People who eat this mushroom see tiny people jumping into their soup, and researchers may have found why

There is a strange mushroom species found in China’s Yunnan province and some parts of the Philippines, whose consumption makes humans experience a world of tiny people living in an unknown world, interacting with the normal world. For a long time, it has been thought that this hallucinating effect comes from cultural experiences rather than any scientific basis.

Now, University of Utah (U) researchers have found that it is the same species that causes these unearthy effects, known as Lilliputian hallucinations, in two different parts of the world, a reference to the 6-inch-tall inhabitants of Jonathan Swift’s novel “Gulliver’s Travels.”

The study published in the Mycologia journal by Colin Domnauer, a doctoral student, and Bryn Dentinger, a mycologist at the University of Utah, on June 5, 2026, found that Lanmaoa asiatica, a single mushroom species, is responsible for these hallucinations in Southwest China and the northern Philippines.


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These mushrooms contain some compounds unknown to science

The researchers also discovered that the mushroom species contains “none of the psychoactive compounds known to science, including psilocybin,” the university wrote in a media release on August 6. Psilocybin is a classic hallucinogen, a chemical produced by over 100 species of mushrooms worldwide.

Instead of this substance, the findings point to a new, unknown hallucinogenic compound that could offer new clues on how the brain shapes perception and consciousness.

In an interview with the university, Domnauer revealed that he spoke with local people from Yunnan and the Philippines while he was there and collected L. asiatica and specimens of the genus Lanmaoa for DNA sequencing.

Same DNA-verified mushroom species in China and Philippines

“That was the first scientific survey of Northern Philippine fungi that had every been done,” Domnauer said, who is on a quest to solve the decades-old mysteries about this fungi species.

“It turns out that China’s Jian shou qing and the Philippine’s Sedesdem were both L. asiatica - which was very surprising because at the time, we thought L. asiatica only occurred in China,” he confirmed his findings.

As the two cases are attributed to the same DNA-verified mushroom species, as per Domnauer, “these bizarre psychological effects aren’t cultural manifestations or coincidences.” “They must have a shared underlying chemical and neurological basis,” he said.

Similar types of lore are also heard in Papua New Guinea, where locals call it “Nonda,” which is edible, but as per Domnauer’s account, if undercooked, this will also produce the hallucinations.

What people see after eating these mushrooms

As per Colin, “People pretty much always report seeing dozens or hundreds of little people, about 3 to 30 centimeters tall, in incredible detail, like they’re actually there.” And about 90% of them describe the little humans as “little elves or clowns or other fairy-like figures dressed in colorful clothes.”

Another fascinating thing is that they interact with the physical world normally. “They’re not walking through walls or anything. They’re falling off the edge of tables, walking around objects,” he told the university.

He recalled one conversation with someone eating a bowl of soup, “the little people were jumping off their spoon into the bowl and swimming around. As they scooped a bite, the little people remained in their mouths.”