WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.259 Okay, Chelsea, no pick this time around. I think 00:00:02.259 --> 00:00:04.299 this is interesting enough. I don't think we're 00:00:04.299 --> 00:00:05.780 going to get through the whole article, but I'll 00:00:05.780 --> 00:00:07.620 leave a link for anybody who's curious about 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:11.580 this. This comes from the BBC on January 22nd, 00:00:11.580 --> 00:00:15.339 2026, written by Rachel Neuer. Article title, 00:00:15.580 --> 00:00:18.480 they saw them on their dishes when eating. The 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:21.019 mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of 00:00:21.019 --> 00:00:24.579 tiny humans. Oh, who did they see on their plate? 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:27.699 The mushrooms are the little people. They see 00:00:27.699 --> 00:00:29.699 little people, I think. I don't know. Let's learn 00:00:29.699 --> 00:00:32.320 together. Only recently described by science, 00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:34.600 the mysterious mushrooms are found in different 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:36.399 parts of the world, but they give people the 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:39.359 same exact visions. Every year, doctors at the 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:41.960 hospital in the Yunnan province of China brace 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:44.140 themselves for an influx of people with an unusual 00:00:44.140 --> 00:00:47.390 complaint. The patients come in with a strikingly 00:00:47.390 --> 00:00:50.450 odd symptom, visions of pint -sized elf -like 00:00:50.450 --> 00:00:53.170 figures marching under doors, crawling up walls, 00:00:53.289 --> 00:00:55.549 and clinging to furniture. Oh, that's cool. The 00:00:55.549 --> 00:00:57.929 hospital treats hundreds of these cases every 00:00:57.929 --> 00:01:01.770 year. All share a common culprit, Lanmaua asiatica, 00:01:01.909 --> 00:01:04.569 a type of mushroom that forms symbiotic relationships 00:01:04.569 --> 00:01:07.370 with pine trees in nearby forests and is a local 00:01:07.370 --> 00:01:10.530 popular food. known for its savory umami -packed 00:01:10.530 --> 00:01:13.530 flavor. In Yunnan, this mushroom is sold in markets. 00:01:13.590 --> 00:01:15.409 It appears on restaurant menus and is served 00:01:15.409 --> 00:01:17.870 at home during peak mushroom season between June 00:01:17.870 --> 00:01:20.969 and August. One must be careful to cook it thoroughly, 00:01:21.109 --> 00:01:23.269 though, otherwise hallucinations will set in. 00:01:23.370 --> 00:01:25.730 Quote, at a mushroom hot pot restaurant there, 00:01:25.890 --> 00:01:29.189 the server set a timer for 15 minutes and warned 00:01:29.189 --> 00:01:31.969 us, don't eat it until the timer goes off or 00:01:31.969 --> 00:01:34.680 you might see little people. End quote, says 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:37.760 Colin Domnauer, a doctoral candidate in biology 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:39.920 at the University of Utah and the Natural History 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:42.459 Museum of Utah, who is studying this mushroom. 00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:44.799 Quote. It seems like very common knowledge in 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:46.980 the culture there, end quote. But outside of 00:01:46.980 --> 00:01:49.299 Yunnan and a couple of other places, the strange 00:01:49.299 --> 00:01:52.000 mushroom is largely an enigma. Quote, there are 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.140 many accounts of the existence of this psychedelic 00:01:54.140 --> 00:01:56.560 mushroom and many people who looked for it, but 00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:58.760 they never found the species, end quote, says 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:02.019 Giuliani Forci, mycologist and the founder and 00:02:02.019 --> 00:02:04.120 executive director of the Fungi Foundation, a 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:06.879 non -profit group dedicated to discovering, documenting, 00:02:07.060 --> 00:02:10.199 and conserving fungi. domnauer is on a quest 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:12.280 to solve the decades -old mysteries about this 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:14.680 fungi species and identify the unknown compound 00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:17.900 responsible for its unusually similar hallucinations 00:02:17.900 --> 00:02:20.439 as well as what it can potentially teach us about 00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:23.419 the human brain domnauer first heard of this 00:02:23.419 --> 00:02:26.060 mushroom as an undergraduate from his mycology 00:02:26.060 --> 00:02:28.759 professor quote sounded so bizarre that there 00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:30.960 could be a mushroom out there causing fairy tale 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:33.840 -like visions reported across cultures and time 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:36.900 end quote domnauer says quote i was perplexed 00:02:36.900 --> 00:02:39.169 and driven by curiosity to find out more, end 00:02:39.169 --> 00:02:41.810 quote. The academic literature provided a few 00:02:41.810 --> 00:02:44.689 breadcrumbs. In a 1991 paper, two researchers 00:02:44.689 --> 00:02:46.750 of the Chinese Academy of Sciences described 00:02:46.750 --> 00:02:49.469 cases of people in Yunnan province who had eaten 00:02:49.469 --> 00:02:52.409 a certain mushroom and experienced Lilliputian 00:02:52.409 --> 00:02:55.430 hallucinations. The psychiatric term for the 00:02:55.430 --> 00:02:58.289 perception of tiny human animals or fantasy figures. 00:02:58.490 --> 00:03:00.949 It is so named after the small people who inhabit 00:03:00.949 --> 00:03:04.189 the fictional Lilliput Islands in the novel Gulliver's 00:03:04.189 --> 00:03:07.439 Travels. The patients saw these figures, quote, 00:03:07.500 --> 00:03:10.120 moving about everywhere, end quote, the researcher 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:14.000 wrote. Usually there were more than 10 tiny beings 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:16.439 on the scene, quote. They saw them on their clothes 00:03:16.439 --> 00:03:17.939 when they were dressing and saw them on their 00:03:17.939 --> 00:03:19.900 dishes when eating, end quote, the researcher 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:22.419 added. The visions, quote, were even more vivid 00:03:22.419 --> 00:03:25.060 when their eyes were closed, end quote. already 00:03:25.060 --> 00:03:28.300 in the 60s gordon watson and roger hame the american 00:03:28.300 --> 00:03:30.819 author and french botanist who brought the existence 00:03:30.819 --> 00:03:32.580 of psilocybin mushrooms to the attention of the 00:03:32.580 --> 00:03:35.180 western audiences came across something similar 00:03:35.180 --> 00:03:37.389 in papua new guinea They were searching for a 00:03:37.389 --> 00:03:39.669 mushroom that a team of missionaries who visited 00:03:39.669 --> 00:03:41.930 30 years earlier had said caused the locals to, 00:03:41.990 --> 00:03:44.830 quote, go insane, end quote, a condition that 00:03:44.830 --> 00:03:46.789 anthropologists later dubbed mushroom madness. 00:03:47.449 --> 00:03:49.969 Unbeknownst to them, what they encountered actually 00:03:49.969 --> 00:03:52.129 sounds strikingly similar to the current reports 00:03:52.129 --> 00:03:54.870 from China. They collected specimens of the suspected 00:03:54.870 --> 00:03:57.669 species and sent them back to Albert Hoffman, 00:03:57.729 --> 00:04:00.229 the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD for testing. 00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:02.819 but Hoffman failed to identify any molecules 00:04:02.819 --> 00:04:05.759 of interest. The team concluded that the stories 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:07.620 they heard from the field must have been cultural 00:04:07.620 --> 00:04:09.879 tales rather than having any pharmacological 00:04:09.879 --> 00:04:13.000 basis, and no further research was done. It was 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:15.439 not until 2015 that researchers finally formally 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:18.699 described and named L. asiatica, this mushroom, 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:21.879 still without much detail about its psychoactive 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:25.129 properties. so domnauer's first goal has been 00:04:25.129 --> 00:04:27.750 to pin down the species true identity in 2023 00:04:27.750 --> 00:04:30.129 he traveled to unan during the peak summertime 00:04:30.129 --> 00:04:32.649 mushroom season he surveyed the province's sprawling 00:04:32.649 --> 00:04:34.449 fungi markets and asked sellers which of these 00:04:34.449 --> 00:04:37.110 mushrooms make you see little people he purchased 00:04:37.110 --> 00:04:38.930 the ones that the giggling venters pointed to 00:04:38.930 --> 00:04:40.829 and then brought the specimens back to the laboratory 00:04:40.829 --> 00:04:43.360 to sequence their genomes This confirmed the 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:45.959 mushroom with identity. He says, in research 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:48.459 he is preparing for publication, chemical extracts 00:04:48.459 --> 00:04:50.860 from the lab specimens produce behavioral changes 00:04:50.860 --> 00:04:52.959 in mice similar to those reported in humans. 00:04:53.139 --> 00:04:56.259 After being administered the mushroom, how would 00:04:56.259 --> 00:04:58.339 they know that the mice are seeing little people? 00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:02.779 That's true. And do they see them as little to 00:05:02.779 --> 00:05:05.180 mice or the same size as them? They would be 00:05:05.180 --> 00:05:08.629 such small. people what would mice see though 00:05:08.629 --> 00:05:11.110 or would they see tiny mice or would it be little 00:05:11.110 --> 00:05:14.810 mice how do they know they oh man so many questions 00:05:14.810 --> 00:05:17.430 yeah after being administered the mushroom extracts 00:05:17.430 --> 00:05:19.310 the mice experienced a period of hyperactivity 00:05:19.310 --> 00:05:21.370 followed by a long stupor where the rodents did 00:05:21.370 --> 00:05:26.009 not move much oh my god domnauer also visited 00:05:26.009 --> 00:05:27.930 the philippines where he had rumors of a mushroom 00:05:27.930 --> 00:05:30.050 causing similar symptoms as those from the historical 00:05:30.050 --> 00:05:32.680 records from china and papua new guinea The specimens 00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:34.959 he collected there looked slightly different 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:37.060 from the Chinese ones. They were smaller and 00:05:37.060 --> 00:05:39.040 light pink compared to the larger red or Chinese 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:42.279 mushrooms, he says. But his genetic testing revealed 00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:45.300 that they were indeed the same species. That's 00:05:45.300 --> 00:05:48.300 probably far enough for what we're going to be, 00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:50.500 the point we're looking at the story for. Yeah, 00:05:50.519 --> 00:05:55.480 I think this stuff is so interesting. And I know 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:58.860 we potentially, it's on our idea list for future 00:05:58.860 --> 00:06:03.269 episodes, is machine elves. The question of like, 00:06:03.350 --> 00:06:06.170 does a forest make a sound in the woods if there's 00:06:06.170 --> 00:06:08.930 no one around to hear it? Like, are there actually 00:06:08.930 --> 00:06:12.870 little people running around that we can't see 00:06:12.870 --> 00:06:16.259 without these mushrooms? That's my question. 00:06:16.339 --> 00:06:18.699 They may scientifically prove that it's not, 00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:22.000 but that's my question that I have. Is it just 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:24.819 opening your brain up to be able to see these? 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:27.439 And do I need to be worried about the little 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:30.300 people that are currently running around where 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:32.439 I'm recording? Yeah. Well, they don't seem to 00:06:32.439 --> 00:06:35.199 do anything, even if you can see them. My question 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:37.579 would be kind of on the opposite end of it is, 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:40.959 is there a like historical mushroom or fungi 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:46.579 that existed in, let's say the, the, uk way back 00:06:46.579 --> 00:06:48.740 in the day where the fairy stories come from 00:06:48.740 --> 00:06:51.819 exactly and it very well could and that doesn't 00:06:51.819 --> 00:06:55.420 mean that they don't exist in my head because 00:06:55.420 --> 00:06:59.240 this might just be opening a realm where we see 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:01.959 that they're you know holding reality together 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:05.500 is what i'd like to think of it it might be it 00:07:05.500 --> 00:07:07.579 also might just be that it's opening up a part 00:07:07.579 --> 00:07:11.459 of your brain that um is generally not like connected 00:07:11.459 --> 00:07:14.540 to your eyes so you're actually seeing hallucinations 00:07:14.540 --> 00:07:16.839 of very specific things that open up like i don't 00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:19.019 know maybe something in your head where it only 00:07:19.019 --> 00:07:22.139 stores like ideas of little people for some reason 00:07:22.139 --> 00:07:24.879 that was my other point it's so strange that 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:28.199 it specifically makes everybody hallucinate the 00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:30.779 same thing and i guess you can tie it in with 00:07:30.779 --> 00:07:35.000 um the machine elves as well and the mantis beings 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:38.459 a lot of people witness mantis beings when they're 00:07:38.459 --> 00:07:42.850 like um on a mind altering hallucinatory. It's 00:07:42.850 --> 00:07:45.930 weird how like a lot of drugs have very specific 00:07:45.930 --> 00:07:49.610 hallucinations attached to them. super weird 00:07:49.610 --> 00:07:53.810 which is also pretty intriguing and i know that 00:07:53.810 --> 00:07:56.810 there is someone that did the electric kool -aid 00:07:56.810 --> 00:07:59.750 acid test i think is what it was i've never read 00:07:59.750 --> 00:08:02.149 it it's always been on my list i wonder if they 00:08:02.149 --> 00:08:04.649 look at something anyhow this is more something 00:08:04.649 --> 00:08:07.310 for the future episode we may get to eventually 00:08:07.310 --> 00:08:10.029 i'd hope to yeah it's so interesting but you 00:08:10.029 --> 00:08:12.949 guys got 48 hours do drugs and see what you hallucinate 00:08:12.949 --> 00:08:15.470 and tell us yeah do it but don't tell anybody 00:08:15.470 --> 00:08:18.149 we told you to do that yeah If they ask, you 00:08:18.149 --> 00:08:20.889 came up with that idea yourself. Exactly. Don't 00:08:20.889 --> 00:08:22.870 tell anyone. Anyhow, bye. Bye.