Shared Visions
Reading this bit of odd news brought Gulliver's Travels to mind, making me wonder if these same mushrooms might have contributed to the author's imagination. It’s fascinating that a mushroom exists which creates the exact world Swift imagined. The BBC reported that hundreds are hospitalized each year in Yunnan Province due to "Lilliputian hallucinations"—vivid visions of tiny, elf-like beings crawling on furniture, walls, and clothing.
"It sounded so bizarre that there could be a mushroom out there causing fairytale-like visions reported across cultures and time. I was perplexed and driven by curiosity to find out more," Domnauer told the BBC. While stories of these hallucinations have circulated for decades, Lanmaoa asiatica was only formally described in 2015, and its psychoactive properties remain largely unexplained.
If people weren't "seeing things" but were instead experiencing identical physical symptoms like aches or nausea, it would be completely unremarkable. We wouldn't think twice about the fact that, across culture, space, and time, the human experience of a physical ailment is identical. Yet hallucinations are perceived differently; they imply that humans do not share a consistent and standard inner universe. It’s unclear, at some level, why seeing Lilliputians is any different from experiencing a severe stomach ache that lasts for the same amount of time for everyone.
The concept of a "standard inner universe" is a topic in modern neuroscience. When different people take the same substance and see the exact same specific imagery (like tiny people or geometric grids), it suggests that our brains are "hard-wired" with certain architectural patterns. It's less like a random dream and more like a physical reflex, just happening in the visual cortex instead of the gut. So while there is a certain oddity appeal to this story about mushrooms, it shouldn't be very inexplicable.
"It sounded so bizarre that there could be a mushroom out there causing fairytale-like visions reported across cultures and time. I was perplexed and driven by curiosity to find out more," Domnauer told the BBC. While stories of these hallucinations have circulated for decades, Lanmaoa asiatica was only formally described in 2015, and its psychoactive properties remain largely unexplained.
If people weren't "seeing things" but were instead experiencing identical physical symptoms like aches or nausea, it would be completely unremarkable. We wouldn't think twice about the fact that, across culture, space, and time, the human experience of a physical ailment is identical. Yet hallucinations are perceived differently; they imply that humans do not share a consistent and standard inner universe. It’s unclear, at some level, why seeing Lilliputians is any different from experiencing a severe stomach ache that lasts for the same amount of time for everyone.
The concept of a "standard inner universe" is a topic in modern neuroscience. When different people take the same substance and see the exact same specific imagery (like tiny people or geometric grids), it suggests that our brains are "hard-wired" with certain architectural patterns. It's less like a random dream and more like a physical reflex, just happening in the visual cortex instead of the gut. So while there is a certain oddity appeal to this story about mushrooms, it shouldn't be very inexplicable.