WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.639 The mystery of the little people, mushrooms. 00:00:02.359 --> 00:00:04.860 Unlocking the secrets of hallucinogenic beliefs. 00:00:05.339 --> 00:00:08.060 Dive into the ultimate mycological hoodoonit. 00:00:08.490 --> 00:00:10.830 In this deep dive, we explore hallucinogenic 00:00:10.830 --> 00:00:14.470 bolete mushrooms, specifically Lanmaioa asiatica, 00:00:14.650 --> 00:00:17.629 infamous for causing bizarre Lilliputian hallucinations, 00:00:17.850 --> 00:00:21.030 vivid visions of tiny marching people known as 00:00:21.030 --> 00:00:23.829 the Xiaorenren. From the controversial historical 00:00:23.829 --> 00:00:26.230 reports of mushroom madness in the highlands 00:00:26.230 --> 00:00:29.469 of Papua New Guinea to a buzzy 2023 dinner involving 00:00:29.469 --> 00:00:32.270 U .S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Yunnan, 00:00:32.289 --> 00:00:35.369 China, we unpack the history, the culinary practices, 00:00:35.490 --> 00:00:38.369 and the cutting -edge 2026 science. attempting 00:00:38.369 --> 00:00:41.590 to identify completely unknown psychoactive compounds. 00:00:42.030 --> 00:00:44.409 Perfect for the curious learner who loves a scientific 00:00:44.409 --> 00:00:47.420 mystery. Hallucinogenic Belete Mushrooms, Lanmawa 00:00:47.420 --> 00:00:50.520 Asiatica, Shaoran Ren, Lilliputian Hallucinations, 00:00:50.700 --> 00:00:54.320 Mushroom Madness, Psychedelic Fungi, Colin Domnauer, 00:00:54.439 --> 00:00:57.399 Bryn Dentinger, Janet Yellen Mushroom, Psychoactive 00:00:57.399 --> 00:00:59.960 Beletes. Welcome to the Deep Dive. I want you 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:01.500 to imagine just for a second that you're sitting 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:03.500 at your kitchen table. You've just finished a 00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:06.319 really delicious, savory meal of wild foraged 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:08.560 mushrooms. Sounds pretty ideal, honestly. Right. 00:01:08.659 --> 00:01:11.079 And you feel perfectly fine. But a few hours 00:01:11.079 --> 00:01:23.439 later, um... Uh -oh. Yeah. And suddenly the shoelaces 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:26.620 transform into vividly colored butterflies and 00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:29.180 they actually physically detach from the canvas 00:01:29.180 --> 00:01:32.200 and flutter away toward the ceiling. That is 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:34.900 that is highly specific. It gets weirder. You 00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:36.859 blink, you know, trying to clear your vision. 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:38.519 And when you look back at the wooden table, there 00:01:38.519 --> 00:01:42.819 is an entire regiment of tiny two inch tall soldiers 00:01:42.819 --> 00:01:46.640 marching in perfect formation past your salt 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:48.719 shaker. Just right across the table. Right across 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:50.680 the table. I mean, it sounds like something straight 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.180 out of a. whimsical fairy tale or maybe a heavily 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:56.159 produced fantasy film. But there's a real naturally 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:59.099 occurring mushroom that induces. Exactly this 00:01:59.099 --> 00:02:01.540 hyper -specific experience. And it is one of 00:02:01.540 --> 00:02:04.019 the most baffling things in modern botany. Totally. 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:06.159 So today our mission is to explore one of the 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:08.419 most incredible ethno -mycological mysteries 00:02:08.419 --> 00:02:11.419 on the planet. We are looking into helicinogenic 00:02:11.419 --> 00:02:14.599 bolete mushrooms. We're pulling from a comprehensive, 00:02:14.919 --> 00:02:18.219 deeply sourced Wikipedia article today. It breaks 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:21.099 down the history, the global geography, and the 00:02:21.099 --> 00:02:23.879 ongoing scientific scramble to figure out exactly 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:26.780 what these mysterious fungi are doing to the 00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:29.430 human brain. Because the absolute craziest part 00:02:29.430 --> 00:02:32.349 of this entire story is that modern science, 00:02:32.530 --> 00:02:36.189 right up to the present day in 2026, still hasn't 00:02:36.189 --> 00:02:38.330 figured out exactly what chemical is causing 00:02:38.330 --> 00:02:40.389 this. Or how it even works. Okay, let's unpack 00:02:40.389 --> 00:02:43.430 this. When we talk about these specific bleats, 00:02:43.509 --> 00:02:45.969 we are largely looking at varieties that have 00:02:45.969 --> 00:02:49.030 a very alarming biological trait, right? Yeah, 00:02:49.150 --> 00:02:51.740 the blue staining. Right. When you cut or bruise 00:02:51.740 --> 00:02:53.900 their flesh, they almost instantly oxidize. They 00:02:53.900 --> 00:02:57.800 stain this deep, violent, vibrant blue. Which 00:02:57.800 --> 00:02:59.259 is fascinating from a biological standpoint. 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:01.780 I mean, in the fungal kingdom, that kind of rapid 00:03:01.780 --> 00:03:04.360 oxidation is often a neon warning sign to predators 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:07.560 like do not eat me. Right. But the core of this 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:10.240 mystery isn't the physical appearance. No, it's 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:12.639 the deeply unusual psychological effect it produces 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:15.319 when humans consume it. In clinical terms, what 00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:17.560 you just described with the tiny soldiers, that 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:19.740 is known as a Lilliputian hallucination. Named 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:22.180 after the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput in Jonathan 00:03:22.180 --> 00:03:25.319 Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Exactly. It refers 00:03:25.319 --> 00:03:27.900 to the visual hallucination of miniature people, 00:03:28.020 --> 00:03:31.259 or sometimes miniature animals or objects, and 00:03:31.259 --> 00:03:33.560 they interact with the real world environment. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:35.699 And they have a very specific name for this in 00:03:35.699 --> 00:03:38.610 China, don't they? They do. In the Yunnan province 00:03:38.610 --> 00:03:40.229 of China, where these mushrooms were actually 00:03:40.229 --> 00:03:43.469 widely consumed, the locals have a very affectionate 00:03:43.469 --> 00:03:46.110 name for them. They call them the Xiao Ren Ren 00:03:46.110 --> 00:03:49.379 mushrooms. Which translates to little people. 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:52.020 Right, little people. And what's fascinating 00:03:52.020 --> 00:03:55.199 here is that this is an incredibly rare, hyper 00:03:55.199 --> 00:03:58.240 -specific type of hallucination that is completely 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:01.539 inconsistent with the effects of classic psychedelic 00:04:01.539 --> 00:04:03.740 mushrooms. Yeah, because when most people hear 00:04:03.740 --> 00:04:06.319 magic mushrooms, their minds immediately go to 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:08.460 psilocybin. Which targets serotonin receptors. 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:11.379 Right. Or maybe Amanita muscaria, that classic 00:04:11.379 --> 00:04:13.479 red mushroom with the white spots. Which hits 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:16.019 the GABA receptors. Exactly. But those traditional 00:04:16.019 --> 00:04:18.699 compounds produce a really wide, unpredictable 00:04:18.699 --> 00:04:21.600 range of sensory distortions, like you might 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:24.199 get breathing walls or a sense of ego dissolution. 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:26.939 Or intense emotional shifts. Right. They don't 00:04:26.939 --> 00:04:29.540 typically conjure up consistent, identical armies 00:04:29.540 --> 00:04:32.699 of tiny people marching across a table. And our 00:04:32.699 --> 00:04:35.819 source material details a massive 1991 hospital 00:04:35.819 --> 00:04:38.579 report out of Yunnan that perfectly illustrates 00:04:38.579 --> 00:04:41.660 how vivid this is. That study is wild. It is. 00:04:41.779 --> 00:04:45.120 The researchers analyzed 300 separate cases of 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:47.959 poisoning from a local mushroom known as Xiaomei 00:04:47.959 --> 00:04:52.120 Nuganjun. What exactly were these patients reporting 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:55.259 on a clinical level? The reports from that 1991 00:04:55.259 --> 00:04:58.600 hospital study are just staggering in their consistency. 00:04:58.920 --> 00:05:01.439 While patients did experience some broader sensory 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:03.699 distortions, like the shoelaces turning into 00:05:03.699 --> 00:05:06.500 butterflies, the unifying symptom across these 00:05:06.500 --> 00:05:09.540 300 isolated cases was always the Xiao Ren Ren. 00:05:09.740 --> 00:05:12.550 The little people. Yes. Patients described feeling 00:05:12.550 --> 00:05:14.490 as though they had suddenly entered a fully realized 00:05:14.490 --> 00:05:16.649 miniature kingdom. One patient even reported 00:05:16.649 --> 00:05:18.750 seeing little people less than 33 centimeters 00:05:18.750 --> 00:05:21.569 tall popping up everywhere. And they had very 00:05:21.569 --> 00:05:23.470 specific outfits. They were wearing red and green 00:05:23.470 --> 00:05:25.410 clothing that highly diverse facial features. 00:05:25.589 --> 00:05:28.449 And they were incredibly lively and mischievous. 00:05:28.769 --> 00:05:30.649 The patient could even hear their little voices 00:05:30.649 --> 00:05:33.170 talking to each other. Yeah. Another person in 00:05:33.170 --> 00:05:34.810 the study saw rabbits and squirrels appearing 00:05:34.810 --> 00:05:37.649 out of thin air and genuinely felt that these 00:05:37.649 --> 00:05:41.430 phantom animals were trying to bite her. of these 00:05:41.430 --> 00:05:43.790 visions, it isn't just a quick fleeting trip. 00:05:44.009 --> 00:05:46.629 Not at all. And that duration is one of the most 00:05:46.629 --> 00:05:49.569 alarming aspects for clinicians. Most of these 00:05:49.569 --> 00:05:52.170 cases took several days to fully resolve. Days. 00:05:52.470 --> 00:05:55.470 Days. But some patients remained in this altered 00:05:55.470 --> 00:05:58.389 state for 10 to 30 days. That is terrifying. 00:05:58.790 --> 00:06:01.410 And in the rarest, most extreme instances documented 00:06:01.410 --> 00:06:04.810 in that hospital report, the hallucinations persisted 00:06:04.810 --> 00:06:08.050 for over a month to half a year in one case. 00:06:08.350 --> 00:06:11.649 Wow. That extreme timeline highlights a very 00:06:11.649 --> 00:06:14.970 grounded medical reality. While seeing mischievous 00:06:14.970 --> 00:06:17.129 little people might sound fun or whimsical in 00:06:17.129 --> 00:06:20.110 a vacuum, the actual lived experience of this 00:06:20.110 --> 00:06:22.709 intoxication can be incredibly distressing. Well, 00:06:22.709 --> 00:06:25.509 yeah, I mean, the 1991 Union Report noted severe, 00:06:25.670 --> 00:06:27.810 dangerous symptoms. We're talking psychosis -like 00:06:27.810 --> 00:06:30.629 or schizophrenia -like states, threatening auditory 00:06:30.629 --> 00:06:33.449 hallucinations, complete personality disintegration. 00:06:33.509 --> 00:06:36.050 And periods of profound stupor. So the brain 00:06:36.050 --> 00:06:38.389 is essentially short -circuiting under the weight 00:06:38.389 --> 00:06:41.509 of these compounds. Yes. When researchers hooked 00:06:41.509 --> 00:06:44.329 these patients up to an EEG to monitor their 00:06:44.329 --> 00:06:46.470 brain activity during those periods of stupor, 00:06:46.529 --> 00:06:49.750 they found electrical changes that closely resembled 00:06:49.750 --> 00:06:52.089 the brain patterns of someone under the heavy 00:06:52.089 --> 00:06:55.250 influence of LSD. But they found a pharmacological 00:06:55.250 --> 00:06:57.889 clue in that hospital data too, right? They did. 00:06:58.050 --> 00:07:01.209 The medical staff found that administering chlorpromazine 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:04.680 which is a very standard old -school antipsychotic 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:07.519 medication, was highly effective in managing 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:09.639 the symptoms and bringing them out of the psychosis. 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:12.379 And chlorpromazine primarily works by blocking 00:07:12.379 --> 00:07:14.899 dopamine receptors, though it does affect serotonin. 00:07:14.980 --> 00:07:17.779 Right. So that gives researchers a tiny initial 00:07:17.779 --> 00:07:20.060 breadcrumb regarding the neurochemical pathways 00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:22.759 these mushrooms might be hijacking. It grounds 00:07:22.759 --> 00:07:25.759 the bizarre sci -fi nature of the hallucinations 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:29.160 in very real human biology. And the emotional 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:32.500 toll of that biology can be profound. Definitely. 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:35.360 The sources recount a deeply tragic news article 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:39.379 from 2014 about a woman in Yunnan. She was purposefully 00:07:39.379 --> 00:07:42.660 and repeatedly eating these toxic beliefs, but 00:07:42.660 --> 00:07:45.540 she wasn't doing it recreationally. She was intentionally 00:07:45.540 --> 00:07:48.959 poisoning herself specifically so she could enter 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:51.839 that hallucinatory state and see a vision of 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:53.819 her deceased daughter again. It's a heartbreaking 00:07:53.819 --> 00:07:57.069 detail. But it tells us something vital about 00:07:57.069 --> 00:07:59.550 the phenomenological nature of the intoxication. 00:07:59.649 --> 00:08:02.189 How so? Well, the visions aren't perceived as 00:08:02.189 --> 00:08:04.589 transparent overlays or just fleeting tricks 00:08:04.589 --> 00:08:07.430 of the light. They are integrated into the user's 00:08:07.430 --> 00:08:10.170 reality with absolute solidity. They feel completely 00:08:10.170 --> 00:08:13.500 real. Entirely real. With an effect this powerful, 00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:16.160 you would naturally assume that modern pharmacology 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:18.660 would have mapped out exactly where these grow, 00:08:18.939 --> 00:08:21.360 what species they are, and isolated the chemical 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:23.720 years ago. You would think so. But the geographic 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:26.680 timeline of this mystery is a total roller coaster. 00:08:27.240 --> 00:08:29.439 Let's trace the historical breadcrumb trail. 00:08:29.899 --> 00:08:31.959 We're going to travel far away from the mountains 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:35.100 of China down to the western highlands of Papua 00:08:35.100 --> 00:08:37.490 New Guinea. specifically looking at the Kuma 00:08:37.490 --> 00:08:41.090 people. This is where Western science first attempted 00:08:41.090 --> 00:08:44.169 and completely failed to catalog this phenomenon. 00:08:44.470 --> 00:08:47.870 The historical record here starts in 1936. Right, 00:08:47.950 --> 00:08:50.250 when a missionary reported that native populations 00:08:50.250 --> 00:08:52.809 in the Papua New Guinea highlands were consuming 00:08:52.809 --> 00:08:55.470 a type of bolete mushroom that caused extreme 00:08:55.470 --> 00:08:58.210 behavioral shifts. He described it simply as 00:08:58.210 --> 00:09:01.870 mushroom madness. Mushroom madness. But it wasn't 00:09:01.870 --> 00:09:04.149 rigorously studied then. No, it wasn't until 00:09:04.149 --> 00:09:06.970 the late 1950s that an anthropologist named Marie 00:09:06.970 --> 00:09:10.210 Ray actually embedded with the Kuma people and 00:09:10.210 --> 00:09:12.529 documented this mushroom madness in much greater 00:09:12.529 --> 00:09:15.590 detail. And crucially, she reported that the 00:09:15.590 --> 00:09:18.269 mushrooms were causing Lilliputian hallucinations. 00:09:18.490 --> 00:09:20.889 The tiny people again. The exact same symptom. 00:09:21.049 --> 00:09:23.570 And this detail caught the attention of two legendary 00:09:23.570 --> 00:09:27.049 figures in ethnomycology, Gordon Wasson and Roger 00:09:27.049 --> 00:09:29.309 Heim. They were absolute titans of their field 00:09:29.309 --> 00:09:32.090 at the time. Yes, they were. In the mid -1960s, 00:09:32.090 --> 00:09:34.370 Wasson and Heim traveled to Papua New Guinea. 00:09:34.620 --> 00:09:37.379 They surveyed around 400 different local mushrooms 00:09:37.379 --> 00:09:39.899 and eventually narrowed the culprit down to six 00:09:39.899 --> 00:09:42.379 species reportedly causing this madness. With 00:09:42.379 --> 00:09:44.519 the primary suspect being a blue staining bolete 00:09:44.519 --> 00:09:48.100 called Boletus manicus. And Wasson and Heim didn't 00:09:48.100 --> 00:09:51.340 mess around. Heim took physical samples of Boletus 00:09:51.340 --> 00:09:54.299 manicus, preserved them, and sent them to Switzerland 00:09:54.299 --> 00:09:56.899 to be analyzed by a chemist named Albert Hoffman. 00:09:57.100 --> 00:09:58.799 And for anyone who doesn't recognize that name, 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:01.639 Albert Hoffman is the scientist who synthesized 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:04.629 and discovered LSD. He is arguing. the greatest 00:10:04.629 --> 00:10:07.210 analytical chemist in the history of hallucinogens. 00:10:07.769 --> 00:10:10.429 If there was a psychoactive compound hiding in 00:10:10.429 --> 00:10:12.909 that mushroom, Hoffman was the man to find it. 00:10:13.029 --> 00:10:16.110 But Hoffman hit an absolute wall. Really? Yeah. 00:10:16.210 --> 00:10:18.490 He put the samples through rigorous analysis 00:10:18.490 --> 00:10:22.269 and did manage to isolate trace amounts of three 00:10:22.269 --> 00:10:25.909 unidentified indolic compounds. Indoles being 00:10:25.909 --> 00:10:28.529 the chemical class that includes powerful neurotransmitters 00:10:28.529 --> 00:10:31.549 and psychedelics like serotonin, LSD, and psilocybin. 00:10:31.590 --> 00:10:34.159 Exactly. The problem was the yield. The quantities 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:36.259 he found were so microscopic that they couldn't 00:10:36.259 --> 00:10:38.100 even be properly identified with the technology 00:10:38.100 --> 00:10:40.740 of the era. For those specific trace amounts 00:10:40.740 --> 00:10:42.820 to be the root cause of the intense mushroom 00:10:42.820 --> 00:10:46.039 madness described by Marie Ray, the undiscovered 00:10:46.039 --> 00:10:48.259 chemical would have to be unbelievably potent. 00:10:49.059 --> 00:10:51.399 We're talking about something active at the microgram 00:10:51.399 --> 00:10:55.090 level. Literally on par with the potency of LSD 00:10:55.090 --> 00:10:57.909 itself. Exactly. And because Hoffman couldn't 00:10:57.909 --> 00:11:00.210 hand them a neat, chemically identified smoking 00:11:00.210 --> 00:11:03.789 gun, Wasson and Heim made a pivot that, in retrospect, 00:11:04.149 --> 00:11:07.649 feels incredibly arrogant. It really does. Heim 00:11:07.649 --> 00:11:10.210 decided to try eating tiny, cautious amounts 00:11:10.210 --> 00:11:13.960 of the mushroom himself. When he only experienced 00:11:13.960 --> 00:11:17.620 some strange dreams and no obvious waking hallucinations, 00:11:17.820 --> 00:11:20.279 they essentially threw out the biological explanation 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:22.600 entirely. We just gave up on it. They officially 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:24.740 concluded that the Kuma people's mushroom madness 00:11:24.740 --> 00:11:27.779 wasn't pharmacological at all. They labeled it 00:11:27.779 --> 00:11:30.440 a form of social catharsis. Basically saying 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:32.679 the indigenous population was just ritualistically 00:11:32.679 --> 00:11:35.279 acting out, using the mushroom as a cultural 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:38.480 excuse to behave wildly. It is a textbook example 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:41.100 of how a rigid scientific paradigm can blind 00:11:41.100 --> 00:11:44.279 researchers to reality. Because a mid -century 00:11:44.279 --> 00:11:46.379 European chemist couldn't isolate the compound, 00:11:46.620 --> 00:11:49.179 and because a Western researcher didn't hallucinate 00:11:49.179 --> 00:11:51.700 after taking a subperceptual dose. They completely 00:11:51.700 --> 00:11:54.620 dismissed the lived, documented experiences of 00:11:54.620 --> 00:11:57.259 an entire culture. It's infuriating. And the 00:11:57.259 --> 00:11:59.580 real tragedy is that because Wasson and Heim 00:11:59.580 --> 00:12:02.440 dismissed it as mere theater, the phenomenon 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:05.820 wasn't rigorously studied for decades. The scientific 00:12:05.820 --> 00:12:08.539 community just moved on. Right. Fast forward 00:12:08.539 --> 00:12:11.159 to 2006, researchers finally go back to that 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:13.919 specific village in Papua New Guinea, only to 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:16.480 find that the local ancestral knowledge of these 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:19.759 mushrooms is almost entirely gone. The last known 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:22.159 incidence of them being consumed for this purpose 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:26.480 was in the mid -1980s. So when modern mycologists 00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:29.299 Bryn Dentinger and Colin Domnauer traveled back 00:12:29.299 --> 00:12:32.580 to Papua New Guinea in December of 2025, specifically 00:12:32.580 --> 00:12:35.039 hunting for Wasson and Haim's lost mushrooms, 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:37.080 they couldn't even find them. It seemed like 00:12:37.080 --> 00:12:39.179 a total scientific dead end. The habitat had 00:12:39.179 --> 00:12:42.139 changed. The cultural knowledge had faded. But 00:12:42.139 --> 00:12:44.360 the global map of this phenomenon was about to 00:12:44.360 --> 00:12:47.139 expand. Domnauer didn't let the Papua New Guinea 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:49.600 dead end stop the research, which brings us to 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:51.460 a much more recent breakthrough geographical 00:12:51.460 --> 00:12:54.679 connection. Yes. In 2024, Domnauer traveled to 00:12:54.679 --> 00:12:56.519 the Cordillera Mountains in the northern Philippines, 00:12:56.759 --> 00:12:59.279 specifically focusing on an area called Sagada. 00:12:59.419 --> 00:13:02.559 And what he found there. Completely shatters 00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:05.620 the social catharsis theory Wasson and Heim proposed. 00:13:06.019 --> 00:13:08.179 Totally. In the Philippines, Don Naur documented 00:13:08.179 --> 00:13:11.500 local populations who regularly forage and eat 00:13:11.500 --> 00:13:14.159 a type of blue staining bolete they call seedsdom. 00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:17.620 And the locals explain that, irregularly, eating 00:13:17.620 --> 00:13:20.399 these specific mushrooms causes people to see 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:22.399 visions of what they call the ancestors. Which 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:25.480 translates, once again, to little people. We 00:13:25.480 --> 00:13:28.500 now have completely independent, geographically 00:13:28.500 --> 00:13:30.759 isolated cultures. The Kuma people and the... 00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:32.779 the highlands of Papua New Guinea, the foragers 00:13:32.779 --> 00:13:34.799 in the mountains of Philippines, and the massive 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:36.860 populations in the Yunnan province of China. 00:13:36.980 --> 00:13:39.720 Three distinct cultures separated by thousands 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:42.000 of miles and oceans. All reporting the exact 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:45.100 same hyper -specific Lilliputian hallucinations 00:13:45.100 --> 00:13:47.580 resulting from the consumption of local blue 00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:49.779 -staining Bolete mushrooms. That level of cross 00:13:49.779 --> 00:13:52.539 -cultural independent consistency makes the idea 00:13:52.539 --> 00:13:56.019 of localized mass hysteria or theatrical acting 00:13:56.019 --> 00:13:59.679 statistically impossible. It strongly undeniably 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:02.820 points to a shared, highly specific pharmacological 00:14:02.820 --> 00:14:05.259 agent working on the human brain. Okay, here's 00:14:05.259 --> 00:14:07.899 where it gets really interesting. In Papua New 00:14:07.899 --> 00:14:09.940 Guinea and the Philippines, encountering these 00:14:09.940 --> 00:14:12.460 visions seems like a relatively rare, irregular 00:14:12.460 --> 00:14:16.080 occurrence. But in Yunnan, China, these mushrooms 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:19.639 are not some hidden fringe oddity. No, not at 00:14:19.639 --> 00:14:22.120 all. They are a massive, highly sought -after 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:25.169 culinary staple. The locals refer to them as 00:14:25.169 --> 00:14:28.009 giant shauking, which directly translates to 00:14:28.009 --> 00:14:30.929 turns blue when bruised. You can walk into everyday 00:14:30.929 --> 00:14:33.710 markets and see them piled high. They are incredibly 00:14:33.710 --> 00:14:36.690 popular, often more prized than standard porcini 00:14:36.690 --> 00:14:38.809 mushrooms because they have this incredibly rich, 00:14:38.850 --> 00:14:42.250 deep umami flavor. But eating them requires following 00:14:42.250 --> 00:14:45.830 a very strict zero margin for error cooking rule. 00:14:46.090 --> 00:14:48.269 The culinary practice in Yunnan is essentially 00:14:48.269 --> 00:14:50.669 a game of chemical Russian roulette. It really 00:14:50.669 --> 00:14:53.210 is. The local knowledge dictates that these mushrooms 00:14:53.230 --> 00:14:55.750 must be sliced thin and cooked at a high heat 00:14:55.750 --> 00:14:58.690 for a very specific window of time, typically 00:14:58.690 --> 00:15:01.470 at least 15 to 25 minutes. And if prepared correctly, 00:15:01.669 --> 00:15:04.509 the intense heat completely denatures or destroys 00:15:04.509 --> 00:15:07.309 the hallucinogenic compounds, rendering the mushroom 00:15:07.309 --> 00:15:10.970 perfectly safe, non -toxic and delicious. But 00:15:10.970 --> 00:15:13.309 if the cook is impatient or if the slices are 00:15:13.309 --> 00:15:15.389 too thick and the core doesn't reach the required 00:15:15.389 --> 00:15:17.309 temperature, you're going to meet the Shao Ren 00:15:17.309 --> 00:15:19.909 Ren. Undercook your dinner by three minutes and 00:15:19.909 --> 00:15:22.230 you're staring at an army of tiny men on your 00:15:22.230 --> 00:15:24.679 plate. And this dangerous culinary tightrope 00:15:24.679 --> 00:15:27.860 isn't some modern foodie fad. The historical 00:15:27.860 --> 00:15:30.720 documentation of this exact practice in China 00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:33.740 is ancient. We can look at a Chinese Taoist text 00:15:33.740 --> 00:15:36.820 authored by a scholar named Gay Hong around the 00:15:36.820 --> 00:15:41.149 year 300 CE. We are talking over 1 ,700 years 00:15:41.149 --> 00:15:44.289 ago. Yes. Gay Hong describes something he calls 00:15:44.289 --> 00:15:47.590 a flesh spirit mushroom. His text includes this 00:15:47.590 --> 00:15:50.289 remarkable quote. He wrote, if you see a little 00:15:50.289 --> 00:15:53.190 person seven to eight kun tall riding in a carriage 00:15:53.190 --> 00:15:55.289 when you travel on a mountain, you have encountered 00:15:55.289 --> 00:15:57.870 a flesh spirit mushroom. Consume it raw and you 00:15:57.870 --> 00:16:00.309 will attain transcendence immediately. And seven 00:16:00.309 --> 00:16:02.850 to eight kun translates to roughly three to 33 00:16:02.850 --> 00:16:05.330 centimeters. It perfectly matches the descriptions 00:16:05.330 --> 00:16:08.879 from the 1991 hospital report. Over a millennia 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:11.809 later, Gay Hong basically wrote a recipe that 00:16:11.809 --> 00:16:14.889 says, step one, look for the tiny man in the 00:16:14.889 --> 00:16:17.730 tiny carriage. It proves that the link between 00:16:17.730 --> 00:16:20.769 these specific mushrooms and Lilliputian hallucinations 00:16:20.769 --> 00:16:23.669 has been a recognized part of human knowledge 00:16:23.669 --> 00:16:27.070 for nearly 2 ,000 years. And that deep cultural 00:16:27.070 --> 00:16:29.429 integration leads to some fascinating modern 00:16:29.429 --> 00:16:32.470 clashes. Because the mushroom is viewed primarily 00:16:32.470 --> 00:16:35.529 as a food source rather than a drug, its presence 00:16:35.529 --> 00:16:38.570 in high -end cuisine is totally normalized in 00:16:38.570 --> 00:16:40.720 Yunnan. Which brings us to the international 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:44.019 incident. The dinner. The dinner. In 2023, the 00:16:44.019 --> 00:16:46.240 United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:48.879 was on a diplomatic trip to China. She and her 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.679 team went out to dinner at a very popular, reputable 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:53.899 restaurant in Yunnan. And they ordered a local 00:16:53.899 --> 00:16:56.259 specialty mushroom dish. It turned out to be 00:16:56.259 --> 00:16:59.659 a dish made entirely of Lanmala Asiatica, the 00:16:59.659 --> 00:17:02.259 hallucinogenic blitz. When the news broke back 00:17:02.259 --> 00:17:04.700 in the U .S., it caused a massive media frenzy. 00:17:05.049 --> 00:17:07.170 The reaction highlighted a profound difference 00:17:07.170 --> 00:17:09.430 in cultural framing. How so? Well, the Western 00:17:09.430 --> 00:17:11.950 media immediately latched on to the hallucinogenic 00:17:11.950 --> 00:17:14.410 aspect. They were trying to figure out if a high 00:17:14.410 --> 00:17:16.509 -ranking government official had unwittingly 00:17:16.509 --> 00:17:19.730 consumed a psychedelic drug during a sensitive 00:17:19.730 --> 00:17:22.609 diplomatic mission. Right. But within the cultural 00:17:22.609 --> 00:17:25.789 context of Jenin, the restaurant had simply served 00:17:25.789 --> 00:17:29.549 a premium local delicacy. Because the chefs were 00:17:29.549 --> 00:17:31.490 professionals who cooked the mushrooms properly 00:17:31.490 --> 00:17:34.269 for the required time, the psychoactive compounds 00:17:34.269 --> 00:17:37.730 were entirely inactivated. Secretary Yellen didn't 00:17:37.730 --> 00:17:40.150 hallucinate. She later gave interviews noting 00:17:40.150 --> 00:17:42.549 she had no idea the mushrooms had that potential 00:17:42.549 --> 00:17:45.109 until she read the news and simply stated that 00:17:45.109 --> 00:17:48.470 the dish was delicious. In the West, a hallucinogenic 00:17:48.470 --> 00:17:51.450 property immediately throws an organism into 00:17:51.450 --> 00:17:54.150 the category of a controlled substance, a taboo 00:17:54.150 --> 00:17:57.490 drug, or strictly clinical medicine. But in Yunnan, 00:17:57.609 --> 00:18:00.390 the culinary experience takes absolute precedence. 00:18:00.809 --> 00:18:02.990 The hallucinogen is merely viewed as a naturally 00:18:02.990 --> 00:18:05.589 occurring toxin. An inconvenience that needs 00:18:05.589 --> 00:18:07.630 to be boiled out. Yeah, no different than boiling 00:18:07.630 --> 00:18:10.329 a raw kidney bean to neutralize its natural poisons 00:18:10.329 --> 00:18:13.089 before making chili. Exactly. It's a pragmatic 00:18:13.089 --> 00:18:16.450 gastronomic approach to a potent neurotoxin. 00:18:16.490 --> 00:18:19.170 So let's look at the board. We have a family 00:18:19.170 --> 00:18:21.730 of mushrooms that causes armies of tiny people 00:18:21.730 --> 00:18:24.910 to march across your vision. It's been meticulously 00:18:24.910 --> 00:18:28.390 documented for 1700 years. It's sold in open 00:18:28.390 --> 00:18:31.470 air markets by the ton to the point where U .S. 00:18:31.470 --> 00:18:33.710 government officials are casually eating it for 00:18:33.710 --> 00:18:36.789 dinner. Right. Which begs the absolute most obvious 00:18:36.789 --> 00:18:41.099 question I can think of. It is 2026. We can sequence 00:18:41.099 --> 00:18:44.859 entire genomes in an afternoon. We have AI modeling 00:18:44.859 --> 00:18:47.640 protein structures. Why don't we know what chemical 00:18:47.640 --> 00:18:50.140 causes this yet? What is the holdup? The holdup 00:18:50.140 --> 00:18:53.039 is that we are dealing with a true taxonomic 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:55.500 and chemical nightmare. Okay. First, we have 00:18:55.500 --> 00:18:58.140 to address the identification problem. You mentioned 00:18:58.140 --> 00:19:00.079 earlier that we are looking for blue staining 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:02.539 boletes. The issue is a biological phenomenon 00:19:02.539 --> 00:19:05.119 known as convergent evolution. Meaning different 00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:07.299 species evolving identical traits independently 00:19:07.299 --> 00:19:10.289 over time. Precisely. Because of convergent evolution, 00:19:10.690 --> 00:19:13.230 many completely distinct species of boletes have 00:19:13.230 --> 00:19:15.710 evolved to look almost exactly identical to one 00:19:15.710 --> 00:19:18.650 another, including that rapid blue staining defense 00:19:18.650 --> 00:19:20.829 mechanism. So they all look the same. They do. 00:19:20.990 --> 00:19:23.869 The most frequently implicated species in the 00:19:23.869 --> 00:19:26.630 Union Hospital reports is currently identified 00:19:26.630 --> 00:19:31.069 as Lanmera asiatica. But that specific species 00:19:31.069 --> 00:19:33.890 wasn't even officially described and named by 00:19:33.890 --> 00:19:36.650 science until 2015. Just a little over a decade 00:19:36.650 --> 00:19:39.309 ago. Right. Before that, it was just lazily lumped 00:19:39.309 --> 00:19:41.970 in with a generic group of European Boletus species. 00:19:42.589 --> 00:19:44.869 And on top of the taxonomy issues, you have the 00:19:44.869 --> 00:19:47.750 practical reality of foraging. The locals in 00:19:47.750 --> 00:19:49.809 Yunnan don't just pick one type of mushroom. 00:19:49.990 --> 00:19:52.470 They forage and consume hundreds of different 00:19:52.470 --> 00:19:55.740 species. The mixed basket problem. Exactly. When 00:19:55.740 --> 00:19:57.579 a patient arrives at the hospital in a state 00:19:57.579 --> 00:20:00.720 of stupor, hallucinating tiny people, they usually 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:02.799 can't point to the exact mushroom that did it. 00:20:02.839 --> 00:20:05.880 Because they ate a mixed stir fry. Yes. So researchers 00:20:05.880 --> 00:20:07.900 are constantly struggling to verify if they're 00:20:07.900 --> 00:20:10.680 studying the single true source species or if 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:12.599 the Xiao Ren Ren effect is actually the result 00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:15.240 of an entourage effect. A complex chemical reaction 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:17.960 caused by combining multiple different fungal 00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:20.980 species in the same meal. Right. If we connect 00:20:20.980 --> 00:20:23.400 this to the bigger picture, it demonstrates how 00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:27.400 difficult it is to isolate a novel compound when 00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:29.339 you can't even lock down the foundational biology 00:20:29.339 --> 00:20:31.819 of the SIRS material with absolute certainty. 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:34.539 It sounds incredibly frustrating for the chemists, 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:37.359 but we do have a few solid pieces of the puzzle. 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:40.599 Specifically, we have definitively ruled out 00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:43.119 the usual suspects. We know it is absolutely 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:45.859 not psilocybin. Modern testing has confirmed 00:20:45.859 --> 00:20:48.190 that. And the genetic research has closed some 00:20:48.190 --> 00:20:52.309 other major doors. In 2023, Colin Domnauer and 00:20:52.309 --> 00:20:54.690 Bryn Denger, the researchers who tracked the 00:20:54.690 --> 00:20:57.730 phenomenon to the Philippines, they ran a major 00:20:57.730 --> 00:21:01.240 genetic study. They sequenced the DNA of 12 different 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:04.240 species within the Lanmaoa genus. They were specifically 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:06.180 looking for something called horizontal gene 00:21:06.180 --> 00:21:08.779 transfer. Right. Testing the hypothesis that 00:21:08.779 --> 00:21:10.859 these boletes somehow stole the genetic instructions 00:21:10.859 --> 00:21:13.380 for producing known hallucinogens from other 00:21:13.380 --> 00:21:16.160 mushroom families, like psilocybe or emanita. 00:21:16.299 --> 00:21:18.319 Over millions of years of shared environmental 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:21.240 proximity, yeah. But the DNA sequencing yielded 00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:24.339 zero evidence of that. None at all. None. These 00:21:24.339 --> 00:21:26.680 beliefs completely lack the biosynthetic gene 00:21:26.680 --> 00:21:29.359 clusters required to produce any of the known 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:33.420 fungal hallucinogens. So they aren't just a new 00:21:33.420 --> 00:21:37.119 delivery system for an old chemical. No. The 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:39.059 genetic data points toward a thrilling conclusion. 00:21:39.380 --> 00:21:41.619 We are looking at the existence of an entirely 00:21:41.619 --> 00:21:45.240 novel, completely undiscovered class of psychoactive 00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:47.440 compounds. This is incredible. And the renowned 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:50.160 ethnobotanist Dennis McKenna has weighed in on 00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:52.400 the pharmacology based purely on the symptomology. 00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:56.319 Looking at the profound stupor, the deeply immersive 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:58.880 and bizarre nature of the visions, and the extreme 00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:02.279 duration, McKenna suggests the mechanism of action 00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:05.400 might be akin to a detourist -style anticholinergic 00:22:05.400 --> 00:22:08.019 delirium. How does that differ from a classic 00:22:08.019 --> 00:22:10.359 psychedelic trip? Well, classic psychedelics 00:22:10.359 --> 00:22:12.359 generally leave the user with an intact ego. 00:22:12.539 --> 00:22:14.619 They know they are hallucinating. They can ground 00:22:14.619 --> 00:22:17.920 themselves? Usually, yes. But anticholinergists 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:20.299 work by blocking the neurotransmitter acetylcholine 00:22:20.299 --> 00:22:23.019 in the central nervous system. This induces a 00:22:23.019 --> 00:22:25.339 state of true delirium, where the user absolutely 00:22:25.339 --> 00:22:27.759 cannot distinguish the hallucination from baseline 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:30.140 reality. They interact with the phantoms as if 00:22:30.140 --> 00:22:32.640 they are entirely real. Which perfectly aligns 00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:34.900 with the reports of patients trying to talk to 00:22:34.900 --> 00:22:37.099 little people or running away from phantom animals. 00:22:37.299 --> 00:22:39.960 So where does the hunt stand right now, today? 00:22:40.490 --> 00:22:42.970 The source material notes that as of late 2025 00:22:42.970 --> 00:22:47.150 and early 2026, Domnauer and Dentinger are deep 00:22:47.150 --> 00:22:49.470 in laboratory trials. They've successfully moved 00:22:49.470 --> 00:22:52.369 past the genetic sequencing and into animal testing. 00:22:52.509 --> 00:22:54.670 They are taking raw chemical extracts directly 00:22:54.670 --> 00:22:57.410 from Lanmaoa Asiatica and administering them 00:22:57.410 --> 00:22:59.990 to mice in controlled settings. And they are 00:22:59.990 --> 00:23:03.470 finally seeing measurable physical results. The 00:23:03.470 --> 00:23:06.130 mice are exhibiting intense periods of hyperactivity, 00:23:06.250 --> 00:23:08.789 immediately followed by a very long, profound 00:23:08.789 --> 00:23:11.990 stupor. a behavioral pattern that perfectly mirrors 00:23:11.990 --> 00:23:14.849 the human clinical reports from that 1991 hospital 00:23:14.849 --> 00:23:17.930 study. They are aggressively working on isolating 00:23:17.930 --> 00:23:20.890 the exact active constituents from those extracts 00:23:20.890 --> 00:23:22.710 and are preparing to publish their definitive 00:23:22.710 --> 00:23:26.430 findings very soon. Late 2025 or early 2026. 00:23:26.750 --> 00:23:29.690 After nearly a century of dead ends, from the 00:23:29.690 --> 00:23:31.710 highlands of Papua New Guinea to the laboratories 00:23:31.710 --> 00:23:35.029 of today, we might be just months away from one 00:23:35.029 --> 00:23:37.710 of the biggest breakthroughs in modern ethnopharmacology. 00:23:38.509 --> 00:23:40.930 What does this all mean? For you listening, I 00:23:40.930 --> 00:23:43.309 think the most profound takeaway is a necessary 00:23:43.309 --> 00:23:45.849 humbling of our modern perspective. I agree. 00:23:45.990 --> 00:23:48.529 We live in an incredibly advanced digitized age 00:23:48.529 --> 00:23:51.529 where it is so easy to arrogantly assume that 00:23:51.529 --> 00:23:53.970 science has successfully mapped the natural world. 00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:56.940 we assume we know all the chemicals all the biological 00:23:56.940 --> 00:23:59.779 mechanisms and that there are no major surprises 00:23:59.779 --> 00:24:02.500 left in our own backyards that there are yet 00:24:02.500 --> 00:24:06.259 here is an entirely novel incredibly potent deeply 00:24:06.259 --> 00:24:09.700 complex undiscovered class of psychoactive compounds 00:24:09.700 --> 00:24:12.890 hiding in plain sight It's not locked away in 00:24:12.890 --> 00:24:15.369 some inaccessible, unexplored deep sea trench. 00:24:15.650 --> 00:24:19.069 It is sitting quietly inside a popular, delicious, 00:24:19.230 --> 00:24:22.490 edible mushroom sold by the ton in everyday markets, 00:24:22.670 --> 00:24:25.329 eaten by thousands of normal people. It serves 00:24:25.329 --> 00:24:28.029 as a stark reminder of the vast, untapped chemical 00:24:28.029 --> 00:24:30.150 potential of the natural world that is still 00:24:30.150 --> 00:24:32.450 waiting to be understood, provided we have the 00:24:32.450 --> 00:24:35.029 patience to look closely. It really does. And 00:24:35.029 --> 00:24:37.289 I want to leave you with a final, somewhat provocative 00:24:37.289 --> 00:24:39.390 thought to mull over as we wrap up this deep 00:24:39.390 --> 00:24:42.430 dive. We know that the intense, mind -altering 00:24:42.430 --> 00:24:44.549 properties of these Belit mushrooms compounds, 00:24:44.769 --> 00:24:47.950 powerful enough to conjure literal armies of 00:24:47.950 --> 00:24:51.410 tiny people in your kitchen, are completely destroyed 00:24:51.410 --> 00:24:55.039 by a simple 15 -minute boil. That's all it takes 00:24:55.039 --> 00:24:57.539 to erase the magic entirely. It makes you wonder. 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:01.079 What other completely undiscovered, radically 00:25:01.079 --> 00:25:03.779 mind -altering compounds might be hiding in the 00:25:03.779 --> 00:25:06.799 everyday foods we eat? Are there other profound 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:09.619 neurochemical secrets locked away in the produce 00:25:09.619 --> 00:25:12.539 aisle of our grocery stores, forever hidden from 00:25:12.539 --> 00:25:14.960 human experience simply because our culinary 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:17.380 culture, over thousands of years of trial and 00:25:17.380 --> 00:25:19.660 error, has taught us to always cook them first? 00:25:19.900 --> 00:25:22.079 It's a wild thought. Next time you boil a vegetable 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:24.019 for dinner, just think about what unseen molecular 00:25:24.019 --> 00:25:26.039 structures you might be destroying in the process. 00:25:26.380 --> 00:25:28.700 Thank you so much. joining us on this deep dive. 00:25:28.980 --> 00:25:31.059 Stay curious and we'll catch you next time.