Just like the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput in Gulliver’s Travels—surprising, endearing, and sometimes a little unsettling for their miniature size—there’s a real-world way to encounter such beings without leaving your home. Don’t believe it? Ask the communities of Yunnan, Papua New Guinea, or the Northern Cordillera of the Philippines. They’ve spent decades reporting the same experience: a mushroom that makes people see extremely tiny figures.
Fairies and little people: A global phenomenon
“Nonda” in Papua New Guinea, “Jian shou qing” in Yunnan (China), and “Sedesdem” in the Philippines all refer to the same mushroom: Lanmaoa asiatica, an edible bolete whose most famous effect isn’t culinary—though it’s sold in some of the largest wild mushroom markets in China—but perceptual.
Those who eat it undercooked describe the sudden appearance of tiny, 2-centimeter-tall creatures dancing, marching, or even teasing the observer. Colin Domnauer, a doctoral student at the University of Utah’s School of Biological Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Utah, documented the words of an elder in Papua New Guinea who said he “saw tiny people with mushrooms around their faces. They were teasing him, and he was trying to chase them away.”
For some, it’s amusing; for others, overwhelming, but no one seems to be alone in this, and it’s definitely not “only a few people” experiencing it. According to the Yunnan Hospital, 96% of patients affected by this mushroom report seeing “little people” or “elves,” dancing, jumping, or marching around. A kind of invasion from a world not their own.
And it’s not new to Asian culture. A 3rd-century Daoist text mentions a “flesh spirit mushroom” that, when eaten raw, allows the person to “see a little person” and “attain transcendence immediately.” The historical continuity is striking.
Findings from China, the Philippines, and Papua: How can everyone see the same thing?
These visions are known as lilliputian hallucinations, a clinical syndrome describing autonomous miniature beings perceived within the real environment. What’s most fascinating isn’t just the effect, but how consistent it is across cultures thousands of miles apart:
- Yunnan (China): Jian shou qing, visions of xiao ren ren (“little people”).
- Papua New Guinea: Nonda, abrupt mood and behavioral changes.
- Philippines: Sedesdem, appearance of the ansisit, tiny spiritual beings.
When Domnauer learned of yet another report of tiny people—this time in the Philippines—he couldn’t ignore it. In 2024, he traveled there to collect samples and confirm the identity of the species. His conclusion: it was the exact same mushroom, Lanmaoa asiatica, identical to the one causing visions in China.
The inevitable question, the one Domnauer himself poses, is: How can a single mushroom trigger the same perceptual experience across cultures so different, so geographically distant from each other?
What does science know about this mushroom?
Not much, and that makes it even more intriguing. According to research conducted at the Natural History Museum of Utah:
- No known psychoactive compounds have been detected.
- The effects appear when the mushroom is undercooked, suggesting a heat-sensitive compound.
- Extracts from the mushroom alter mouse behavior, indicating an unidentified neuroactive compound.
As Domnauer explains: “Chemical and genomic analyses […] have revealed no traces of any known psychoactive compounds, suggesting that something entirely new is waiting to be discovered.” He adds: “Lanmaoa asiatica appears to harbor a chemical compound capable of reliably evoking this unusual experience of lilliputian hallucinations.”
This opens a door perhaps never explored in neuroscience: a completely unknown compound capable of generating highly specific, highly consistent perceptual effects.
The consistency between cultures led researchers to rule out the cultural construction hypothesis: “These bizarre psychological effects are not cultural fabrications nor coincidences, but manifestations of a shared underlying chemical and neurological basis.”
The Utah team also:
- Identified four new species closely related to L. asiatica.
- Found that its closest relative lives in North America, which is also understudied.
- Began building a global database to understand its evolutionary history.
So what happens next?
Researchers are still fractionating mushroom extracts to pinpoint the responsible compound. Meanwhile, Lanmaoa asiatica continues to be sold openly in Yunnan’s markets as another edible mushroom, quietly hiding within it a mystery that links folklore, neurochemistry, and evolution.
What remains? The most exciting part: investigation, patience, and the joy of being surprised. Nature once again offers us bewildering phenomena where, between modern biology and ancestral knowledge, only those who pay close attention will begin to understand what’s going on.
As Domnauer concludes: “Lanmaoa asiatica reminds us that the world of mushrooms conceals mysteries and wonders we’ve yet to imagine.” And we’re left wondering: how does the brain construct reality, and what can a mushroom this small teach us about the perceptions we still don’t understand?
