The Mushroom Making People Hallucinate Dozens of Tiny Humans

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Meet The Mushroom That Makes People Have The Exact Same Hallucination

Scientists call them "lilliputian hallucinations," a rare phenomenon involving miniature human or fantasy figures

Biologist Colin Domnauer is reopening an old case that Chinese health officials seem to have stopped caring about. Every summer, residents of the Yunnan province check into hospitals with complaints that they're hallucinating tiny elflike people. They would see the little dudes marching under their doors, scaling their walls, and clinging to their furniture.

Health officials used to care about it. They looked into it some years back and found that the cause was Lanmaoa asiatica, a mushroom that's been eaten in Yunnan for years. It's supposedly got a rich, umami flavor, and locals know that you have to cook it thoroughly, not to bring out that flavor, but to kill off the mushroom's hallucinogenic properties.

Scientists call these "lilliputian hallucinations," a rare phenomenon involving miniature human or fantasy figures. If you've seen the Adult Swim show Common Side Effects, you may be familiar with the surreal trippiness of this apparently very real form of mushroom-based hallucination. What makes this particular hallucinatory mushroom so unusual is that it causes the same kind of hallucinations in different people, across cultures.

It's always the little elf dudes.

[...] What's fascinating is the active compound isn't psilocybin, the hallucinatory chemical found in shrooms people take recreationally or therapeutically. The hallucinations take 12 to 24 hours. to begin and can last for a long time, sometimes long enough to require hospitalization and careful observation. The trip can last so long that it's impractical as a recreational drug, which is why no culture seems to use the mushroom intentionally as a psychedelic. Not yet, at least.

BBC Article:

'They saw them on their dishes when eating': The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans

Only recently described by science, the mysterious mushrooms are found in different parts of the world, but they give people the same exact visions.

Every year, doctors at a hospital in the Yunnan Province of China brace themselves for an influx of people with an unusual complaint. The patients come with a strikingly odd symptom: visions of pint-sized, elf-like figures - marching under doors, crawling up walls and clinging to furniture.

The hospital treats hundreds of these cases every year. All share a common culprit: Lanmaoa asiatica, a type of mushroom that forms symbiotic relationships with pine trees in nearby forests and is a locally popular food, known for its savory, umami-packed flavor. In Yunnan, L. asiatica is sold in markets, it appears on restaurant menus and is served at home during peak mushroom season between June and August.

One must be careful to cook it thoroughly, though, otherwise the hallucinations will set in.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.