One person eating soup watched tiny people leap off the spoon and swim around the bowl. When they took a bite, the little figures were still visible inside their mouth. Accounts like this, from communities thousands of miles apart, have puzzled scientists for nearly a century. University of Utah researchers now say DNA evidence ties these visions to a single wild mushroom, Lanmaoa asiatica, which contains none of the hallucinogens known to science.

The work, published June 5 in the journal Mycologia, drew fresh attention this weekend after a summary appeared on ScienceDaily on Oct. 25. Its significance goes beyond strange visions. The team also found four fungal species new to science, including two hiding in existing U.S. museum collections, and the findings point toward an unidentified chemical that brain researchers want to study.

For readers, there is also a practical reminder. The mushroom is a popular food in Southwest China but causes hallucinations when undercooked, and it underscores that wild fungi can contain potent compounds nobody has yet identified.

A Mystery That Began in 1934

Western scientists first heard reports in 1934 from Papua New Guinea of people seeing tiny humans after eating wild mushrooms, a condition dubbed "mushroom madness." Expeditions in the 1950s and 1960s narrowed the suspects to bolete mushrooms but found no active chemical. Even Albert Hofmann, the chemist who isolated psilocybin and discovered LSD, came up empty.

Researchers eventually suggested the visions might be cultural rather than chemical, and the investigation largely stopped. Then, in the 1990s, similar reports emerged from Yunnan in Southwest China, where mycologists suspected the newly described L. asiatica.

In 2024, doctoral student Colin Domnauer heard matching accounts from an Indigenous community in the northern Philippines' remote Cordillera region, where a wild mushroom called Sedesdem occasionally caused visions of little people. The mushroom goes by Nonda in Papua New Guinea and Jian shou qing in Yunnan.

DNA Links Two Cultures to One Species

In Yunnan, the mushroom is sold in markets in the capital, Kunming, where the largest wild mushroom market offers upward of 200 edible species. Locals call it Jian shou qing, a name referring to how its flesh turns blue when handled, and sellers shared their own encounters with the little people when Domnauer asked.

Domnauer traveled to Yunnan's mushroom markets and to the Philippines, interviewed locals and collected specimens for sequencing, including what the university describes as the first scientific survey of northern Philippine fungi. Both the Chinese and Philippine mushrooms proved to be L. asiatica. That surprised the team, which had believed the species lived only in China.

Bryn Dentinger, a mycologist at the University of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah, traveled to Papua New Guinea to collect comparison samples, but unusually dry conditions prevented it. The original 1934 case remains unverified.

The visions are remarkably consistent — people typically report dozens or hundreds of figures roughly 3 to 30 centimeters (about 1 to 12 inches) tall, and about 90% describe elves, clowns or similar fairy-like beings in colorful clothes. The figures appear to obey physics, walking around objects and falling off table edges rather than passing through walls.

No Psilocybin, and Four Species New to Science

The team searched the mushroom chemically and genetically for known psychoactive mushroom compounds, including psilocybin. "We found absolutely no trace of them," Domnauer told the University of Utah. The researchers' next step is to isolate and identify the suspected new compound.

The broader study sequenced 53 specimens from the wild and from fungarium collections around the world, identifying 17 species in the Lanmaoa group. Four were new to science, and two of those came from existing U.S. collections, unrecognized until DNA sequencing. L. asiatica was the only psychoactive species found in the genus.

The finding highlights how much biodiversity may sit unnoticed in museum drawers. The team is now building an evolutionary map of the genus to learn how the trait arose and whether related species make similar compounds. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Brain Science Interest and Evidence Limits

Lilliputian hallucinations also occur in alcohol withdrawal, dementia, macular degeneration and other neurological conditions, but rarely and unpredictably. A compound that triggers them reliably could become a research tool for understanding how the brain constructs what we see, and possibly for future treatments.

The evidence has clear limits. This was a phylogenomic study, meaning it compared DNA to classify species. It did not isolate the active chemical, test it in people or explain how it works. Descriptions of the visions come from interviews and local reports, not controlled clinical trials. Its central conclusion, that a shared chemical rather than culture explains the visions, rests on two DNA-verified cases. Nature World News did not identify independent experts commenting on the paper, and the university's materials are promotional summaries of the authors' work.

The practical lesson is simple — do not eat any wild mushroom unless an experienced local expert has identified it, and never seek out unfamiliar species for their effects. If someone becomes ill or confused after eating wild mushrooms, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222, or 911 for severe symptoms. Bring a sample of the mushroom if it is safe to do so. Fall is peak foraging season across much of the U.S., and look-alike species can be far more dangerous than this one.

The bottom line: DNA has finally put a name on a nearly century-old mystery, and the mushroom's secret chemical remains undiscovered. Isolating it is the next milestone to watch.

What Readers Want to Know

Which mushroom causes the tiny-people visions? DNA evidence links the visions in China and the Philippines to Lanmaoa asiatica, a bolete mushroom eaten as food.

Does it contain psilocybin? No. Researchers found no known psychoactive mushroom compounds, pointing to an unidentified chemical.

When do the hallucinations occur? According to the researchers, when the mushroom is eaten undercooked.

Does this mushroom grow in the United States? The study does not report L. asiatica in the U.S., but two newly identified relatives came from existing U.S. collections.

Why do neuroscientists care? Similar visions occur in dementia, alcohol withdrawal, and eye disease, and a reliable trigger could help researchers study them.

What should I do if someone gets sick after eating wild mushrooms? Call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222, or 911 for severe symptoms.