DNA Links Hallucinations of Tiny Humans to Mushroom Lanmaoa asiatica in China and Philippines

For nearly a century, people in far-flung parts of the world have described a strange experience after eating certain wild mushrooms: seeing dozens or even hundreds of tiny, colorful people moving through the real world. Now researchers at the University of Utah say they have pinned down a species responsible in two of those regions, and it may work in a way science has not seen before.

The visions are called Lilliputian hallucinations, after the 6-inch-tall inhabitants of Gulliver's Travels. For decades, some researchers suspected that folklore and cultural expectation explained why people in different places reported such similar experiences. The new study, published in the journal Mycologia, offers evidence for a biological explanation instead.

The work was led by Colin Domnauer, a doctoral student at the university, and Bryn Dentinger, a mycologist affiliated with the university and the Natural History Museum of Utah. Using DNA sequencing, they identified the mushroom Lanmaoa asiatica as the source of the hallucinations in Southwest China and the northern Philippines.

The mystery began in 1934, when Western researchers learned that people in Papua New Guinea sometimes saw miniature humans after eating wild mushrooms, an effect that became known as "mushroom madness." Anthropologists and mushroom specialists investigated in the 1950s and 1960s and pointed to several possible species in the bolete family. But chemical tests turned up nothing that could explain the visions. Even Albert Hofmann, who first isolated psilocybin and discovered LSD, could not find an active ingredient. Some researchers concluded that culture, not the mushrooms, might be responsible, and scientific interest faded by the end of the 1960s.

It resurfaced in the 1990s, when people in Yunnan, China, reported similar hallucinations after eating boletes. Researchers suspected L. asiatica, a recently described species. A further clue arrived in 2024, when Domnauer learned of comparable experiences in an Indigenous community in the Northern Cordillera region of the Philippines. There, a wild edible mushroom called "Sedesdem" can sometimes cause people to see tiny human figures. Similar mushrooms are known as "Nonda" in Papua New Guinea and "Jian shou qing" in Yunnan. According to the source, eating them without cooking them thoroughly can trigger the hallucinations.

Domnauer traveled to Yunnan and the Philippines, interviewed residents, and collected specimens of L. asiatica and other Lanmaoa mushrooms. The fieldwork included the first scientific survey of fungi in the northern Philippines. DNA analysis showed that both Jian shou qing and Sedesdem are L. asiatica, a surprise because the species was thought to occur only in China.

The visions themselves are strikingly consistent. People typically describe seeing dozens or hundreds of figures between 3 and 30 centimeters tall, often as solid and convincing as real people. Domnauer said about 90 percent of those affected describe elves, clowns or other fairy-like characters, often in brightly colored clothing. The figures also seem to obey physical rules: they walk around obstacles and sometimes tumble off table edges. In one account Domnauer recalled, a person eating soup saw tiny people jump from a spoon into the bowl and swim.

The team searched L. asiatica for known psychoactive compounds, including psilocybin, using chemical testing and genetic analysis. They found no trace. The researchers suspect the mushroom produces an unidentified hallucinogenic substance, though it has not been isolated and its nature and mechanism remain unknown.

That could matter beyond mycology. Lilliputian hallucinations also occur in people with alcohol withdrawal, dementia, macular degeneration and other neurological conditions, and tiny beings appear in folklore worldwide. Scientists still do not fully understand the brain mechanisms involved or how best to treat the hallucinations in medical settings. Because the mushroom produces the effect more consistently than those rare conditions, isolating its compound could give researchers a tool for studying the brain circuits behind such detailed visions.

There are limits to the findings. Dentinger traveled to Papua New Guinea hoping to collect specimens from where the mystery began, but unusually dry weather prevented it, so the mushroom there remains unverified. The researchers say the evidence from China and the Philippines still provides a compelling connection. Their next major goal is to isolate and identify the suspected compound.

The project also advanced fungal taxonomy. Domnauer and Dentinger carried out the first comprehensive genomic analysis of the Lanmaoa genus, examining 53 specimens collected in nature and preserved in fungarium collections worldwide. Sequencing revealed 17 species in the group, including four previously unknown ones, according to the source's section heading.