The Mushroom That Makes Diners Hallucinate Tiny Humans When Undercooked

As the old saying goes, every mushroom is edible, but some mushrooms are only edible once. Certain varities will kill you if you so much as lick them (Just don't let AI try and tell you the difference), while others will give you deeply strange hallucinations. You may have heard of "magic mushrooms," which your roommate back in college wouldn't shut up about, but did you know that there's another kind of hallucinatory mushroom — one that gives you a very specific vision? Say hello to Lanmaoa asiatica, which, if not cooked properly, will make you see a bunch of tiny people.

L. asiatica, when cooked for long enough (about 20 minutes), lends a terrifically savory, umami-heavy flavor to any dish to which it's added. (If you want some savory fungi action without the trip, check out these umami mushroom recipes.) The mushroom is native to Yunnan, a province in China, where it's called Jian shou qing and often used in hot pots. If it's not cooked for long enough, however, you start to see ... well, little people. They climb under the doors, crawl up your clothes, sit on your dinner plate, and don't go away, even if your eyes are closed. These visions can last for days, so we can only assume the novelty wears off pretty quickly.

There are a few interesting things about Jian shou qing mushrooms, even beyond the whole "hallucinating mischievous little elves" thing. (That's called a "Lilliputian hallucination," by the way, and named after the island of tiny people in "Gulliver's Travels.") For one thing, we don't usually see much overlap between mushrooms we eat for food and mushrooms we eat for, erm, recreational purposes. Only a tiny fraction of all kinds of mushrooms cause hallucinations, and the ones you buy in a baggie don't usually taste very good when cooked in a rich mushroom bolognese. 

In addition, most hallucinogenic mushrooms contain a compound called psilocybin but not Jian shou qing mushrooms. In fact, we don't yet know what compound causes those freaky days-long trips. What makes it even stranger is that, unlike the unique trips caused by psilocybin mushrooms, these Lilliputian hallucinations are weirdly consistent, being experienced by almost everyone who eats one of these undercooked mushrooms, regardless of their physical condition or cultural background. Maybe it's the result of that yet-to-be-isolated compound; maybe the little people are always there, and it just allows us to see them. (Okay, probably not that last bit.) Either way, it goes to show what a big, strange world we live in.