Mushroom Behind 'Tiny Human' Visions Lacks Genes For Known Psychedelics
4 86alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: If you consumed a wild mushroom and suddenly started seeing tiny people around you, you might reasonably assume it contained a familiar psychedelic. But that does not appear to be the case with Lanmaoa asiatica, known locally as jian shou qing, a mushroom species sold in markets in Yunnan, southwestern China. When eaten undercooked, the mushroom can produce vivid visions of miniature people -- not unlike Gulliver on his travels to Lilliput. To try and find out the root cause, University of Utah mycologists Colin Domnauer and Bryn Dentinger sequenced the genomes of 53 mushroom samples from across the wider Lanmaoa genus. And despite the reported hallucinations, they found no close matches to genes associated with psilocybin or ibotenic acid, two well-known mushroom hallucinogens whose biosynthetic pathways were specifically examined in the study.
"Biosynthetic gene mining of the L. asiatica genome found no close hits with any genes known in the production of mushroom psychoactive compounds," write the researchers in their published paper. "This supports our hypothesis of the presence of a novel unidentified metabolite responsible for the unique hallucinogenic properties of L. asiatica." [...] Whatever chemical pathways are causing these effects in the brain, the responsible compound appears to be something scientists have not yet identified. [...] By identifying 1,515 corresponding genes across the selected specimens, the researchers obtained a clearer answer to the question of what defines a mushroom species as part of the genus Lanmaoa. There are now 17 recognized species in the genus, including four that haven't been identified before, two of which the researchers specifically named here: Lanmaoa fallax and Lanmaoa carbonilivor. The researchers say the Lanmaoa family and evolutionary tree can now be more fully mapped out, and some existing specimens may need to be reclassified.
4 comments
What if it filters certain visible frequencies (Score: 5, Funny)
by syntap ( 242090 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @07:07AM (#66207396)
revealing that the tiny people are actually there?
Ancestor worship (Score: 5, Insightful)
by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @08:59AM (#66207516)
do these substances bring out a reality not normally visable, or do they make the brain invent these things. if so where or what is the brain getting the info from ? Why do multiple people report the same things ? (suggesting external input not self generated ?
The mushrooms are almost certainly not making an invisible aspect of reality visible.
That being said, this report is very interesting from an anthropological point of view: ancestor worship.
The report doesn't say whether the tiny people were recognized by the viewer (and I couldn't find any references), but this effect might have been the source of ancestor worship among the people of southeast Asia, where the mushroom grows.
Ancestor worship and animism (belief that the spirits of things hang around after death) might have its roots in this sort of psychedelic experience.
Finally (Score: 5, Funny)
by Hentes ( 2461350 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @07:56AM (#66207466)
Finally a way to enjoy the Willow remake!
Reality? (Score: 5, Interesting)
by jpatters ( 883 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @10:05AM (#66207612)
Of course this invites the wacky hypothesis that the mushrooms enable the person eating them to perceive something that is real but hidden somehow. I propose to test this by having multiple people take it in the same time and place, and then independently produce detailed descriptions of the specific tiny people that they see. They will either match or they won't, and then we'll have the answer.
We must get to the bottom of this!