordinary objects and sometimes fall from the edge of a table.
Domnauer recalled one particularly unusual account involving a person eating soup. The person reported seeing a small human jump from a spoon into the bowl and swim in it. When the person took another spoonful, a miniature doll was still visible in their mouth.
These detailed interactions distinguish the visions from many other forms of drug-induced hallucination.
An unknown psychoactive compound
The researchers used chemical tests and DNA analysis to look for known psychoactive compounds in L. asiatica and related mushrooms. They found no evidence of psilocybin or other established mushroom hallucinogens.
The absence of known compounds is especially significant because the mushroom’s effects differ from those commonly associated with recognized psychedelic drugs. Researchers currently suspect that L. asiatica produces an unidentified psychoactive substance that causes the Lilliputian hallucinations.
The compound has not yet been isolated or chemically identified, so its exact nature and mechanism remain unknown. Identifying it could open new avenues for studying how chemicals alter visual perception.
What the mushroom could reveal about the brain
L. asiatica appears to be an unusually consistent trigger for Lilliputian hallucinations, but mushroom ingestion is not the only context in which such visions occur. Stories of human-like miniatures appear in folklore around the world, and similar hallucinations have been reported during alcohol withdrawal and in people with dementia, macular degeneration and other neurological conditions.
These associations suggest that the visions may arise from fundamental features of the way the brain processes visual information. Scientists still do not fully understand the neurological mechanisms behind them or how best to treat them when they occur in a medical setting.
The mushroom could provide a useful model because it appears to produce the phenomenon more consistently than many neurological and medical conditions in which Lilliputian hallucinations are relatively rare. If researchers can isolate the responsible chemicals, they may gain a tool for investigating the brain circuits and processes involved in these unusually detailed visual experiences.
Such work could eventually improve understanding of hallucinations associated with neurological diseases. The research team’s next major goal is to isolate and identify the suspected psychoactive compounds.
DNA analysis reveals four unknown species
The study also produced important findings about fungal biodiversity. Domnauer and Dentinger conducted the first comprehensive genetic analysis of the genus Lanmaoa, examining 53 mushroom specimens collected from natural habitats around the world and preserved in museum collections.
Gene-sequence analysis identified 17 species in the group, including four previously unknown to science. Two of the newly identified species had already been preserved in collections in the United States, but their identities had not been recognized until researchers examined their DNA.
The analysis also indicated that L. asiatica is currently the only known species in the genus to produce psychoactive effects. Scientists are working to reconstruct the group’s evolutionary history and determine how this unusual chemical trait developed, as well as whether related mushrooms produce similar substances.
The findings demonstrate the scientific value of museum collections. Specimens preserved for years can yield new biological discoveries when examined with modern analytical techniques. For Domnauer, the hidden diversity revealed in these collections shows that many species—and potentially important biological traits—remain undiscovered even among organisms scientists have already collected.
Fungal biodiversity and future medicines
The implications extend beyond unusual hallucinations. Fungi remain one of the least studied groups of organisms, and their chemical diversity could provide insights into biology, medicine and the nervous system.
Penicillin is one of the best-known examples of a medically important fungal discovery. Originally derived from fungi, the antibiotic transformed the treatment of bacterial infections and became one of the most significant medical discoveries of the last century.
Continued exploration of fungal biodiversity could reveal other useful compounds and previously unknown biological processes. The unusual effects of L. asiatica demonstrate how much remains to be learned about the fungal kingdom, including mushrooms long consumed in Asian communities that may contain substances capable of revealing new information about the brain and conscious experience.
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (Award #DEB-2114785).
Source: www.sciencedaily.com