For nearly a century, people in far-flung parts of the world have described a bizarre experience after eating certain wild mushrooms: seeing dozens or even hundreds of tiny human figures moving through the real world, climbing over surfaces and interacting with their surroundings. Researchers at the University of Utah say they have finally identified the species responsible.
Using DNA sequencing, doctoral student Colin Domnauer and mycologist Bryn Dentinger identified Lanmaoa asiatica as the mushroom behind the visions, known as Lilliputian hallucinations after the tiny inhabitants of Gulliver's Travels. Their findings, published in the journal Mycologia, found no trace of psilocybin or any other known psychoactive mushroom compound — suggesting the fungus produces an entirely unfamiliar hallucinogen.
A mystery that stumped even the discoverer of LSD
The phenomenon, dubbed "mushroom madness," was first documented in 1934 among people in Papua New Guinea. Decades of investigation through the mid-20th century failed to find a chemical cause — even Albert Hofmann, who first isolated psilocybin and discovered LSD, could not identify an active ingredient, and some researchers began to suspect the visions were cultural rather than biological. The trail went cold until the 1990s, when nearly identical hallucinations were reported in Yunnan, China, and resurfaced again when Domnauer learned of similar accounts in a remote Indigenous community in the northern Philippines in 2024.
Three cultures, one mushroom
Domnauer traveled to Yunnan and the Philippines to interview residents and collect specimens, confirming through DNA analysis that mushrooms known locally as "Jian shou qing" in China and "Sedesdem" in the Philippines were the same species — a surprise, since scientists had believed it existed only in China. People who experience the hallucinations typically describe seeing figures between 3 and 30 centimeters tall, often resembling elves or clowns in brightly colored clothing, with roughly 90% of accounts describing similarly fairy-like characters. Researchers say identifying the specific chemical responsible could open a new window into how the brain constructs perception more broadly.