Scientists identify Lanmaoa asiatica mushroom behind 'tiny people' hallucinations
Researchers traced strikingly similar visions of miniature humanlike figures across China, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea to the same fungal species—but found no known hallucinogenic compound.
Conversation activity · last 10 days presspostscomments parsed Aug 13, 10:22 PM
What to know
- DNA analysis confirmed that geographically distant populations—Southwest China's Yunnan province, the northern Philippines, and historical Papua New Guinea—all consumed Lanmaoa asiatica (or related species) when reporting nearly identical Lilliputian hallucinations, ruling out cultural coincidence.
- No known hallucinogenic compounds (psilocybin or others) were detected in the mushroom, suggesting it contains an unidentified psychoactive substance—a mystery that has persisted despite investigation by Albert Hofmann and others since the 1930s.
- The finding reignites debate about the neurobiological basis of the phenomenon: whether shared human brain structure predictably generates the same hallucination when exposed to an unknown chemical trigger, or whether other explanations apply.
- Practical concern: Yunnan mushroom hot pot is booming across China, attracting foragers unfamiliar with safe preparation; insufficient cooking is the key trigger for hallucinations.
“People in communities thousands of miles apart have described the same strange experience after eating a mysterious mushroom: vivid visions of tiny humans moving through and interacting with the physical world around them.”
Phys.org, Science publication · Phys.org ↗
Colin Domnauer Doctoral student at University of UtahBryn Dentinger Mycologist at University of Utah and Natural History Museum of Utah
Albert Hofmann Historical researcher (1950s-60s)
How it unfolded parsed Aug 13, 10:22 PM
- Since then3 newer items — 2 posts · 1 comment — not yet read into this timeline ↓
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Online commenters propose theories about universal brain architecture, challenge the 'realness' of the hallucinations, and speculate whether the mushroom reveals something hidden or simply triggers a specific neurological pattern common to all humans.
“I believe that it is because we all have the same basic brain structure... Maybe we having the same chemical stimulants going through the same basic processing hardware causes the same outputs.”
fhdkweig · Hacker News ↗ -
Hacker News discussion erupts with researchers and observers debating the findings, questioning the methodology (why no controlled human experiments?), and speculating on the neurological basis of the phenomenon and whether the visions reflect a shared human brain structure.
“Now, three completely independent cultures have reported the same specific type of hallucination, and two cases are attributed to the same DNA-verified mushroom species. That indicates that these bizarre psychological effects aren't…”
culi · Hacker News ↗ -
Domnauer and Dentinger's findings on L. asiatica and the Lilliputian hallucinations are formally published in the peer-reviewed journal Mycologia.
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Phys.org reports on the discovery that Lanmaoa asiatica, known as 'Jian shou qing' in Yunnan, has been linked to nearly identical hallucination experiences thousands of miles away in the northern Philippines.
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Beginning in the 1990s, people in Yunnan report seeing miniature figures after consuming certain bolete mushrooms, suspected to be L. asiatica. In 2024, doctoral student Colin Domnauer learns of an Indigenous community in the northern Philippines eating a wild mushroom called 'Sedesdem' that produces similar visions.
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Anthropologists and mycologists travel to Papua New Guinea and conduct chemical tests on suspected Boletaceae mushrooms. Samples are even sent to Albert Hofmann, who discovered LSD and isolated psilocybin, but no active compound is identified. Research largely stops by the 1960s.
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Western scientists encounter reports of similar mushroom-induced visions in Papua New Guinea, where people describe seeing tiny human figures after eating wild mushrooms.
“Even more surprising, the team found no evidence of psilocybin or any other known mushroom hallucinogen. The results suggest that L. asiatica may contain a psychoactive compound that has never been identified by science.”
SciTechDaily · Google News ↗
The record 7 press and posts · last 10 days
- parsed to here · Aug 13, 10:22 PM · 2 items above arrived after
The conversation 26 comments and posts from 2 sites · verbatim · 1 claimed on the threads
The conversation is dominated by scientific curiosity about the mechanism—commenters are fascinated by the specificity of the hallucination across cultures and frustrated that no controlled experiments appear to have been conducted. A minority of voices entertain speculative or metaphysical explanations (whether the tiny people might be 'real'), while most ground discussion in neurobiology and the hunt for the unknown active compound.
The dispute The sharpest tension is between those who view this as a straightforward neuropharmacology puzzle awaiting the identification of an unknown psychoactive compound, and those who find the cross-cultural consistency so precise that they entertain the possibility that the hallucinations reveal something real or operate on principles not yet captured by mainstream chemistry.
The universal hallucination reflects shared human neurobiology responding to a novel chemical trigger; the mystery lies in identifying the compound and mapping its neurological effects.
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“I think this is so fascinating because the hallucinations sound unlike anything else produced by psychedelics and other psychoactive substances, so I really look forward to learning what the mechanism is.”
ulrikrasmussen · Hacker News ↗ -
“I believe that it is because we all have the same basic brain structure... Maybe we having the same chemical stimulants going through the same basic processing hardware causes the same outputs.”
fhdkweig · Hacker News ↗
The research methodology is incomplete; controlled human experiments should have been conducted before publishing firm conclusions.
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“The researchers seem pretty convinced that this mushroom causes the hallucinations yet they do not describe trying it out in an experiment. Surely the most straightforward way is to undercook the mushrooms and run a blind controlled…”
yreg · Hacker News ↗ -
“This would be laughably easy to disprove. Just put multiple people in the same room and have them privately describe what they see.”
russdill · Hacker News ↗
The consistency of hallucinations across cultures suggests the tiny people may be real or reflect something beyond conventional chemistry, warranting consideration of non-materialist explanations.
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“Whenever I hear these stories about multiple cultures having the same hallucination, I think that we have to give some weight to the possibility that the little people are real and the mushrooms just let us see them.”
jsw97 · Hacker News ↗ -
“I bet there is some mushroom species in Europe as well that contains that substance. All those stories about dwarfs, trolls etc. and especially in woody area's, they must have come from somewhere.”
misja111 · Hacker News ↗
- Why have the researchers not conducted controlled experiments with human volunteers consuming undercook L. asiatica to verify the hallucinations reproducibly?
- How can a chemical compound generate such a specific, consistent hallucination (miniature humanlike figures with scripted behaviors) across unrelated cultures without prior knowledge exchange?
- If the compound is neither psilocybin nor a known serotonergic substance, what class of psychoactive agent could it be, and why has it eluded detection since the 1930s?
- Aug 14
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The interesting thing is how any drug has such a specific "tiny people" effect, and what that says about how our brain works. The fact that many people report the same thing seems to imply there is a common cause based on how our perceptual system works - a separation of classification/identification (it's a person) from size determination. There…
- Aug 13
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R
"Indigenous traditions across North America, Celtic folklore across the British Isles, and frankly cultures practically everywhere else in the world—from the West African nation of Senegal to China to Papua New Guinea—all have stories about fairy-like little people. And now, scientists have linked two of those folk legends to a single species of a…
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The Hippy in me: "let's meet our new friends."The CEO in me: "I need hundreds of think pads."
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It's an evolutionary curiosity that their DNA study identified 17 species within the genus Lanmoa, but L. asiatica was the only species which produces this hallucinatory effect.There are several very commonly found boletes within the genus Lanmoa in the US, including L. pseudosensibilis and the "Bouillon Bolete" L. rubissima.
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That's nice. Why the hell is it on phys.org? I don't want to see damn drug stuff on a physical science site. Not even "non-psychedelic" pharmakinetics.
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This would be laughably easy to disprove. Just put multiple people in the same room and have them privately describe what they see.
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Depends on your definition of what "real" means. Does it mean that people really have the experience of seeing little people? If so, then in that sense it's real. Or does it mean that these little people exist in some other way, outside of the mind and potentially accessible to other physical means of intervention? Probably not.
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I believe that it is because we all have the same basic brain structure. The part of the brain that controls speech is in the same location in each person. So is motor control, vision, etc.Maybe we having the same chemical stimulants going through the same basic processing hardware causes the same outputs. But that's just like my opinion man.
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What's more likely:1. There are invisible tiny people that only a specific mushroom that hits your brain in a very specific way can let you see2. There aren't invisible tiny people but a specific mushroom that hits your brain in a very specific way makes you hallucinate a specific thing
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Yeah if it’s literally 90%+ people report the same thing… that seems impossible to explain even with a novel psychoactive substance…How can chemical compounds contain an entire script of what the little people can and cannot do?
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Whenever I hear these stories about multiple cultures having the same hallucination, I think that we have to give some weight to the possibility that the little people are real and the mushrooms just let us see them.
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Domnauer is overstating the "little people" effect here. Seeing miniaturized people seems to be only one of several manifestations associated with these mushrooms. This Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogenic_bolete_mushroom) is a lot more informative. To me, it sounds like it could actually be a serotonergic substance, but…
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What about DMT and a laser experiment?The Unexplained Laser Experiment That Breaks Reality
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It's funny how the Wikipedia article call hallucinations "ill effects". I am yet to hear people call caffeine effects "ill effects". People and their sociocultural biases, uh?
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> Mushrooms that have this effect are collectively called xiǎo rén rén."Little people people" or does the second rén have a different meaning here?
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Wondering if the hallucination also occurs to other animals?Would dogs taking the L. asiatica see little humans or little dogs? Probably neither, but then does that mean the fungus had targeted humans genetically?
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These are pretty famous mushrooms in China. Right now Yunnan mushroom hot pot is all the rage, basically in every city in the country. It's also led to lots of tourists in Yunnan wandering around foraging for wild mushrooms. The problem is that there's hundreds of different types of mushrooms with varying levels of toxicity, and unless you grew up…
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> Now, three completely independent cultures have reported the same specific type of hallucination, and two cases are attributed to the same DNA-verified mushroom species. That indicates that these bizarre psychological effects aren't cultural manifestations or coincidences—they must have a shared underlying chemical and neurological…
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I think this is so fascinating because the hallucinations sound unlike anything else produced by psychedelics and other psychoactive substances, so I really look forward to learning what the mechanism is.From the stories I've read it also doesn't sound people are experiencing outright delirium although the experience can probably be pretty…
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its a hot online topic when talking about YunNan province of china.its a land of all kinds of mushrooms/(and bugs). If you eat mushroom hotpot in there, the waiter will lock the pot and put a timer on the table, before the time limit hit, you cannot open and eat..cooks long time helps reduce the chance of position.this tv show ( meet youself, cast…
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I bet there is some mushroom species in Europe as well that contains that substance. All those stories about dwarfs, trolls etc. and especially in woody area's, they must have come from somewhere.
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Those who have used DMT often talk about machine elves. I imagine there is a part of the brain that specifically recognizes humanoid figures even in the distance that is getting overstimulated.
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The researchers seem pretty convinced that this mushroom causes the hallucinations yet they do not describe trying it out in an experiment.Surely the most straightforward way is to undercook the mushrooms and run a blind controlled experiment where participants eat the shrooms and report on hallucinations.What stopped them?
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> One person told me that while they were eating soup, the little people were jumping off their spoon into the bowl and swimming around. As they scooped a bite, the little people remained in their mouth.There’s definitely scope for a horror story here…