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The Food Mushroom That Generates Lilliputian Hallucinations
Somewhere in Yunnan, China, a man lifts a tablecloth at a restaurant and finds hundreds of tiny, perfectly-rendered people underneath. He’s not dreaming. He ate the wrong mushroom.
This is the phenomenon Colin Domnauer has spent years investigating.
Colin is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah, working in the Dentinger Lab at the Natural History Museum of Utah, where his research focuses specifically on psychoactive bolete mushrooms. The culprit is Lanmaoa asiatica — a widely-eaten bolete mushroom that, when undercooked, reliably produces what psychiatry calls Lilliputian hallucinations: hyper-realistic miniature people, 10–30 centimetres tall, obeying the laws of physics, fully embedded in the surrounding environment. The effect has been independently reported across three cultures — China, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea — and can last anywhere from three days to several weeks.
In this conversation, Colin and I unpack what’s known, what remains a complete mystery, and why a food mushroom that makes you see little people might be one of the most scientifically interesting psychoactive substances yet to be studied.
Enjoy!
- Instagram: @eating_gaia — where he posts research updates and mushroom photos
- The Dentinger Lab at the Natural History Museum of Utah — for anyone interested in pursuing research in the field
- Read Colin’s Article on Lanmaoa asiatica – The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans
FULL TOPICS BREAKDOWN AND VIDEO BELOW
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Episode Breakdown and Timestamps
- (00:00) Opening
- (02:35) Ad Break: AMENTARA
- (03:11) Interview Begins
- (03:19) From Astrophysics to Ethnomycology: An Unusual Path Into Psychedelic Research
- (07:44) Discovering Lanmaoa Asiatica: The Hallucinogenic Bolete of Southeast Asia
- (13:03) Lilliputian Hallucinations: The Psychiatric Phenomenon of Seeing Tiny People
- (16:37) Seeing Little People for Days: Cultural Attitudes & the Duration of Effects
- (20:26) Delirium or Psychedelic? What fMRI Data & Eyewitness Reports Reveal
- (23:53) More Real Than a Dream: The Uncanny Stability of These Hallucinations
- (30:12) Mushrooms, Fairies & Ancient Folklore: The Deep Connection to Little People
- (32:53) Patreon Thanks
- (35:23) Is This Mushroom Dangerous? Safety Data from ~1,000 Hospital Cases
- (45:00) Hunting for the Active Compound: Why It’s Not Psilocybin or Ibotenic Acid
- (50:04) Ad Break: AMENTARA
- (51:55) Are There More Hallucinogenic Bolete Species Around the World?
- (55:03) Why Psychoactive Compounds Evolve in Nature
- (1:00:36) Future Research, a 3rd-Century Taoist Text & How to Follow Colin’s Work
- (1:08:03) Follow up links and socials
- (1:09:55) Outro
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